Life & Style | Gadgets & Tech
Blogosphere: January 20
Gulf News web editor Adam Flinter plunges headlong into the blogosphere to find out what bloggers from the Middle East and beyond have on their minds
- By Adam Flinter, Web Editor
- Published: 23:08 January 19, 2009
- Recent rain, thunder and lightning has given webizens plenty to talk about.
- Image Credit: Arshad Ali/Gulf News
Bloggin' in the rain
Recent rain, thunder and lightning has given webizens plenty to talk about.
Unless you were on another planet this week, or perhaps in the far south of the UAE, you won't have failed to notice that a few drops of rain fell. The January showers are becoming a habit now, as at the same point last year the heavens opened too.
In Dubai, the Northern Emirates and down in Al Ain, bloggers reported some seriously spectacular storms.
It certainly got people chattering.
Some of the more pro-active bloggers included Christopher Saul (blogs.sun.com/christophersaul/
category/Dubai), who from his vantage point in the middle of Dubai was able to capture some video.
He wrote: "It rained in Dubai last night, with lots of thunder and lightning too. Have a look at this video of our next door neighbour — freeze at 29 seconds in to see the lightning strike the Burj!"
Another alternative look at the storms came from the oasis city, where the experimental art blogging site Existential Al Ain (existentialalain.blogspot.com) recorded the downpour for posterity.
The site proudly proclaimed: "If You Were Awake... at 1am on Wednesday morning [January 14, 2009], you would have known first-hand... that we had thunder, lightning, and rain in Al Ain."
And just to prove the point, they have a link to audio of the storm.
And to complete the multi-media set, Ria (insearchofmike.blogspot.com) posted an interesting set of pictures taken of the precipitation.
"It's been raining for the last few days... last night, lightning like I've never seen here before," she wrote, "Cool! I miss rain. I even miss thunderstorms."
But before the rains came to bring us more interesting times, the weather had been picture perfect.
So much so that it proved too tempting for UAE Kitten (uaekitten.com), who ventured out into the desert for some fun.
On her fantastically creative blog, Kitten wrote: "When the weather is as irresistibly beautiful as it is now, you cannot NOT be heading to the desert with an amazing bunch of friends, to cook, bike, sandbash or just sit around enjoying the sunset and sinking your feet into the sand."
Which neatly, or clumsily as the case may be, brings us onto another tale from the desert — namely a recent entry from the blog of one Gary Arndt (everything-everywhere.com)
Who? Well, Arndt is an American who decided to live the dream, and when he said he was getting out of the rat race, he really meant it.
In his own words, he set out to travel around the world (in March 2007) and "sold my house, put my possessions in storage and hit the road with my camera, laptop, and clothes".
So why feature the blog of a wide-eyed global explorer? Jealousy? Living vicariously? If I'm being honest, it's probably a little of both.
But that was also coupled with the fact that Arndt was passing this part of the world.
We catch up with him across the border in Muscat, where he experiences a post-Dubai culture shock.
"Going from Dubai to Muscat isn't just crossing a border and moving a few hundred kilometres, it is going back in time 100 years. This is not to imply that Muscat is backwards. They have every modern amenity and an excellent infrastructure. However, you get the feel that you are really in an old port city when you are here. It is especially pronounced after coming from Dubai.
"In Dubai, you could be fooled into thinking you weren't in a desert. The area is flat and until you get out of the city, you forget where you are. In Muscat there is no doubt; rocky hills all over the city. The harbour area is surrounded by rocky hills, which must have made for an excellent defence in an earlier age. It is easy to see why a city was built here.
"Life seems a lot slower here. Men playing cards on the sidewalk and just shooting the breeze. I think there is a big soccer match tonight. Lots of Omani flags are flying."
Celebrations
Of course, Arndt had pitched into Oman in time for the climax of the Gulf Cup. And hopefully he was around to witness the celebrations after the host nation lifted the trophy in Muscat.
Someone who caught up with Arndt earlier was Umar (umarsiddiqi.com/blog), who wrote: "He [Arndt] visited Dubai last week and hence I decided to meet with him. It was a great experience, because it turned out that he knew one of my cousins in the US, with whom I had lost contact [recently].
"The randomness of it was totally mind-blowing. The last thing I expected was that Gary would know someone I know in the US. Other than that I realised how easy it was to travel the whole world if you really want to do it. It was really inspirational. Who knows, some day I [may] start my [own] world tour."
I'll be right behind you Umar. In fact, I'm already packing.
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