intodimensions.com

Well, not exactly “in UAE” but close to. Earlier this week there was an earthquake with it’s epicenter on an island just off the coast of Iran and it was felt in various parts of the UAE. Some buildings in Dubai were evacuated, for example. As far as we can tell there was no structural damage and no injuries to anyone. What it did do was get a lot of people here thinking about how prepared the country is for this sort of thing.

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As the writer says “you know when things are going to be taken seriously by the world when they firstly appear on cnn.com, and when they are on the front page”.

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Thanksgiving

Originally uploaded by mnystedt.

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving and Crystal had prepared a wonderful dinner for our little dinner-party.

You can see all the photos here.

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So what does every little girl what to play with??? You may say a Barbie but here it just might be Fulla, the Arab answer to Barbie. In the Gulf News online they say she even comes with an abaya, “a black head to toe robe and headscarf - worn by women in the Arabian Gulf region” - and her “top priorities are respect for her parents and being kind to her friends.” The article also says “Many Middle Eastern children could not relate to blonde haired buxom Barbie - her revealing clothes, her frequenting of discos, and her boyfriend Ken had little relevance in Muslim homes.”

So, don’t worry, little girls here have Fulla. Now I just have to find me one.

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GulfNews reports:

The embassy of the United Arab Emirates in Stockholm was officially inaugurated in a special ceremony on Monday night. In an address to the ceremony, Assistant Under Secretary for international cooperation Mohammad Abdul Rahim, said the opening of the embassy mirrors the desire of both the UAE and Sweden to bolster cooperation and friendship between them in the best interest of their political, economic and strategic objectives.

‘The opening of the UAE embassy is yet another channel for cementing ties with sweden,’ he said, calling on Swedish public and private sectors and entrepreneurs to take part in mega development projects now underway in the UAE.

Olf Hokansen of Swedish foreign ministry said the UAE is an admirable country.

‘Sweden holds the UAE in high esteem and fully admires the economic and social development it went through over the past 30 years under the sagacious leadership of late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahayn. We wish president HH. Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan every success in continuing the remarkable development process,’ Hokansen said in a speech before the event.

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Okay I need to put my two cents worth about our camping trip. We had a really good time, and we will go back camping as soon as we can. There were some lessons that we learned though, one being that a thin piece of foam is not good enough to sleep on, when you are sleeping on rocks. So, a pump up bed will be in our camping future. The next thing that we have learned is that when you are camping with 30 some people you should try to get away from the crowd when set-up your tent. We were the welcoming tent (everyone sat around outside the tent chatting), and everyone enjoyed themselves. Third, I will not forget my blanket, because it can get quite cool at night when you are use too 90+ temps.

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Dubai In My Face:

My favourite pair of undies had started to get holes in them….so many holes that the gusset was about to become detached from them. But I loved them.They fitted perfectly, looked great under jeans and had their own built in air-con unit.They got worn as soon as they are out of the washer.A few days ago I was putting them on…..huh? No holes? They must be back to front…turned them around….still no holes. WTF is going on, I thought. Back to the drawer to investigate….nope…..these were my knickers…Somehow they had magically repaired themselves overnight.I held them up to the light for a better look, and thats when I saw that they had been subjected to micro-surgery. Over 1,000 minute stitches were now holding my dear shredded piece of underwear together. My housemaid is great, but the thought of her holding onto my bloomers for a couple of hours to perform a mammoth stitching task leaves me feeling rather ill.

I said this morning I love our housemaid, our “little helper” as we call her. And this is just the sort of thing we can see her doing (but she hasn’t so far). It’s funny though, whenever we come home and she’s been to the apartment cleaning, we have to hunt down certain things. She cleans up and puts away things where she thinks they should go so it’s an adventure to find them… bless her heart

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Via Maryam, have a look at all girl’s favorite time of the month.

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Wrong Powerbook

Originally uploaded by mnystedt.

In an insert in the Gulf News today there’s a section with suggested holiday gift items and one is a Powerbook. That surprised me a lot to start with but after reading the text I thought that the pictures looked strange and then I realized - they are the old Titanium Powerbooks. They haven’t been sold for years now. And the text also doesn’t mention the 12-inch Powerbook. And the text claims that the Powerbook has “millions more pixels than previous models” - what? “Millions more pixels”? Sometimes a little more editorial factchecking would be a good idea

Khor Kalba

Originally uploaded by mnystedt.

This past Thursday-Friday we went to Khor Kalba, which is on the UAE’s east coast, for one night of camping and canoeing. It was a lot of fun and now we look forward to many more camping trips. The Khor Kalba area is a lot different from Abu Dhabi because it is mountainous, rocky, and Abu Dhabi is all flat and sandy. It was a nice change of scenery though and I’m sure we’ll go back at some point.

You can view all our photos from the trip here.