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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
In addition to the 20 something year olds we hang out with saying that they wish their parents were like us, our friend Nas just tweeted:
So, dear parents, you may have wondered if we would ever amount to anything, but apparently we are setting some kind of standard.
(For the non-computer geeks among you – FTW means “for the win” an exclamation that means its a good thing.)
Posted by Kanga
Happy birthday to me! We went to one of my favorite places, Bu Qtair Cafeteria.
With some of my favorite people.
And ate some of my favorite food.
Posted by Kanga
http://jazeeramagazine.com/2010/02/01/twitter-arabia/
I’ve been quoted in the article at the link above talking about Twitter. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. We are having an atypical experience because we are able to socially connect with wonderful people that we would not have crossed paths with otherwise. We know more Emiratis than Americans (in Dubai). We know WAY more Indians, Pakistanis and Syrians, than Americans. And, we mustn’t overlook our dear Maltese. (If I’ve left out your nationality, please don’t take it personally. We love you all.)
A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to go to a party at a villa on the Jumeirah Palm Island. Our friends Lara and Terry are on a one year adventure they are calling GranTourismo. They’ve combined their career as travel writers with HomeAway Holiday Rentals and are traveling around the world this year spending two weeks in each destination. Their first stop was in Dubai on the Palm, then to London, then to Marrakesh, then ???? If you like good pictures, good food, and good travel advice, you should follow their blog.
First let me say, our twitter friend Grace did a better job of documenting this party on her blog (than I am about to do). So, I recommend that you click here and read what she said and check out her pictures. Also, there is an entry by Terry detailing the food served and you can click here to read that. Extra points for those of you find us in the pictures on both the blogs.
Here are my pictures:
This is the villa on Frond E. It is a five bedroom home with a lovely kitchen, dining room, living room and den. (Five and a half bathrooms, by the way.)
This is the view toward the stem of the Palm.
This is the view toward the end of the fronds. It was atypically stormy. It didn’t actually rain, but was cool, cloudy and breezy.
There was a nearby cell phone tower disguised as a palm tree. Notice the fake dates hanging in the fake tree.
It was a beautiful evening with (in our opinion) perfect weather, good friends, and good food. We may never have another reason to go out onto the Palm, but at least we can say we’ve been there.
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