Ramblings & Celebrations

December 2 is always a colorful day in the UAE. This year, they celebrated their 38th National Day and there were series of festivities all over the UAE.

I am bracing myself for a busy weekend so I wanted hubby to get rest as much as possible. We had no plans except for a trip to Dubai Mall later that night. But what started as a quiet day for the family ended with a blast!

We had a pleasant breakfast at the balcony. Andreas enjoyed watching the Dubai Metro and the few cars passing by Trade Center Road. We were actually on the lookout for cars with flamboyant UAE decors and colors but we saw only a top down cruising with a huge flag (photo below).

We had our coffee and by now, Andreas is enjoying the birds with an occasional glance to his IKEA hammer toy. Then we poured over back issues of Khaleej Times. We read and discussed about the war in Afghanistan. Hubby quoted Sun Tzu's The Art Of War -- "There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare."

Really, sometimes he can be sort of a walking encyclopaedia. And it's among the thousand things i luuurve about him. We could be driving down Sheikh Zayed road and i get to ask, "Please tell me more about Berlin Wall." Hubby will launch about Russian President Gorbachev, the US-Russia Cold War, and so forth... until my curiosity is satisfied :)

Anyways, one story struck us both while reading all those opinions and essays about the Afghan War is from a US Soldier who fought in Iraq and is now deployed in Afghanistan. He related that on one occasion, a frustrated Afghan went up to him and said:

"You were able to send a man on the moon. How come you cannot build roads for us here?"

The soldier only had this to say, "It is easier to send man on the moon but to build roads here is impossible because the skills needed are not in abundance."

And then of course, middle east newspapers will be incomplete without writing about the Zionists -- accordingly they have manipulated every US President and that every chief of the White House must have colorful words to call them behind closed doors.

One story quoted is that an exasperated President Truman said:

"Jesus Christ could not please them while He was here. How am I to do better?"

Going back to the National Day Celebration, when Andreas finally took his afternoon nap, we opted to watch The Taking of Pelham123. I enjoyed every second of the movie.

When the little boy woke up, we headed out and hubby said we check out Festival City since it's been awhile when we visited the shopping complex. And oh what a joy and surprise! They were presenting Disney Princess live show on the Festival Square and the Emirates Classic Car Festival at the grounds of Intercontinental Hotel!

I felt like a 5-year old again seeing Cinderella, Princess Aurora, Jasmine, and Belle along with Prince Ali, Beast, Genie and Abu! I happily clicked to my hearts content. Andreas too clapped when Beast and Beauty came out :)

We had supper at Ikea and decided to go home since hubby has to go to Abu Dhabi for a meeting the next day. Crossing the Floating Bridge, enormous display of fireworks greeted us. I begged hubby we stay and watch. Right there in the middle of Floating Bridge, we witnessed the glorious fireworks display.

Cheers, peace, and prosperity to the people of United Arab Emirates!