I was chatting with a British friend on Skype tonight who asked if I was going to join a group watching the tennis tomorrow, and I explained that while I will be at the same bar (this is Abu Dhabi, after all) I will be there celebrating Canada Day with a bunch of, you know, Canadians.
Me: How could you forget?
Her: Actually, I didn't. I was just hoping you would be more excited about Wimbledon and say yes.
Me: It's pretty hard to trump Canada Day.
Her: Well .....
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Happy Canada Day!
Canada Day 2008, the dock, Blue Sea Lake, Quebec (also known as my favourite place on earth)
The Summer Olympics in Dubai? Seriously?
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai, has come out to say the emirate is going to look seriously at making a bid to host the 2020 Summer Games. No one who is in the UAE at the moment can actually believe this, and not just because the minute you walk outside your glasses fog up and it becomes difficult to breathe. And it's only June.
No doubt this would a boon to Dubai and the UAE (although I am not really sure the Emirates want the world's spotlight on their labour and human rights record, although things could have changed a lot by then). But... seriously? How can anyone think this will fly? I am really not the defeatist sort, but there is a reason the Summer Games are not held in this region and it seems insurmountable. Qatar made a bid for the 2016 Summer Games, but their proposal was to move it to the fall, and that doesn't really merge with the interests of the television broadcasters or the athlete's training schedules.
No doubt this would a boon to Dubai and the UAE (although I am not really sure the Emirates want the world's spotlight on their labour and human rights record, although things could have changed a lot by then). But... seriously? How can anyone think this will fly? I am really not the defeatist sort, but there is a reason the Summer Games are not held in this region and it seems insurmountable. Qatar made a bid for the 2016 Summer Games, but their proposal was to move it to the fall, and that doesn't really merge with the interests of the television broadcasters or the athlete's training schedules.
A random thing I feel the need to semi-publicly confess
...I have been reading From Rags to Riches: A Story of Abu Dhabi, a 190-page book by Mohammed Al-Fahim, for 14 months.
I am on page 135, having stalled at Aug 6, 1966: the day Sheikh Zayed becomes ruler of Abu Dhabi.
I am on page 135, having stalled at Aug 6, 1966: the day Sheikh Zayed becomes ruler of Abu Dhabi.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Sugar Daddy's does Michael Jackson cupcakes
Sugar Daddy's is an awesome cupcake shop in Dubai I highly recommend - just last week an intern brought us in a three-pack, and I devoured a red velvet version. Quick-thinking staff too: on Friday they whipped up these babies, just hours after the news broke and well before the radio stations started playing his music wall-to-wall.
Via Cupcakes Take the Cake (my new favourite non-UAE blog).
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Saturday, June 27, 2009
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