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Skiing in The Desert

Aside from the Burj Khalifa and the islands shaped like a palm tree, the one thing that most people hear about Dubai is that there's a man-made indoor ski hill. Anthony Bourdain skied it when he visited here for No Reservations (tipping us to the amazing Bu Qtair and Ravi with his visits), and that guy Matt who danced his way around the world chose the ski hill for his Dubai segment.

And so this Canadian knew, upon moving to Dubai, that I had to try this place at least once while we live here. James, seeing "Ski at Ski Dubai" on my wish list, made sure that Santa brought me a day pass for Christmas, and this past weekend, as the temperature outside started to bake for the 1st time this season, we made our way to the chilly interior of the ski hill.

Here's how it looks on the inside. The slope and lift curve up towards the left, out of view, so it's longer than you think. It also gets quite chilly after a while, and has that fragrance like an ice rink.

The lift ticket include pretty much everything you need for a day of skiing: free ski & boot rental, ski pants & jacket, apres ski hot chocolate...

...but toque and mitts are NOT included, so I brought my own. Go Canada!

It makes for an interesting sight, with almost everyone wearing the exact same outfit, although it was neat to see some locals wearing their ski jackets over their long white thobe.

I hit the highspeed quad to get to the top, although it requires a definite air-quote "high speed" indicator, because it ended up being faster to take the poma lift on the side. Right after James took this photo of me, I realized that the liftie was yelling at me to move to the middle of the seat. Seriously, they would yell at me if there was even a smidge of a delay in lowering the safety bar, every time.

One funny observation, at "mid-station" (note the airquotes again), the safety net underneath the lift platform had about three pairs of skis hanging in it. Like, did kids just kick off their skis and toss them in there and then download or something? "Mid-station" has bathrooms and a little cafe, but I proceeded to the very top, where I had the choice of a crowded gentle slope down to the bottom, or a slightly steeper "EXPERTS ONLY" slope. I took the latter. And got to the bottom 30 seconds later.

But seriously, it was really fun, and the snow was even better than expected, allowing me to get some nice turns.

Another funny observation, oh my gosh, I am so glad James took this photo. So there's me skiing, whee, awesome, but look in the background at the line of skiers riding the poma lift back up the hill. See how one guy appears to have fallen down? Well, this was actually a rather popular technique for getting up the hill with this lift, guys would topple forward onto their butts and then get dragged up the hill, clinging to the poma with both arms, ski-clad legs dragging behind them.

Another fun observation, there was a penguin show, with real penguins, happening in the snow park below the lift. I got in plenty of runs, and lots of nice turns, and really enjoyed my time back on the slopes. After 90 minutes (the passes are good for 2 hours), I was actually feeling chilly, so I packed it in and met James for that free hot chocolate at the mountain cafe. Last fun bonus, the hot chocolate counter had free candy toppings. When we walked up, the lady in front of us had a froth of whipped cream, pastel marshmallows and other candies atop her cup, and I said, "now *that* is a hot chocolate," because I expected us to be getting the basic ski hill whirring machine stuff. But no, they told us to help ourselves to the jar of speculaas cookies, and we got plenty of M&Ms and pastel marshmallows for our warm-up drinks. No whipped cream though, I mean we can show a *little* restraint.

So overall verdict: it's no Whistler/Blackcomb, but the novelty of the place made it a super fun experience. Check that off the wish list!

More Green Thumb Action

Our little herb garden has been a treat this year, and I love suddenly realizing that I can add a little snip of something to dinner, "this has garden basil!" Our garden's bounty so far has included: cilantro mixed into avocado for a pseudo-guacamole; rosemary, thyme, sage and parsley rubbed onto a roasted chicken; rustic pesto, with pine nuts and olive oil mashed into basil with a mortar and pestle; parsley mixed into homemade meatballs; and basil leaves atop small flatbreads with mozzarella cheese.

This past weekend, we headed back to the Garden Centre so that I could use my last voucher before it expires, and I found everything on my list:

• More bulbs, after the happiness of the Dutch tulips (this time we have hyacinths and more tulips)
• More herbs, the haul this time including arugula (labelled rocket), more basil, chives, and oregano (which I pronounce o-REG-ano but have learned is pronounced o-re-GA-no by the English contingency in our household)
• A sunflower
• Plus, not on my list, but thrown in for fun: one white petunia

Back at the apartment, as the sun started to set, I laid out some newspapers on the floor and sat down to pull out the now old bulbs and herbs that had been used up before and plant the new goodies.

And now we are greeted by this happy sight. (No squirrels to scamper along and snap off the flower before my eyes, as had once happened in West Van.)

Tulips

Goal on my Life List: Grow tulip bulbs.

As of New Year's Day 2012, this has been accomplished, and we even see that there may be some new flowers still to come from the remaining bulbs. Next green thumb ambition is an herb garden, inspired by this article. Go greenery!

2011 Year in Review: Life List Items Completed

Back in 2008, one of my favourite bloggers published her Life List and she has gone on to inspire many others to do the same. There's now even a camp where people bring their Life Lists and brainstorm ways to get some of their goals accomplished. It's always fascinating to scan through these lists, and see the types of moments that people want to experience. In September, because I've been daydreaming lately about life goals, aspirations and fun things to see and do, I thought I'd take a shot at writing my own Life List. Rather than publish the whole thing here, I'll cross things off as I go along.

Here are the items that I've completed in 2011:

• Hike in Dibba. Done: Aqaba to Lima trek, November 7, 2011
• Visit Qatar. Done: October 28, 2011
• Write up my favourite recipes in a book. Done: September 17, 2011, ready for Christmas 2011
• Grow tulip bulbs. Sort of done: they're well on their way!
• Roast a chicken. Done: September 16, 2011, so easy, so delicious, I have to do this again!
• Make 2012 Flickr photo calendars for gifts. Done: these were delivered 09/19/2011, my annual tradition.
• Pick out my most meaningful books and get an Ideal Bookshelf painting. Done: I love the results, we have them framed in our living room. These were delivered September 25, 2011.
• Read Ernest Hemingway. Done: October 12, 2011.  I finished "Snows of Kilimanjaro" and this was an interesting lesson in the life list because I didn't enjoy the book. Maybe I needed to read Moveable Feast instead? But it showed me that every experience on the list isn't going to be as mindblowing as I hope it will be.
• Read James' Ideal Bookshelf. I read Moneyball and Fever Pitch in my quest to read all ten of his Ideal Bookshelf selections.
• Make a cross-stitch for my nephew. Done: September 2011.
• Make a batch of homemade pasta. Done: Eid weekend, November 6, 2011, using this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Tasty! 
• Pack a lunch every day for a month (or longer). Done: I pretty much never buy lunch at the Dubai office, and have enjoyed packing my own food.
• Run 60 minutes on a treadmill. Done: September 24, 2011, starting off my birthday with a good workout!
• Run the Dubai Half. Done: December 9, 2011. AWESOME.
• Try the Monkey Cake at Lime Tree Cafe. Done: September 10, 2011. Voted Dubai's best cake, this was a great goal for the list.

Thoughts On My Life List

Back in 2008, one of my favourite bloggers published her Life List capturing dreamy experiences and ambitious + creative goals that she wants to accomplish, and she has gone on to inspire many others to do the same. There's now even a camp where people bring their Life Lists and brainstorm their creative ways to tick items off. It's always fascinating to scan through these lists on other websites, and see the types of moments that people want to experience.

Because I've been daydreaming lately about life goals, aspirations and fun things to see and do, I thought I'd take a shot at writing my own Life List. It was easier to get to 100 items than I expected,  after reading many bloggers who said that they easily got to around 50-60 and then felt like they had to scrape up new creative inspiration to get to 100.  I flew right past 100 and my list is still growing, because I add new items as inspiration hits.

So I have my list and I love it. And while I won't publish it in its entirety online, I will share some experiences as I cross things off along the way.

Accomplished so far:

Creativity & Hobbies #8: Roast a chicken

• I was always timid about doing this, worried about how difficult it might be, how to get it to cook all the way through, etc. But it was a cinch, and there was such a pleasant tactile quality to handling the chicken, rubbing it with a mix of herbs and then surrounding it with potatoes in a pan.
  

Creativity & Hobbies #11: Make 2012 Flickr photo calendars for gifts

• They've arrived - here's the cover!

Creativity & Hobbies #20: Pick out my most meaningful books and get an Ideal Bookshelf painting.

• Done - I posted about it here. Below is the photo of my faves that I sent to the artist and it's so neat to compare the painting to the original photo -  - I notice all of the little details that she captured.

Creativity & Hobbies #26: Make a cross-stitch for my nephew

• Done - and so cute. It started with that little yellow car, and I'll post the completed version soon.

Personal & Community Health #5: Pack a lunch every day for a month (or longer)

• This one was a bit of a cheat, since I have pretty much been doing this throughout 2011. Today, I have yogurt with oats and pomegranate seeds. Yesterday, I had a homemade soup.

Personal & Community Health #6: Run 60 minutes on a treadmill

• Something I wanted to do once - - and just once because it's so boring - - just to say that I could do it. On my birthday, I decided to kick off my "new year" with a big fitness morning, and 60 minutes later, I was checking this off the list.

Moments & Experiences #13: Try the Monkey Cake at Lime Tree Cafe

• Yum yum, so good to include these types of goals. It was named Dubai's best cake, so of course I had to go on a mission to try it. Verdict: it was certainly a tasty treat

Many more fun moments and experiences to come!