Bike Ride on the Corniche and other stuff

Gail and I got up with the sun today and hopped on our bikes. I finally got Gail's bike put together last night and nothing fell apart on our ride! That's a good thing.

We braved the surface streets for about 3/4 mile and used a pedestrian underpass to get over to the corniche bike path. Friday is the holy day here and traffic is very light at 6 in the morning. The bike path is narrow, but adequate. We rode the entire corniche out to Marina Mall and the Heritage Center. The picture through the trees is of the palace. It's unbelievable!

Most days I never see the water here, just apartment to work and back, so it was nice to get back down to the corniche. There were lots of walkers and joggers and a few other cyclists. There was also a group of young kids playing cricket in one of the parks at 6am! A little further down the path we got to the open beach and to my surprise there was a lot of people out swimming, lounging and playing volleyball.

I guess it makes sense. The middle of the day is incredibly hot and it's tough to do much of anything in the middle of the day.

The pic of Gail is right outside our building. We walked out into the humidity and the camera lens fogged up instantly. We weren't in the middle of a fog bank.

The pic of the two of us has a funny story. I spent way longer than it should have taken figuring out the timer on the camera. When I finally got the ten second button pushed, I scrambled across the path to get with Gail. When I got across I thought, "dang, I didn't look to see if other bikes were coming!" Well sure enough, as soon as the camera started blinking a guy came flying down the path and will forever be preserved in our blog.

Gail snapped a couple pics of me sporting my Radioshack jersey. These were down near the Dhow Yard and getting a little to close to the fish market for Gail's liking!

The water was beautiful, and we made it home safely before it reached 100 degrees...just 96!

Now some of the other stuff that I've come to realize about our new home.

1. Personal space is a lot like spandex, a privilege, not a right!

2. Stop signs are more of a suggestion to look both ways before blowing through an intersection.

3. NEVER cross the road if there are cars coming. They will never stop at a cross walk and will start honking 200 meters before they reach the cross walk.

Reasons to Honk:

Good Reason:

1. Would you like a cab ride?

All the other reasons

(this list is a work in progress, as I discover new reasons every day)

1. Move your ass (even if there are twenty cars stopped in front of you)

2. Move your ass (the light turn green .25 seconds ago)

3. I'm about to cut you off

4. You cut me off

5. I need a loaf of bread

6. Get your slow walking, pedestrian ass across the road before I have to apply my brakes.

7. Hello gorgeous! (mostly for the tall white girl)

8. You're parked in the road, why?

9. Hi

10. And my favorite! I'm about to blow through a blind intersection on a food delivery motorcycle without slowing down or looking! beep, beep

No joke, sometimes I thing that the car horns are physically wired to the brakes!

That's all for now folks. Keep following!

Mark and Gail

Dubai or not to Dubai?

FYI..pictures load at random & I am not able to put descriptions on photos.

We are off on our first mini adventure, a 3 day weekend to Dubai. We chose to take the bus, which did not work out quite like we hoped, a 3 day weekend for everyone else too! 1 1/2 hours in the outdoor bus line waiting, sweating, waiting, sweating...you get the point. 2 hour bus ride later and we are zipping right past where we will be staying...a little homework would have shown me we were a long cab ride from the bus depot. We stayed at the Sheridan Jumeirah beach resort, a lovely small property dwarfed by all the mega complexes, the staff was wonderful and very attentive. Spent some quality time at the beach and pool for some much needed R & R, where the Arabia Sea is a refreshing 95+ degrees and extremely salty! Woke up Friday to a sand storm so fine that it looks like a very dense fog, so not great visibility as the photos show. On a walkabout, found the Dubai ferry by accident & hopped on for a 2 hours ride to Al Seef-the other side of Dubai. What a great trip, through the canal, out in the Arabian Sea-very choppy-through the Palm Island and past the Atlantis Hotel, by the Burj Al Arab hotel (the sail hotel) then into the Dubai creek. We paid for 1st class seats, which allowed us cushy leather seats, cold air-conditioning & we could go out on the bow (where we rode most of the time). All and all a really great time, sure wish we could see better. Took the metro to the mall of the Emirates for a peak at the Ski Dubai slope and a bite to eat. What an amazing mall with over 520 shops, 2 hotels, 85 restaurants and coffee shops, 14-screen cinema and of course the Dubai Ski experience-35 acres of real snow, lots of people having a great time. We met a really great cab driver and took a cab back home, well worth the extra.

There is so much to see and do in Dubai, that we barley scratched the surface, so this will not be our only trip, but I will do a little more planning and stay on the other side of town.

I hope you all enjoy the random pictures, I'm here and I still love looking at them, and the building just continues.......bigger, better, taller. Til next blog

another great outing

I have been very fortunate to meet some wonderful expat women over here, all willing to take me places I probably would not have found on my own. Judith, she is from England, & has been here 8 years and is quite knowledgeable, so when she offers to show me around I go, and we have had a great time. The Women's Handicraft Centre showcases the local arts and crafts, and gives you an opportunity to see up close how these women work to preserve interest and skills in the traditional crafts of the UAE. Telli(braiding of metallic ribbon), basket making, weaving, embroidery and henna. You shed your shoes at the door and step into a whole different world...seated on pillows on the floor, most, no longer wearing their Abaya (long black robe that covers their normal clothes) but still wearing their Burkha's (leather face mask). Most of the women love the attention & will talk about their craft, but permission is needed to take photos. We did happen to go on the last day before their summer holiday, so not as much to see but well worth a return visit!

The photos are mostly of the braiding, it was truly amazing and so beautiful, some with as many as 12 spools of thread, they work so fast. The green ribbon shown is about 30feet long and has taken more than 2 weeks to make. These ribbons are sewn into their robes, around the neckline and sleeves.