Sunday, May 27, 2012

Pizza Hut's Crown Carnival Crust cheese burger pizza, (partially) explained

I am a little late on this, but I don't want you to miss the real story behind the cheese burger pizza, as broken down by The National's James Langton.

Did you know it's only sold in the UAE? And that someone flew here from the US, just to try it? As for food critic Emily Shardlow? Not a fan.

Don't forget the one "studded with Golden Chicken Fillets":




SKMC visit: This cat made my day

I had to do a cardio stress test at Sheikh Khalifa Medical City this morning, a residual checkup from a chest pain scare I had last year (it appears I just pulled a muscle, no worries) and it seems that a cardio stress test is really, really hard for some people. For me it was a quick nine-minutes walking increasingly fast at an incline on a treadmill, thank goodness, and all appears to be well. But the nurse kept holding the small of my back, while she and the doctor kept asking if I was okay and I felt as though I could continue.

And though they kept telling me to look forward (maybe to derive inspiration from the giant "PERSERVERE" poster on the wall, accompanied by a tiny picture of that old woman doing the vertical splits on a bus stop – inspiring words: "If I can do it, you can"),  I couldn't help but look around, too, much to the doctor and nurse's chagrin. How looking straight ahead has any impact on the results of a stress test is beyond me, but they insisted, so I tried to accommodate them.

Still, I am glad I snuck a little glance to the left, because there it was: basically the best picture I've seen in a long time. A cat on safari, with just the right clothes for the excursion. 


Thursday, May 24, 2012

Another excellent Abu Dhabi parking job

This one, frankly, is pretty hard to understand. There were loads of spaces behind me as I took this shot.

Overheard at the gym: The "Oh really?/beg to differ"/awful white expat edition

"I moved here. I bought furniture. I have kids in school. You need people like me in this country, not Indians who live six to a room"

Hard to believe someone could utter this nonsense then go work it out in a combat class, isn't it? It was so hard for me to believe I immediately typed it into my phone and sent myself a text so I wouldn't forget.

I guess that's the kind of peace of mind having a completely deluded and utterly asinine world view gets you.


Monday, May 7, 2012

Region-specific spam, straight from my inbox: baby falcon edition

hii sir

my name is abdaala i live in kuwait and i have a baby falcon for sale if ur interested.. 
regards
Abdaala

How to be a happy expat

Because a cloud wall makes you want to take a selfie.  After 10 years living in the UAE, some of that time happy, some miserable and ...