Graziella Goes to the Park

When the weather cools off and it is not so hot, we take Graziella to a park near our house for a morning walk. We try to go on Fridays and Saturdays when John is home as I cannot take her in a taxi. Dogs are forbidden to travel in a taxi. I cannot tell you how much this dog loves this outing. We have to spell the word W-A-L-K so she does not get too excited in advance of our departure. However, she knows all the signs of readiness and has usually figured it out well before we call her to the door and tell her we are going out for a walk (we actually say the word). This causes her to go into a delightful spin---literally turning round and round so much you would think she would get sick from dizziness. She waits patiently for the leash to be hooked to her collar and then she's off! She trots happily to the car, jumps in, and climbs onto my lap so she can see out the window as we travel. She typically accompanies us to the car wash on Fridays, sits patiently on my lap through the automated wash, and then sits again patiently on the bench while we wait for the workers to clean the car. She knows the routine. When we pull up to the park, she jumps up to the window and looks around and begins to whine to get out. I cannot get out of the car fast enough to please her. She's down on the pavement and off for her big adventure. Even though it is the same adventure each week, she doesn't seem to mind. She trots along ahead of us checking out all the sights and sounds of the park as we walk along at a brisk pace. She often hangs back for us to catch up with her and then walks between us. She makes sure she stays between us---it is like her little comfort zone. She knows all the places where the park strays hang out and checks out each one as we pass. She's encountered a few of them in the past and never forgets where they hang out.






The park is one of the many parks throughout the city. There are a couple of parks near our house on the canal. However, you cannot see the canal except for a few lookout points built out over the water along the way. Such a shame the water cannot be seen all the way through the park. There are actually two parks that are connected by a long, paved walkway through a grove of trees. This walkway is perfect for walking as it is shaded by the trees and makes it easier to go to the park even after the heat begins.

I have always found this photo of the bicycle in front of the reduced speed signs to be amusing. These signs and the bicycle have been here in the park along the trail for as long as we have been going.

The one thing about the parks is that sometimes they are very littered with trash. This is still a young nation and things like littering is still a problem. Even though, garbage cans are all over the park, people still drop trash on the ground, often within just a few feet of the trash can. Sometimes you will even see whole picnic parties just left where they were the night before. So sometimes in the mornings, the parks are littered and not very pretty. Lately we have noticed the sanitation people are working earlier and the parks are cleaner by the time we arrive, which is around 8:00 a.m.

In the UAE, people go to the parks at night, not during the day. The parks are relatively empty in the daytime except for sanitation workers and gardeners. However, the parks come alive at night with people picnicing, grilling, and celebrating birthdays and such. The Arabs are nocturnal because of the heat. Even when the weather is better, habits are hard to break. You do see more people in the parks in the day during the winter months---October to April--the weather is so much cooler and the parks are very pleasant.

We end every visit to the park with John and Graziella looking over the cobblestone wall that traverses through the park. John just happened to decide to look over the wall one day to see what was behind it. Graziella immediately climbed the wall to look with him and it has been a tradition since that day. She loves it. She has NO IDEA what she is suppose to be looking at or for but she clambers up that wall every time to see what she can see. John thinks she may think they are hunting something. She gets very excited about it and it seems to be the highlight of her trip to the park. We save it for the last thing we do. You can tell she knows that it is about time because she will trot in the direction of the wall as we get to the end of the walk. It is very funny
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Forecasters predict rain in UAE on Monday

I know this does not sound like a big deal---but in the UAE rain is a big deal. It makes headlines! And it is cloudy out today and looks rainy. Sometimes when it rains here, it POURS. Almost like flash flooding type rain. And some flooding does occur as the drainage systems and streets are not designed to handle excessive water.

The headlines today encouraged people to stay away from the sea as the waters are suppose to be rough. The above satellite photo was in the paper and on the website of Gulf News showing the rain clouds over the whole Gulf region. Nearby cities are definitely suppose to get rain but Abu Dhabi might miss it. Not sure if that is good or bad! I wouldn't mind seeing some rain.

Mail Delivery in Abu Dhabi

Since Abu Dhabi does not have street addresses, then obviously they do not deliver mail at your residence. If you want to receive mail here, you must register for a post office box at the main post office or apply for one in the district where you live. Most districts have small P. O. kiosks with about 100 to 200 boxes located somewhere near a center of activity, such as the local market.

Now to confuse things even more, your house has a number and name, but it is not used for mail delivery---only helping to determine location---which might be a bit difficult since only the main streets in the city have a number/name (many of them have a number and two names :) ) Therefore, I can tell someone I live at #3 Otaiba---this means I am the third villa in the Otaiba villas. Now, the street in front of my house does not have a name. I am lucky that 23 street, which is a main thoroughfare, runs right next to the other side of my house. What's even funnier is that the street in front of my house is actually 24th street or also known as Karamah Street, although a sign does not indicate it. Karamah Street runs all the way through the city but is broken up at various points due to those "medians" again so the street directly in front of my house does not have signage to indicate it is Karamah Street.

I have attached an ad that recently ran in the newspaper advertising mail boxes as "bundled services"---kind of like the bundles of cable, internet, and telephone that you find in the US. For one annual price, you can be a bronze ezimail member, or a silver, or a gold depending on how much you want to pay and your needs. As a bronze ezimail customer, for instance, you have an annual rental of a mail box, plus 1 free mail bag, plus 1 x a week mail pickup and delivery, 4 free domestic courier coupons, and 50% discount on domestic unaddressed mail up to 20K units. Now, I don't know about you but I am wondering how "unaddressed" mail will ever go anywhere. Beats me. Oh, and if you want mail picked up and delivered 6 x a week you must be a gold member and pay 12,000 dirhams a year which is 3,264 USD which amounts of $62.76 a week----FOR MAIL DELIVERY AND PICKUP!

Okay, 44 cents per stamp does not sound too bad. And we thought USPS was highway robbery. My goodness. Now, Emirates Post advertises their new bundling concept as innovative! A new service that offers a host of value-added services. They claim to "deliver absolute peace of mind." I don't know about you but this would DRIVE ME CRAZY! I am sure they are trying to appeal to businesses who have larger delivery needs but still----this is crazy. Oh and by the way, they are going techy----they will send you a free SMS to notify you of your mail service.

Sounds like the UAE skipped the Pony Express and the Stagecoach.

Camels in the Neighborhood

John and I were recently on an excursion to the shoppette to get the Baby Dog some Baskin Robbins ice cream :) and was surprised to see one of our neighbors had built a make-shift pen for a baby camel. Of course, I whipped out the little pocket camera to get a photo of this. As neighborhoods go, one doesn't get to see a camel in the midst very often. I have learned after living here the last six months that barnyard animals are quite common place in some of the older neighborhoods.

The next day we noticed two camels in the pen. Now our curiosity was really up. We both speculated that the camels were for slaughter. After asking a few people about it, I found out that maybe the camels were not on their way to the slaughterhouse (which was sited as a real possibility) and the deep freeze. Some residents of the city have camel farms out in the desert. So, it is possible our neighbor bought the young camels at an auction over a couple of days and penned them up temporarily before transporting to the farm outside the city. Of course, it could still be they were awaiting slaughter. I opted for the camel auction theory as they look like the Majhim camels that are highly favored among breeders. I liked that idea better.

Day Three the camels and the make-shift pen were gone!

Night at the Opera at Emirates Palace

John and I recently went to the Emirates Palace for a night at the Opera to see La Boheme. Just being inside this exquisite building is quite a treat even when not going to see the opera. We experienced a night of great entertainment in a beautiful theater inside the palace surrounded by nationalities from all over the world. What an experience!

The Emirates Palace is a seven star hotel (the only one in the world) that contains a beautiful auditorium that is host to concerts and theater throughout the year. During March and April, the city hosts the Abu Dhabi Classic Festival featuring opera productions, the London Symphony Orchestra, a Chopin Festival with piano solo performances, Wynton Marsallis, singers such as El Divo, and the ballet. Many of these events are held in the Emirates Palace.

20,000 workers built the 3 billion dollar Emirates Palace over the course of three years.
Some interesting facts about the hotel are:
There are 128 kitchens in the hotel that serve 200 tons of fresh squeezed orange juice daily.

There are 114 domes in the structure. The central dome reaches a height of 72.6 meters.

1800 people are employed at the hotel.

There are 1002 Chandeliers, the largest weighting 2.5 tons. All the crystals are Swarovski crystals.

There are 8,000 trees on the property.

40 people are on staff just to change light bulbs.

There are 8 escalators and 120 elevators in the hotel.

There are 12 fountains outside and 8 inside.

5 kg of edible gold are served on desserts each year.


The scale of the building is extremely hard to capture in a photograph. The ceilings and doors are of enormous heights. The grand entrance has a huge design in the floor tiles. Everywhere you look is something grand. Many of the ceilings are domes outlined with gold filigre.