Favorite places to eat

A number of weeks ago on a Friday close to noon, (remember that's my day off) i got a taxi just so i could ask a driver "where is a great place to eat that TOURIST don't know about" and with an Arabic atmosphere.

Now i don't really care for tourist or care to be around them.

  I know, i know, i am 1 right!

Well he starts to drive,,,,,,,and drive,,,,,,,and drive some more and now i am thinking he is just running up the meter.

THEN, he pulls in here and said "you won't be disappointed Sir" "NO tourist" "ENJOY"

This has become my favorite breakfast spot.

They open at 6am, i get there early, it's quite, peaceful, smells like a flower garden, great food.  

And yessssss, NO TOURIST!

Quiet morning coffee.

I like to eat outside.

Cheese omelet, fried tomato, toast, fresh fried bread, crepes with dark chocolate and banana.

Yes, i over ordered, but i made myself eat it.  Sooooo good.

A different day for breakfast.  Eggs Benedict today.

I usually spend about 2 & 1/2 hours here.  I read some of the magazines i have on my iPad and sometimes have a nice smooth apple Sheesha with tea.

And just a block from here i go for a morning walk on the beach.

 This was my first luncheon at this place.

Rather spicy shrimp, with fried bread.

I am finding that the Arabic like their food spicy.  But it's not a hot spice.

 Now those of you who know me, know i like my GOOD cup of coffee.

I like to grind my own beans, and try different beans.

 This thing was like a BOWL of coffee,,,,, had 2 handles on it.

How cool is that!

 OH, NO,  coffee at the apartment, it's horrible Nescafe !!!

How much further can you get from fresh ground beans???

The apartment has a small kitchenette, but no coffee pot.  They are big on supplying a water boiling pot  i am finding here in eastern countries, but no coffee makers.  It was the same in China.

 So then you need a little cream for your coffee right.

Don't just grab and run at these grocery stores.

 Turn it over and read the label closely or you my be shocked when you get home!

This was another outing, and a restaurant that i tried.

It is Arabic, but i want to try their food.

My table by a full window to watch the TOURIST.

 This was spicy!  Not hot spicy tho.  It had a marinated chicken underneath and the dish had a tart yogurt that was served cool.

So you put the cool tart yogurt on the spicy rice served very worm and my taste buds were all confused.

This was a meal at Tribes in the Mall.  The South African restaurant i like.

Wish i could eat like this every night.

On the bottom was a potato cake, then 2 halibut, topped with a lemon wedge.  Around it was a fried vegetable and a special sauce.

SO GOOD!

My favorite pizza place where i eat outside again.

And my favorite Italian restaurant where i, yes, eat outside again.

Things of interest

You would think that a small rain shower would be a welcomed site in the desert.

This is what you get.

The wind comes first and it picks up all the dust and blows sand around and then as the rain falls it picks up the dust and it rains DIRTY rain.

I was spotted with dirt spots all over me that day.

This was a crane move day to relocate trees to a nursery area.

You can see how dusty the air is right before the light shower we got that day.

Luckly all the trees here on site are moved upright.  I am so glad i don't have to teach them how to tip trees for transport down a street.  Explaining rigging just to lift the tree has been enough.

This is what a normal day looks like.

Starting a second nursery area for trees that will get planted on site at a later date on the New Mushriff Central Park.

Notice the Mosque in the background.  It echoes out the call to prayer numerous times a day.

 In the states we have what is known as "call before you dig"

NOT HERE

They do not have a locate service here in the UAE.

There is no what we call an ASBUILD, which is a record of what is underground from the prior building time.

So i lost count of how many water pipes we broke.  On the average 1 every second day and sometimes 2 a day.

 When you move a tree it goes into some type of shock.  Some trees not so bad some get hit pretty hard.

This is the first job i have been on where there are 4 different trees that have flowers on them.

Made me feel bad for this tree that it lost all its flowers.

This tree variety lost more leaves and kept the flowers.

This tree lost all the flowers and leaves.  Has now started replacing leaves and new flowers.

This tree lost half it's leaves and started new flowers.

This is the language  BANGLA

About the first part of the second week i was here it was explaining and i showed them in detail the proper way to root prune trees for boxing.

Second day into this they were not fallowing my direction so i had them translate my words into Bangla and i had them make 50 copies and hand them out to the workers.

Another day later they were not quite doing it right yet.  So, i go back to the office print off another 50 copies and i hand them out to the workers, make them stop and read it.

I told their boss that they fallow my rules or i will print off 50 copies every day until it is done right.  And we will be doing this for every different step of boxing until they do it right.

Well from then on they have done what the American tells them.

Below are the 8 steps to root prune a tree if you need to know this.

Palms that got moved to storage.

I didn't work much with the palms, they are pretty hard to kill so the workers didn't need advised or watched on them.

The Proscapes company vehicle i have been driving for the last 8 weeks.

And it will get HOT here this summer.  June, July, August, 45C or 113F

Job site trailer with a bunch of AC units.

 They wash their feet here all the time.

The old spot for this needed to be removed for new site work.  So they made a new temporary spot to wash their feet.

I don't like to stop and stare, because i am the outsider here.  But it seems that they need to wash their feet before they can pray.  Some times the Mosque tower sings out and they pray, and sometime i will walk past and someone will be washing his feet and then pray with no call to worship.

The REAL streets of Dubai

I just love to find areas like this.

Get in the back allies or side streets of cities and off the main tourist routes,  this is where you find the real daily lives of people that live here.

This was a site to see.

 And you can meet new friends.