“The man who cannot choose has lost the human condition.”
Anthony Burgess
Thursday
Another week.
Contracts have been signed and the next two years are set.
Is the excitement about change? Leaving here? Both.
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”
Søren Kierkegaard
Friday
Sleep in. Over 11 hours sleep.
We lay in bed for an hour talking about our next trip. Austria for Christmas. A cabin. A fireplace.
The desert outside blazes. It is the cool season.
Gym and a day of reading.
Huckleberry Finn is on the back burner. For the first time in years I am reading a book on education.
Literacy.
I can’t put Homo Deus down so the fiction is on the shelf.
We decide on cocktails.
A trip to Arjman for some Woodford and Angostura. The grocery store for some oranges and brown sugar.
Old Fashioned, the first cocktail I made Shell.
I make it on Woodford Reserve. It is hard to get James E Pepper bourbon these days.
We open a bottle of wine and I cook some pasta for dinner.
There are two series we are currently watching, and both are very good, particularly The Day of the Jackal.
Bed.
Saturday
“A man gets paranoid when he has 300 hangovers a year.”
Charles Bukowski
A hangover. I have this misconception that drinking something I rarely drink, brown spirits, would not result in a dusty start to the day.
I will remedy this complication by disciplining my constitution to this liquor.
More Old Fashioned today is the path to success.
Gym. Tough going.
After a tough workout with a bad hangover, I cheer myself with a trip to my least favourite place in Dubai; Dubai Mall.
“In the present case it is a little inaccurate to say I hate everything.”
H. L. Mencken
We have finally landed a Sony Cybershot rx100 vii. They sell out so fast we have had to order one. It arrives on Friday.
I managed to take some shots with the store demo. Incredible camera for such a lightweight machine.
I spend the afternoon reading.
Maybe an early start with an Old Fashioned is the key moving forward.
After a few cocktails we start on some wine.
We grabbed some cheese at Dubai Mall.
Pecorino Moliterno Al Tartufo – made from raw ewes milk. Viened with truffle, it is amazing.
I have never understood why Australia has banned the import of raw milk cheeses. They are far superior to any other.
Pecorino di Pienza Toscano – as delicious, without the truffle.
“The indigenous microbes, all the good bacteria, are still in the milk, they haven’t been damaged by pasteurisation, which makes it a complete reflection of the terroir – the time, the place, the soil, the environment and the macro and micro-factors that influence that. Terroir can’t be replicated. It’s a wine term, but we talk about it in this instance in regards to milk. It’s influenced by the rainfall, the sunshine, the elements and all the bacteria and the local ecosystem. All of these factors influence what will end up in the vat.”
Cressida Cains
Bed.
Sunday
I am eating an Australian orange. The juice running down my arms. Delicious.
The best oranges I have eaten were in the villages near Seville, Spain. They grow on trees in the street. You just pick them ripe and eat them.
I cannot comprehend how an out of season Australian orange can taste so good. Maybe the better question is why Australian oranges taste so bad in Australia.
The sunrise this morning was stunning. The only drawback is the spectacle is cast over the ever rising Dubai dump and a foreground of bland industrial buildings.
Sunday means tomorrow is Monday.
I prepare my meals and read a book.
Only a month until the break.
Only eight months until I leave the desert.
I want to become acutely aware of all I’ve taken for granted. When you feel that this may be good-bye, the last time, it hits you harder.”
Sylvia Plath
This weekend’s wine –
2019 Ornellaia Le Volte Dell’Ornellaia (Bolgheri, Italy)
A blend of Merlot, Cabernet and Sangiovese, this wine always delivers. See previous notes.