A Night Out in the Cooler Temperatures.

They say it's the best Lebanese restaurant in AD.

Yours truly at the Lebanese Flower.

The free basket of flatbread.

Here in AD, there is a huge range of restaurants to choose from.  In the Tourist Club area, you can dine at some of th best restaurants around.  In the back streets of back streets, there are tiny Arabic joints, dirty looking Indian joints and dodgy looking Chinese joints.  Plonked somewhere in between, there's this, the Lebanese Flower, a stalwart standard joint that people tell me is quite possibly the best Lebanese restaurant in AD.

A plate of pickles, gherkins, tomato and fresh mint stalks is more quickly seated at the table than you are, as is a full bottle of mineral water, followed equally quickly by three bags of fresh flatbread.  Oh, did I happen to mention thus far in the blog that bread is as cheap as chips here?  Really, it's hilarious.  What Aussies pay $4 for, I pay $1 for, even in the outrageously expensive Waitrose in my building.  What's the story there?  Who's ripping Aussies off with their bread prices, man!?   Who!?  Anyway, far be it for me to solve Australia's bread pricing crisis.  I ate nearly every free pice of bread ther was.  Soooooo fresh!!   Yum.

Al Fresco, now that the weather is cooling down.

You'll notice that I am sitting outside.  Yes, there IS a cooler period in AD.  And the days are getting shorter.  And the sun is lowering it's arc across the sky.  And the nights are milder and more comfortable.  I was out with a new mate of mine, Jay, and we grabbed an outdoor table not moments before the dinner rush. Not long after the shot above was taken, those vacant seats on the right of the shot filled up.  Quite a buzzy little vibe, with Arabic tunes over the speakers, muezzin calling people to prayer, and the delightful music of people out enjoying themselves.  A lovely evening, and it's all of 5 minutes' drive from my aparmtent.  Handy new discovery in the 'hood!!

Rocket Salad, hoummous, and the UAE  equivalent of babaganoush, called moutabal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The moutabal... oh my God.  It was so delicious.  And look at that olive oil!

 Here are a few tasty delights.....

Delicious hoummous.

Hoummous with shawarma meat.  I ate every last morsel.

Shwarma chicken.  Didn't touch the chips at all.

Who said it was hard to get....

My latest cache of beverages... it's best to buy in bulk and keep the visits to a minimum, in my humble opinion.

 Boooooooze!!!

Beery goodness!!

I've had a couple of visits to booze shops, recently.  They're hilarious.  Tucked away behind blackened windows and sliding doors, but once you get in, there's every manner of liquor available.  And cheaper than in Australia, in most cases.  There's no (or very little) tax on it, you see.  The case of Coopers you see in my frdige only cost me about $40.  It's nearly $60 in Oz now, isn't it?  Anyway, you gather up your goodies, push your shopping trolly of sinful delights to the cash register, pay, and make your escape, your purchases hidden in the thick brown plastic bags (which make bloody good garbage liners, I've discovered.... another good reason to buy hootch!!).  Couldn't take any pics in there either.  I'll take a sneaky couple next time.

The ubiquitous 'Brown Bag'.

So, there you go.  It's no more difficult to stock your bar here than it is in Australia. 

A fridge full of Coopers!!  Whoda thunk it?

Stay tuned for an update on my soon-to-be-installed blinds.  Bamboo Roman blinds in the living room, and gorgeous Indian cotton curtains for the bedrooms.  It's all coming together.

Guess Who Found the Pork Shop?

Hoorah for the Humble Piggy

Hmmmmmmm......

Oh, joy of joys.... there is a pork shop hidden away inside the Waitrose downstairs in my building.  You have to wander past the Islamically acceptable beef, sidle up beside the vinegar, and turn left just before the halal seafood stall... a sign above reads 'For Non-Muslims Only', meaning infidels are more than welcome.  Being the infidel that I am, I gladly pressed the button, to the comforting swoosh of a frosted glass door sliding welcomingly and satisfyingly open.  Beyond the sliding-door-of-sin lay all manner of piggy delights... sausages as fat and juicy as only a porky-lorkle sausage can be, bacon in a mouth-wateringly vast array of styles: maple roasted, traditional, extra smokey, pepper nut infused.  Dried goods hung from the racks, German wursts burst from the refrigerated shelves and crackling covered pork roasts sat glistening behind glass cabinets.  Oh joy of joys.  And let us not forget the humble can of spam, laden with its own special brand of porcine delights.  Hooda thunk it?  Hoorah for bacon!!  Hoorah for the spicy Italian pork sausage... hip hip hooray, I say, for the Humble Little Piggy.

Spicy Italian sausage..... gottta love it...

Hmmmmmm...... baaaaacon!  Black Label indeed...

Birthday Bash

Coopers Pub at the Park Rotana

Last night's birthday bash was a roaring success!  A goodly number of folks popped into thre Coopers Pub at the Park Rotana for a few bevvies, and I didn't pay for a thing all night.  Happy Birthday to me.  Here are a few pics to fill you in on the evening, chronologically:

Gorgeous sunsets here. It's all the dust in the sky.

Oh, yu know... just an interesting 'taken from the cab' kinda pic.

A city intersection in the early evening.  Still pretty hot, so not a hell of a lot of people wandering the streets.  Also, any pedestrain is taking their lives in their hands in this city... the drivers are MENTAL!!!

City Mosque Below Light Pole, by John Laing

Heading for one of the underpasses we go through on the way to work every day.

These two cool buildings are awesome!  They have an exoskeleton that looks as if it might open and close in reaction to the position of the sun.  Tiff and Kosta and I can't quite work it out.  But they're cool buildings, man!  This is an evening shot.  I'll try and get a good daytime shot so that you can see the exoskeleton more clearly.  It's pretty impressive architecture.

Beer number one!!!

The first wave of merry revellers.  Another five or so mid-week madness beer lovers turned up later: L to R: Richard, Tim, Tiff behind, Jeremy, Chris, Mark, Aesha, Mel, Rob and yours truly.

A little later in the night... several pints donw.  Jeremy yours truly and Jesse Crazy-eyes.

Off the pints and into the... Coopers!!  Yes, they sell Coopers at Coopers, but I don't think the two are related in any way.  I shall endeavour to find out.  Yours truly, Mark and Chris.

Part of the second wave of revellers.  Mel, Rob, yours truly, Peter, Tim and Sarah.

Ahhhhhhh, the terrible trio.  My besties in AD, Tiff and Kosta, and yours truly of course.

I don't know what Mel was on about, but the finger was wagging about something!!

Jeremy, who inhabits the same apartment building as me, and is my office next door neighbour at work.

Now, this is the Coopers Pub bar.  For some ridiculous reason, it won't publish to the blog in any form other than upside down.  So, turn your head over and look.  Sorry about that.  I tried to rotate it several times, but to no avail.

Very nice glass work windows in teh place.  It's quite ritzy, really.  For a pub, that is.

Nice one of Kosta and Tiff.

Ummm... art shot?

Through the taxi window.  Fascinating, really....

Ummm, another art shot?

I really quite like this one.  It has a kooky, sci-fi, horror film kinda je ne sais quoi about it.  Kosta and Tiff don't like it.  But, hey, it's MY blog.  MINE!!!

From IKEA to Sweatshop Indian Labour

This is the contstantly changing triple-towered complex being built beside my building.  Notice the large connecting bridge over the top.  Notice the two holes (well, you can only see one, on the left there, but I assure you there is another gaping hole to the right, between the right-most and centre towers).  Notice there's nothing in them.  I've been told that these two noticeable holes will, soon enough, contain two very noticeable glass-bottomed swimming pools. Q: Would you like to come over and have a swim in my glass-bottomed swimming pool suspended precariously 80 floors above the ground? A: Ummmmm.... no.

 Everyone Needs a Lovely... Dining Table!

The new table and chairs are made of teak.

Looking back towards the kitchen.

Looking towards the windows.

Well, well, well.  Another birthday comes around.  And yet another one spent in a foreign land.  Paul and Laura and Mark and all the other Tokyo gang will remember many a birthday spent sipping bubbles, both beery and champagney (thanks again for the 40th Moet, Loz!), in various Ni-Chome establishments (ie: only one, really... Advocates).  As I write, I'm sitting in my living room, awaiting a lovely evening out at a pub called 'Coopers', which is part of the Park Rotana complex about half way between here and work.  I'll no doubt post a few pics from the evening on here some time soon, but for now, you'll have to make do with these pics of my lovely, growing, beautifying, comfortifcatiing pad!!  I bought myself a dining table and chairs for myself.  They're fab!!

Oh, and I recently bought  few little plants.  Ridiculously expensive here.

Oh my god, what a beautiful bed!!!

The place got the dining table from is called Debaj Furniture.  They have heaps of handmade wooden pieces.  All made in India by underapid child labourers and untouchables, no doubt.  But, gainfully employed is gainfully employed, right kids?  I mean, come on.

Notice the lovely green sheets.... IKEA Blergen Lergen.

I saw this bed weeks ago, when Zayed Uni was taking us around in buses from shopiing mall to shopping mall, to IKEA, to Marina Mall, to Abu Dhabi Mall, from mass produced extravaganza-tastic super mall to mass produced extravaganza-tastic super mall .  Then, lo and behold, they took us to this tiny little place in the Mina Port area... dingy, full of ugly warehouses, and nothing much to look at really.  I was knackered at the time, having spent 2 hours speeding through IKEA grabbing Sverken lemon squeezers, Flugen Schmoogen Blugen lamps and Lurgen egg whisks (those words should have umlauts or whatever the Swedish equivalents are over the vowels, but the blog's limited fonts just won't let me express myself properly).  I almost didn't even go in to look around.  Those Sverkens and Lurgens damn near did me in.  But, I thought, why not?  In for a penny, in for a pound.  Well, aren't I glad I did?  Upstairs was a treasure trove of beautiful stuff, all handmade, all solid wood, some more beautiful than others, granted, but plenty of very nice things to choose from.  Gorgeous.  My bed cried out to be slept on. Cried out to me and me alone.

My bed rocks.  Not in the way that a rocking chairs rocks... in the cool man, whoa baby, what a cool bed kind of way.  Comfy as hell, firm but forgiving, supportive and constant, like all good sleeping buddies should be.  And the matching bedside tables just HAD to be bought.  I mean, look at them.  They were made for each other.  And the IKEA Flugen Schmoogen Blugen lamps are an added thirll.  They light the room in that, oh I don't know, Swedish kind of way.

Kick-arse view out over the ever changing, highrise skyline of Abu Dhabi.

 And those are my latest aditions to the flat.  It's all coming together kids.  It's all coming together.....