South Africa day

This is where we will be on Friday, looks like fun!   More info here.

fideous soup anyone?

No its not a spelling mistake I promise. Last night Stu and I decided to take advantage of the visa dining special that runs until the end of June, and made a reservation for dinner at a restaurant called Marina at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. The restaurant is situated on the end of a long breakwater overlooking the Burj Al Arab hotel. A truly stunning location. Getting there is a bit of a walk down a rather long path, so we opted for the golf cart shuttle instead. Sadly there is a nightclub above the restaurant, so you feel like you are eating your meal whilst sitting inside the still-beating glass heart of some giant sea creature. And I am sure in the day time the view is amazing from inside, but at night all you see is yourself reflected in the glass if you are facing out or the large fish tank if you are facing inwards. Testament to how many Russian tourists we get here the menu is not in English and Arabic, nope, its in English and Russian. Very bizarre.

[Fideous soup - yummy]

be careful what you wish for

It seems Murphy, that is Murphy of the infamous “Murphy’s Law”, and perhaps even Paddy, who reckoned Murphy was an optimist, would be satisfied today. I left the office last night looking forward to my drive home for a change. And why was this you may ask? Well, simply because I had made myself a fresh mixed-mp3-cd for the car and was eager to listen to some new music en route. But of course, for a change, there was no traffic to speak of and my ride home took me all of 15 minutes. So tempting fate even further last night I mentioned it to Stu and said how disappointed I was.

I had to eat those words this morning however, it took me almost an hour to get to the office, for some unknown and unapparent reason the traffic crawled all the way from Al Khail road to Al Lahbab road, pretty much my entire route. So there you have it, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it. The only consolation was I got to sing all the way, so that helped. A lot!

making my mark

We were one (or two at least) of a couple of hundred South Africans who applied for, and were granted, a special vote for today. This came about after a ruling by the Constitutional Court on the 12th March that citizens living abroad, and registered to vote, had the right to vote in the upcoming April 22 election. The special voting date was set for the 15th of April, along with a cut-off date for special vote applications of the 27th March.

This follows an application by the Freedom Front Plus on behalf of a Pretoria school teacher working in the UK, as well as representation by the Inkatha Freedom Party, the Democratic Alliance, the A-Party, a lobby group, and an independent group of South Africans living overseas. They had argued that it is their Constitutional right to vote and that limitations in the Electoral Act which meant they did not fall into the certain categories allowed to vote, were unfair.

From the Mail & Guardian online

better than Dolly?

It seems that Dubai scientists have created the world's first cloned camel. Yes indeed, her name is Injaz and she was born on the 8th of April at 4.30pm.

[picture of the cloned camel courtesy of The National]

We are all very excited at the birth of Injaz as she is the result of great skill and teamwork of everyone at the Camel Reproduction Centre. This significant breakthrough in our research programme gives a means of preserving the valuable genetics of our elite racing and milk-producing camels in the future.

Dr Lulu Skidmore, scientific director (Camel Reproduction Centre)

Let us hope the little thing fares better than Dolly, the first cloned sheep, who was euthanised in 2003 at age 6 after being diagnosed with progressive lung disease, which supposedly had nothing to do with her being a clone.

Full camel story is here whilst Dolly's sad demise is reported here.

Oh I should just also mention that I am now officially a Hero of the UAE; I took the pledge here.

more rain!

Yes, its true, we had more rain last night, and this morning it was very dark and stormy looking when I left for work (see the picture below taken en route).

It seems that the universal law of having a car applies in Dubai as much as anywhere else, well at least for me, and that is "if you wash it, it will rain"!

[heavy skies]

I trust you had a good Easter weekend, I ended up having to work for most of it sadly.

Enjoy your week.

a spot of culture

I don’t think I have mentioned it before, but I have joined a local literary circle or book-club. Well it could not be more different from my other, crazy, festively social book-club, where books are incidental and the wine and gossip is WAY more exciting than the literature. No, at Kutub we all read the same book, in either Arabic or English, and then we discuss it over fruit juice instead of wine. It's very grown-up indeed, and very interesting :-)

raining cats and camels?

As unexpected as this wet, cloudy weather is I have to say that I am really enjoying it. Well for the most part anyway. Travelling around on the flooded streets is no fun at all, especially when people don't slow down. Everyone knows that having your hazard lights on will instantly halve your stopping time so you don't need to slow down, right?? Getting to work this week has been challenging, I always had an idea that desert sand was like beach sand, and so wouldn't be muddy. Yeah right! The sand here seems to turn into something resembling soft porridge. Very sticky and sloppy. Thank goodness for 4 wheel drive. On the plus side though I am definitely getting braver, the large lake of water that stopped me just a week ago was no big deal on Wednesday, especially as I was already late and could not be bothered with turning back and finding another way. So I drove through it, despite the fact it seemed bigger and deeper this time, or maybe that was just when I was half-way through and beginning to have second thoughts. Anyway I made it. Although my car is now making a very strange noise at high revs and has no power, it almost sounds like something is stuck, so now I have the added joy of having to take it in to the dealership this week and have it checked out. Needless to say I haven't bothered to wash it again, I will wait until the rain is completely over I think. More news on the recent weather can be read here, including pictures of hail! My picture of mud below is rather mundane in comparison :-).

[thank goodness for 4 wheel drive]