Round-about Al Ain

Two bits of news for you today, the first being of utmost importance and excitement. Tonight I had cuisine fit only for errrr very rich people… who know what posh grub really is. I dined on the finest food; a culinary delight I will not forget for a long time to come. My menu read as thus;
1 portion McCains chips (oven baked)
1 portion Heinz baked beans
1 portion Youngs fish steaks (oven baked)

Oh my mouth is watering as I reminisce over my sumptuous feast. I cannot express my delight and excitement. Alhumdulillah it was such a treat.

Yesterday hubby came back from Choithrams (Twickenhams to those of you who can’t read i.e. hubby) arms laden full of strange and nostalgic items. Amongst them were the above items. Now we never go to Choithrams, because it is out of our way and also it’s quite expensive. It is supermarket which stocks a lot of products from ‘back home’ which we can’t find in Carrefour or Mega Mart. Problem is these products are quite often at least triple the British price, and also the products they sell which you can access here at other shops are also a lot more expensive.
I nearly popped my eyeballs when I found out how much the fish steaks cost. But it’s been good 4ish months since I ate any, and we had a great meal, and we hardly go there, so that’s my justification.

You see, adjusting to the food here took some time. I am ashamed to admit that when I first arrived I could not get used to most of the food here. Just about everything was available but tasted so different. I would scold and slap myself mentally, reminding myself to be grateful that I even have food on the table. People would kill for this food. And sure enough a few weeks later I found my palate adjusting, and now everything tastes ‘normal’, but when I taste food from ole blighty it is undeniably a wonderful experience.
I still can’t find decent soya milk. Actually tell a lie, hubby came home with a box from Choithrams, and it is actually quite nice. But it is too expensive for me to want to buy. I’ve been on soya for about three years now, and found it be far better for me than cows milk, so it’s been a little difficult doing without it recently. There’s also a number of other little bits n bobs from UK that I really miss, and can’t find here, I’m making a list so that God willing if whenever we get the chance for a visit I can shop in bulk. But praises to the Almighty for everything I do have, the things I miss are nothing I can’t live without.

The other news is that this week the Emirati’s have been celebrating National Day, which is apparently on the 1st of December. I’m still not a hundred percent on what it’s all about, but someone told me it signifies the seven emirates joining together to form the UAE. Hubby has coming home his schools full of strange accounts and footage of the celebrations. It mystifies and horrors me both at the sight of little boys dancing, singing songs twirling their wooden guns round, while little girls thrash their hair around from side to side, hair swirling around their faces to some beating rhythm, I think the Emirates call this traditional dance a na’ashat (someone correct me if I am wrong)…..I mean what???
A non Muslim woman said to me the other morning, ‘I don’t get it, they say one thing and do another…’ This is what happens when culture is blended into religion, and innovations are practiced and spread; everything dilutes and converges into one and the same.

These celebrations are large scale, and so much has been put into them. Also everything about these celebrations is based on the wonder of being Emirati. While it is great people value their heritage, and the Arabs can boast a wonderful and fascinating heritage which really is a treat to experience, but I wonder if this situation is one whereby it may have been taken a tad too far. Like a catchy chant the songs they sing repeat over and over, and over a few more times, the word Emirati. It is all you can hear and see in the form of flags, food, decorations, fireworks; a proud Emirati stance.
It made me wander how it made other non Emirati Arabs feel because this is not limited to just these celebrations, it transpires into everyday life too. There are so many Arabs here from Syria, Jordan, and Egypt etc and apparently if an Emirati marries a non Emirati their children cannot be called Emirati because they are not considered pure. Non Emirati’s apparently are not eligible for the same privileges as ‘real’ Emiratis. I find it disheartening and a little unfair seeing as it is mainly the non Emiratis who hold much of the work and jobs on their shoulders and often get shoved around at some ones whim. By all means look after your heritage but not at the cost of inflating ego’s whilst others are left perhaps feeling a little undervalued. I have nothing against Emiratis, just a desire for people to unite and share as the equals that we are meant to be.

It is dismaying because we as Muslims have been given two occasions by which we can celebrate, and those are the two Eids.
We don’t need specific days to celebrate our nationality; we don’t need a special day to tell our wives/husbands we love them and so on. Each new day you open your eyes to is that special day, another chance to thank your creator and count your trillion blessings.

Now, back to my dreams of fish steak ad chips…..