Okay, so the things I like about Abu Dhabi are...

...well, they are a little hard to find these hot days. I was talking to some friends the other night, and we were remarking that people seem as though they are at the end of their tether. Perhaps the summer is just finally sinking in. And even if you don't have to be outside, not being outside can make you just as cranky. We, as human beings, thrive on fresh air. And when we don't get it, our fuses, I reckon, get shorter and shorter and shorter.

It's like the reverse of Seasonal Affective Disorder, this heat and humidity (and if I hear "it's not the heat, it's the humidity" one more time... well, I probably won't do anything, will I?), and I'll take a bitter Ottawa winter any day over this hot box. But I can't and I'm not going to, so semi-regularly I am going to remind myself of why I like Abu Dhabi.

Reason one: when I visit the local falafel shop, Ali always gives me a little falafel to tide me over until my delicious wrap is ready. He wraps it in a Kleenex and gives it to me with a shy smile.

You don't need a building to pray in...

... as these men prove. I've always wondered about the pile of mats and plywood in this vacant sand lot around the corner from my flat, by a supermarket and not far from the road.

Then one night I ran out to get something at the store and saw them there at evening prayers. There is a mosque not two minutes from this spot – although, like most of the mosques around, come prayer time it is not big enough for everyone to fit inside.

Camel milk chocolate from Dubai: Coming soon to a store near you

Reuters reports that Al Nassma, the world's first brand of camel milk chocolate, is in talks with a number of companies, including Britain's Harrods, to distribute its chocolate around the world.

I have not had camel milk chocolate, but I have had camel milk. It's... well... not cow's milk, let's put it that way.

Then again, some days, I'd eat chocolate made from goat cheese if that was all that was in front of me.

Faboosh pink sofa set for sale

I could not resist taking a picture of this completely awesome sofa set sitting in the sand outside one of the many furniture shops in my neighbourhood.

Snap caption: The sign in the Hummer window says it all

Um, no you may not come in

I opened my door this morning to retrieve the paper and this is what I found:



This bug is so big that it may actually have been knocking and, tiring, decided to take a load off for a minute by flopping out on his back. I prefer that scenario to the other, more nefarious one, that perhaps he was placed there by an unfriendly. I don't think I know any "unfriendlies", or anyone who would have it out for me in such a manner, but it does seem odd, doesn't it? A giant bug like that, on his back, on my doorstep?



You may recall that upon arriving in Abu Dhabi I was relegated not to the nice hotel with the spa that I had been promised, but as all hotels in the city were full, a cockroach infested hotel apartment notorious for offering a grim stay. Infested. That made for a series of dire early nights, but I was soon moved to a non-buggy room where I was able to compose myself. Most of the rest of my exposure to bugs has been dodging the sort of dudes I found this morning in the ladies washroom at work and last summer being bitten by one (or a relative of one, perhaps not quite as big) as I talked to a colleague. When I looked to see what was causing the sharp pain on my leg, I screamed loudly in the newsroom and drew a lot of attention to myself.

Sure, I may have overreacted, but I ask, what would you do if you saw a bug like this on your leg? Anyway, I used a broken cutting board to shuttle that bug well out into the hall where I have been keeping an eye on it through my peephole. I suppose the humane thing would be to kill it, but it just seems too big for that.

For now I am just hoping it will do the right thing and go away.

Now that is hot and humid

The front doors of my apartment building the other night: