It was the best of times

Sunset at Bab al Shams (Gateway of the sun)

  2013. I know a lot of you think when I don’t blog it’s because it’s not going well.  Well, sometimes, a lot of times actually, I’m just having too much fun, seizing the days of brilliant sunshine and floating in bubbles of happiness. 

Bab al Shams in the moontlight

17 January:  Happy day; It is Tinus’ birthday and we’re having a lovely day. The reason why I’m blogging now is because he’s busy getting a bone scan.  So a quick catch-up for those of you who missed the bits in between:  There were more spots … out damned spot … there was the TB and lots of medications but spots are not going away, so doc says let’s take them out .. de ja vu .. operation, took five lymph nodes out some tested positive for cancer, yet another PET scan was scheduled but we had to wait for op scars to heal.  It was Christmas then Lizana and Ulrich came to visit for ten days and it was the best of times:

Having the two of them here was such a treat!  They are part of our Hopefield family, our neighbours and such good friends.  Upon arrival Ulrich announced that they will take care of meals, which couldn’t have been more perfect.  Many of my fondest Hopefield memories feature an afternoon/evening spent with the rest of the family around some interesting and or exotic culinary creations by the master chef extraordinaire team aka Lizana and Ulrich.

On the way here Lizana sat next to someone who said a weekend is all you need to see and do all that there is to see and do here … good response word here : incredulous … Lizana and Ulrich were here for ten days and I think we got about halfway through everything we could have seen and done.  Dubai and the UAE is such an amazing place (how many times have I said that :D ) and there are so many things to experience here that I actually worked out an itinerary to make sure that we get as much out of the time we have together as we can.  I wanted to make it so special, for this was also a holiday for Tinus, in the normal course of living here he sees very little outside of his office walls or boardroom windows.

Lizana and Ulrich in front of the Burj Khalifa

Destination Dubai:

Dear Lizana and Ulrich

Thank you so much for choosing Olivier tours for your vacation operator. 

Please find attached a suggested itinerary.  

27 Dec: Arrival:      05H35 @ DXB followed by lots of hugging and kissing :D Relaxed morning, possible early afternoon nap. (R&R)  We were thinking of sun downers at Bab Al Shams followed by Baskin Robbins (Ibn Battuta Mall) and a night drive home via Shk Zayed rd 

                                      28 Dec: Sunrise from highest building in the world - tickets booked for 06H30

                                       Breakfast at Tiffany’s not available (yet) but perhaps Armani ^^ or one of the many other places.

                                     Possible afternoon nap (R&R) for evening out.  Possible Festival City with water and light show.

                                    29 Dec: Ain trip:  Camel chocolate factory, Camel souq, tea at road side tea shop with ultimate aim for late lunch at Jebal Hafeet which will linger till sunset and then drive home.

30 Dec:  Bastika Heritage tour – tickets booked for 10H30  The tour takes place in old part of Dubai, after tour (which I think includes dates and coffee) we can take an abra (water taxi) to the spice & gold souq, lunch at the creek side café. Possible movie under the stars in the evening at Wafi rooftop garden.

31 Dec: Sharjah Blue souq, Aviation museum, quick trip to the beach to dip our toes in the Persian Gulf and back home for afternoon nap. (R&R)   Desert Drumming – starts at 20H30 … return home next year.

etc etc ...

“Olivier Tours” actually managed to stick to their schedule fairly well.  The strikethrough showed the ones we didn’t do.  I loved the way Lizana would say “When last did you do something for the first time? Oh yes, today, and yesterday, and the day before that.”

Ulrich in the Old Souk

The time passed so quickly – ha ha – I just had this in my head : <disembodied dramatic voice> “… like sand through the hour glass..” get it… sand .. desert… anyway. 

Before we knew it Ulrich had to leave.  His sister and her family moved to Dubai quite recently and on the second to last evening that he spent with us we had a lovely braai at our place with them as well as a long-time friend of Ulrich’s who lives in our area and his family and a few of our friends and parts of their family.  The evening turned out to be so much like the evenings at the Merry Widow, a perfect end to a lovely holiday.

Lizana striking a girly pose in Rak Al Khaima

Lizana stayed on for a couple of days more and it was exactly what I needed, girl time :D  On the last day of Lizana’s stay she was part of one of our more regular experiences – an appointment at the oncologist:

We went to the doc to get the results of Tinus’ most recent PET scan, the one after surgery in December.  He showed us the scan on his computer screen - it lit up like a macabre Christmas tree:  bright lights showing hot spots from his left clavicle to his lower right lung.  His oncologist suggests that we prepare for the worst – because of the lymph nodes all being connected he wants us to consider the possibility that the cancer cells could be spread all over his body and that he would now classify the cancer as aggressive.  And it was the worst of times.  

Palm Trees and Pigeons

So you know I have these three palm trees in the garden – one that is now officially dead, one doing ok-ish and one which had lots of dates on, enjoyed by our multitude of bird-residents.  I think they – the palm trees – have never really been looked after and I thought the time has come for them to be pruned.  I bought a saw and luckily we have a ladder.  This ladder normally looks like a very big accordion –rather complicated.  The kind of ladder which one woman cannot operate by herself , she may very possibly loose some fingers in the process - there are these clips and levers and things that make it un-collapse,  so she asked her kind husband to pretty please drag the ladder outside and make it look like a ladder and he said he’ll do it.  Now if a man says he’ll do something, he’ll do it – there’s no need to remind him every six months about it.   

Great joy when the ladder was dragged outside and made to look like a ladder last weekend.  I did a little happy dance, went inside and got the saw.  One two six and I was up in the palm tree merrily sawing away at the dusty –surprisingly spikey - branches for several minutes before I realized that the saw makes absolutely no impression on the branch.  Upon closer inspection I realized the saw came fitted with some kind of plastic protective sheath-thingy, covering the blade (which I never saw.)  That went flying off quickly before anyone (Tinus) could see and by the time he appeared outside again I had a neat (ok, more like scattered all over the lawn) pile of palm leaves – if you think one has to call them fronds – I refuse to use that gentle word to describe these leaves – these have several extremely sharp spikes just where you have to grip to stop yourself from falling out of the tree.

If you look real careful you may
see the mom and little one

Even though it is turning nicer out these days it was hard work – Tinus soon pitched in (or up) as I took a break and we slowly progressed.  One done and we were about two thirds finished with the second when all of a sudden (Tinus was up on the ladder) a pigeon fluttered out from between the palm leaves and from the ground I could see a little wing frantically flapping as the little pigeon in the nest tried to stop itself from falling out.  We almost broke a nest with a little one still in it!  Tinus made sure the nest was secure and steady and we decided to leave the pruning to be finished on another day.

Little Lives by Tshepang Makofane

I was so worried that the mom had such a fright that she’d abandon the little one, but the next morning I saw the two of them in the tree.  With most of the leaves cut away I had a clear view of the nest and saw the little one came out of the nest to practice his/her little wings with the mom on a nearby branch looking on.  Now, every morning when I have my morning coffee in the garden I see the two of them and it makes me happy.  When I told her about this, Maria remarked that the mom must be very happy that we didn't destroy her house and for some or other reason I thought of this painting which one of my children from Boys High (Tshepang Makofane) did, called “Little lives.” 

He explained to me – I hope I can bring the idea across correctly – that these two kids’ lives are seemingly insignificant compared to the famous faces on the wall,  if they should die (the little one in a hospital gown – possibly aids) the world will not know.  I guess it may be because I now know about the life of this little bird. 

And after having read this - so do you :)

In the City of Life

We've now been here for a year and things are finally at a point where we can focus on just living. Tinus and the kids have settled in their respective routines and now - without any major supportive and motivational functionality in the family I find myself itching for something meaningful to do.

For someone without a job I'm actually quite busy :) My life circles around various social activities - this is the City of Life - so I'm just living. Many of us live in places people pay lots of money to come and visit - yet we hardly ever do any of the touristy things ourselves; so I've decided to live, when I can, as if I'm a tourist myself.

After a year I'm now over the malls - we do go there, but I still prefer the more traditional places. A while ago my lovely friend Petra took me shoe shopping; Petra has many talents, one of which is knowing where to shop and so we set off to Karama.

This is the place where wonderful words like abra and dhow, souk and Bastika become part of the conversation. Traffic is crazy and the minute you enter the narrow streets flanked by alley ways stuffed to the brim selling any kind of merchandise available from East to West, you become part of the old traditional Dubai.

You have to haggle; best price for good luck, hands and voices raised trade gets done and both parties - normally - walk away satisfied. The reason why Petra is the shopping guru is this:
Trader: "Lovely scarf for you - today only 180 dirhams!"
Petra: "Is that your best price?"
Trader: "Always best price for you madam."
Petra: "I'll give you 20."

She eventually bought it for thirty I think, but this is the thing; I would've bargained him down to 150 and thought I got a good deal. It's a great gift to have her to shop with.

From the old souk we crossed the creek on an Abra - for two dirhams!! To get across to the spice souk side, but like I said, our aim was shoes. We eventually found the Aerosoft outlet and I bought EIGHT pairs of shoes...for the price of one pair. Just so you know - not all for me, but WOW!! I'm told in South Africa they sell for R250 a pair - so when you come visit, come with an empty suitcase :)

This blog is getting long and I feel as if I'm not saying much. I think this is more a what we did since last we spoke kinda blog :) So, Petra's daughter had her 21st on a Dhow - it was a nerd dress up thing, which was hard for me to dress for, so I went as myself :) It was amazing!! Lovely full moon on the creek with conversation and music happening around you while the city drifts past decked out in her evening lights. Food was middle eastern - yummy and pretty.

The South African Women's Association asked me to host a monty coffee morning here in Mirdiff and we had the first of that. New faces who turns into new friends - all good. They've also asked me to take photos at a fashion show - Baruni - check her out on facebook - lovely stuff. Took Petra's older daughter with - up and coming photographer, had fun with that. Been to the beach with Maria and Cobus - lovely relaxing day, had a few dinners over the weekends and those are all the noteworthy events I can think of at the mo.

The weather is brilliant - I'm outside at the moment under my trees with all the birds singing happily as I'm writing this. The kids have started mid-term break, they're off for a week. Skye's just back from another outdoor adventure with the school and Tinus is leaving for Cape Town in a week's time.

Hopefully, by the time I write next I'll have something more meaningful to say - in the mean time life is good, here in the City of Life.