Overheard on the Frond

Wendy, Aaron and I were kayaking today and a nice lady paddled over to us to say hi. She then said, "Are you the guy who is here for a month will all the guests visiting?". "Yes, indeedy." I replied. I guess word travels fast on the Palm. 'Trish' is from Vancouver Island. She lives two villas over and is good friends with Andy, my villa owner, so that is where she got the scoop. She runs and internet based business. She had been taking a year off, but when everyone in Dubai asked her what she did - a weight loss patch - she was hounded for orders, so went back up and running.

Sarah, Jon, Wendy, Aaron and Rea went to the souks tonight. Jason was going down there to mail a package home to Manila so he kindly offered to drive them. They decided to go in the evening as it is much cooler (just checked the temp -33 degrees at 8:15PM - I guess it is all relative.

I am happily babysitting Finn and catching up on the financial markets. Finn is in her bed singing to herself!

Tomorrow Jon, Aaron, Wendy and Rea go on the Oman excursion that some others, including me, have done. We tried to book our friend Yousef, but he was unavailable and the booking agent said Mohamed was "just as nice".

Today I decided to learn a little Nepalese to make S.P. feel at home. I got a big grin when I said "Nameste, S.P., tapain-lai kasto-chha". Basically, "Peace to you, S.P., how are you?". Today, S.P. brought another worker-bee with him. Equally as friendly, happy, and efficient as S.P.! Everything is right in my world as all toileteries have been arranged by size/category.

Once again Jason has enquired, "When does Mr. Dave come? I have to beat him in boxing". I assured him that Dave would return and he could win back his honour. Dave, do you have it in you to let him win??

Yesterday we went to the Mall of the Emirates...again. It's an easy fall-back and always entertaining. We did a big grocery shop. Grocery shopping in a foreign country is one of my favourite things to do when travelling. You can interact with the locals, and tourists, and the expats, not to mention see a stunning variety of crazy stuff on the shells. We go to the Carrefour which is about three or four times the size of an average Superstore. We made a pit-stop at Virgin Mega store to buy a copy of one of my favourite movies, "Death at a Funeral". It was a great change of pace and a good laugh. I highly recommend it.

Salam.