Mandoos: the official shoe of the UAE

For some reason this billboard, at Muroor Road and 15th, makes me giggle.

This week in goat news

I am pretty excited for the weekend, because that is when I will get to read a first-person account by Jonathan Gornall, a witty British journalist aka Microwave Man living in Dubai, as to how, exactly, his passport came to be eaten by a goat. 

Mr Gornall is in the process of getting a new passport and no doubt enjoying saying things like "My passport was eaten by a goat". I don't really know how or where, as the details remain sketchy. All I know is that only the front cover and a portion of his picture remained. Stay tuned for the Motoring section in Saturday's edition of The National for more details.

For now, however, click below to see an exclusive picture of the guilty party.

The machine, thankfully, is now working fine

I met a very upbeat cab driver from Pakistan this weekend. He loves Canada, of course, (every taxi driver does, or so it seems) and apologised for his English. I apologised for my Urdu, which made him laugh hysterically. After he recovered from the shock of my answer to the question "do you have children?" he proceeded to tell me how he came to have some himself. 

Soon it became clear that he was trying to convey that on his wedding night, at 16 – his wife was just 14 – he was unable to consummate the union. Or, more simply and in his words, "machine no working". As I understand the story – and I could, obviously, have gotten things very, very wrong – his mother (somehow?) stepped in and sorted everything out. Not quite sure on the details, but things were apparently executed properly – to everyone's relief – the second night. "Second night good", he said. He also assured me that his "machine" continued "working very good" after that first hurdle, and I guess so: the couple have four children. Not that I needed to know, but he assured me "machine very good  – no problem", even now.

Overheard in the newsroom

"Baby camels are more delicious than big camels."

Ah advertising: Iconic Black song used in two, quite different ways

In my mind there could not be a bigger contrast in how the British Band's 1987 tune Wonderful Life – a song that gets inside you, there's not doubting that – has been used in television advertising here.

The mood set by the run of posh spots for Emirates Airlines earlier this year is a far cry from the dingy feel of the recent adverts for Zain, the Middle East telecom, that have been airing on MBC4. Instead of lavish beach front spreads and scuba diving – the Emirates life – Zain's commercials feature dark rooms, bare light bulbs, spare furniture but mostly rubble, lots of rubble and bombed-out buildings, while various children sing in heavily accented English.

It's very "5-star lifestyle" versus "hope amid the squalor". My knowledge of advertising is very shallow; I would love to know if it was reactive in some way.

Snap caption: Totally awesome truck interior

Photo courtesy of Essam al Ghalib, in Al Ain.

Snap caption: Beirut shoe store really gets to the bottom of it

Courtesy of Essam al Ghalib

UPDATE: Fyi, Eccentric M, Essam says it was a boutique in Ashrafiya, just down the street from the Albergo Hotel. Same side of the street, just a few doors down.