Black magic again...but in Oz this time.

I quite often post about black magic practitioners operating here, a regular one being that you can double your money with magic chemicals.

I've just been browsing one of Sydney's local newspapers, the North Shore Times, and the same scam has popped up there.

I find it hard to believe but the story says that three business owners from Victoria payed around A$160,000 for chemicals that would double their money.

I'll let you know when we get stories about genies in Sydney.



The story's here.

Singapore pics

Not having seen them before, I posted a pic of 'Wife Biscuits' the last time we came back from Singapore. This time the baker had them side-by-side with 'Husband Biscuits'.

I'm told that the wife biscuits are sweet and the husband biscuits are salty.

Talking of food, it looks as though it's tiring work chasing the frogs around...

No, I wasn't tempted to try it.

We also came across an interesting awards scheme, not one I've seen anywhere else:

Back, down, blackballed

Back from Singapore and the next day the virus hit.

The one that my doctor says is sweeping Dubai - if you have it you have my sympathy, it's no fun. If you've escaped it so far I advise you to do whatever you can to avoid it.

I've been down and out for three days but as this afternoon I feel slightly less awful I thought I'd dip my toe gingerly into the blogosphere.

The Singapore Airlines flight back was going on to Cairo and I came across something that I haven't experienced before.

Cairo passengers were told, several times, that they could not leave the aircraft during the transit, including during the cleaning of the aircraft. Blackballed.

We Dubai passengers had to show our boarding passes to security people stationed right at the exit door of the aircraft to prove that we were indeed booked to Dubai and then they let us through.

Does this happen to passengers to/from other destinations or is the heavy hand reserved for Egypt I wonder?

UK pics

Here they are, the inevitable holiday photos.

We only had four days in the Peak District National Park in Derbyshire but we managed to see a few things and with the ease, and no processing cost, of the little pocket digital camera I ended up with hundreds of photographs.

We stayed in the largest village in the Peak Park, called Youlgreave. Like most English villages it's nestled in a valley (an interesting opposite to Italy where they're mostly on hilltops).



The village is built from the local stone and slate, old and new buildings alike, so there's an attractive overall style to the place:




What I'm told is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world's smallest detached house is in the main street.



Called Thimble Hall it's basically one room with a ladder up to a few planks which make a sort of mezzanine floor. It was once home to a family of eight.

The village has a thriving community with plenty of activities on a regular basis. By chance we were there on the weekend the Youlgreave Show was being held.

That's a typical English country show, with residents exhibiting all sorts of handicrafts and things they grow, competing for 'Best of ' certificates.

Best tomato for example...

Plenty of beautiful flowers in all sorts of categories...

And one for the kids to enter their sculptures made from vegetables...

A couple of visits to the only town in the Peak Park, Bakewell, home of the Bakewell Tart (delicious) and Bakewell Pudding (not my favourite taste).

We were there on Monday which is market day so the town was buzzing. Monday is also the livestock auction day and that's well worth a visit...

It also happened to be the weekend when the Chatsworth Show is on, held in the grounds of Chatsworth House, home of the Duke of Devonshire. It's another of the country shows that are held all over England in the summer, highlighting country activities and produce and offering all sorts of entertainment.

I was, naturally, attracted by the vintage car rally, this Jaguar being my pick of the fifty or sixty cars on show...

They had amusing demonstations too, like the sheepdogs showing off their skills herding a flock of ducks around obstacles in the arena...

Plenty of food and drink stalls...

Including of course typical traditional English items...

We spent some time driving around the countryside too. This really is beautiful country...

You come across interesting little shops in the villages, like this licensed slaughterhouse and farm butcher shop - the meat and things like sausages from this area are absolutely top quality.



There are some beautiful little villages dotted all over the Park, a typical one being Milldale:

Across that little ancient bridge and there's a beautiful riverside walk...

The weather was kind of OK too. When we were further south in Leicester for a couple of days working it rained non-stop, but up in Derbyshire we only had a couple of showers. It was generally cloudy with some sunny spells so we were able to be out sightseeing most of the time.

And that's it for a few days, we're off to Singapore this evening for Eid.


Eid Mubarak everyone.

No power, no water, no information

It's what happens when development runs so far ahead of infrastructure.

There are too many buildings, too many people, too much traffic for the power supply, water supply, sewage treatment, roads to cope.

Sharjah has been having real problems for a long time and adding to them is the standard attitude of organisations in the area.

Be unavailable. Say nothing. Go into hiding.

It's an ongoing story, continued in today's Gulf News:

"Unable to bear the summer heat, residents in industrial areas in Sharjah who are going without electricity and water are now sleeping on pavements and terraces...'There is no water supply and we have to buy water from outside even if we have to go to the toilet'....'The kitchen sink is filled with pots and pans waiting to be cleaned, but that can only be done once we get electricity and water supply restored'...Dr Shuhaib S. Hameed, a dentist, had been caught off-guard on several occasions when the electricity supply went off abruptly while he was busy with his patients. 'Once, I was extracting a wisdom tooth and all of a sudden the electricity went off. It took a while before we got the generator up and running, but in the meanwhile it could bring harm to the patient'..."

And in reference to communication from the supplier, SEWA:

"Asked whether they have contacted the Sharjah Electricity and Water Authority (Sewa), Ali said: 'Sewa? What Sewa offices are you talking about? They hardly pick up their telephones. We are tired of calling them up.'

'Load shedding happens everywhere and in every country, but all that we want is for the Sewa to inform us on the timings when power failure is going to take place.'

Gulf News tried to get in touch with Sewa, but no one was available for to comment.

I think it's the tell-them-nothing attitude that annoys me more than anything.



The Gulf News story is here.

Longer holiday for public sector

The papers are all carrying WAM's report on the upcoming Eid holiday.

Once again workers in the public sector get a longer holiday than those in the private sector. Fifty percent longer.

On the one hand we have government pushing Emiratis to join the private sector, on the other they offer better conditions in the public sector.

Hardly a co-ordinated strategy I would say.

Pub grub

As I've said before after trips to the UK, I think people are wrong to laugh at English cuisine. In my opinion it isn't the cuisine but the way far too many people cook it that's the problem.

We enjoy pubs, the atmosphere and the food, and for our four days in Derbyshire, in the Peak District National Park, we stayed B&B in this one:



They have a big menu and the item that caught my attention was this one:



Here it is - it more than met my expectations:



This went down well too:



For breakfast this was served up:



That sets you up for the day!

Not only is it cooked well, equally importantly they start with top quality ingredients. This is farming country and the meat has a great reputation. An added bonus is that the pub owners have a son who's a local butcher so they get the best of the best.