One Daily Positive - Project 365 Week 52. Christmas on the QE2 and an iron infusion

You can't just pick Christmas up as it is in the UK and move it to the sun. We live in an Arabic Country and they allow us to have Christmas.

We can't come to Dubai and take over, we have to fit in and adapt. It's great though as here we have people both muslims and non muslims wishing us a Merry Christmas, heck we even have shop displays advertising Christmas it's NOT a festive of happy holiday, it is what it is.n

I've not been well this week, was really tired after an iron infusion and on Tuesday a migraine started to develop, it was on and off controlled with medication till Friday morning. If I took to my bed and popped a handful of pills every time I had a migraine or my chronic pain flared up (I'm in constant pain with my neck 24/7) I'd not get out of bed and would probably have numerous complications from the side effects of the meds and besides, staying in bed doesn't make the pain go away, if only it was that easy.

It's also been super chilly this week with temps dropping to 16c and I've actually been shivering in the shade and after sunset.

357 Sunday Picked Peter up after he dropped his car for a service, had a Dr's visit, then took mum to the Waldorf Hotel to check out their Christmas tree and decorations.

358 Monday Mum and I went to the Mall whilst Bob went to doggy day care for a bath and another trip to see Santa. We had dinner and consumed our body weight in after 8 mints.

359 Tuesday Merry Christmas and off to the QE2 for Christmas dinner, followed by a walk on the beach to see the sunset. Die Hard was on the TV when we got home.

360 Wednesday Just another day in Dubai and I spent the best part of it at the Dr's having an iron infusion. Peter dropped mum at the Souk Madinat, early night for me, Peter stayed up to watch Man Utd win.

361 Thursday Headed off to Ibn Battuta Mall for a couple of hours, washing machine was repaired and bed lined changed, mum ironed and I felt tired so headed off to bed for the afternoon.

362 Friday Took a drive to Al Ain to show mum life outside the city of Dubai, whilst almost 3 million people live in Dubai, it's not representative of the life of how 7 million other people live. We stopped at camel farms, drove up Jebel Hafeet Mountain at 1,249ms for some amazing views over Oman, had lunch and walked round the actual town rather than visiting the malls. The christmas tree and decorations came down in the evening and were put away.

363 Saturday We headed off to the Creek for the morning, Mum finished her souvenir shopping, we had breakfast out and in the afternoon friends came to visit for a few hours.

I'm finishing the year in this post but also including the last 2 days of the year in next weeks post also.

364 Sunday Having a lazy day, dropped mum at the local pool while I blog, wash, clean and generally sort stuff in the house and measure up for new furniture we'll be ordering tomorrow.

365 Monday Off to Dragon Mart in the morning to get my sewing machine and over locker serviced and repaired and ordering new furniture for the mezzanine area. Plans cancelled and day spent in bed with Migraine. Spending the new year at a friends house, to watch the fireworks for New Year from their roof top. They're in the UK for new year.

On the blog this week:

Construction projects in Dubai

An InLinkz Link-up

Desert Safari - Animal Tales and HDYGG

We booked with ABC Tours who collected us from home, they charge AED125 and pick you up in a modified 4x4 with roll bars and other safety equipment. We drove 45 minutes out of Dubai to the Lahbab desert on the Oman road.

 The driver lets air out the tyres before attempting the drive across the sand dunes. The 4 x 4 drive was around 20 minutes with a stop in the middle of nowhere to take photographs.

We saw these goats wandering around the desert

 We passed a camel farm but at speed so a photograph was difficult.

I'm always surprised at how much vegetation there is in the desert, considering there is no natural water supply. The mountains in the background are Hatta where there is a natural water supply. 95% of the water in Dubai is desalinated water.

 Again, another drive by at speed. These are desert squashes and it is believed they can cure diabetes.

The sap from these bushes is poisonous.

Meet Katrina the Falcon. It costs an additional AED10 to handle the Falcon and take your own photographs.

 The camel rides are included in the tour price, but it's not for me, I've no desire to ride a camel, but my friend did.

 A small henna tattoo is included in the tour price, we opted to have half the arm done which was an additional AED30

 Once the sun set, dinner was served, again included in the price as well as a welcome snack. Soft drinks and apple flavoured sisha were free, alcoholic drinks were an additional charge. The evenings entertainment included this guy with his umbrella, I have no idea what was actually said, but his skirt lit up and he twirled it over his head, then gathered it into his arms and rocked it like a baby while the PA system played the sound of a baby crying....bizarre

 Next came the belly dancer, she was good, an awful lot of twerking went on.

The sunsetting over towards the sea and Dubai, is a glorious sight to be seen, it's gets a little chilly once the sun sets, so I'm glad I brought a jacket with me and a head scarf to protect against the sand and the wind.

Animal Tales

Falcon
The Falcon is the National bird of the UAE. Falconry was first used to supplement the indigenous Bedouins diets with meat, hares and small birds caught by trained falcons.
Camel farming
It is believed the Bedioums can survive 1-2 months in the desert on camel milk alone. Camel milk contains 10 times the amount of iron found in cow's milk and 5 times the amount of Vit C, it is also a good alternative for those who suffer with intolerance to cow and sheep milk.
The world's first large-scale camel dairy farm, Camelicious on the outskirts of Dubai, has everything from milking camels on a fully automated system to processing, testing and distribution. Around 5000 litres of camel milk is produced everyday and stored in underground cooling tanks before being processed. They employ150 workers for the 2,200 camels.
Camel milk had a longer shelf life and when pasteurised the milk will keep for 14 days in the fridge without deteioration. The dairy has been inspected by EU officials to guarantee the production standards are up to tricot import rules.
As well as milk, Camelicious produces ice-cream, flavoured milks, butter, cheeses, yogurts and whey powder and export their milk to the UK. 

HDYGG?

The Beduoins are at one with the desert and wildlife and familiar with the medicinal properties of many plants.

Squashes found growing in the desert carry a claim by the Beduoins that it can be used to cure diabetes. Powered leaves mixed with water are used as a laxative and crushing the leaves and making a poultice with garlic can be applied to bites and stings. The sap of an unripe fruit is used to treat scorpion bites. The seeds can be crushed and used with water to darken hair and by crushing the fruit and mixing it with oil can be used to ease painful joints.

Senna pant is used as a laxative also and the beduoin claim it can heal stomach ailments. Milkweed sap is dried and used to treat toothache and poultices made of the leaves can be used to heal rheumatism. The leaves are also used as a fertiliser.

And finally the henna plant used to dye hair and paint hands and feet. Henna plant leaves in poultice form are used for headaches.

How to ride an Ostrich with #AnimalTales

A couple of years ago, hubby and I drove to Port Elizabeth in South Africa and drove to Cape Town along the Garden Route.

We set off inland on from George to visit the Cango Caves in Oudtshoorn, it had been raining heavily the day before so we called on route to be told the caves were flooded, so we decided to visit an Ostrich farm instead.

We started with a snack and a few drinks on the terrace over looking a lake then wandered around the gift shop and the museum. We took a guided tour of the Ostrich farm and learnt about the history of trade with ostrich feathers, had the opportunity to see some chicks and watched 2 guys racing.

Then came the most out of the blue question to which hubby replied 'er no thanks' and I said 'ooh can I?'

To ride an Ostrich they must first be blindfolded, I sat on it's back and was told to hold on underneath the wings. The Ostrich stood still when it's blindfold was taken off and walked slowly backwards out of the V shaped pen, then with some encouragement she ran with me holding on firmly, gripping my knees into her sides.

It only lasted a few seconds and then I said I'd had enough, how was I to get off and I was told 'Just let go' to which I did and the two men with me stopped me from falling.

The question we get asked a lot of in Dubai is 'do you want to ride a camel?' to which I always say I'm not interested, thank you. I've ridden an Ostrich.

Creating a garden in the desert and dog socialising

This weeks Animal Tales and How does your garden grow is from the desert. Time Traveller this week is a separate post and is found over at 7 Top Tip for visiting Vegas.

I joined a face book group as a way of meeting people and getting out and about. Dogs aren't popular in Dubai and must be kept on a lead at all times. They're also not allowed on the beach and to be honest, walking various routes around the block is getting boring for me, for Bob we are now limited to the times we can go out, as the temperature is around 40c in the day and only dropping 4-5c once the sun has gone down. The tarmac, tiles and pavement are far too hot for Bob's paws and with the heat we're limited to 2 walks of 30 minutes a day.

The drive into the desert takes an hour and is around 60kms away, I went out last Friday with hubby between 6.30am and 10am and on Saturday on my own from 3.30pm and 8.30pm. Son number 4 of 5 is here next week so we'll have a few extra trips out to the lakes to let Bob run off lead, as it's been 6 months since we left South Africa and he's had this much freedom.

This is also the first time that Bob has been in the company of this many dogs. There was lots of play between them all and unbelievably no hassles with anyone, owners or dogs. Although a lot can be said for the amount of dog poo I scooped up and I'm sure Bob didn't do all of it.

Bob's cool suit was a hit. It's fiddly to put on him as he doesn't want it on, but has velcro so it fits snuggly and it really does help to regulate his body temperature. It was 45c when this picture was taken.

There is amazingly quite a lot of wildlife in the desert including a variety of birds (130 varieties) camels and oryx.

The birds are migratory, there are no known endemic bird species to the UAE. There were nesting areas for the birds to encourage breeding.

On our return I hosed Bob down and fed him. He slept soundly in the car and fell asleep as soon as I let him in the house.

I only had one issue with Bob and that was when he decided to take off across the desert and combined with my bad back and him being the same colour as the sand, I did panic a little that I could be out for the night looking for him, but a few other people came to help and he eventually came back. The last time he did a runner was on the beach near Durban when he took off after a monkey. In fact every time he's ever run off has been chasing monkeys, not sure what got his attention today, but I'm sure it wasn't a monkey.

As well as the wildlife the desert has a lot more green in it than you'd think. The edge of Dubai is approximately 23kms from the shoreline and the whole journey was lined with freshly planted saplings in mesh cages.

The drive is quite pleasant but the sand drifts and it covers the roads and there are signs warning you of antelope, camels and horses as well as road crossings for the cycle path and regulated speed limits with plenty of cameras.

The sand seems to be reclaiming the roads

It's a straight road out into the desert and upon reaching the cycle centre, where there are toilets, shops and restaurants. 

Friday's meet was another 17kms drive towards Abu Dhabi with 14kms of the road lined with these fully grown trees. There is also an equestrian centre and Babs Al Sham resort on the route. 

The water in Dubai is from desalination plants and supplies 98% of Dubai's water. The lakes are man made.

There are many trees planted and areas where other types of plants are being grown to create a new eco system.

There was also a little bit of unexpected colour if you looked hard enough.

The sun had set by the time we left to drive home. I really must take my Nikon next week and tripod and try to capture some sun set shots and more detailed photos of the wildlife.

Back in the garden, I managed to communicate with the gardener who comes for an hour every day to sweep up the ever falling leaves, flowers and water the sand to to stop it blowing around, to pick up the seedlings for me and place them on the gas bottle box so I could single them out for individual pots and then return them to the shade. I did think that these seeds would be going to waste as I can't bend down and lift things due to a bad back which I'm receiving treatment for, I've also had to up the watering to 3 times a day now as you can see the plants are really struggling by 3pm, but thankfully are back in the shade by then.

I'm hoping my back is better over the next 2 weeks before I go to Canada for 3 weeks, so I can get the seedlings planted out and fill the gaps.

Next weeks post for Animal Tales involves looking for kennels and a cattery for when hubby and I are both out of the country in September. For HDYGG I'll be visiting a garden centre and looking for some plants I can grow indoors and for Time Traveller I'll be writing up about the Dhow Cruise Dinner and Desert Safari I've booked to take child 4 of 5 on, he'll also be joining me back out in the desert with Bob next week.