Sandier Pastures

Spring has officially announced her arrival in Japan. Sakura, or cherry blossoms, probably Japan’s most loved flower is blooming all over the country, well mostly at least – What is amazing is, Sakura blooms from the southern part of Kyushu and Okinawa where it blooms as early as February, going upwards north with Hokkaido’s sakuras blooming in late May. Autumn is the opposite, the leaves change color from the northern part going towards the south, Okinawa having a late, late autumn at around December.

Sakura is in full bloom in Matsumoto, the 2nd largest city in Nagano Prefecture where I lived for 5 years before relocating to sakura-less Dubai.

These pictures are taken by my friend/neighbor. She definitely made my day!

 This little park is only some couple of minutes from where we lived. Pristine used to play alot here.

Taken at Murai Jinja (Murai Temple) near my house. Children from nearby nursery/kindergarten schools come here to picnic at this time of the year.

I lived in a really beautiful place! I guess one can never know what she’s missing until it’s gone — for a while at least!

Three months down. How many to go? Can’t really tell!!

I like the lifestyle — no overtime at work and trips to the beach,  I like the sunshine — 360++ days of the year and the mostly tax-free living — the joy of getting 100% of your monthly salary. Yeah, yea, ya, I have occassional bad hair days and episodes on the road to whine about but once I get home, everything is forgotten in the quiet little corner of our bedroom, reading stories to the little girl, listening to her non-stop talk about school and her friend and finally kissing her goodnight.

Three months has passed, the Thursday and Friday day-off still do not make sense to me. Working on Saturdays and Sundays will never rub in. But as I made the choice to be here, on my free will, I will shut up.

Leaving you with a picture of Dubai 50 or so years ago:

… and the Dubai now:

I wonder how will it look like when my little daughter graduates from primary school?

Celebrate Easter in style with freshly pressed business suit and enjoy the special festive spirit early in one of Dubai’s exclusive bus stops. Every member of the bus-chasing group will be delighted and surprised with the award winning bus drivers who capture the essense of Easter and present it in a form of sophisticated festive mood by shouting at male passengers to step down as the bus is packed and refusing to let females (waiting for a minimum of 45 minutes)  in because there are no seats, myself included – another personalized experience in the world’s most luxurious cities.

Reinventing the ultimate cosmopolitan adventure, the Dubai public transport system introduces a new lifestyle that integrates all the excitement and exhiliration designed for couples, families and friends. For those seeking a litte more exhiliration, a heated discussion with the driver as to why the buses are late or simply why you are refused a place inside his bus would thrill the young and young at heart to no end.

I arrived pissed late today but still, Happy Easter everyone! I will leave you with a picture that soothes (?) and remind you of Easter:

I blog-hop every now and then, and lurking not, I post comments…maybe lots of it. So much for free speech area, I just don’t know why some people delete comments. Clash of opinions? not really, I am so not into politicking so I often leave safe and neutral comments. But some still choose what to post and what not to. I check back on some comments I make, and find out that while there are actual people who are open enough to display comments from all over the blogosphere, there still exists people who only chose the flowery words — any kind of honest to goodness opinions given stimulated from their vicious little rants just don’t  pop out, ever. They just accept lines that are acceptable in their own standard. But then again, it’s free will so to speak!

I just feel troubled if they post an entry and says at the last line: “Commenting disabled.” Makes me wonder what’s the purpose of writing online when they only want to make a one-way love affair with the reading public. Generally, what’s the point of comments if you don’t like people to comment? The level of hypocrisy here is extreme it’s actually hilarious.

 Then there’s this other one person who deletes all the comments that I make in her blog. Comment moderation, her choice but what troubles me most is that she is lurking in my site and not commented even once. I’m hearing more and more people who delete comments that don’t agree with their position. I think that kind of comment grazing s*cks. If you can’t put up people who don’t agree with you, then turn off the comments altogether.

 On the other hand, with the recent deluge of comment spammers, comment spam is a fact of life if you have a blog. But with most blog providers, blacklisting words such as ass will automatically delete comments containing that word. My name does not contain the a-s-s nor I do write it in any of my comments. And if I may recall, I never write “provocative” things — what for anyway?

Do’t get me wrong, comment deleting is well within each blogger’s rights. Everyone is reserved the right to remove comments that are spammy, off-topic or otherwise unsuitable based on their comment policy. It’s their property. Deleting SPAM and over the top offensive or racist ones is cool with me but personally, just deleting them because you don’t agree with them seems naughty to me.

How often do you delete comments on your blog?

I am wondering if the Crucifixation took place on a Friday. When I was young (and restless), our mom told us so. But if Christ really died on a Friday, I think it is more appropriate to call it Mourning Friday instead. The disciples did just that — they mourned. They though all was lost. But of course that’s just me, I don’t want to start a religious debate so let’s leave it at that.

Good Fridays at my parents house are spent watching lent movies on TV, saying our prayers and fasting — or minimal eating as fasting can’t be coerced to all six children! We’d be more silent and in pious mood if we have something in our tummies. Years later and alone in Japan, I would do normal things on Good Fridays that would shock my mother. How can’t I? The calendar in Japan don’t even have that red mark on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. I have normal classes on these days, eat my meat (gasp! Catholics should avoid these so they say) and laugh when I want to. There were even times I forgot all about the Holy Week until a phone call home. I guess I should be the one crucified.

So, here in dooby-doo-be-Dubai where most of the population is the otherwise (non-Catholics I mean), the calendar almost looks like the one in Japan. The consolation I have is that Friday is considered sacred among the people here so Fridays are my day off. Somehow, my family managed to keep silent and still on Friday afternoon to observe lent. But of course with a toddler at home, the quiet moment would just last for a few minutes and then the high-pitched tone of voice is back again, echoing from wall to wall of every room.

Actually, I am a week short to my 3rd month in Dubai — can you still consider that as new as in just landed? It’s been 80+ days since I stepped off that long haul Emirates airline flight from Nagoya, Japan and so much has happened I feel I’ve been here for years. Too much research, too much looking at the map make me the new Dubai genius, giving directions to strangers in distress inside buses, a somewhat strange habit I picked up lately. I am still not driving, as no budget for a car yet but I virtually know the streets and some short cuts, to the delight of the lady-who-was-lost yesterday.

So it’s April already. I thought to myself, “where is this much talked about desert heat?” I guess that would come later giving the family more time to spend more time outdoors and not burn skin. Oh and speaking of skin, a guy asked me if it had been years since I moved to Dubailand. I (respectfully) answered by “Why do you think so?”

He shot back: ”because the color of your skin says it all..”

Whoa!! Where did that come from? I am by *ahem* nature NEVER pale-skinned (if that’s even a word!)…I have fair complexion. Lately, I don’t know if I still have that ‘fair’ tone. That stranger certainly didn’t think so, or was wearing really dark contacts.

It’s 2:00 a.m. I tiptoed to the living room, trying to clear my eyes of that sandy, groggy feeling and looked at the skies. Iraq invasion? The skies are definitely turning red with flashes.

There it goes again, loud claps of booms and bangs. Britain has probably attacked neighboring Iran to get the  detained sailors back?Happily it turned out to be just an approaching storm and heavy tropical rain hammering onto the roof in great, fat drops.

Sporadic showers and thunderstorms are expected until the end of the week. It’s high time I get myself an umbrella. 

It must have been the storm yesterday and all that strong wind and lightning last night. It’s relatively cool this morning at 21C and considering it’s already April, this is quite a surprise and relief to many. The cold air spells this morning might have made people snuggle in bed longer making the traffic very light and easy, I arrived in the office before 8 am. But since I don’t have any keys with me (I have to ask for a copy of that key!), I just stayed outside and read my book until a colleague arrived 15 minutes later.

Heavy rains poured from Dubai skies last night just as I stepped into the bus. Passengers were shocked! No one even thought of rain and of course, no one was armed with umbrella.

Rains means serious problem in desert land — heavy traffic, slippery, dangerous roads and floods! And I am not even talking about rain like squalls in the Pacific, the rains here don’t last any longer than 15 minutes!

Next morning, the murky ‘lake’ formation on the sides of the streets were everywhere. Someone should alert the government to build drainage systems! The weather pattern from 50 years ago has changed and the average rainfall in the UAE is twice than it was years ago. Some articles online about Dubai says you can camp out in the desert all year long without fear of being rained on —  someone needs to update that piece of writing fast.

P absolutely love them. Who would not? White, fluffy and soft with that cute little face! Seeing them, touching them is a pleasure, but caring for them is another. Sorry for such a negative attitude towards my/our own pet who just arrived last Friday but I never knew what mess is until they came jumping and humping all around our living room! To top all of that, one of them suddenly jumped into a plastic full of hay and urinated! I never knew they can pass out that big amount of liquid from their bodies!

We had rabbits before when I was living in the Philippines. They just roamed around happily outside some green area in my home. Perfectly happy they were, and so were we. There were no urine or litter we had to sweep or smell.

We don’t have any green, grassy area right now as we are living in an apartment building but still, I took them in, that’s my fault. I never thought that caring for them would mean a little over some ‘extra time’. First, their cage is too small. I had to let them out to the balcony so that they can be just rabbits — play and eat, eat and play. I could not confine them in one small area of their cage. When I woke up this morning, litters were everywhere! They have a litter box I placed in one corner but it appears that they don’t know what was that for. Sigh.

The previous owner said Frosty and Snowball (some name, huh, considering we are in the desert!!) are litter-trained so maybe they are just adjusting to the new environment that is why they can’t seem to find the meaning of the litter box. I searched the internet for rabbit care articles, it got me busy like when I was searching for baby care while I was pregnant! I will be going home today with a little education about rabbit caring, this should make a difference.

Next, rabbit food is running out (I got some from the previous owner) and I don’t have a single idea where to buy!! Panic. Checked out Carrefour and Spinneys, there was none.

Then there’s this thing about me so scared to carry them. Scared of being scratched with their nails or simply not doing it right. Am I crazy or what? My daughter carries the rabbits more confidently than I do. M was looking at me like — why the hell you take these for if you are not even capable of carrying them? uh-uh

I recently met someone with 7, got that? S-E-V-E-N cats!! I wonder if they drove her crazy the first time.