A Tale of Two Chillis

Liz decided one day last week that she was going to cook up a white bean chilli. This is something we've made a few times in the past, and it's really good. In Japan, though, we couldn't get green chillis at our local supermarket so we used a kind of Japanese chilli called shishito. It probably wasn't the right thing to be using, but it worked for us and was nice and mild.

Here, however, the UAE is home to a vast array of different chillis and peppers. We often go to the supermarkets and have no idea what some of the vegetables are. I've always thought I'd like to try them out, and suddenly I had my opportunity. Liz was making the white bean chilli, and we needed green chillis. There are chillis a plenty here, but which ones should be use???!!?

Liz came home with her choice... which turned out to be Thai green chillis, and were far too firey for our chilli needs. So we went back out to a nearby supermarket and I spotted what looked like a milder green chilli. Actually, it was a pack of about ten of them. We decided to try them out. They were much larger than the Thai green chillis, so I imagined they might be milder. When we got home I chopped one up, and tried a bit of the raw chilli... at first it was mild as expected, but then it kicked in... spicy! I told Liz I thought they were a bit spicy, and gave her a small piece to try. For some reason I took another piece for myself (not the most sensible thing to do). It made my tongue even more firey. Liz, however, thought it had no heat at all!! I was so baffled by this that I took an even bigger bit to try (stupid, I know!). This time was the clincher. My mouth became so hot it was like there was a fire burning on my tongue. Then it spread to my lips, which tingled in a painful burning way for the next hour!!! Liz then agreed that they were spicy.
Turns out these were jalepenos. Doh!
Moral of the story is, if you think a chilli is so spicy it's burning your tongue, there is no need to try it again and again until your lips feel like they're melting off due to the fire on your tongue. haha

Game, Set, Match

Let's take a quick trip back to New Year's Eve 2010...Bryn and I were sitting in our little Japanese apartment, sipping hot chocolate and eating soba while we watched the snow settle outside. Bryn got a text message from his father, saying that he and Jan were enjoying warm, sunny weather and watching Rafael Nadal play Rodger Federer in the final of a tennis match in Abu Dhabi...MAN was I jealous!!!


Little did I know that would be how Bryn and I spent our New Year's Eve one year later! We spent the better part of the afternoon wandering around the exhibition stalls (but decided against waiting in the 45 minute line to get autographs) and snacking on "stadium" food. There was the usual hot dogs, cheeseburgers, nachos, and then...falafel nuggets! (a little bland, but overall not bad!)

Racket juggler in the tennis village.

Me, definitely not complaining about wearing a t-shirt on the 31st of December!!!

We watched two matches that day. First, was the 3rd and 4th place match between Federer and Nadal. Nadal won, but it was a really close match. It was a little surreal to actually get to see them play!! I have been watching them play on TV for years, so it was awesome (still planning on making it to the Australian Open one day though!!!)

Self-portrait :)

Federer & Nadal get ready to play

Nadal

Federer

The second match was the final, between Djokovic and Ferrer. They made it look easy! Djokovic won, but I don't think that was a surprise to anyone!

Ferrer (a poor kid behind us thought that this was still Federer playing, and would yell, "Go Federer!" at the top of his lungs during the quietest moments!! Thankfully someone set him straight after the 3rd or 4th time!)

Djokovic

I think that our pictures turned out pretty neat. They would have been even better if we had this lens, (in silver) though! (Hint, hint to anyone out there!! ;) )

Thank you SO MUCH to Robert and Jan for the tickets - it was an excellent Christmas present. We're very sorry you couldn't join us, though.

New Car!

Well, I tell you what - looking back we had one busy holiday! We went to the zoo, watched some pro tennis (coming soon...), painted the dining room, and...bought a car!


Meet our new toy! It's a 2011 Kia Carens. We like it (or at least I do, Bryn hasn't had the opportunity to drive it too much yet!) It's sort of a "crossover" between a station wagon and a SUV. Bryn and I have no intentions of driving ourselves out in the sand dunes, so 4WD wasn't really a necessity for us. We did want something a little bit bigger than the Peugeot 207 we were renting though...when everyone else drives ginormous Toyota Land Cruisers and Nissan Patrols, you feel like an ant in a tiny little car. This one fits the bill just right.


We'll get some better pictures soon, but these will have to tide y'all over for the time being.

Pollywog!

For some time now, Liz and I have been lamenting the blah-ness of the cream-coloured walls in our apartment. EVERY wall is the same blah colour and they are high walls too... It's a lot of blah to be surrounded by every day. We spent a long time talking about perhaps painting one or two walls ("accent walls" I think Liz calls them) and a couple of rooms, too. We even went so far as to visit Ace Hardware and get a bunch of paint chips to compare and consider... and believe you me, my sense of "colour" is not exactly...shall we say... spot on. I swear to God we were looking and ten greens, but Liz (and the booklet) assured me that none of them was simply "green" and that they were all distinctly different shades - "dried thyme", "Cyprus sage", "Celtic sage", "French gray", "Song of summer", "palmetto" and so on.
Anyway, we had great intentions for the longest time, but it wasn't until yesterday we actually went and got some paint and brushes, etc.!! The "green" we decided on wasn't any of the others (although, if you ask me, it looks exactly the same as all of them) was "POLLYWOG"... and with a name like that, you know you're onto a winner!

So we got home and prepped the dining nook. Yes, sorry, I neglected to say that we had decided to paint the dining nook first. We got some painters tape, which we stuck up around everything and then got started with the fidgety bits first. It felt so good to slop some colour on those blah walls. It was great fun.
Once all the fidgety bits were done, we broke out the rollers and finished off the first coat. It looked SO GOOD, and both of us kept assuring the other of how much we liked this colour and how good it looked on the walls... haha
A couple of hours later we gave it a second coat and before we knew it, the walls were painted. Then it was just a matter of waiting until everything was dry before putting the furniture back in. Hooray for colour on the walls!!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Dining nook done, perhaps next weekend we might go back to Ace and get some paint for another room... stay tuned!

Al Ain Wildlife Park

AKA the zoo! One day last week Bryn and I decided we should venture out of the house to check out the zoo. From the time we arrived we had heard that it was definitely one of the must-see attractions in Al Ain, so it was time to give it a go.


Getting there was easy enough, and luckily we had decided to go early, so we beat the crowds (they did show up later on!). There was a 15 Dirham entrance fee (about US$4) and it was definitely worth it - heck, I would paid more! It is a really nice zoo!


We decided to sort of go in a clockwise pattern to make sure that we didn't miss much, so we started with the birds. There was a great walk-through aviary housing several different birds that are native to the Arabian peninsula (many of which we have seen in the "wild"). There was also a fun penguin exhibit (not native to the area...haha).


There was a farm exhibit that we couldn't really tell if it was open or not, but looked like fun - rabbits, ponies, peacocks, camels...we will definitely go in next time!


From there we just continued around checking out the animals. There were loads to see - everything from flamingos to monkeys to hyenas to rhinos, reptiles and lions. The best part was, we could actually see all of the animals! You know how sometimes you go to the zoo and see the lion area and look and look, but the silly lions are sleeping just out of view? Not here...everyone was out and picture perfect! For the most part it seemed like all of the areas where the animals lived were well kept and spacious, so it gets a thumbs up from me as far as zoos go (I don't like the ones where you wander around feeling sorry for the animals).


On the way home we wanted to swing by Al Ain Paradise. It is a garden that is created each year, and holds the Guinness World Record for number of hanging baskets (pretty impressive if you ask me...) Unfortunately Paradise was closed, so we will have to try again another time.

We are slowly working our way through the things to do in Al Ain, and will keep you up to date with other things we find!