Pool Side

Pool Side at the Hiltonia

Today was a busy day for Andrew and I, first thing this morning, a friend in need called to ask for a sympathetic ear. Andrew and I dashed to his side and hopefully made a difference. After we returned from our friendly duties we decided to go to the pool and enjoy the relaxation and get some exercise. Andrew almost drowned me but I am fine. We were at the Hiltonia for a few hours today. The Hiltonia is an extention of the Hilton Hotel but is located across the street from the Hiton. It is a Beach Resort and Health Spa and very lavish I might add. The waiting list for the membership is somewhere in the ballpark of 12 months. I decided to take a bunch of pictures to share with you fine followers of my blog. Some of the pictures are of the infamous Corniche which is a wonderful place to walk, jog, ride a bike, rollerblade, or just people watch. You can also enjoy food and drink from a nice size food court area if you will. The Corniche runs for several miles along the beach. It is a very safe and clean place. It is really best at night with all the lights and the breeze coming off of the water. There are several underground tunnels (highly recommended) which you can take to avoid trying to cross the busy Corniche.

About the pictures, I need to explain about the duck, I think the black and white duck with the red on its head is retarded, no seriously I do. It’s either retarded or a genius and you know there is a fine line there. Every time I wanted a picture of the duck he would walk up to me and at the moment I clicked the button it shook its head vigorously. For some reason, the duck was losing one feather from each wing and looks a little disheveled. Anyway I hope you enjoy the picks. I apologize for the quality as all I had with me was my cell phone.

Pool Side Pictures Continued.

Weekend fun

I'm not sure why this whole blog is underlined. I couldn't fix it.

This weekend was fun. The family got up Friday and we went to Rotana Beach Hotel for a Gourmet Banquet. There were foods from several different regions. We enjoyed laughing at each other and especially at Andrew and how into the Telli tubby he was, we even got a picture. They also had a great live band playing.

The Emirates Palace Hotel is amazing. I was invited to see the world premier movie called “Zara”. Let me just say that you don’t have to be a scholar to know the movie isn’t going to do so well. The movie is deep deep deep. The film maker was a victim of the Turkish holocaust and has some pretty dark issues going on. Apparently, this movie was 5 years in the making. I can only imagine it took 5 years to make due to the extreme personal conflicts and bruises from her experiences. For this film maker, this may have been some sort of therapy. She explained how close to her heart the movie is. She lost her whole family. When the movie ended and the lights came on and they were having a question and answer session, I knew this was going to have jabbed the Arabs a few times. Controversial was my first thought after the film maker did the introduction and controversial was right. She was being verbally attacked but handled it well. The only thing I could think of at that point is how I walked in there a bright happy person and now how depressed I am. I wanted to go home and put on a Jim Carey flick quick quick. I settled for order-in Lebanese Flower and a glass of wine.

I couldn’t fit all the pictures together in one blog so it will have to take two.
I love pictures.

Nick being silly I love it
Andrew responding to dads silliness
Telli tubby.............................

Some pictures of the Palace Hotel from the lobby and inside the theater

The dome is gorgeous

When friends leave...

Before many of the Lockheed Martin ALC men arrived in UAE, they went through orientation in North Carolina. One week after my husband’s group arrived, another group arrived. My husband met and hung out with a chosen few from the group. Two months after my husband, I arrived. I met some of his workmates and a couple friends he had made i.e., JJ and Austin.

JJ was a character to say the least. I liked JJ because he was appropriately funny and seemed quite intelligent. JJ was very quiet at times which was fine by me. We would have breakfast at the “Mugg and Bean” at the Abu Dhabi mall on the weekend for a few weeks. As a nurturing woman, I occasionally did the “home cooked meal” thing for the guys and JJ always left right after he ate hahahaha. I think he was just trying to get out of doing the dishes. I decided to start inviting them earlier so we could socialize before we ate and JJ ran home, that worked great.

JJ left the UAE yesterday. Just goes to prove money isn’t everything. JJ is going to visit family and friends and then he will begin film school in Los Angeles, California. We miss him already. It is hard to make friends (real friends) and have to deal with the loss when the time comes for them to journey elsewhere. I do hope we stay in touch and see each other again one day. I understand the need to move on and move around. I have been a part of the military for 20 years not just active duty but as a dependent of an active duty member. We have met a lot of very nice people and had to leave each other. Leaving friends and family never gets easy, you just get used to it.

Healthy Recipe

Nancy you requested recipes. Here is a favorite of mine.
Of course everyone is welcome to this dish it is healthy for you. This recipe comes from a new friend I have here in the UAE. Apparently this dish is served at the palace quite often. It is a filler and if the first serving doesn't fill you up, go ahead have another.

Simple Simple Simple
I can't remember what it is called. Look for revised edition when my friend returns from Brazil.

Needs:

1 Bell Pepper (color of your choice) optional
2 cans of white tuna (drained)
8 to 9 oz mezze penne tricolor pasta
spinach(amt is your choice)I use tons of spinach
salt
pepper

Prep:

Boil pasta until it is a bit firm but done.
Dice the bell pepper real small, you may not want the whole bell pepper, depends on the size.
Chop and Cook spanich(just to heat it up)
Drain tuna and seperate
Seasoned oil(optional)

Mix:

Mix tuna, bell pepper, spinach, and pasta. Salt and pepper to taste and enjoy. This dish can be eatin hot or cold.

Don't say a word about my ugly bowl, it was here before I arrived.

All new adventure

Did I mention the driving here is a lot like Jamaica? There is a major difference between the drivers here and the drivers in Jamaica. How do I know this you ask? I lived in Jamaica for 7 months and for 4 of those months drove myself to work and back 5 days a week. The driving here is CRAZY. The driving in Jamaica is CRAZY. The difference between the two is:
1. The drivers in Jamaica are SKILLED. They know how to bad drive you with a certain kind of fanness, that is excluding taxi cab drivers. Taxi cab drivers are a damn nuisance everywhere.
2. The Jamaicans can s l i d e up along your body (car), let you feel the heat from their exhaust and have you sucking your socks up through your throat from the floor up, without touching you. All with much less lane space and you are left in awe as to how they accomplished that with such ease. Skilled I tell you.

Here in the UAE they truly don’t care whether they hit you or not. The Emirate will purchase a new car no problem. The taxi cab driver, Pakistani, or Indian will drive the mashed up car as long as it runs and this is after you BOTH may have to go to jail all because the car that hit you turned from the forth lane on the right to make a left turn.

Back up…..I left my apartment with three errands I needed to quickly run and get back home before the 4:00PM mad rush. No such so. I really only had a vague idea as to where I was going in the first place because in UAE there are no REAL addresses. Off I go and right out of the gate a bus trying to turn left from the third land to the right started into my lane and I was squeezed out of my spot. I was cussing like a sailor the rest of the quest. I was forced to abort the mission after the first errand had taken 3 hours. I turned toward home and it was like that on the roads the whole way because why? I was in the mad rush. I looked in the rear view mirror and I looked like a mad woman. Hairs out of place everywhere hahahaha. A Heinekin never tasted so goooooooood.

As always a picture or two just for you.

Okay so it was a Stella Artois.

Now where did I leave my shoes? They were right here.

Suicide....

Okay so this morning I almost (unintentionally) committed suicide. I got up at 5:45 with intentions of going for a jog early enough that the sun wouldn’t get me. Since the mornings have been so nice and cool I have started walking/jogging. I usually walk from about 6:45AM as opposed to the 8:30AM kickoff this morning. My son and I started off walking and I felt the sun on my face and thought, we won’t be out here that long. By the time we got back to the apartment building, I was dieing. I wondered why people were looking at me the way they were. My face was sunburned on top of all the blood that flooded my neck and cheeks. When I got into the apartment I laid down on the floor to rest and to stretch. I felt like I was going to check out for a little while. My skin was so incredibly hot. To say the least, I won’t be leaving the apartment at all if not before 6:45 or 7:00AM.
I know it has been awhile since my last blog. I wish I could say I was busy but not really. I have been preparing to start classes next week hurray for school yeah. Nick brought my books home yesterday and I peaked into them and yes, I am scared hahahahahahaha. I dread school only because the last time I was in school I gained weight, a lot of weight. The time before that, yes I gained a ton of weight. The weight crept up on me when I wasn’t looking. This time will be different!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have taken a few more pictures for your viewing pleasure. Some pictures were taken with my cell phone and you can tell which ones they are.

Check out this Falcon, it is an AWESOME BIRD, you need to see these up close.

Falcon is the national bird in the UAE and quite a prize.

In this next pic, you can just make out the eye covers used to keep the falcon calm.

Just look at this braze young man holding the Falcon. Did you know these birds can really tear you up :)