Archive for the ‘Bizarre’ Category
I think this camel stuffed toy is absolutely unique. Not your typical bear around the corner. I took photos before sending this to a blogger pal as a housewarming/birthday present, together with another UAE memorabilia.
One of the stores in Dubai Mall that would probably catch one’s attention is Desigual (the multichannel concept came from Barcelona). It’s obviously unorthodox, just as you can see the hanging of clothes. Parang sinampay lang sa bakuran.
For a time, I am fond of statement (and non-traditional) tees. In the Philippines, the kookiest and most strange things are normal. But in UAE, you can get arrested for (unintentionally) wearing an unacceptable tee. Last year, a set of t-shirts displaying stick drawings of naked man and woman were removed from this Spanish shop. The same year, Harvey Nichols, a British department store in the Mall of the Emirates, was forced to close for a few hours to remove t-shirts considered obscene after a customer complained to a local radio station. The t-shirts had the image of a British bulldog standing on top of a UAE flag. The store quickly apologised. In another incident, an expatriate was jailed for a month before being deported after he was arrested for wearing a Marc Jacob t-shirt depicting a naked Victoria Beckham with the slogan “protect the skin you’re in” as part of a cancer-awareness campaign. The man was charged with offending public decency.
This serves as a gentle reminder when you’re traveling in this part of the globe, whether you’re a tourist or not.
Siguro naman hindi nila ako huhulihin, pag suot ko ang menu shirt ko.
Since I moved to a new organization, I am now into becoming accustomed to yummy treats being distributed here and there when someone becomes a daddy (first photo: chocolates shared with us with a very nice baby boy-themed packaging), healed from an illness (second photo: someone showered us Patchi chocolates when she returned from a sick leave), and many other reasons (third photo: I forgot for which reason the rose petals ala-candies were shared with us. But I did not forget that it was oddly delicious. My first time to consume rose in a petal form. I remember I had a rose lassi in 2007 from an Indian restaurant in the Philippines. The extract of course tasted like rose.)
So far, the kookiest packaging I saw was for the pieces of bread stuffed inside a huge shelly shaped bread. Now I am thinking if I should also share things like these and when? And when the situation comes, I think I want to make a difference. Maybe I should distribute something with durian, balut, penoy, etc. It is either they would be amused or dislike me. Suggestions are welcome.
(Taken in April 2009. Not another juon feet.)
That one odd day in April, a few of my male officemates thought that something bad happened to my feet. I guess that’s what happens when you wear the wrong foot stockings and/or the male observers are not too oriented with the different kind of foot socks a female can wear. Like in this case, they thought I had a bandage.
Not for too long, I came with patches of salonpas on my left foot. Just when I thought it will draw attention, it did not. Heehee. Except for the smell, maybe. Incidentally, my left foot twisted while I was walking in too much hurry few days ago. When a friend learned about it, she exclaimed “Na naman? (Again?)”. More than two years ago, I fell off from the stairs of an office building. It was tax season that time and we worked until 3:00 AM. Maybe I was already sleepwalking that I didn’t notice that there were at least still five steps before the ground. So, I fell with my two-inch heeled shoes. The guard and a friend-teammate saw me. From then on, I became a fan of flats. And I’ve been very careful. Until my most recent fall. Heehee. Don’t worry, I’m salonpas-free now.
(My copy of the limited edition “Ickle and Lardee’s Grand Adventure”, debuting in this blog together with my newly set up 5-foot Christmas tree. I almost gave up finding a fine tree for this season in the Gulf).
