Sitting in my office, yearning... yearning for my next plane ride... hahaha!Since I will be stuck in Manila behind my desk for the next few months, I decided to share what I am staring at.... more purpleness!Of course the muse of this photo is that yummy cupcake with purple icing from Sonja's cupcake in Serendra (sorry couldn't find an official website). I love this cupcake! But again, I cannot indulge all the time because of 'ye 'ol blood sugar.Maybe when my sister Teng comes home in September. =)
Being new to the middle east, I knew nothing of it except that its landscape is mainly desert. What surprised me was the beauty of the architecture not only of the buildings but the homes as well. Mediterranean, yet retaining arabic and modern touches.This photo is a shot of the Jumeirah part of the city which is my favorite of all areas so far. My thoughts as I rode the bus one of my bored days here is that "I could live here"...oh no! hahahaha!!!
The next surprise is food. I have not tried much arabic food but I discovered that I like most of them like falafels, kebabs and the yummy variations of rice. I am not a fan of lamb but there are always variations of dishes in beef or chicken.And if you get tired of Arabic food, this place is also haven of other kinds of food as well. One good restaurant is The Noodle House (http://www.dubai-eating.com/13981.htm) which is part of the Jumeirah brands. The food is asian fusion and the service fabulous. Try their Chicken Sweet and Sour, the Crab Fried Rice and the Spicy Shrimp. Yum!!
Last but not the least of course is the shopping. Dubai is shopping heaven!! Period!! For girls like me who are Asians but not Asian in measurements, Dubai is a place where we can max out ye 'ol credit card and still feel good. I've shopped all over Asia and the best I could find are shoes. But in Dubai, I can find everything from underwear, trousers, tops, blouses, you name it they have sizes for girls like me. Aside from all the branded items, Dubai now has Dubai Outlet Mall where I could buy branded stuff for 1/3 of the price in regular malls. Needless to say I went crazy. The running list:6 pairs of shoes5 pairs of trousers6 blouses/topsa bunch of underweara purple tankini (at last!)a purple watchnotebooksaccessories5 more days before I go back home...I dare not think what else I would find.
...peppered my otherwise "happy birth day".First, I wanted to eat a late lunch at this Japanese restaurant called Murasaki. I had a slight fever the night before so we were a bit late leaving the house. When we got there it was closed! All I had was a photo right beside the signage...and I was dreaming of eating there for the past year...because Murasaki is purple in japanese...sigh...It is my Maming's (my mother) 8th death anniversary on the 22nd April so after grabbing a burger we went to Manila Memorial Park to meet up with my sister-in-law Pam and the kids. It was a happy day of lounging around the park. When we were about to leave to have dinner, a girl who was apparently learning how to ride a motorcycle fell beside my car. And so my precious Zoomzoom now sports a dented fender. In addition to this unfortunate incident, the lady in question could not afford to pay me for the damage. She had to get her mother-in-law to appeal to me that they can only pay half of what I would pay as participation fee to the insurance company. Since it was almost dark and we had a dinner appointment, I just said "oh hell" and agreed so that we can be done with it.
While we were driving to the Seaside Restaurants, I had a feeling of anxiety. As they say, bad things come in 3s. The food was delicious (I was too happy and forgot to take photos of the shrimps, baked mussels, calamares, etc.), the company was fantastic - several of my fangirlfriends joined us, but when we were getting ready to move to the nearest Starbucks for coffee, one of my nieces picked up what seemed to be the ribbon of my shoes...sigh...
So there...3 unfortunate events...That's what I thought!On our way home, my husband had to do a quick brake because the local government is doing its maintenance. How unfortunate the their sign was not placed right as we almost hit it after the car in front of us swerved. We managed to stop but then we heard something bumped us from behind...sigh... another motorcycle bumped our car while the driver skidded to the side of the road. This time the victim is the bumper of our car. So the shoe event is just a red herring. This is the real 3rd unfortunate event. I mean what are the odds that 2 motorcycles will bump your car within a span of 6 hours? And on someone's birthday?Thank God that no one got seriously hurt. I was even more thankful when we got home safe and sound. This day will forever be in the hall of fame of most memorable events in my life. Happy Birthday to me...
Sundays are lazy days for me. A day in the week I treasure. Rare days that I sleep in and eat well. Sometimes too well for my own good. Hahaha! Today was a special one for me. I've been requesting my playmate, a budding chef to make me one of the dishes in this cookbook I bought for him recently. A week ago he said pick one and I'll see if I can do it one of these weekends. I was not expecting anything this weekend because we did not do any grocery shopping.Well today he woke me up at 11am (didn't I say I like to sleep in? hehe..) and said it's early but time to eat. I grudgingly got up thinking lunch was just one of those yummy but regular stuff we always have. My sleepy eyes opened wide when I saw what was on our purple plate. Of course my one purple world extends to my kitchen! Beef Stroganoff ala Butch was yummy. The critic in me said the beef was not as tender as I'd like but heck I finished that big plate and even ate some more for merienda (what we Filipinos call our mid-afternoon snack). This is actually the 2nd time he fulfilled a request from me but the surprise of it was what made it extra special.
I did not have my own camera on this trip. I know, unforgiveable! But my camera did not get out of the hospital in time for the trip. So my intent was really to filch from the girls. But I also realized that my mobile phone has a video function. So for the very first time, I did a video log of what I saw of Taipei.The first thing that we did after checking in at our hotel was eat. There are street food available just a few steps from our hotel. This is very amateurish but meet the girls and our not so inviting food. Our palate just wasn't used to the "chinese" taste. We all loved the fried rice but the pork...mmmmm...no comment. Without further ado, meet the my travel partners and our first taste of Taiwan food.
Sitting in my office, yearning... yearning for my next plane ride... hahaha!
