Snap caption: Pearls of wisdom from Etisalat HQ

Overheard in the newsroom: Lebanese fan of Lebanese pop singer edition

She's beautiful! Look at her eyebrows.

Snap caption: Abayas & standup paddleboarding, together at last

Overheard in Abu Dhabi: Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2012 edition

We can't drink before going to Lawrence of Arabia - it's not going to work.

Fill in the blank: 50 Cent looks _______ to be promoting his new headphones in Dubai

Abu Dhabi Film Festival 2012: This is what I will be snacking on with James Franco

That's Spicy Mashed Potato Popcorn - an Indian snack I am both intrigued and repelled by. So I am using the 7.15 screening of James Franco's (likely slightly insufferable) film Francophrenia tonight as an excuse to try it. 

Good morning! I recommend this complicated new siphon coffee from Jones The Grocer

I had some the other day and I don't think I've ever been that wide awake. Available at the location off Electra Street, closer to the Corniche.

Plus you get a little truffle with it, which is just the kind of happy surprise everyone should have at 7.30am!

Happy Friday: Just another weekend in Abu Dhabi

If you get a chance this winter, take a weekend afternoon cruise with Belevari Marine, who operate them both Friday and Saturday. I was part of a group last Friday who rented the whole catamaran, and it was a really, really, really great day. (Maybe not quite as great as it was for those people on that huge yacht in the background of this picture, but pretty great.) Dh350 with great drinks and snacks provided.

Phillips My Style shaver: This is how to make an Arab beard

Phillips sent us a new shaver the other day, and it was accompanied by this hilarious sticker, which basically sums up the face of every man over the age of 20 here.

The sticker raises so many more questions than it answers, including: is it for your face? Or for the mirror?

I like to write: the exercise ball edition

A colleague and I recently started sitting on exercise balls at work. We have been the object of much ridicule, but we don't care because we are strengthening our cores and fighting the scourge that is inactivity. We also like to make a lot of jokes and puns with the word ball, as you do.

Here's our take. And by the way, if you don't mind people laughing at you, then I highly recommend it.

Overheard in the newsroom: Super-special Wednesday edition

I found it in her drawer. I think it might be a prosthetic testical. 

My cat's a letdown.

It's not free, but it will be delicious

I don't think it looks like a baby. I think it looks like a coconut.

That soup didn't work. It was a misfire.

I get comments: Dear Anonymous, from the bottom of my heart, thank you

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a picture of some empty shelves in a shop, because basically it looked like the worst shop ever and I thought that would make someone giggle. I made the error of spelling "stationery" with an "a", which every grammar and spelling guru knows is a crime that carries a sentence of 25 years to life.

Only in the UAE: 3 randoms

This is what I love about living in Abu Dhabi: over a period of three days I mingled with three people I can guarantee you my paths would never have crossed were it not for my decision to leave Canada.

They were: an ex-US military guy who is over here fixing F-16s, the new Mexican ambassador, Francisco Alonso, and the wife of one of the Canadian doctor inventors of the Banana Guard.