finally, i step into the sun

when someone asks you, "so what are you doing in Dubai?", the ideal answer is not "oh, you know, i watch Ellen Degeneres the entire day cos i have lost track of time and day." oh, and Martha Stewart - i swear she's botoxed, she's practically expressionless, and i just thought she was boring! except for her succulent plants centrepiece arrangements episode which was absolutely riveting.

and i confess, i am a wuss. for some reason, i'm fatigued all the time. it's like 3 weeks of non-sleep finally washing over me at the weirdest times, like when i am folding underwear neatly into small squares or chopping onions - and then i just pass out on the very luxurious sofa (which, unfortunately is also rather ugly - you can't have everything, right). like today, but that's different because i was traumatised by a bunch of Russian chicks manhandling my feet in a bright room filled with turquoise and red chairs. i needed a comfort nap despite the wonderful result that is ... a French pedicure.

i almost never nap unless i'm crouched in pain on the floor from food poisoning or drowsy with anti-histamines.

oh, and over here, they call olive oil ... Spanish oil. well, some companies do. imagine Popeye's girlfriend being called Spanny - might be taking his love for spinach a little too far. and for some reason, there are shelves and shelves of sunflower cooking oil and a very small section for canola oil, and an even smaller section for, well, Spanny Oil. a sunflower growing country is profiting from this country's mad love for sunflower oil.

and here, i will leave you with a couple of snappets, ya know, a play on snippets and snaps and ... nevermind.

i was taken by this crummy yellow building, perhaps reminded of how i myself will be battered and forgotten one day. well, maybe not battered, but almost forgotten.

a souk, or market, or shopping area. something like that. when you read souk, just read shopping.

half of Dubai catapults you into a time warp, into different periods of times forgotten, like the 70s or the 80s, and this building seen from our cab is hard to love, but i love it. i'd get closer if not for the fact i'm dead afraid of perspiring.

and for 25 cents, you get a ride on one of these dhows across the water to the other side.


sorry for the extensive collection of photographs. for some reason, blogspot has given me lots of problems uploading pictures.

this close to getting my own domain - except the idea of doing everything on my own is just so ... unexciting compared to falling asleep while folding underwear into neat little squares.