For most of today I walked around work with red paint on my face. This was to mark the 12th day of Spring – a Hindi tradition called Holi (or Festival of Colours). As Spring brings out the most beautiful colours, Holi is about launching these colours in the form of natural paints, and some times coloured dyes. I felt a little odd, but my little dab of red was nothing compared to others. I saw a couple of guys in the office with white business shirts covered in so much red they looked like they’ve escaped some form of massacre. A nearby colleague arrived after the vandalism had occurred, but the ladies were able to get enough paint from my cheek to do him also. I was disappointed they didn’t go with my suggestion to apply it to his shirt’s collar in the shape of a women’s lips. Shortly after I was done I asked if I could wash it off, but I was warned not to as it would just mean I’d get done even more a second time.
It’s been good to experience a week with my family. It’s been really interesting to hear the things that they find amusing which I have become a bit blase about. An example is the constant use of car horns in traffic. My wife has found this a constant source of humour. In fact she has mentioned I don’t use ours nearly enough. It was kind of exciting when I drove and experienced getting horned for the first time. I believe it was because I was more than 30 centimetres from the car in front.
While I’ve become accustomed to the constant horning, yesterday afternoon I couldn’t help but chuckle. At a a cross-roads from work, there was an impasse of mass proportions with no one going anywhere. There must have been at least seven or eight cars involved. Around half were trying to get out and half were trying to get in, and each of these were going in different directions. The situation was totally hopeless. From my position away from the mellee I couldn’t work out how it got so bad, and how they could alleviate themselves from it. It seemed to me that they’d need a team of a dozen Mensas doing calculations on butcher’s paper to sort out this mess. But it seemed each of the cars thought the best solution was to sit there and use their horns, along with a few hand gestures. It may have taken me three of four minutes to walk past the scene, and the entire time there was a full chorus of car horns.
After work today I visited the post office for the first time. It’s quite a bit different from Australian post offices which go out of their way to sell everything and anything. I’m not sure if it was just this post office, but inside there was virtually nothing except a desk and the guy that worked there. They didn’t have envelopes for sale. A bit surprised by this I just had to ask if they had stamps. But the process was OK.
Tonight we went out for dinner. I carelessly chose a restaurant within a four year old’s eyesight from a kids mini-fair with loads of rides. The dinner was a pizza place, but Elle and I couldn’t go past their pastas. The service there was exceptional! They were all in love with Lewis, and looked after us very well. Our waiter guessed we were from Australia from our accent, and said he likes Australia and is a big fan of Tania Zaetta. I’ve never heard of that association to Australia before.
At the fair they had all the rides we’re used to. Our budget for Myles allowed him to go on five. Well four – I joined him on the roller coaster. While they were all the same as you’d expect at home, there were a few distinctive Dubai touches. For example, there were babies on the roller coaster with no protection. And I’m not used to being getting thrown around on a roller coaster while one of Muslim workers was on the ground below praying on his blanket. I hope he was praying for religious purposes, and it wasn’t due to his concerns about the ride.
A big hit with Myles was the four wheeler motobike. I wasn’t sure how long it’d take him to get used to it. He’s good at driving cars, but this thing had a thumb throttle. I shouldn’t have worried, he was a natural. Within a couple of laps he was tearing it up with sand flying everywhere. There were a couple of close shaves – particularly when he got so confident he started waving to us – but he managed to turn just in time to avoid the tyre walls.
After some initial naughty behaviour when he was obviously feeling the effects of the flight, Myles has been amazingly good. As a reward, tomorrow we’re going to Children’s City. We’ll report back later.