Excited

First and foremost, Eid Mubarak. May Allah (subhanahu wa ta'ala) accept your fast and prayers and guide you to your abode in Paradise inshaAllah!

Ok,for those of you on facebook you will indeed know that i was on a desert safari, which was absolutely fantastic! Couldn't have asked for a more better experience to actually get a taste of the real Emiratis and their lives prior to them finding the oil. The other thing that this safari made me realise, is how tough the conditions were all those years ago and for once i felt like i was living in the time of the Prophet (peace be upon him). But SubhanAllahu, just thinking that they would go for days on those camels and in that heat is absolutely amazing! I went on the camel for about 5 minutes and my back is bruised because of the saddle! Go figure!

So tomorrow, my long weekend is over and i am back to work but i have a few things i am looking forward to. One is the next set of holidays... looool getting too comfortable lazing around but the other thing i am really looking forward to is starting my Islamic Studies Course online with Sunni Path. It starts at the end of this month and for once i am excited to get back to doing something useful again. I was contemplating on continuing my masters in Islamic Studies (rather than the boring Educational Leadership that i was doing). But now that i have found these courses, i can't think of anything better to be doing. If your interested in what my fist course is, it is one of the most difficult topics out there... Introduction to Menstruation!!! Can't wait...

Shopping

Anyone that has been to the UAE or Dubai in particular always talks about the shopping, don't get me wrong the shopping is good (of course depending on the Aussie dollar) but for me what is more fascinating is the shopping centre itself... they are unique and one of a kind! The closes thing that comes to it is Westfield Doncaster and that is just what a normal shopping centre looks like still. Here, we have aquariums, ski slopes, boats, and all types of unbelievable stuff that they stuff inside the shopping centre.

Indian Court - Ibn Battuta Mall

Aquarium - Dubai Mall

Persian Court - Ibn Batutta Mall

Fountain - Dubai Mall

Ski Slope - Emirates Mall

Ski Slope - Emirates Mall

Travelling

One of the great things about being in the UAE is how close it is to everywhere. So you don't have to spend 14 hours on a plane to get to some other country! During my stay here, i have managed to get to a few places both locally and internationally. Some of the places that i have managed to get to are Doha, Qatar; Istanbul, Turkey and Sheffield, England! And the Emirates itself has quite a few sights to see in itself. Usually as soon as there is a long weekend, you plan your next vacation Unfortunately, this Eid we will not be going anywhere and will be here in Abu Dhabi, which is a shame but i guess i shouldn't get to comfortable jetting off somewhere whenever i get the chance because i know that once i get back to Oz, there will be no such luxury!

Sheffield, London and the famous cabs!

Istanbul, Turkey - Aya Sofia

Istanbul, Turkey - View of the Asian side

Al - Ain, UAE - View from Jebel Hafeet

Al-Ain, UAE - View from the only hotel on top of Mount Hafeet

The Beach

Any one that knows me knows that i love the water. I find it so peaceful and relaxing just sitting by the beach and listening to the waves and the murmur of the water. Sometimes if you listen close enough, its like the sea is talking to you. I use to always be in the water and any chance i got i was either at the beach or in the pool. So i loved the fact that one summer while i was overseas i got a job as a life guard! By the pool everyday for the entire summer, i wasn't complaining that's for sure. Then i covered and i felt totally uncomfortable to go to the beach and in the water let alone the pools. I remember vividly, i used to drive a bus to take the hijabi girls to the pools and would just sit on the sidelines and wait for them to finish and then drive them back... boy was i envious! Someone asked me one day "why don't you go into the water? It is just us covered girls!" But i couldn't. I felt like i had the hijab on and by me going into the water i would feel totally stripped. Come the UAE and it is normal to see the hijabis at the beach and in the water... garb and all! The water is to die for here, it is crystal clear and so inviting. The turquoise water shimmers and sparkles like a gem. So in comes the burqini... not the best look i may add but it did get me into the water. The first time i went in was summer 2008 but i was not ready for what lay ahead... the water was BOILING!!! This is in the beach, the open waters and it did not feel refreshing at all! I felt like i was actually sweating in the water... i know it sounds gross but it wasn't refreshing at all! Still hasn't turned me off though, because when you compare the beach here and the beach in Port Melbourne, St Kilda, even up towards the Great Ocean Road you cant compare!

Take a look and see what i mean!

The marina where the boats are looking towards the city.

People frolicking in the water. Love how clear and blue the water is!

Still

So as you can tell i have still kept this blog and seem to still be posting (not so much during Ramadan). Even managed to jazz it up a little which I'm proud of myself for doing. Sometimes i feel sooooo technologically illiterate and incompetent. But the problem is I LOVE MY GADGETS! anything technical, i love to buy and spend hours fiddling around with it until i figure out how it works. I know you're probably thinking well read the manual...yes that's the most obvious answer but then there would be no challenge. Even with simple things like this i need to challenge myself and figure it out, if i don't... well that's another story all in itself! Just saw this really cool device which looks like a pen and writes like a pen but it has a clip that you attach to the paper that you are writing on and then all you do is get the clip take off the lid and it becomes a USB, pop it into the computer and voila... everything you have written down is now on your computer... Cant wait! Tomorrow, I'm off to buy it to see if it really is as good as it sounds! Dubai here i come!

Waste

Having second thoughts about this whole blog thing and unsure about whether or not i want to actually continue with it or not! The whole reason i started this was because i went through a phase where i would just sit and type whatever was on my mind but somehow i feel that i have to still be selective with what i say as you don't want to sound like you're constantly whingeing and whining. Which you don't really mean to do but that's what it sounds like when you just write whatever it is that comes to your head. Then it comes to the purpose? What is it? Is it just a release? or what else does it serve? Should it be changed? The reason I'm saying this is because if there is no purpose is it just a waste of time and shouldn't i be doing something useful with it? Will i be questioned for wasting my time like this? Hmmm the dilemmas...