UAE – Christmas Meal on the Dhow

UAE – Christmas Meal on the Dhow

Christmas day was on a Sunday which is the first day of the week here in Dubai which means NO WEEKEND NO DAY OFF.

Since Tim’s mother is visiting us, we decided to plan something special for her. So we booked dinner dhow cruise in Dubai Marina. The cruise was 2 ½ hours around the palm island and marina. The buffet included Indian, Italian and Arabic cuisine and the desserts were French cakes and Arabic desserts. They offered dates, Arabic coffee and black coffee as well as complementary juices. This all costed AED 300 per person which is like approx. £ 66 per person.

The view and weather were just perfect for our Christmas evening meal. We booked with Tour Dubai however there are other Dhow cruise options you can book with.

I’ve attached the below map for your reference if ever you want to visit.

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Tour Dubai:

http://tour-dubai.com/

Tel: +971 4 3368407

 

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UAE – Christmas Eve by the Desert and Beach

UAE: Christmas Eve by the Desert and Beach

Ever since we were children, Tim would celebrate Christmas with his family back in England while I celebrated it with my mum’s family in UAE. This year was a special kind of Christmas for both of us. Tim’s mum ‘Shirley’ is visiting us for the holidays and my uncle and cousin are staying in UAE to enjoy the festive season.

What more can you ask for than celebrating with the ones you love. We love everyone back home in England and Philippines but it was nice to have some of our families celebrating together. 2 months before Christmas, I made reservation at a hotel located by the Indian Ocean in another Emirate called Fujairah. We booked 4 rooms in Sandy Beach Hotel & Resort at a place call Al Aqqah which has a strip of amazing resorts.

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We took two separate cars, my brothers and uncle ‘Alpe’ accompanied my cousin ‘Mark’ and of course Shirley and I rode with Tim. We had an unfortunate moment when one of Mark’s tires broke down and found it difficult to find a tire shop open on a Friday morning. FYI, UAE’s weekends are on Fridays and Saturdays because Friday is a Holy day not HOLIDAY but HOLY DAY and the majority of the country attend the Friday prayers. Luckily they managed to find a shop that was about to close so they quickly got their tires fixed and we all continued our road trip to Fujairah.

It took us 2 hours to reach our destination however since check in was at 2PM, we decided to stop at a historical site. We visited Al Badiyah aka Al Bidyah Mosque and my brothers performed their Friday prayers in that ancient 15th century mosque. It’s the oldest mosque in UAE and was built with stone and mud. The view of the farms from the towers and area was spectacular and although you are surrounded by dry nature such as the rock mountains, the place is a must to visit. It’s located near the mountains and farms overlooking the sea.

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Anyway we continued our journey to check in at the hotel. Tim and I went kayaking around snoopy island * while the others went to nap because they needed the energy for the mini party we were going to have late night. At around 7PM, I borrowed Mark’s car and drove 20 minutes to another area called Khor Fakkan with my uncle and mother in law. We bought KFC and Pizza Hut family meals for dinner and also picked up a third cousin who lived there to join us for the Christmas party. The night lasted till 1:30AM after playing cards against humanity. My uncle won the game and YES he is dirty minded LOL. (google the game its hilarious)

The next day, we got up really early to have breakfast and also went for a morning swim and afterwards said our goodbyes and checked out from our rooms.

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*Note: it’s called snoopy island because it looks like snoopy laying down.

Below are the location maps of the hotel, the mosque and Khor Fakkan for your reference.

Hotel:

 

Mosque:

 

Khor Fakkan:

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UAE – FIGAROO FIGAROO FIGAROOOO – Dubai’s Opera Theatre

UAE: FIGAROO FIGAROO FIGAROOOO – Dubai’s Opera Theatre

YUP!! We Dubaians (that’s what I call people from Dubai) have an Opera Theatre. Luckily I work for the developer so I sometimes manage to get really good tickets to some of the shows. So far, Tim and I attended ‘The Impossible’ which was a magic show and also attended ‘Les Miserable’ with my girlfriends and managed to get our own personal box. WOOP WOOP.

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Dubai is a city filled with ART. From it’s galleries to it’s lavish skyscrapers and now this classical theatre where all amazing intentional shows are being held such as CATS, Nutcracker, Italian Operas and much much more.

We are so fortunate to be living in such a city and to experience magnificent shows in one of the most sophisticated theatres in the world.

If you ever live or visit Dubai, please experience it even if it’s once.

Below are youtube videos of some of the shows.

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UAE – Celebrating 45th National Day at Rugby 7’s

On 2ND December 2016, UAE celebrated their 45th National Day.

It was the day Sheikh Zayed (1st president) declared that all 7 Emirates unite together and create this wonderful nation called ‘United Arab Emirates’. I’m very fortunate to be born and brought up here and I’m glad Tim and I will be settling here for some time before our next venture. I’m one of the non-nationals who witnessed the growth of this glorious country from a desert into a futuristic city. We usually celebrate by eating the traditional Emirati dessert called ‘Gemat’ and watch the traditional performances.

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On that day, Tim and I celebrated at the Rugby 7’s. Since I was invited to the event, I had a separate ticket than Tim’s. I have an amazing view of the field but got bored and spent almost 2 hours on my reserved seat and then moved to the general seating to spend the whole day with Tim. We had breakfast and lunch over there and had a great time watching international and local teams play against each other and joining the energetic fans screaming and cheering for their teams.

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It was a hell of an experience for me since I don’t know anything about Rugby. It was a 3 day’s events and we just attended the 2nd day. It’s a decent event for families because the adults can enjoy the drinks and the games while the kids are entertained with children playgrounds and activities.

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Overall we had a great time and I learned a lot about Rugby. What’s cool about the 7s is that each game is 14 minutes rather than the norm of 80 minutes so you will never get bored because the teams keeps changing which makes Rugby interesting to watch.

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It was a fun and one the best ways to celebrate national day.

Happy 45th UAE

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Weekend in Hatta- Hatta Fort Hotel

Well we had nothing else to do on a weekend but enjoy a nice swim near the mountains of Hatta. Tim’s colleague who lived in Dubai for quite a long time, recommended the Hatta Fort Hotel.

Hatta is pretty close to Oman. Ironically my GPS led me to a shortcut where we had to pass by Omani boarders and got asked to show ID’s. It was funny because we exited UAE then entered Oman and then drove for 10 minutes exiting the Omani boarders entering UAE again. Yup! that was a short travel. LOL

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Anyway we arrived to our destination and were amazed by the view. We booked a really nice chalet with an amazing view of the garden and mountains. ( I WANT THAT ROOM) After chit chatting for hours at the terrace, we both decided to check out the hotel activities. We ended up taking an archery class, OH I SUCKED BIG TIME.Not even aiming at the board LOL. Tim was pretty good and got bulls eyes several times; while myself, had no idea where my arrows disappeared to, maybe it hit someones bum.

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Later at night, Tim and I went for dinner at an Indian restaurant in the hotel and had a somewhat traumatic meal. There was an old couple sitting by the window and the husband unexpectedly fainted. Everyone just stayed quiet while the manager of the restaurant tried waking him up and eventually did. It was sad to see the old lady crying and trying to wake her husband up. Ultimately the hotel called a doctor to check on the old man and thankfully he was fine. The hotel emergency service was remarkable.

The night continued smoothly with a beautiful Filipina lady singing classical love songs. Tim and I decided to go for a walk outside the hotel. We later got back and enjoyed a peaceful night watching OSN movies.

Tim and I highly recommend the hotel because firstly it’s far away from the city life and is surrounded by nature and secondly the service is incredible.

Plan a trip there. It’s fun with friends too because they’ve got a good sized pool and outdoor activities.

 

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Halloween Party -2015

This was my first time ever to carve a pumpkin and I decided to carve a minion. Yes, I’m pretty much obsessed. Tim’s skull looks awesome though, don’t cha agree?

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For Halloween we attended my friends ‘Christina’s Halloween party.  I went as a witch and Tim went as a lizard.

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We spent the night playing games and enjoying snacks. Mimi wore a cereal box around her neck with a knife (get it?? serial killer) LOL.

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Halloween is always fun around good company and good friends, we just spent the whole night mingling and playing the game MAFIA which made us laugh a lot.

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high light of the party, Tim’s mask lol

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Halloween Party – 2016

Happy Halloween Ya’ll

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This year, Tim and I decided to skip the whole pumpkin carving and attended my uncle’s ‘Alpe’ friends Halloween Party. We never knew there was a costume competition and WE WON!!!! lol.

Tim and I won ‘best couple costumes’ and the prize was a free meal with drinks at an American Sports Bar. Awesome!! FREE BURGERS FOR US. WUHUUUU 🙂

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My uncle won ‘best costume’, when they announced that my uncle’s the winner, his friend shouted ‘EVERY ****ING YEAR. He really does put 200% effort on his costume and does it by himself. He’s great and talented.

Many people wore awesome costumes, a group of female friends went as ‘Female Avengers’. They were adorable.

We had fun mingling with people and enjoying the music and of course glad we WON.

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Languages

Travellers, who I know or met either speak more than one language or are learning a new language. I’m born to a very multicultural family. Let me try to explain my background, I’m born and raised in United Arab Emirates, my grandfather is Palestinian and my grandmother is an American of Austrian and Hungarian heritage which makes my dad a fruit salad and in addition he is born in Lebanon. My mum on the other hand is a Filipina with Spanish ancestry (aren’t we all)*.

*Referring to the Filipinos ( my Kabayans)

So where do I consider home? Honestly! I have no clue…. I just belong to this world. After meeting my British husband, we planned to create our own culture; a culture that suits both of our principles.

A valuable asset for being a multi-racial person is to be able to speak more than one language and be able to understand and relate to a culture even if you do not agree with it. I speak English and Arabic fluently but little Spanish and Tagalog however I do understand. I JUST NEED TO PRACTICE.

To learn a language is simple actually, it is never too late to say ‘Ohhh I’m too old to learn’ or ‘Ohhh I do not have the time’. OH PLEASE…..EXCUSES EXCUSES EXCUSES….Yes, children learn quicker, nevertheless consider it to be a brain exercise. To learn a language you should have a purpose or passion for it. For example, Tim is learning Arabic to be able to converse with my family and also because it is a great advantage to be able to speak to Arab clients in the Middle East.

So my fellow bloggers and readers, here are my 10 ways to learn a new language 🙂

  1. Pick a language you are interested in (a perfect example would be, my husband picked Arabic because he lives in the Middle East or pick French because it sounds romantic OR Mandarin because it’s challenging)
  2. Keep a phrase book in your pocket or bag and read it on the bus, train or while sitting and having coffee.
  3. Listen to songs with clear words  (For Example, If you are learning Spanish, don’t listen to Pit-bull)
  4. Find a Speak Dating/ Language Exchange club. I joined one before where you exchange languages with fluent speakers. For example if your mother tongue is English and you are learning French. You sit with a person who speaks French but wants to learn English.
  5. Once you feel you’ve reached an intermediate level of conversing then travel to a country that speaks that language and practice.
  6. Watch movies with NO SUBTITLES
  7. Think in that language (Translate things in your head)
  8. Buy children books in the language you’ve selected and and by time, you’ll advance to reading novels.
  9. If driving, listen to an audio CD and always repeat after it OUT LOUD.
  10. Dedicate a day or two to sit and focus on language study books.(Dedicate 2 hours)

The key to speaking a language is Practice, Practice and Practice.

I know some people who are not considerate that I’m learning a new language, there are times where I stutter and stop to think what the right word is and they either continue my sentence or mock me. I’m still learning to overcome such behaviours so when a native speaker does that to you, don’t ever let them put you down. Believe in yourself

Good Luck! حظا طيبا! Buena suerte! Suwerte

 

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