For the past few days i have killed nearly 5! I am not writing from jail and certainly I am not wanted by the police! It’s mosquitoes that were killed! 5! Is that even a count? I’ve been in Sharjah, UAE for nearly 6 years and haven’t seen any mosquitoes!… until now that is. The favourite pet pest in the UAE is the famous bachelors bug or the bed bug. It thrives oh heat and of course blood! It likes bachelor pads for the single reason because they are very clean and hygienic! If you kill one you bring 100’s more. Only a few ways to get rid of them, drown them in water, scotch tape them, bomb them (they have a special bomb where you place the bomb in the room and seal the room so that no air escapes…it works – be gone for 24 hrs, else you go with the bugs!), or leave the country! We have come to live with them, drowning, taping and bombing them frequently.

The recent rain has brought a new pe(s)t – Mosquitoes! I don’t think they will last the summer but the point is- they have arrived! Brings back memories of home – nets, good night liquid, tortoise coils…

Welcome my friends. Have a great summer!

We all miss the rains here in UAE. It’s because being from the subcontinent, we are used to the rain. Riding on bikes, with no helmet on, crossing puddles of water, surviving open drainage, with buses happily spaying us with a mixture of rain water, sewage, mud, rose petals, jasmine (the rose and jasmine – leftovers from a funeral procession of course!), it is so much fun and excitement. Getting fully soaked is a good feeling. The ultimate part is when the water starts to flow from the shirt into the pants! What a feeling! lol

The rain brings us back to all our childhood memories and the fun we all had together as children. Rain is beautiful. The first raindrops on the dry earth brings our an aroma that cannot be described! What a smell! Like the famous Titanic phrase there is a similar one… It’s been 84 months and I can still smell the wonderful smell of rain on soil! I know it sounds horrible.. but who cares! It’s just to say rain bring in a lot of pleasant memories.

Rain in UAE. Now that is a total different thing. First of all it is a desert and rain is not there in the UAE dictionary. Or so it seemed to be until a few years ago. Now it is becoming a regular event! Here a slight rain clogs up the roads. What else would you expect when throughout the year you have sand blowing everywhere and filling up every drainage hole. Now here rain water and fine sand is not good. Slush! Luckily over here most of us drive around in cars. Bikes are not common because of the heat. The only thing we experience here from the rain is – TRAFFIC JAMS!

Recently in the past few days we have had heavy rain, hail stones as big as marbles and SNOW also! You can view more of this in the Gulf News. This climate change surely has something to do with global warming. UAE cannot withstand rain like this. Let’s hope everything is back to normal soon. Certainly this rain does not bring any memories back but only fear – fear of traffic jams! …especially driving to and fro between Dubai and Sharjah.

Rain rain go away, little johnny wants to go to work!

Last night as usual our gang of Sadiq, Thowfiq a guest Ibrahim and me went out for dinner in Dubai. Without a thought we just went straight to our joint. It was the Reef Deira restaurant! You thought i was going to mention some glam restaurant? Most of the time when we are in Dubai and cannot decide where to go, the only choice is here! This joint is on the Al Muteena road on the same line as the LuLu Shopping Center. A lot of restaurants line up that area. So if you are willing to try it out you can visit the place. There is a park next to the road and during the night especially now, it is really excellent to sit out… yes you have tables out … and just enjoy your food and just while your time away. You can hop into Sheraton Deira or the Marco Polo Hotel which are a minutes walk away. You can have a bite and crash into a disco!

What do these guys serve? hmmm.. typically this is a mallu (Malayalee, Kerala) joint. So all mallu food, mallu chinese, mallu shawarma, mallu arabic,  mallu western, mallu pakistani. It’s all mallu! You also get hot drinking water which is flavoured with cumin seeds, called jeera water or jeera vellam! This usually helps in digestion. Our typical dish we order is Beef Chilli and Chicken kadai with parotta. There are so many dishes, so just go there and try it out. Its a nice place with decent food.

For Sharwarma there is a place in Deira Nasser Square behind HSBC bank. Im not sure of the name. It is just amazing. You have a choice of Chicken or Mutton – spicy/ non spicy. They make it and put it in the grill to make it crisp. The wonderful taste along with the crispiness make it an amazing treat. I will update the details of the shop.