the little things...

ok, i realize i owe you posts about my adventures in jordan and australia, but sometimes it is the little things in life that just steal the spotlight.

myself just off my trip from australia and my flatmate just back from russia decided to have a leisurely saturday of breakfast out and a little bit of home shopping.  a bit blinded and quickly bored by the none too new home decor ideas we were nearly to the exit when we spotted the most genius home accessory i've seen in quite some time!


thank you Umbra for the portable ping pong set, our dining table will never be the same :)

the COOLest thing to do in dubai

found it!  by far the best way to beat the summer heat:  ski dubai.

we humans have come up with some crazy ideas in our time, but this one is pretty up there on the list.  a ski slope in a mall in the middle of one of the hottest places on the planet... why not?! 

i've always wanted to learn to snowboard (admittedly because i love the direction snowboard design has taken, i would buy a snowboard just to hang on my wall)... but every time i go for a ski vacation i always end up deciding against it because who really wants to spend their vacation falling in their butt the whole day when they could be swishing down a mountain?!

so this is perfect.  an hour on the weekend, its blazing hot out, what have i better to do than learn?

there are about 4 levels of lessons at ski dubai.  being a skier first, i wasn't sure what my reaction to snowboarding would be, but i loved it! it is so streamlined, you don't have to deal with 2 skis and 2 poles all wanting to go in separate directions.  it is one board and your balance.  granted this isn't something you can master overnight, i see some good times for snowboarding and i in the future :)

i did my first lesson as a group lesson with a few of my friends that way we could laugh with each other.

maybe one day we will be good enough to take my skills to a real mountain with one of these: 

paul smith and burton = love.

let there be light

as i embrace the emirates and all they have to offer, i am slowly making my way about each of the seven.  the latest was sharjah.

while i didn't fully explore sharjah (i'll save this pleasure for the cooler months) i was on a mission to find one particular jewel, the blue souk.

i have yet to find a souk in the emirates that fulfills my mind's romantic vision about them, but i did quite enjoy this one.

i checked all my preconceived notions at the door in search for some idyllic little metal lanterns that should fill and empty corner in my apartment. 

mission accomplished:

dragonmart

"where you can find one in a million or a million of one."

as the quest to escape the summer heat (and more importantly, humidity) continues, the options for indoor activities are becoming increasingly creative.

last weekend, upon numerous suggestions that this was indeed "something to see", we decided to do just that.

this place is everything it claims to be and more...  full on 150,000 square feet of anything and everything you could possibly think of.... i'd say the good, the bad and the ugly, but it was mostly just the latter two.

massage tables, tools,  pet fish stores, anything and everything sponge-bob-square-pants, scary light fixtures, and cheap handbags... oh my!

perhaps my favorite thing of all is the names of the shops, my favorite is "Feel Nice Trading"... you just can't make this stuff up. 

so without further ado, i bring to you: dragonmart

get wild

ok.  let's face it, it isn't getting any cooler in the emirates anytime soon... what are we going to do to beat the heat?

the obvious answer is air-conditioning people, but if you must go outside, your best bet for survival involves WATER!

i recently hit up the slides at wild wadi waterpark in dubai, my favorite was the burj surj!

NO other water park has this view:

found it!

have you ever met someone that doesn't love pizza?  right.  that is what i thought. 

abu dhabi has all your standard fast food pizzas... pizza hut, papa john's, il forno (which is pretty legit for take away)... it has some hotel restaurants who's pies are worth a shout out... prego at beach rotana, frankie's at fairmont... and even one "street" restaurant with delicious egyptian pizzas...

BUT by far the best pizza i've found in abu dhabi comes by the meter at a place called Spaccanapoli in the Crown Plaza. 

more, again.

looking for a way to get in shape?  i've found a new form of torture for you that will definitely do the job!...it is called boot camp kids, and i had no idea what i was in for. 

the one i signed up for is by Lion's Fitness.  you can usually find deals on GoNabit or Cobone

 

boot camp.  just some hardcore name for another fluffy aerobics class, right?  think again.  seriously, channel Demi Moore in GI Jane.  

let me give you a better image.  the class is on the beach taught by a Syrian dude named Mohammad that actually was in the military.  You will do more situps, push-ups, squats and lunges than you ever thought possible in one hour... and when you are done with those prepare yourself for sprints up and down the beach with a 10k sandbag belted to your person... now, start running. 

after the first class you might say "never again", but now i am a little addicted.  

with the outside temp ramping up by the day, i am thinking i need to move it inside, but what will i do without a drill sargent?