Fancy Duds

Posted by Kanga.

Photo by Shruti Jagdeesh

Here we are in our Indian attire at the wedding of Mali and Zarina. DaddyBird is wearing a sherwani and I am wearing a salwar kameez.

It was our first Muslim Indian wedding. It was held in a hotel ballroom. Men and women were separated by a partition. The event was scheduled to begin at 8 pm, but most people arrived around 9:30 pm. The bride joined the ladies and sat on a couch where she was greeted and congratulated by the guests. Many pictures were taken. Dinner was served about an hour later. Around 11 pm it was announced that the partition would be taken down so that men and women could come together. The announcement is made to allow the women who cover their hair time to wrap up. This actually happened about 45 minutes later. The groom joined the bride and the speech making by friends and family began. We left at 12:30 am because we had an hour drive ahead and I had to go to work the next morning. Word is that the party continued until 3 am. Sometime after we left there was a Star Wars Death Star wedding cake.

We wish Mali and Zarina all the best. They are wonderful people.

(Our thanks to Shruti for taking our picture!)

Belated Thanksgiving

Posted by Kanga.

Saturday we finally had our postponed Thanksgiving meal. We shared the traditional meal with our Indian, Pakistani, British and African friends.
There was turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, candied yams, green bean casserole, cornbread dressing, California olives, and dill pickles. Two pumpkin pies and a pecan pie topped it off.

Daddybird orchestrated the cooking. Volunteers were put to work dicing veggies or mashing potatoes.

It was a pleasant evening with good friends and great food.

Al Basha Restaurant

Posted by Kanga.

Well, once again, we have a new favorite restaurant. Al Basha Restaurant in the Fujairah Trade Centre Building.

We met with friends who live here in Fujairah for a belated birthday dinner, since they were not able to attend the one in Dubai. The food was lovely. Lamb chops, mixed grill (chicken tikka, kabab, arayes, etc.) green salad, and arugula salad.

We ordered a LOT of food, but between the five of us, we managed to eat most of it. I did save a little of the mixed grill for lunch the next day.

Once it was cleared away, we broke out our Guillotine card game and played two games. It was a blast.

A pleasant evening eating good food outdoors with good friends.

The Bad Thing About Living Abroad

Posted by Kanga.

The bad thing about living abroad is the transient nature of the expatriate community. One makes friends and then some of them move away, either going back to their home country or to another country. We’ll miss them when we gather with friends at our favorite restaurants. They will miss out on board game tweet ups. We’ll be watching for their cat and baby photos on Facebook. Consolation comes from the fact that we still have friends who have been in country so long that we can count on them staying.

The good thing about this is that we now have friends in multiple countries that we can visit during our vacations.  I wish we had more vacation time.

Barbecue

Posted by Kanga.

We recently attended a staff barbecue. Barbecue, Arab style. We’ve eaten this food many times in restaurants, but this was the first time for getting in on some of the preparation ourselves. The meats were already cut, marinated and mixed with appropriate ingredients. All we had to do was put them on the skewers or form it into patties.

There were lamb chops, kofta, chicken tikka, and lamb tikka. The food was delicious and the company was friendly. A good time was had by all.

Good Friends and Good Food

Posted by Kanga.

Last week, our beautiful friends Devina and Shruti came to Fujairah. We met up at Delhi Darbar Restaurant for breakfast.

The challenge for me at any Indian restaurant is finding something that has no, and I mean NO, chili peppers. DaddyBird prefers food the spicier the better. The bowl at the lower right is vegetable korma and was supposed to be mild, but it was a no go for me. I managed with paratha (bread), green salad, and an omelette. I could see and avoid the peppers in the omelette. Despite my chili aversion, the food was lovely and ridiculously cheap. Four people ate their fill for 53 AED ($14.50).

People can surprise you

Posted by Kanga.

Just moments after my last, rather frivolous, post, three terrorist bombs went off in Mumbai, India. Twitter lit up. First with announcements, then with well wishes, then with requests for assistance in contacting family and offers of shelter in neighboring areas. People were even openly posting their phone numbers saying “if you need shelter, call me.”

Thankfully, there are more good people in this world than there are creeps with explosives.

Ten Years Sneaks By

Posted by Kanga.

We have been married for 10 years, as of May 3rd. However, the day went by quietly without either of us realizing it was THE DAY. Oops!

We were out to dinner that night. We just didn’t realize we should be celebrating. We had dinner at an old favorite restaurant, Special Ostadi, with ten other people. For me, there were as many new acquaintances as old friends.

DaddyBird says we don’t have any pictures of the food at Ostadi in the previous blog posts. Of course, he told me this when it was too late because the food had been consumed. So, you will have to be content with the tea.

R*E*S*P*E*C*T

Posted by Kanga.

There is one thing I miss about living in America – a higher percentage of genuine respect for women and lower percentage of misogynists. What brings this on? A brief, but illustrative Twitter exchange. It went like this:

“Joker”: Wives are funny. They don’t have sex with their husbands for weeks and then they want to kill the woman who does. (I don’t follow this guy. It was repeated by someone I do. I usually let this stuff go without reply, but not today.)

Me: Husbands ignore the needs of their wives & then think the lack of sex is the wife’s fault.

“Joker”: its was just a joke.. dont be so serious now

Me: But it is not a joke.

“Joker”: thousand apologies if i’v hurt ur feelings or so.. but it was purely unintentional

Me: It isn’t about my feelings. But, if you don’t get that your joke isn’t funny, you won’t get what my objection is either.

“Joker”: was just trying to be nice.. but i see there’s no point.. and yes I dont get it.. moreover dont wanna get it.. kappish.. bye

End of transmission.

So, let me recap. He blames men’s infidelity on women’s disinterest in sex. I call him on it by pointing out there is a reason to be disinterested in sex. He doesn’t like being called on it and tells me it is just a joke. But it is not. THEN he “apologizes” by blaming my tender feelings which he did not mean to hurt. (I wish I could record my tone of voice when I type that.) [At this point I took a look at this guy's profile which states that he "thinks like a woman." Wow, you gotta be kidding me.] So, yeah, I insulted his intelligence with my next remark by which he gets his feelings hurt and departs in a huff.

Now, what really spurred me to respond in the first place. Stupidity. I really have no tolerance for stupidity.

Twitter exclamations are ephemeral. 140 characters – people may or may not glance at it – people may or may not respond to it – life goes on. Unfortunately, this often results in people saying things that are, or ought to be, socially unacceptable and getting away with it. They may get a reputation for what they say and it might even be considered positive. This sort of thing happens to some extent on American radio and television, but there are laws to keep it from going too far and when it does dipping ratings or outright complaints spur consequences. There is very little law to provide boundaries on the Internet. (I’m talking social, not political. That’s a whole different ball of wax which can result in jail or worse.)

Free speech is a double edged sword. I believe in free speech and I believe in social boundaries. It is a balance.

But, here’s the problem. If stupid things are said repeatedly without reprisal, they become embedded into society. That is how things like female genital mutilation, honor killings, sexual harassment in the workplace, etc.,  came to be and continue today. Words are not really ephemeral and they do have consequences.

ADDENDUM: My proofreading husband warns me that people will read this and assume that our marriage is in trouble. Therefore, I am stating explicitly that none of the above is about our marriage. We are approaching our tenth anniversary and are doing just fine. We happen to enjoy each others company and occasionally finish each other’s sentences.

Twestival

Posted by Kanga.

First, what is Twestival? This is an annual event where Twitter users all over the world get together and raise money for charity. The 2009 Twestival in Dubai was one of the first Twitter related social events we attended. This year, DaddyBird attended “stag,” so to speak. You will see him and hear him in the video below, along with several of our friends. (The video was artfully shot and edited by our friend, Faisal.)

This year the proceeds from the Dubai Twestival went to the Dubai Autism Center. Twitter Festival raises over Dh100,000 for charity.

Recent news article about the Dubai Autism Center.