Dubai Scrabble Club - April 25, 2009
Daddybird played four games, won two and lost two.
Dubai Scrabble Club - April 25, 2009
Archive for April, 2009
Miss Kitty says Hello!
April 27, 2009Miss Kitty says “Hello” to everyone at home. If you listen carefully, you can hear her purr.
Too funny not to share
April 27, 2009These are hilarious, although most make too much sense. I particularly liked “McDuck” and “Unbelievable. This is not butter.” I got a good laugh, I hope you do, too.
In future, I hope to post a montage of strange signs we see here, but first I have to collect the pictures.
Car Racing Again
April 26, 2009
#57 and #56 Al Owais Brothers
We went to the races again on Friday. This was the last race of the season. 
I’m at a loss for words. Apparently, you need a pair of legs and high heels to hold these signs.
I’m easily amused
April 25, 2009I love WordPress and should have moved here earlier. I can see statistics of visitors to the site and if someone arrives at my site by doing a search, I can see what they searched for. Someone searched for “is kfc home delivery free in dubai?” I’m afraid they didn’t find the answer on my blog. However, I think most delivery here is free or for a very nominal fee. Everyone delivers. There are few drive throughs, but there is a lot of curbside service, where drivers just pull up to the curb in front of a restaurant, honk, the waiter comes out to take their order and later brings their food to their car. It causes a significant amount of traffic problems.
I haven’t had KFC in a very long time and I haven’t had it here in Dubai. (The one and only Burger King burger I’ve had here was very tasty and way better than any American fast food burger, so I suspect that the KFC might be better, too.) But, I say, screw KFC, I am hooked on Marrybrown chicken sandwiches. It’s not chicken patties, but actual chicken breast, breaded, on a bun with the works and HOT. So yummy. I haven’t had sushi in about two weeks because I’ve been distracted by Marrybrown chicken. Now that is saying something!
Now for something completely different.
Bus stop to nowhere
I took this picture because it so aptly portrays the wonder that is Dubai. A bus stop bench in the middle of a construction area advertising the Mega Mall. It doesn’t get any more succinct than that.
Permanent sign about temporary road layout
This, too, is iconic of Dubai. This sign is metal and firmly planted in cement. Road diversions here seem to go on forever. With the economic crisis causing construction postponement and slow down, I’m not sure if there will come a time when roadways are stable and construction is rare. I hope so.
Results of a blow out
Unfortunately, another characteristic of Dubai is automobile accidents. We witnessed this one and pulled over to check on the driver. Amazingly, he had only one scratch on his arm. He was in the roadway you see in the background when his front left tire blew. He was in one of the left lanes and traveled all the way across to the right and then rolled and flipped when he hit the curb/flower bed. His car is wrapped in the irrigation hose. The temperature is heating up here and people are encouraged to have their tires checked because the increased heat of the pavement often causes blow outs like this one.
So, this entry ends on a not so amusing note. We are thankful that he was not badly injured and that he did not collide with other cars. It is amazing to me that more accidents don’t happen here, but most drivers are very defensive drivers constantly on the lookout. That makes all the difference.
Cat heaven
April 24, 2009http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUST34914420071204
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/japan/090406/tokyos-cat-cafes
This summer we are stopping in the British Isles on the way to and from the States, but next summer (2010) I think I will have to travel the other way around the globe to Tokyo to hit all the cat cafes. My kind of restaurant.
It would be nice if this concept could catch on here. The reason we haven’t taken in a cat or two is that we don’t know what to do with them when we travel. If we could just pop into the cat cafe (Daddybird wants it to be the cat and shisha bar), that would be great. I’d do it everyday.
Jumeirah Beach Residence Sights
April 24, 2009
This probably seems like an innocuous picture to you. Nothing out of the ordinary. However, if you live in a Muslim country and are aware of local customs and standards, you would know that there is too much skin showing in this picture. These tourists are apparently unaware of where they are vacationing. Yes, Dubai is very liberal, especially in areas predominately populated by tourists, but I still find scenes like this odd.
The wind was gusting so hard that it was blowing most of the water out of this fountain.
This “old” hotel is being torn down. No wrecking ball, just a large jackhammer slowly nibbling away at it. Keep in mind that this country was formed in 1971, so old is not necessarily old here. This hotel was probably the best at one time, but it is sitting on prime beach property and is behind the times, so down it comes. Everything is made of cement here, so this is a tangle of rebar and cement chunks. I don’t know if they don’t know about explosive demolition or if there is some reason not to do it that way.
Daddybird on the Radio
April 23, 2009http://jamescast.podomatic.com/entry/2009-04-22T19_42_54-07_00
Here is a podcast of Daddybird on the radio last night. He’s only in the second hour, so you may have to fast forward to the middle part.
Kristina, Daddybird, Sanjive on Nightline, Dubai Eye radio
How did he come to be on the radio, you ask? Just another unexpected event in our Dubai lives. A few weeks ago, at the “tweet up” with the shisha, Melanie mentioned “barcamp” and suggested we do one here in Dubai. Kedar took it to heart and started the process of planning one. Daddybird volunteered to help. Masarat, the producer of this radio show, is also a Twitterer and read about this event which inspired her to suggest the planners be interviewed on the radio. This is how he ended up on the radio being interviewed with Kedar, Kristina, and Sanjive, the other bar camp planners.
What is a tweet up? A casual meeting of people who know each other through Twitter and communicate arrangements for the meet up via Twitter.
What is Twitter? It usually sounds dumb when described, so just go to http://search.twitter.com/search?q=kangayayaroo and read what I’ve been tweeting to get an idea. It’s just short communications which sometimes turn into conversations.
What is barcamp? Basically, it is an impromptu “unconference” where people just show up and talk about what they are interested in a fairly unstructured setting.
Sanjive (left) and Kedar (right)
Crafty birds, part two
April 23, 2009
bird nest between two palm fronds
Here is another bird’s nest. I discovered it because the mother bird was sitting in the entrance and singing as I was walking by. She and her mate have woven two palm branches together with their nest as the center of the sandwich.
momma bird
She flew out and right behind her came daddy bird (not THE Daddybird, the daddy bird)
daddy bird
According to my bird book and my best guess, these are house sparrows. Kind of a boring name for someone so crafty.
Crafty and amazing birds
April 15, 2009So, I was sitting outside in the courtyard during lunch the other day. The wind was kicking up because the weather had been a little rainy and rain means wind, thunder and lightning here, as a rule. I was watching the palm fronds waving in the wind and noticed that there was a bird nest attached to one of the fronds. 
If you can’t see it in this picture, try the next one.
And here’s what it looks like from the back side. I am at a loss to figure out how it is attached. Bird must be a better engineer than I am. It is firmly attached, however, and has weathered the weather. 
Living the Travel Channel 