Hotel inhabitant

4 months.....staying in a hotel. Yep...I haven't returned to my house in Kemaman for almost 4 months now. And all this time...staying in hotels...either in KL or Abu Dhabi...company paid off course. One full month in Mutiara Crown Plaza KL has given me an upgrade membership from Gold to Platinum Priority Club Membership. So next time if I stay there, I will get an automatic upgrade for the room I'm paying. Not bad...despite the fact that I won't stay there if it's not paid by my company. There's a lot of other cheaper but still nice to live at hotels around KL. So why bother ?

2 full months in Abu Dhabi...I've been moving around so often..not because I wanted to, but because I had to. 3 full weeks in Cassells Residency Hotel, then we ought to check out and travel to Oman. Stayed at Rafee Hotel in Muscat for few days, camping for 3 days, and back to this Rafee hotel for another day before we went back to Abu Dhabi, to stay again in Cassells hotel. After 2 in a half weeks staying undisturbed in this hotel, the training management moved us to the Blue Apartement, for 3 days in my case and my three Russian friends for some reason I won't mention here, before I have to return back to Cassells Hotel for the remaining of my training course. In that remaining time, I still have to move from one room to another, Junior Suite to Standard room. I really had enough of all this moving.

Back to KL at 7 April 2007, checked in to Impiana Hotel KL, booked for the whole month, until I can find an apartment and relocate my house stuffs to KL. Not that I have found one, since this agency hasn't even contacted me yet to set a date and show me the apartments I can lease within my company's budget. Darn it !!! I really want to finish all this relocation thing and settle things down in KL. How I miss my own house where I can relax undisturbed, cook with my husband in our own kitchen, redecorate the living rooms, mess things around, and start doing some useful activities once I can settle down here, not to worry about my stuffs any longer. How I really missed staying at what we people call a place...HOME.

Somehow, how comfortable a hotel is, I will never find it as comfortable as my own home.

Abu Dhabi 301

Thursday and Friday last week were the hottest days since I've been here in Abu Dhabi. The class finished early last Thursday, and excitedly I decided to walk back to the apartment which is 3 blocks away. I looked at my watch, 16:45. Perfect time to have an afternoon walk while enjoying the sunshine and cool breeze. Then I walked out of the front entrance and phieeuhhh...warm afternoon breeze welcomed me instead of the oh so cool breeze I was expecting to accompany me walking down the street. Where did my cool breeze go? 'There goes my perfect afternoon walk' I thought. But still I've decided to walk, so I then walked in that heat, and quite hot it was. Welcome to real UAE!

The next day, not only was it hot, it was also dusty. So dusty that it seemed like fog. What happened ? Sand storm or we can also say desert storm. Don't worry, this kind of storm won't affect anything in the city except that fine sands are all around the corner. Warning!! Don't yawn or laugh out loud in the streets at that time. Not because you're not allowed to, but just because you won't want to swallow any sand blown by the wind, would you ?? Hehehe...

Talking about warning, it reminds me about the taxi's driver behaviour. Don't get surprised if they really can speed. From one traffic light to the next which is only one block away, they can speed up to 100 km/h in less than 10 secs. Always braze yourself when they brake and stop their vehicle before the red light. They do have safety belt at the back seat, but too bad, those are accessories only.

And with those speeding cars along the streets in Abu Dhabi, you really need to be aware when you cross the street. Especially for us who uses 'the wrong side of the road' as opposed to 'the right side of the road'. One of the important thing to consider in safety wherever you travel all around the world is that every country has they're own road system, driving habits, and which side of the road they are driving. The right side...or the left 'wrong' side of the road. From the places I've been, UK, Aussie, South East Asian country, and Japan, all are using the left side of the road, while US, France, Oman, and UAE are using the right side of the road. So...we just have to get used to the system and always check right left right or left right left before crossing the road.

Anomaly

If my husband read this, he will definitely veto the posting, but I will write it anyway :p Like a lot of people, even myself, we have some dislike in food. Or should I say preferance on what we eat. Some peoople chooses to be a vegetarian (herbivore), some would prefer to eat meats (I will call this type as carnivore), and some will have no preference at all which then I will call omnivore. There's also taste preference like salty, sweet, spicy, etc etc.

Now my husband has this anti-spicy food. Somehow his tongue cannot stand even a little bit of spicy taste. What I mean by spicy here is chilli spicy, not other type of spicy. You know, the kind of spicy that makes your tongue burn and make you hot and sweat and if it's too much will end up with stomach ache, but still we love to eat it ?? That kind of spicy. Pepper is not as spicy as chilli I say, but some people consider pepper is spicy enough. Hmm...they will get an argument from me for that matter.

Anyway, the point is he despises hot spicy food. But...hehehe...that's why I say anomaly...because there's a but in his case. And the exception is so typically him. Despite of his dislikes in spicy food, he loves red meat. Why I specifically say red meat ? Because it doesn't include chicken, or fish. In order, he likes lamb, beef, then if no red meats, he will then choose chicken, and the least is fish and seafoods. If there's other choice than fish, he will definitely choose the other. That's why, generally speaking, I said that he loves red meats. Which is too bad because I love spicy foods and seafoods, but strongly dislike mutton, and not really fond of beef. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem eating beef, as long as it is well done cooked, and has to have distinguished taste that I like, but yes, I don't like mutton and almost detest it. So there you go. Imagine cooking at home for both of us. At the end, one of us has to compromise, and most of the time..as you might guess...it will be me :) There's no question on his spicy food eating capability :p

His love in red meats relates to what I'm trying to tell about his spicy food detestation anomaly. Eventhough he doesn't like spicy food, but it will all disappear if the spicy food is from mutton or beef. So he will still happily struggle with agony to finish those spicy delicious food (well at least delicious for him) such as 'mutton gulai', 'beef rendang', etc. What can I say...anomaly is an anomaly...it's something we simply cannot understand according to the normal tendency.

Abu Dhabi 201

My husband has just arrived in Abu Dhabi last Friday. By far, it's the most western place he's ever been :p He said the city is just like the buildings in Yokohama, and the city plan is just like in the Simcity game, you can see clearly the blocks and all the streets are straight. It's always interesting to hear other people's impression of a new place.

Anyway, since he is here, I have someone to accompany me roam around the city. Or rather I accompany him, since he has never visited this place before, arabic country in particular. And somehow he's kind of attracted to their men costume (the white long robe I mentioned before in Abu Dhabi 101). Ofcourse he then went hunting this costume complete with the accessories, dragging me along.

Finally today he got what he wanted. One kandaurah (the long white dress) or the Lebanese would call it dishdash and the accessories which are smaagh (white and red head cover) or guttrah (plain white head cover), 'aighal (black ring that you wear on top of the head cover), and the white head cap they call thaqiyah.

There are different ways to wear the smaagh. Either use the 'aighal on top of the smaagh to keep it in place, or just wrap the smaagh on top of your head like the way my husband use it in the picture (because I prefer him to use it that way, fits better for his face..hehehe).

We also tried this arabic coffee in the store. I thought it will taste not very different from other coffee, but it turned out to be very different. Their main ingredients are cardamom, something else i don't remember the name, and a little bit of coffee. They normally drink it with small cups without handle and the coffee tastes plain with no sugar and a little bit bitter. For me, it tastes just like herb tea, but I might get to like it ;)

So...we are now ready to wear the complete pair of UAE costume and walk down the road and malls just like the locals do. Peace.

Children song

Maman: Do you know that the kids are being manipulated by this song? (he asked me one day)
Balonku ada lima
Rupa-rupa warnanya
Merah kuning kelabu
Merah muda dan biru
Meletus balon hijau..dor!!
(he sang it quite good actually :p)

Maman: There should be six balloons and not five if we count the colours of the balloon. Red, yellow, grey, pink, blue....and green !! The green balloon exploded but it wasn't mentioned before.

Dian: Yeah....you're right. But wait a sec...was the song correct ? Shouldn't it be 'hijau kuning kelabu' rather than 'merah kuning kelabu' ??? You got it wrong!! If it is red all this time like you sang it, someone would have picked this mistake long time ago

Maman: (oops....embarrased)