71 percent of the Earth is covered by water and every living thing thrives on water simply because WATER is LIFE.
I have seen water in many ramifications, from the abundance of the Oceans to bottled water of varieties, rainfall in the Tropics to the aridity of living in the Desert and one thing that I’ve found is that every living thing seeks out water. Unfortunately, there are places that lack this bare necessity that many take for granted, which reminds me of a well-articulated post I read earlier, written by Robert.
One of the things that I miss living in the UAE is rainfall. It’s such a rare occurrence and buying bottled water is the norm because the desert lacks a generous abundance of potable water.
During the course of last week, I ventured further than my immediate neighbourhood – Dubai to another Emirate, Ras Al Khaimah (which means the top of the tent in Arabic) for a couple of days with my family.
RAK is one of the seven emirates that comprises the UAE and on a steady, leisure drive, it took us two and a half hours to get there, though I hear some can drive there at the break-neck speed of an hour. RAK is pretty and quaint with the rugged Hagar mountains, desert, healthy hot springs, the Arabian Gulf and oasis that surrounds it. Their lifestyle is also not as fast paced or as diverse as Dubai.
Below are just some of the photos I took. Will possibly share more another day.
Lady Lee takes us to India for her son’s wedding. Beautiful, vibrant, and auspicious ceremony; do take a peek 🙂
Below is my first just published Poetry Book “Out of the silent breath” which is available on Amazon and Smashwords.
When you buy my book, you support me in an invaluable manner.
From the very first poem, “Dreams,” this book captivates with passionate and perceptive words. Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha captures a broad expanse of the human experience in this book of richly layered poems.
“Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were, but without it, we go nowhere.” Carl Sagan
The sensible part of me knows that the bicycle rider had the scarf on his face to keep out the fine desert sand, but the nosy, imaginative busy mind of me, created another scenario, to which he’s now an accomplice in a story.
It just couldn’t get any better, with the band on his face, the cap, the knapsack and a bicycle for a quick getaway 😉
But for a time it seemed that we were on the path to becoming a kinder, more gentle society; a society that was trying to overcome prejudices and see others as different, but not inferior. But today that trend is reversing. Today we are regressing back to a society that views all who do not look, act, speak, and think like us as being somehow inferior. And that is just wrong.
What do I have to say about this read? Gosh! I think it’s a pamphlet every adult, parent, teacher, leader etc should read. Simple in it’s words, but teaches a thousand lessons.
Scuffle on the balcony : If you’ve been following this tale, you must be hooked by now. Mel always ends it on a cliff hanger that leaves you looking for all the answers. My, my. Excellent writing.
It’s’ my belief that most of us have the natural inclination to look up to the skies early in the mornings and throughout the duration of each given day.
Sometimes, I spend times looking at the clouds shapes and twist up silly tales depending on what the cloud represents. This we do especially when on a long drive. I ask my children to look at a could and identify an animal or any object and say something in relation to the object found.
‘Nature is bountiful in giving and when we look deeply, we have communion with it for the poetry and stories hidden in the clouds and on Earth are endless.‘ Jacqueline Oby-Ikocha
Below is a composition of some of the photos that I took at different times for today’s Photo 101 theme ‘Natural World.’ None has been edited.
Finding solitude in this bee-hive of a city, is literally akin to finding a needle in a haystack or seeing a camel trying to squeeze it’s hoof through the eye of the needle.
Well, that was my thought initially, until I started looking through thousands of photos and luckily found a few pictures that depicted solitude for today’s Photo 101 theme ‘solitude.’
I wasn’t sure that I would catch any solitary looking people today, especially with the particularly gray looking weather that we have, so I dug into my photos and found some reasonable offering.
Solitude is also not when one is all by himself, but equally a state of the mind.
A person can be in a crowd and yet feel all alone.
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 Jalabiyafor 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 😉
On Thursday’s, I share a picture 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.
Humans 🙂
Wet Henna
Henna waiting
A perching Falcon
More boys at play
A desert camp
The rides to the dunes
More humans again 🙂
Some pictures from our desert foray.
Over the weekend, we went sand bashing at the desert. An adrenaline pumping rush that dear Himself and the children like a lot. I am okay with it after the highs and lows of going up and down steep sand dunes.
I love seeing the miles and miles of rolling sands and visiting a desert camp where there are a good number of entertainment on offer for a fee, like riding the camels, getting henna painting, some Arabic belly dancing etc.
Last week’s Echoes brought in quite some fresh views:
![Water[1]](https://acookingpotandtwistedtales.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/water1.jpg?w=659&resize=659%2C659&h=659#038;h=659&crop=1 "Water[1]")
![Plates[1]](https://acookingpotandtwistedtales.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/plates1.jpg)
![Bicycle_Rider[1]](https://acookingpotandtwistedtales.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/bicycle_rider1.jpg)
![1457166336574[1]](https://acookingpotandtwistedtales.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/1457166336574122111.jpg)
![1456670252814[1]](https://acookingpotandtwistedtales.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/14566702528141.jpg)
![1454232747916[1]](https://acookingpotandtwistedtales.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/14542327479161.jpg?w=663)
a cooking pot and twisted tales 
