Nothing Rhymes With Pirate

Its weird to think that its good to see photos of the rain in Sydney.

I'd swap a week of rain if someone took away this 40+ degree weather. If only for a day or 2.

Just as London isnt built for the heat.. Dubai isnt built for the rain. As I checked out the kerbs on my way into work, I noticed that some of the roads dont even have a kerb, the roads dont gutters nor do they have drainage outlets.

Its been raining on and off for the past 4 days now, with the heaviest down pour waking me up this morning. Most of the streets are flooded (especially the residential roads leading away from the villa).. I have discovered a new fear I have of massive puddles on the road. I imagine the car driving into it, then suddenly falling into a deep hole. Its from a movie or tv show.. can't remember where. All the other drivers are freaking out, with everyone driving slower, increased usage of hazard lights and generally taking longer to get anywhere.

What shat me this morning was when I was driving away from the villa and following a 4WD.. the stoopid thing decides to slow down to almost a stop to go through the flooded bits. Umm, you're in a 4WD and I assumed you'd go through at relatively breakneck speed so I could drive behind you and not fear my engine would flood. The same morons go over speed humps and the same speed.

I actually dont mind the rain.. its a welcome change. I still miss the seasons though.

With the Islamic New Year long weekend just gone.. and then the suprising Pres. Bush holiday, I realise that I have never seen so many movies in this space of time. The closest was probably when Alison and I used to skip Tuesday lectures one term and went to Belco Mall for tight-arse Tuesday movies. I've watched:

I Know Who Killed Me
The Ex
Ratatoille
American Gangster
You, Me & Dupree
The Kingdom (not really, slept through most of it)
Waitress
The Weatherman
The Lakehouse<

9 movies in 5 days. The first 5 were watched within 20hrs.

I was just flicking through the office music server and found this:
( Top 100 Dance Tracks 1990-1999 )

It really sucks that I forgot my headphones today.

It rained (lightly sprinkled) here yesterday morning. The last time there was water falling from the sky (as recorded by me) was November 6th. So the rain counter starts again.

Theres a predicted possiblity of sandstorms on the weekend.. and I have Darude in my head everytime I hear about it.

This weekend will be a long one as its Islamic New Year. The last in a 3 week string of public holidays that we'll have for a while.

In other news:
* K.Jax has gone back to the UK for 2 weeks, which leaves me with..
* 2 new incoming housemates and heaps of new furniture to move around
* I have sorted myself out with some wheels. Its a beast.
* My parents and my brother have booked their flights to come here at the end of the month as they'll be in HK for a wedding. They arrive the day of the office Christmas party. Do I entertain the fams or indulge in free food and booze? DILEMMA.

My weekend started with phonecalls.
I called the bank to complain about my credit card. My arguement being it took a week for a letter from my Mum to get here and a 6kg parcel less than 2 weeks (which included a UAE customs inspection). They have offered to cancel the card that is on its way and issue me a new one via courier and graciously offered to incur the cost (which would usually be charged to the customer) under the circumstances and inconvenience caused. Straight up.

I called my adults, which was cool. And then my sister called me back later in the morning, as I haven't spoken to her for over 2 months when she did her trip to Spain, and we marvelled at the cheapness of Louis Vuitton shoes and Christian Louboutins.

You know whats shitty. Losing your phone.
I slowly got over it though.. just putting it in perspective that I would've been hell more cut if it was my camera (although that would've given me the excuse to upgrade) or my wallet (which is what happened one month after being in LDN!). The phone numbers arent that bigger deal, as I have my aus simcard here. By chance I uploaded any photos that I'd taken the week before. The hurting was that i bought the phone just before I got here (so it was only 6 weeks old) and my tone alert for texts was little Murphy aying "Message? Suuuuuuuure". But I've paid my 50dhs to get a replacement simcard and now I'm looking to pick up a new phone. The same is going to set me back about 500dhs. Happy 4 weeks anniversary. I'd intended to put that money towards something
extravagantly designer.

So with some old school organising, we timed it perfectly that I had walked to the other side of Al Wasl Rd just as Ben drove into the designated side street with the taxi as we headed to down to the Radisson in Deira for YumCha buffet.

For all the yum cha aficionados from home.. it sounds like the best ever. But I'll tell you what was disappointing about it. The dumplings itself were tiny (but I guess the all-you-can-eat makes up for that), but the selection was severely lacking. I s'pose since pork isnt served in this country.. and whats yumcha? - PORK AND PRAWNS! There were 5 soups on offer, 5 noodles/rice dishes, 6 fried plates, 8 steamed baskets and 5 desserts. (all numbers approximate as I cant
really remember). Ben cut sick on the beef meatballs. He estimates to have eaten about 50 seperate dumplings all up!



K.Jax was meeting us afterwards to check out the Souks, so Ben and I took a stroll along Dubai Creek and saw all the tourists riding the abras across the creek and other boats waiting to get loaded up with boxes of food, furniture, electrical goods and big tyres. Kate got a bit lost, but eventually found us (after we'd walked along about 3kms) and we went around the Gold Souk (I'm more of a silver girl myself) and found a place to stop for juice and shawarmas (not that I could fit in any more food, but Ben suprisingly did!)

We stopped at the Mercato on the way home and I bought a Bill Bryson book.. hopefully I can knock that off before the year is out. That would bring my yearly book total to 3!

There was an offer from Matt to head over to the One & Only Mirage for a drink, but I wrote that off by falling asleep on the sofa during an E!TV Sexiest Actors list or something.

If the reports from K.Jax are true, it was 31 days after my arrival that it rained in Dubai.



Apparently it happened on Saturday morning as she was leaving for yoga and there were leftover big white fluffy clouds floating the sky (a rare sight!). It only rains about 4 times a year here, so the countdown starts again till the next time..