tennis

So there was a Polo match on Friday that I didn't go to. Somehow I was so tired and  needed the day to myself. I hung around, pitter pottered around the house, watched Pride and Prejudice again. Watched Argo which is a fabulous movie by the way. Must watch if you haven't seen it already. I was being a lazy ass on Saturday too but Anshuman somehow convinced me to go to the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship Women's Doubles Final and the Women's single Final.

So I decided to wear my blue shoes for the second time despite the fact that the last time I wore them they squashed my toes and gave me a blister on my heel. Of course that was a mistake but I just wanted to give them another chance. Now I don't know what to do with them. They cost good money and now I can't wear them without wincing. There should be a return policy on misbehaved shoes. But there isn't so moving on.

So off we went in Anshuman's car. He played his music loud and sang along with it while I tried to read a Miss Marple novel. Had I not been reading he would not have been singing at the top of his voice. That's the thing you see. If he doesn't have my full attention he is bound to do something or the other to get it including annoying me. It's fun for him. Not so much for me. But that's marriage, you enjoy annoying each other and you know that even after being annoyed silly your spouse is going to love you just as much.

We got to Irish Village which is essentially a place for people to have a drink and snack and generally chill out. The Tennis court is built right next to it. The last time I went there, there was just that one open air place for people to hang out but now there are many restaurants that have sprung up around the place collectively known as century Village. It's an altogether very nice place. We collected our passes and sat quite close to the court. Sania Mirza and Bethany Mattek- Sands ( I found her full name on google) were playing against two women about whom I literally know nothing aside from the fact that they looked like twin sisters. I think very few people knew anyone other than Sania so there were many,"C'mon Sania!" and then once someone yelled,"C'mon Mattek!" and a laugh went up at the stadium. Finally Sania and Mattek won and it was all very nice.

The next match was between Sara Errani from Italy and Petra Kvitova from Czechoslovakia. Anshuman decided to support Petra while I supported Sara just so we could fight about it.

Petra began by demolishing Sara in the first set 6-2 and then Sara came back strong and won 6-1 but in the end Petra took the game away. The above picture is Petra and the dejected looking Sara is on the left. During half time Princess Haya came to the stadium as the chief guest. She's very elegant and later gave away the trophies. There was a Mexican wave in her honour and that was fun.

Finally we went to the close by Nomad for dinner. The image above is the view from where we sat. There was a big screen showing football and the players kept getting into brawls every now and then much to everyone's amusement. There were several cute ducks in the water and Anshuman pointed out a sweet little turtle floating by. I had the sweet and sour Salmon which was not bad. The service was not quite up to snuff as we waited for the longest time for the food to arrive and as you can see my husband was famished as he had eaten brunch at about one in the afternoon and nothing since then.

All in all it turned out to be an enjoyable evening and I'm glad I decided to step out instead of staying home and diving into a book.

So on another note I had ordered two books from Amazon and they didn't arrive for five months. So I wrote to them and they charged me again and then refunded my money and I think I lost 10 Dirhams in the process but the books did arrive finally. Unfortunately I already had one of the books as I had ordered it through Barnes and Noble so I gave it to Cursty. Both the books are a collection of stories. One of them is a collection of Norse myths and the other one is a book of Norwegian folk tales. I love reading myths and folk tales. They're always so funny and sometimes entirely twisted with an array of amazing, sometimes entirely stupid humans and bizarre creatures. A couple of days later I ordered the complete Calvin and Hobbes and it arrived within a few days to my utter surprise and delight. I love Calvin and Hobbes and so does Anshuman so I'm sure he will be very happy when I give him the whole set. I love giving gifts even more than I love receiving them.

Wow this has turned out to be quite a long post. Let me make it longer with an update on my ears. The left one is better though there is some loss of hearing and the right one was in pain last night but this morning things are much better. Somehow things always get better in the morning. It has something to do with sunshine I'm sure!