Late V-day Post / Dubai Creek Expansion / Laptop Stupidity

I have been late getting this post out. But I have been busy so that is a reason and not an excuse. The last few days Viviane has been sick as a dog and down for the count. She ate something that did not agree with her and it was a long 48 hours for her. But she is a trooper and pulled though. I though it might have been my meatloaf, but thankfully that was not the case. I have eaten half of it myself and it was the bomb. New secret ingredient is curry powder. Not too much, but combined with the ketchup flavor and the grilled veggies inside I thought it was the best I ever made. As usual it was too wet, but better than normal. That was because I actually bought bread crumbs and did not try and make my own. I needed to add more. I added mushrooms to absorb but I was afraid to put them in with softening them up a bit. But that was also me thinking too much. (What else is new?) If they were raw they would have soaked up that bonus juice on the bottom. Anyway, I am really close to just drop dead bad ass meatloaf. The best part is that I was able to introduce the dish to someone for the first time.

If you know me at all you know that the Last 7 or 8 Valentine’s Days have sucked. I would get a card from my mom and that would make it even worse. But this year was a whole new ball game. A fresh start. A new beginning. A breath of fresh air. Like night and day. A turning of the page. A re-birth. Well, actually with a just dinner.

We had reservations at Nasimi at the Atlantis. We ate a Prix Fix menu special for the evening. Our table faced east so we looked out over the inner crescent bay of the Palm Jumeriah and could see the lit up skyline of the Dubai Marina. The monorail was to my left and it come out and curves and then goes straight down the trunk of the palm. The weather was perfect, but then again I was not in a skirt with string straps.

Oysters, Lobster, wagyu steak with wine-Godiva sauce, fruit tart with vanilla ice cream in an ice sculpture. Complimentary bottle of bubbly. Roses, music, and natural pineapple/apple/peppermint shisha on the beach. I went above the set menu with fancy bottled water and Cabernet with the beef. The oysters were very good. I don’t eat too many, but these were all that. That started everything off right. They only hick-up was they did not take my National Bank of Abu Dhabi debit card at the end of the night. I was not happy about that. I intentionally do not have a credit card here; I have my AMEX which I pay off in dollars on line. Anyway, yesterday I received a new (unordered) Master Card that is both a debit and ATM card (I had one for each before) which is accepted all around the world. The automatic switch over is Feb 28th, I am thinking my debit card may already be dead. Whatever, the banking system in the Middle East is not very modern. Things take forever and most branches close at like 1:30 or 2 PM. Great. The ones in the malls stay open later. That is the saving grace.

I have movies and photos, but they are for me and Vivi and not for you.

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News on the Dubai construction front was the announcement of the new creek expansion project. I live just adjacent to what is called Business Bay. That is part of the whole Burj Dubai Old Town area. Well, the creek runs up from the North and behind me, they are gong to extended it through the business district and add this huge water feature and it will then eventually circle back and re-enter the Persian Gulf to complete the loop. The good news is that means the Shiekh Zayed Road needs to be bridged. And they said it will be finished at the end of next year. Well it is the beginning of this year. That is far off. Also, nothing finishes on time here. So that is a pipe dream. SZR is like 6 lanes each way and is one of the busiest roads in all the Emirates. They also will build a bridge due to this new river over a few other pretty big roads that run parallel to the coast. Good times. (see map)



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And finally, I have to tell you the G-d Damn Laptop story. My stupid extra volume control to the left of the keyboard stopped working. So I slapped it. That did not fix it. So I gave it a good punch. Well, that fucked up the fan. It started to go tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick….
So I freaked out and thought it was the hard drive. Anyway I shut down and our IT guy named Adrash Kozzichirkarmar fixed it. Rad. Everything is better now and this post is here to prove it. Also, when I called him mid fix, he said he was solving some software fix which is a huge bonus for a user of Vista. (The Devil himself in soft form.) I told him I would buy him lunch for the effort. Which means lots of curry and funny tortillas.

BrotherBill