Bloody diets!

Mrs DB is on a diet. God only knows what she is eating but I ain't joining in!

Nevertheless, you've got to be supportive haven't you.

Instead of having steak, eggs and chips while she had ~ whatever it was ~, I had steak, baked potato and salad, instead of having lamb chops, roast potatoes, whatever veggies, mint sauce and gravy I had lamb chops, baked potato and salad. In fact I have had baked potato and salad 4 times this week - doesn't quite do it for me! And we now both cook separate meals - she cooks hers, I cook mine. No, I don't expect her to do all the cooking normally, normally I will do it one night and she will do it another but now we both cook every night, at the same time - fighting for pans and cooker space!

And the worst thing ~ her diet doesn't allow her alcohol, I haven't had a glass of wine for a week. Oh, don't get me wrong, she says I can, she says she doesn't mind, and when I gave up the booze for 4 months last year she didn't help me by giving up with me.

But you've got to be supportive, haven't you.

Bloody diets!

Funny Blog

Some people just have a knack for it, don't they - you read their blogs and they are just funny - without even apparently trying. I think it's great - me, I can't do that, but I really do appreciate it when I find a blog that makes me laugh.

So there I was on Keefieboys blog - those of you who have been here before will know that I regularly visit there. And down the side of his blog somewhere he has this thing, this Live Traffic Feed thing that sort of tells you who is looking at the blog at that moment or something like that.

Anyway I was looking at that and read Dubai, Dubai arrived from waitingforskopelos.blogspot.com on "Probably Madrid". And I figured that must be me, a bit further down Grumpy Goat got a mention and on the same list I also found Dubai, Dubai arrived from dubaithoughts.blogspot.com on "Probably Madrid". So I thought I'd go an have a look at that blog.

I ended up here Life in Dubai which is written by someone called Seabee.

If you haven't been there, can I suggest you take a peek. This person is just so funny, I shall be visiting on a regular basis from now on, people often write LOL when they find something funny, but I really was laughing out loud whilst I was reading it.

Great!

Almost There!

Well, my prayers were well and truly answered today - Bolton 2 Sunderland 0.

Birmingham lost to Fulham - I'd asked for a draw but I am even more pleased with this result than the draw - Birmingham can no longer catch Bolton! Great!

Reading lost at home to Tottenham - brilliant result for us - Reading are now 3 points adrift of us with one game to play - the best they can do is draw level, but they are also 11 goals adrift of us in terms of goal difference.

Fulham beat Birmingham so they are now 3 points adrift of us but have a goal difference which is five inferior to us.

Middlesboro won and are therefore safe - well done to them.

So, next week, we are away to Chelsea, Reading are away to Derby and Fulham are away to Portsmouth. The only way Bolton can be relegated is if Fulham, Chelsea and Reading all win; and if the margin Chelsea win by added to the margin Fulham win by is greater than 5; and if the margin Chelsea win by added to the margin Reading win by is greater than 11.

Now, I think Bolton may lose, I think Reading may win, but I can't see Fulham beating Portsmouth, I also can't see the necessary scores happening.

So, although mathematically we cannot say yet that Bolton are safe, I feel pretty damned sure that Bolton Wanderers will be enjoying Premier League football again next season.

It has been a good day!

Ifs, Buts and Maybes

Today brings us to the penultimate match in the Premier League for this season, and my beloved Bolton Wanderers are still not a safe bet for playing in the Prem next season!

We play Sunderland at home today and we have to win! We don't have a choice in this, anything less than a win today will probably consign us to the dustbin of relegation next weekend. Also playing today are our fellow candidates for relegation, Fulham, Birmingham and Reading. Middlesboro are also in with an outside chance of relegation, but would have to snatch failure from the jaws of success to achieve it. Unfortunately, Fulham Birmingham and Reading don't have to play Chelsea at Stamford Bridge next week - Bolton do!

If we beat Sunderland today we will have 36 points - realistically that is going to be our total for the season. But, if Man United beat West Ham at Old Trafford today and Chelsea go down against Newcastle at St James's Park on Monday then Chelsea would, in reality, have no chance of clinching the league title and might not play to their absolute best against us next week - that last sentence falls into the category of "Clutching At Straws".

So what do I want? Well, Fulham play Birmingham at home today - maybe that will be a draw giving them both 1 point, Fulham will go up to 31 and Birmingham go up to 33. Bolton to beat Sunderland for 36 points as I said. Reading to lose at home to Tottenham (not impossible but not guaranteed either) and Middlesboro to slip up at home to Portsmouth would leave the table looking like this:

15 Bolton 36 points
16 Middlesboro 36 points
17 Birmingham 33 points
18 Reading 33 points
19 Fulham 31 points
20 Derby 11 points

Derby are already relegated so I haven't mentioned their game.

But with a likely zero points next week for the Wanderers, we still won't be safe. In the last match of the season Birmingham are at home to Blackburn, Fulham are away to Portsmouth, Middlesboro are at home to Man City, Reading are away to Derby, so as I said at the start - we have to win today - we don't have a choice if we want Premier Leage football at the Reebok next year.

An Unexpected Pleasure

Television out here in the UAE, although full of western programmes, is fairly heavily censored. I've been out here eleven years now and, until tonight, have never seen an openly Christian religious television programme.

Now, it doesn't escape me that today is the Christian Orthodox Easter Sunday. Mrs DB and I were having a quiet night in, watching the TV, I'd already looked at the UKTV schedules ('cos that is our channel of choice - when Bolton Wanderers are not playing a Premier League game) and, basically, according to the schedule there was bugger all worth watching on tonight. Isn't that usually the case, I hear you ask? Well yeah, but tonight there was even less than normal.

So, we decided to watch what we had recorded yesterday. At the end of the recording the TV tuned itself back to our normal channel. I was absolutely gobsmacked to find myself watching Rick Wakeman, Robert Powell, Ramon Remedios, The Israel Symphony Orchestra and the Eton College Choir performing The Word.

The Word is the Gospels set to music and goes right through the life of Christ - albeit fairly briefly. As I said, the significance of today does not escape me, nor does the fact that this concert is not mentioned in the schedule for today! I suspect that someone has just slipped it in there and broadcast the Christian story all over the Middle East.

I am sure that someone's head will roll, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and, I am sure, quite a few other people managed to enjoy this unexpected pleasure tonight.

Thank you UKTV.

Eating Greek

Although there are some three or four "international cuisine" restaurants on our beloved Skopelos, when we are there Mrs DB and I almost invariably eat Greek food ~ we even cook Greek food for ourselves there. When we come back to Dubai we normally have a dinner party for friends and cook Greek for them (taverna style, complete with paper table cloths, those funny little jugs of wine the Greek tavernas use, the little glasses and plastic condiment sets, bread in a basket with the knives and forks etc) and everyone usually enjoys it (probably because they start off with ouso when they arrive and finish with metaxa before they leave!) But, it can be quite difficult to find good recipes.

So, when I was checking up who was visitor 2000 this morning (well done Keefieboy) I noticed a post by lulu in which she wished me kalo pasxa, now I know that is good something but I don't know what and my English-Greek-English dictionary has decided to hide! No doubt I will find it later. so if lulu or californiakat should happen by, please let me know. But I digress. Anyway, Lulu has a website called Mama's Taverna ~ How To Make Delicious Greek Food - Recipes and Techniques. It's a touch vegitarian at the moment because Lulu is fasting for lent which means she doesn't eat meat. But going back before the start of Lent unveils some delightful recipes, I am going to introduce them to Mrs DB and I think we will probably be trying some! You might like to have a go at Greek cooking yourself! Link on the left folks.

1999

I've just noticed that my neo-counter says 1999 visitors - what I need is for visitor 2000 to leave a message - so, if it is you please leave a comment!

Cheers

It's Arrived!

Travels in Xanadu-Du a tribal fantasy by Keef Williamson arrived today! This is a much awaited book which is the first novel written by my mate Keefieboy - here's hoping it makes him a fortune! There is a second in the pipeline. So, if you haven't ordered yours yet, follow the link and get it ordered!

What do you mean, "What's it like?" How am I supposed to know, it only arrived today and it is now in a queue! I started reading Stephen King's new novel Duma Key a few days ago and that is a pretty weighty tome - could take a while. In the meantime, Travels will sit quietly on my bedside table just waiting for its chance.

Thanks Keef mate, I will let you know what I think when I've read it.

Thanks Keef. Just what I needed!

Jebel Hafeet

It's my birthday tomorrow! I will be 54 - I need one of those little round button badges that kids have, you know the ones, red with white lettering, I am 54.

Anyway, Mrs Dubaibilly booked us into the Mercure Jebel Hafeet hotel in Al Ain for the night to celebrate. It's been quite a while since we have got out of Dubai, and it was great! Just to get away for 24 hours. As soon as we left Dubai behind we both started to relax, probably for the first time for months! I'll tell you, this place is just too stressy. And at the moment we aren't getting out of it enough. We should have booked in for two nights! Anyway, we didn't, but we had a lovely time (apart from breakfast this morning - how can a 5 star hotel claim to offer international cuisine but don't offer pork bacon it defeats me. I wouldn't mind so much but they do serve alcohol - bit of double standards there perhaps. Never mind. the little pain au chocolat were delicious.

Anyway, we noticed on the way there that the wind was getting up and the sand was blowing somewhat. Now for those who don't know, Jebel Hafeet is a large lump of rock in the middle of the desert, just outside Al Ain. It has a spectacular road going up it - y'know what, just google it - jebel hafeet and search the images - there are some pics that will show you what I mean. Anyway it is about a thousand metres high (I think) and on a clear day you can see for ever from the top. Now the hotel is pretty much at the top, this was the view:

As you can see, once you get past the swimming pool you can see for yards! Shame, but you can't have everything - I guess to get the best photo's from there you really need to go in December, January or February.

At night, though, the sand settles down:



The lights in the distance are Al Ain (I think). Now those of you who know me will know that I am a mathematics teacher so, when I saw it, I just had to have a picture of this sign:



I'm sorry! Uneven numbers - what are they, a bit lumpy or all on different levels or something? What is wrong with calling them odd numbers? Some connotation in the word odd perhaps? Beats me!

Anyway, the night out over we packed up this morning and headed back to Dubai. Mrs DB was driving and I was gazing out the window, listening to the Beautiful South on the CD player when I happened to see something.

"Stop the car!"

"What?"

"Stop the car"

She stopped the car and asked if I wanted her to reverse a bit, but by that time I had grabbed my camera and jumped out to get this picture:



I was quite chuffed at spotting them, given that I was just gazing at a desert full of sand going past at 120 kph, two Arabian Oryx - I've never seen them in the wild before.

zcshzxob

I've just left a comment on Keef's blog and zcshzxob was the word I had to type in for the word verification thingy.

What an excellent word.

I don't have a job I have a zcshzxob and it takes up so bloody much of my time that I hardly get a chance to blog anymore!

So is it just me that has problems?

No, - no, no, no, no - not that kind of problem! What are you thinking of, and what are you doing on my blog thinking of it?

No, my problems exist with blogger.

Yes, Mr Blogger, the person who lets me write this drivel and post it up here for everyone to read, or not. Oh, it's not him personally, oh no, no, no, no... not at all. I don't even know him, wouldn't recognise him if I fell over him, mind you I could say the same thing about my boss, or the wife (no, just joking on the wife one).

No, no - it's his blog thing that is causing me problems.

Y'see, I post a blog, but I can't see it. Often not until the next day, or so.

Take the last bit I wrote, about keef's book. Now, I knwo you can see it 'cos Keef and GG and Jayne have all left comments (I've seen the emails), but I haven't seen it and I can't. I load my blog and it still opens on the pic of my Grandad. Occasionally, if I go to a blog that links to mine and then click my link (rather than the back button it will take me to the latest page of my blog, but I can't get it directly from my own computer.

I shall probably have to wait until tomorrow until I can see this !

Bit of a pain really, but there we go. What to do?

Travels in Xanadu-du

Some of the people who occasionally pop into here to see if I've posted any new drivel or photoshopped pics are also devotees of Keefieboy's blog and know all about his book.

The question is, has anyone in Dubai received it yet or are we all waiting for Emirates Post to get around to putting it in our mailboxes?

My Grandad

I"ve only got one photograph of my grandad. He died at Gallipoli in the first world war when my dad was two. The photo is a bit the worse for wear. I got it about 25 or 26 years ago and it hasn't got any worse since the day I got it.

It isn't a great photo, but then it dates back about 95 years.

As you can see, it's a bit knackered - the sellotape has been there as long as I have known this photograph. So, I thought I'd have a go at doing some work on it. I didn't use a tutorial or a book, I just tried various things that I already know and took my time doing it.

This is the result:



I've got to say that I'm quite chuffed with it. I know, I have no way of knowing that his eyes were blue - I use my son's eye colour, and my dad's were the same colour as well. I guess a purist may say that I shouldn't have coloured it. I haven't, the original is still here with me. I like what I've done and I think my son will like it when he sees it as well.

ROFLMAO

So having finished working for the day I decided it was time for a g&t. On the way to making it I happened to pass the television which was happily talking away to itself, broadcasting SkyNews to nobody in particular. Yes, I know, wasting energy, it should have been turned off; mea culpa.

Anyway, I just happened to catch the story of the moment. David Cameron, the leader of the British Conservative Party has been caught on camera cycling the wrong way along a one-way street. This little gem had a large, white letters on red background, banner headline reading Cameron Controversy.

It must be a slow news day, but SkyNews, thank you, you have just made my day.

A Few More Pix

OK, one last play with Photoshop and then I'm off to do some work.

Aaron put me onto tilt-shift photography. I'd never heard of it before but it is a fun little technique. I'm not sure what it's applications would be, I just like what it does. Basically you take a photograph and blur parts of it so that one little part stands out in sharp focus. This gives the effect of a macro photograph. So you are actually creating an optical illusion. Having fooled the viewer into thinking they are looking at a macro then they believe that the object they are looking at is very small, so it must be a model in model scenery!

Now, of course I can't put this up without saying where I got the tutorial from, so I would like to thank the guys at Tilt-Shift Photography for their tutorial. It does seem to me, however that there is room for some improvement in this technique which I will keep quiet about for now, at least until I have the time to try it out!

Now I did say that PS Hero has a great tutorial for improving photographs and I said I'd show you a before and after shot:



More intense reds, brighter greens (but not unrealistically so), whiter whites, I know which one I prefer. In case you are wondering the photoshopped one is the one on the right. By the way, it is the Skopelos Town Clock Tower.

A Certain Circularity

So, Aaron, aka An Englishman In Dubai, inspired by my efforts at tarting up my photo's with Photoshop has decided to have a look at PS Hero's website for more tips.

The question is, where did I find Hero?

Well, I'll tell you ... I was on Aaron's blog a few days ago and was reading a post called The Long Haul about how he passes the time on long haul flights, in the first line or two there is a link to Life Hacker which Aaron claimed to be his favourite techie blog. I followed the link and, lo and behold, there was an article about creating reflections with Photoshop by... yep, you guessed it, PS Hero.

Nice bit of circularity there I think. And I will be trying a new technique called Tilt-shift photography very soon - thanks for the tip on that one Aaron.

A bit more playing with Photoshop

OK, another tutorial and I got this as a result:

The tutorial covered the film effect and the drop shadow was part of the tutorial that resulted in the orchid. It took quite a while to do this one, I wouldn't describe it as an easy tutorial, but although it was technically difficult, PS Hero really does have the knack of simplifying things. So thanks again mate, I really do enjoy learning new tricks.

I was looking at his site earlier and he has a great tutorial for improving photo's - I might do one over the weekend and post a 'before and after' so that you can see the difference.

Photoshop Hero

A few days ago I discovered a new blog - well, new to me at any rate and I've gotta say I'm dead impressed with it. PS Hero puts Photoshop tutorials on line - free, gratis and for nothing. Seems like a nice man to me. Anyway, within seconds of finding the site I had added a link to to it on my links list (it's the one that says Great Photoshop Tutotials - my spelling mistake, I just haven't got around to correcting it yet). If you use a digital camera it is worth taking a look - especially if you have only bought Photoshop recently (4 years ago in my case).

Now you all know I like to play with Photoshop, but this guy is seriously good - he takes good photo's and really improves them, sometimes with difficult stuff sometimes with easy stuff. Anyway, I thought I'd give one of his tutorials a go and share the results, so, what do you think of this:

I've gotta say, I think it looks good. Don't get me wrong, I won't do this to all my posts, but I will be interested to see what this looks like when i've printed at 75cm x 75cm. I'm not entirely convinced the double matte effect will work quite as well, but if it does the I will be well chuffed - whichever way it will be worth the few hundred dirhams to find out - I'll let you know when I've done it - just got to find the exact right photo for it first.

Meanwhile, I shall carry on visiting PS Hero or a regular basis.

Cheers

Tea in Bed

So, normally the alarm rings at 6 am, I get up (I am one of these annoying gits that gets up and is working at full speed instantly), put the kettle on, go and clean my teeth, go back to the kettle and make tea for myself and Mrs Dubaibilly. Usually I get a very sleepy "thank you" and I go off to finish getting ready for work.

This morning, being a weekend, no alarm. I woke up naturally at about 8:25 or so and was unable to spend any longer in bed by 8:30. So I got up, made tea for myself and Mrs Dubaibilly and came in to our spare bedroom and did a bit of blogging - having not done any for a while. When I took Mrs DB her tea there were no mumbled words of thanks, just gentle breathing noises so I quietly put the tea on her bedside cabinet and left.

I've just made a second cup - I was suprised to find that she hadn't even touched the first one - Mrs DB has a built in radar for tea. Ah well, I disposed of the first and made her a second - dunno whether she will drink that one or not. Poor lass, she must be exhausted, it's 9:15 now and she very rarely sleeps this late.

Well, that's my blogging done - I've got a shed load of work to do - I'm preparing the timetable for my school for next year and, although I have a computer programme to do the hard work, somebody has to do all the data entry and, given the principals of gigo that person has to be me.

See ya later

Poppy Seeds

I do like having bread rolls with poppy seeds on them, but poppy seeds are a banned substance here in the UAE. On March 10th 2008, Gulf News published this article which includes the line

Poppy seeds, a common ingredient in dishes in some countries, are illegal her.
(my bold, my italics, their spelling mistake).

So, will somebody please explain to me why Spinneys are allowed to sell bagels covered in poppy seeds? Especially given that I can be put in prison for bringing the things into the country.

Long time no blog Everything OK

was a text message that I received today from a number that I didn't recognise. my phone gave it as +34 and a load of numbers, so i googled it and found that it came from Spain. I am guessing, then, that is is from Keefieboy who, apart from his much better half, mama duck, is the only person I know in Spain.

So mate, I know, it has been a while - 3 March, and to tell the truth, the reason is I'm bloody knackered. At the moment I am working 11 hour days and I'm working 7 days a week, Mrs Dubaibilly is somewhat in the same boat and she is every bit as knackered as me. We both get home sometime between 6 and 7 (and remember I get up at 6 in the morning to go to work), have a couple of glasses of wine and something and go to bed. Having a life doesn't come into it!

Anyway, that's why I haven't blogged for a while - basically, at the moment I've got bugger all to say, and even if I had I'd probably fall asleep while I was saying it.

By the way, mama duck hasn't blogged for a while either - is she as knackered as me?

Why don't things resize automatically?

On computers, I mean. I got an email from Kat (she really has got an amazing blog, if you haven't been you should go take a look) - anyway, she had told me that my slide show was blocking part of my posts and the email contained a screen shot to show me what was wrong.

Now, I can't reproduce the problem, but it would seem that on her computer (which apparently has quite a small screen {I think}) the slide show window doesn't resize. Instead it blocks off part of my posts.

I mean, what is the matter with these people who do this web thingy stuff, surely somebody can find a way to make these things resize to fit whatever screen you want them to.

Anyway, I've moved the slide show to the bottom of the stuff on the left side so that Kat and anyone else who wants to can see the top post without interference, and anyone who wants to look at the slide show thing just has to scroll down a bit.

Let Them Eat Cake! 3

Mrs Dubaibilly is baking banana bread again this morning - I wonder what she is going to put in it this time?

If you aren't sure what this is about you can find out here and here.

Bring on the banana bread!

Quelle Surprise!

So, what I had done was gone onto and I was looking through some of the blogs on the UAE - Dubai page, when I came across An Englishman in Dubai. And there, on the top blog entry on this blog I had never even seen before, I've been tagged with this literary meme thing! And he never told me!

Well, I nearly fell off my chair, this is the first time I have been (fairly) randomly blog trolling and seen a reference to my own blog! I'm dead chuffed, if feels like getting an unexpected Christmas pressie!

Ah well, small things...