Rare Sighting!

We were on our way back home, on Sunday evening, after an outing, and we were passing the Royal Melbourne Hospital on our way. Traffic lights made us stop, and I spotted the whirring blades of a helicopter atop the hospital building. I knew at once it was an air ambulance. Being an avid viewer of Grey's Anatomy, Dr.House and others, does have its benefits. It was like film turning into reality. The GP, was game, and so he went across the road and parked for a bit, while we actually saw the air-ambulance take-off from the roof.

Here are some of the pictures, for you to enjoy.

That's when it was up there, flying away.

OK! So I hate Mondays.

Every Monday, is a dull day, when it brings me back to the start of the mundane week. It feels a bit lonely with the GP back to work, and the house needing loads to be done, after the whirlwind weekend activities and no cleaning jobs done. So that is usually what Mondays are, and they are bad enough. But when there is a guest over the weekend, and she leaves, its just so much worse.

It is amazing how things can be, and how infact Facebook can do, what nothing else can. For all those who don't know it already, the brilliant, but now pretty dormant, Quirky Quill, is the one who introduced me to the world of blogs. The fact is that she was in school with me, and infact one of my favourite persons from my very snooty high school. She is a great person, and a brilliant brain to boot. Somehow though we were never belonged to the same group of friends. Met years later on Facebook, picked up the new threads. I had just had a baby, she was going to be married in a while, leaving for her backpacking Europe tour. We would chat on and off, and the familiarity increased to a lot more than what it ever was in school. And something that I never would have never imagined possible, had we even been in the same city we grew up in all these years, happened, and she popped into my part of the town this weekend, and stayed over.

It was wonderful having her over, sharing stories about school, common friends, and trying to refresh each other's memories about events and people from those years. Its amazing how easy it was to talk to each other, even though we were meeting after more than twelve years! Wow! Imagine that, makes me feel really really old now. Never on earth had either one of us thought we would infact meet up again, and yet. No wonder they say its a small world. I felt oh! so sad, when she left today morning, to go back. A Monday, as usual with some more void......

It was great having you over, QQ, and I forgot to crib about this to you personally, while you were here, but here I go now........ HEADER!!!!!! Miss you girl, and hope you pop in here soon, and hopefully with M in tow this time. Must meet him now, after all the wonderful tales I have heard about him.

What's Not To Like?

About a weekend, that brings in this.



Before anyone gets overwhelmed, all of it, is budget shopping, my favourite kind, to gear ourselves for the upcoming winters, since we have very little to keep ourselves warm in the outdoors. Lived in warm places the last few years, so never needed much, but its just autumn now, down here, and we are already feeling the chill! But whatever the reason, and whatever the merchandise, shopping always makes me happy. Yes, I am as shallow and materialistic as one gets.... and unfortunately have no shame admitting it. Still beaming with the weekend hangover, yes, that's me.

What An Amazing Sight!

We were driving around, in Dubai in the afternoon today with a friend, , and this sight quite took our breath away. Its the dream turning into reality, for people who own a place in Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world, living in the clouds. The clouds stand somewhere in the middle of the building, surrounding a few floors. It was just such an amazing sight. A gorgeous, goodbye view from the city I believe!

Looks amazing isn't it?

That is the entire building, and you can see exactly where the clouds touch the building along its length.

Could not resist sharing this one.

What I Took From This Weekend

This weekend, was a learning experience for me. Being the forgetful old hag I have become, I thought it best to write it down and record all my learning.

My little baby is growing up, he is no longer a baby, but a boy (and hiding from facts don't make them go away.) It has been that way for long, but I have been trying to avoid the truth, pretending that he is still a baby. But this weekend, he shoved the facts into my face when he showed me that he can sit on a kiddy swing, the ones without any harness or safety belts, with just the two iron chains on the side, and a curved rubber flap for a seat, and enjoy it. He laughs out his heart at every push which sends him hurtling forward and even dares to get off it on his own. He enjoys the slides, doing it all on his own. New things make him look at them and wonder, like a cawing crow or a running goose. He is brave but cautious, and fun but safe, well mostly.


This weekend, we had no plans in place. The mandatory grocery shopping for the week, was already done, since the DH comes home early these days. So here we were, the we-hate-being-at-home-on-weekends family, with two whole days in hand, and not a single plan in place. So after a lot of dawdling, we landed up in a park on Friday evening, and it was nice. We stopped there, because we were passing by and had nowhere else to go. Seems like sometimes impromptu happenings are the most fun. The BB enjoyed swings and slides, and I soaked in the greenery I had been so lusting for. Observed a few Iftaar parties in the park, got some photos, and moved out just as it started getting dark. The BB wanted to run wild, and we let him, the only place where we needed to get a hold of him, was when he ran towards the dried pond, lake or whatever water body like thing was there. Did I tell you, my boy simply loves water, in any form he sees it.

There was a crow sitting on one of the poles close to the slide. The BB just sat on the top of the slide, staring at the crow cawing, till it flew away. I can see he is already observing things, and that fills me with an immense sense of satisfaction. We just drove around Dubai after that, with the BB happily dozing in his car seat.

Saturday we saw penguins, seals and some more. Yes, we saw real, live penguins. An amazing aquarium and water-zoo at the Dubai Mall it was for us.

Can't help the cliche - 'Sealed With A Kiss'

The BB is a complete water baby. He absolutely loves water just like me, whether its a fountain, a fish tank or just a half dried lake. He enjoyed the aquarium, the water creatures, the small water fall, and even the artificial lakes created for the fountains there. Every time he so much as sees a hint of water, 'Atu, atu atu', goes the BB. (Atu is the way he says water). He keeps showing me, just how much like me he is. I just hopes he learns to swim though, something I never did.

He looooooooooooves water.

I am fatter, heavier and shorter than the DH, but at this point in time, I am also fitter than him. Yes indeed! Who would have thought that is even possible. After walking for a straight four hours(at a mall of course), I was still fine and raring to go, while the DH was down with aching legs. That I have a cold now, is not the right thing to be mentioned here.

Ramadan is not the time to go out without having your lunch, atleast not here. Not even by mistake. Take-aways are allowed, but one cannot even sip water in public. You cannot be seen eating anywhere, even you car, nowhere except in the confines of your home. It is forced fasting for pretty much everyone. Its strange seeing the deserted food courts on weekends, places that are usually brimming with people. And it is just not much fun, when we first eat, and go out with a full and heavy stomach, all drowsy.

This weekend, we went out without the stroller and now I know we can do it. I hate putting the BB in the stroller, it just feels so wrong to have him strapped up, while he can walk, run and make merry. It does make life easier for us though, because we don't need to keep running around behind him. But its so not fair. So this entire weekend, we did it without the stroller, though not in a planned way, but it just happened and I feel so happy about that. We were at the Dubai Mall for over four hours, and he walked tirelessly with us, refusing any offers to hop into our arms. These little boys have so much of energy, it is unbelievable. Even the DH was tiered by the end of it. It was only the last five minutes or so of our visit, while we were walking towards the parking lot, that he finally agreed to and settled into my arms.

The penguins and us. The BB was enamoured by them. And he let me carry him, just to get a better view.

This weekend, I attained a lot of enlightenment, and had fun on the side too. Such weekends, so make the week worth living through especially for a person like me who lives the week just to make it to the weekend.

Stop, When the Signs Say So

It is said, that if we look around closely, nature gives us clues about what to do or not for that matter. Unfortunately being a foolish human, that also means even when it is in obvious forms, I choose to ignore it, and go right ahead and do what I clearly should not.

The Al Ain Wildlife Park is a well known zoo in the UAE, and is famous for the variety of species it has. It is almost two hundred kilometres from home, and hence visiting it meant a day outing, which had to be planned. And the plan has been building up for almost three months now. We as a family are not big planners, we may wake up at noon on a weekend, and then decide to go to a place which is over a hundred kilometres away and just do it. It works out great here, because of the good roads, and amazing speeds though. So this planned trip not working out was getting to me. We just could not set it right, because this one meant leaving home at a decent time, so that we could spend enough time exploring the zoo, and then, also head home before it gets too late. The biggest problem was waking up in time to do it. So I finally fixed it for the three day weekend, where we would be rested enough to wake up early, but that turned out to be one stormy weekend. The weekends post that, the GP was not feeling to great, and it did not seem right to stress him out with the long drive ahead. And so the plan was stalled as always. But it never struck me once, that with so many obstacles cropping up, it would be best to drop the plan.

This weekend we decided to do it, come what may. Since the GP and I both love animals, we were atleast equally interested in doing this. Now the point is, I have been to another great zoo, and blogged about it, when Rakesh told me that the Al Ain zoo was an even better option, and convinced me that it was air conditioned, just like the one I had been to, but larger and better. So that is what I had in mind, and all the googling told me was about the location and timing. I dressed up in black jeans, and a full sleeved black shirt and off we went. What really struck me about the place, was that it is much greener than anywhere else in the UAE, and naturally so, not the cultivated greenery, but the natural one. From the time we started, we were amazed to see some greenery along the highway instead of the dead sand all along as we usually do here. Two hundred kilometres, and an excessively oily KFC lunch later, we reached the zoo.

To be honest its a well planned, and very well maintained zoo. Nice visitors gallery, green walkways, laid out over a huge area, loads of animals to see. So it would have been paradise, except for the fact that there was no air conditioning of any kind. At 42 degrees, with over seventy percent humidity, this was not the ideal condition for a relaxed walk around. Worse still the BB is not used to so much heat, and he gets heat allergies at times. And I on my part, have developed an art of inappropriate dressing. The day we got caught in the storm in the middle of nowhere, was the first time in my life I wore a ganjee like top and had to end up being around people, who were not used to seeing women much, and even then in anything less than an abaaya. Fortunately I had something like a stole to wrap around me, and that was my only saving grace back then. And this weekend, I was dressed completely in black, in the direct heat, and walking, till my legs felt like they were burning.(See the photo for proof and my accessorising efforts. It was HOT.) I have to learn to anticipate, more than what I expect now. And damn the photo-ops.

We got our tickets, and entered the park, walked around a bit to find the air conditioning, just that every step we took, told us there was not going to be any. We walked around just one section, which had the lions, pumas and some such animals, most of which were hidden in their dens, getting respite from the heat. So we saw a very few animals to be honest. Fortunately the BB's stroller was with us, and we put him in, much against his wishes with the canopy unfolded. He turned completely red inspite of that. The zoo had these water mist forming devices, which were let on occasionally to cool the area, and every visitor just stood in them enjoying the cool mist. We just rushed through a very tiny segment of the place, and ran out into the cool of the car. And I am so going back there for a nice trip once the temperatures dip.

Some proof that we visited the zoo.

As we were on our way out, and I felt like I was being burnt into a crisp toast, especially due to clothes, I saw women in black abaayas. And I knew immediately that I needed to stop the self pity. These were women in two layers of clothing, and the top layer fully black, and synthetic. It was like a form of medieval torture in that wretched heat. Atleast my clothes were a more humane cotton. Why and how can people be so obviously oblivious, to cruelty I wonder. Are the women really used to it? Would they really mind not feeling quite that hot? Sometimes God really does put things into perspective, and I thank my lucky stars for being where I am, and not anywhere else. And my heartfelt sympathies for the ladies in black.

This was one of the amazing rock formations. Looks like a lion's head to me.

Once out of the place, it felt like a really bad thing to have driven so far for nothing. Fortunately though, there is a mountain the vicinity called Jebel Hafeet. A little over a kilometre to the summit, with a nice winding road, it seemed like the best we could do to make the trip worthwhile. I am not really a mountain person, but what really took my breath away, were these amazing rock formations, that are visible. To say the least, they are unusual and gorgeous. At the top the temperature was a good seven degrees less than the foothills. The view, was better from one of the viewing galleries on the way, because at the top, the bottom was a bit hazy due to the suspended sand. But the cooler temperature, was worth the climb.

Being a weekend, there was a lot of crowd here. Friday, the 14th of August is also the Pakistani Independence Day, and Man! were they celebrating. There we cars full of people holding out the Pakistani flag from the windows, with the flag draped on the roof or even the bonnet, loud patriotic songs playing. The Pathans would get off the vehicles, turn on the songs louder and dance to it. It was amazing watching it all happen, and I think this was the only time I could have observed Pakistani patriotism. And I guess its right when they say, distance makes the heart grow fonder. It was rowdy, but it was their way of celebrating, what is close to their heart.

And from there, we came back home. And relaxed for the rest of the day. Saturday was just about getting the grocery shopping done, and a drive along the beach in the evening. And that is what this weekend was like.

Theatrical Debut

This weekend witnessed the SG's first visit to a theatre. Ever since his conception, I have been off the theatre, because it never felt right to take a baby into the theatre, which may not only upset him, but spoil the experience for all the other viewers. Leaving him with someone was not an option for me, because I would have ended up simply fretting about him. So it was Cd's, that I stuck religiously. But this time it was Harry Potter, and having missed catching Order Of The Phoenix, in the theatres, the SG being teeny tiny back then, no way, was I giving this up. Since the SG is grown up a bit now, I thought father and son can enjoy time alone, if required, but I am not giving this movie a miss.

Harry Potter movies obviously are not an optional thing for fans. My relationship with the movies goes back to when I was in college. The first movie was (The Philosopher's Stone) was viewed, just because it was running in the theatre. I did not know who or what Harry Potter was at that point, but I loved the movie, I guess it had a lot to do with the fact that I had not read the book, had I read it, I might have not quite liked the movie. Never did I have imagined back then, that one day I would be watching a movie in the same series with my two and half year old son.

So the tickets were booked online, and off I went for the six in the evening show. A big bucket of popcorn in tow, to keep the SG happy. A small multiplex screen, was not even packed, being a weekend evening. Maybe the movie really has received all the bad reviews it so rightly deserves. The SG was happy, with the popcorn, and was not at all disturbed by the darkened theatre. The issue then? He kept blabbering, and occasionally a screamed to express his excitement, especially when the screen showed special effects. His parents being the overly conscious people they are, kept asking him to keep quiet, which he did for a little while before going back to being all happy and excited. Finally with the last half hour of the movie to go, the BG left the theatre with the SG. Just did not feel right to kill the viewing pleasure of the other viewers. And that was how the SG debuted at his first theatre visit.

If you are expecting a review of the movie, there is none, because it is quite impossible to say anything even remotely nice about the movie if you have read the book, lets just say, they butchered the story, and worse than any of the previous attempts. And trust me I did not realise just how badly, till on the way back, the BG asked me several questions about the storyline, having not read the book, he just could not understand what was going on. It is that bad, for someone who has not read the book, there are way too many gaps in the storyline, and for the ones who have, you will be shocked at how much they have deviated from the original. I just prayed they would keep the last sequence true to the story, but they did not.

I had dressed up, because I was really excited to go to a theatre after ages. And well for nothing else, but the fact that it was the SG's first time, I am happy. The movie was followed by a trip to a bookshop, and after a really long time, I picked up some books to read, the last one I had bought was Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. Have not bought a book since then. All my books are languishing, in a humid dump at a relative's place in India, don't know if I will regain them in good health. Libraries are not much of an option here, so I finally went and bought myself a few books. Reading is something I can barely make time for, and now it basically means I sleep later than ever, but I am happy, to be reading. Once upon a time, no matter how tiered, I could not shut my eye without reading a bit. In school I would have atleast four books of fiction on my bedside at all times. In college we would circulate books in the hostel, there was never a dearth of reading material. Later while working, my reading time used to be the four hours of travel time, I managed to read in the packed locals. Never realised how and when I gave up the habit. Too much time on the net I guess. Hopefully will be back to reading books, more than blogs.

So much to do, so little time, how do I prioritise. Lucky people with maids, I am so sick of the rinse and repeat cycle of housework. Dishes, laundry, home-cleaning, cooking. The endless cycle of it, why can't we be without food, I wonder sometimes. The dishes pile up each day, just as does the laundry. If only there was some variety to this work. Guess not, will have to make do with what I have, improve my efficiency, rather than dawdling time.

In The Eye Of The Storm

This weekend was scheduled to be fun, because it was a long three day weekend, and after a really long time, it meant a Sunday holiday. After an entire week of anticipating, and a little bit of planning, I could only plan a day trip for one day to a zoo, which eventually did not even happen. The problem is this is a desert, outings of the outdoorsy kinds don't quite work out in the heat. The SG turns up with allergic reactions on his eyelids, and me with my allergic congestion. Strange especially, since I have never faced any allergy issues ever before, but here it just keeps cropping up. Fortunately even the zoo is air conditioned, so it would have been a nice way to spend the day, since all three of us absolutely love animals. In this place you either visit malls, or nowhere, especially during the summers. And there is just about as much of mall visiting that we can do. The plan for the zoo trip was for Saturday, and that was the only day we had a plan for.

So Friday morning, I woke up and started to search the net to find any possible places to visit, and found some archaeological sites at the bottom of a travel guide site.The problem was, none of these places could be found on the GPS, except for Al Madam, which was a small town of sorts, very close to the Oman border. So that is where we headed to. Long well built highways, with large stretches of the vast desert on both sides, is the way leading to Al Madam. Something like wilderness, but of the desert kinds. Along the way, we saw a group of camels walking in the desert and parked for some nice photo-ops. They were not very close to the boundary wires, but I was excited none the less at seeing these animals. Unlike what I had expected, we don't really get to see too many camels around the place. A couple of camels actually lied down and lolled around in the sand. Something new seen.


We continued on our path and reached Al Madam. I was surprised to see expats in that place, because it was just such a small little place, could hardly even call it a town. It was tiny, really tiny. We drove around for a bit, the BG absolutely not wanting to take the SG out in the heat. There was no sign of any archaeological site, and we were just a few miles away from the border or Oman. And then the lightening began. A storm had been predicted for Sunday, so we expected Friday to be quite safe, but here, we were seeing the skies darkening, with heavy lightening and thunders. There was a lightening bolt striking about ever five seconds. The BG's protective instincts kicked in, and he decided it was time to rush back towards home, towards civilisation about a hundred kilometres away, and an about turn is what we did. I clicked like crazy to get atleast one lightening in my photo stock, but got nothing.

A little bit down the way, the skies looked clearer, the wind was not howling, and things seemed fine. A signboard, suggested we go right to get to one of the places on our list. And we thought we will give it a try. On hindsight, it was a bad bad idea. A little way down the turn, I saw a camel farm,(photo on the left) and thought it would be nice to go close. To do justice to my blog name, I persuaded the BG to turn the car into the sand towards the farm, which was at about a couple of minutes of walking distance from the paved road. This place was like a small settlement with about five or six houses. As soon as the car turned, we were stuck. the sand was soft and the front wheels went right in. An attempt to get it out would mean loads of sand flying everywhere, and the car going deeper inside. There were no people around either. I was dressed most inappropriately for such a situation, in a sleeveless ganjee kind of top, and believe me in small place, where women are covered from head to toe, it was terribly discomfiting. Trust me to get a sticky spot stickier for myself. Fortunately for us, while the BG was running around trying to get help, a car stopped by and the man, offered his help. He had a rope, he tied it to our car and tried to pull it out, the rope broke. After a while, he left. Then another man, I am guessing and Afghan, came with his truck, and he was determined. Just as the BG and he tried to tie the rope, the storm hit us. The sand was blowing everywhere, and the visibility almost killed. I panicked. This was not the best situation to be in with a child. And I had only myself to blame.Opening the car door for just a second, was filling it up with sand. But the man was determined, and kept working at it, and we gave it another try, but once again the rope broke. I got off and clicked photos, and the BG was irritated, I understood, but I wanted to have photos to look back at this experience. I could just click one or two, before the BG would lose it, and that is all I have. A couple of fruitless tries later, a couple of more men wandered into the scene. Mind you, the storm was in place by then. Finally, with two men pushing the car, one car pulling it from behind from really close, we got out. Aah! Thank God, atleast a part of our worries were over. I really wanted to walk down to the farm and atleast get a few photos, but did not, because the storm was getting worse, and the BG did not think it would be a good idea to waste more time, when we were so far away from home, in wilderness. The SG was remarkable, in that he did not get upset or anything, but just sat quietly through the entire thing in his car seat, while his father and I kept flitting in and out of the car.

This was followed by travelling through about 50 kilometres in very low visibility, at a very low speed. I could not get photos of the worst times, because at those moments I was sitting on the edge of my seat. From the look of it, I felt I had been transported to the winters in Delhi, with thick fog engulfing us. As we closed in on habitation, the visibility improved, since there were buildings and other man made structures to act as barriers. Closer home, it seemed impossible that we had been through the storm we had. Strangely enough, we got home by around six, and by eight, the sand storm had completely abated, and visibility completely restored. So guess the storm was meant for us. However, the was the BG and I are lusting for rains, maybe it just happened, so that we could get a small taste of the rains. And I would never have seen the real force of a sand storm in the open desert if we had not been there. There was a possibility of the storm recurring, and hence we dropped the plan the next day to hit the zoo, because it was in another emirate altogether. And as expected, there was no storm post the one we braved.

The photos below are a comparison in the visibility before and during the storm.