Random Thoughts

As I was driving home from work on Sheikh Zayed Road one night, I was thinking how bizarre I was, driving at 120km/h in a car I never thought I would owe, on a freeway in a foreign land.

What are the chances a person like me would live and work in the Middle East? I lived in Bath, UK, for a short while before. It is highly unlikely that I would ever visit that place again and yet I have spent 6 months of my life, living, studying and networking in an odd place in the UK.

I wonder how often I will remember my life in Dubai after this assignment. Would I miss the friends I have made here? Would I remember the restaurants, the shops, the food, the radio stations?

Peach Upside Down Cake

I was invited to a Christmas dinner party by my colleague, potluck style. He and his wife are vegans (meaning no egg, no milk, no butter, no gelatin and no animals). Understanding that I am not familiar with vegan recipe, they assigned me to prepare a bowl of fruit salad.

Not being the type who will shy away from a task, I searched the Internet for vegan dessert recipe. I wanted to make Almond jelly initially but I couldn't find almond milk in the supermarket. In the end, I settled for peach upside down cake.

These were the ingredients I picked up from the supermarket.

Plan B. This was going to be the dessert if the cake failed.

My first attempt was a failure. This was the second attempt. It looked pretty good. At least it looked edible.
We finished it during the dinner. It was a success!

Driving to Abu Dhabi

The drive that is termed by The Boss as the world's most boring drive: Dubai to Abu Dhabi to Dubai in one single day.

In my case, make it three times in a matter of 3 days. *ARRRRRGGGHHHH*

It is not extremely bad if I am not in a hurry, or if I am driving a mustang.

But driving at 120km/h in a tiny little car is no fun. It is 125km per trip. By the way, the trip from my place to office is 30km. So I clock 60km everyday.

Looking on the bright side, I am fully utilising my car. And petrol in UAE is dirt cheap, roughly one-third of the price of Singapore's, or one-tenth of London's.

Trees

More trees
And more trees
BORING...
Yawn.
And this is Abu Dhabi. Kind of remind me of Malaysia.





You think?

Patsy's Hen Night

My friend Tara's friend Patsy is getting married and I was invited to attend her hen night on Friday. We had a dinner party at Ellen's place and moved on to Boston Bar at Rotana Hotel. After one too many drinks, we proceeded to our next stop, karaoke bar in the Emirates Tower. Here are some photos in the K-lounge.
There was a birthday party going on apparently and the lounge was fully packed.
There was a birthday cake on the table.
The small screen TV for Karaoke.
The bride-to-be, Patsy
My friends, Monica and Angela
Monica
A very drunk Tara
Yours truly, aka the total retard
Our friends.

Sleazy Emirate men. I saw them as hypocrites because they were wearing religious clothes and yet drinking beers and wines, touching and hugging strangers.
I found the one on the right extremely creepy as he was buying us beers, hugging total strangers, claiming he was looking for a wife. If he had been an average guy, it would not have bothered me that much. But he was in his religious costumes and in my opinion, he was a total disgrace to his religion.
Overall, we had a great night. We went home at 3 in the morning and I had a severe headache the day after.

Dubai Creek Park

Dubai Creek Park is located near Dubai Health Care City. It is right next to the Dubai Creek. Unfortunately, it is not a park for all as entrance fee is 5 Dhm for each entry. To me this is weird because the only park that I know imposes an entrance fee is the Hong Kong Ocean Park.

Sunny weather in the winter
The Children's Centre
The beach
The trees
The harbour view
The Dubai cable car. Wanted to give it a try, but....
after looking at the connection parts, and comparing them with NP360, I decided not to. :p
The Sign
Locals having a good time. BBQ pit
Picnic in veils....

Dubai International Cat Show

Went to Dubai Creek Park to check out the Dubai cat show. Not exactly my kind of event as I expected something like a fun fair with stores, selling cat toys and food. In the end it turned out to be a very fancy event with people showing off their pedigree cats.

The Dubai Creek Park turned out to be a lot more interesting than the International Cat Show.

The Park
The poster for the event
The resting area for cats
Cute kitten
The runner up for the cat show. Obviously she did not like paparazzi. Look at how she looked at me with her evil eyes.

Happy Belated Birthday, Dubai!

It was Dubai's National Day yesterday. I celebrated it by joining my colleagues on a road trip to a beach in Fujiarah, another state in the UAE.

My colleague and his wife went for a dive. It was not the scenary type of dive. They were doing volunteer work and the dive were meant to collect rubbish on the ocean floor.


I, on the other hand, soaked up the sun and enjoyed my sister's book. It's a great book, by the way.