Some random pictures...

This guy was driving on a completely flat tyre! Dunno how far he thought he was going to get!

On sale at LuLu's ...  Trim and "Shape" ...hmmm :-)

Necessary phone applications in this part of the world!

British Food Week at LuLu Hypermarkets

I helped organise a brass ensemble for LuLu Hypermarkets (Where the world comes to shop!) to support the opening of their British Food Week. Originally the request was for the Big Band, but I thought a brass group would be more appropriate and we could play some British "classics".

Below is clip and some photos from the opening at Al Khalidiyah Mall and we will also be playing at Al Wahda Mall (6pm Friday) and Al Mushrif Mall (12 Noon Saturday) this weekend.

LuLu's delights

This week I will mostly be eating.....

...fresh camel's kidney.

LuLu's special...

Yummy! The steaks looked juicy and lean - but Caroline was having none of it! They look too cute to eat!

LuLu's treats

This weeks excitement from LuLu’s as below:-





Our favourite lollies from the UK! Not at our favourite £3 though - 27.50 Dhs I think, which is nearly a fiver. Still..... we just had to have them!

Finds at LuLu's

Not a dodgy cable TV channel...........





Not a narcotic.........

This weeks delights from LuLu's

Sheep’s trotters - yum! No idea what you are supposed to do with them.......

More of LuLu's treats

Another couple of things in LuLu’s that caught my eye.

A broom... (maybe the name connotation only works in the UK?)




...and a rather scary looking skinned rabbit! I think at home, maybe they might have at least taken the head off! Maybe it’s only us sensitive souls in the UK......

What a load of bollocks!

Another great find in LuLu’s this week.....





..and check out the size of these! ....




Yummy .... (Not!!!!)


We could have our very own Bush Tucker Trial here!

Surprising find!

As we passed the magazine shelves in LuLu’s the other evening, Caz made a surprising find - a copy of FHM! For those not familiar with this publication, it is one of the original “lad’s mags”, famous for it’s “Highstreet Honeys” section (ahem... or so I am told). I didn’t flick though it, but I am sure it will contain the usual marker pen censorship all magazines are subject to out here, if they are showing anything inappropriate - examples of which you can see here.

Indian Food Festival

One of the major supermarkets out here , "LuLu's" (owned by EMKE Group - one of my customers!), is having an Indian food festival at the moment. Purely by virtue of the fact that they sell Kingsmill bread from home (local bread is yuk), we shop at LuLu's regularly. The parking is a pain though. The supermarket is part of a mall which has a multi storey car park. It kind of has 3 levels per storey with steps down between the levels. This means that if you have a shopping trolley you can't take it down the steps to the next level, you can only keep it on the first level. So parking spaces on this first level are the premium spots if you want to go to the supermarket. The most annoying thing though is that for some unknown reason (answers on a postcard to me), they keep rows and rows of spaces chained off so you can't use them. All the time. Very annoying when it is taking you half an hour just to find a space, when you drive past them.

LuLu's is very popular store with the Indian community in Abu Dhabi. It sells a lot of their food anyway and has a clothes section that has all the clothes that you can typically see them wearing. One thing that strikes us in there is that very often you see young girls who are dressed like they are going to a party, or wedding or something. I don't know if this is because a trip to LuLu's is seen as an exciting trip out, or whether it's just girls dressing up just for the fun of it. I have to say though, they are big puffy, lace finished dresses you may have seen in the 1970s!

The food festival meant that there was a stage with some Bollywood dancing and some tasting areas for Indian food and some extra counters to buy some take away Biryanis of various sorts.

One display caught my attention, which was of various strange and enormous vegetables (I guess) that are indigenous to India. If anyone who can help with naming them, I would be interested.......

And the big news of the day is......

A LuLu store has opened in Mohammed bin Zayed City! OMG, is this what our lives have come to when we get excited about the opening of a supermarket! However, for residents of MbZC/Khalifa/Mussafah this is great news, as we now don't have to treck all the way to Carrefour on Airport road (about an hours round trip for us) or to the LuLu at Al Raha Beach Mall which is pretty small. The Mazyad Mall (where LuLu is) will have a Brioche coffee shop, Applebees and McDonalds (oh bliss beyond compare!). Now when we just fancy a quick take away we won't have to put up with a crap chinese or indian from the Rainbow Grill/Hot Plate in Mussafah - which is pretty disgusting or a trip to Pizza Hut on Mussafah Industrial Area, where the the pizzas are even crapier. We are contemplating moving into the City when our first year's lease is up because living out here is somewhat isolated - however in a very small way our lives have now been uplifited by LuLu's, making at least one aspect of living out here more bearable.