New-to-Me Tech

This morning I wanted to copy an item from the Smithsonian Blogs to post on Facebook. The page was smart enough to realize this so that, when I highlighted and copied a quote, it popped up with a little box that would link me through to Facebook or Twitter.

When I clicked the Facebook button, it opened a window ready for me to post to my account. The link was already embedded and when I pasted the text, it also included a link and their Twitter handle. Pretty slick!

I'll have to think about how I could apply this to my work (or creative) projects....

Abu Dhabi Fish Market

Abu Dhabi Fish Market

By Lars Plougmann

One Saturday, a couple of weeks ago, Chuck went up to Dubai. Late in the morning, I took a long walk along the Corniche in the on-again-off-again rain. Since it was nearing lunchtime and my favorite vegetarian wasn’t around, I decided to walk to the port and visit the fish market. It was only my second visit; the first had been with friends.

I stopped to ask the grilling guys how long it would take—45 minutes didn’t seem bad. Apparently, Fridays are the busiest. So, I went back to the same vendor we’d visited before and bought a ½ kilo of what I think were tiger prawns for about $10. I dropped them off at the grill and went for a wander, passing a construction site and a run-down mosque and walking on to the flower and plant market.

When I came back, I still had a few minutes so I listened to an ‘On the Media’ podcast, had a seat, and watched the world go by. Lots of folks bring their families down to the market to pick up lunch or dinner from their favorite fishmonger on the weekend. When my shrimp were done the guy called me over and charged me 5 dirham. That’s about $1.50 for cleaning and grilling them. I was confused. Only 5?

I caught a cab home—learning seafood/taxi etiquette along the way—and then set up the table on the balcony with salad, sparkling water, a small glass of dry Riesling, my bag of prawns, and an entire roll of paper towels. The cat sat on the other side of the screen mewing pitifully, so I tossed a bite inside occasionally hoping it wasn’t too rich for her. Happy cat. Happy belly. Good day.

Celebrating Chuck's 40th

Chuck and I just spent a long weekend at the Banyan Tree Al Wadi in Ras Al Khaimah for his 40th birthday. This was our third visit to a desert resort in the UAE. We had an amazing room with vast bedroom and bathroom areas and a large personal pool. We spent most of our time bobbing in the water, lazing on the deck chairs, napping, and eating good food.

The hotel is set in a wildlife preserve, so we saw several gazelles and the occasional oryx making an appearance. It was especially cool when we'd be in the pool and the gazelles would wander past our place. One evening we sat in the pool and watched the amorous doves and saw a beautiful little bird with bright green feathers and a rusty red patch on his chest. We now think he may have been a blue-cheeked bee-eater, but he wouldn't let us get his picture.

For being a five-star kind of place, the service was lacking (#desertresortproblems?). Of course we’d been utterly spoiled by starting our desert adventures at Al Maha which had the best service we’ve ever experienced…anywhere. At one point, the Banyan Tree staff dropped someone else’s bags in our room while we were at lunch and it took three phone calls for them to understand they should come to pick them up.

They also seemed to have too few staff members at the restaurants, so service was s-l-o-w, but the food was good. They had tasty bread, nice salads, and an excellent lentil soup—and we’ve had our fair share of lentil soup by now. The breakfast buffet was very nice with a full range of options from a pancake and omelet station to baked beans and ful, to feta, yogurt, and hummus, a wonderful berry compote—lots of berries, nice and tart, fresh juices, and nice baked goods. The Moon Bar had a good selection of drinks and a nice view of the stars.

The Thai restaurant was in a lovely setting and had very good food, although it could have used more lime and chili—Clearly they were cooking for the farang audience. We had breakfast there one day and it was lovely and serene (for us), although they only had a single staff member serving and he was overwhelmed.

Guests apparently get to go through the "Rain Forest", a hydrotherapy experience, once for free. It was an odd experience with alternating hot and cold water showers and pools, ice for a rubbing down, steam rooms and saunas, and ended with a pool with various stations with strong jets. We were confused by the process and couldn’t figure out the buttons for the tropical storm vs. rain showers, the steam was too hot for me to stay in nearly as long as they recommended, but the pool at the end was nice. There were a couple of sprayers for the shoulders and neck that gave us a good pummeling.

The staff in the store were very professional and the spa service was excellent! We had the 90-minute Balinese massage just after the Rain Forest and just before we left on Sunday and it was perfect. A very relaxing way to end a relaxing weekend!

April Reading 2013

9 April 2013
Neither Here Nor There by Bill Bryson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I’ve had this book for at least 10 years and I’m glad I finally read it the whole way through! Bill Bryson is hilarious, but the book, originally published in 1992, is a bit dated, too. Bryson wrote about his European explorations soon after the Iron Curtain fell and compared them to his trips some 20 years before. It’s especially interesting to think here we are again 20 years on and how things have changed!

He captured the joys and frustrations of travel brilliantly. There were passages that made me shake with laughter. And when I read this—“A sense of helpless frustration was overcoming me, with weepy panic nipping at its heels."—my mind went straight to a fraught experience transferring planes in Bali.

The dated aspect was the way in which he wrote about women—he frequently fantasizes about them in the book, cheap jokes about prostitutes, and a couple jabs at people who are overweight. Uncomfortable. I think his writing has matured since then.

I would still recommend the book, it takes his travel country by country—an armchair look at Europe 20 years ago with wonder, humor, and the day-to-day travails of travel. Plus the bird poo sequence in the chapter on Paris made me laugh ‘til I cried (more than once).

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A Trip to Jeddah

While on a brief work trip to Jeddah last week, a colleague and I went to dinner one night at Aseil, a new Saudi restaurant. Having learned that traditional food in this region often seems to be piles of rice with meat, I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of dishes. Jeddah is a historically cosmopolitan city due to its role as a port and crossroads to many other places. The Kingdom itself is a huge country, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the food is varied.

I ordered a rocket salad served with bits of date and a nice balsamic vinaigrette; a bowl of chicken soup with wheat and tomatoes served with a lemon wedge—tangy and filling, reminiscent of a tortilla soup; and finally a plate of molokhia—a cooked spinach-like dish with garlic (lots!) and pine nuts. It was all delicious and served in a high-ceilinged room, lovingly decorated with local crafts, and divided by screens. The dishes themselves were homey ceramics. An altogether positive experience!

I also lucked out on this trip with my lodging and transport, although it didn’t get off to a propitious start. While still in Dubai, I received a call that my flight would be delayed by four hours. At least they caught me still at the apartment, this meant that I didn’t get to the hotel until ~1:30AM.

When I got to my room, it smelled like cigarette smoke. I didn’t want to wake up with a congested head, so I went back down to the desk. It must have been a combination of my patience, my pitiful look—I was exhausted and when I later caught my face in the mirror, it prompted an exclamation of horror—and their wanting to maintain a happy relationship with my employer. The next key he handed me turned out to be for the “Sultan Suite”. Very nice.

A couple of days later, while checking in to my flight online, they offered an upgrade to Business Class for a few thousand miles. Since Emirates no longer partners with United, I figured I wouldn’t have much opportunity to use my miles, so why not? And, it was on the A380! I was eager to experience the upper deck and was even happier, once I learned that my flight was delayed by an hour, that I could spend the interim in the lounge.

Both the lounge and my Business seat were quite comfortable. And on the way home, I stretched out, drank my fill of Perrier, and watched “Silver Linings Playbook”—it made me a little weepy, but what a good movie! (Oddly, it had a lot of censored expletives, but when I watched "Django Unchained" on the way over, it appeared to be completely intact—I'd kind of hoped I'd get the censored version of that one.)

Some Dining in Dubai

Chuck is in Dubai for a couple of weeks on a job swap, so I came up Thursday after work for the weekend. We’re concentrating our time on relaxing, eating, and catching up with some friends. Thursday we had an Italian dinner at Medzo in Wafi. While the service was polite but spotty and the bread (when it eventually came) was disappointing, our salads were fresh and nicely dressed (still not sure we got the artichoke salad—it tasted like no artichoke I’d ever had). Our pasta was excellent! I had the gnocchi with pesto—nice consistency, bursting with basil—and Chuck had a tortellini with eggplant. His pasta was served al dente, it had a perfect, chewy consistency and good flavor.

Yesterday we went to Thai Kitchen at the Park Hyatt and sat outside along the Creek for their a la carte brunch. It’s some of the best Thai food I’ve had since leaving Bangkok. We absolutely loved the pomelo salad and the banana flower salad with smoked chicken! We just kept ordering more. We/I also tried the grilled prawns, chicken in banana leaf, fried rice, veggies (in oyster sauce?), wonton soup with crab. Everything was tender and delicious. And it was all served on small plates, so it was a chance to try a real variety of dishes. The wait staff was friendly and attentive and Thai. We ended with a small portion of mango and sticky rice and a scoop of coconut ice cream. Heaven!

Last night we had dinner with one of our friends here who we hadn’t seen in six years! It was great to catch up. She’s lived in Dubai at least that long, so we pumped her for information about travel around the region. She’s been on African safaris and twice traveled to Yemen including a camping trip on Socotra Island among other trips. Not many people can say they’ve done that!

We ate at Teatro where Chuck and I started with a nice salad with aged goat cheese and a balsamic vinaigrette. I ‘helped’ him with his naan and a bite of the bocconcini from his Caprese salad (so tender!) and then concentrated on my gnocchi with Gorgonzola. Oh so rich and delicious! Fortunately, everyone else helped me with my gnocchi, too. We had a bottle of Lindemann’s Shiraz Cabernet, I believe, which was a good complement to the food. The best part was that we started early enough (7:00) to still get in on their 50% off deal. They gave us plenty of options to choose from, too.

After dinner we went to our friend’s place to continue our conversation, look through some shots of Yemen and Tanzania, and meet her gorgeous British Shorthair kitty, Sasha. He has a beautiful gray coat and striking orange eyes. Lovely.

My Old Journals: Merchant-Ivory

On July 7, 1992, I watched “Howard’s End” with my friend Gretchen and wrote:

There were some funny scenes, excellent photography and direction and the costumes, as usual for a Merchant-Ivory production, were gorgeous.

Little did I know that 11 years later, while working at the University of Oregon Libraries, I would get to delve into James Ivory’s archive. I handled fabric swatches from Merchant-Ivory costumes, browsed production photos, read audition notes on actors like Emma Thompson, and eventually met Mr. Ivory himself.

For me, there is nothing like the thrill of handling primary sources and reaching across the years to touch an artifact or manuscript, thinking of the time and place in which it was created and the person who created it. To get to do that with a favorite filmmaker's papers? Priceless! 

Digging into the Past: My Old Journals

Recently I’d been thinking about the two boxes of old journals I have carefully tucked away in our storage room. I have never, that I can remember, gone back to read them before and some of them are now more than 20 years old!

If you know me, you will not be surprised to learn that they are housed in waterproof boxes, each journal placed in it’s own archival ziplock bag with its date range noted on a little slip of paper stuck in the top. In keeping with good archival practice, they are stacked flat inside the boxes with the largest on the bottom and the smallest on top. I have since switched almost exclusively to Moleskine journals (ruled - notebook - large) with their pleasing (and uniform) size and shape, so storage of current journals will be more easily accomplished. (Yes, I really do think of these things. Really.)

I wasn’t sure where to begin, so I just grabbed one off the top…and then another, and then another. Fascinating! Fascinating to see how me I was and still am. Fascinating to read about things that were “high tech” at the time and are now completely obsolete. Fascinating to read passages of events both historic and personal in light of what has happened since then. Also awkward and embarrassing at times, but long enough ago that I can sympathize with the younger me, pat my previous self on the hand, and offer some comfort.

You’ll be seeing more observations as the project continues.

March Reading 2013

26 March 2013
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Somehow less wrenching than Don't Let's go to the Dogs Tonight, Alexandra Fuller's account of her parents' lives, with a particular focus on her mother, is engrossing. It's sad at times, very funny at others, unsentimental, but with an undercurrent of love. I couldn't help but love her mother while being grateful that I didn't have Fuller's African childhood overshadowed by alcoholism, mental illness, and occasional wars. It was also full of animals of all sorts, farm life, a loving, if undemonstrative family, and AFRICA.

The story jumps between the past and present at different intervals which was slightly confusing at times. I didn't notice the handy glossary in back until I finished the book. Excellent storytelling! You should read this book.

22 March 2013
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a call to action to everyone, but particularly Americans, to do something about the way women and girls are living in this world. It's not a women's issue, it's a human issue and it's clear we have a role to play. Nick Kristof and Sheryl Wu Dunn get it just right. There are some difficult, painful topics to read about, but they always give you hope that things can get better. The book deals with FGM/FGC, systematic rape, fistula, and other tough subjects, but it offers ideas on how you and I can help. Now get going!

1 March 2013
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

My friend Clara lent me _Gone Girl_ which immediately sucked me in. The chapters alternate between narration by or about a husband and wife and the suspense grows steadily. Nick and Amy seem like a normal couple...and then you start to wonder. Amy mysteriously disappears, the plot thickens. There are twists and turns and nastiness and I couldn't put it down.

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Mindful Eating

I read a suggestion somewhere, for an exercise in mindfulness, to think about the plants that contributed to your meal before starting to eat. The simplest meal I eat, and therefore the easiest for this exercise, is breakfast. I typically start the day with steel cut oats with almonds, cinnamon, and salt and most often dried tart cherries or chunks of fresh Granny Smith apples. (I’m leaving out the beverages for now for simplicity’s sake, though I am grateful for fresh water and tea).

Oat Field by Corey Harmon

McCann’s Irish Oatmeal helpfully includes information on their company website about exactly where their oats are grown—in Kildare and Meath Counties—and the path they take from farm to table. And fellow Flickr users have shared photos. So, I have a literal picture of a field of oats.

Public domain image from Wikipedia

Having grown up with apple and cherry trees in our extended yard, I can picture the flowers and the fruit. Almonds were a different story. (They're related to the peach. Did I know that?) I’ve seen images of people gathering salt, but I had to look up cinnamon. I didn’t realize there were several possible plants that render up the spice until I looked it up.

This exercise has led me down several different paths of thought. At its simplest, it has been a new way to make me begin the day with focus, a worthy goal in itself.

It has also made me realize how much more complicated my other meals are and to think about Michael Pollan’s recommendation to never eat anything with more than five ingredients. Besides the question of health, when there are too many ingredients, it’s hard to be mindful.

But more than that, as I broaden the practice to include gratitude to the growers, it has led me (again) to think about how my food is grown and treated and how I would prefer it to be produced. It makes me ask who is growing and harvesting that fruit, that grain, that spice and under what conditions. Perhaps too deep a thought to think over my morning oatmeal, but something worth pondering.