@t_in_Dxb is carrying the lead singers bag from brand new heavies -. How cool ain’t she
The other pics show @thisisramy @alisonlehr @sunjayv as well as a bloke wearing a fluorescent tutu and a bird that thought that easy access to her hoochie is what we all needed to see!
Good night though with Brand New Heavies and Roger Sanchez blowing up the sandy place :). Shame I missed the fireworks but my legs were hurting!
I just changed four tyres on my car. It cost a hell of a lot of money. This is my story.
For the last few months I have been getting extreme warning symbols on my clever car computer thing saying the pressure was beyond zero. When I would check, the pressure would be lower than normal but not flat. Then there would seem to be a leak but when checked again, nada. Finally a close friend, saw one tyre a few weeks ago, and showed me in an exasperated-god ur such a girl-look at how bad your tyre is-tone of voice, that one tyre was dangerously slick and that if I was in a western country I would fail my MOT or be pulled over by the police.
I don’t like being pulled over by police. They fine me for stupid reasons. So I thought I better get my tyres changed. Thus the ordeal started.
My car (BMW if you must know) has Run Flat tyres. Now most people I know haven’t heard of these tyres. Run Flat tyres mean that if you get a flat you can still drive on them for another 80 kms before you need to change them. This means as well that you don’t get a spare in your car (therefore more room for shopping bags in the boot and a lighter car to overtake you MF’s who race me).
RF’s as we will call them are hard to find and more expensive than normal tyres. They are special like me and my car so only two brands sell them – Bridgestone or Pirelli. I thought I would shop around for the price being the haggler that I am. Beemer service people said one price. City Tyre on Jumeirah Beach Road said something a bit less but not much of a difference and they would have to have the tyres shipped in.
Then I remembered I worked in JAFZA and that there was a Bridgestone warehouse inside, so I went to their tyre centre to see if they would give me a good price. Now i’m a car fiend (as you will know if you follow me on Twitter). I know my cars, I know my tyres and I have no idea how to change a tyre. But when it comes to parts don’t talk down to me, you know what I mean? I went to Bridgestone and said to the main guy that one tyre was slick. You think he would have thought wow she knows what she is talking about. But noooo. He looked at the tyres and then said
“You know ma’am, these are Pirelli Tyres?”
“Yes, I know”
“We don’t sell Pirelli here”
“I know” – looking at the massive signs all over the building that say BRIDGESTONE
“We are Bridgestone, we make our own tyres”.
By this time I was going to smack him one. Now not only do I know my tyre brands, I am also an Intellectual Property lawyer. I have dealt with design matters for said tyre firm. I know more about their tyre treads then I would like to know. Believe me when I say, I know Bridgestone!! I don’t know how I kept my patience with this man, but after two months of searching for these tyres I had to keep calm. So he searched in his warehouse and he had them. Hooray. For 500 dhs more! Boo.
After consulting close mate of cost predicament, he agreed to escort me to the Emarat on Jumeirah Beach Road near Al Thanya Street to see if they could help. I go to this station often to have my car washed (main dude there is a sweetheart) and I also have visited them to clean my air-con so I thought maybe they will help.
Help, is an understatement. The main dude for the service centre checked the prices from Bridgestone and Pirelli, negotiated the price and ordered them to arrive less than 12 hours after visiting his garage. Within an hour today I had four new tyres and the car was aligned for free. If only I had known before, I wouldn’t have wasted my time going to other places. On top of that all, he showed me my back brake pads were very low and showed the difference with the front ones, so that I didn’t feel like he was trying to pull a fast one. Ok, he did take the piss, telling mate that RF’s were more for women as we don’t have to change the tyre, but whatever. He still helped me.
Dad has advised me that I was a muppet and should have just changed the back tyres to the front and got two new tyres to go on the back because that’s how you’re supposed to change tyres normally. But you know what, I drive a lot and I would rather have 4 new tyres and feel safe than have any niggle in my head. Plus I don’t drive slowly so better to be safe with the parts in my car.
So if you are going to change tyres, especially women, here are my golden rules for saving you hassle, time and money:
If only the front tyres or back are looking dodgy, get the good tyres moved to the other side and get two new tyres (my dad’s advise makes sense). Make sure the car is aligned (for free) when swapping and changing tyres.
Take a guy with you. I know it undermines your liberal woman power theory, but fuck it. If it means you save money and you get proper service, then take the bloke (especially one who has a clue about cars).
Go to the Emarat petrol station service centers (preferably on Jumeirah Beach Road near the Al Thanya junction).
Get Run Flat Tyres. They may cost more, but they are peace of mind. I don’t know how to change tyres in my car and I don’t think I will learn, so get these and then if you do go flat you have time to get someone to help you at a garage.
Shop around and ring up the tyre manufacturers.
If you are in a normal country like the UK, go to Kwik-Fit and other places and see if they have your tyres but by other brands. Bridgestone and Pirelli are the kings, but Continental is just as good. I won’t mention Michelin due to their allegiance with Mclaren F1 (Grrrrrr).
Take your iphone or ipad with you so you can tweet, blog, read other blogs or read a book while waiting for an hour.
Tip the guy who does your tyres. You may need him again another day.
Check the pressure every few weeks. If you can pay few dirhams to a man they will do it for you while you stand nearby watching.
I hope that helps and if it doesn’t – stop acting like such a girl.
Today I’m blogging from N-style moe. I didn’t used to be a fan as they had been rude to me previously. However with vouchers and the fact they are close to my home I had to try them out.
The place runs like clockwork. They have a proper system and it’s a full blown massive nail pampering factory. Over the few times I have been here the girls have been friendlier and this time they gave me the headset to watch tv (America’s got talent! – there is a bird with my name singing right now! Weird)! Also You get asked if you would like a drink after the second visit
So if you come here a few times the better the service. Or maybe it’s my luck.
So anyway the nails. As expected the nail technicians are technicians and know how to do their job. it’s all very mechanical like being in a nail factory but it’s all good if you get good nails at the end.
7/10 – good but not spectacular
The spam messages regarding claiming my inheritance are getting cleverer and cleverer. This one really impressed me today.
Dear,
Definitely, I know that this letter will be a surprising one to you. Firstly, I will like to introduce myself formally as Mr. Kwesi Beko, TheAre you on Twitter? Nooooo! Oh my god… you are so last century. Get with the programme! Everyone who is anyone is on Twitter – from Obama to Britney, Ashton to Queen Rania. Then there are us normal folk – the non-celebs. But there are some twitterati that are now celebs either nationally, regionally or even globally just because of their tweets. It’s all great. Twitter is now a force to be reckoned with. I get my news from Twitter – when a cargo plane crashed in Dubai, it was a tweep (you seeing all the tweet language going on here), who tweeted they had seen the plane down. It was tweeps that tweeted from their flats in Silicon Oasis that saw it plummeting out of the sky. It was tweeps that took photos of the aftermath. The normal news broadcaster took an hour to confirm the crash. By then it was old news to the twitterati.
In 140 characters you can say how you feel, say how others feel or just write nonsense. It is self-indulgent, it can be factual, it can be faux and it is how we live our lives now. If I want to know something such as a word in Arabic, I tweet a request for a translation. If I want to know directions to somewhere, I tweet for help. If i’m late for a tweet-up, I tweet my lateness. Life now revolves around twitter.
Is it a bad thing? It can be. There have been articles written about how twitter has created a short concentration span for people. In my line of work, I need bouts of shortness to take me away from the hum drum of what i’m doing. In my breaks I can quickly scan the last 100 tweets and see the news and gossip in my twitter world.
But in a lot of ways twitter has given me a new lease of life in this city. I have made many friends through twitter who I might have known previously but now know intimately due to their tweets. I have made new connections in England, USA and of course Dubai. When I was in Mexico I was tweeted advice to stay away from the police in Tijuana airport and wished bon voyage from the terminal in Geneva.
I have also made several enemies. As in life, my tweets are not often self-censored. I swear, I sexualize (is that a word??) and I rant. People have been offended, people have been threatened (mostly by my vocabulary) and some have just been plain nasty and stupid which has resulted in them being unfollowed or even worse blocked. There are some tweeps who sound ok on twitter but you meet them in real life and they are god-awful humans.
The problem with twitter is what I like to call the Twitter mafia or bandwagon that now exists. There has been many a time; I will unfollow someone due to their tweets being completely and utterly boring, childish or just plain nasty. I will get told off by other tweeps for not following them. Yes, I’m sure they are lovely in your eyes, but in my opinion they suck. But there are some people who find it hard to accept my choice in following and unfollowing tweeps. Twitter is supposed to be your choice. It’s your account; it’s your timeline, so why should I follow someone just because you think that underneath their pathetic exterior that they are amazing people internally. I don’t see it.
The other Twitter Mafia occurrences are during political moments. If you don’t follow the same tune as everyone else, like for example in Egypt, you were slaughtered or ridiculed for your beliefs. I’m not a political person and if I am it’s mostly confined to discussions with close friends or my head. However, during this time of unrest I have tweeted a few times about things going on at the time or retweeted tweets of interest to me. I remember I questioned, that if Mubarak left now what would happen to the country. Wouldn’t it be better if he stayed and there was a proper transition of power? That idea was shot down as ridiculous. How dare I voice my concern for the country and not follow everyone to get rid of the man!?! Now with Libya exploding through our eyes, I am trying to keep schutum. It’s a terrible and worrying situation but I’m retweeting from the BBC when it’s an interesting point, otherwise I’m ignoring the tweets and reading about London Fashion Week (so glam this season).
Twitter is a useful tool for commercial enterprises and it is still astonishing how many companies don’t use it in the correct way. There are entrepreneurs that have communicated like human beings with their (potential) customers and ended up having strong support for their ventures. Their success has resulted in new ventures trying to do the same thing but failing. Copying is the sincerest form of flattery; but when you don’t do it properly it just makes me not want to buy from you.
Then there are certain groups of tweeps that will just go on and on about one company for ages. It’s obvious you are getting paid to promote them or that you trying to get free stuff from them. It irritates me that people can be so shallow but I guess twitter mirrors human nature – in 140 characters.
The new thing now is to have a twitter account and a blog. You are no one if you don’t have a blog. Now you may say you can talk shelo, you have both. Correct, but have you seen how many tweets I have written?? Many tweeps complained that I was taking up their timeline with my rants/tweets and that it would be best if I consolidate it into a blog. So I created my blog. Of course I love it that people read my tweets and also my blog, but both forms of communication have been started by me for my own narcissism. I love writing and used to be one of those girls with the fountain pen and book, writing all the time. Then I lost my mojo – Twitter and blogging brought it back. Now instead of writing in books for myself to read and cringe at later, I write and allow others inside. If you read my tweets and blog, you read. If not, I have my musings in an electronic form to retain and pass onto future generations. Now that can’t be a bad thing…can it?
Today I decided that my dear friend @labibalaith and I needed some relaxing reflexology to calm our body and soul after weeks off pain. With voucher in hand we got a booking in the Dubai Mall branch. I like the town centre one but it was unfortunately fully booked.
Entering thru the door you go through a narrow corridor and are shown to your room. It’s very claustrophobic and dark but once in the room you are greeted by a nice leather swirly couch (you know how I love my swirly leather couches).
The lady finally arrived and revealed a sink under the table. She bathed my feet and cleansed it a bit. Then she moved behind me to give me a shoulder and neck massage. This was unexpected as I thought only my feet were to be touched. Luckily I had worn my strapless top so she could easily access my shoulders.
The massage occurred with the use of a towel rather than oils and there was no cracking of my muscles which I think is a sign of a good massage. The massage hurt and burnt and I usually like the kneading of the muscles to be hard.
After that pain she started punching my arm. This was the arm massage. If anyone else had punched me like that I would have smacked em one. Finally she did a forehead massage. All I could think about was “shit this is messing up my makeup”. Not relaxing thoughts.
Thereafter started the reflexology. First my shoulders were provided one of those neck pillows to rest my weary head while my feet and legs were pushed and massaged back into life. There were moments of pain but she persisted until the pain subsided.
After the half hour of reflexology the lady cleaned my towel with a hot towel gave me some water and bobs your uncle finished.
I think my 60 minute of reflexology was changed into half hour of massage and reflexology which was not what I asked for or paid using my voucher.
The experience was nice and helped clear those niggly pains in my leg but the noise didn’t make me relax. I prefer the tranquility of the town centre branch.
The service was great and my lady was very good. If it weren’t for the noise and change of treatment I would have been a very happy bunny.
Rating – 3 out of 5
There are many people whinging and protesting about various things globally right now, whether it be freedom, speeding fines or most importantly the end of Ubertwitter (for now). These are all serious matters but what about parsley? It infests dishes globally and tastes foul but yet no one has taken a stand against parsley since Carrie did in an episdoe of sex and the city (i cant find the episode on youtube.com – bloody useless site).
Anyway there are loads of varities of the wretched thing but I have been forced to endure it mainly in England and the UAE.
In England, its used as a garnish and looks like this. The English type is usually a big twig of crap on the side or top of your dish. It looks fine, but the smell from it is gross and it never seems to go with the dish its garnishing. If it has been on some piece of your food, that piece of food will have a bit of the parsley smell and taste. It’s bitter and horrible.
Then you have the middle east varitiey. This flat leaf parsley is used in dishes. Like loads of dishes such as tabbouleh. It’s bitter, it’s yuck and I don’t see why taste buds must be tortured. After five years in this region I’m clued up enough to know what Arabic dishes contain the wretched stuff so I can stay far away from it.
If you google receipes with parsley there are thousands out there. There is even a video that shows you how to chop parsley for some chicken dish. Chopped parsley is worse than the bunches of it. You can’t remove chopped parsley when its all over your food and you sound like a bitch if you tell them to take it back and remove the parsley. All they do is scrap the stuff off. That doesn’t help, you still can taste the parsley.
Supposedly parsley is good for getting rid of bad breath and aids digestion. If a man has bad breath and wants to snog me, dont bring that parsley filled mouth near me. Parsley tasting mouth is more disgusting than pork tasting mouth. And if you got digestion problems eat less crap.
I did research on this parsley hate thing and read an article that stated that if you dislike parsley it’s due to an incorrect enzyme in my body. Will I correct this enzyme issue. Nope. I’ll just stick to not eating the wretched stuff.
21 Feb 2011 – went out to Aroos Damasacus for @daddybird’s birthday dinner. Someone thought it would be funny to put a plate of tabboleouh in front of me. I was not amused :S
Today was a revisit to Nivea Haus in Dubai Mall for manicure and pedicure. I had one voucher i had to use to claim my free mani so thought why not go and drag blokey mate to get his feet sorted out in the men’s salon.
Nivea has a shop front which sells all their normal branded goods and some extras that you won’t get in the supermarkets. They also have very friendly, smiley staff at hand to help you out. Then you go to the back to the main reception for the salon. There is a man and woman’s salon (of course separate rooms). I have no idea what the men’s salon looks like but the two males friends who have been there for spa pedicures said when giving feedback that they love their feet after the pedicure and get to watch Jeremy Clarkson on TV for the hour and half session (it’s the little things with these men).
The women’s salon is nice and open with wooden floors and comfy swirley chairs to sit on while you get mani and pedi’s. As you would expect with a clinical brand such as Nivea, everything is in order, blue (including the uniforms and towels) or white (like the logo and the other towels). The ladies asked me what colour i wanted when my feet were in the floor sink being soaked. I said red so they brought me three options and bob’s your uncle i was sorted. Then you get asked if you want your nails and cuticles cut, etc and you say, yeah or nah and do your usual thing. I like to consider myself a good customer. I don’t care how they get to the finished product but as long as my nails and body parts a good colour and i get a nice hand and leg massage in between i’m a happy camper. You will get in these nail salons hideous, spoilt women who will complain about everything, want everything and do my head in with their complaining. I usually take the piss out of these said annoying women with my nail technicians so they generally end up loving me.
Anyway back to the service. It was all good from my view. The ladies who served me were very friendly but didn’t try and annoy me with questions about my history. I got to read blogs from my fellow bloggers in peace while they got on with sorting my nails out. The leg massage by my nail technician, which is generally brief in most salons nowadays, was long and soothing. My legs needed that I tell ya.
The only negative was when the ladies asked if I wanted quick dry top coat. My answer was, of course. They then informed me it would cost me an extra 5 AED. To me this was ridiculous. 5 AED is roughly 1 quid! That’s a lot for having something that you get in any other salon for free. Plus they did it in a way that if you say yes, they give you the cost and then you say no, you look like a stingy cow. My good mood was slightly scarred by this money taking ordeal.
Anyway they did my nails, cleared up everything and then i sat there for another 30 minutes without being told to leave the chair, whilst waiting for bloke mate to finish his spa pedicure. I could have used the dryers but the chair was more comfy and I had my feet up, with quick dry drying my nails.
All in all a good experience. Nice, friendly, clean salon. No fuss. The only downer was the extra 5 AED but other than that two fingers up.
Rating: 3.5 (knocked of 0.5 cos they took my fiver!!)
Shelo9's Cheeky Rantings 