An IPL saturday without TV :|

A series of events lead me to do this post. Amit is off to the barber’s  saloon for a haircut. He would be praying that they take as long as the match lasts, to give his head a neat look. Its not his research about TV Tuner card and online match viewing subscriptions that I wanted to write in this post ;). He has even gone as far as the options of "Rent a TV" for this short while :D. So I think it will be difficult to stick to our no-TV-in-the-house-plan for longer if he craves so badly for the matches. fingers crossed!!

Back to what I had in mind for this post.... I was commenting on a post with beautiful summer flowering tree collages when I noticed the whooooshing (dunno wat its called) sounds of a windy storm outside. I thought of finding a 'you tube' video of that sound and link it there with the comment to share the sounds of summers here. I didn't find any close match of that whoooshing sound that I heard through my closed windows :| but i kept clicking the related videos one after the other and finally stopped at some Burj Al Arab videos. Its one of those man made wonders and the closest I have been to it is this.. Without saying a thing more, I will leave you with the links to do the talking... I loved watchin them... 

disclaimer: there are 7 parts, may take some time to upload..

Part 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Source: here

Its a must see for anybody travelling to Dubai..So here is a virtual tour to not only the hotel but a lot more about it. Hope you enjoy them like I did.

Tower of Arabs

...is what it means (in Arabic). Tops in the list of attractions in Dubai. Designed to resemble a billowing sail, Burj Al Arab soars to a height of 321 metres, dominating the Dubai skyline. Built on an artificial island constructed 280 meters offshore, this place is simply individual, inspired, impressive & characterizes itself as the world's first "7-star" property. It has a helipad on it too.

We spent a day at this part of Jumeirah beach that offers a very close view of the architectural splendor. We walked and walked and walked some more, without being bothered of getting tanned. I had seen such blue-green waters only in the pictures earlier.The beaches here are beautiful, pretty clean and not crowded at all. Still there is enough activity around to keep you engaged. See, I love observing people without giving them my intruding looks, so I enjoyed watching them surfing, playing in water, making castles of sand, sunbathing and we also kept taking pictures of everything that caught the eyes.

We had a great morning, followed by lunch @ KFC and we were still not done with our beach love for the day so again went on exploring the beach walking in the opposite direction now. We were so deeply immersed in our conversations that we dint feel fatigued and before we realized we had also ended up promising each other the plan for all out next outings.. i.e we have to experience all the adventure this land offers (Scuba diving, snorkelling, jet skiing, surfing and all other water sports, paragliding, parasailing, hot air balloon, sand dune bashing, desert safari, dolphin stuff and there is much more) what fun! Just a mention is enough to charge the freaks that we are! only miss having some friends with similar interests.. It adds to the adventure when u have company besides the discounts offered to groups on the deals, which is also in my jobless mind :P

Anyways, for now I offer you a sneak peek into the album I uploaded with the pics of the day.

That was our valentines day...

Hope you like browsing through them.

Tales of a housewife..

I tried the most typical wifely thing today. guess what!

I took the roti n saag to the farms where the man of the house had been toiling in the soil err sands... yes, something on these lines I did today and had a day well spent!

& What made me do that is a story of our laziness and time miss-management but all's well that ends well, so lets not talk of that. Here is what I had cooked.

Best thing was having lunch together (you somehow dont feel like having lunch when u are alone at home) and besides that, got my visa-medical done, checked out a mall that has a sky effect created indoor and also saw another part of Dubai. The more I see it more I like it. Its an amazing land. & The weather has also been kind to me till now. So of this amazing land I was talking - Its one of the examples of what human hard work and creative mind can do to a endless desert. Green lawns, beds of flowers in all possible colors, trees wherever possible - nothing could have been a reality without the metiulous effort of people. For every filament of green life, there is a perfectly laid source of water. And I loved to see this effort bearing such beautiful fruit all around.

Coming back to the wifely thing that I did, reminds me of the blr days when this man of the house used to bring home cooked lunch to my workplace & we had some nice lunches together exploring places around my office & giving headaches to my office people with my absence :) 

Is it attachment or just plain convention

that I am finding difficult to alter with. 

Even after being out of India for good 10 days, my cellphone as well as the watch shows India time.

Everytime we feel we are late for something/somewhere & I look for time, I only get knocked for six as the Indian time further adds an hour and a half to the delay :( :(

When I am home alone, I keep looking at the wall clock where Amit had set UAE time before I came and chk the India time on my laptop clock and start thinking what ppl back home would be doing now (yes, India time on laptop as well, I hvnt changed it anywhere yet.)

I think its too much! but no, I am not missing India. I will change it in a day or 2.

a walk along Dubai Creek @ Burdubai

An early dinner and off to bur dubai. Thats what we did yday. There you have "Dubai Creek", a 14 km long natural sea water inlet that devides Dubai into 2 parts- Deira Dubai and Bur Dubai. 

It's a historical part of Dubai & I am listing few of its offerings to a traveller like me.

--A stroll along its banks can get you a picturesque glimpse of Dubai's trading heritage. -- THIS IS WHAT WE DID LAST EVENING.

apart from that,

--One can take a small water taxi called an abra and view the old trading port and the dhows from the water. 

--A cruise to Al-Maktoum Bridge passes many of the city's historic as well as modern landmarks. An imaginative way of seeing Dubai is to take a tour of the creek by traditional wooden dhow or cabin cruiser. Most of the major landmarks can be seen from the waterway. Daytime or evening cruises are available with food and beverages on board.

--At the inland end of the Creek is a large, shallow lagoon, now a wildlife sanctuary which has become a heaven for migrating shore birds. Some 27,000 birds have been counted here at one time during the autumn migration. The most spectacular are the many Greater Flamingos which have made the Creek their permanent home. 

I was reading all this & more about the creek here

I also must mention some terms, their meaning and significance here to begin with.

The Creek has played a major role in the economic development achieved by Dubai. Since the early days, when Dubai was a center for pearl fishing and pearl trade, Dubai's trade development was attributed to the creek.

Abras (small wooden boats) serve as taxis for those who want to cross from the Deira side to the Bur Dubai side. The journey takes around ten minutes and costs just 50 fils.

Dhow is a traditional arab sailing vessel with one or more triangular sails, called lateens. It is indigenous to the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, India, and East Africa. A larger dhow may have a crew of approximately thirty while smaller dhow have crews typically ranging around twelve. Up to the 1960s, dhows made commercial journeys between the Persian Gulf and East Africa using only sails as a means of propulsion. The freight was mostly dates and fish to East Africa and mangrove timber to the lands in the Persian Gulf. They sailed south with the monsoon in winter or early spring and back again to Arabia in late spring or early summer. 

Souk is Arabic word for a place where things are sold or exchanged. Dubai is one of the best places in the world to find a range of excellent, authentic, competitive Arab souks  GOLD & SPICE Souks are the most famous here.

This I believe is a mosque(not sure) that we saw while walking along the creek and it looked beautiful.

Cool Dubai and some cold..

So I finally get a Hindustan Lever Stamp (read it as leaver my dear). Thats what i was told when i was at the airport.

Yesss! I am in dubai, the land of sun and sand as some call it.

& it snowed in some parts here, the day I landed. What a cool welcome..

Let me start with my worry of packing my stuff(literally spread all over the house in mumbai) into the 20 kg baggage as i mentioned earlier. I didnt want to bring anything extra because past experience tells me that 70% of my clothes dont see the light outside my suitcase/cupboard. Sweetly enough, Mom helped by arranging for a spring balance. I removed my warm clothes, heavy punjabi suits, few more sarees and some old casuals etc and managed to come with only 5 kgs extra.

Isn't that good management? Now other side of story is that I had stuffed my laptop bag, cabin bag and purse/handbag as much as possible as they are not weighed. But my heart weakened at the mumbai immigration counter to read on a board that only 2 bags are allowed (including laptop/cabin/hand bag) so quickly filling the immigration form, I arranged max of my purse's contents into the cabin bag but where would i put the purse itself? it wasnt small enough to be put inside any other bag so i might have to leave it at the airport. Being my first international flight I was little apprehensive. I had also heard that rules are strictly followed in international airports. But I was nowhere questioned abt anything. & I landed with all my luggage intact.

I must mention this as well. Husband had expressed his devout side to my mum and asked for Tulsi plant to be sent along with me. Now would I be able to carry it? The driver suggested that I tell the authorities (incase they question) that its a medicinal herb that I am carrying. But I tell you, its a problem only when u ask someone whether you can carry or not. I packed it in a long tube like container and kept inside the check-in bag and forgot abt it. 

That too reached here safely.

On the flight, I got a window seat and kept looking down, clicking pics from there too. The view of ships in the sea through the clouds from top was captivating and strengthened the place of 'a vacation on cruise' in my wish list. & then an idea of a desert safari as soon as we crossed the Arabian sea and came over the endless deserts. 

Enjoying the beauty infrastructure of roads and buidlings we landed at 4pm. Didnt spend much time @ the airport but that was beautiful too. I found the eye test sheer waste of time though. The flight took me 2 & a half hours and the formalities at the airport took another 2 hours. The heavy laptop bag and cabin bag were being carried on all these 2 hours. So, by the time I came out and looked for Amit, I was totally tired but still was all smiling at the sight of him.

Yesss.. I have finally reached here all well :) I hope this move across the geography prove good for us in all ways.

The warm welcome by the darling husband was lovely. He afterall had been waiting to get his laundry and other things taken care of :p and now that my visa says "Housewife" as occupation, he doesnt leave a single chance to giggle over it and tease me.

We had an amazing first weekend roaming around some malls and Jumeira beach by the sun set. & Some friends from this land have just given baby news so there are plans to meet them soon.

Its gonna be fun setting up everything all over again but the cold waves have hit me hard and I have been shivering and feeling feverish for the whole of today :(