March 14, 2010 by findingbackroads

Blogging and work clash

Hi, I did not die. Literally, no. After all, ghosts don’t write blogs, right?

I had been very busy with work – I know not the most colorful excuse of the day but I don’t know any better and it’s true. It’s a shame that it’s true. Two of my colleagues are still in their home countries and I’m still doing a workload of at least 2 people.

It pains to end the day, with an hour of overtime (at least) and think I’ve not written anything. This has been going on for days which is not nice because blogging had been my cheap (free) therapy.

Quickie updates:

My close friend/confidante Rose has left the UAE last Friday for the Philippines to deliver her baby. I will miss our chats. She’s a ray of sunshine and a great listener to my sometimes pointless blahs. She’s just gone for three days and I already attempted to call her, forgetting that she’s not here…

We watched Alice in Wonderland last Friday and I enjoyed the movie – but still insist that the Mad Hatter could be Elijah Wood and not Johnny Depp! The audience won’t know the difference!

The little birdie in our window sill isn’t so little anymore.

..which reminds me, I actually have something to say.

Pristine has named the little bird “George” because lately, she’s been obsessed with the name “Georgia” (I don’t know why). Since the bird is assumed to be a boy bird, considering the size and all according to my mother who majored in Biology before (not sure if that has any connection, just thought I’d mention it heh). The male species are always bigger in built, and George is robust.

So George it is! In a few days, we think he’ll be able to fly.

Oh and the other egg didn’t make it. Mommy bird pecked it but the chick inside didn’t come out to see the light. Somehow, it made me kind of sad. 😦

November 8, 2009 by findingbackroads

And there goes my Nablopomo

Hello? Anybody still reading the blog? Sorry for the absence. Since going back to work Monday last week, it seemed that someone hit the fast forward button in my life. There’s so much to be done everyday that doesn’t seem to end. This is what I get in return for my 30 days vacation!? Don’t answer that.

So there goes my first Nablopomo breakdown in three years.

I’m slowly coming out for air and hopefully have some spare time to sort out the things I need to do, non-work related – preferably, sort out photos, review my blogging schedule and write more. I’m having a faster internet here in the office than the unbelievably slow 256kbps net speed at home. That should get me going.

Meanwhile, it’s November and we’re having really thick fog in the morning here in Dubai. Fog in the morning means glorious winter weather is at hand! It’s time to go to the beach again! November also means I’m going to add a candle to my cake again in a couple of weeks. Better celebrate that with Rob Pattinson. LOL. Jump to the Twilight saga. Yes, I love that first Twilight movie, never really cared for the reviews. I’ve bought the second book, New Moon at the awesome-mest bookstore in Dubai, Kinokuniya at The Dubai Mall, to get me ready with the movie to be shown here sometime near my birthday. Pristine’s excited too. She already pasted the New Moon poster that came with the book. She’s been saying funny things about the movie and the cast. Err, referring to Edward and Bella as “husband and wife” because they “kiss”. So if you’re unmarried and kiss in front of my daughter, better produce a fake marriage license or better yet, don’t kiss in front of her if she hasn’t been to your wedding.

Oh before I forget, she also said that Jacob and his wolf pack are shirtless (in the movie) because wolves, like dogs and cats, wear no clothes”.

October 29, 2009February 3, 2022 by findingbackroads

Thoughts on our recent vacation (Part 1)

Just sharing some recap/tidbits regarding our recent vacation to Japan.

1. It’s dangerous to travel during Autumn season in Japan– Autumn in Japan is one of my favorite time of the year. The leaves change colors, the air is crisp and fruits abound! There is a phrase in Japan describing autumn as “shokuyoku no aki”, which roughly translates to “great Autumn appetite”. Autumn is harvest time so there’s plenty of fresh produce during this time. BUT also at this time of the year, the Pacific Ocean brews stronger typhoons during the months of September-November and there is a great chance the flights can get really nasty while passing through the thick clouds or even worse, fly through a storm, head on!

2. Going via Singapore is the long way– There’s a direct flight via Emirates Airlines to Osaka, Japan but it’s expensive and we still need to take domestic flights to Tokyo. This year, we booked our flights via Singapore Airlines, wishing to have one day transit in Singapore and see the Lion City. The downside was Singapore-Narita (Tokyo) flight is quite long, 7 hours. Last year, we took a flight to Narita via Hong Kong. It was the best bet since it’s only 2 hours from Hong Kong to Narita.

3. Airbus 380 rocks big time– and I’m not talking about the turbulence that rocked the double decker plane. I’m referring to the uber fascinating inflight entertainment! You can choose movies, games, music but it doesn’t stop there. You can pause, forward, rewind your preferred movie! You can also insert a USB stick and view your vacation photos on screen. The seven hour flight from Narita to Singapore wasn’t a pain at all and we almost wouldn’t want to get off the plane because of the entertainment we had on board.

4. It rains in Japan during Autumn season– frequently. It rained in Narita when we arrived and most of the days we were there. I love rain but when it rains for the whole day on three consecutive days, hmmm. Not too cool.

5. Pristine loves transparent vinyl umbrellas – since it rained a lot, we had to buy umbrellas and she chose the transparent vinyl ones over the colored or printed because she wanted to look up and see the rain falling from the sky.

Photo from Kirainet.com

6. Autumn travel means bigger luggages – filled with tights, wool shirts, socks and my trusted Columbia Sportswear Fleece Jacket.

7. Autumn wardrobe can get expensive– only because we live in Dubai where it’s t-shirt weather most of the year. We have since bannished thick jackets in our small closet so when we got to Japan, we had to buy things to keep us warm. That was a surprise travelling cost for us!

8. Vending machines can become an addictive habit – Pristine was overwhelmed with the vending machines in Japan that spits our cold and hot drinks at a drop of a couple of pennies.

9. I need a bigger capacity SD camera card – I have a couple of 1GB and 2GB cards but if I use the SLR or take short videos using my point and shoot cam, it’s not enough and it’s a pain to stick another card. I would love to have a Sandisk 8GB SDHC Memory Card since it’s getting cheaper or go all the way and get a 16 GB SDHC so I won’t have to worry about erasing photos or videos!

10. I need to have a hankie in my hand while on board– because I easily cry over sappy movies. Can you believe? I cried a river watching Lindsay Lohan’s first movie, The Parent Trap!

11. Traffic in Tokyo is worse than traffic in Dubai – the only reason I thought Dubai traffic was the worst was that I never travelled by car through the streets of Tokyo before. There’s no traffic when using trains. The Tokyo roads are complicated, narrow, filled with trucks, has a traffic light every few meters, dirty tunnels and bumper to bumper traffic at any time of the day, not just on rush hours.

12. My Dubai based phone automatically roams– This was a surprise. When I looked at Etisalat’s website and talked to their customer service rep, they said I need to make an application to make my phone use the roaming service outside of the UAE. And I need to deposit 2000 dhs, too (which really sucks). I almost gave up but when I arrived in Narita and turned on my phone, it rang and I got a message saying “Thank you for using Etisalat’s roaming service in Japan”. It’s still a mystery to me.

13. My husband really needs to get a grip and learn to travel light– I really, really, painfully envy people who, after checking their baggages, line up in the immigration area with a small shoulder bag and nothing else. I try to pack light but my big handbag is at least, always 5 kilos heavy because it contains 2 fresh sets of clothes for Pristine and I, my personal stuff, wet tissues, hand sanitizer, a water bottle (to be filled up after baggage check – I’d like to have water always ready as the plane atmosphere can get really dry and sometimes the stewardess is not always available). But my husband? He has one big backpack, one bag containing piles of paper and another bag containing his big laptop, charger and freaking mouse – with wire! I wish he would get a Samsonite Toploader with Wheels so he can put his darn bulky laptop and piles of paper in one bag and drag it away easily! Anyone who has this bag would swear by the great functionality. Now on how to convince him.

July 30, 2009 by findingbackroads

Thank you for your voice – survey result

Thank you very much for the response to last week’s blog survey. Your responses gave me an insight with regards to you, my readers, where you all came from, frequency of visit and most of all, thank you very much for the tips and thoughts on how to improve my site.

Here are the survey results:

1. Gender – 98% of my blog readers are female

2. Location – 80% are from North America (United States of America and Canada), others are scattered around the world mainly in Asia and Europe.

I only have very few readers from my own location – which I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.

3. How many are moms like me? 62% are moms, 31% answered “None of the above”.

The other choices were mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, mom to be and trying to conceive/adopt. Maybe a student? or a single person? Sorry I missed to put that option.

4. Age

26-35 years old – 41%
36-40 years old – 16%
21-25 years old – 14%
41-45 years old – 12%
46+ – 13%
below 20 years old – 4%

5. How many are working full time like me or staying at home? (multiple selections allowed)

36% are stay at home mom/dad, 26% are working outside the home, full time, others are working outside the home, part time (8%), working at home with own business (23%), working at home for a company (6%) and student (17%)

6. Reader’s online activities:

INTERESTING: 10% of the readers have purchased something online as a result of a review written in this blog!

67% have their own blog
98% read blogs regularly
85% shop online
82% are on Facebook (gasp)
68% are on Twitter
*last two emphasizes the important role of social media network

7. Frequency of blog access

35% of the readers access Sandier Pastures blog whenever a new post pops up in the RSS feed – which means everyday since my RSS spits out at least 1 post daily
*Stresses the importance of having an RSS feed and putting in a more visible location.

Others access the blog:
Everyday (21%)
Every other day (16%)
Once a week (13%)
Every once in a while (10%)
Rarely (2.5%)
More than once a day (2.5%)

8. Reader’s favorite feature (multiple selections allowed):

The giveaways/contest on Tuesdays and Fridays – 62%
Random/personal posts – 45%
Monday Travel Features about Dubai/Japan – 24%

9. The posts that readers enjoy the most usually involve (multiple selection allowed):

Giveaways/Contests/Opportunities to win prizes – 77%
Photos of Dubai (I want to see Dubai through your eyes!) – 58%
General life as an expat in Dubai – 56%
Photos and stories of your life in Japan – 47% *needs improvement. Will work more on writing about Japan

10. What would make Sandier Pastures an even more valuable resource for you? or What would you like to see more of? Share your tips and thoughts!

I’ve picked up interesting replies and thought I would want to highlight it here with my own comment.

it takes forever to load your blog on my computer – It must be because of the photos but I can’t stop posting photos and the number of it being in my blog right now are the least I could post. I’m sorry. I wish there was something I could do like hope you’ll all have faster internet connection?

Anyone having the same problem?

More pictures! – Oh yes, I do love to post more pictures and I will try to do that. It’s just sometimes it takes a while to take out that SD memory card out of the camera, plug the SD reader in my PC, open the folder, transfer to local disk, resize, upload to Picasa, edit the dark/too bright ones, watermark it and finally upload it in my blog post. It’s hard to do these all at one time when my work colleagues are around.

By the way, that wasn’t an excuse. It’s a fact. Don’t worry one thing that won’t be missing in my blog are photos.

Maybe a facebook fan page for more viewers – Honestly? I must be the only blogging person in the planet who isn’t into Facebook. I had a Facebook account last year but I deactivated it due to possible addicting manifestations – on my part of course. I accidentally activated it again during this FB username charade and it’s there but with no activity whatsoever.

Gah, I talk too much. I’ll look into Facebook again but a fan page? I am not sure about the word fan.

I would like to see more reviews. – Well, me too but I’m hoping my blog isn’t going in that direction. I do accept book reviews and do it once in a while because I can’t resist a good book and getting it for free is a major bonus. As for product reviews, I don’t think I’ll be doing more reviews soon because not many companies are willing to ship their products all the way to the land of Aladdin where I live. Even the books come in the “electronic form”.

However, I am eyeing to review for local companies (Dubai based) in the future. And companies abroad, if they are willing to let me sample an item for a review, I’ll gladly do it – oh, as long as it is family friendly because my 5 year old daughter reads my blog daily.

more personal, less giveaways. Also can you publish the winners of the giveaways? – Okay, maybe I am guilty of the personal part. I admire people who are so open with their lives online and while it’s ok or maybe even therapeutic for them, I can’t be as personal. Maybe in due time but I do post some personal issues – now all the world knows of my graying hair. I even posted photos of my belly for the world to see. Hey, that was personal (at least for me!).

Regarding the giveaway winners, I do put the names of the winners on the giveaway post, two days after a giveaway ends and I have received a confirmation reply from the winner but if it is better to make a separate post to announce the winners of the week, I’ll do that.

not sure – more giveaways? – It’s hard to please everyone. As opposed to the comment above asking me to write more personal posts, here’s a reader who wants more giveaways and here I am torned because I am a people pleaser.

But I have to lay down the rule for this one, at least for now:

Less or more giveaways? I only conduct two giveaways a week, on Tuesdays and Fridays. I might (“might” means if I wake up one day and realize there’s no sponsor willing to donate a giveaway item) also hold a giveaway once a week.

I do not intend to make it more than twice a week because running a giveaway is hard work (you giveaway bloggers know) and I already have a 6-day a week full time work.

Verdict: Two giveaways a week, tops. If in the future I get “offers” to host more contests/giveaways, I might start another blog solely for that.

Giveaway which are opened to ALL – Believe me when I say, I echo your sentiment. I live outside of the US and Canada and I feel sorry for myself for being kicked out from most of the giveaways going on around the blogosphere. As of this writing, I have hosted 84 giveaways in all. From these, only 12 are not open for everyone.

While I try hard to find sponsors willing to ship international, some of them just can’t.

Doing a great job. Make the archives easier to access and sort out. – Will do that! I am guilty of neglecting basic blog housekeeping duties.

Just be you, Grace! You’re interesting and fun. Let us see that in your posts. – Thank you! I know you but won’t mention your name here! 🙂 I am interesting and fun? That’s great to know. Some days, I do amuse myself.

You take such amazing pictures of your life in Dubai, that is definitely my favorite part of your blog. – Thank you! I’ll take more and more photos while I’m here!

I love it…LLLLOOOOOVVVEEE it. I’ve been meaning to send you a picture that I won through you of a citrus art pic framed… – Thank you, again! Receiving comments like this make me NOT want to detach myself ever from this wonderful online community!

ATTENTION GIVEAWAY WINNERS: If it’s not much of a bother, do send in photos of yourself holding/wearing/using/flaunting the giveaway item you’ve won at my blog. I’d be happy to feature that!

Photos of Pristine and you – I’m afraid I have another excuse…I mean, reason for the lack of mother-and-child photos in my blog. My husband simply do NOT fancy taking photos of us because he is clueless with the SLR or how about this: he just doesn’t like taking photos of ANYTHING. That sounded so mean but that’s just the way he is and since I CAN’T return him to his mother, I’d have to live with that.

My beloved mother who lives with us, feels so sorry for the lack of photos of myself and her grandchild sometimes takes the matter in her own hands with this result:

But still she perseveres:

Until Pristine and I goof around because we know we will just end up looking like the actors in the Blair Witch Project but what do you know, my persistent mother succeeded:

Thank God for persistent mothers, Pristine and I now have our “mother and child” photo! I wish I have worn makeup! bleh

ANYWAY, I always carry the camera and while I take a lot of photos of Pristine and of the things/scences around me, there’s no one to take photos of me. So I’ve decided I’ll buy a tripod because that should solve my problems or I could ask my MIL to buy a tripod for me in exchange for me not returning her son to her.

You think it’s a good deal?

A friend of mine just moved from France to Dubai so even more of “Dubai through the eyes of an outsider” are great. – I can’t believe the number of emails like this I receive almost everyday. Their friends/relatives moving and they’ve recommended my blog.

I wish my blog had more comprehensive information for new expats. I’ll work on that!

Love your blog – I think it’s so interesting – to see what life is like THERE, for a Non-Muslim! (Especially given that all WE really see of Dubai is the totally OBSCENE wealth that is abundant there (In the the Hotels, etc!) – Thank you, I am glad you like it. OBSCENE wealth? Wow, I wish I have even a part of that. Not all people in Dubai are swimming in gold swimming pools or having huge villas with ten maids. So many expatriates living here are just normal people, working daily to meet their basic needs, enjoying the sunshine and just making the most out of the beaches and the interesting malls coming up.

I don’t know why some people instantly think that just because I live and work in Dubai that I am rich. Ask my bloggy friend Stacey who has seen our small apartment and rode in our tiny car!

Sale info ; how to be a smart shopper – Sorry, not going that route unless I do know of a good sale info and I believe in the product, I won’t endorse or write it in my blog.

How to be a smart shopper? You tell me.

*****

Again thank you so much for your insights regarding my blog. You all are the best!

Before I forget, the 2 lucky winners of the hand-stamped necklace are:

#22 Liz and #98 Lorie Shewbridge!

Congratulations and thanks for taking part!

July 2, 2009 by findingbackroads

13 Conversations of the kid kind, Part II

I’ve compiled another round of kid conversations with my five year old. I’ve tweeted most of these in Twitter but here it is again, for your reading pleasure (and mine). I like to put this here so I can read it again when she’s grown up.

If you like to see the first installment, you can see it here.

1. One morning during potty.
Pristine: “Mama, come here, fast!”
Me: “What, why?”
Pristine: “Our toilet bowl is getting smaller. My feet reaches the floor now!”

2. While I was choosing what to wear.
Pristine, playing personal wardrobe assistant: “Mom, how about this?”
Me: “Oh no, that won’t fit me yet.”
Pristine: “and this? this? this?”
All the clothes she chose was a little bit tight on me since those were my pre-pregnancy clothes!
Pristine: “Ooooh-kay, let’s buy pregnant clothes!”

3. On trying to explain a very difficult subject, with only a little time available (I was on my way out to work).
Me: “Oh, sorry it’s really so difficult to explain. I’ll try harder later.”
Pristine: “Why, it’s a riddle?”

4. She grabs a flashlight and poked it in my ears.”Mama! There’s something in your ears! Giraffes!”

5. At night when I tucked her to bed.
Pristine: “Good night, mom. I love you.”
Me: “I love you too. You’re the best.”
Pristine: “Best? But what about the other children?”

6. While I was chatting with my good bloggy friend, Stacey, in Yahoo Messenger.
Pristine: “Mom, how do you do that?”
Me: “What?”
Pristine: “That – typing very fast! Can I try, promise I won’t push Enter key and do many backspace later!” (this girl is techy)
She puts all her ten fingers on the keyboard and..

hglaghauthn jautpr jaluwp abanaupwgt bnalowegapu

Pristine: “Ok, mom, read it please!”

7. On one of our favorite role plays.
Me: “You’re Snow White because you are white.”
Pristine: “and mama, you’re Sleeping Beauty because you’re SLEEPING.”
Hmm, there’s something wrong with the equation.

8. While I was over-indulged in playing Wii Tennis.
Pristine: “Stop it mom or else your eyes will get dizzy!”
(What amazes me the most? She’s using the phrase “or else” I think I didn’t use it until I was married..”marry me or else” LOL)

9. Watching Kung Fu Panda.
Pristine: “Mama, are there any other animals than can do Kung Fu?”
Uhm, any Kung Fu Doggie in the works that you know of? Anyone?

10. I stepped into the room and saw her lying face up, eyes closed.
Me: “Pristine, are you ok?” (she just woke up an hour ago so I thought she must not be sleeping)
Silence…”are you ok!?” I shook her.
Pristine (wriggling): “Mama! Please stop talking to me now. I am playing pretend that I’m dead!”
Note: She’s fond of doing monologues, makes up her own script and visual effects. LOL.

11. I wanted to watch Blood Diamond on DVD but stopped it after a few minutes.
Me: “That’s it. Too much violence!”
Pristine: “oooh, why did you stop it?”
Me: “VIOLENCE, do you know what’s that?”
Thinking…..and had a sparkly light bulb moment.
Pristine: “YES! It’s like a guitar but you use it with a bow!”

12. Disagreement with dad.
Pristine: “Papa told a lie. Father lier is not good, right?”
Me: “What happened? What did he tell you?”
Pristine (vehement): “Well, he told me that Vicks is smelly! It’s not true, right?”
*Vicks gotta pay this kid!*

13. I tied my hair in a bun for a day and once I untied it, my hair had huge waves and she gleamed with joy,

“Wow, curly! Now YOU’RE my mother!”

(Naturally, she’s curly and I’m not.)

If you have cute kiddie quotes and you’re on Twitter, send your tweets with the hashtag #plum. Plumkeeperwill retweet it for everyone to enjoy!

Happy Thursday! Enjoy your kids, if you have one or two…

June 11, 2009 by findingbackroads

Blog comments and a poll

Lately, I’ve been receiving comments from new readers. Also, I have been receiving more comments than when I first started this little blog almost three years ago. Honestly, I never expected readers from as far as Australia or the US to come read my stuff. Some of them have even become close confidantes and friends even if I haven’t met them!

Comments are the air that we breathe in blog world. I love receiving comments and I try to reciprocate the bloggy love as much as I can. I either visit the blog (if blog address is left) or respond through email if the comment calls for it though sometimes, I reply by email and just say “Thanks!”. If it bugs you, let me know. 🙂

In addition to that, lately I’ve been publishing my reply in the comment section right below the comment, in bold & italic letters.

Today I woke up curious about all this blog commenting – blog visiting bloggy love cycle so I created a poll to know how you would like to the blog owner to respond to any comments you leave on his/her blog.

On to the poll now:

Lastly, while surfing the net this morning I stumbled upon an interesting article titled, 6 Types of Blog Commentors – Do You Know Them?. Interesting stuff and the title could also be, “which one are you?”

Speaking of blog comments, let me have this opportunity to thank everyone taking the time to leave a comment. Please know that I truly appreciate that.

* This is my first blog poll and I am excited to see all your inputs! *

June 4, 2009 by findingbackroads

What they’re talkin’ – again

Thursday Thirteen banner was made by my good friend, Samulli.

I live in the Deira side of Dubai where the English language I hear is the “tweaked” version. Here’ what I hear on a daily basis:

1. Up and down – Not referring to jumping of any kind.

“How much is going to Mumbai, up and down?”

“Really? You got yours for 1,000 dhs only for up and down?”

No idea what that means? Give up? It means, round trip. Don’t be too hard on yourself. I didn’t have the slightest idea the first time I heard it!!

2. Expired – food, service validity and you might NOT guess, human beings.

A colleague told me: “My uncle has expired last night. ”

3. Do one thing – or two or three, as many as you like! You can hear this when someone is giving instructions on what to do.

“Do one thing, Ali Baba, pick up the mail at the post office and bring it here.” Oops, those were two things!

4. One Mr. xx – There is someone called Mr. xx.

“There is one Mr. Kamal in the accounts department, go meet him.”

5. Increment – “Did you have increment this year?” or “No, the company will not provide increment because of the recession.”

It means, salary increase.

6. Snaps – “Grace, can you take my snaps?”

Huh?

“My snaps. I’ll come with a nice top (blouse) tomorrow so please bring your camera.”

Oh, photos!

7. Filipiniii– Pronounce, Fi-li-pi-niii, referring to Filipinos here in Dubai. I get this all the time: “Are you Filipiniii?”

8. Goggles– not the swimming gadget nor the search engine, heh. Goggles, dark ones, for the sun! Duh!

9. Pressurizing situation– I hear pressurinzing instead of “pressing” or “pressuring”.

“The client is constantly pressurizing us!” or “Please don’t keep pressurizing me, I am busy with other things!”

Oooh-kaay. Stop the pressurizing already!

10. Everything is “too much”– “Ah, summer. It’s too much hot!” or “What? 10 dirhams for this? it’s too much costly!”

Clearly. This is too much for my ears.

11. I have one doubt – doubt, question, confusion.

“Wait, I have one doubt, how to go to Karama?”

12. “Yeah”– the ultimate sentence ender in Dubai. Gotta love it. Not!

“I’ll call you tomorrow, yeah?”

“So you’ve been in Dubai for almost three years, yeah?”

13. xx Sir/xx Madam– the way the bosses or females are referred to. Here they don’t say Sir Elton John or Madam Tussauds (hehehe, can’t think of any better examples!) they say: Elton John Sir and Tussauds Madam.

This Thursday Thirteen is brought to you by Grace Madam. 🙂

If you missed the first part of What They’re Talkin, check out the post I did last year.

http://www.blenza.com/linkies/autolink.php?owner=sandierpastures&postid=04Jun2009&meme=tt

May 14, 2009 by findingbackroads

Things you might NOT know about Dubai

1. Dubai was known for its pearl industry until the discovery of oil in the 1960’s.

2.In the 1820s, Dubai was referred to as Al Wasl by British historians.

3. English is spoken widely, even if the official national language is Arabic because of #4.

4. Only 20% of the population are locals, the rest of the population are foreigners (expatriates) from more than 200 different countries.

5. The man-woman ratio is 3:1.

6. There is no direct tax (no income taxes).

7. It is not hot the whole year! We actually have 7-8 months of great weather that’s not too hot and never too cold.

8. Dubai’s economy is largely based on tourism, not oil which makes up of only less than 6% of Dubai’s GDP.

9. On 2 December 1971 Dubai, together with Abu Dhabi and five other emirates, formed the United Arab Emirates

10. Religions aside from Islam are freely practiced. There is a Catholic church and churches of other Christian denominations as well

11. No matter in which part of Dubai you are in, you will hear calls to prayer at least five times a day. Even in shopping malls, the calls to prayer are put out over the speakers, to remind Muslims that it is time to pray.

12. Dubai has the largest population of all the United Arab Emirates.

13. Dubai is NOT a country! – It is one of the seven emirates of the UAE. So abroad, there’s no such establishment as “Dubai Embassy” and Dubai doesn’t have a capital. (I have been asked about this so many times)

[Top Photo Credit]

May 7, 2009 by findingbackroads

13 conversations of the kid kind

When we pay close attention to what our child/children have to say, our days will never be boring! Here are some of the short talks I had with my daughter and some of her quirky remarks about things.

Kids never fail to amaze me!

1. After dyeing my graying hair daughter sneaks up on me and said: “Mom, your hair smells like medicine. Is it sick?”

2. 5 yo daughter: “Mom, am I an angel?”
Me: “Yes, babies and children are all angels.” She replied: “So what happens when we GROW up?

3. While helping my her with a school project:
5 yo: “Mom please hold these bird feathers.”
Me: “Okay, anything else?”
5 yo: “DON’T breathe!”

4. 5 yo daughter with earache is praying.
5 yo: “Mom, what do I say next”?
Me: “Ask God for anything.”
5 yo: “God, please be nice to me!”

5. Fruit lesson:
5 yo: “Mom blueberries are boys coz they’re BLUE and strawberries are girls coz they’re RED, right? Riiiight?”

6. While watching Mamma Mia, 5 yo caught me teary-eyed.
5 yo: “Mom, u will cry when I get married?”
Me: “Yes, maybe.”
5 yo: “Then I’ll NOT get married!”

7. She wants brothers and sisters.
5 yo: “Mom I want 2 babies, boy & girl!”
Me: “Oh twins! So, what shall we name them?”
5 yo: ARIELE & FLOUNDER!

8. When visiting a friend with a new baby:
5 yo: “Mom, can we borrow THAT baby for 3 days? I know how to be a big sister already!”

9. When one of us is sick:
5 yo: “Don’t go to work mom! I’m sick.”
Me: “But grandma is here to take of you.”
5 yo: “Don’t go! If you are sick, I promise I won’t go to school too!”

10. Buying clothes:
Me: “Pink, again!?”
5 yo: “Because I’m a girl! And mom, you should change that black blouse to pink, too.”

11. Mamma Mia movie:
5 yo: “Why THREE possible fathers, mom?”
oops, Mamma Mia is not a child-friendly movie!

12. 5 yo singing Dancing Queen: “You can dance, you can DIVE..”
Me: “No, it’s not DIVE but JIVE!”
5 yo: “Nope, we didn’t learn JIVE in school!”

13. Japanese-English bilingual 5 yo, starting to pray at bedtime: “Mom, what language does God speak? What will I use?”

I entered these in a contest via Twitter called “Moms tweet the darndest things about their kids“. Unfortunately, none were included in the final top ten list (you can see which kid quotes made it to the top ten by clicking that link). Nevertheless, it was fun recalling the kid quotes and tweeting them.

Do you have any funny kid talks to share?

http://www.blenza.com/linkies/autolink.php?owner=sandierpastures&postid=07May2009&meme=tt

April 30, 2009 by findingbackroads

Store names seen in Manila

I’ve posted about the funny store names in Dubai, now it’s time for Manila to shine!

1. Elizabeth Tailoring

2. Christopher Plumbing

3. Anita Bakery

4. Doris Day and Night (a 24H cafeteria)

5. Goldirocks (a sand and gravel supplier)

6. Felix the Cut (children’s hair salon)

7. Curl up and Dye (a ladies salon)

8. Wash up Doc? (a laundromat)

9. The Way We Wear (a clothing boutique)

10. Leon King ( a video rental shop)

11. Meating Place (a butchery)

12. Petal Attraction (a flower shop)

13. Sylvestre’s Salon (where the tough guys go for a haircut, I suppose?)

*****

Oh now that your’re here, before you leave, I’d like to request you to vote for my friend Elizabeth Neas who’s a finalist in a contest to win a blog she loves called “Because Mom Said So”. She believes she is capable to handle this blog and has passion to do so!

Please vote for her here (look for her name and read her essay if you like). Thank you very much! She appreciates all the help!