Category: Dubai

Echos Of My Neighbourhood · Lifestyle · Personal · Photographs

More Miracles, Picnic and Bowling…Echoes of my neighbourhood # 14

jacquelineobyikocha21 Comments

On Thursday’s, I share pictures about ‘Echos of my Neighbourhood.

I would like to invite you to participate. The challenge is quite simple.

Every Thursday, share a photo of bits and pieces of wherever you are at any point in time. It could be a house, backgrounds of your neighbourhood, activities and so forth and you can tag it Echos of my Neighbourhood, add my link to your post so that I will get the ping from your post.

Every other Thursday, I will publish a post with the links of all those who participated the previous week.

This is just a fun way of getting to see more of the World around us through your eyes since we cannot all be at those places, we could, at least, see them through you.

Bringing you more photos of the Miracle garden. You can check last week’s link here just in case you missed it.

I managed to fit in a picnic/barbeque before the forbidding hot weather of the Middle East rears up its head in full force as well as a bowling outing (though I am not much of a bowler) to round up our Spring break.

Now that school is back in full swing, life is no longer running on a slow lane.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Last Week Echoes took us to different neighbourhoods, hop on let’s go see and we will be glad to see some of yours :-)

Bangkok flower market: Lady Lee Manila gives us a peek of Bangkok market’s fresh flower power side.

Lower Manhattan Delightful photos from Manhattan. There’s something about that city that calls my name 😉

Mercury Colliding Who knew that Kat had such green thumbs *tongue in cheek* 😉

GM’s echoes Thank you, GM for joining in and sharing bits of your abode with us 🙂

Giggles and tales I love the skies and Stella shows us the gorgeous blues and vibrant sunsets as she journeys along 🙂

Thank you to all Echoes’ contributors. I am learning a whole lot from this challenge as well as having fun with it.

It would lovely to have you join us.

My regards.

Dubai · Echos Of My Neighbourhood · Travel

Miracle Garden and Fun…Echoes Of My Neighbourhood #13

jacquelineobyikocha62 Comments

On Thursday’s, I share pictures about ‘Echos of my Neighbourhood.

I would like to invite you to participate. The challenge is quite simple.

Every Thursday, share a photo of bits and pieces of wherever you are at any point in time. It could be a house, backgrounds of your neighbourhood, activities and so forth and you can tag it Echos of my Neighbourhood, add my link to your post so that I will get the ping from your post.

Every other Thursday, I will publish a post with the links of all those who participated the previous week.

This is just a fun way of getting to see more of the World around us through your eyes since we cannot all be at those places, we could, at least, see them through you.

We found time during the weekend to go to the Miracle Garden where I took tons of photos. Just sharing a bit of some of them with you and will share a bit more another time.

It’s a lovely place to spend a day. Always teeming with tourists and families especially during the weekend.

There are blooming petals everywhere and the mingled floral essence of these flowers hangs delicately in the air as you have an ice-lolly and traipse around leisurely or enjoy relaxing in one of the sit-outs or swings to be found around the perimeters.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Last Week Echoes gave us some peeks of different neighbourhoods, hop on let’s go see and we will be glad to see some of yours :-)

Cycling to Ostpark beautiful, serene piece of Munich, Germany. A good place for a day’s outing.

Thoughts and entanglements Nature’s bursts in spades of beauty. The circle of birth and death.

Like Mercury Colliding Nature has so much in store for us and teaches us through its cycle. A Spring miracle to behold.

Mammoth Norwich Castle museum and art gallery certainly holds some ginormous treasure in them.

Doggerland I didn’t know about this until I looked at Kim’s photo and read her short presentation.

Mile of daffs beautiful miles of springing daffodils.

Thank you to all Echoes’ contributors. I am learning a whole lot from this challenge as well as having fun with it.

It would lovely to have you join us. Regards

 

Echos Of My Neighbourhood · Travel

Noise and A Peek In The Men’s Beauty World…Echoes of my neighbourhood.

jacquelineobyikocha30 Comments

On Thursday’s, I share pictures about ‘Echos of my Neighbourhood.

I would like to invite you to participate. The challenge is quite simple.

Every Thursday, share a photo of bits and pieces of wherever you are at any point in time. It could be houses, backgrounds of your neighbourhood, activities and so forth and you can tag it Echos of my Neighbourhood, add my link to your post so that I will get the ping from your post.

Every other Thursday, I will publish a post with the links of all those who participated the previous week.

This is just a fun way of getting to see more of the World around us through your eyes since we cannot all be at those places, we could at least, see them through you.

The beauty of Burj at night as we drive by.

This week’s echoes is a mix of several faces and places. From shopping for groceries to going with my bloke and the boys to get a haircut where yours truly spent some time being more observant than usual to the business of manly grooming.

I saw men threading their eyebrows to make it look less bushy. Lot’s of scalp shaving with a scary blade, massaging, barbing, shampooing and rubbing of scalps. Interesting outing I must say 😉

With the children on Spring break, a bit more leisure time so taking them to the cinema and some skating play time  was involved.

Thanks to Kat, I got the idea to include a video of real echoes of my neighbourhood, which I will do from time to time. This was fun to do. We drove and I stuck the camera up to catch a one minute video.

Please watch and let me know what you think.

Thank you 🙂

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Last Week Echoes gave us some peeks of different neighbourhoods, hop on let’s go see and we will be glad to see some of yours :-)

Dr Meg Sorick’s A warm welcome to Meg. Meg shows us beautiful photos of her world and her good looking bloke. Please go over and say hello. She also offers visitors a tall glass of something good to drink 😉

Mind and life matters A warm welcome to Rashmi. I am loving our neighbours in echoes and Rashmi shows us beautiful snippets of so much love in her photos and the cutest tortoise ever.

Spring Lady Lee’s photos bursts in colours and interesting garden friends to keep artful.

Peregrine – Falcons of Norwich Kim shows us a poetic glimpse of the fastest flying raptor bird in the World.

Crossing the Brooklyn bridge I am not sure you’ve seen this detailed shots of the Brooklyn bridge. Well, I haven’t. Thank you Jazzy Tower.

A flowering evening pretty pictures that goes with sweet meats too 🙂

Cubicles of Individuality I totally enjoyed looking at this and I bet you would. Maybe you can tell which category you  belong in.

How sweet life is Ralph  When you go to Bus Terminal located at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, keep your eyes open, there’s a lot to see.

 

Thank you to all Echoes’ contributors. I am learning a whole lot from this challenge as well as having fun with it.

It would lovely to have you join us. Regards

Dubai · Photographs · This Is My Life

Rolling fields and Sandy banks…

jacquelineobyikocha10 Comments

Today’s Photo 101 theme is landscape and cropping where nature is our main subject, or a sweeping panorama of an entire city, town or industrial area.

A few shots were taken during this morning’s walk-about and many are from the previous week.

 

Dubai · Travel

Echoes Of My Neighbourhood 15….art, literature and airport.

jacquelineobyikocha39 Comments

On Thursday’s, I share pictures about ‘Echos of my Neighbourhood.

I would like to invite you to participate. The challenge is quite simple.

Every Thursday, share a photo of bits and pieces of wherever you are at any point in time. It could be houses, backgrounds of your neighbourhood, activities and so forth and you can tag it Echos of my Neighbourhood, add my link to your post so that I will get the ping from your post.

Every other Thursday, I will publish a post with the links of all those who participated the previous week.

This is just a fun way of getting to see more of the World around us through your eyes, since we cannot all be at those places, we can at least see them through you.

My Echoes came out a bit late today. I am bleary eyed and tired, maybe even jet-lagged from sitting at the airport till 3 am this morning, waiting to pick up family.

This week found me going out a bit more due to photo 101 course and I have shared a lot of those ones. These one’s were taken in the last 3 days and last night, or should I say wee hours of this morning.

The art exhibits are beautiful, but a bit pocket denting.

I attended a literature expo and my goodness, it was well put together and very well attended program.

I honestly don’t have the energy to tag all the photos and still do photo 101, so I just shared these bits.

Thank you for tolerating my yawning 😉

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Last Week Echoes gave us some peeks of different neighbourhoods, hop on let’s go see and do show some of yours 🙂

Sampan Ride Hong Kong is calling me like a siren. Beautiful pictures 😉

A bit of Ikotun market Nostalgia. I used to go buying some raw food items once in a while in this place back in Lagos.

So peaceful around the neighbourhood No matter how much you scurry about, nothing takes you off the sidewalk and brings down your stress from 100 to zero notch in seconds, like home.

Some real echoing sounds Kat took echoes to another dimension with her recorded sounds of her environment. I enjoyed the zen over and over, so beautiful and calming to listen to. Now she has sown some seeds in my head.

Nature’s beauty Sweet pictures from Thoughts and Entanglements. Nothing beats nature.

The Norfolk Giants Kim brings whimsical thoughts and paints stories in my mind with these photos of the dying giants. Let’s go meandering.

Funking for Jamaica Let’s go to Jamaica. Well, online at least 🙂

All Nigerian Foods  My dear sis Flo who is joining echoes, is a big Nigerian food blogger *with over 35 million page views* She brings the tastes of home to you, wherever you may be on the globe 🙂

Dubai · Family · Gratitude · Humor - Bellyful of laughter · Parenting

Exhaling Loudly…This is my life.

jacquelineobyikocha18 Comments

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I know it’s not weekend yet, but I am thankful that we are halfway there, or as in my case, almost a day to weekend and the school Spring breaks commences on Friday. YAYYYYY!!!

Our weekend’s over here in the Middle East starts on Thursday evenings and sometimes, it makes my mind go wonky, when the work week starts on Sunday’s and other parts of the World are still on a weekend.

It’s been one of those weeks that’s just bleh; waking up at past 4 am and making the children’s breakfast and food for school with one eye open.

I know that being a mother, weekend does not necessarily spell idling, but some things are taken out of the hectic equation.

My mouth will probably get twisted seven ways from talking, settling squabbles and I will probably pull my hair out now and again, for these days that squad will be fully at home, adrenaline filled and looking up to Mama the squad entertainer extraordinaire to keep them focused and entertained.

I shall however, thoroughly enjoy not having the infernal red alarm clock go off,  just when I am getting into the zen part of the sleep; at least for the next two weeks. It even rings in my head when I am awake :/

On the other hand, I am equally thankful for a lovely blogger’s bash held in this space. The supportive turn out was just awesome 🙂

I am equally excited that the cover of my collected poetry will soon be ready. There’ll definitely be a sneak peek.

What are the itty-bitty things that your heart knows thanks for?

Do share if you will. Thank you.

You can join Colline’s  or Maria Jansson gratitude challenge platforms.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

 

Dubai · Photographs · Uncategorized

Bright and beautiful. ..

jacquelineobyikocha19 Comments

The weekend Photo 101 theme is to ‘play with the light.’

Below is a compilation of a few bright and beautiful takes.

Some were quickly taken outside intermittently today before getting back to join my party guests *since I am the hostess* and several photos (night shots) are older.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Soft morning light today
I love the clouds before the sunshine.
Morning light again today
A well lit Dhow passing in the night
Gorgeous sunset
Taken two nights ago
Bright panels
A brilliant shine
A lovely place to be in the evenings
Nicely lit evening sit out
Painted skies before dark
Part of the new Dragon mart
Drifting gray clouds
Soft golden hour of the evening
Looking up the skies

 

Dubai · Health · Travel

Great Service…Echoes Of My Neighbourhood #14

jacquelineobyikocha37 Comments

On Thursday’s, I share pictures about ‘Echos of my Neighbourhood.

I would like to invite you to participate. The challenge is quite simple.

Every Thursday, share a photo of bits and pieces of wherever you are at any point in time. It could be houses, backgrounds of your neighbourhood, activities and so forth and you can tag it Echos of my Neighbourhood, add my link to your post so that I will get the ping from your post.

Every other Thursday, I will publish a post with the links of all those who participated the previous week.

This is just a fun way of getting to see more of the World around us through your eyes, since we cannot all be at those places, we can at least see them through you.

A better part of my last week until this Tuesday was spent between the Iranian Hospital and having a little birthday dinner.

The pictures above are some parts of The Iranian Hospital Dubai. An International hospital affiliated to the Iranian Red Crescent/Red Cross. It’s among the top five relief  agencies in the World.

No one likes going to the hospital, not for fun and spending time in a dinghy one would only make it worse.

The Iranian Hospital’s service was very professional, polite, prompt and I found no reason whatsoever to grumble throughout the days they attended to us. I was impressed.

You even have a schedule screen that tells you what’s going on and when you will be attended to. The cafe had hot meals all through and even several bowls of pretty species of goldfish to admire or to buy.

My daughter wanted one, I wouldn’t have minded several goldfish, but we don’t have a brilliant goldfish handling history.

The place runs smoothly at all times *even by 3 a.m. It’s like a well oiled machinery and they made a panicky mothers heart much calmer. Somehow, we managed to find time to hang out a bit at The Dome for dinner and eat lots of birthday cake.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Last Week Echoes gave us some peeks of different neighbourhoods, hop on let’s go see and do show some of yours 🙂

Hot brews of coffee in all sizes and even as blings. Seattle is the place to go for rich, decadent brews. Just drive thru for a look see.

Write them all more echoes of other parts of Dubai from a neighbour. It’s truly an amazing World how we connect online.

Sicily lovely sights and echoes of Sicily. I would like to visit this Italian city some day.

Giggles & Tales Well I never knew this. Fish feet spa where they fish get to feed on the cuticles of your feet. I already feel ticklish at the thought.

This and That with Sarah while she tinkers with her laptop.

Thoughts and entanglements Fabulous and interesting pictures from Brooklyn. I like those spangled underwear 😉

Dollops of heedful ramblings These are total and beautiful eye candy.

Mercury colliding Who do you think will win? Let’s take a vote on this. No it’s not Trump or Hilary 😉

I hope you enjoy the views.

Regards.

P.S. I hope that I didn’t miss someone’s ping back?

 

Dubai · Personal · Photographs · This Is My Life · Travel

It’s A Mix…Echoes Of My Neighbourhood 13

jacquelineobyikocha45 Comments

On Thursday’s, I share pictures about ‘Echos of my Neighbourhood.

I would like to invite you to participate. The challenge is quite simple.

Every Thursday, share a photo of bits and pieces of wherever you are at any point in time. It could be houses, backgrounds of your neighbourhood, activities and so forth and you can tag it Echos of my Neighbourhood, add my link to your post so that I will get the ping from your post.

Every other Thursday, I will publish a post with the links of all those who participated the previous week.

This is just a fun way of getting to see more of the World around us through your eyes, since we cannot all be at those places, we can at least see them through you.

The pictures above are taken from here and there. During the course of a week, I take pictures as I go along sorting each day’s issues.

When I am going out by myself, I prefer to leave the ease of driving myself and opt to take a train, bus or taxi depending on. The first two are my first options.

In a good number of areas, the bus stops have a pair of shelter, one for women and children and a separate one for menfolk. Due to the heat which can be unbelievable at times, they are air-conditioned and well maintained.

If you want to get to know a city, to meander free and get to know it’s people, get a map and use public transport.

It free’s your eyes to stare, snap and interact.

When I drive, half of the time, my eyes are glued to the GPS screen trying not to miss a vital turn.

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

Last Week Echoes gave us some peeks of different neighbourhoods, hop on let’s go see and do show some of yours 🙂

Ladylee Manila shows us some beautiful looks of Manila.

Oba takes us up close and personal to her neighbourhood in Lagos.

Deb of Bookyglover catches good snips of my Lagos and it’s eccentric nature.

Dollops of heedful ramblings showcases beautiful art walls.

Murals and Soulful strut are eclectic shots from urban gypsy.

Cherry blossoms pretty as a picture photos from Paula.

Giggles & Tales Denmark is good for a visit. There’s decadent chocolate and wine too.

Kat‘s photos makes me want to sing a song. Yes, they are beautiful.

The wishing well Colette introduces us to her Nottingham. Welcome Colette 🙂

Areas of life Mandi’s quite the lady. Her collection makes me smile and those tot photos are priceless.

Thoughts and entanglements There’s something so satisfying about this picture.

Writing in North Norfolk Kim has wonderful neighbours 🙂

I hope you enjoy the views.

Regards.

 

Dubai · Life · Travel · Uncategorized

DESERT STORM…

jacquelineobyikocha9 Comments

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Since I am living in a desert city, I will write my prompt based on being stranded on a deserted sea of sand.

The desert is a fascinating landscape yet it can be merciless in retribution. A sand storm can spring unannounced and those fine, endless sand can get into areas better left imagined.

Living here and driving by huge expanse of sand ever so often, makes me appreciate the flowing robes, ‘Thobe for the men and Jalabiya for women,’ that the Middle -Easterners wear as their national attire. It is not just a symbol of religion, but also derived over the ages as an attire of comfort and adaptability to their environment.

The blistering hot arid sands of the afternoon, quickly gives way to alarming freezing cold at nights that one must be well equipped to survive in the environment.

So, for me the five items would be:

  • A loose fitting robe, with flowing scarves, so that I can wear other things under to keep warm when needed, then use the scarf to keep out the fine sand that can get into eyes, the nostrils, the mouth, the ears, the underside and everywhere.
  • A huge flask of water to abate the thirst. Yes it’s arid and bone dry and who knows where the next oasis will be. Thirst and dehydration kills faster than not having food for days.
  • I will need my phone and charger with  full service so that I can use the GPS to find my way, to make a call for help and to listen to music.
  • Food, food, food, even if they are just dry dates and energy bars and tins of beans.
  • Now for this last part, I will cheat by sneaking in somethings: A desert tent and pillow, some good read and a convertible gas lamp which can be used to warm stuff, keep an eye out for the desert snakes and all sorts of vicious creatures. Maybe those their wicked looking curved blades might me handy for any marauding Berber.

Can I bring my husband? He can be quite handy you know 😉

© Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha

The Daily Post Prompt Five Items.