Deep Thoughts by Laura Nash

So I have a lot of aspirations and sad to say my hopes were dashed the other day with this "Ah-Ha" moment:

(me out loud...read shouting...completely at random to my roommate):

"D!  Do you know why I can never be a professional blogger?"

He startled by my obscenely loud volume looks up from his iPad....

"Because all these girls take pictures of themselves in these amazing outfits and then post them and that's all they have to do that day.  So what do they do with the rest of their time?  If that's all I had on my plate I would eat copious amounts of junk food, shop till I run out of money, and then I will be broke!  Which means I would no longer have the ability to purchase said outfits and not be able to fit in the clothes to take pictures in...and my blogging career would be over before it started."

He then went back to his iPad...

Therefore I salute you Kendi, Jessie, Blaire and all of you lovely ladies out there who have conquered this vicious cycle, because I am just sitting here scratching my head.

*editors note: I know these brilliant ladies all have thriving careers and their blogs are just a part of them, but I thought my little outburst was rather comical, here's to my blogging career!

A Very Dubai Birthday

You can see how much fun we are all having....
yes those are birds on my dress.

One of the things that I have noticed amongst fellow expats is that it is a very open community.  To some degree it is a all for one mentality and people are more open than you would find back in the states or the UK.  I recently celebrated my birthday and I must say I really felt like I had a little family out here in Dubai.  We did a classic Dubai ritual and hightailed out to a brunch.  Now, I have not been exposed to the world of brunching before but out here every friday, in every hotel, it is an all you can eat, all you can drink frenzy, dressed up in your finest duds and with 100 of your closest friends.  Well you are not all friends at the start but by the end every one is pretty much your bestie.  We had a group of 15 and I must say it was an absolute blast. 

As for the day of my Birthday my precious E out did himself.  He made dinner reservations and picked me up at 8:00, as he was coming back from the island a day early than usual to celebrate (he better have!).  We hailed a cab and I rode in suspense as he was completely mum on our final destination.  About 20 minutes later we pulled up to The Fairmont Hotel and had an amazing dinner at Spectrum on One, fit with a Happy Birthday serenade by a very off key Philipino and Indian wait staff.  

Then we hit up ye ole Cavalli Club, which is touted as the place to go in Dubai.  The stairway to the club was covered in enough purple velvet and rhinestones to make one vomit, but hey that's the Arab way.  Walking into the main room the place was decked out with crystal chandleries amongst the purple back drop and it was quite the people watching scene.  I think I saw Marilyn Monroe!  We ordered the most expensive martinis of our lives, enjoyed the the good company and called it a night.  It was absolutely perfect mix of the Dubai scene and spending time with my amazing boy.  I woke up the next morning wishing to relive it all.

It truly was a great Birthday and I am so grateful for this experience, the opportunities to come, and all the people I have met.

I just this this is a keeper, I have my
birthday girl badge on!

   

My First Haircut

Dubai is a land of delivery.  Any food under the sun will be brought to your door in 45 minutes or less.  Maids can be hired and will show up knocking on your door step to deliver you a clean house.  You need a cup of sugar, we do not knock on the our neighbor's door, no we call the local grocery store to run us up sack of sugar.  Last week I had my most favorite delivery yet...a haircut.  I have been putting it off for a good six months, scared to try anyone new.  The stigma over here is that where ever you show up they will give you the same cookie cutter haircut the last five girls had.  I was passed a number with good recommendations made the call or text rather (Everything over here is also often done by text) and the response was would you like to come to the salon or me come to your house?  I was a bit puzzled, do I want her to come to my house?  That seems a bit of a project, the house is not visitor ready as the maid is not scheduled till the next weekend (gosh could I be anymore spoiled) but I thought why not come on over.

The next day at 7:00 pm on the dot there she was, my pink haired, UK sprite of a hair dresser knocking on my door to trim my tresses.  It was a no frills process as I washed my own hair, she snipped away and viola, 45 minutes later I had a much shorter, new do!  It is a great deal for these girls or guys, because think how low their overheads are and she just got to walk away from the hairy mess.  I hoovered up a good 4-5 inches of my red locks and admired the ease of and the convenience my new haircut and thought how great is life in Dubai!

Drinking in Caves

Through the Vineyards we go!

 Switzerland Part II…Montreux is an amazing, beautiful place.  I cannot really even do it justice with many words.  All I will say is that there are vineyards all along the coast, (is it still a coast if it is a lake, i.e. Lake Geneva?), and we hiked from small village to village literally trolling through vineyards visiting Caveuxs a long the way.  What is a Caveux you ask?  They are these amazing little jems.  And inside these little dungeons  they store and serve all of the local wines that the vineyards surrounding them produce.  What an excellent idea, smart little Swiss!  We enjoyed our fair share of reds…and whites…and everything in between.  And there was a castle.  A fairytale princess castle.  Just look at the pictures and promise you will go someday?

Just pretty

Grüezi from the Alps

See the cows in the background!?

Water. Bread. Apricots. Cheese. Orange. Banana. Gummy Bears. Wine.  Those were the lucky items that were selected to be in our hiking bag, which I must mention in our packing haste we forgot to pack a backpack and so I was lucky enough to have a reason to buy a new bag!  E and I were bound and determined to get a solid day of hiking the Swiss Alps in on our four day journey.  Typically we are not the most blessed when it comes to good weather, so much so that on everyone of our holidays we have purchase umbrellas: Harry, Lloyd, and Elvira (R.I.P everyone of them, their dollar values didn't give them much more than a 1 trip shelf life).  But in Interlaken we could not have asked for any better weather, a few clouds spotted the clear brilliant blue sky, the grass was greener than I have ever seen and the cow bells were the perfect cacophony of background noise.

Quarter of the way, feeling confident, notice the outfit
change?  We had lots of layers on, the key to hiking
success, oh and always bring a scarf :)

We started off in very high spirits in Grindlewald, the map said that it would take us 4 hours and 40 minutes to reach our destination, Mannlichen, at the tippy top of the mountain we were on with the Eiger, Monck, and Jungfrau just in the distance.  We hiked along and chatted at the cows and the goats and even the butterflies too!  About half an hour into the hike I was puzzled that we had not seen any other hikers on the trail, but we pressed on.  An hour into it I realized why we were the only ones on the trail, I am in pretty good shape, ran a 10k about three weeks before, but by this point I was about ready to get on all fours and climb up this beastly mountain.  It was like going on the stair master at level 37 for 2.5 hours.  I looked up at the cable cars running above us with envy.  But there was no other decision but up and we pressed on.

Half way point!

Finally we reached....the half way point.  I think my heavy breathing, lack of conversation, and my obvious fatigue convinced E that we could ride the cable car up the rest of the way.  I was incredibly grateful, but we paid for it!  Switzerland is such a gorgeous place but oh so expensive, it was $33 for the two of us to rest our tired selves in the cute cable car for our 20 minute ride to the top.  It was absolutely stunning and of course the sore calves and shaking quads were well worth it.  We had a celebratory beer, some fruit, bread, and gummies and appreciated the breathtaking
(literally!) back drop.

This was just one day of our amazing journey, check back in for Switzerland Part 2.  On a side note, I miss all my family and friends back home and love you all so much!!

Our at the top celebration!