Chasing the Waves

As I once mentioned, one of the things I love in Dubai is its long stretched white sandy beach. So when the girls came, of course picnic and mandi-manda at the beach adalah perkara wajib yang perlu dilakukan!

Seriously syok gile coz the water was very clean, warm and the waves memang just nice, not too big, not too small - great for some amateur bodyboarding. We didn't have the bodyboards yet when the girls were here but dear SRB and I just bought them last week and dude, memang super awesome!!! I mean, we didn't really manage to successfully ride the waves or anything, but who cares, we're happy to have the waves crashing down on us anyway woohoo!

Chasing the waves sambil mandi-manda till the sun went down = a perfect weekend and for now, I honestly couldn't ask for more...

Looking forward to do it again this Friday woohoo!

Desert Safari Vol. 1

I'm not really sure how to write about the trips I had with the girls around Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman since there's just too much to tell and some funny stories, you just had to be there to understand why they're funny. But since I've promised some friends and I'm now in the mood to show some pictures anyway, here it goes...

On the day the girls arrived, I invited some friends who have been living here much longer than we have for dinner at our place, just so everybody could get to know everybody and also for me to get some advice from them on interesting places to go in Dubai. It was the first time we had people over for makan2 since we moved into this new house.

It was also the first time we had people sleeping over at our house. (Fatma, my guest bedroom is waiting for you now =p).

One of the girls took the midnight plane from M'sia which arrived in Dubai at 3am. We overslept and only woke up at 3.30am wooopss!, rushed to the airport to pick her up and was worried when we couldn't see her at the arrival gate. Rupanya our unfortunate friend was being interrogated by some immigration officers in a small room, like seriously, ala 'The Terminal' movie (I'm from Krakozhia!!! =p). Thank God it all turned out okay in the end, they bosan takde bende nak buat at 3-4am in the morning kot, and she was later released.

So the first activity- Desert Safari, a must for everyone who visits UAE. It started with dune bashing - a rough ride up and down the desert's dunes in a 4WD, driven by a professional of course (you need a special license for this), mcm roller-coaster, sangat pening and memang boleh muntah, especially if you sit at the back of the car, which I did. So naturally, I was the loudest screamer during the whole ride (seriously dude, there were many times when I felt like our car was about to flip over okayyy).

Then we're brought to a Bedouin-style camp, where we got to go for a camel ride (again, I was the loudest screamer. What to do, my camel was making this weird, angry noise; it's my reflex bebeh =p), have some henna painting (aahhh...teringat masa zaman kawin dulu), enjoy a delicious barbecue while watching a belly dancing show oolala and end the day with a few puffs of shisha.

It was an exciting experience, especially with the girls around but honestly until today, just thinking about the ride can make me feel carsick all over again. Speaking of carsick, a special thanks to Naza for being our asam supplier for that day. Without it, I think I would've "blessed" the car with my 'projectile' hehe.

I know I have to bring all our visitors to this Desert Safari tour coz I think it's fun and a very middle eastern thing to do. Coz you know, when you think of middle east, you think of deserts, camels and perhaps belly dances too. I just don't know whether I can survive the dizzying dune bashing ride again and again and again without vomitting at some point yeeessshhh~

Game On!

Yeah, I'm sorry, I can't afford a Ferrari,

But that don't mean I can't get you there,

I guess he's an XBOX, and I'm more Atari,

But the way you play your game ain't fair...

- Cee Lo Green, Forget You -

Me and SRB were not really gamers; I was never interested in those silly games in his iPhone no matter how many times he tried to get me hooked (Paper Toss, really dear? I'd never understand how you found throwing papers into trash cans exciting. No offense to those who do) and the last time I actually saw him physically holding a game console was back in RPI, playing a game of golf.

That is, until we discovered THIS theeheehee...

Seriously dude, bangun pagi sakit badan okayyy? Either from dancing or laughing our assess off at how silly we looked trying to move to the beat. But honestly, from my humble, amateur point of view - THE best game everrr!

So dear, cepatlah balik! Let's battle it all out again - I've been practising the whole day heheh!

Homesick

Little niece turned 2 recently.

The family threw a little bbq party to celebrate.

And I could only be there virtually - just a face on the computer screen.

Auntie Na misses you too, Kayyaaa =(

Back to the Couch

Since the girls arrived here last week, I've been busy trying to be a good host and also having fun that I didn't have time to visit the World Wide Web (not that I have the need to regularly check my blog, emails or Facebook pun anyway). Now that everyone's gone back to tanahair tercinta and dearest husband pulak has to go to Basrah for his scheduled trip there, I'm back to being a stay-at-home-alone wife and couch potato hehe, so barulah ada masa to check out what's going on in the internet world.

But I gotta say, the drastic change from having a group of people talking, laughing in the house to living alone, left me feeling a bit blue at the moment. Biasalah...post-vacay syndrome, bak kata Cik Naza. However I just got the latest episodes of my favorite TV shows, supplied by one of the girls (thank you very much Fera!!!), so the silver lining of it is I now have all the time in the world to catch up on my favorite geeks in Big Bang Theory, my favorite teacher in Glee, my favorite 'Suit Up!' playboy in How I Met Your Mother, my favorite vampires in Vampire Diaries dan sebagainya.

Blog posts and pictures of the fun we had in Muscat and Dubai - hmmm...depends on whether I can stop myself from watching all my TV series back-to-back sampai tak tido malam or not hehe. Ada banyak yg tak sabar nak tengok ni! But will put up entries on the trip with the girls eventually nanti, don't worry kay Fatma =p

In the meantime, I just wanna say...BE SAFE OUT THERE, DEAR!!! MMWAAAHHSS!

My 'Pak Arab'

I went to Oman and got myself a handsome 'Pak Arab' =p

Morning Run

I finally did it!

I finally went for a jog this morning - successfully completed one big round of Dubai Mall's fountain pool yesss! (I know this might not sound so impressive, especially to all you running freaks out there *uhuk* Fatma *uhuk* =p, but for someone who has not moved her ass off the couch for quite some time, this is considered an achievement okay hehe. Baby steps bebeh, baby steps!). Ever since my jogging shoes arrived with the rest of our boxes, saya telah memasang cita2 untuk buat some morning run tapi tak pernah menjadi. Until this morning.

The weather was nice, not too warm not too cold, not too foggy. After driving dear SRB to the office, I got home, dropped my handbag, then straightaway headed out again and started my morning exercise which consisted of 40% running and 60% walking. The view was soo gorgeous that I had to stop many times just to enjoy and soak it all in (hehe alasan). As I said, baby steps bebeh =p.

Hopefully I'll be able to maintain this routine, if not every day, maybe every other day of the week. Then perhaps I'd feel less guilty for being a couch potato for the rest of the day theehehe...

Driving Around Dubai

To prepare for the arrival of the girls next week, we spent last weekend driving around Dubai to familiarize ourselves with the roads here so we can show them around later. But to be honest, there's a 70% chance that we still gonna get lost nanti (sorry in advance babes) coz seriously, the signboards here memang agak fail. Plus there are still many constructions going on, so there are a lot of road diversions that I have yet to figure out.

I found driving here a bit intimidating coz most of the time you'd find yourself being honked by BMWs, Bentleys, Cadillacs, Hummers, etc for driving too slow, even when you're actually following the speed limit allowed. I mean, it's a parking lot okayyy, how fast do you expect me to go? Taulaa keta awak tu keta besar, doesn't mean you can be such a bully. I always thought the bigger the car, the more civilized the driver is. Coz if you make a lot of money that enables you to buy expensive cars, you must have a good head on your shoulder lah kan. But here, apparently not lah.

I've also been driving back and forth to IKEA and Home Centre last week to make sure the house is ready for our lovely guests. After doing some calculations, there'll be nights when we gonna have 7 guests sleeping over at one time, so me being me, I just have to make sure that I have enough food, entertainment, extra mattresses and blankets to make their stay here a comfortable one =)

Now, all that's left to do is find a comfortable pair of shoes for me to jalan2 in. Any excuse to go shopping beb hehehe...

Everything Changes

The reason wisdom is meant to be imparted is because

you acquire it only after it's too late to apply it to yourself.

- Norm King -

Treasures From Home

Our stuff is finally hereee yeaayyy! So I now have a replenished stock of Maggi yeehaa! As much as I like to konon2 be adventurous and try new recipes, there are times when laziness dominates and all I ever bother to cook is just a 2-minute bowl of Maggi hehe (can it really be considered as cooking ke if all you do is just masukkan mee in a boiling water =p).

And my Taboo is here...and my lesung batu...and my wedding albums...and my picture frames...I feel like I've been reunited with some old, dear friends of mine plak hehe. Adoiii whylaa do I sound soo jiwang and sentimental all the time now ni? Get me out of this funk please!

The 'L' Word

Dear SRB left for his first trip to Al Basrah, Iraq yesterday and will be staying there till this Sunday. So this is the first time that I'm gonna be completely alone in this new house and in this country. Back then, I thought that I'm gonna freak out whenever SRB has to go there. But now, when it's time for him to actually make the trip to Iraq, I felt a lot calmer than I thought I'd feel.

I remained calm and 'zen' even after hearing the reasons behind the safety measures taken - must wear long-sleeves, 100% cotton shirt when travelling by truck (because non-cotton materials are easily flammable), must fill in entry forms by hand (because if say somehow, Na'uzubillah, all electronic telecommunication mediums were to be cut-off completely and you can only communicate by letters, they will be able to verify your identity via your handwriting), must provide 6 'Proof of Life' questions that only your next-of-kin and close family members know the answer to (because well...I don't even want to say it).

I guess I finally realized that freaking out is not gonna do anyone any good (although if you really sit down and think about it, this is all a bit scary, isn't it?). So all I can do is just redha and pasrah with everything now.

But I'm not gonna lie, it SUCKS to be here alone. I don't know whether this is one of the side effects of watching the fountain show alone tadi or what (somehow fountain shows tend to make me turn jiwang and syahdu inside), but yeah, it sucks big time. I know that it's part of what I signed up for when I agreed to this new "adventure" of ours. So really, there should be no surprise whatsoever here. But no matter how hard you try, I think loneliness is just something that you can never be fully prepared for. You tried to keep yourself busy and entertained all day, but somehow that 'L' thing still managed to quietly creep in and rear its ugly head.

So whenever people ask - How's the new life there? My standard answer would always be - It's fine. There are pros and cons to it. I guess by now, you can figure out one of the cons, huh?

P/S: Went to Dubai Mall earlier today. No Tom Cruise or Suri Cruise sighting to report =p