We'll be staying with Frans on this holiday, and I took this photo of a boat cruising past his house when I was there in 2005.
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Europe 2005 - Damloop in Holland
Since I'll be away from my laptop for a few weeks' holiday, I thought I'd post some shots from my last trip to Holland in 2005. I booked the trip to celebrate my birthday, which also coincided with the Damloop run. 16km from Amsterdam to Zaandam. Here were some of the scenes from the day of the run.
Dubai Diaries, Month 9 (July 2011)
One thing about living in Dubai that is identical to life in New York City - the work rush leading up to a holiday is always crushing. Long hours, big deadlines, "earning your time off." I'm in the midst of this right now, as is James, though I can happily say that, with one day left in the work week, I have successfully sent off my assignments. Bring on the vacation!
As I will be out of town as the month of July comes to a close, I thought I would post my latest Dubai Diaries write-up before I depart. I then have a series of "Blast from the Past" posts that will run while I'm away. In the meantime, let's recap my 9th month spent living with a view of the Arabian Gulf.
July starts off, of course, with Canada Day, which I celebrated by wearing my "Canada Kicks Ass" tshirt to the swimming pool, sheepishly turning it inside out after the swim so that I wouldn't offend anyone as I shopped at the grocery store, and then later wearing my red Olympics Canada tshirt to see a movie at the mall.
Also noted on Canada Day, a super sandy storm blew in through town, filling the air with haze and obscuring the view. An imitation blizzard.
I have been taking photos of the construction outside the window since I moved here, and suddenly, in the month of July, one of the long dormant sites started to show signs of activity. Men started appearing on the roof, uniformed construction workers scattered about, trucks dropping off supplies and small cranes lifting equipment to the ground below.
Meanwhile, the buildings outside the Spinney's entrance undergo day-and-night construction, cranes swinging across the night sky. The rapid ascent is amazing, and they cast new shadows onto the sidewalks. It will feel like a new neighbourhood by December, a new forest of tall skyscrapers.
My cooking classes were a huge pleasure this month, wherein I learned to make gorgeous marinated chicken and tomato dishes, tzatziki dip, baba ghanouj and more. All so delicious, and a fun way to spend a Monday night, watching over the kitchen counter as our teacher showed us how to stuff little zucchinis, or mash chick peas.
We had a nice visit with Laura, during her one night Dubai layover en route to climb Mt Kilimanjaro. Inspiring! Maybe we should do that, someday.
The streets have emptied, save for the occasional runner late at night, or tourist slowly making their way from the metro to the Mall. And where do all of the people go? Inside the Mall, of course!
Some funny "only in Dubai" stories this month:
Want to drive yourself crazy? Try to find the exit from the Dubai Mall stacked Cinema Parking lot, and find yourself in a labyrynth, following arrows that lead to dead-ends, only to double-back and find yourself going the wrong way down one-way paths because that's the only way to go. And then you go up, when you're trying to go down, and finally emerge into daylight, bewildered, a half hour later.
Or, after looking up movie times in the paper and then arriving at the cinema only to find our show was not in fact showing at that time, I decided to book tickets to Bridesmaids (finally opened in Dubai in July!) online. The website states in repeated warnings, that you must bring your credit card to collect your tickets, that they will absolutely not, under any circumstances accept booking numbers, so you had better ensure you have the credit card, don't even think about trying to use the booking number. As I finally got to the cashier at the theatre, credit card in hand, the clerk chirped to me, "Booking number, ma'am?"
Or try getting a prescription refill (doctors have to write new prescriptions every month, there are no year-long refills), and leaving 5 messages in the span of 6 days saying exactly what I need, only to finally get a hold of the nurse who says, "oh, they didn't say it was a prescription refill, so it's good you called me." Like, so you weren't going to call me back because you just had my name and number, but someone didn't write the reason? Dumbo. Ah well, it all works out in the end, and the free medicine is a huge advantage, even if it's a hassle every single month.
And so, July, the heat of July, where you leave the severely air-conditioned environment of the office and feel the humidity of the night air immediately condensing on your bare skin, the 40+C July comes to a close. Countdown to holiday, bring on lovely cool temperatures in England and Holland!
Things to Remember for Visitors
- Aangaan, for excellent Indian good. The chaat was our favourite.
- Fresh-ground coffee from Raw, James makes it in his French press, and I like to breathe the fragrance of the grounds
- Jones The Grocer for fancy grocery goods and cheeses, and what looks to be a tasty breakfast menu
- Coronas at Calabar on a hot Thursday night, the taste of summer. And they serve tortilla chips flavoured with lime-infused salt, delicious.
- Cook zaatar and lemon-marinated chicken, layered with potato, tomato and mushroom slices
- Cook fetteh, mashed chickpeas with pieces of toasted pita, all slathered in warm yogurt and topped with pine nuts. A new term I've learned, if something is addictively tasty, it's "moreish"
- Cook tzatziki dip, yum, easy, thirst quenching in the heat
What I Think About When I Think About Books
There's a woman who paints "Ideal Bookshelf," and as someone who has always loved reading and books, I have really loved the idea of this project. I offered to get James a painting of his Ideal Bookshelf for upcoming birthday, because he is also an avid reader.
The artist writes:
"I paint people's ideal bookshelves: your favorite books, books that changed your life, books that made you who you are. Picking your ideal books is not an easy task (try it!). I think of this project as an intimate form of portraiture; a way to illustrate who the subject is on the inside instead of out. I love that a book is something created very personally and then mass-produced in order to affect many other people very personally. I paint them to turn them back into something very personal and intimate."
And so, this week, we've each started to assemble our ten favourite books, the ones that we would most want captured on such a painting. It's an illuminating experience. I started with a list that far surpassed ten, and have been whittling it down to the most memorable and meaningful.
There's a sentimentality to the process, considering the memories associated with each book. Why I loved it, what themes I most appreciated, where I was at in life when I read it. What it meant and still means. Why I still, to this day, think about passages and scenes and word choices from its pages.
Lately, I've been rereading some old favourites, and whenever I open old books, I like to read the inscription that I scratched inside the cover. From Rock On, by Dan Kennedy:
Jennifer J
March 2008
Funniest book in YEARS. Seriously.. I had tears running down my cheeks while riding on the Jersey Transit bus."
Or from The Namesake, by Jhumpa Lahiri:
Jennifer J
August 2006
Union Square, New York City
This is one of the best books that I have ever read!
I also often use random souvenirs as bookmarks, which means that I'll open a book that was read years ago and find a photo of friends, or a For Better Or For Worse comic from my Mom, or a card from Oma.
This card was inside one of my choices for 10 favourite books, which I would include in an Ideal Bookshelf painting. It is New York: An Illustrated History, and Oma bought it for me to commemorate my completion of the New York City Marathon in 1999. I had watched the Ric Burns documentary that year, while in Boston, mesmerized by the story of NYC, and then planned my training for the run, which was a life-changing experience.
Opening the cover, after all these years, there was the card with which it came, and Oma's perfect handwriting.
"To buy a 'New York' book to remind you of your run 1999. Love Oma"
I'll include this New York book on my Ideal Bookshelf because it reminds me of the marathon, because it was a gift from Oma, and because of the many years that I spent in New York City.
I've assembled the rest of the my Ideal Bookshelf, and I will share it whenever we get the paintings made.
Skeletons
You don't have to drive very far in Dubai before you reach evidence of what this land once was - a big, expansive, sandy desert. And as you drive the long highways out of Dubai City Centre, you come across remnants of the "irrational exuberance" of the boom years: incomplete bridges protruding over the roadway, ginormous concrete shells of complexes standing desolate & empty, and empty lots with the advertising signage for unbuilt developments, now coated in dust.
And yet, in other places, construction resumes; the cranes swing across the sky and the construction workers in their bold-coloured uniforms scatter across the lots to create new buildings. Things are getting better.
Good Gooseberry
James once took a wine-tasting class, and he dug out his notes from that class so that we could test them out when we have an occasional glass of wine, looking at the colour, swirling to take a breath before tasting, looking to refine our palates and learn about the different tasty notes that the pros can taste: vanilla, fresh-cut grass, pear, oak, melon, lemon...
One fruit that we quickly realized was a common descriptor was the gooseberry - and whenever I would see this, I'd wonder aloud, "what does gooseberry even taste like?"
And then, this past weekend, I stopped by our neighbourhood organic food place that specializes in local produce, and I perused their jars of jam, looking for some unique Dubai gifts for our upcoming travels. There, on the shelf - gooseberry jam!
The next morning, I spread some on toast, and it was lovely. Tangy, tart, sweet. Somewhat tropical, somewhat berry-like. From now on, I'll be well-equipped to detect gooseberry essence.
Evening Light
Last weekend
Staying Cool
I've been reading the news about the heatwave in the Northeast right now, and thinking back to the ways in which I coped while living there. A cold shower before bed, sleeping with the fan blowing across me. A freezer full of Popsicles. Watching movie matinees in order to sit inside a refrigerated environment for several hours.
From an article in the NYTimes today:
...stifling heat reached down on Friday and took the city in its clammy grip, transforming the streets and sidewalks into hot griddles and creating instant dripping wretchedness.
...With precious little stir in the air, the temperature shot up to 104 degrees in Central Park at 2:10 p.m., eclipsing the record of 101 for July 22 set in 1957, and falling just 2 degrees shy of the city’s hottest day ever. It hit 108 in Newark, the hottest day on record there.
Checking my Twitter feed, my New Yorker friends have been lamenting the oppressive heat, and yet I've had no temptation to smugly announced, "still hotter in Dubai, weaklings." Because, come on, (one of) the great thing(s) about New York is the stroll. Being able to hop a subway to a place, and just wander for hours, daydreamy. Exploring on foot. And a heatwave like this just totally stifles the joy of the urban hike.
Living in Dubai in the Arabian desert summer means chilly feet from the constant AC. It means hailing a taxi to go to the hotel that would be a 15 minute walk, because you know that you don't want to show up looking like you're just done a 10km run. It means that on a TGI-Thursday, you sheepishly take said taxi to a bar nearby where you find a seat outside in the warm air and vow not to move, ordering a Corona with a wedge of lime that arrives so thirst-quenchingly cold and bubbly.
Hold strong, people of New York! Fill your daydreams with thoughts of the recent blizzards. The cooler temperatures will be here before we can believe it.
