Finding Nermal

Garfield (yes the fat, lazy, lasagna-loving orange cartoon cat) always used to put the cute, little gray kitten, named Nermal into a big old cardboard box with holes punched into it. And mail him to Abu Dhabi.

So I always wondered where on earth that was.

Until now. I drove to Abu Dhabi and back today. Quite a smooth ride, were it not for the fog that obliterated stretches of road. And oh yes, people don't deem it necessary to switch on their headlights. The thrill-factor is right up there with being on a rollercoaster with no safety bar.

Anyway, so I went to visit my friend, Dave who was in turn, visiting Abu Dhabi for the weekend. Now Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE, and has a lovely, big palace.
But doesn't see much action on a Friday, which is the holy day here. So we proceeded to drive up and down the length of the city, seemingly trying to find Nermal.

I headed back to Dubai just after 3, since I was going to an Arno Carstens concert in the evening. Supporting SA music! The funniest thing happened before the start of the concert. A guy came up to me asking me if a) my name was Lezanne and b) if I attended Suid-Natal High (in Port Shepstone). What are the chances really?
So I didn't recognise him at all, but turns out that it was Ernst van der Poll, who took my best friend to the matric dance. I was having flash-backs of my school days, long after the show ended! The show was fantastic, by the way.

So on the question of finding Nermal. Not yet. But I intend to keep looking.

Getting from A to B

I am the first to admit that I certainly did liken Mathematics to Rocket Science at school. I really should have studied typing, or maybe even woodwork instead.
So having said that, I can't seem to do the equation of getting from point A to B over here, but having to pass through point Q first, taking a left at point T, a sharp right at point V and then finally doing a U-turn (haha) at point X, before finally, inexplicably reaching point B.

But this seems to be how reaching one's point B adds up to over here. I mean, you can literally see your destination, it's right THERE, but once you've navigated around all the detours, you end up thinking it might have only been a mirage.

Crack open the champagne!

Dave, a good friend from SA, who now lives in Kuwait came to visit over the weekend. In true Dave-fashion, he showed up with a bottle of Veuve and a big smile.

Needless to say, we did a lot of mall-hopping, which is possibly similar to pub-crawling but without the hangover in the morning. And he insisted on getting me proper shoes. He is trying hard to convert me from wearing ONLY flip-flops. It might be a long and difficult process... The shoes are fab, by the way.

So in conclusion, let it be known that anyone that shows up with a bottle of Veuve Clicquot is most welcome to come and visit. At anytime. Seriously, no questions asked. 3 o'clock in the morning? No problem!

Payday! Yay!

Need I say more!!! Off to go SHOPPING! Oh yes, and buy something other than aubergines to eat...

You know you're famous when...

You make it into the pages of the regional Western Cape newspaper, Die Burger! (Thanks for sending the clipping, Susan!)
A calendar FusionDesign entered into the Stuttgart International Calendar Competion won a silver! Wait, wait, I have a speech prepared. It's here somewhere...
Each of the designers carved four HUGE wooden blocks and these designs were used to create the final 16-month calendar which was silk-screened onto printer's make-ready sheets aka waste sheets.
Which brings us back to the missing A1+ size piece of distraction-luggage. Yup, it was one of the calendars I lugged all the way to the desert. It did eventually make it to my door, a week later.

Would an aubergine by any other name taste the same?

So, for the time being, until we get paid, Johan and I are trying to lie low and save money. Take groceries for instance, you can buy 15 Iranian eggplants for 6 DHS. But if you buy the ones that are imported from Holland, it's 20 DHS a kilo. So I figure, there's a bigger chance that the ones from Europe are genetically modified than the ones coming from Iran. Besides, they've got, er, other eggplant to fry at the moment. The only thing is that we're running out of ideas on how to prepare aubergines. Recipes anyone?

Is that snow?!?

I met up with an old friend from Saudi Arabia today. Abe and I haven't seen each other since a teary departure
from Disney World in January 2001. So quite fitting to meet up in a mall, called IBN Battuta, which is laid out as six
different countries, and kind of made me think back to Millennium Village at Epcot Centre in Florida.
From there we moved on to the Mall of the Emirates. Which is huge. And has a ski slope. With snow. Real snow, people.
I will have to send pictures. Because who's gonna believe there's snow in the desert when it's like 50 degrees Celcius outside?

Days of the week

So I figured, things are a bit different here. Take for instance the days of the week.
Thursday is Friday
Sunday is Monday
Friday is Sunday (religion-wise)
Tuesday is Wednesday
And Saturday is Saturday, except that you might get the Sunday blues,
because remember, Sunday is Monday!

The Towers...

I had my first day at the office with an orange wall today. Work being at a company called electric-orange which is situated on the 22nd floor of the Emirates Towers. It's in the taller of the two buildings. Pretty impressive architecture, hey? The view from up here is amazing. And yes, I am working as a graphic designer. Have to put the old education to some good use :)

A mythical city rising from the desert

It seemed like we had been transported to another planet. One that was being built all at the same time, with the deadline for construction to be finished within 25 days. After all, it was close to 2 am on Tuesday morning & there were people working on about 40, 40-storey buildings around our new apartment. This early in the morning it looked spectacular. Lights twinkling, with even the cranes sitting atop the buildings being lit up.

At this time we were so hyper, (the HUGE A1+ size piece of luggage got left behind in JHB, and would be delivered the following day) that we only got to bed at about 3 am.

Wow, a brand-new country. Which at this moment looks like a giant construction site.

Off to the desert...finally

Tips on being overweight at the airport.

No diet needed actually. Just charm, and a HUGE A1+ size piece of luggage, that needs FRAGILE stickers and also to be booked onto the flight separately. This is called distraction, and in Cape Town still seems to work better than bribery. I had approximately 50 kilo's of luggage on my own. I was allowed 20. ( Just to put you in the picture.)

Yes, so after having a few nervous breakdowns in the days preceding the flight, we finally made it to the airport and were off to the desert. I was a bit stressed (ok, really stressed for those who saw me the day before I left) since I knew that my luggage would be WAY overweight. And it dawned on me just then, that I was actually LEAVING the country!

We had to run through Jo'burg airport with a 20 minute window between flights. At last we could sit back and relax on the Emirates Airlines flight. Which was wonderful, by the way, The in-flight entertainment was fantastic, and the 7 hour flight seemed too short to fit everything in!