Wednesday, June 27, 2007

*yawn* Boom baby

Back in Boston. Jet lag. Fatigue. Strange sensation of being in an alien city. It's hot here. I've just had soup for breakfast.

I think I'll go back to bed now.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

I've been sad for a while.

Not depressed mind you. Just sad. Like how you feel when the flowers die. The kind of feeling that make you tear up when you watch indian ads. Don't ask me why. Who knows why these things happen.

I thought if I blogged about it, it might make me feel better. But I've been staring at this screen for a while now and I can't think of how to put it. It's the Dubai bubble. It's that killer age - 29. It's the sand and the dust and the azaan in the morning. It's those chaps you fell in love with who moved on with someone they met after you.

Maybe it's the chaps. You ever dread getting emails or phone calls from those chaps? It's because you know that they only reason they ring you now is to tell you something good or something bad. It's not just idle chit-chat or catching up or shooting the breeze. You know them better than that and they know you would see right through them. No, the only reason they call is to tell you something monumental has happened. Like the birth of another baby. Or that they're getting married. To someone they met after you.

It's always the one after you, have you noticed? It is in my case. I must drive people to committment.

Then there are those that pop up unexpected when you had given up hope of seeing them again. Sometimes relationships mend themselves and snap back with renewed vigor. Those ones also I don't know wot to do with. Puts me in a tizzy. I start thinking about those chaps. Which is always a bad idea if you ask me. Thinking about chaps in general is bad and especially ones you had forsaken.

Then there are the ones that you wish you had never met. Because there is something about them that unsettles you. It's very illogical. They're perfectly normal people. I thought it would fade over time but, as I was so rudely reminded today, it doesn't. It stays the same. It might get worse actually.

There's something about Pinto that gives you pangs. Like I said, it's perfectly illogical. It's not like there'a anything wrong with him. He seems fine. Happy and healthy (besides an abnormally high cholesterol number and rapidly declining weight). It's those same pangs that fortell doom. You ever get those? Sometimes on a perfectly normal sunny day you'll know in your gut it's going to rain. I hate feeling like this because I know it's going to happen. It only compounds the sadness.

This doesn't make any sense. It shouldn't make any sense. It befuddles my mind and keeps me awake which confuses me further.

Gah. I don't know. I just don't know. It's all the spaghetti in my head.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

All together now!



Today would be a good day to buy me things.

Emirates Bank launches PayPass

Developed to provide high speed payment of small ticket retail transactions, the card is a modern, non-contact smart chip based credit card which will shorten the time spent queuing at retail outlets' check-out counters within Dubai Internet City.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Who reads Page 3?

Have you noticed this about the Gulf News Tabloid - there are lots of pictures of people on pages 3-6. Everyday. At some random event. There are a lot of smiley faces. Of all types. And all the people are captioned by their first name. Shelly and Richard. Robert and Madhu. Tina, Sudha and Miriam. Abdul and Abbas. Tell me something. Who are these people? Why are they in the paper? Are they close personal friends of Gulf News? Additionally, and this is the important one, why do I have to see their shiny boothas in the paper? Can this real estate not be used for a better purpose? Like an expose on seals and their fishing habits or something. Maybe a picture of a lion eating a hyena. I mean, one is as random as the other so you might as well show us something remotely interesting. Who reads page 3?

I've been busy lately. About halfway through the stamps, Pops decides to clean out the picture collection that we have stuffed in the drawer in the absolute last corner-end of the house. The reason why we put them there to begin with was because we didn't want to deal with them but with Mum gone, Pops couldn't resist the urge to throw some junk out of the house. That and it was Friday and he was bored. Why, then, since he was the one bored, did he not do it himself and dump it on my desk is beyond me. But that is how it happened. And then we went looking for proper photo albums to put the blasted things in. Which was a bad idea at 1 pm on a Friday afternoon with nothing to eat since my food intake is being regulated because everybody and their uncle is concerned about the latest (albeit temporary) weight gain since good boys don't want to marry fat girls and one thing led to another and I promptly contracted some form of heat stroke combined with a tea bag effect with a dip in glucose levels and had to be brought back home and laid in bed with fans blowing and my toesies in ice water. At which point Pops says in his most plaintive voice, "Do you think I'm too controlling? Because I can always stop." This is after he yells at me for being weak, tells me how he's not weak even with a bad heart, assures me that I'm a worthless person and how he must suffer because of it.

The heat stroke business resulted in two days of migraines because of which I was rather useless to the general public so it was for the best that Mum was away because we all know wot's it like trying to relax around her.

Mum has returned. I'm done with the pictures and have put them away. She's cleaning. I'm trying to stay away from her. She follows me with the Hoover. It is not helping my headache. I have put the stamps away since they were not helping my headache either. Pops sneaked out the house and let me to my fate. Abandoned by my own. Tch. Life.

Now would be a good time to find some friends and get out.

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Because I couldn't be arsed

Lola: Dude! Where have u been?
Wolfe: hang on
Wolfe: yes hello wot
Wolfe: here i am
Lola: So look, like wot is the deal?
Wolfe: people are sick
Lola: You are free from June 26th to July 2nd?
Wolfe: and therefore time must be spent with them
Lola: Oh noooooooooooooooooooooooo
Lola: Your dad?
Wolfe: no
Lola: Is he okay?
Wolfe: he's fine
Wolfe: this is friend's mother
Wolfe: it's complicated
Wolfe: i'm still trying to get tickets booked
Wolfe: and i don't have my UK visa yet
Lola: UK Visa?
Wolfe: it's all very .. ugh..
Lola: For august?
Wolfe: yes
Wolfe: so here is the posish
Wolfe: first i have to get my UK visa
Wolfe: before i do anything else
Wolfe: which will determine when i can actually leave dubai
Wolfe: the latest being the 26th
Wolfe: earlier would be better
Wolfe: since that would mean more time in europe
Wolfe: however, the schengen takes 10 days
Wolfe: you follow so far?
Wolfe: so i can't get the schengen until i get the UK because if the passport is stuck at the schengen place, the UK will not get stamped and then I'll have to leave and it won't have happened and i won't be able to get it in the US in time to go to the UK and then they'll fire me and i'll be poor again
Wolfe: in all of this, RK's mother decided to get high b.p. and my mother had to be packed off to london with her to get emergency medical procedures done
Wolfe: are you with me so far or have i lost you?
Wolfe: now, i can't get the UK visa because i need a letter from The Company..
Wolfe: telling the british embassy that i'm not a terrorist
Wolfe: or a defector
Wolfe: that letter has not arrived yet
Wolfe: even after having requested it about a month ago
Wolfe: so therefore in summation, we're waiting for the HR woman at The Company to get her act together before we can enjoy the sunny beaches of greece
Lola: I'm here - still reading.
Wolfe: you can't be reading slower than i type
Lola: wot? we are still doing greece?
Lola: who is RK?
Lola: and what is Company?
Lola: and how badly do you want to slap me?
Wolfe: i use greece as a metaphor.. at this point, it doesn't matter..
Wolfe: RK is very good personal friend of the family who cannot be abandoned when his mother gets high b.p.
Wolfe: Company as in The Company.. my future employer and payer of massive monies to try and get me to not be poor again... ergo ->important people
Wolfe: I don't want to slap you..
Lola: awwww....
Wolfe: i wouldn't mind a merry jig around the table
Lola: lol
Lola: Wow - sounds like major complication.
Wolfe: high b.p. usually is..
Lola: But hopefully, The Company can convince UK embassy of your noble intentions in the US.
Wolfe: i would advise you, young lola, to watch out for that particular malady
Lola: Oh dear.
Wolfe: hopefully The Company can do it this century
Lola: How old is the mother?
Wolfe: 84
Wolfe: so my mother is now in london..
Lola: Well,that's not a surprise then.
Wolfe: she was rung up last night and this afternoon she pushed off
Wolfe: much like the high in demand global consultant we all aspire to be one day
Lola: you aspire to be.
Lola: I aspire to simply go to greece.
Wolfe: don't tug at my heartstrings, young l
Lola: oh sorry, did not mean to.
Lola: do not worry - all will be well.
Wolfe: greece
Wolfe: the land of olives
Wolfe: it's like mecca
Wolfe: wrapped up in filo
Wolfe: i saw a documentary on how filo is made and my eyes welled up
Lola: look listen -
Lola: do you know what your purpose in life is? if you do, happen by chance to know mine?
Wolfe: my mouth did too because i was greedily salivating at the prospect of encountering lebanese mithai in the near future but that is another matter
Wolfe: i know wot your purpose in life is
Lola: lebanese mithai! I love it.
Lola: wot?
Wolfe: it is to amuse me
Lola: ahh, I see.
Wolfe: (insert hideous laugh here)
Lola: I thought it would be to drive all myf riends crazy with my paranoia
Wolfe: we have no purpose, l.. our aim is to find happiness and salvation..
Wolfe: i shall export you some leb. mit.
Lola: nooo, I want to have a purpose.
Lola: Or at the very least, be famous.
Wolfe: you can be famous
Lola: I am afraid I shall die unwanted and unknown.
Wolfe: well..
Lola: I think that is my new thing to obsess about.
Wolfe: not to your near and dear.. which is always a good thing..
Lola: Because you know, I need a new thing every month.
Wolfe: well as long as you have an obsession goal
Wolfe: because, you know, you can't fully obsess without a clear goal
Lola: Yes?
Lola: true...
Lola: Well, I hope RK's mother is alright.
Lola: Or gets better.
Wolfe: i hope so too
Wolfe: i miss my mother
Wolfe: selfishly
Lola: Awwww
Wolfe: she will not return in time for my birthday
Wolfe: which isn't that big a deal since we will not do anything important.. but still..
Lola: Oh nooooooooooo
Lola: Well, I'll tell you waht.
Wolfe: wot?
Lola: When you come back Stateside, we'll do sth.
Wolfe: we should
Wolfe: in lieu of greece
Lola: We'll cut a cake and everything.
Lola: Maybe the cake can be made of filo.
Wolfe: in memory of filo
Wolfe: hah!
Lola: Well, all is not lost.
Lola: You could come back here and we could do Mexico, I spose.
Wolfe: i shall try and return soon.. i'm quite bored in dubai
Lola: Why?
Wolfe: sigh
Lola: I would love to be in dxb.
Wolfe: i'll have to get a visa for mexico
Lola: I have not been there is so long - I miss it.
Lola: I miss the good old days.
Wolfe: why can't i be an international citizen?
Lola: I need a visa for mexico too - silly.
Lola: I miss the old days when life was not complicated.
Wolfe: well.. seeing as i don't go anywhere or do anything fun and am either doing housework or being yelled at, it's not much fun
Lola: And all we did was run around and have harmless crushes.
Lola: And wear hideous clothes that were the fashion at the time.
Wolfe: yes.. those were good days.. but they were still stressful for me
Lola: Oh dear - yes that doesn't sound like fun.
Wolfe: quite frankly, it's better now
Lola: You are lucky.
Lola: You do not live in the past.
Wolfe: now i don't get yelled at that often since i don't live here that often
Lola: Because you appreciate your present.
Wolfe: my past wasn't that spectacular
Wolfe: my present is better
Lola: As opposed to Miss Obsession here....
Wolfe: you had a nice past
Lola: I suppose - I have been very fortunate.
Wolfe: i think having an obsession, especially a new one every month, is rather healthy
Wolfe: it is definitely decadent..
Lola: I miss you. Come back soon.
Wolfe: as soon as the damn HR woman gets the fear of God in her from my nasty emails
Wolfe: i shall ring her and yell at her soon if she doesn't pull her socks up
Wolfe: never met an HR person i liked
Lola: Yes, most are nasty.
Lola: My current HR person is quite nice, tho.
Wolfe: on the surface
Lola: Another reason I do not want to leave my job -
Wolfe: inside, they're all fishes
Lola: fishes?
Lola: like slimy?
Lola: with scales?
Lola: with gills?
Lola: with tails?
Lola: with fins?
Wolfe: with no soul
Lola: ahhhh
Lola: deep.
Wolfe: i am now watching this saxena woman from dove at the ad awards
Wolfe: she seems daft
Wolfe: i shall blog this conversation
Lola: why?
Lola: saxena woman?
Lola: what saxena woman?
Wolfe: because i haven't updated the blog in a while and this is a good account of life thus far
Wolfe: i shall blog this conversation
Lola: why?
Lola: saxena woman?
Lola: what saxena woman?


Pey: hello!
Wolfe: how goes?
Pey: eh. it goes. you? have you started your job yet?
Wolfe: no
Wolfe: i'm still in dubai
Wolfe: fed up to my eyeballs in vacation time
Pey: you are? i didn't know you were going
Wolfe: i went'
Wolfe: i am
Wolfe: here i be
Pey: so you did, are, have
Pey: you should have taken me with you!
Wolfe: as carry on?
Pey: you could have tucked me under your shirt
Wolfe: you have an armpit fetish now?
Pey: not under your armpit...jeez
Pey: are you bringing anything back for me from dubai?
Wolfe: erm..
Wolfe: harem girls?
Pey: that would be nice. how many can you bring? dubai girls are hot!
Wolfe: two
Wolfe: one under each arm
Pey: that might give them an armpit fetish. that'd be weird
Wolfe: or a smell
Pey: mmm, smelly harem girls...
Pey: YUK!!!!
Pey: don't screw this up!!!
Wolfe: pey, you're a very gross man
Wolfe: have you convinced anyone to hire you yet?
Pey: no, they all think i'm gross
Pey: or that I ask for too much money
Wolfe: lower your standards
Pey: and no one has been willing to give me a secretary or intern to work under me
Wolfe: did you mention armpits?
Pey: no but i think boobs came up
Wolfe: sigh
Pey: you didn't think we could get through this whole conversation without boobs coming up, did you?
Wolfe: one can always hope
Pey: soooo, since it's so hot over there, do you let those babies roam around free? heheh
Wolfe: sigh
Wolfe: go away
Pey: i will not!
Pey: when do you start? when are you coming back?
Wolfe: july 2, i don't know
Pey: that's a long time to be away from me. what will you do until then?
Wolfe: count my lucky stars?
Pey: i'll send you a picture of myself to put next to your bed
Wolfe: don't
Wolfe: my parents might get us married
Pey: i want seven kids, maybe a set of triplets
Wolfe: i ain't birthin' no babies!
Pey: just so you know, i'm planning on having several wives
Wolfe: i would expect nothing less from you
Wolfe: i'm planning on having a few myself
Pey: wives? maybe we can share.
Wolfe: no thank you
Wolfe: i don't want your cooties
Pey: i've been exercising my cooties. they look HOT
Pey: why are my conversations with you always so damn weird????
Wolfe: i bring out the best in people
Pey: clearly

And to top it off, I can't find a decent women's dive watch anywhere in this damn town. Apparently, they don't expect women to do that sort of thing. You know. Engage in sports. Bah.

Thursday, June 07, 2007

I am Garfield





Now I want cake

Bloody big expensive ad

Sometimes even Dubai comes up with good stuff



For the Pause & Play International Film Festival. From JWT Dubai. Not bad. Click on images to enlarge.

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

So the question is...

... is the person who found me through iAgora in Illinois the same person who was at the BU International Case Competition?

Everyone is a refugee at the U.S. Consulate

So like, Dubai is nice. It's hot. Averages 32 C. Which is around 102 F for you non-conformists. Lots of fogging up of glasses and dust in the distance. Lovely.

All the air conditioners were serviced the other day. Which involved taking a water pressure thingy to the outside fan units to clean out all the dirty grimy dust. Which looked like a lot of fun. I wanted to do it too. But they didn't let me, those service people, party poopers. So I watched eagerly instead. To also ensure that they didn't make off with the family jewels, of course. Me Mum is convinced that everybody that steps into the house steals a knife or a bra or the screw top cover of the hot fluids cup you keep for your car.

Went to the U.S. Embassy yesterday to get my visa extended which they did rather nicely. I was the last one to be interviewed and was only asked 3 rather mundane questions which I was annoyed about because I'd been there for 3.5 hrs at that point and would have preferred a thorough grilling as to my immigatory intentions to make all the waiting worthwhile. I did take a book, yes, but it got tedious after a while. And no, nobody raised an eyebrow at me for reading a book on Khomeni at the U.S. Consulate so you can calm down, Black Cobra. I was nearly run over by a bunch of very excitable Arab women who seemed to be convinced that fighting their way to the front of the line would guarantee them a visa to the infidel country. I nearly smacked one of them which, funnily enough, elicited laughter from the Nepali security guards. Should've stamped their toes at least. Maybe next time.

Speaking of which, BC, you needs to tell me when you want me to come back stateside so I can book my tickets.

We spend our evenings at RK's house playing snooker. Well, they play snooker. I get snookered. Which means I mostly sit in a corner and giggle. Went to my favorite place, the Fruit and Vegetable Market yesterday and bought 3 boxes of mangoes and one of papayas and one of pomegranates and have been juicing ever since. It's quite entertaining.

Everybody is very excited about the Norwegian Fjord cruise they're going on next month. Pops, unfortunately, has started worrying about the packing. Mind you, there's 40 odd days to go but still. He wants to take Sh. Mo's picture, my degrees and certificates, two large floor standing speakers and lots of warm woolies. I told him that the fjords are not freezing in July but he won't listen. I've told him that you're going to do his packing this time, Black Cobra. Hah.

Tomorrow perhaps I go to the British Embassy to get my UK visa. While I'm at it, I might get a Schengen and one for Mexico and one for Canada as well. Just in case the bug bites me.

Spoke to Artraj yesterday which was fun. Curry is coming down next month but I miss her. The folks at BBDO need to be visited (or do they?). Mahima should be coming down sometime soon.


I've been working on the stamp collection. Making auction lots and cataloging and sorting and all that sort of stuff. It is rather engaging. I recommend it. Also, if you want to purchase some lovely collectible stamps from the Middle East, Asia and/or Europe, let me know. I just might have something you'd like. As you can see from the picture, I have the coveted set (not one, but two!) of 4 of the Jabal Ali Earth Station issued in 1975.

I shall go read Khomeni now. BC, don't forget, the 35th wedding anniversary approaches.

Sunday, June 03, 2007

Hand me that tweezer

Anyone know a good website where I can find information on collectible stamps sets? I've got piles of the stuff I need to auction off.

Saturday, June 02, 2007

Marhaba fi Dubai!

You know, if you stare at the baggage conveyor belt long enough, all the bags start to look the same. They're either all Samsonite or Delsey and the ones that are neither look like they could be. And they're all black or blue or grey. Ok, there was one red one but it was the only one. And everybody now ties those damn red ribbons on their bag handles to identify their bags faster. Only problem being, of course, that all the bags have red ribbons on them. You would think people would be more creative. And as luck would have it, mine is also one that is black and a Samsonite lookalike.

Next time, I'm buying neon orange bags with blue piping. Because, you know, it takes you all of 3 minutes to get through immigration in Dubai but then you have to wait at least an hour for your bags to get sorted through while you're being shoved around by smelly Bangladeshi laborer types.

Anyhoo. Here I am. Nearly didn't make it since fell asleep at Heathrow and only woke when they were closing the doors to my flight. Managed to slip through. It's 2:30 in the morning. I can't sleep. It's nice to be home. Every time I return home, things look smaller and tables look shorter to me. I wonder if that's because I'm still growing. Mum thankfully said nary a word about my growing which was rather kind of her. Pops was pipped about the hat I got him. Mangoes were eaten. Black Cobra was missed. All in all, the usual homecoming.

I suppose I'll read email now.