The last three days have been exhausting!
What with the apartment not furnished yet, we have been trudging and trudging from shop to shop to get an idea of prices, styles and sizes! So far it has not proved particularly fruitful, and although this sounds quite frustrating - I'm actually quite enjoying myself. It all feels so creative, matching colours and patterns to make sure I create a space that I enjoy being in. It is great fun! I've not decided how exactly I want everything to be - I am the word 'indecisive' incarnate. I can't quite decide if I'd like a dark brown wood and teal living room, or to have a dark brown wood and orange dining room, or this and this and that! There is just tooo many possibilities!
To reside in the UAE one must take a series of medical tests to make sure you're fit and healthy. They're particularly interested in making sure that you do not carry the HIV/AIDS virus (but they also [sometimes] check for leprosy, hepatitus B, Tubercolosis, pregnancy and certain STD's). If one fails all or any of the tests then ones visa is denied and the person is deported. So yesterday I had one of those medical tests. I had blood stolen and an x-ray taken of my chest. I find out tomorrow if I'm being deported or not (i.e. I get the test results back).
Today we went for our first food shop. We went to a mahooooosive Tesco like store with absolutely everything in it.... and I do mean everything. Clothes, DSLRs, childrens car seats, salmon, lemon grass, mahoosive flat screen TVs, fresh curry a
nd pizza stands - I mean... everything! I felt quite emotional as I walked through the aisles. There were pieces of home EVERYWHERE. Even something as simple as 'Hovis Bread Flour' brought a tear to my eye. I just couldn't believe it. I even took a special photograph for my sister, to prove that we really do have EVERYTHING out here.
The weather has been quite warm. Well, warm is a bit of an understatement. 37C's is boiling! And the humidity! Well, what can I say? It's like having a blow drier blow hot air right in to your face! It is the most amazing and all-consuming heat I have ever felt. Ever (..and I've experienced 52C heat before)! It is 1.57am right now - and it is 28C. It is quite amazing.
Well tonight we suffered the most embarassing epic fail of our time here so far (I've not even been here for a week yet, so I imagine there will be many more fails in the future).
We decided we would be adventurous and go and try this
Brazillian restaurant with a huge obsession with meat. Apparently, you go, sit down, and are given this board with green and red on it. There is no menu. Oh no. You just turn your card to green and staff come out with these spits of all sorts of meat and offal and just come over - and cut it on to your plate. When you've eaten that and want some more, you turn your card to green again - and when you're pale after experiencing a variety of meats... you turn it red! Everything is barbecued. Anyone who knows Mr. Camel Man and I will know that we LURVE our meat and so we were super excited to be going.
The restaurant (
Chamas) is located inside the Intercontinental Hotel - we pulled up, handed our keys to the valet and had baby-Zanga in tow. We were looking happy, hungry and sure of ourselves.
We passed through the entrance of the restaurant. We were greeted by a healthy buzz and by a live Brazilian band all singing away in Portuguese. We made our merry way downstairs and we were all smiles... until the Hostess came to greet us. She smiled and told us that we really should have made a reservation and that we simply could not dine until Mr. Camel Man put some trousers on! We gasped and then errupted in to laughter. He had decided to wear below the knee shorts to dinner, oh, and flip flops. What added to our shame was that the Hostess offered Mr. Camel Man some black trousers - hahaha! Which he firmly declined and so we swallowed the embarassment of walking back up the stairs (in front of the whole dining hall), pass the funky band, and through the bar which hosted all the fashionable people. We, evidently, were not worthy of said dining establishment! We failed miserably. LOL. All in all though it was an experience we do not plan to repeat - and if we again try to visit this restaurant or any of its bretheren we will certainly make sure that Mr. Camel Man is wearing trousers!
We were hungry and so we took a trip to
Marina Mall to get some grub. Holy moly - that is one humungous mall! We decided on Fuddruckers for our dinner - which we didn't eat until past ten o'clock! And yeah, it wasn't too bad. Hopefully though, God willing, I'll be spending a good few hours in the Marina Mall or in
Al-Mushrif tomorrow. I really need to get myself some new abayahs!
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