Shell has massaged all the blogs into one, but this place seems to be having an identity crisis.
It was simple when we were riding, each day was different and there was something to write about, scenic pictures. Adventure.
Then there was the wine blog. Every post was the name of the wine and some notes. A picture.
The recent trip to Türkiye was basically a travel blog.
There was the occasional rant on Angkor Days.
I get the uneasy feeling that life here in Dubai is not interesting enough to blog about.
I don’t want this to become a journal.
Maybe if I just start typing and see you it goes.
I recently read the book Wifedom by Australian author by Anna Funder. There were two problems with this book. Firstly, it was constantly derailed by long winded commentary on the patriarchy. I live under no illusions that the planet we inhabit is still feeling the impacts of a structure devised by men to control women, and we have a way to go to balance these scales. But Anna, as an Australian, with more privilige than imaginable, given the freedom to pursue a career as an author, who has an existential crisis during a visit to a mall, spare me your ranting.
Secondly, as a long time fan of George Orwell, the reality that his remarkable wife has been forgotten, and even written out of history by Orwell’s biographers is tragic. The fact that Eileen Blair wrote and read a poem to her senior year about a dystopian future in 1984 is discomforting to an Orwell fan. The fact that she named the animals on the family farm is troublesome. The real concern, is that both Orwells masterpieces came after he married Eileen. Burmese Days, A Clergyman’s Daughter, Keep The Aspidistra Flying and Coming Up For Air were all written before he married.
I have decided to reread them all. I can tell you, that none of those mentioned above hold a candle to Animal Farm and 1984. Is Orwell the genius we think he is, or is the erasing of the brilliant Eileen Blair an attempt to keep George on the literacy pedestal he doesn’t deserve?
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
George Orwell
It is a four-day week in Sharjah. We live in Dubai and work in Sharjah.
I am not sure I can ever go back to the five-day week.
Our Fridays are on a loop. It sounds boring, but I would not change it.
Sleep in, make Shell breakfast in bed, hit the gym, lunch at our local, Al Jawhara, and every second week a trip to Arjman to restock the cellar. It is all a prelude to the afternoon ritual of preparing dinner and drinking wine.
For the last few weeks, we have been slow-cooking buffalo. Buffalo from Pakistan. I chop some carrots and a few onions, a full bulb of garlic, soften them in some oil, and then into the slow cooker. Brown off the buffalo, into the slow cooker with a bottle of pasatta. Deglaze the pan with white wine, and half a bottle of cheap red, and cook for seven or eight hours. Serve with pasta on Friday, polenta on Saturday it is even better.
The wines this afternoon-
2021 Arthur Metz Riesling (Alsace, France)
We joke that Portugal does not make a bad white wine. Neither does Alsace. Pineapple and lanolin nose. Great value.
2020 Sensi Forziere Chianti Classico (Chianti, Italy)
This wine is elegant for a Classico. Balanced and retrained, lacking the usual rusticity of Chianti. Shell leaned toward a Brunello, which is a compliment. A good wine.
2016 Solar Viejo Crianza (Rioja, Spain)
How many times will open a Rioja after a Chianti and be shocked at the heavy oak? It was tough to drink, but we managed.
