eastcoastwestcoast

Four Eggs, Two Gold, Two Yellow

Scratchy Map

Having recently turned in my passport for renewal, I took the time to flip through the pages before handing it over and compiled a mental list of countries that I have visited in my lifetime. Even more impressive, for me, is glancing through James' passport, as he has  many many many more country stamps and visas, evidence of places I'd never imagine seeing (Armenia) and places I daydream about visiting (Australia, India).

Earlier this month, a website that I read listed this scratchy map as one of their "Valentine's gifts for travellers" and it seemed like such fun that I had to order one for J.  While it didn't arrive on time for Valentine's day, it did appear in its poster tube at my desk last Thursday afternoon, just in time for the weekend.

Recipe for a relaxing weekend afternoon:

1. Have a nice morning workout and healthy breakfast, so that the rest of the day's leisure & relaxation is well-earned
2. Get the rest of the day's puttering tasks and errands ticked off the list
3. Have groceries waiting for a nice dinner later on
4. As the sun begins to set, clear the kitchen table and roll out the map
5. Put a favourite podcast on the radio, for entertaining listening
6. Pour a couple of glasses of red wine
7. Get out coins and nail files (for the smaller details) and start scratching off the countries

Yes, James has been to Baffin Island. We sometimes joke that he has seen more of Canada than I have.

England vs Pakistan Cricket

From The Times (UK) newspaper's coverage of the Pakistan vs England Twenty20 cricket match at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, Thursday night:

A crowd of about 15,000, the largest of the tour, worked themselves into a frenzy in the closing stages as a backdrop to masterful bowling by Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal...

A video of the last (or second to last?) ball of the match, the crowd roaring as Gul takes his long strides to release the ball and then roaring at the good result.

Pakistani fans in the stands. Meanwhile, all of the Brits kept walking up from the concession with trays holding four beers each. Multiple times.

We attended with some Dubai friends who are originally from Lahore, so I enjoyed cheering for both sides.

Even in Dubai, they have food vendors walking around the seats. To get their attention, people will chant "Healthy Pop! Healthy Pop!" because that's what the backs of their shirts say. They sell sleeves of freshly popped and salted popcorn, caramel popcorn, bottles of fluorescent sweet pops, meat pies and samosas.

After Pakistan clinched the win, we headed out of the stadium to get back to the parking lot (our friends had VIP parking, thank God, so we didn't have to park on the side of Emirates Road like many others had, while other cars pulled into any dirt space within a kilometer range of the stadium and then just started hoofing it to get to the stadium). We drove towards the exit, but then got stuck because other cars were coming head on (slowly) at us, and there was no clear path to get out. We simply lifted the metal fence barricade, waved to get the thousands of pedestrians to pause a moment so that we could leave, and pulled right out onto the road. When in Rome!

From Flickr, Robot Camel Jockeys

Caption: This is one of the little robots that are tied onto the backs of the camels - they consist of a whip and a speaker, so that even without small children acting as jockeys, the camels can be whipped and yelled at.

by Meghan McCaffrey on Flickr, tagged as UAE

Caption: Robot jockey army. Take me to your leader!

by Lars Plougmann on Flickr, tagged as Dubai

Caption: Selling Robot Jockeys for the Camel Races

by Neekho.Fi on Flick, tagged as Dubai

Ice Racing at the Mall

Saw this one night a while ago, when we passed the viewing area over the ice rink and there were layers of people watching, so I wanted to see what all the commotion was about. Ice racing!

Digital Inspiration Board

In the same week that I cancelled my Facebook account, I have joined Pinterest and started saving my favourite photos to folders called "Places to See," "Daydreams," and "Green Thumb."  Not sure whether this will have lasting power; I'm still posting to Google Plus even though I feel like the only person on the dancefloor while everyone else stands against the wall waiting to see what happens, so if Pinterest becomes more interesting, maybe I'll move more activity over there instead. Ultimately, I'm hoping that Pinterest is like Stellar, an amazing aggregator of people's favourite tweets, Flickr photos and more, only with lots of eye candy imagery. And perhaps it will be a good way to collect the images that I like rather than "starring" posts on Google Reader, only to have them fade from memory. Here's to digital experiments.

It Keeps Your Hands Occupied But Your Mind Free

After flipping through some beautifully photographed books about wine, which contained descriptive sections about Italy, I was compelled to reread one of my favourite books of 2011, Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton, because the final section focuses on her summertime visits to her husband's family in Puglia.  She buys assorted peas and vegetables from a crusty old roadside vendor with the intention of cooking a meal for the large extended family, and I particularly enjoyed this description:

We split the pods open with our thumbnails and slid each pea out into a colander set in between us. What I have loved about cooking my entire life, especially prep cooking, is the way that it keeps your hands occupied but your mind free to sort everything out. I have never once finished an eight-hour prep shift without something from my life - mundane or profound - sorted out.

This is one of the reasons why I like cooking, but it is also why I like running, aside from the elation and health factors.  I have written about this before, in January 2010 after a Manhattan Half-Marathon route that had runners circling the park twice. The meditative aspects of running are so calming. I told James, before this recent run in RAK, that I can sometimes have nervousness and remorse about entering a race because the monotony can seem daunting when considered from a distance. But the moment the race starts, the momentum propels me along and my mind simply zones out, watching the scenery and sorting out my thoughts. An amendment to Gabrielle Hamilton's passage, for me:

The way it keeps my body and legs occupied but  my mind free to sort everything out.

Footage From RAK Half

Good snapshots of the course, and those beautiful running strides of the lead pack. You can also see the sheikhs at the finish line. Having read a few blog posts from others, it seems that everyone finished slower than expected, by the same approximate amounts as me (I was 7 minutes slower than last year). Looking at my half-marathons since 2006, I was pretty much average, which is fine for me given the windy conditions.

Sandy Days on Emirates Road

Driving back from Ras al Khaimah along Emirates Road, a trip that we have done many times now, there are a number of fascinating details along the otherwise endless stretch of desert sand (populated with the occasional camel).

Wondering where all of the construction sites purchase their cranes? Apparently this is a store that sells them.

What happens when they one day decide to halt construction on a city? This is what happens. A concrete ghost town.

As we drove closer to Dubai, the wind kept gusting and the sand scattered across the road in front of us like snowdrifts.

By the time we got to Dubai, we couldn't see the Burj Khalifa in the distance and everything looked unfamiliar in the haze of sand. The wind blew fiercely and the sand in the air obscured even the view of the sea in the distance.

In our car park, vehicles near the entrance way were coated with a layer of moon dust and we could hear the wind howling outside our window. Were we anywhere else, it would have been a hot chocolate day, bundle up, stay cozy. But in the evening, when we put on our nicer duds for a long-awaited dinner out, there was no need to brace for a chill as we stepped outside.

Running in RAK

Setting an alarm for 3:50am on the first night of a weekend can only mean one thing - it's RAK Half-Marathon time! Yes indeed, we enjoyed a nice low-key evening on Thursday, our weekend kick-off here in Dubai, and at 4:30 the next morning I was curled up against the window of the shuttle bus, bound for Emirates Road and Ras al Khaimah.

Still dark when we arrived an hour and a half later, the start area was a hive of activity. I found a quiet spot to stretch and slather on a thick coating of sunscreen, and watched as the superstar runners did their warm-up jog. The superstar runners really are impressive, with Mary Keitany having raced a world record last year. To see these runners up close is also impressive; it reminds me of the days before the Boston Marathon, when I would be passed by a pack of tracksuited Kenyans along the Charles River, or the days before the NY Marathon when Central Park was full of elites. Standing about chest-high compared to me, with narrow narrow hips and shoulders, ultra efficient strides that seem to float them across the course. They are truly built for this sport and it is a pleasure to see them run so beautifully.

We lined up in the start corral around 6:45, and RAK's leader sounded the starting gun. The run began and as we crossed the start area, everyone waved to the sheikhs in the bleachers. One small, classy detail was that the sheikhs were still there when I crossed the finish line, including the leader; they hadn't headed out after the winners finished in an hour, but instead sat for well beyond (2:21 in my case) to smile at the finishers.

The course winds through RAK, with lots to see. The signage for different shops and cafes, the grand mosque, the floral pathways. There was quite a wind the whole way, kicking up swirling spirals of sand. Men lined the course watching the crazy runners with what I have come to recognize as one of two non-Western spectator modes: staring in bewilderment (or is it bemusement) or taping the whole thing on the cameraphone. Kudos to the gents at the 16km mark who applauded and cheered, bringing a smile to the runners' faces.

At the 18km mark, I turned the corner to the home stretch, knowing that there was just one more corner until the finish line. I crossed the 20km mark, turned onto the road with the finish in the distance and put away my iPod so that I could watch for James ahead. Easy to spot, with his lanky height, I started waving my arms overhead the moment I saw him.

Crossed the line, chugged three juice boxes, changed out of my clothes into nice dry ones and then headed to the parking lot to drive back to Dubai. But first, we sat in the car for 45 minutes because the whole world was trying to get out of the parking lot at the same time and, as with any traffic situation in the Middle East, they definitely do not follow Lions Gate Bridge etiquette. (e.g., two lanes merging into one, don't be surprised when a car vrooms up in between the two, like oh hey, a gap, and then others follow, and soon it's total chaos.) I had a couple of pb sandwiches that James had brought me from home; I can't remember where I read this before but the secret ingredient that makes meals taste incredible is fresh air.

My time was slower than usual because once I got going, I realized I was in the mood for a relaxed, steady pace rather than pushing it.  I didn't wear a watch but I could tell that I was doing a nice even pace because, in the last 5km, I started passing a lot of people who had likely done their first 75% of the run too quickly. Lots of walkers, and me, just jogging along, having not stopped running the whole time. So maybe 6-7 minutes slower than last year, but still very happy with the result.

We hit Emirates Road and made it back to Dubai by 11:30 for nice cups of tea and, later in the afternoon, a glorious four hour nap.

Finish line

Here I come

Spectators

At this point, there are 500m to go, and I'm a) totally happy to see James and b) totally happy it's almost done.

Me after the finish, elation, juice box, looking forward to my four hour nap later. Also, I'm wearing the awesome race tshirt, and you can see that the guys got really cool orange and yellow ones too.