EVERY DAY, I LEARN MORE....

I don't know if I am a country bumpkin but this place still amazes me at every corner. We went to the Oasis Mall last week and just browsed around and I stumbled onto this shop ."Gourmet Station" Now I am a sucker for all deli and food related subjects. Recipe books are like story books for me. BUT this place blew me away. Stocks are from all over the world. Just ask and they have it.....

The salt section was amazing. There was Bali beach salt !!!! We bali Btches never saw that in bali on the tables did we????????????

The salt that actually caught my eye was pink in colour. It is called "Diamond crystals sea salt". It is packed in a tiny holder with it's own grater added. About the size of a whole nutmeg. This salt is mined at Kwela Mines in the Himalayas. Apparently the mine is 260 Million years old. I did not venture to the price................. Who thinks to mine this and eat it????
I moved to the flour section and there you can get flour from a specific mill in the world..... Thanks heavens the recipes I use only say flour or self raising.....................

The list of what is available just goes on and on and on.......There is a coffee and tea section with a tea connoiseur at hand to blend your tea for you from specific plantations.......The coffee was just as bewildering.... The sugars that you can serve with tea and coffee............WOW.........I am still on sugar crystal sticks, but here are sugar towers in colours and flavours.... Life has a very funny sense of humour............I can deal with this stuff and serve and buy it and enjoy it BUT I cannot afford it..........The story of my life.............The good thing is that I then go and try to find whatever is in my price bracket and make it work for me. It keeps this very ADD mind of mine occupied..... I have to tell you to get permission to take these to photo's was not easy...I had to get permission from the store manager and the head of PR and had to e-mail the pic's to them for "clearance"

HH. SHEIKH ZAYED BIN SULTAN AL NAHYAN

HH.SHEIKH ZAYED BIN SULTAN AL NAYAN was the ruler of Abu Dhabi since 1966. Living in the bedouin style. On 2 December 1971 the federation of the 7 Emirates was formed and he was the first president of the UAE. he was a very forward thinking man and the 7 Emirates were formed to keep peace in the region and to see that the Emirates grow and flourish.
Now this makes the Emirates 38 years old. To see what they have accomplished here is mind blowing in itself. Oil helped for the wealth of the region but also caused wars for possesion...From bedouins living in the desert to this first world city liKe Abu Dhabi and Dubai......WOW.......
It is known that he was very religious and forward thinkng and had great vision. He is known as the father of the UAE.
Let me explain the names.:ZAYED(his name)BIN (son of)SULTAN(his father)AL NAYAN (family name or clan) This keeps you known to all as who you are, who was your father and who do you belong to. HH.SHEIKH ZAYED BIN SULTAN AL NAYAN had 19 sons. It was important to have SO May sons as the region was harsh and life here was harsh and to ensure that your blood line continues. Amount of daughters are not really known. I think he had 4 wives. Now the wives are also interesting in the sense as you may only take more than one wife IF you can afford it and every wife must be treated exactly the same. He started every thing in the UAE that is only 38 years old.....AMAZING to see and to now this makes it even more interesting. He did many more international things...Stil working on the full info.....
The only thing I knew about him was that the shopping festival was cancelled when he died (PBUH)in 2004. How ignorant we are of others..............................
One of his son's is now the ruler of the UAE. HH KHALIFA BIN ZAYED AL NAYAN.

HH SHEIKH MOHAMMED BIN RASHID AL MARKTOUM is the Vice president of the UAE, Prime Minister and ruler of Dubai. One of his sons HH.SHEIKH HAMDAN BIN MOHAMMED BIN RASHID AL MARKTOUM was named to succeed him in future.

Do you still remember the 7 Emirates?
ABU DHABI. DUBAI. SHARJAH. AJMAN. RAS AL-KHAIMA. FUJAIRA . UMM AL-QUWAIN.
The UAE is not a country but an Independant Federation of these 7 emirates. It is estimated to have 4.7 million inhabitants. 3 million are non nationals.(63%)
Ok that was the information lesson for the day.

Hannes and I did a trip to AL AIN for 2 days. It is in the Abu Dhabi emirate. About 140km from Dubai.
This is a photo of Al AIN in the distance. We went to Jebel Hafeet ( the mountain from where the photo was taken.) You can see lots of green too. That is called Mubazzarah....Now I stand in awe at the amount of green you see here in the middle of the desert. It is watered well and even in blistering heat is green............The temperature that day was 44C......and it is not really summer yet.....


? PALACE AT TOP OF JEBEL HAFEET

This is but a portion of the building at the top of the nountain. I presume it is a summer palace for one of the royal family as it is cooler in Al Ain than in ABU Dhabi......It was clearly marked private so I had to stay the distance.

In Al AIN was where HH SHEIKH ZAYED BIN SULTAN AL NAYAN lived after the desert. It is a typical UAE city. Dusty and very hot. Big buildings and very busy streets. The palace of the ruler of Al Ain is MASSIVE.......There are lots of forts all over the UAE. And in the middle of Al Ain is this oasis.
OASIS IN AL AIN.

We tend to think an oasis is a water in the deset with palm trees around it.....BUT it actually is this that the photo shows. It is a lot of land owners who cultivate dates. Each ones plot is surrounded by a wall and has water canals running through. This oasis is 3000 hectare in the middle of the city of Al Ain. The dates are still "farmed" We preferred to drive through the oasis and not walk it...... Another thing here is everything is allowed with respect..... You can drive in look and wander. Nobody will pester you or chase you away. I still have not found my "date" teeth. i do not like them much BUT if you go into shops you are very often offered arabic coffee and dates. It is custom to accept. I accepts and rinse down the dates with the coffee. the coffee is strong, black ,small ,sweet and with cardimom. An aquired taste.

OLD SOUK AL AIN

A souk is the market like shopping area. This is the old souk in Al Ain. Every shop is seperate and has aircon. You can find anything in the souk. You just have to look for it. Language can be a barrier. And always be properly dressed in the outlaying areas. Which only means no shorts and string tops. Cover legs and shoulders. head does not have to be covered. Will still get to the woman and their way of dressing in a later blog.Dubai and Abu Dhabi are a little more enlightened .

HANNES AND I READY FOR SUPPER AT THE SOUK

We had done a lot of walking around and were getting peckish. So we ventured into the souk for a bite to eat. We checked out the cleanest and safest "cafe". This one was clean and had tables outside. We hardly reconised anything on offer except the arabian bread.....and Fanta.... The English Language was non exsistant. The Eqyptian behind the counter was very friendly and gave us a little something to sample. We then realised it is Falafel...It is made with chick peas and ?????? and then made like a fritter and deep fried.... We settled for Falafel as the taste was devine.

DINNER

This was what we received after showing hin we want for two people. Falafel (back left) Eggplant curried and fried (Top middel) bread (top right) Humus and beans and ???sauce (bottom left) and a fresh salad (bottom right) It was very very good and totally vegetarian...... We also had 2 fanta's each. The locals passing by were very pleased to see the two of us having dinner at the local joint..... The biggest surprise came when we had to settle the bill....... This whole meal and 4 tins of colddrink came to 15 dirhams..... We pay 10 dirhams for 1 colddrink in restaurants in the marina................
It was a very good meal and we felt stuffed and ready for bed, but before we left the Muezzin began to sing for the last evening prayers. I wantched all the men close their shops and head to the Mosque. Some of the shops were "closed" by only draping a small cloth over all the goods....no locks, no doors and no security guards....

AFTER PRAYERS.....................

This was at the door of the Mosque. After prayers the men file out and collect their shoes. This is also on a side walk in a very busy street........Did not see anyone leave without shoes on their feet. AMAZING....... We took the road back to our hotel and had a wonderful "light show" as we were high on a mountain.

VIEW FROM OUR BEDROOM WINDOW

We had had a dip in the pool the previous afternoon as we were very hot after the drive. We also went for massages which was lovely....AND affordable.....
Dubai is a very expensive city to live in.....

After breakfast we went to the Al Ain Zoo

Entrance to the Zoo i Al Ain. Please just look how clean it is. The entrance fee was very cheap and we just had to go to the Zoo. It was fantastic as all the animals are housed in very nice enclosure and have cooling sprays around them all the time. We are talking serious heat here hey....45C in the bleddie shade.....

The flamingo were happy in their enclosure and after this my camera did not like the heat so no more animal shots....Also keep in mind we are in the middle of the desert...Green trees...

Still in the Zoo this is the area were you can have picnics and kids can play. Very clean very green.

AL AIN PALACE MUSEUM AT NIGHT.....

Beatifully lit up at night.

This was the orinal palace of HH.SHEIK ZAYED BIN SUTAN AL NAYAR and his family. It was also where he spoke to his people with problems or receivd other statemen on official visits.
We went the next day to look around.

Entrance to the palace. It is well kept and has a lot of artifacts that were really used. Even his Jeep with which he visited the desert is in the yard. The layout is done to their custom and near the Majilis (meeting place) is always a coffee room. There is a small school where the royal children would have been schooled to read and write and study he Koran.

I said that this is a learning curve and not all is in history... Here is a "parkinson disease bobbing" Now this is my name to explain this action to you. The Indian community here have a very strange way to nod "yes" They bob their heads in short motion from front to back and left to right in this "parkinsons bobbing" It confuses the hell out of me. What is it man yes no or I do not know......The head goes up and down (looks lke yes) then the side rolling (looks like no or I dunno. I giggle every time I see it.

The Dubai mall opening night was chaotic. hannes and I were all dolled up to go and see as it was a huge festival like opening of this mega mall next to the the Burj (Very tall tower) The Sheik would be there too. We sat in traffic for about an hour trying to get into the parking lot and then gave it up as a bad job no sorry decision. All 4.3 million people in the UAE had the same idea as us to attend........ We went home and had toast with cheese and tomato....... Dubai sure as hell is not bankrupt...........

I have started to read books (all about the region and its people and traditions and stuff) now before you fall off your chair laughing AND SPLUTTERING.... This was out of need. In SA I used to buy every magazine I could lay my hands on as I like the quick and easy reads....never been a book person...BUT magazines here are very very expensive... So I had to start reading books. Now I do not need the books in the lounge......We al know where the biggest file of magazines always are.... Need I say more..... Hope you all are impressed.

Lets get to me personally. As I said before my life has done a 360...... I cook and bake and clean and shop...... I am slowly getting into a routine as not to be doing chores every day and to take some me time as well......The spa number is still going strong as the ironing is still in the basket every week...... I love the new stuff every day and to explore the area. So in a nutshell it is good, except for the fact that I miss my boys badly.... Not long to go until we visit them in June. Then they go through ups and downs i get so frustrated as I have to handle all by phone with the eye on the clock due to costs... I have now also been introduced to VOIP. (Voice over internet protocol) It is much cheaper than phone costs.....

Hannes is getting busier at the hospital but he is still not at full capacity with pasients. The hospital is getting very busy and much sooner than expected.

GHALAS (arabic for finished or enough)

L