It has been a while since Stu and I had a fancy meal out. There hasn’t been a really special occasion to celebrate since his 50th in September, and my not earning a whole lot lately has meant we haven’t had a great deal of disposable income to waste on lavish feasts. Nevertheless we had reason to push the boat out a little bit on Friday, we celebrated our 5th anniversary.
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Category: food
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c’est délicieux
[bottles of champagne in the entrance] -
getting closer..
The quest for good pizza in Dubai continues (bet you didn’t even know there was one right?) and I think I am getting close now. Today we had lunch at a little restaurant tucked away in the Crowne Plaza hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road. I think this hotel has been here about 20 years, so it’s not flashy or shiny like a new pair of Jimmy Choo’s, it’s rather more like a favourite pair of slippers, comfortable and a little tatty. Well I base this assessment purely on the exterior and the lobby having never actually stayed here, for all I know the rooms could be a train wreck. But I digress.
The pizza was great, first of all they have pork options; real ham not turkey, actual prosciutto and salami; and there is a proper wood burning oven. The crust was thin and perfectly cooked. And as it’s in the hotel you even have the option of a glass of wine as well. I thought the meal tasty, and good value. Although I have to agree with the Timeout review – whilst the service was good the food itself took ages to arrive (and the restaurant was by no means full).
[well done Al Fresco]
Nevertheless I give it 4 out of 5. Well done Al Fresco!
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dust + rain = mud
This weekend the wind blew constantly, well that’s how it felt, bringing with it bucket-loads of dust from the desert; sand that is able to sneak through door seals and under windows and cover everything in a fine fine layer of grit. As “Life in Dubai” puts it, it really is the worst kind of weather. Our intrepid gardener cleaned the cars as normal on Saturday (not sure how he managed it actually in that), but he need not have bothered as all that dust, combined with last night’s unexpected cloud burst, left the cars looking like we had been off-roading all weekend. The good thing is that at least the rain settled the dust, but this morning, in true Dubai fashion, the roads were flooded and it was chaos. Luckily some of the schools are on holiday today because of the Prophet’s birthday on Friday, so the traffic was lighter than normal overall.
[sand on the car yesterday]
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the good, the bad and the ugly
When someone tells you there is good news, and there is bad news, which do you choose to hear first? I like to start with the bad news and get it out the way, and hope that the good news will somehow make up for it. Sadly, in life, you don’t always get both options, and have to deal with one or the other. This last week was a little bit like that…but I will start with the good (in line with the famous movie title anyway).
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time to paper myself?
Traditionally the gift for reaching your first anniversary is paper. Well, that is for a wedding anniversary anyway. I wonder if the same thing applies for other kinds of anniversaries? I have been thinking about this all weekend, probably because I have now officially been in the UAE one year, as of the 30th July. I think I will have to buy myself a new notebook (the paper kind that is not a pc) to commemorate the day.
[Frankies @ JBR = lovely]
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