Abi:original - If you aren't original, what are you?

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 ...

Over the past few years I've become particularly fond of the Honda brand of cars. It is probably due to their reliability and simplicity. Maybe its also because a Honda Accord took my family and me to a lot of places over the past four years or so. Which is why I expected no less from the new Honda Civic which was launched in Dubai recently. It has been called the 'Stunning Civic' for its sporty look and added features. On first glance the 2016 Civic sets an all-new standard in compact car style and performance. With sleek, sporty lines and an improved power-to-weight ratio, it is charismatic, spacious and stylish but also the most efficient in its class. In addition to a brand new engine in the LXi and EXi grades, it also boasts  of a new grade equipped with a new turbo charged 1.5 litre DOHC Direct Injected Inline-4 cyclinder Engine and will be called RS. Convenience features include a Remote Engine Starter which starts the engine from a distance, ensuring...

When I first landed in Taiwan, I didn't realise I would be entering a world where the people are actually refreshingly pleasant. It has been a welcome change to meet people who aren't too shy to greet you with delight. A fellow traveller was embarassed when a Taiwanese acquaintance hugged her tightly and squealed with delight when she noticed a familiar face among the media present at an event. We are unaccustomed to wearing our feelings on our faces. The people here don't give a second thought and automatically offer a wide smile if you offer one in return. I've tested this more than once in the elevators and the streets of Taipei. A gentleman was counting down the floors with his young son and they grinned when I made small talk and offered to share names in broken English. Somewhere along the way, the rest of us have forgotten common compassion for fellow beings. It doesn't surprise me that Taiwanese people choose to live, for the most part, fairly s...

There are probably a few people in the world who haven’t heard of Mother Teresa. She treated the sick and destitute in India but managed to touch countless lives around the world. I am not someone who believed in wearing religious medals. I was taking my first holiday without parents or siblings and my mother insisted I wear a silver medal which had an image of Mother Mary on it. I wore the medal, grudgingly. We were a class of 25 women who travelled with two teachers to visit a few Indian cities and practise photography. Our first stop was Calcutta. We had heard of the mouth watering sweets that the city is known for and a few of us headed out to the local sweet shop. It wasn’t long before the residents noticed us. As we relished our desserts and made our way back to the hotel, a few miscreants started hurling stones in our direction. I was shocked when a large stone came straight at me. Perhaps it was luck or divine intervention that I was saved from a serious wound because the stone...

SoundCloud Audio by Abigail Mathias A travel piece on Turkey that also featured on the mygola blog...http://www.mygola.com/blog/?p=97 Music holds the key to my soul. When it comes to a live music concert, I’m usually pretty kicked to attend. Hitching a train from Bombay to Bangalore for a Roger Waters’ concert with a bunch of office colleagues, including my boss, is certainly a memory I’m waiting to relate to my kids. Eight years and two children later, one of the biggest acts in music history and certainly in my book, were headed this way. I couldn’t believe it. U2 was in town. Ok so they weren’t particularly in my town but they were going to be somewhere in the vicinity. Actually they were going to be a four-hour flight away in Istanbul but hey, it was a great opportunity to see Istanbul as well, right. Luckily my amazing husband, agreed. Of course a few people thought I was insane to take a five-month-old baby on a vacation. What they didn’t understand was that I...