We headed to Corniche area in Sharjah this afternoon to watch the 2010 UIM F1 Powerboat World Championship – Sharjah Grand Prix. The weather was pleasant and the park was choked up with people who were keen to witness the powerboat show.
We didn’t bet for any team but Abu Dhabi won the race.
The event was followed by parade of mascots and stilts entertainers. It was really a good attraction after the race.
It has been a long hiatus for me. Blogging and writing were not in my priorities lately.
The past few months have been all about my grinding corporate job. I am new to the role so I have been working for 12 – 15 hours everyday. So you can imagine how exhausted I am and when the weekend comes, all I could think is rest and unwind.
I barely have time to write and I am actually feeling bad about it.
Sometimes in my solitude I realized how silly I am now working so hard at my present corporate role when I never dreamed of stepping up to the next corporate level. I keep reminding myself that the only bridge between me and my dream career is an ironclad determination.
Anyway, enough for ranting about corporate life and slavery.. LOL!
Well, I just wanted to share about my weekend trips as I had been so busy driving to other Emirates almost every weekend for a well deserved relaxation.
Fujairah – It was a great weekend because I spent it with my brother catching up for the news back home. He recently came back from vacation. We stayed in Hilton Fujairah. The property was beautiful unfortunately we were not very happy with the food.
They have a nice bar by the beach. We enjoyed it but didn’t stay long because there was a forecasted storm that day. In fact, the sea waves were getting higher and bigger that it started to splash inside the bar.
Driving to Fujairah
Hilton Fujairah
Hotel Lobby
Hilton Fujairah - Hotel Room
*****
Abu Dhabi – My best friend’s hubby is here in UAE for a visit. They came here for a weekend in Abu Dhabi last month. Hence, it kept me busy as I took the role of “tour guide”.. LOL! They stayed in Al Maha Rotana. Honestly, we always like the soft beds of Beach Rotana. As they are the same brand, we were hoping also to have the kind of bed. Unfortunately, we were disappointed because we didn’t have this soft bed in Al Maha.
Anyway, we toured them in Emirates Palace hoping that its grandeur would awe them.. LOL!
My bestfriend "Jeje" with hubby "Mikoy" with Emirates Palace as their backdrop
Jeje & Mikoy in the Majilis of Emirates Palace
*****
Dubai – It was another great weekend in Dubai. I and my girl friends met in The Monarch Hotel in Sheikh Zayed Road. That property left me a very big WOW. The hotel is really striking and I admired most their interior design and the decors. It depicts the traditional Arabic ambience yet complemented by sophisticated technology and chic decors.
The view from our room
Our hotel room (quite messy already) at The Monarch Dubai
The obviously stormed living room.. LOL!
But what made our stay more memorable was our dinner at Okku Restaurant. Hmmm… I am drooling already while trying to describe their dishes. It is actually a contemporary Japanese restaurant and their dishes have really distinct flavour. Hmm… really yummy and irresistible.. There was one dish – a maki roll topped with salmon – unfortunately I can’t remember the exact name except for the last word “volcano”. It really tasted so good (and heavenly…LOL!).
Sad that there is no Okku restaurant here in Abu Dhabi.
My fave dish in Okku Restaurant
Another yummy dish in Okku Restuarant
A mouthwatering dessert
*****
Ras Al Khaimah – I didn’t really enjoy our trip because we arrived very late and I had an appointment to go. I spent the entire morning in my appointment and never had the opportunity to explore the hotel.
Anyway, hopefully soon..
You may think I spent lavishly for these weekend trips. Honestly, I didn’t except for the car petrol. Those stays were courtesy of my kind and generous friends.. 
Last week we headed to Dubai for a work-related matter. Most of our meetings took place in Dubai Health Care City.
Honestly, I haven’t visited Dubai for some time now. If I do, the visits are just confined to the shopping malls, hotels or my friends’ places. So, I was quite disappointment to see that Dubai Health Care City is not yet completely finished.
When I left Dubai almost 3 years ago, they were constructing already that area. Although most of the buildings now in Dubai Health Care City are already inhabited and majority is offices, construction is still ongoing in some areas.
We crossed from one building into the other amid the hot day because there were areas where parking spaces were very scarce. Walking through the paved pathways, unfortunately I could not ignore the unusual view in front of me.
In between the pathways made of concrete and bricks are small sized landscapes. Then in these small landscapes, there were people resting. They are the construction workers who are taking a nap during their lunch break and perhaps trying to soothe the scorching summer heat by sleeping on the grass field.
We are still in the month of May but we can already feel the summer season. It’s hot outside and it is really unbearable sometimes. Imagine.. We, who come and go in an air-conditioned offices and cars, complain about the intolerable heat of the sun but just think of the construction workers who are exposed all day long in such harsh weather condition.
Photo Credit: www.redcofoods.com
Typically summer is one of the awaited seasons of the year in most countries. Summer always entails tons of fun. It is time to enjoy various outdoor activities like summer camps, hiking, fishing, hunting, kayaking, rock climbing, and so on.
If such exciting activities are waiting for you, then you can’t definitely wait for summer season to come, right? But here in UAE, it is another story, a completely different scenario.
For us living in this part of the globe, summer season implies the end of outdoor activities. It is goodbye to the beautiful weekend mornings by the beach or picnics at the parks. Summer means it is time to hide in the malls, at home, or anywhere as long as there is an air-conditioning facility.
Summer season is not really a pleasant time of the year. The scorching heat of the sun feels like a hot laser beam that penetrates up to your skin’s inner layer. Temperature reaches up to 40 degree Celsius or even higher on some occasions.
So what to expect in UAE during summer season?
So far, that’s all I can think of now but for sure, I can have a longer list of what to expect during summer season in UAE in the next few weeks as summer is just really kisses away.
The beautiful park on Friday afternoon
It was a great sunny and windy Friday yesterday. So my friends and I decided to have a late BBQ lunch at the park.
Close to my home is an open park which is generally packed with kids and families on weekends. To our delight, the park this time was not crowded as there was only handful of “park dwellers” who were mostly couples.
Anyway, we simply bought this instant disposable grill pack because we are only an occasional “park dweller”. Also, it is very reasonable as it costs approximately US$3 only for the small pack and there is no cleaning required.
Instant disposable BBQ grill
Twenty minutes later my friend started to grill the pork bellies which she marinated in her special BBQ sauce concoction. All of us were hungry so we drooled for every piece of cooked barbeque meat. Half way to our BBQ cooking process, our attention (and hunger) was distracted by the police car’s siren. Then I realized that the people on the other side of the park were actually staring on our area. There were us and two other couples only on our side.
Yummy pork BBQ
So I turned around to see what they were staring at. Then I saw one policeman in a luminous green vest approaching the second couple while the first couple started taking their steps already to leave.
Well, at that point of time, I just thought that perhaps the policeman sensed that the second couple was into some inappropriate intimate behaviour hence they were approached. Then maybe the first couple left too because it terrified them.
Before I even found the answer to my curiosity, I saw this young handsome policeman walking towards us also.
At that instant, my mind was already soaring with thoughts of possible offense which perhaps we committed.
Maybe barbequing was not allowed in park (though impossible because we saw people grilling and roasting meats in the park on many occasions).
Or maybe because we were grilling a pork meat.
Eventually the young policeman came closer and informed us to leave. He said “not allowed”. We asked for any reasons but he didn’t replied.
After he left, I saw the other handful of “park dwellers” packing their things too. And so we did.
Then minutes later the park was empty.
We could not fathom any other reasons for being kicked out from the park except that on that day, it was still the mourning period. The government declared a 3-days mourning due to the tragic loss of Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president’s younger brother. (Click here for details).
As we walked past the park, we saw the UAE flags still at half-mask.
So our BBQ lunch ended a lunch at home. We finished grilling the remaining pork belly meat in our George Foreman indoor grilling stove (luckily we had this!)
Our George Foreman indoor grilling stove
