sandCat in Dubai

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  • books, birds and a spot of rain

    One thing that I have really been missing since I left South Africa is bookclub, a monthly meeting of 10 or so like-minded ladies for gossip, wine, snacks, oh and of course swapping the odd book. Stu suggested I look at starting something along similar lines here, and so last week Wednesday we had our inaugural meeting at my place. Sadly only 4 of us were in attendance this time, but we have at least 11 in total that have expressed an interest so the next one should be up to full strength. However I think the 4 of us had fun nonetheless. I was on the tail end of my detox so couldn’t enjoy any wine or anything, I will be sure to make up for it next time round.

    Creek Park
    [Creek Park]

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  • desert detox & “going native”

    My recent silence is not for any reason other than my lack of anything interesting to report. Today we reach the halfway mark in our 10 day detox. Stu has a rather inflamed and sad gallbladder, so instead of just having it sliced out of him we decided to try an alternative approach first. Our new naturopath has placed us on a rather uninspiring diet of brown rice (organic of course) and veggies. So we have been laying low and not going out much, except to work, which has left me with no restaurant stories, nor anything else for that matter, to impart. However I am sure you will be delighted to know that we are starting to feel a little more energetic now and hopefully are on the easier end of this 10 day program. Besides there are really only so many ways you can dress brown rice up so that it is not boring. The picture below I took yesterday of some of the lovely fresh fruit we bought to sustain us; South African grapefruits, grapes and granny smith apples plus some other bits. I was actually saying to Stu some months before we left SA that there was not a granny smith to be seen, this is clearly why as they seem all to be here in the supermarket in great green groaning piles.

    nice fruit

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  • sub 30 at last, at least in the morning

    Yes I know this post is a couple of days later than normal, I do apologise I just haven’t been feeling all that inspired this week and didn’t want to bore you more than normal, call it a case of writer’s block, or maybe I should say blogger’s block, not sure my rambling counts as proper writing.

    Last week we had the pleasure of welcoming another good friend to Dubai. That makes two people that have visited us now. So nice to see our friends, when are the rest of you visiting huh? Garth was here on business for Gitex Technology Week (which was massive apparently), and we had the pleasure of his company for dinner. Twice! The first evening we took him to Tagine and happily it was just as good as the first time, and of course I had to have the very best dessert in the world, Kenaffa (hope that is spelt right), which is a phyllo pastry creation from heaven. He made us even happier by treating us to dinner that night. Of course we HAD to reciprocate (any excuse for another meal I say), so on Thursday we headed down to a restaurant Stu had spotted in the first couple of weeks he was here on his meanders with Bevan, and didn’t try at the time being a little shell-shocked as he was still converting prices into rands.

    Villa Beach
    [Villa Beach restaurant]

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  • u-turns are legal but don’t hold hands in public

    It may seem from my posts that we are living it up, here in Dubai. It may seem that we are out every night eating expensive food in opulent settings, but of course this is not so. I only write about the highlights, but there are many days in-between where we are getting on with living here, going to work, going to gym and generally carrying on as normal. This weekend was rather low key, the only outing we made was to the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary, which was lovely, but today I wanted to fill you in on what the rest of our life here looks like, and how living in Dubai works (for me) in reality.

    Ras Al Khor
    [Ras Al Khor bird sanctuary]

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  • the day at the pool that wasn’t

    I am happy to report that the cooler weather really does seem to be on the way. This weekend was very nice, temperature in the day around 37C or so, and yes, that really is cooler! Trust me, sub-40 makes all the difference. The fact that there is little humidity at the moment also helps with the perceived comfort level.

    Friday we started with a visit to a charity book sale at Times Square Centre, proceeds for Feline Friends. With most books going for 10 dirhams each we stocked up on best-sellers we had missed the first time round; and some older, well-thumbed novels by favourite authors. I think we probably walked away with around 40 books. That should keep us busy for a while. After that we joined Peter & Eunice for frunch, yes again. It was just as delightful the second time, although this time I stayed away from the delicious bread so as not to get too full. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and digesting a very nice meal.

    at Barasti
    [at Barasti]

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