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Showing posts from May, 2017

A home away from home

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Life on a beach Not every hotel can claim 5-star status. It comes after careful examination of amenities. Adherence to international standards must be met. A visit to preview the latest offering of Al Raha Beach Hotel’s Azur Restaurant, came my way. Since I’m based in the northern Emirates it was going to be a three-and-a-half-hour journey to Abu Dhabi. No distance is an obstacle when it comes to work and so I went to check out the property.  Azur is a casual dining restaurant that has both outdoor and indoor seating options. The recently revamped menu harbours a homely Italian Trattoria. The turquoise-hued place is buzzing with people when I finally arrive. The first course is already over and done with and people are digging in to their Mushroom Risotto. A dish I thoroughly enjoyed. For anyone who favours Italian cuisine, there was a lot more headed our way. In came a succulent Lamb Shank or lamb ossobucco, which was served with its own beef sauce. The music and

Learning to say no

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Toddlers can do it with ease. In fact it is often times the first word they utter repeatedly.  Would you like to eat, No.  Want to sleep - no.  Got to bed, no.  Be quiet. NO! There are a multitude of words in the English language but perhaps few are quite as brutal as this. And yet after a sufficient amount of my existence, I often find it hard to stand my ground. To say no and be okay with it. It isn't easy to be a stay at home mom. Often times I wonder who conjured up the title. Besides running a home which usually includes the cooking, cleaning and running of errands, I also try to earn a living. Be that as it may I often find it hard to describe what I do to total strangers.    One is regularly bombarded with requests to edit resumes, answer the door bell, fix someone's broken class project, baby sit the neigbours pet hamster for a few days, fix someone's mobile phone... you get the drift.  The house help often think it is easy to cancel at the last hour be