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.....