House Hunting

Started house hunt. Maybe we should have moved in some other month – the heat is oppressive and the overhead sun just compounds my problems. I end each day with a terrific headache but it’s all forgotten courtesy the terrific choices available! Though on the flip side, for someone like me, the plethora of choices actually adds to my headaches, lol! I like almost everything that I’ve seen so far, but how many houses can the three of us live in J?

Am very tempted by the villa communities that seem to abound in Dubai. The one thing that strikes me while we drive through so many of these, is the immense amount of greenery and landscaping that is an integral part of these communities, be it Meadows, Arabian Ranches,  or Motor City! I have to actually remind myself that this is, at the end of the day, a dessert! And what they’ve done with the dessert is really spectacular albeit a tad frightening! You’ve essentially altered nature, and there is an old Red Indian saying (I think, not sure of the origins) that nature claims its own! But till then, the communities are definitely admirable and very, very tempting!

Am beginning to get some idea of why Eve bit the apple!! J

Hello from Dubai

Answering the call of our nomadic blood, we are moving again :-) initially was to be back to Cairo, but the best laid plans.... J

While folks back home enjoy the monsoon showers, I am alternating between sweltering in the hot sun and getting dehydrated in the aircon. Unfortunately the dehydration does not extend to actually shrinking my size, but a girl can always live in hope, right?

Since the Egyptian powers-that-be have yet to stop their shenanigans and the protests continue, it’s been decided that we should instead spend time gainfully employed, emptying our wallets in the mall capital of the world - Dubai.

Each time I come to this city (which somehow I manage every 2-3 years despite my protestations to the contrary) it reinvents itself!! The buildings are awesome (makes you feel grateful for at least a Bandra Kurla :-) ) in all possible shapes and sizes, ubiquitous use of glass (I am glad I don’t run the cleaning agency) and in patches, seriously more green than Bombay! Actually, it’s a lot like living in a cleaner and more glamorised version of Bombay. But I suspect, I'd take Cairo over Dubai any day! As a friend very aptly put it - there's something about cosmopolitan chic and glitz glamour and petro dollars that doesn't quite connect, lol! Or maybe it’s my Cairo hangover!
  
Had some interesting exchanges including being handed a cappuccino with ice-cream in lieu of a "cold coffee with ice-cream". I suspect the waiter took the 'cold coffee" bit literally, but as a friend rightly pointed out, the toffs ask for Frappe or Iced Coffee! J

Trips to the richly furnished L  tallest building in the world and fantastic eating places with generous libations, that do little for our already burgeoning waistlines J - it’s all a part of my Dubai experience.

My son is on a dream-come-true vacation, living in a hotel, having forsaken the insides of a school since April this year, with no respite in sight till September (till schools reopen in this part of the world). Some guys have all the luck! Though as hubby dear (R) rather acidly points out J that I have been on a really long one that still ain't over!

So after all that rambling, in Dubai now!