Sandier Pastures

This will be a short post.

They have confirmed it. I’m having 4 days off as the whole UAE celebrates the Eid holidays (holidays after month of fasting Ramadan) !

I’ll be back working on Saturday, this time for the whole day. During Ramadan we only have to work for 5-6 hours and I was home by 4 (to the delight of the babe). At work, the fasting people are lethargic making the work place less tense and with no pressure. After 30 days of days like this, we get a long weekend to enjoy. I even read that it will be perfect weather for us this week.

Ah, sometimes I wish every month is Ramadan!

I thought the streets of New York has the most cars in the world. No, I haven’t been there but isn’t it like that in the movies? Meg Ryan was stuck in New York traffic in the movie Kate and Leopold, then there were traffic scenes in Coming to America, Ghostbusters II, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, Independence Day, Catch Me If You Can, just some of the few movies I remember.

While munching my popcorn a few years back, I promised myself never to live in New York, or in a place with crowded streets. I don’t do well with traffic and crowd control.

In reality, statistics show that there are more cars in Dubai streets at any given time than in New York! Ouch.

Dubai has about 541 vehicles per thousand population, which is higher than New York (444), London (345) and Singapore (111). And it doesn’t end there - Dubai’s statistical data showed that motor vehicles increased by an annual average of about 12 percent.

I so welcome the creation of mass transit system although it is creating massive traffic. Until then everyday I chant, this too shall pass, this too shall pass…

I’m so surprised after coming back from vacation to get a couple of blog awards from someone who’s frequenting my blog lately. Thank you Eaton of Passionate Fiction for thinking of me. I am honored.

Eaton  is a writer who lives with her beautiful family in Australia.

The award I picked up came with some rules and a tag.

Here are the rules:

Mention the blog that gave it to you and comment on their blog to let them know you have posted your award.

Publish these rules:

Share 6 values that are important to you and 6 things you do not support. Grant the prize to 6 people.

6 THINGS I VALUE

1. My family
2. My friends, near, far and online
3. My (no overtime) work
4. The memories I keep in a diary
5. My faith
6. My independent spirit

6 THINGS I DO NOT SUPPORT

1. War
2. TV
3. Violence/Abuse of children
4. Promiscuity
5. Abortion
6. Plastic Surgery (although it might be a creative way to enhance one’s looks)

I would like to pass this award to these creative bloggers: Michelle of Bleeding Espresso, Sabine, SabineM, Urban Thought, Joyce and Puss Reboots.

This reward is in Portuguese, with the translation:
“This blog invests and believes, in proximity” [meaning, that blogging makes us 'close']

I truly believe that we’re living in a small world, thanks to the internet and blogging. I am proud to say that I have made ‘friends’ with people I haven’t even met yet and although my husband finds that amusing, I think that’s cool.

“They are all charming blogs, and the majority of them aim to show the marvels of friendship; there are persons who are not interested when we give them a prize, and then they help to cut these bows; do we want that they are cut, or that they propagate?

Then let’s try to give more attention to them! So with this prize we must deliver it to 8 bloggers that in turn must make the same thing and put this text.

I pass this on to my bloggy friends, old and new:
Amy Q, Zen, Maribeth, Betty, Desert Songbird, Robin, Krista and Kailani.

This week’s theme: View

Don’t ask how the photographer looked when shooting a view from this angle!

Photo taken at my brother’s wedding. That’s the rose petal filled aisle that leads to the church altar - from a very low point of view.

My mother was expected to land at Dubai International Airport at 4am, 30 hours after Pristine and I arrived here. I was jetlagged and sleepy but I was expecting her to call me when she’s ready to be picked up from the airport.

I slept late but confident that the phone call will be my wake up call. Instead, I heard the main door being unlocked at 6 in the morning!

I dragged myself to the living room and saw my mother, with a grin bigger than her travel bag in the front door.

Me: Why didn’t you call me?

Mom: And WHY will I call you?

Me: Duh, I’m supposed to pick you up!

Mom: Well, I know you’re still sleeping…..and what do you think of me, don’t know how to take a cab!?

She of course, said it in our dialect, which had more impact to take off all the drowsiness and jetlag-what-nots I had.

 Any of these happened to you?

1. Opened the fridge and forgot what to take out.

2. Opened google and don’t know what to search.

3. Wrote a post and don’t know what to make for a title.

4. Stared at my vitamin bottle and couldn’t recall if I took one in the morning.

5. Went outside and forgot where I wanted to go.

6. Intended to drink at least 8 glasses of water but lost count.

7. Dialed a number and asked “now, why did I decide to call you?”

8. Once bought 5 calendars because they were nice and only able to hang 1 of them.

9.  Sometimes woke up thinking it ’s already weekend but it’s not (I know this happens to a LOT of people!)

10. Bought a shoe that fit me in the morning but didn’t fit me later in the day!

11. Promised self to eat only a handful of dried figs but finished the whole package (of 20 figs!!)

12. Bought lots of hair accessories (clips, ties) and decided to chop off hair the day after.

13. Listed lots of things for Thursday Thirteen but wasn’t able to complete it (this list almost didn’t make it!).

Pristine obviously don’t know what’s going on

I met Japanese TV personality Becky in Shinjuku a few weeks back. She was in the same electronics shop as we were, looking for her own DSLR camera. Everyone was whispering (Japs can only whisper around celebs) but we (ahem, I) had the guts to come to her although without makeup(!) and asked for a picture!

She is popular in tv variety shows with her quirky character. She also stands out in Japan because of her distinct “mudblood” looks. She is half-Japanese and British.

Today, September 22, Monday is World Car-Free Day. Ever heard of that?

Not on this side of the world. I’ve never heard of such day and it’s not like anything different is going to happen even if people were aware that today is World Car-Free Day. This is Dubai, the city with inefficient, insufficient public transport that could not survive a day without the use of private vehicles.

Today is another typical day here in the Emirates:

Photo from Gulf News.

World Car-Free day is celebrated on September 22 every year (who knew? You knew?), aims to show people what cities would look, feel and sound like without cars. But today, the roads in Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi remain gridlocked because the authorities and residents have shown no desire to participate in the event.The serious lack of public transport is one, another reason is, it is too hot to walk or even stand outside.

(We are still having 38C temps here, who would want to walk to work with that).

Did you know about this day? and did you/your city participate in the event?

It’s Sunday, the start of work and school here in Dubai (and in other Gulf countries, I presume) and it only means one single thing in the morning: traffic. Rough, heavy, crazy traffic.

My work starts at 9:00 while Pristine’s school starts at 8:30 during Ramadan period. Her school is 10 minutes away from where we live. Well, that’s realistically speaking.

We went out at 7:30 because I had been anticipating traffic on the main road as combined effects of road works, Ramadan and the start of the school year. As soon as came out of the basement parking, despair immediately crept in. Right outside the exit of our parking, several cars are lined up bumper to bumper.

What!? I thought I was living in the quieter side of town? Where do these cars come from? Surely, they were not there when we left Dubai a month ago!

It took me a good 20 minutes just to move a few meters to the main road where I was met by honking drivers refusing to give way. Ah! Ramadan, the month of fasting. I should have known better, driving while hungry is not a good idea!!

It was 8:10 when I parked in front of Pristine’s school. Imagine 40 minutes instead of 10! We got out and ran to her classroom. I was only able to give her a quick kiss and hug then ran back to the car on my way to work. I finally sat on my work chair at 9:00 sharp, exactly 90 minutes after I started the car. I can’t believe I’ve just spent more than an hour shifting my foot from the almost endless series of brake-accelerator-brake-accelerator.

Actually, it’s not just today that the traffic is at its worst. It has been like this since the start of Ramadan (Sept. 1st). Since hubby is still in Japan, I had been driving for almost two weeks now.

And I am honestly fed up.

One more day of driving into the gridlock and I’ll go out in the street naked to drive all the motorists away mad. Thankfully, hubby is arriving tonight so I won’t have to drive tomorrow.

This week’s theme: Road

The road out to the desert.