Shopping

Today, Jennifer dropped me off at Marina Mall after we took Anders to school and went to the grocery store. Her friend Tyrena from The Club told us that that mall had eye glass shops. Yesterday, when we were at the club, I accidentally broke the nose piece on my glasses.
This mall is huge. I looked on the map and found some glasses stores, fortunately this mall is like many I've been in; by that I mean, they group like products together. Unlike the malls in the USA the floor you walk in on from the street is not the first floor. It is the ground floor. Maybe it's because the grocery stores are in the basement and if you park in the underground garage that would be the first floor. The map said the eye glass places were on the first floor. For me is really the second floor. I walked around the ground floor looking for them. This mall has an Apple store, however, it's called the store here and it's not nearly as packed with people shopping, buying, taking training classes as the one I go to in Dallas. I finally find the wing of the mall that has glasses, I am on the first floor and have to search for the escalator to take me back to the ground floor because I see a store on the ground floor. I ask them if they can fix them, no. Do they have a person who can examine my eyes so I can get a new pair made. Yes, madam, but he won't be in until 2. It's just now 10:20. So I ask the next group, no madam we can't fix those. When will your eye examiner be in? In the afternoon madam. The third place with the name Occhiali, they can't fix them, have never seen any like them. Their eye examiner is in the shop. The glasses that broke are called swiss flex and are 2.5. I think the 2.5 means ounces. One thing I've never weighed. So they look at my lenses and say they are special. I wonder what that means?
The eye exam here is pretty much the same as it is in Dallas. Except that it is in a closet at the back of the store and they change from the letters to numbers. The eye examiner is from india, the man selling me the glasses is from Egypt and I think the person ringing me up is from the Phillipines. By the time I get progressive lenses, transition sunglasses plus the new prescription I have spent just about the same amount I spend at Occhiali in Dallas. The new ones have purple frames and are also light weight. Thank heavens I brought my second pair with me. The new ones should be ready Friday afternoon.

On Thursday evening Jennifer and her husband had a business party to attend. So I took myself to khalidiyah mall to go to a movie. Thursday night at the mall is not necessarily a good place to be for a westerner. It's packed with emiratees'. They are milling around, going to the play places, hanging out at Starbucks, smoking, eating, etc. The men's white dresses are called dish dash and the women's are called abeyahs. I saw teenage boy's in their white dish dash with colorful boxers showing through. They also have a red and white scarf wrapped around their head with a black braided rope on top of the scarf. The men also wear white sandals.

The black abeyahs are not necessarily plain. They are decorated with swaroski crystals in black and colored crystals. Quite often the women are wearing stiletto heels and jeans with the black abeyahs covering them.

I am reading a book called The 100 Thing Challenge by Dave Bruno. When Jennifer picked me up this afternoon at the mall on her way to pick up Anders from school at three she was surprised that I had no sacks. After buying glasses and lunch, no real desire for me to buy anything else. Then I also spent about an hour looking for a digital converter box for her tv. Her tv is a samsung and it was bought in the USA and doesn't work here yet. Like the glasses it wasn't a one stop event. Actually, the Egyptian man from the eye glass place walked with me down to the area that the shop she asked me to go to, Plug In. I asked them for it, no madam we don't have it. You will need to go to the Samsung store. Where is the Samsung store. "Just go down that way and turn left." were the directions. Not exactly accurate. By this time I was on the ground floor and the Samsung store is actually on the first floor. So I find this store, no madam you must go to the cine and in front of the cine is a little kiosk selling OSN and they will have the box for you. Mohammed had left the kiosk and left a note saying he would be back later. As it so happens I went back, Mohammed was there but he said no madam, you have to buy the service and younger the box thAt way. In the meantime Jennifer has decided to give her husband OSN for his birthday so he can watch rugby. OSN is scheduled to come and install it tomorrow. Hopefully, it will work and not take more than one trip and everything will go smoothly. OSN is like time Warner cable or AT&T t.v.

Tomorrow, Jennifer is showing someone around, Stefan and I are going to the club for swimming, bouncy castle and lunch, Anders is going to school. It will be another busy day. My time here is almost to the end and am making the most of seeing these active, funny, creative, and smart boys.

Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011

We took Anders to school, played on the playground with Stefan then Jennifer took me to the immigration office. When you come into the country you can stay 30 days. I arrived on August 15 and am leaving Sept. 29. The experience was similar to going to a government office in Dallas. Although, you probably wouldn't find people dressed in all white with a turban for the men or all black with just a slit for the eyes for the women. Of course, I took my passport with me. There was an Arabic man in white robes in front of me in line with a USA passport.
I went into the first room and there were a lot of people sitting in chairs waiting there turn. So, I went to the counter and asked a man in a white robe where I needed to go first. He wrote something out in Arabic and told me to go to the typing room. Thank heavens their signage is in English as well as Arabic. So I followed the signs and arrows for the typing room.

It was a large room with about 10 people at computers, plus a cashier and a copy person. I asked someone who was being helped where to start and they waved me down the row. One man said he could help me. He said to give him my passport and the note and have a seat. In a few minutes he had me come to his desk, he handed me a piece of paper and sent me ton the cashier. The cashier said it would be 610 durhams. The exchange rate is $3.60 to one durham. After paying the cashier, I went back to the man and he asked me if I had a photo, just the one in my passport. I said copy that one. So he scanned it and then sent me to the next man to have some copies made of the papers. The copy perso then took out the smallest pair of scissors I have ever seen, cut out my picture, stapled it to his papers and asked for another 5 durhams and then I took all the papers to the first guy and I was out of there in record time. And it turns out they sold me United Arab emirates health insurance policy for a month. Apparently, that is part of the fees and requirements if you are here longer than 30 days. But they didn't even ask me if I had travelers insurance which I do. Oh well, I am doubly insured for the next 15 days.


Then Stefan fell asleep in the car so Jennifer dropped me off at the mall, so I could go to the grocery. We were totally out of grapes. And when grapes is all Stefan wants it's a sad thing. The grapes from the USA are the only ones that are seedless. I texted jennifer to find outif she wanted camel for dinner? The answer to that was a resounding NO. When they lived in Doha, Qatar I had camel one night for dinner and it was quite tasty. So I bought ground beef. The meat and fresh fruit and vegetable sections are an international trip. Avocados from Kenya, beef from Ireland, Australia, USA, Brazil, melons from Israel, plums from Spain, Australia, apples from China, mangoes from everywhere and they come in other colors besides the green/red ones we get from Mexico, fruit from Thailand, pineapple from the Phillipines. There is a hairy fruit that you cut open and then it is white on the inside with a seed on the inside of that. It's one of those fruits that makes you wonder how the first person who ate was brave enough try it; it's called a rhombathan and it's from Indonesia.
Today they had kettle potatoe chips and I found flaxseed.

I took a taxi home and it was 5.50 durhams. Last week it was 6 durhams. It makes you wonder why the difference. This taxi driver even helped with the groceries. And then jennifer said to give the taxi driver a tip of one or two durhams. I wonder how long you have to be someplace when you quit dividing the durhams by the dollar to see how much it's costing you?
I am not there yet!

After lunch, Stefan and I and Charlotte watched "Fireman Sam" while Jennifer took a nap. We picked up Anders from school and went back to the play place in the mall. Stefan got his hair cut, we rode the rides. I am extremely grateful Anders is too small for the TILT-A-WHIRL
We rode this boat ride that swirled around and up and back forth for what felt like ten minutes!

Then on to the play ground. Up the stairs and down the slides we went. Through the tunnels on hands and knees for me. I getting to be pretty good at crawling through the tu meld after Stefan. Across the wiggly bridges, around and around we went for about an hour and a half and the it was home again and time for dinner, bath, books and bed.

Another busy, active fun filled day

Jennifer, said I was lucky they were will g to scan my passport so I could use the passport photo. She said she spent the whole day there when she

9/10/2011

Saturday,
We went to the club today, went swimming and new momma went to the gym so she could walk on the treadmill.
Last week I was having envy issues because the middle child preferred the nanny. Yesterday, the nanny left to go to Dubai
To borrow some money from her cousin to send to her mother in the philipinnes. So we have even two days without. The nanny and it's been both good and challenging. Because now we are all reading, playing, cooking, cleaning up and doing the laundry. Just when I was getting used to my clothes disappearing and returning to me washed and pressed. I don't think I have ever had pressed pj's before.

Jennifer had both Stefan and Charlotte in bed with her tonight reading books. Stefan is getting a
lot more mama attention since the nanny has been gone. Which is a good thing.

We were going to watch a movie tonight but the Internet didn't seem to be working. They have apple tv but it comes
over the Internet and when it's running raggedy there is no guarantee that you can see your show. And apparently there is no one to call.

I was thinking about taking the train to the ashram in India until Jens showed me some pictures of when he was in India in June and riding the train. So now will have to figure out how to hire a taxi. The ashram am going to is about 2 hrs away from the airport.

At the moment it's just life as usual here, laundry, dinner, baths books and bed.

Wednesday 9/7/2011

Hi all, I have now had two people respond to the posts and the responses are not showing up. If their is anyone out there in blogger and that can assist with this I would greatly appreciate it!

Today we spent the day in the car. We took Anders to school for his first day in kindergarten, stopped at Starbucks,
all the comforts of home, and headed to Dubai to get Charlotte's birth certificate. Sounds easy right. First off Dubai is an hour and a half away. And we had to stop and feed Charlotte twice. Then we arrived in Dubai and went to the mall. It was about 10:30 and the
gift card place wasn't open. They said they would be open in a half hour. So we looked around, found a thermos for lunch and then
got the gift card for the midwife. This is a peculiar thing about their malls. You have to take a ticket to park like they are going to charge
for parking. However, parking is free on weekends and holidays. It is free for the first four hours you are at the mall and if you buy something
you can have your ticket validated so you don't have to pay. So basically it's free to park, no one pays, yet they have a person manning exits and you are still required to get a ticket. It's a puzzle.

There is one exit out of the parking garage that will put you directly on Sheik Zayed highway. The first time around we missed
the exit and had to go back into the parking garage and around again to get to this highway to take us to the City Medical center.
We finally made it to the hospital, got the first step of paperwork for the birth certificate and stopped and fed Charlotte. Boy was
Se glad to get out of her car seat and stretch out a little. Then we needed tong buy jennifer's Dr.'s office for some cream and we got a little bit lost. And we also had to eat ourselves. Bottom line is we didn't really have time to do all of the errands that were planned.
New momma called daddy and asked him to pick up Anders from school. Didn't think it would be such a good idea to be late picking up
on the first day of school.

So if babies are anything like puppies Charlotte is going to be tall. Her feet are very long. I measured them today. They are
as long as my fingers; from her heel to the end of the big toe is the length of my finger from the knuckle to the end of my finger.
That might be 3 ".

I just got some good news. Last year I took in person and online classes to get a school teaching position. I just received an
Email from the company and they have added a way to get the certificate. Originally, you had to be hired to teach and teach for a year. Now they have a program that you can student teach for 12 weeks and get your certificate. Yeah. I have heard about some firms that place
art teachers in other countries. I think that might be interesting. My first choice would be to teach in a colllege setting, but
would definitely consider being in a foreign country. And apparently, there are openings for art teachers.

The baby loves being outside in the evening heat. It's cooled off a little yet still warm. The boys rode their bicycles and scooters again this evening.

I learned something new today about all the different calls to prayer. I had thought that the praying was done at the same time on a daily basis, like every 4 hours. Apparently the prayer times fluctuate according to the phase of the moon and that is why they are calling the people to prayer over the loud speaker.

They provide lots of places for prayer. There are prayer rooms in the malls, at filling stations, in the hospital, in the air port and probably lots of other places I haven't seen. I suppose even in the USA there are prayer rooms in hospitals and at the air port. But in don't think I have ever seen one at Northpark or at a gas station.



T
a lot of men were coming out of the on site mosque from their prayers.

The mall

Tuesday 9/6/11
Another busy day in Abu dhabi. Yesterday I went to the E,N, T doctor. It was my second trip to a dr. For my ear.
This time he asked me about my teeth, my nose, my throat and my earsl And he looked in all those places. In the book I read about
"on turning sixty-five" he wrote about this age grup wanting to talk about our aches and pains. I apologize for it, however
I've never had an earache before. So this is the first time I've ever had anything sucked out. it was loud and interesting. And he
Said stay out of the pool for five days.

Which is why we went to the mall today to play instead of to the pool. This is interesting to me. They have signs in the mall
that say "wear appropriate clothing." actually this sign was at the water park in Dubai as well. My comment whe I first read that
was I wish they would since I had just seen a teenager in a t-shirt with the "f" word in giant letters. Jennifer said that isn't
what that means! It means have your shoulders and knees covered. And it is really only addressed to women.

So we went to the mall today to play in the playground all indoors. They have rides similar to several at the fair, for the bigger
children and adults. And they have these climbing mazes wiith slides in closed, twisty tubes, big slides with rolling bumps, wiggly
ramps, tubes to crawl or walk through if you are 4 feet tall, etc. I personally liked the open slides.

Then we had lunch at McDonald's. Yes, just about every american fast food place is here. Anders went home with his friend
and Stefan and I were taking a taxi home but first we rode up and down in the elevator a few times. The elevators have clear
sides so you can see the mall as you go up and down. He had a great time. Then we got a taxi and went home for his nap.
He loves riding in a taxi!

ToysRus is here also. In Dallas at the toysru I bought the toy story helicopter and the dinosaur. In the beginning both boys wanted total control over the helicopter. So we went to gouache to get another one. They don't carry them here. We also went to all the other toy stores
looking for it. No helicopter. And while we were looking for the helicopter we were also look g for a new battery for the drivable
Toy car. It's big enough for the boys to sit in and drive. That kind of toy car. Why don't they carry the right kind of batteries. This car Was made by Fisher Price. How hard can it be to standardize these batteries?

We have looked every where. He car is now powered by e adult pushing them around. I guess that means we are all burning more calories.

We are still being grateful the newmosque across the street hasn't become operational. Although, they might be getting close,
a truck has come by the last couple of days to water the palm trees. They haven't put the grass in yet nor have they taken the plastic off the doors. I have read about art galleries in Dubai and probably there are some in Abu Dhabi. The only art we have been doing is watercolors and the boys painted themselves.

Sunday, 9/4/2011

Sunday is really Monday here. What that means is it's the start of the work week. Yesterday, I had first outing at a mall here all by myself. It was kind of fun walking around looking at everything and everyone. I was going to have a salad since I was hungry when I got there and Ramadan is over so one can eat and drink in public. They brought me a menu and then disappeared and then the other people started smoking so I decided to skip it.

I had several missions at that mall. The first one was to buy Charlotte Elizabeth some one piece suits, with long legs and long sleeves. She wears a size called early baby, the next size after that is called tiny baby and then you get ton the new born size.

So I looked at baby clothes. It seems odd to me to find men working as sales clerks in a shop called Mothercare. And then there cash register didn't work. Sometimes, it's a bit challenging to shop here. Then I looked in a store called Macgruders. It's a combination art supply store, book store, textbook store, and gift store. Jennifer wanted me to buy a canvas. She has a large canvas that the oldest child painted/printed when he was 2 and now she wants baby #2 to do a hand and foot print painting representing himself. We are going to have to go back and try again, because all I found was canvas in a pad.

Then the third item on the list was the grocery store. This place was huge. It reminded me of Walmart. Clothes, phones, tv's, shoes, sari's and food. Everything you could possibly imagine. They were making rotisserie chickens among other things. It was filled with all the arabic sweets they use to celebrate the ending of ramadan. As well as lots of other wonderful looking cakes and pies.

After grocery shopping went to find a taxi to take me back to the house.

Tonight we watched a movie"how to train your dragon." it was quite exciting. Today was a busy day also. We went to the club and went swimming. It is really one place where you can tell how hot it is on a daily basis because they don't chill the water that is in the pools. Thank heavens for the sprays though without the sprays the water would be unbearably hot.

When I was here in December of 2010 they were building a new mosque about 2 doors down from Jennifer's house. They have call to prayer 6x a day. They still haven't finished it. We are grateful because once it is finished not only do pray 6x a day the call to prayer is broadcast over the loud speaker. It is not just ringing the bell!

Turning 65

I've just finished a book by John Jerome" on turning sixty-five" and it was very interesting. I learned about canoe trips. It was somewhat like
the book "younger next year" in that he included some medical research on aging, some steps to post phone severe aging, and humourus
Stories of his aging process. He also talks about getting osteoporosis in the ear which is one of the causes of not hearing properly .

One of the things he talks about is that itntakes 11 days for your body to become more adept at doing things. I believe that's true. Eleven days ago, we came to Abu dhabi from Dubai and I started swimming in their club pool. It's a 25 meter pool which means it's slightly longer than the 25 yard pool I usually swim in. Today, when I was swimming, it absolutely felt easy and faster than it had the previous
days. It was marvelous. On several laps I was able to take two to three strokes off. Interestingly enough, yesterday their was a clock on the wall, so you could time yourself, and today no clock. They had taken it down when they were painting and had not replaced it.
Nice paint job though.

When I originally wrote this I tried to add the image of the burg to it and for some reason when I pushed image, add image nothing happened and then it locked up. I hate it when the computer, iPad does that.

They finally made it home today. The mommy and the baby. One forgets how small 6 lbs really is. And now she's lost half a pound. They
named her Charlotte Elizabeth. Quite a mouthful. Her name is bigger than she is.
her brother wanted to call her Isabella.