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Archive for May, 2009
New Toys
May 20, 2009Here it is, finally. Sorry to make you wait, but the fancier my videos get (title screens, captions, etc.), the longer it takes to produce them. Hope it was worth the wait.
Toys
May 14, 2009Hey, there was no April toy video and, yet, there was no outrage or uprising either. Hmmm. I’ve got a couple. Wanna see ’em?
Naif, part two
May 11, 2009I sneakily turn my camera on record and hold it nonchalantly in front of me as if I am just carrying it. It makes for blurry, bumpy and generally bad video, but it is the only way to capture the scene. This will give you everything but the smells (some good, some bad).
Roach!
May 10, 2009I was walking to the car this morning and saw a large bug on the ground. I immediately thought of the scarab beetle we saw last week, so sidestepped. Then I realized it was a big roach. After I got over my heebie geebies, I stepped on it. Yuck.
Naif
May 9, 2009I was feeling like we hadn’t had an adventure lately. Or maybe our adventures are getting too tame. Daddybird declared that we were going to take a walk in Naif, a nearby neighborhood. We had dinner at “Asia Restaurant.” Using Asia in the most liberal way. It was Indian food. I had “chicken fry” which is almost out of the picture – a skinless wing and breast cooked crispy and tasty. Daddybird had chicken biryani. The plate with tomatoes on it is actually chopped cabbage, carrots, cucumbers, onions and tomatoes. The bread is freshly made flat bread. Does this look like $7.00 worth of food?
Look like $7 worth of food to you?
A common site in Naif is the gathering of hand trucks chained to a street sign. Apparently, this is how they store them when not in use. During the day there are guys moving goods from place to place with these hand trucks.
Common sight in Naif
Here’s the Picadilly Hotel sign with a cupid. Not sure why they chose a cupid.
Someday I will do a montage of business signs. There seem to be three types – straightforward but boring business names, overly creative business names that tell you noting about the nature of the business, and those that seem like a really bad idea (like Exit Restaurant). This is one of those straightforward ones. Smokers Centre.
This last picture makes the whole evening worthwhile. Maybe I’ve been watching too many episodes of the Electric Company that Daddybird got from Itunes. I used to love that show as a kid. It is still great and entertaining. Anyway, I love this sign. It says is all.
Picture worth a thousand words?
Lessons in Globish
May 8, 2009The secret to mastering Globish is in the vocabulary. Globish has a very limited vocabulary. Not much in the way of synonyms. So, you have to figure out which word works. After a lifetime of driving up to the gas pump and saying “fill ‘er up with regular,” we now have to say “95 full” in order to get a tank of 95 octane. Nothing more, nothing less. [Yes, it’s been a long time since Americans have been able to afford saying “fill ‘er up,” but if you said it, the attendant would understand.]
Another example, when you order water at a restaurant and the waiter asks “big or small” do not say “large.” He will only have to ask again “big or small” because large is not in the vocabulary. No synonyms, remember.
If a coworker asks if another coworker has gone for the day by saying “is Saleena left?” Don’t reply with “Saleena is gone.” It does not compute. This also illustrates the fun of native Arabic speakers trying to learn English. I am told that Arabic doesn’t have a lot of verb tenses, like English does. They pretty much speak in the present tense. They don’t have future perfect, pluperfect, dangling pariciples, whatever. So, the complexities of English are quite a challenge. I’m not a grammarian myself, but I can manage the basic verb tenses.
This business of having to stick to a limited vocabulary and use the same words contained in the question when you answer is especially difficult for me, because I have always had an aversion to using the same words. For example, if someone said “hello” to me, I would say “hi,” or vice versa. I don’t like to reply the same way.
Also, I apparently don’t pronounce the word “orange” in an intelligible way. I say it “orunge.” I haven’t quite figured out how to say it the “right” way, yet, so I’ve given up on ordering orange juice. Back home I got teased for saying “nekked” instead of “naked.” Of course, we don’t say that word at all here!
Magic Corn
May 7, 2009
Here’s the Magic Corn van. Magic Corn is a snack sold at kiosks in the malls and probably elsewhere. We finally stopped and had some the other night while we were at a mall. It is sweet corn that they mix with flavorings. We had butter, garlic and lemon juice on ours. Yummy. They serve it up in a paper cup with a spoon. There you go!
New Attraction
May 6, 2009
There seemed to be a new attraction at the aquarium. Apparently, the divers were more interesting than the fish.
Living the Travel Channel 