Month: April 2015

A Beautiful Creation

Posted on by LFFL

Flowers

A sight for sore eyes.  Is this not the most gorgeous thing ever?!  If only I could, I’d send each and every one of you a massive beautiful floral arrangement to make your days as shiny and wonderous as possible.  Have a beautiful weekend everyone!

So, if you have nothing else to do today, find yourself a heapful of nature’s lovelies and admire them in all their beauty.

Take-Away Life Lesson:  Sometimes it’s nice to receive and send an arrangement of flowers—or even just get yourself a single ginormous sunflower at your local farmers’ market for 50 cents, put it in a vase at home, and have a glorious day.

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The Beauty Of Flowers

Sangria & Spanish Tapas

Posted on by LFFL

Spanish omelet

Spanish Omelet made with potato and onion with red pepper aioli.

Another happy hour out with another girlfriend.  I just can’t get enough of those girls’ nights.  We decided to meet up at a Spanish tapas restaurant.  And who doesn’t love happy hour?!  Happy hour equates to “discount” and my eyes invariably light up.

Tapas are basically Spanish appetizers—and since you don’t have a full course meal in front of your face, the focus is meant to be more on the conversation among friends while snacking on these delights.

And happy hour is the best time to go!  Half-price sangrias, half-price tapas—let’s just get one of everything, shall we?

Salsa with goat cheese and garlic crostinis.
Sangria
Meatballs with spicy garlic cream sauce.

We ordered a Tortilla Espanola which was a Spanish omelet made of potato and onion and had a red pepper aioli on top of it—so good.

We also had Queso de Cabra Al Horno which was goat cheese that was baked in a tomato fresco and served with crunchy crostinis.

Then we tried the Albondigas Caseras which were meatballs in a yummy spicy garlic cream sauce.

And, of course, if Sangrias are half-price—why order a glass when you can order a whole pitcher full at that price?!

So, if you have nothing else to do today, try a Spanish tapas restaurant with friends and family.

Take-Away Life Lesson:  The small portions of tapas allow you to try pretty much one of everything—which is always fun to do.

Meatballs To Love

Posted on by LFFL

Meatballs

Meatballs with marinara, Parmesan, & basil.

I love when I get a chance to hang out with any one of my girlfriends.  It doesn’t happen as often as I would like it to, but when it does—we have a good time.  There’s nothing like having good food while catching up on the latest gossip.

I wasn’t very hungry by the time we met up at this restaurant so I order this dish of three meatballs for an appetizer while my friend ate a salad.  The meatballs were divine, I must say, and they were just enough to satisfy me.

And, ohhh, the things you can find out during a gossip session.   But I’ll never tell.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, meet up with a friend for some good food, drinks, and chit-chat.  Sometimes you need time with your friends to escape the mundane ins and outs of every day life.

Take-Away Life Lesson:  Sometimes three meatballs is all you really need for a good chit-chat with a friend.

My Trip To Dubai (Part 6)

Posted on by LFFL

Me

I just loved waking up every day in Dubai to my next adventure.

I had no idea today was going to be a doozy—but a doozy it was!

Desert Safari

I had SO much fun on this 6-hour safari.  Here we had the pleasure of meeting a couple from Canada and a couple from America as we all piled into the land cruiser once the driver picked everyone up from their prospective hotels.

The safari carried on from about 3:30pm-9:30pm and I loved every minute of it—well, almost every minute of it.  There was a bit of dune bashing that threw me for a huge loop.  I was NOT prepared for that, I can tell you.  What started off as a smooth ride soon turned into chaos.

On our way to desert safari camp.
Having fun headed to Desert Safari.
Being silly in the land cruiser on the way to safari.
Being silly on the way to safari.
Chillaxin’ in the desert on our way to camp.
Our group taking a break on the way to camp. (A couple from Canada, a couple from the States, my date from India living in Dubai, and me from the States.)
Me chillin’ with a big bird.
Me and a bird chillin’ in the desert.
Out in the middle of the desert.
At a rest stop halfway to camp.
A store at a rest stop.
Our snacks.
That sun.
Those land cruisers for all that dune bashing.
The sunset.
Desert Safari campsite.

I had absolutely NO IDEA we would be in a land cruiser with our driver tearing across the sand hills like a freaking maniac!!!  What was that about?!  At first I thought we were just going over a few bumpy parts to get across the desert, but NO—apparently, it’s all part of the safari adventure!  They actually hire drivers to drive around like nut jobs across the desert on the way to camp.  What?!

And my date and I were sitting in the very back seat which made the experience that much worse for me.  You can feel everything in the back seat—all the bumps and everything!  I swear I don’t know how many times I thought we were going to tip over and go rolling down any number of those hills.  Geez Louise!

One of the guys in our group took an excellent video of some of it and was kind enough to send it to me.  But in the video below, yeah, you can hear me carrying on in the back seat—but not nearly as much as I really was.  This is because the video is only 30 seconds long but our maddening ride on those hills was 30 minutes long!  And the video doesn’t make the ride seem nearly as rough as it really was.  Trust me.

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Video courtesy of Scott McQuistan

It was all I could do to keep myself from getting nauseous, dizzy, and throwing up vomit in the back seat—considering I noticed there was absolutely no way to let the windows down in the back seat just in case I had an accident.  Seriously?!  Is this really happening right now?!  My date tried to help me through it all best he could, bless his heart.

That camel ride.
Getting ready to ride. Giddy-up.
On a camel ride.
Getting off the camel with some help.
Me and my safari date in the shisha pit.
Me and my safari date still in the shisha pit.
We keep taking pictures.
The picture-taking goes on and on.
Me and my safari date in the shisha pit. We’re not going anywhere.
Glad I met someone in Dubai that likes taking pictures as much as I do.
Me and my safari date chillin’ in the shisha pit as only we know how. Who does it better?
He’s back there somewhere.
How many pictures does one take before they’re considered vain?
Us again.
Yeah, that’s right.

Somewhere along the way to camp, we stopped at a local store for about a 5-minute rest break.  We grabbed some snacks to eat the rest of the way to camp.

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