Archive for November, 2009

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Kushti Wrestling

November 6, 2009

We went to the Kushti wrestling again this afternoon (actually it happens just before sundown). Kushti1The master of ceremonies/referee gets things started.

Kushti2The wrestlers are volunteers from the audience. There are no dressing rooms, so they change clothes right on the spot.

Kushti3They wrestle. We don’t know what the rules are, but were told after that it is decided by pinning the opponents back to the ground. (no three second count)

Kushti4Someone wins (although the third match was a draw)

Kushti5The winner makes the rounds of crowd who give him money. This is the only “prize” they receive.Kushti6We drew a bit of a crowd ourselves afterward. One of our friends knew enough of the language to ask a few questions.

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Daddybird, the influencer

November 5, 2009

According to Steve Vaile on his Social Media Middle East blog, Daddybird is #10 of the 15 most influential Dubai Twitterers. [Although, if this blog (Living the Travel Channel) is a factor, I have to take some of the credit for that, since of the 300 posts so far, Daddybird has authored around 5. (I didn’t go back and do an exact count.)]

He tweets about tea, our cats, Kushti wrestling, T-shirts gone wrong, great food, bad phone service, and whatever else occurs to him. He meets people who say “hey, we’ve been tweeting about your cats!” He’s leading an expedition this Friday to the wrestling. He’s advising Wildpeeta on the fine tuning of their brownies and jam. He’s a mover and a shaker. When I meet people, they say “you don’t tweet much.” I just say, “I’m with Daddybird.”

If only he could influence Oliver, we’d have it made.