Four Seasons In One Day

My computer (obviously not the one I'm on now) has thrown a hissy fit. IT are onto it but I figure I have a couple of minutes for a quick update.

Antibiotics are doing wonders. Can't possibly forget to take them as I start getting vague and dizzy when I forget. Missed today's check up though... whoops. Maybe on Wednesday when the doctors are in again...

The weather lately has been wonderful. The since Friday the weather has been a pleasant 32˚C during the day. Sometimes there was even a breeze that was cooler than the air temperature! I have a feeling the dust was blocking out the sun a bit and that's what caused the cooler days. Today the sky was rather clear and we were back to 38˚C. Happily our evenings are sitting on 28˚C so we get some respite from the heat.

Over the weekend I took Gene shopping at Landmark so that we could get some decent fruits & vegetables. Naturally the only fruit we ended up bringing home were dried cranberries, a necessity for life. Gene even got roped into installing Age of Empires II on the spice/nut seller's computer at the supermarket. Not sure how he ended up doing that... Gene reckons it was his glasses that made him look like a computer geek. It was a fairly successful shopping trip otherwise. We found a watch for Gene with visible clockwork that's self-charging.

---------------------

Well, I started this post five days ago and I figured it's time to finish it now.

Yesterday was our weekend making today is the start of a new week. All in all it was a good week last week!

Gene, Anneke, Mel and I made our first journey to the Souqs on Sunday. I think we ended up in the textile souqs but I can't be 100% sure. I base that thought solely on the large number of fabric shops that we passed by. It was a fairly successful shopping trip for me, although I'm far too short to wear the dresses that I was after (circle dress mentioned in a previous post). I think I'm going to get one made before I leave. I also found a dress that looked (depending on your point of view) a little like the dress the kid in Final Fantasy X wears (Gene reckons it looked Jedi). It had long bell sleeves and a hood. It was awesome! Sadly the small sizes were meant for people with a better build than I have. Again I may yet get this one made for me.

I ended up with a couple of wraps (100% cotton, I'm ready for Ramadan!) a top which is essentially a square folded in half diagonally and seamed to give it "sleeves" and an abaya which has a gorgeous domino pattern on the gauze-like material it's made of. The plan is to convert it into an overdress (which is not unlike its actual purpose). Beautiful fabric & made.

Speaking of Ramadan, there is every possibility tonight will be the first night! How exciting :) We're looking forward to checking out the Ramadan Tents at night to join in the festivities. "Chrismas everyday for 30 days" is the description we've had so far. Should be fun!

With only 69 days to go until the Opening Ceremony things are starting to get a little busier at which is always good! I like keeping busy, it's more fun that way and means that I'll get more done on my day off!

Yesterday was a fantastic day in every sense of the word. The lovely Amy Wee organised for us to have brunch at the Four Seasons and it was amazing. There's no way to really know how amazing that brunch is unless you go there but let's just say that the dessert room with a chocolate fountain you can smell from the lobby just made me the happiest girl in the hotel. I made it through about 7 courses, wait... make that 8 courses (five buffet and three dessert). There was a tasty selection of seafood, crayfish, oysters, salmon etc, freshly prepared sushi & sashimi, a caesar salad bar... and then there was dessert. We had a designated dessert time so that we'd actually eat some proper food before gorging ourselves on sweets. With an hour left of brunch after two hours of eating we got down to business. Amy enjoyed some chocolate covered prawns and cray tails among other more common dishes (there are photos). I must say that the fresh waffles were possibly the best that I've had. The drinking chocolate was good too... it went well with the chocolate fondue. The creme brulee was tasty although there wasn't much of a caramel top. Having eaten ourselves silly some headed off to the day spa while others headed home for a siesta. We decided to sit by the pool/beach outdoor bar and enjoy a drink before heading home. It was a big day!

Needless to say we skipped dinner and instead went home to relax on the couch while discussing how much exercise we'd need to do to recover from brunch. Something about exercise being 90% mental kept coming up...

Gene & I "exercised" by jumping into a taxi and shopping for a good deal on a PS2 so that we can play DVDs and, of course, games in our spare time. Gene figured that as we may end up moving it would be a good idea. Plus it's something that we've been talking about for a bit and they're quite small and cheap right now. So we ended up with a PS2 that came with 10 (well we got 11 somehow) games, two controller and a memory card. We chose to buy an additional game "Steambot" which we've been enjoying so far. It's a sandbox game and we get to play a blonde boy called "Vanilla". It's pretty funny. We're fairly sure he's got the hots for a girl called "Coriander". It appears everyone is a herb or a spice in the game. Good fun. Unfortunately as Gene's on night shift and I'm on day, it'll be about a week before we get to play it again as we're planning to play it together.

Okay well my backup has finished now so off to work. I can't believe I've been here for five weeks already!