SOME contrast

Posted By Yousef

Happy Birthday Mishary! 3o2bal 10² sina!

Posted By Yousef

Forgive me if this is old news, but I saw Al Kalha restaurant the other day in Mishref’s international fair ground (arth alma3areth). Its a palestinian (or Jordanian, not sure) restaurant. My roommate back in the UAE was a Kalha addict, he loved their falafels.

Their Phone # 5390043.

Posted By Yousef

The conveyor belt at the suitcases’ X ray machine before the check in cunter, Dubai Airport:

One by one, the bags started to rise and fall over each other, the place was getting crowded, lots of people in one place trying hard to find and pick their bags, thats when I noticed that the little blue box containing our phones and wallets was about to get nudged out of place and all the things would fall into those little silver rollers. “Please! Hold the machine! just stop it for a second.. our things are falling” I said to the Emarati lady (clown face) operating the X ray machine. Her reply was: a disgusted look, a very obvious change in her face features that implied even more disgust, and a squeaky whiny “Whaaaat?!!”. Me and INM asked her again to stop/hold the machine coz we can’t find and pick the bags when there are lots of other bags piling up by the second.. She stopped the machine to say “I can’t stop the machine!!” “You just stopped it!” INM pointed out. She gave another condescending reply and showed disgust. We picked our bags and started walking toward the check-in counter. We were a good distance away from her when I said to INM “she don’t know how to operate the machine” (mat3arf teshte’3il).

Next thing we know, someone barked nearby and came up to us. He was a nobody, a tiny officer, who I think was employed to fill a void that never existed. He was Emarati too. The guy (greasy hair) heard my comment to my friend about clown face and was offended on her behalf. She did NOT hear me. He raised his voice and began motioning with his hands and asked many questions. “Yes I told my friend that she’s doesn’t know how to operate the machine. I don’t think she’s doing her job properly, thats just my opinion” I said to greasy hair, and he started to bark even more and asked for our passports (the passports were with Mishary, and he was at a counter very far away from us) He demanded the passports and INM went to bring them. Long story short, the guy took our passports, asked about our take-off time, and we told him that its on 8:20. He gave us a look that said “You might not be on that plane when it takes off.” Seeing him in that pose trying a bit too hard to fake authority was a sight out of a sitcom.

A little while later many officers came and started questioning us. We told them what happened. No one believed us. Greasy haired nobody said “He yelled at her to stop the machine then yelled again and told her how she’s not doing her job properly and how she can’t operate the machine. He was yelling at her!” Me and INM couldn’t believe our ears. The guy was lying his face off! We asked him if that is exactly what happened? “Wallah thats what happened!” He lied. We raised our hands as to say “We can’t compete with a lier”.

The questioning lasted a good 30 minutes. Me and INM stood our grounds. We did not offend clown face. She did not hear us. We did not want her to hear. greasy hair heard us and he told the girl what we said. But now that we’re painted guilty and liars, I stopped talking to the guys and asked clown face one question..

Me: Was I standing facing you, yelling at you and saying….etc?
Clown face: You said mat3arf teshte’3il.
Me: To you? Did you hear me? Was I standing there and yelling at you with those words?
Clown face: she was portraying 2 looks now. *disgusted look* and *I can’t believe he’s talking to me and no “sorry” came out yet* look.
Me: Did you hear me say that to your face, Was I Yelling?!!
Clown face: What difference does it make!? You said it!!
Me: I’M ASKING YOU! JUST ANSWER THIS ONE QUESTION!

You see if I got to prove that she did not hear me and that I wasn’t even addressing her with my remark, let alone YELLING, I would prove that greasy hair was lying and clown face too was not saying the whole truth and that they had no case. The other officer sensed where I was going and stopped me “You don’t get to ask questions, only we do.”

Clown face: At first I was ready to forgive them but now I want to take them to the airport police office! (Her demand was ignored by everybody).

She was expecting a “I’m sorry” from me. Poor thing.

Nothing got to me till now, nothing. Not until the fat officer started handing us our passports.

He said many things. 2 things stood out:

1- Keep your opinions to yourself the next time, We don’t want to hear them.
2- We, emiratis, don’t insult employees while they’re doing their jobs (the way he said was a direct stab at my country and it offended me as a Kuwaiti).

I was offended by Dubai’s airport employees. We were talked down upon. Implicitly called liars many times. Treated as if we were criminals.

And all that for what?

For asking clown face to hold the X ray machine to stop the bag piling on top of our stuff and then telling my friend (far away from her) how I think she’s incompetent.

ma agool ila…. Malat 3albamyah.

Posted By Mishary

We’re back and we’re so exuasted.. Moreover tomorrow DAWAM (work)! But we had a hell of a lot of fun there, we enjoyed it till the end.

Thanks to everyone in the group.

Posted By Yousef

We arrived at Dubai’s airport 40 minutes late due to some annoying bearded guy who refused and his family to sit in the seats they were given. The guy didn’t stay onboard for long coz he didn’t accept the seats given and they didn’t have any choice other than letting him off the plane. The reason of the delay and the apologies were announced over the speakers atleast 5 times, They were quite mad at the bearded guy when they phrased the reason. Anyway, As soon as we arrived we rented a car and headed to Burjman. We window-shopped for a bit and then went to The Noodle House; The happiest place on earth.

I’m a big fan of The Noodle House. I used to eat there 2wice a week when I was studying there.. I was happy they decided they wanna eat there. It’s been like 5 months since I last ate there, and I missed it.

The food is unparalleled, no matter where I go and how many chinese/Asian dishes I try, The Noodle House remains the best in every way.

We’re planning on taking Dubai by storm and make the most out of the little time we have here.

Posted By Yousef

Brief History:

The restaurant was recommended by 9K2HN. He ate at this restaurant with his family and cousins more than 20 years ago. He came to know about this restaurant when they were staying in one of Geneve’s hotels back in the mid 80’s. Back then they weren’t familiar with the country as much as they are now, so they asked the hotel and were recommended this restaurant. They took a taxi and went there. They liked it and kept the restaurant’s card. In the coming years, whenever they wanted to go back to this restaurant, they’d go to the Noga Hiltion Hotel (Now its Kempinski) and take a taxi from there to the restaurant coz its so hard to get there without a taxi. fast forward to yesterday.. 9K2HN, his brother and me wanted to go back there. He dug up the restaurant’s card and used modern day technology to get there, A.K.A. the GPS. The waiter was very surprised to see the restaurant’s old card with us, He said he recognized the logo but not the card itself coz its too old.

According to 9K2HN, the restaurant is still as it was over 20 years ago. Its basically a villa somewhere in geneve (I don’t think I can get there without a GPS either). You can choose to sit inside or in the terrace. The inside of the restaurant feels like you’re in a hut or cabin. The restaurant specializes in Grills. They bring you your own little coal filled barbeque grill and you do the grilling. You can choose one or a mix of their boneless meats. They offer: beef, lamb, chicken, duck, turkey, fish, shrimps and squids. Each dish comes with fries and an appetizer of your choice (smoked salmon, salad mêlée/mix…etc.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted By Yousef

master, over at fyonkat just wrote a post about her embarrassing encounter with a waiter in geneve, Read it here, and She inspired me to write about my own embarrassing encounter with a waiter. It happened in 1996. Here is how it went:

Me and my friend were sitting in a cafe near the lake. We ordered cokes and the waitress brought them over, she was very friendly and all smiles.

I tend to spill drinks at restaurants. Sometimes when I try to describe something my arms make drawings in the air and other uncontrollable motions. Lets just say I can’t sit at a cafe or a restaurant without making a scene and most of the time the spilled drink finds it’s way to my shirt, and this time it was no exception I spilled the coke all over the table with one swift motion. The waitress came running and said “C’est pas grave” (no problem) and brought a towel and started to clean the table.

Waitress: So…who is the pig!
Me: *pointed at my friend* HIM! he’s the pig! He spilled it!

The waitress smiled.

Friend: Me.
Me: *I was amazed at how he was ok with being called a pig*
Waitress: what day you were born?
Me: 1st of january.
Waitress: wow! 1st of january! on new year!
Friend: and I’m on 25th of december.
Waiter: WOW! he’s on new years and you on christmas!

We all laughed and chatted for awhile and then she left. I then asked my friend about the “pig” thingy and then he said..

Friend: She did not say PIG! she asked who is BIGGER! OLDER! not who is the pig!

Ohh….. hehe… Errrrrr….

Posted By Mishary

I was shocked to see that our chalet produced grapes! Me, Ali and some other friends found the grapes (pictured above) and Ali was the only one who tasted it.

Posted By Yousef

We just added a new “sharethis” option to the site. It will enable you to email and share the posts you liked with your friends and family. The link can be found under each and every post in the site.

Posted By Yousef

Am I the only one who still listens to the Aladdin soundtrack? I especially enjoy it when I can’t sleep, I just put it on and try to sleep and it usually works.. I love this soundtrack. To date I think it hasn’t lost it’s touch and is still fresh.

Speaking of sleeplessness.. Don’t you hate people who can’t sleep while the TV is on? I have a friend who cannot sleep with the TV or ANYTHING else on. Let me explain further more.. This friend of mine cannot sleep if the receiver displays the time, the bathroom-boiler’s light is on, the space under the door is letting light in, the mobile’s tiny light is blinking or the window’s shutter is not fully shut. Now, in all honesty, don’t you think people, like my friend, should get a training course on how to properly use their eyelids?