New toys

If you're connected to me on Twitter, you know that yesterday I was a very, very lucky girl! A very generous friend I've known for a very long while (he's the reason I have a business) took me down to Sharaf DG (sorry Ashish, I had no choice in the selection of the store, honest!) and bought me the top of the range iPad (64G, 3G + wireless) with the Apple sleeve, protective gear et al and not stopping at that insisted that he buys the latest Bold 9780 as well. As I said - generous. And no - there's no hanky, panky, he's a very good friend with a very generous soul and having money helps! His reason for generosity - Mits, I never know what to buy you! Well he knows now because I was like a kid who had all its birthdays, christmases, Eids, Diwalis, rolled into one big celebration.

I have been resisting the temptation to go anywhere near a gadget store because I know that I'll get sucked into spending money but if you do have the money (haven't seen the Galaxy Tab yet) but the iPad is quite cool. Its idiot-proof (not that I am one - I don't think) but its so easy to set up and go. Its not quite the replacement for a laptop but it comes close to doing a lot of the stuff I could do on one anyway. I'll probably know more as I understand it better and use it but for now I'm working on how to use it pragmatically on a day to day basis. Its definitely easier to carry around in business meetings. Being able to connect through the Dropbox makes life so much easier. 

The BB is so light but the OS and the system is taking some getting used to. Not sure about the trackpad yet but its soooo much faster and lighter and can do so many things.

Anyway - I have new toys. So if you don't like technology, stay away from me 'cause I'm in the gushing mode these days till I get blasé about my new toys.

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Becoming a grandmother

In case I haven't shared this as yet, thanks to my son Partha, I am going to be a grandmother somewhere in June. Still not having (mentally) completely comprehended or adjusted to having my very grown up (30+) son back in my life (yippee), I also have to adjust to being mentally prepared to becoming a grandmother. 

Having Partha's (or Pepe as he was christened when he was a baby a la Asterix & Obelix in Spain) obsession with all things fatty and fast food - I am a bit worried about his impending fatherhood. He got all excited about a message his wife Dhanu sent him about the baby kicking when she talked about Domino's Pizza. Yikes! It got me thinking that this is what is going to carry on perpetuating one generations obsession with fast (unhealthy) food and passing on bad nutrition to the next generation. 

Fortunately for me, Dhanu is a sensible girl (thank God) and that might mean that my grandchild has a healthy future and will not be one of those over-stuffed obese kids. Now if only we could get my lovely son to go easy on the overstuffing on fast food....

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Okryu-Gwan - North Korean Restaurant in Dubai

I recently joined Shelina (shelo9), Labiba (labibalaith), Paul (Daddybird) and Karla (kangayayaroo) from Twitter (and a few of their friends) to check out the North Korean restaurant. For whatever reason, I was then approached by a journalist in Brazil (he found me through search engines - strangely) and wanted to know more about the experience. Here is my experience of the place. Karla wrote a blog post that covers the evening better than I am.

It was an interesting experience. The food is similar to what you would get in a traditional Korean restaurant (its been a while since I went to one). A lot of stews, steamed stuff, a lot of broths with accompaniments. The restaurant seemed have a lot of quite unusual seafood like sea cabbage (not usually seen in other seafood restaurants in dubai - at least I haven't seen any), sea urchin etc. 

I ordered one of the stews etc and it was piping hot and came with a lot of accompaniments including fried fish, poached egg, khimchi, steamed courgette and several others. The meal was preceded by dumplings and some sweet rice cakes. There was complimentary dessert but I can't remember what it was. Karla says it was red beans and watermelon over a milky ice (probably soymilk). 

Interesting experience but the live show was the best part of the evening for me. Very interesting especially the last bit where an all-girl band (organ, drums, flute and electric guitar) sang a Korean pop song.

Photos weren't allowed and other than the fact that the restaurant is located in the new Business Village complex near Clock Tower Roundabout in Dubai, there isn't a lot of information online (which would explain the reason for the Brazilian journalist contacting me). I'm not sure whether I would go back but then maybe I'll try the noodles Karla had - she certainly seemed to like it. And the Khimchi was good too.

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Charitable project

I don't talk about it enough but my friend Carol and I support a small orphanage in Nepal - have done for the better part of the last three years. 

Each time, we raised money to help specific projects and goals. So far we've raised money for winter clothes, toys and books, lunch time meals at school, and school fees. Now we're embarking on funding a part of a massive project: a long-term housing and eco-farm that would help to create a permanent home for the orphanage, create a self-sustaining farm that would provide food for the orphanage as well as a little to sell around the village. Full details are available here. 

Through TrekkingforNepal fundraising, we hope to contribute $30,000 towards this project. One of the fundraising projects is a flea market in Fujairah. The details are on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=173146452720739. In addition to attending on the day - you never know what bargains you might pick up - we would like your contributions to help us sell at the flea market. Any thing second hand goes - clothes, books, toys, CDs, DVDs, plant pots, kitchen stuff, etc. 

If you want to do a collection in your office - let me know so I can arrange to collect them. Or if you are at Geekfest Dubai on Thursday, there will be boxes there. 

Thank you all for your support. 

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