Hello everyone! We celebrated a happy Eid weekend here in the UAE that started last Thursday. We spent Friday at  Wadi Adventure in Al Ain, I have yet to edit the video to capture the fun experience the Air Park offers as we crossed cables and swung on a gigantic log swing after white water rafting for two hours. Sunday marks the beginning of the work week here with post-holiday mood everywhere. For now, I'll leave you with  inspiring words to reflect on.

Have a productive and creative week!

Love and light,

Arni

P.S. Photo taken by Yohann N. in Nepal

A quick trip to Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage in Sri Lanka was a very interesting experience in getting up close and personal with elephants. This huge 25-acre (10 hectare) elephant sanctuary lies in a coconut plantation located halfway between Colombo and the hilly royal city of Kandy.  The orphanage was initially designed to care and protect baby elephants found in the jungle who have lost their mothers.

They started in 1975 with five baby elephants. The green elephant pasture grew to become an orphanage, captive breeding ground and nursery known to have the largest captive herd of Elephants in the world. The facility has become one of the popular tourist attractions in Sri Lanka and its income from tourism are used to care for the elephants.

The elephants roam around freely during the day and the event not to be missed during your visit is to witness the elephants' social activities as they bathe and play in the Maha Oya River.  

You might notice that a lot of travel recaps invade my recent posts. I think I'll be spending half of 2013 on staycations. My days and most evenings are spent at my work desk. I am surprised that I have no complaints. I stay late, because I often forget about the time at work. The difference between then and now is, even though tasks can be more challenging, everything feels right. On my way to work most mornings, despite being aware of a busy day ahead, I feel a wave of contentment. Today is another day of learning, not only about the things I do, but about myself. How I respond to the given situation of the day and how I can further improve. Gone are the days when I had to cry before leaving the front door of our apartment during week days. I suppose this is how contentment feels like, it feels good and so does its sibling named happiness.

When someone asks me the question, are you happy? I am now confidently glad to answer, "Yes I am."  It's my turn to pass this question to you, the same way someone did to me some time ago.

Are you happy today?

Have a beautiful weekend everyone!
Love & Light,
Arni

After a relaxing day in  Colombo, we hired a taxi driver as a tour guide to take us to Kandy. We stopped by Geragama Tea Plantation and Factory  where we had an educational tour in the art of tea making. Sri Lanka is the world's fourth largest producer of tea. It was interesting to see the process from wilting and preventing oxidation of the plucked tea leaves, rolling, drying, and sorting all the way to packaging. The famous Ceylon Black Tea is not to be missed and our trip was concluded by enjoying a cup in the tea room.

It's Ramadan in Dubai and we have a week left before I could happily gulp a cold soothing beverage while I'm out in the open. Where we are, it's unlawful to be seen eating and drinking in public. Being in a 49 degree Celsius ( 120 degree F) weather, we spend most of our time indoors in the confines of air conditioning. At the end of Ramadan, we look forward to having a 2-3 day non-working holiday in August for the festive season called Eid. 

Gangaramaya Temple

Around the same time a couple of years ago, our Eid holidays allowed us to have a total of 5 days off because it fell next to a weekend. I was supposed to travel to Spain with friends in an arranged tour since my husband didn't want to go anywhere. At the last minute, the whole tour package was cancelled because everyone in the tour backed out. I still wanted to go,but the overall expense for traveling solo was double than what I have personally budgeted for. I was extremely disappointed. 

Surprise Surprise

My husband decided to book a trip to Sri Lanka for us instead from the Travel Fund. He made all of the arrangements.  It was a trip of comfort this time around, not our usual backpacking ride-on-top-of-a-jeepney kind of trip. It was one of those rare moments where the accommodation was booked in advance and (gasp)  in a five star hotel. 

On the night of our departure, I was surprised to find an Emirates Airline Pickup Service at our front porch.  To my disbelief, he got us Business Class tickets. When we reached the dedicated Business Class drop off area of Dubai Airport Terminal 3, we were both in for a treat at the check-in counter when we were sent to First Class instead. It was one of those really unbelievable moments where we were both amazed and felt really lucky!

If there is one country I'd like to head back to, that would be India. Yohann was assigned for a month in Bangalore in 2008. I came to visit him there for a weekend, taking a day off work for a 3 day 2 nights stay using earned air miles. I had no expectations going there at that time. I have always been a fan of Indian Cuisine so that was one of my goals there- Eat as much Indian food as I possibly can. (which I happily and greedily did by the way.)

I remember arriving at Bengaluru International Airport on my own at 4AM on a Friday morning, happy to see my husband waiting for me at the arrivals after being away from him for a month. It was dark, but I can already see silhouettes of trees and structures rapidly moving as the cab driver dashed like a maniac on the other side of the road. I was too sleepy to care and I missed my husband very much, I was thankful that we arrived at the hotel apartment much earlier.

Here are some thoughts for this coming weekend. This wonderful view can be seen from the day bed lounge area of Peace and Love Resort in San Vicente, Philippines. 

Love & light,

Arni

Can you imagine yourself having a lovely vacation here one summer?
Bon week-end!
Love and light,
Arni

Who says adventure is limited to far off islands and invigorating cities? The office jungle has enough adrenaline rush to push us to the edge if we let it. Adjusting to a new group of colleagues, new rules, new procedures are all equally adventurous as discovering a new country.

Wishing this is how all offices look like. {Source}

As soon as the thick new handbook lands flat on my desk on my first day, reading it brings me back to learning a new language in class.  Feeling like an idiot for not knowing as much stuff as I expected myself  to know after a ten year pause from a career in design, I had to read my post The Art of Letting Go to be more kind to myself. I need to let go of worry that would soon drive me to my death bed due to high blood pressure if I don't relax.

Lost in translation while in meetings with all the acronyms people throw at each other as they all spoke in codes, I had to scratch my head, wondering, what PDS, HYG, HMN, and all the jumbled letters of the alphabet meant.

Like a small cub, joining the animal kingdom, trying to blend in and getting to know everyone, I daresay, I'm blessed to have great colleagues and bosses that are approachable enough to be my mentors. However, there's no such thing as a perfect place so we are bound to meet someone who will test our tolerance and patience, especially  those who think they're in the higher food chain ready to devour anyone who gets in their way.

I've learned so much in my first week and the more days go by, I'm having longer sleep. I can see spending longer hours  in the office is inevitable as piled up responsibilities and weeks ensue. We all try to avoid working late, but we have to accept that this is a big part of Interior Design and Architectural lifestyle, especially here in the Middle East. We have a popular saying here when someone asks, "when's the deadline?" The answer is always "Yesterday."  A client gave me this answer once and I was crazy enough to jokingly reply, "Too bad for you, I don't have a time machine. "

San Vicente's 14 kilometer long white sand beach is best explored on a motorbike.  We rented one from the kind owner of Peace and Love Resort. Riding behind my husband, enjoying the tropical breeze, it was a perfect morning to visit the countryside. {Read about the prequel here} Every now and then we got a glimpse of the above sea view as we drove along the main road parallel to the beach. 

This is an image I intend to put on my screen wallpaper to remind myself to enjoy the present. If there's one regret that I have made during my one-year adventure, it was to allow worry to seep through those moments. What was I thinking? I was worrying about the obscure future in a place like this.

Looking back at the photos now, if I could travel back in time to re-live this place again, I would enjoy it even more. I am not saying I didn't. I did. I think, I should have been more than 100% present at that time. Future will take care of itself. Despite the different scenes everyday, from this day forward, I would love to enjoy each moment more. Time is something that I can never buy back. 

I'll have to quote Steve Jobs. For today was my first day at a new job. I recently joined an Interior Design firm  to work as a designer.  Hopefully, this is it, the career I've been searching for for a very long time. A path I've always wanted for the last ten years, but also very scared of actually doing. 

One of those things I wanted very badly, but had been very elusive. Until one day, at a time when I completely let go of the whole idea, it just takes me by surprise.  I will not know until I try, right? It was so funny because I had no idea my future  present bosses actually read some of my posts on the design blog. I knew them for years before this blog was born. It was just hilarious when they saw my quiche recipe during my last interview, because I have stopped writing design posts on my other blog for months now. Haha..so I suppose they might read this too. Eek! 

Please bear with me during my adjustment in the corporate world after a really long career break. I usually spend the first week hyperventilating in the bathroom in between tasks. Are you like that too? Or is it just me?  Wish me luck. :)

I wish you all a beautiful weekend.

Love and light,

Arni

A culinary break from all the land hunting stories. Segue..I have been enjoying belly dancing and zumba classes for the last few months. Even when I was in the Philippines, I joined a zumba class held at a gym-converted garage a few blocks away from home with a really cool and friendly group. I walked most mornings to get there.  For tonight's dinner, after a really strenuous workout, I'd love a fresh quiche with greens. I got this recipe from my husband and I jazzed it up a little bit.  Here goes:

Easy French Tuna & Potato Quiche

Ingredients:

• 1 pack of Pâte brisée / ready-made short crust pastry dough
• 1 can of tuna in brine, drained.
• 3 Large eggs
• 1 cup Crème Fraîche / heavy cream
• 3 tsp. fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp chopped parsley
• 1/2 cup chopped onions / shallots
• 2 tsp. Dijon Mustard
• 1 medium sized potato boiled
• 1 cup Emmental / Gruyere Cheese, grated
• Salt
• Fresh ground pepper

Tools:

A short break from the Land Hunt Series. Hope you're all having a great weekend. Today, I'm taking a  pause. A moment of stillness. A sense of appreciation for nature outdoors from the confines of an air conditioned apartment. Thank goodness for windows. It's +40 Celsius outside and we're all braving the smoldering hot summer here in Dubai.

As a sequel to yesterday's travel recap post of Cuzco, I'd like to share with you a playlist I'd love to listen to on a long relaxing drive. Along with it are photos taken somewhere between the Sacred Valley (Urubamba) and Ollantaytambo. I asked the cab driver, we hired as a tour guide, to stop the vehicle when I saw this view with the majestic Andes mountains at the backdrop. 

Yanque
Colca Canyon
Arequipa
Nazca Lines
Miraflores
Exploring Lima

A friend of mine who works in the airline industry has been accidentally dropping drinks and things on the floor.  Luckily, the drinks have not yet reached the laps of a passenger. It turns out, she has made future plans that are going out of her control.

As for me, all of the sandals and flip flops, 3 in total,  that I have brought with me in the Philippines broke, all of which while in a public place in a span of a month. The last straw was a few days ago when the fourth flip flop that I owned gave up on me while I was in Dubai Mall.  

The logical side of my brain tells me, "Yes, it's time to go shopping."  Luckily, being in Dubai Mall, a quick trip to the nearest store got me a new pair. It also made me wish to be brave enough to walk barefoot in public, so I could walk all the way to my favorite shoe store.   

Is there anything that has been repeatedly happening to you lately?

Did you get to solve that mystery after all, what your subconscious is telling you? 
Or was it just a random thing?

Have a great week!

Love & light,

Arni

{P.S. I'm down with the flu that I have gotten during my flight. Chicken soup was such a comfort and catching up with Game of Thrones. The last episode gave my sore throat quite a shock.}

This is not a new book. There are already sequels to this one. I just found this while browsing books at the airport in Hong Kong, during a six-hour layover.

What is the book about?

A Year in the Merde is hilarious novel written by Stephen Clarke. It's about a year in the life of a 27 year-old British expat named Paul West in Paris. A self published, first person narrated account based on the author's adventures and experiences during his employment in the French capital.

His alter-ego, Paul, the protagonist moves to Paris to spearhead the opening of an English tea room chain in France. The novel explores his encounters with the ladies, the struggles of finding an apartment and administrative procedures while learning the skill of avoiding dog turd on the street. 

Verdict: 

I highly recommend this, despite the mixed reactions in Goodreads. The book is filled with snarky comments that may put off some readers, but I was craving for a funny novel.. I just bought this yesterday and I'm almost finished with it.

It's a comedic tale of cultural differences that I promise will not disappoint. I don't mind reading it again and it is a wonderful companion while traveling alone and when in dire need of a humorous friend. 

The only drawback is, people  thought I'm a retard for laughing out loud at the boarding gate and inside the plane on my own.  

Happy Wednesday!

Love & light,

Arni