Last week I spent about 7 hours in the sun and got a little too burnt, my skin was red right away and it was producing heat. Even after a cool shower my skin was hot as hell, got home and my shoulders and back starting to feel like it really was burnt and I’m feeling pain. So staying out in the sun without a little sun block is pretty dumb, I have started remembering all the things I would bring with me to the shalaih and this time around I should remember to bring some sun block.
Spoke to a friend and I was recommended to pick up an after sun cream with Aloe Vera extract but I didn’t know what to get. After getting the solarcain which had aloe vera extract I applied it right away and that helped a little. Then I took a cold shower before going to sleep and applied it again, you can feel the relief because the pain decreased, even the pressure from the water hurt. I had a hard time sleeping since I couldn’t sleep on the side, I had a restless first night but the solarcaine helped reduce the pain. After three days of applying three times a day it got a lot better, by the third day it felt like a small annoyance and suprsingly my skin didn’t peel at all.
This has been an interesting weekend, after hanging out Thursday night for our usual get together we headed out straight to the shalaih at night. We all got there about the same time, 6 cars all together, already a few people there ahead of us. Most of us crash early, I spend a few hours watching anime which I almost manage to finish the whole series.
We get up next morning around 10 am, breakfast already in the kitchen, but I decided I wanted eggs and worked on that while watching Mel Gibsons’ Payback. We all decided to jump in the water, one jet ski was brought out and then a few others. Later on in the day the boat was brought out then another friend came with a boat. By noon we were more then 20 guys in the water, some flying around in the jetskis and some on the boats and some in the water. Then they started towing the Banana and all I can say is that I have a few bruises to prove that we flew off. I need to bring my life jacket with me, because it also absorbs some impacts which I could have been sparred. On another note, sun block is your friend because at this point I’m a little burnt and crispy especially after 7 hours in the sun. I’m all bruised up and feeling sore in all the wrong places but I never laughed that much in a while.
Link: Flickr
Its been a while since I went to the shalaihaat and jumped in the water, started off early Friday morning and visited some family. Picked up a friend to go pick up another friend’s jet skit, he didn’t have a car to tow his jet ski. When we got there turned out the trailers’ tire was completely flat, and the little nozel was ripped off so we couldn’t even pump it back up.
We took to the road and were averaging between 130 – 140 kph, it was pretty hot and I was looking forward to jumping in the water. A few people were already there and a few were coming after us. Took us about 40 minutes to get there and we were enjoying the music all the way there. We even took a detour to take a dirt road, its been a while since I have had the Landcruiser drifting in a dirt trail in 2nd gear. Got the shalaih, threw our things inside and headed to Khairan coop to get some supplies. We got enough to last a week, so we chilled in the shalaih until everybody got there before jumping in.
One jetski was taken into the water and its the kind you have to stand up to get it going. I haven’t been on one in at least four years, and I remember then that I was damaged since I fell the wrong way while trying to turn. This time I thought I would try again and hope to succeed. I tried my luck and after about 5 minutes I was exhausted couldn’t even stand up in the damn thing without falling over.
Some of the other guys took that machine and did a better job, I decided to give it another try in a little while. It was nice to relax in the water, got some swimming in, I’m the type of person that doesn’t like not knowing whats under him, I always look under me when I’m over those dark patches of water. For some reason in Bnaider ever jet boat or boat of equivalent size was filled with girls going back and forth, they looked like high school girls. And on the beach their were girls on quads and buggies going all over the place, for the first time we felt like the old guys just relaxing in the water.
After that time I gave it another try and I succeeded in staying upright and making a few turns, but as soon as I thought I got the hang of it I pushed my luck. I tried making one of those cool turns, but instead I hit the wave at a wrong angle ended up hitting the damn jetski with my body and flying in the other direction, lets say I had to swim a little bit to get back to the jet ski. It was a hell of a lot of fun, but as the sun was setting everyone was heading out and so we took up the jet.
Washed the jet ski, went in to take a shower and nearly burnt myself from the hot water. Then we chilled and watched TV for a little while. A few of us passed out, then we watched a few movies, I didn’t stay the night since I had things to do in the morning. I know that I want to enjoy the ocean this time around, I also need to get back in shape since I gained too damn much, so much the life jacket wouldn’t fit me among other things.
I got these pictures by email and I was impressed by this very nicely designed shalaih. It looks more like a resort then a shalaih, it is modern and I think they did an amazing job with the landscape design, very simple and making it clean and beautiful. The overall lighting scheme of the places is very nice, especially the pool at night. It seems to have three living rooms, I’m not sure why but it doesn’t look like they took pictures of the whole place. Even the Z4 in those pictures looks really nice with that lighting.
It has been a long time since I have been Al Zoor to visit some of the guys. I have been getting caught up with a lot of things in the city, but this time it was a special occasion. A lot of people were invited and I haven’t gone in a little while.
It was around sunset on Friday when I wanted to set out to the beach house, but the ridiculous storm came in and shook things up. After checking that everything was ok, I left home around an hour later but the roads were an obstacle course filled with trees, some signs, and some other debris. In the Landcruiser I was driving around them heading towards the gas station, it was open with some tenants working, I didn’t know what they did during the storm. Filled up with gas and headed towards Al Zoor, you could see where that Hurricane hit and where it didn’t cross.
I was taking my time driving to Al Zoor, there was no real schedule other then the dinner would be later in the evening. The best part about driving a long distance is the open windows, music blaring, the cool breeze and enjoy the driving. Cops were parked on the side by Julai’a and Malik Fahad Highway, before that there was a camera car parked on the side of the road. It seems they wanted to ticket as many cars possible, I just had it cruising at 120 kph for once so no ticket for me.
A few cars were parked outside by the time I got there. Walked in and dropped my bags in my room, I haven’t been in there for ages. The room seemed brand new and unused compared to other rooms, my room mate is my cousin and it seems he hasn’t been out too much either.
Walked out and headed towards the sitting room to chill with the guys, then we transfered outside. The weather was amazing and the storm didn’t come close to the beach houses, but you could see the storm in the distance. I was getting hungry by the minute and the shawarma was the main thing I was looking forward to. It was a special day so lots of people were invited to the gathering other then the usual people.
Five shawarmas later I was sitting on the couch about to pass out since I was up early in the morning. The funny part was that some people were getting very annoyed with me being the paparazzi that I am at these events, I tend to take pictures to remember the moment. Slowly passing out on the couch while some people were talking to me, I couldn’t keep my eyes open even for a moment. I headed to my room and watched an episode of Chuck before completely passing out, the best part was that my room was 17C, it was cold and easy to fall asleep around 12:30 am.
Around 2:30 pm I could here somebody say something about lunch. I woke up comfortably feeling that I caught up with all the sleep I was lacking from the past couple of weeks. I took a shower packed, my bags, and had a really good meal. I had a lot of errands to take care of so I had to leave a little early, I headed it out by 3:45 pm and the best part was driving with a full stomach. When I’m full I tend to drive really slow, I was cruising at 120 Kph and everyone was flying past me so I moved to the right lane with music at full blast and the windows open. It was a fantastic time, I need to go there more often, maybe next time I take my bike.
The desert is a beautiful place! We went to a bunch of our friends at a Mokhayam (Camp grounds) which they setup a couple of days before Eid. This was the first day of the year going to our friends mokhayam for lunch. 1/1/2007. I have to say that day was a beautiful day, it was cold and sunny with a cold breeze. I was driving my landcruiser with some good music, and then when we had to turn to the sand area with no roads I drove that SUV like a rally car! It was a lot of fun!
I have to say that camping does take a good amount of preparation, and the guys have a really good job of organizing the whole thing. They even put up a volleyball net, but it was too damn cold to play. Some people brought their buggies, I got on a yamaha Banshee for the first time in a while and I remembered why I enjoyed that machine so much. Flying around in the sand it was a fantastic experience! I really enjoyed it riding in the dirt! There was also some skeet shooting going on, and they even had this machine which would launch the discs. I have to say that the guys took care of all the necessary activities. And there was a nice hot duwa in the middle of the main khaymah (tent) which they were using to make the tea and that was some damn good tea. They showed me a little gadget which is used to get the temperature and other weather details and the lowest it had was 0 degrees on 31/12/2006. It must have been damn cold on other nights as well.
I know a lot of people had crazy nights for new years and some people stayed at home, but we had a relaxing New Years. It was freezing outside towards the end of the night, I know it was close to zero and when I asked my friend who just drove in an hour ago he said it was 3 degrees and we just wanted to light up some fireworks. They called these specific rockets the M80, and he said its the type that will blow up 16 times in the air, thats what the guy on the side of the road said would happen, he also said when you light it run for your life.
At this point we put it all the way in front of the shalaih and most the guys were sitting back and watching. It was only me and a friend who were willing to test the waters with this rocket, it was big and I didn’t have a chance to take a picture of it. We had some music playing with a lot of hot tea being made nonstop it was pretty good. And we had music going, and we were all pretty relaxed nobody was thinking about work and you could see the moon clear as day and the moonlight hitting the water. It was a fantastic feeling, we were freezing though even with the duwah (metal coal container), and so me and my friend lit the fireworks and we ran for our lives almost stumbling over each other. It was a scene from Lethal Weapon, and then boom that rocket launched like a NASA rocket. It was a hilarious scene. Of course everyone was wishing the other person a happy New Year and we were laughing, but at that point we all decided to go inside. By 1:00am at 1/1/2007 I decided to go to sleep while watching some anime. It was good night with good friends.
On Sunday night just after sunset on the 31st of December I’m getting in my car to head towards the shalaih. I like driving, and I enjoy long constant drives. I don’t like traffic, but I don’t mind long drives at all. The best part of it is the good music and the comfortable drive, I took my beanie with me because of the damn cold, I heard it was going to get ridiculously cold and I just wanted to keep my head warm.
As I was driving the roads were packed with people going to Mukhayamat (camps) or the shalaihs. The roads were filled with police and so many cameras were switched on. They even had two or three mobile cameras parked on the right side, one of them went off on me while I had my Landcruiser set at 140kph which surprised me. At that point I was relaxed and too lazy to look for them, 20kph over the limit was going to be too much but I was surprised that they made it that sensitive. After that I set it at 120kph cruise until I reached the shalaih, and it was pretty damn cold. When I got there it was 7 degrees and it was only 7:00pm so there was many hours to go to freeze later in the night.
Since today is the last day for me to post I hope everyone has a fantastic night! Im going to the shalaih to relax and hang out with my friends and Im taking Gears of War to play with some people! I want to get them addicted.
Its going to be a good few nights of relaxation and chilling. I dont even know if we have fireworks! Maybe I shall find some on the way there. Its going to be freezing cold and I’m taking my beanie with me, and maybe a jacket. Im betting its going to drop below zero tonight.
Happy New people, Enjoy your nights!
Need a break! Time to relax in front of the water! Away from too many things! So I decided to head towards the water!
So Im meeting up with some friends to have some fun in the sun! Even those of them who work at the banks! hehehe! Some of my friends are going to work and coming straight back from the shalaih!
That means nonstop water and tv! I wonder how cold or hot the ocean is right now! How great is this, its towards the end of October and you can still swim! And ofcourse Im going to take a million pictures!
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