Damn rain!

Got surprised by the rain on a walk.

Day 5 & 6- Dubai; Shopping

The last two days were mainly spent shopping.

Day 5 was a bit slow because of the heavy night we had at Etolies and well me & V were dropped of at the Emirates mall (Yes its the mall with the ski slope), while A was getting a massage and trying to catch up on some sleep she was lacking.

The first day I didn't buy a single thing. Was kind of out of it and not really in the mood.

But day 6 when I had 9 hours to kill between checkout from hotel and checkin at the airport I did do somme shopping at the emirates mall.

I managed to find out that Harvey Nicholson had a sale where items were upto 85% off!

top 100 books

I'm quite addicted to my book 101 things to do before you die but there are somethings I don't wanna do, but many things that I do want to achive. Like reading to top 100 books ever written. This will take a while, but here is the list that I follow (the blue ones I have read) I will update this list as I read the books: This is not the list that is in the book, but well things change & will use the more updated ones (praying that some books will disapear from the list)

The 1oo greatest books in the 20th century

1 The Lord of the Rings J.R.R. Tolkein

2 Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell

3 Animal Farm George Orwell

4 Ulysses James Joyce

5 Catch-22 Jospeh Heller

6 The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger

7 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee

8 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Marquez

9 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck

10 Trainspotting Irvine Walsh

11 Wild Swans Jung Chang

12 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald

13 Lord of the Flies William Golding

14 On the Road Jack Kerouac

15 Brave New World Aldous Huxley

16 The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame

17 Winnie-The-Pooh A.A. Milne

18 The Color Purple Alice Walker

19 The Hobbit J.R.R. Tolkein

20 The Outsider Albert Camus

21 The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe C.S. Lewis

22 The Trial Franz Kafka

23 Gone with the Wind Margaret Mitchell

24 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams

25 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie

26 The Diary of Anne Frank Anne Frank

27 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess

28 Sons and Lovers D.H. Lawrence

29 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf

30 If This Is a Man Primo Levi

31 Lolita Vladimir Nabosky

32 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks

33 Remembrance of Things Past Marcel Proust

34 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Roald Dahl

35 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck

36 Beloved Toni Morrison

37 Possession A.S. Byatt

38 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad

39 A Passage to India E.M. Forster

40 Watership Down Richard Adams

41 Sophie's World Jostein Gaarder

42 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco

43 Love in the Time of Cholera Gabriel García Marquez

44 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier

45 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro

46 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera

47 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks

48 Howards End E.M. Forster

49 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh

50 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth

51 Dune Frank Herbert

52 A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving

53 Perfume Patrick Suskind

54 Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternack

55 Gormenghaste Mervyn Peake

56 Cider with Rosie Laurie Lee

57 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath

58 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood

59 Testament of Youth Vera Brittain

60 The Magus John Fowles

61 Brighton Rock Graham Greene

62 The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropist Robert Tressel

63 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov

64 Tales of the City Armistead Maupin

65 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles

66 Captain Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières

67 Slaughterhouse 5 Kurt Vonnegut

68 Zen and the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance Robert Pirsig

69 A Room with a View E.M. Forster

70 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis

71 It Stephen King

72 The Power and the Glory Graham Greene

73 The Stand Stephen King

74 All Quiet On The Western Front Erich Maria Remarque

75 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha Roddy Doyle

76 Matilda Roald Dahl

77 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis

78 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson

79 A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking

80 James and the Giant Peach Roald Dahl

81 Lady Chatterley's Lover D.H. Lawrence

82 The Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe

83 Complete Cookery Course Delia Smith

84 An Evil Cradling Brian Keenan

85 The Rainbow D.H. Lawrence

86 Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell

87 2001 - A Space Odyssey Arthur C. Clarke

88 The Tin Drum Gunter Grass

89 A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Alexander Solzhenitsyn

90 Long Walk to Freedom Nelson Mandela

91 The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins

92 Jurassic Park Michael Crichton

93 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell

94 Cry, the Beloved Country Alan Paton

95 High Fidelity Nick Hornby

96 The Van Roddy Doyle

97 The BFG Roald Dahl

98 Earthly Powers Anthony Burgess

99 I, Claudius Robert Graves

100 The Horse Whisperer Nicholas Evans

Insititt für zoo- und wildlife

I so want to attend this conferene in september. My boss has no option but to send me there!

7th International Conference on Behaviour, Physiology and Genetics of Wildlife

link

5) The time traveler's wife

The time traveler's wife

by: Audrey Niffenegger

I had heard a lot of good things about this book. Yes its a romantic love story and yes it is amazingly written. But when you have to be focused on what is happening and what age the caracters are what year it is it starts to get a bit confusing. This book jumps in time alot. He is a time traveler after all and that you can't miss. Sometimes I do wish it was clearer what age Henry is doing what. Or that might just be sleepy, not focused me reading ( & having to reread a couple of pages).

Its romantic (if you like that), amazing, but I have a problem with people that has a problem with moving on (llok who is talking).

I give it a 3

page count: 7304 + 518 = 7822

Day 3- Shopping at Dubai mall

Before we headed on our Desert safari we did some shopping at the Dubai mall. This is the largest mall in the world & I can admit I did a lot more drowling that shopping at fashion avenue.

This is where I wished I could afford that Lv bag, or those D & G shoes, or the whole Chanel shop etc etc. I did managed to find a top at Marc by Marc jacobs on sale (70% off).
Other than that I did no shopping while the other girls just were going crazy shopping shopping shopping and fiiding amazing stuff.At the Dubai mall there is an aquarium, an ice skating rink, an amazing water fall that suposedly is in some origami shape (read about that after wards). I want to go back here someother time knowing how much $$$ I have on my bankaccount and then we can talk shopping.

Tunic

I bought this tunic in Dubai, wasn't sure that I liked it but got it anyway.

My friends loved it one friend even bought the same one as me.

I get home my momlooks at it and just FALLS IN LOVE. So I decided to give it to her since she clearly likes it a lot more than me.....

Day 3- desert Safari

Desert Safari

On day 3 we were in Dubai for shopping and a desert safari with dinner and traditional entertainment in the end.

The Safari and sand dune driving freaked me out in the beginning, but in the end I really enjoyed it! I actually got to see a wild Oryx, some lizard and a beautiful sunset in the desert.

We had a nice feast, I got my foot henna tatooed and then we got to see some people dancing.

On our way back from Dubai to Abu Dhabi we decided to check out Etolies so our fiend F checks into her room in the Emirates Palace and we change from sandy desert clothes into glamparty clothes ( in 30 min) and head down.

I had so much fun dancing until we had to head back upstairs to change clothes and head back to my friends place.

3 down 2 to go

I have now handed in 3 out of 5 assignments for my summer course. Only have 4 more topics to discuss on the web and then I'm done (mid august)

its time

.....



for coffe!

Chocolate cake

4) Mötley Crüe The Dirt: Bekännelser från världens mest ökända rockband

Mötley Crüe the dirt: Bekännelser från världens mest ökända rockband

by: Neil Strauss

Omg I could not stop reading. I new nothing about the band except that they play really really loud music & almost destroyed my hearing when I was working the bar at one of their concerts. Their story feels so surreal, sad and amazing all at once.
You feel sorry for them for their horrid childhods, get scared from ther alohol, drug and sex abuse. All the time I'm wondering how many sexual diseases they have bin carrying through out their lives. Fear and death is not part of their vocabular, instead its violence, damage and arrested.

For some rerason I had to start looking for more information online as I was reading, listening to songs etc on you tube. I didn't want it to end, I wanted more of the story than what I got even though its a sad story about 4 guys that want one thing and does allthey want/ feel like at the moment. On some occassions I see my students infront of me & am not surprised by this bands behaviour at all since they are on the influence almost the whole time. What does amaze me is that they actually managed to produe something that ould be called music and lyrics!

It all just ended to soon, I want more am not satisfied at all.

I give it a 4.

page count: 6731 + 573 = 7304

Bright moon

The moon is shining like a spotlight into my bedroom and in my eyes. It has found a crack in the curtains and is quite bright in the darkness.

Dinner

Coffe and sandwich is my dinner this evening.

Why oh why

Saturday and sitting at uni attending lectures all day.

3) The Master and Magarita

The Master and Magarita
by: Mikhail Bulgakov

It only took 1 year and 9 months to fiish this book. The fist 200 pages to 1 year and 7 months and the rest I sped through decently.

I guess the satan came to town and people got put nto clnics for their amazing stories, events happened in town that were unexplainable and the cops didn't belive so the person retelling the story must be crazy.

Pontius pilates makes an appearne (or 5) and the writer wan't finish his book, his Margarita asks for help and satan gives her the help she needs.

A huge cat and another person causes mayhem where ever they go and what ever they touch.

I give it a 2.

page count: 6309 + (564 -142) = 6731

Ouch

On wednesday night I attended a spin n' pump class at the gym & last night I decided to attend a bodypump class. The new instructor in Bodypump is great. She pushes you, but not over the top.

I this rate I guess I'll look like this in a couple of weeks:

2) The bell jar

The Bell Jar
By: Sylvia Plath

If princess were a lucky find, this was an unlucky find. The story is about a girl that gets the best scholarship to go to new york and write for fashion magazines, but with no futureplans and not getting into the summer course she wants to attend her life falls apart & when she gets back home her life turns into how to kill herself and why she is pushing the decision forward.

The story is depressing and you fell her pain when reading it. You understand why its not going her way & all the time you wish that she will get out of the bad rut she is in.

I give it a 3.

page count: 6075 + 234 = 6309

Abu Dhabi shopping

I went to U.A.E & shopped at Zara....

basic singlets

tunic

and shoes on sale

we got connection

Finally!

I'm uploadng my photos from my phone onto computer now.....

1) Princess

Princess

by: Jean Sasson

I accidentally packed all my books down into the lugage that went into storage my last day in Dubai. I had 9 hours to kill after I had checked out from the hotel so I had a loong lunch, went shoppng for 5 hours and there decided to buy a new book that I could read until I got hold of my lugage. I had 4 hours to wait for that and then 2 hours at the airport.

So I walked into a bookshop and spent about an hour in the shelves there looking around. For some reason I wanted something about the middleeast and when I came to the biography section this book just jumped out at me.

And oh my god did it jump me. I read non-stop at a cafe for 3½ hours, then airport & on the arport I had to force mysel to try and get some sleep. I finished it in Vienna long before my flight was due to board.

Its a true story about a Saudi princess that got all the luxury in the world, execept human rights. She is a woman ie an animal with no rights to vote, drive, speak etc. She talks about friends that gets killed by their parents due to emberassing behaviour, men that rape young girls, servants etc.

Its about wearing bourka, forced marriages to men never met, and the total control that men have over womens lives in Saudi. It also talks about the jealosy of muslim women in other middle east coutries that ca drive cars, are not forced to cover their faces. How muslim sees other religions and nationalities that all women outside saudi is hores!

I was in shock the whole time, but now after wards I just have to get my hands on the two sequels to this book.

I give it 5.

page count: 5772 + 303 = 6075

Day 1,2 & 4 - Abu Dhabi

My friend lives in Abu Dhabi so we got to meet her mom, sister, sisters son. While we were here we mainly staied in my friends familys apartment in the "Indian Getto" as she liked to call it. I loved it. Her family is sooo nice and the hospiality they showed I can't ever dream about coplaining over. Delicious food, lovely company and entertainment.

Her sister took us for a drive while my friend were at the dentis getting a rootcanal (felt so soory for her).

Then we got to see the inside of emirates palace & even got to sleep and party here it turned out (will tell you more about that later).

Got to see some iconic buildings of Abu Dhabi (here you can actually admire the view because there is no smog or sunhaze destroying the view).

a round building. Some real estate company that builds iconic buildings decided that their head office should be one of them.

The grand Moske. Beautiful art work! and no we dodn't seem to be able to see amazing buildings in the day time....

World talles flag pole & biggest flag


Emirates palace (I know crap picture) but this place is huge & fore some reaso never took a pictre from the right angels

Summer rain

Something tells me its raining a little here at the moment.

Day 1- Burj al Arab

Through my friends cousins husand she fixed us a private tour of Burj al Arab.

We went up to the skybar at 27th floor, but the sunhaze were so bad that you couldn't see anylandmarks.

We got to look at the view from the 10th floor looking down....

Have a look around in a "normal" suit check out all the gold (that is actual goldleafs used)...



The spa...


more photos in my phone will show them to you when coputer and phone decides to talk with eachother.

Sng in the rain

Well I guess that is the only thing I can do at the moment.
The beautiful weather sweden had is gone and since I got home I have barely seen any sun rays.

Sun please please please come back. I didn't get that much of a tan in the middle east & would like a little better tan when summer is over.

....

First night: Dinner, drinks and dancing

First night:
we had a slow start after a lovely night. I arrived at 11pm-ish and after a quick refresher in the bathroom at the aiport we headed to Jurmeiha resort for a dinner at The meat Co for y pleasure my freinds decided that we were going to sit outside and enjoy the view and heat (we were melting away after 10 min). After having fiished a lovely salmon salad we headed to Dubai marina resort & spa were we were staying. My lovely friends snuck me into the room (with suitcase) and then we headed to Cuba a cuban bar at the resort were I had the most lovely Mojiito I have ever tasted & some 52's and other shots. We were the last ones to leave the place.

Home

I'm home and will give you a full update over the coming week.

For some reason my mobile upload stopped working while away :(

Going to get all photos on computer etc and get some sleep. After that I will tell you all. Sleep and UEA does not go in the same setence....