Midnight at the oasis, send your camel to bed (Maria Muldaur)

Rambling Man (You may say I'm a dreamer - Chapter 10 part 11)

The northern Purdy clan gathers at Christine's
for Irene's 90 not out party!

Life in the Al Ain years was good. Really good! Work (as detailed in the previous post was great) but the lifestyle for me and Jacky was terrific as well.

Jacky and her ex pat wife friends used the malls as gathering places. And then they shopped! Suffice to say we brought a lot of stuff home to NZ afterwards - cushions, bedding, shoes, clothes, art work, CDs, stereos, TVs , and so on - A LOT of stuff!

Along the way we had frequent overseas trips: back to NZ and Waiheke Island; to the UK to see Christine, Irene and the rest of the Purdy clan; and memorably the Christmas 2011 trip to London for the most wonderful and gayest Christmas celebration of all time with Patrick/ Randy and their friends.

Wozza and Jade at the
Sheikh Zayed Mosque

Meanwhile back in the UAE, we moved from The Gardens apartments to Yellow Jimi - another enclave of ex pat Cognition workers (think Melrose Place) - we were neighbours of Graeme and Jansy, Pete and Paula, Brett and Margie and Gavin and Noella on the top floor. They were all awesome kiwi friends.

Our downtimes were spent walking (often to the Al Jimi mall), with weekend road trips to Dubai and the Dubai Mall (OMG - I LOVE the Dubai Mall), Mall of the Emirates (playing at Ski Dubai with Jade), Burjuman Centre. We also did frequent road trips to Abu Dhabi (great music store there - Kings Recording), with the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque a constant highlight. We went on tours of Dubai (with visitors like Brian Smith and Jade), Jacky went for frequent riding sessions at the Al Ain equestrian centre (while I walked for an hour around the complex). Camel rides in the desert and visits to Al Ain zoo were great too.

A lot of dates were consumed!

Life in the sandpit  was a full on experience! 

I loved it - the consistently great weather, the people, the sand dunes, the coffee treats in the malls, the shopping, the cheap petrol!

Shame it had to end but the unreal bubble life does have a use by date. By the end, Jacky had had enough extended holiday (she hadn't worked for three years) and it was time for another change. We'd bought a house in Hawke's Bay and I was confident I'd pick up some kind of teaching job - management or just English teaching would have been fine.

With my usual naive spirit of optimism I returned to NZ  in June 2012 (Jacky had left in January to work through possession of the house - Red Phoenix Farm).

The hope was the rambling years were at an end, some stability and security was the thinking. But wait...one more post is needed before that would happen!

Love and peace - Wozza

I'm gonna keep on walkin', till I find my way back home (Sonny Terry, Brownie McGhee)

Still reading Waging Heavy Peace (slowly- it's so good!) and ole Neil's a keen walker. I love Neil Young - he's so funny, and wise!

Anyway he's a keen walker and I miss walking. Except I think he means hiking. I'm not so much a hiker but I love walking. Are you keeping up?

So... this post is going to celebrate some of my favourite walks.

Place: Leigh-on-sea (Essex) - the walk from our place in Western Road to the shops (Fives! I really miss Fives - one of my favourite record stores) - beautiful gardens and views.

Place: Leigh-on-sea (Essex) - the walk from our place in Western Road to Rayleigh Castle - beautiful views of the Thames estuary.

Place: Dubai - specifically The Dubai Mall - I loved walking around it, visiting the Virgin Mega Store and the great bookshop close by.

Place: Doha (Qatar) - from our place down past the Souq Waqif, along the corniche to the City Centre Mall.

Place: London  - the embankment - war memorials, views of the Thames, the London Eye, Westminster, St Tommys, the Cathedral. Sometimes we'd do the Charing Cross - Mall - St James' Park to Westminster walk and that was amazing as well - squirrels. I miss the squirrels!

Place: Taupo (NZ) - the Lion walk with the kids from the Taupo house. A loop that took in a Rainbow Point ice cream.

Place: London - from Leicester Square tube station to Covent Garden and Fopp (I really miss Fopp - another of my favourite record stores)

Place: Wuxi - the botanical gardens after biking there from our place. Spectacular gardens.

Sadly, even though we live out in the beautiful Central Hawke's Bay countryside, we currently have no regular walks around us. Our place to Otane shops does not appeal. 

This is a real pity. I love to walk!

Love and peace - Wozza

Take the elevator to the escalator, ride it down and start again (Weezer)

As per every one of my birthdays, since about 1970, I bought some Beatles product on my latest trip to the Dubai Mall.

Every year, around this time, I manage to add to my Fabs collection which just goes to show that the Beatles have never gone (and never will go) out of fashion or stop generating revenue for someone.

My latest two additions: Fab Faq 2.0 : The Beatles' Solo Years 1970-1980 by Robert Rodrigeuz is a companion volume to Fab Four Faq which has some amazingly esoteric facts on the Fabs that I've never seen before. I picked up the first volume a few months ago and saw this one at the Dubai Mall Bookstore as well. Knowing I had a birthday coming up I carefully hid it behind some other Beatles' books (there are lots so there was no danger someone would spot it).

The second addition was the latest copy of Filter magazine (number 45).

It's not really my kind of magazine - it's aimed a few generations younger than me, issue 45 does have a certain George Harrison on the cover though and that certainly got my attention.

The inside 'story' surrounds various young musicians and their thoughts on George (there is a new Scorsese documentary coming out which looks amazing and it's 10 years since George died).

I enjoyed reading it but the rest of the magazine is very glossy - lots of ads for American icons like Levis jeans - that sort of thing. The landscape format for the thing is quite weird too - the sizing above is accurate for the page layout and that takes a little adjusting to - damn thing kept sliding off my knees!

Talking of the Dubai Mall - I have this recurring fantasy that is a lot like the Tom Hanks movie The Terminal. I could easily live in the Dubai Mall. Easily!

It has it all. It really is a city in there. Apart from the fact that I would have unlimited supply to new technology (computer stores by the dozen), and old technology (I would never run out of books to read from the Bookstore, or music or movies to watch from Virgin or at the movie theatres).

There are seemingly endless places to have a meal or grab a coffee. Sleeping would not need to be rough - there are many really posh home decor stores.

Fashion? You name it. Sports equipement? Check.

Bathrooms? They are all over the place.

I can't think of anything I'd need that you couldn't get there. Even peace and quiet is available (the Mall opens slowly and sleepily at 10am).

In fact I'd be very willing to conduct a Big Brother House type experiment - to live in the Dubai Mall for...I don't know...a month? Two months? No problem. Anyone want to sponsor me?

Love and peace - Wozza

She's a slice of heaven (Dave Dobbyn and Herbs)

We had a real kiwiana weekend in Dubai: I was keen to get an All Black jersey for supporting the team while the rugby world cup was on back in Aotearoa so we went to Go Sport in the Dubai Mall (it was also haircut weekend - that's why we were in the mall). They had a good range of shirts and so we got one each.

Yes - Jacky got one too. I can picture the kuds with their mouths open wide in shock coz they've never (ever) seen their mother in a football shirt let alone a Nu Zild All Black one. But it's true (and she wears it well - much better than me - Sonny Bill I ain't).

We did our usual perambulations around the mall (a new Virgin Megastore has opened so you know where I spent my time) and for lunch we stopped off at the BurgerFuel section of the food court.

It was great to get a taste of home (100% NZ beef) and talk to the staff there (some of whom are kiwis).

They have a prime location in the food court overlooking the skating rink three levels below!

The other kiwi highlight was, of course, watching the opening of the rugby world cup in my hometown of Auckland. The All Blacks added the cherry on top by playing well and beating Tonga in the opening game.

Jacky and I have a flying visit to NZ coming up this week for some family business (flying out on Friday 16th Sept). We are away from Al Ain for a week so I'm sure we'll catch the footie fever even more when we are there and maybe we can get the real deal BurgerFuel at a place in the Hawke's Bay or Palmerston North, inshallah.

 Love and peace - Wozza

Let me take you to the beach, la la la la la la la (Frank Zappa)

SWMBO's sister Mabelle says we should be starting up a tour biznis for friends and family coming to the UAE. I'm starting to do the Big Bus Tour in my dreams so she may have something.

Jade only had the one weekend to see the sights of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. As luck would have it a holiday was declared on Thursday last week to commemorate Prophet Mohammed's (peace be upon him) ascension from Mecca to the heavens in the year 621 where he met Allah and some of the earlier prophets, before returning to Mecca.

This meant we had a three day weekend. Yahoo!

We started Wednesday afternoon with a journey to Jabeel Hafeet. Unfortunately the visibility was not great and it was very windy. This was a bit of a recurring theme for the weekend with a lot of dust around - hey - it's a desert out there!

Thursday - we tanked up the purdmobile (where the camel in a basket shots were taken) and pottled onwards to Dubai. We stopped at the Wafi Mall, took in a gentle glide down the Dubai Creek via a river cruise on a traditional dhow, went on a Big Bus tour of the Burj and Deira areas of Dubai, stopped off at the Dubai Mall for its classy water features and vast network of shops.

Friday - we went on the second tour route that the Big Bus Tour does to the beach, the Atlantis resort and Lost Chamber exhibition, the Mall of the Emirates and Ski Dubai. Sadly the footage of me falling off a luge and sliding along on my elbows has been mislaid - dammit!

Saturday saw us on the move to Abu Dhabi for the Grand Mosque and, of course, shopping in the Hamdan Centre (me) and the Abu Dhabi Mall (SWMBO and Jade). I arrived at the mosque in shorts so I needed to don a kandoura.

And that was the extended weekend. I'm picking Jade and SWMBO will spend a large portion of today sleeping!

Love and peace - Abu Keegan

Your typical city involved in a typical daydream...(The Grateful Dead Part 1)

Jacky and I have packed a lot into my week off. Last Friday was spent on some school work (we are being audited in a few weeks time so I need my folders holding evidence of 44 Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, up to date). Gonna bring you the week in three parts. Part 1: Saturday and Sunday were spent in Dubai. We did the Big Bus Tour and saw a lot more of Dubai in a much more relaxed way than we have before (normally our routine is to drive to Dubai, negotiate traffic in a growing fever pitch of dread, stay in the Burj Dubai area and commute to malls on the metro). The Big Bus tour has been a great experience in the past (Edinburgh, Rome, and Paris) so we thought why not? We certainly didn't regret it. Here are some snaps from the trip which took in the Palm and Jumerieh Beach areas of Dubai.

We started at the Wafi mall (this is one of the modest little entrances to it) and went on a windy open top ride towards Deira and the creek area of Dubai. Yes I know I'm all alone in the shot - Nigel No Mates indeed - see even Jacky left me to take the picture!

We eventually hopped off the bus for a look around the souq (second photo below) but the constant demand for our attention from the pashmina salesmen drove us nuts. I hate the forceful way they hound tourists to enter their shops.

So we escaped them on a water taxi across the creek (above) and rejoined the bus (below). We made our way out to Jumerieh beach and the Palm area (a reclaimed island that is in the shape of a palm tree with fronds holding very flash apartment blocks and the Atlantis resort). It's obscenely rich and decadent and very much a symbol of modern Dubai, or it would be except it's finished - unlike much of Dubai). The approach road to the Atlantis on the Palm is above, and below is the beach area that is also home to massive palaces housing the ruling family and rich movie stars from Mickey Mouse town. This bit in the photo is the public beach where even I might have a swim, if I so desired (I didn't).

Nobs' lane Palm style - a nearly endless line of luxury apartment blocks on the Palm fronds - each with a lagoon running up to it.

We then headed back into Dubai (this being the view back over the Palm's bridge to the mainland taken by Jacky) and enjoyed a visit to the Dubai mall and then home to Al Ain the next day.

Monday and Tuesday were spent doing more school work and the return home also gave Jacky a chance to attend her horsing around session at Al Ain's equestrian centre.

But that's to be continued in the next post inshallah....

Love and peace - Wozza

Take your passion, and make it happen (Irene Cara)

My oh my - what a holiday! Where to start, where to start?

(Warning - travelogue with slides is coming).




AL AIN - DUBAI
The holiday was a bit of an epic - starting with a taxi to the free Emirates bus in Al Ain and then the bus trip to Dubai a few days before Christmas.

Jacky can sniff out equine interests much like I have a radar for Beatle products. The building behind her is an entrance to the Dubai metro station.

We had fun riding the Dubai metro (clean, quiet, efficient) from Khalid Bin Al Waheed station to the Burj Khalifa/Dubai Mall station, wandering around the giant Dubai mall, and walking past the Burj Khalifa on the way (it's the world's tallest building - so big it hurt my neck to look all the way up to the top of the building from the bottom).

The light from the sun behind the Burj left a weird surreal kind of shadow in its wake.

DUBAI MALL

The Dubai mall has some amazing features. I believe it's the biggest mall in the world - we spent a whole day in it and didn't see it all; it's, if anything, too big, in that we didn't know where to start and we got ourselves lost quite a lot

There are many specialist malls within the mall: for instance there is a gold souq and a fashion wing with all the swanky brands including a Stella McCartney shop with prices to match the exclusivity. If you want to buy some fine art this is also the place to go (Picasso anyone?).

There are the usual things like children's fun parks (Sega Republic), cinemas, food courts but vast areas are also devoted to various arty installations like the divers going down the waterfall. The photo above shows just part of a massive waterfall wall. It is staggeringly beautiful and effective, in that it induces calm and how's that serenity amid the consumer orgy happening all around it. The mall's bookshop is worth talking about. It's the size of a mall in itself with, it seems, ever book known to mankind. I took Jacky in just to show her the enormity of it. Amazing.

The bookshop contains its own coffee shop/restaurant with a fabulous view over the lake and fountain area.

This one is for Samantha (she would have loved to roam around the Converse shop).

This one is for Ross - a huge model shop containing some huge models (the scale is provided by the tiny human in the background)!

Jacky and I ventured into the aquarium and underwater zoo at the mall - the aquarium is a very impressive fish tank (can you picture a tank holding 10 million litres of water? In a mall??), that contains a huge number of fish (over 33 thousand), including sharks of all varieties, various rays and the odd scuba diver vacuuming its floor.

DUBAI - LONDON
All the while in Dubai we kept an eye on the UK weather. Heathrow was closed and the snowfalls looked like they may put our trip in jeopardy. We crossed our fingers and hopped on the plane to London.

Flying into Heathrow on Dec 23 was no problem in the end - the snow had stopped falling and although the ground was frozen, we landed safely.

HEATHROW - HIGHBURY/ISLINGTON
Phase 2 was the trip to Highbury/Islington station via the underground. By the time we got there it was night time and cold. We had no cell phone reception to ring Patrick nor could we find a taxi so we lugged our cases through the snow and ice to Ferntower Rd (aka The Shire) - Randy and Pat's fantastic home that is minutes away from the Emirates stadium. Thanks so much for allowing us to stay and share your ohfabuloso Christmas with us!!

First point of business was a walk to Emirates to stock up on shirts, a tie and hopefully tickets to the Chelsea/Arsenal game later in the week. Sadly the game was a sell out so we bought our stuff (Patrick not only entered the Armory but bought some (holy) water as well) and planned on seeing the game at a local pub instead.

CHRISTMAS IN THE SHIRE
Christmas eve and Christmas day are a bit of a blur (especially for Jacky who had a severe migraine on Christmas eve).

Breakfast on Christmas morning in the Ferntower kitchen.

Randy and Pat are great social bizzy bees with a large network of friends. The house was buzzing with people for two days and we had a triffic time meeting everyone. Meals were provided by one of their friends - Sean - who is one of London's top chefs. I chatted to him as I cleaned up dishes and peeled potatoes and prepared Brussel Sprouts for him (mmm - you read that right) and was awed to hear him talk about cooking for Kate Moss, Heather Mills and Paul McCartney!!!!! (I'm furiously fanning my face even now). I-stood-next-to-someone-who-stood-next-to-Paul-McCartney!!!

The man who stood next to Macca preparing our Christmas repaste.

My before and after plate tells its own story.

Of course there were presents aplenty to unpack for Wozza, Randy and Pat and the various guests:







Pat and Randy promised us a fun Christmas and they didn't let us down. It was like no other Christmas I've ever experienced. For one thing our own families were missing (they had already celebrated their day while we slept through Christmas Eve night) and that was weird. We've never had a Christmas away from Keegan, Adam, Samantha, Jade and the inlaws.

Although we were missing them, thanks to Pat and Randy and their fabulous friends we had a great Christmas day anyway.

Pat and friend Presley thrust us all into a sing song around the piano (note the Taranaki landscape in the background) and we sang, laughed, played games and were very merry indeed. Presley is blessed with an amazing voice - Jacky and I loved listening to him.

Later in the evening we repaired to the red lounge to exchange secret Santa gifts (the most stylish/ornate/fascinating secret Santa EVER undertaken) and to then watch a movie chosen by friend Stewart - Mommie Dearest!!

Stewart knows the film reasonably well. After about 40 viewings (by his reckoning) he is able to recite the dialogue along the way (not just some, but ALL the dialogue). As Pat said to me - this has got to be your gayest Christmas ever, to which I replied, "No contest".

Oh BTW - did I mention I won the gay quiz? Seems my knowledge of Bette Midler, Barbara Streisand, Mel Torme, Madonna, Judy Garland and Gloria Gaynor has finally come in handy. Pat reckons I'm only straightened on the gayometer by my love of football and Ted Nugent.

BOXING DAY
Boxing day was a late breakfast and a trip to Oxford St to check out the sales. There was a tube strike on that day but Oxford St and the buses were jammed! Without having phones Jacky and I got ourselves separated for a few hours which was very unsettling so, when finally reunited, we decided to find a Carphone Warehouse and get some SIM cards. It was then back to Highbury to watch the game. In another first - Jacky watched the whole game with me in the Nobody Inn pub with a noisy crowd of fellow gooners. We won 3-1 and happily spilled out of the pub towards the shire (about 50 yards away!).

LONDON TOWN
Being in London I had to visit FOPP and HMV (the Virgin Megastores have closed up shop) HMV in particular was manic. I had to head to the bottom floor's jazz and classical section to get some quiet thinking time.

We decided to see some shows while we could; and hummed and haaaed before plumping for Priscilla Queen of the Desert and Flashdance (they seemed appropriate and we wanted to keep the theme going). Pat said we'd love Priscilla and so it proved to be - a riot of OTT visuals, music and terrible risque jokes! Flashdance isn't in the same camp - more dancing and an attempt at a dramatic story (which Priscilla doesn't even pretend to have) and excellent in its own way.

After all this excess (and I haven't even mentioned the orgy of mushy peas and cod dinners I got through) we took our last tearful journey on the tube (I LOVE the tube) to Heathrow and home via another stopover in Dubai. We left London at night and not sleeping on the plane meant that I missed a lot of zzzzs.

An awesome holiday and today I'm back at work - feeling a little shattered to be back in the saddle after a surreal trip back to blighty.

Now I have a fresh load of CDs and DVDs to plow through over the next few months (see the music blog for details).

Love and peace and why does Santa have three gardens? (because he needs to ho ho ho) - Wozza

P.S. If you've read this far you deserve a treat: so here's a nude shot of Wozza and Pat and Randy's cat - Tiki - having fun in the bath!