Remember the grand room makeover contest that I entered last month? The one where I pleaded readers of this blog and friends to “Like” my entry? Well, the verdict has come out. I did not win. It’s ok – I still thank each one of you who voted for my entry and helped spread the word to their friends. I am grateful for all the support you showed me!

So the contest had ended but is tainted with very bad publicity for the sponsor and their Facebook page have been bombarded by negative comments. Yesterday, they announced the winner like this:

They explained what the “debate” cheerfully in Twitter:

Uhm, hello? Since when was it about the highest number of votes? Did I miss something?Highlight “instead of a draw” and see the original official contest rules below, after #3 (I’ve highlighted in red):

Shady.

There was really no need to be the entry with the highest number of “Likes”, no need to go viral with the campaign and the pleas although if you’re up to it, then fine. To be one of the top 3 would be enough then the sponsor would select one lucky winner, as stated in the contest rules. My entry had the 2nd highest number of votes.

BUT here comes the colorful twist – at the last minute, they decided to change the rules and reward the entry with the highest number of votes – and people only came to know when they announced the winner. It certainly left other participants and their friends unpleasantly surprised, feeling cheated. Had the rule been like this in the first place, contest participants could’ve done better, could’ve stopped people on the streets and asked them to vote for their entries or done extreme shameless stunts just to gather the maximum number of votes.

While I’m happy for the winner to get his dream 30,000 dhs (approx US$8,000) room makeover (what a lavish prize for someone who lives alone!), I am not pleased with the way the contest was handled. It wasn’t only unfair to me and to the other entry with the 3rd highest number of votes, it is unfair to everyone who entered.

They could’ve made it simpler by adding a footnote in the contest rule poster:

Irony Homes (the sponsor) reserves the right to change contest rules as they please at any time they want. People leaving complaints on our Facebook wall after the contest announcement will be labeled “bitter losers”. Thank you.

Don’t you just wish contests like this would be done fairly and with integrity but nah, these days, everything is a marketing strategy.

*****

Speaking of contests, I apologize for the delay in announcing the winner of the Hazel & Harlow giveaway. I have emailed the winner and waiting for a reply then I’ll announce the name here. Thank you for waiting. Congratulations to Jennifer Rowe!

You be the judge but this is just so wrong. What kind of message do you want to send to the women/girls all over the world, huh, PONDS!?

Comment hightlight from Erika:

No cream is going to help you get a guy!!

The man living inside my house didn’t exactly forget about our 6th wedding anniversary last week. He just didn’t want to say, “Happy anniversary!” or “Thanks for marrying me!” or “I am grateful for these six wonderful years with you.” kind of statements although I am sure he was thinking it. Oh well, anyway…he handed me an envelope with a getaway hotel voucher inside it for the weekend and I was like, whoa, I did not expect this but I didn’t complain.  The man remembered and though I didn’t get sweet nothings, I could use the weekend getaway because hello, I am quite tired of the everyday routine and it’s been a lifelong dream to wake up in the morning without going straight to the kitchen to cook breakfast for everyone and pack lunches and wake up the kid and feed the kid, feed self…and…you get the picture.

We (me, the man and the babe – you know I couldn’t leave her home) checked in at The Palace Hotel in Old Town Burj Dubai. The scene around the hotel was awesome, lots of green (real), a superb pool, great view from our room, moonsoon type showers in the bathroom, etc. Honestly, I didn’t spend time looking around the facilities or check out the smell of the soap or pocket those little bottles of shampoo and conditioner – I immediately ran for the bed and landed head first, nose squished in the marshmallow-like softness of the mattress.

We stayed for two nights, relaxing bythe pool, lazying around in our room, watching TV (Pristine fell in love with Handy Manny. It was love at first sight since we do not have TV at home), lying in bed. Mostly lying in bed. Makes me think – if the rich people can afford this obviously expensive bed and feather filled pillows, throws and comforters, then why the hell some of them are still unhappy?

I would be smiling everyday with this bed and likely wouldn’t be bothered by the negative forces of the outside world! The only problem I would have in my life if I have that same bed at home would be getting up in the morning and going to work.

Hope you all are having a great weekend!

I received a comment on my Atlantis Hotel post that goes like this:

Just look at the beauty that has been created as a direct result of money from and support of the USA, and we can’t even build good roads at home for our own people.

What a Shame.

HUH?

The IP address of the comment email I got indicates that it’s from someone from the US, or at least, the location where the comment was sent was the US.

Am I missing something here?

I’ve lived in Dubai for just two and a half years and yet not heard of any Dubai milestone project financially backed by America. So I checked Wikipedia (Wiki info is to be trusted right?). The first line says it all:

The Palm Jumeirah is an artificial island created using land reclamation by Nakheel, a company owned by the Dubai government.

I do not have the idea or inkling that the US somehow financed (even partially) to build the Palm Island. Nothing I’ve heard or read of, at least so I don’t know where the commenter got his/her information. I sure want to know…

******

Anyway, summer is finally here. The temperatures have risen and it’s so hot it could melt all the ice in Antartica within 24 hours. But I can under estimate.

We’re talking about 115F with super high humidity (enough to give you zero visibility when you’re wearing glasses and going outside from an airconditioned building) with lows at 100F. LOWS of 100F! How dare they put the word LOW on that hideous temperature. They’ve  got to be kidding me.

I don’t work on Fridays so I have the luxury to browse the news early in the morning as I wake up. I log in to Twitter and saw the Breaking News tweet: Michael Jackson is dead. Earlier, I have read a tweet saying Patrick Swayze died but it was a false report.

So I checked Yahoo News and had to wake my mother up to tell her the news. It was true.

The King of Pop is gone. I drove home last Thursday afternoon and the last thing I listened to on the radio was the big announcement about the contest to win a free trip to see Michael Jackson in London. The promotion had been going on for almost a month here in Dubai. Everyone is anticipating his big comeback.

Now there are concerts to do. No more comeback, no more moonwalk, no more amazing stage performance.  How sad, how tragic and how lonely. Suddenly I felt the urge to dig all the cassette tapes we have at my parent’s home. We had lots of MJ cassettes, those plastic stuff popular long before CD’s were born. They were part of the music of my youth, mine and my brothers. I am sure lots of people around the world felt the same wave of longing for a Jackson song. His death prompted surge in record sales in Amazon, iTunes and music stores.

I sit here and remember his Thriller video, how one of my brothers get to be MJ and the rest play zoombies. I smile when I hear, “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You” because I have dedicated it secretly to someone special long ago (too long ago I can’t even remember who). I stop and admire all Michael’s contribution to the music industry because I realize that I stopped listening to his music when the scandals came which is unfair. His music and his private life are two different entities. It can’t be denied that he is one of the greatest music icons of the century, despite the troubled life.

He is gone but his music will live forever. I won’t stop loving his music, even after his death.

Last weekend, I learned that a friend of mine passed away. She was just 30. I don’t know what to say. Immediately I looked at her blog and her online profile and there she was, in photos, smiling and looking back at me, so alive. How can she be gone already? It feels strange to know that a person whom you have previously talked to, laughed with, shared stories with or tickled (we used to tease each other a lot at the school hall, whenever me meet) is gone forever.

Gone. No more coming back, no more pats in the shoulder, no more warm handshakes. The feeling is so empty, cold and lonely.

The last time I saw her was more than 5 years ago but I couldn’t forget her – carefree, very friendly, full of life and so accommodating. She will be so missed.

She was hospitalized for a pancreatic ailment early this year and through updates from our mutual friends, I learned that she’s responding to medication, still cracking jokes and smiling. We didn’t know that she was just putting up a brave fight. I feel that she had known her fate from the beginning. Next update I received was that she developed leukemia. I could only pray.

Now, she has joined the Lord and relieved of all the pain. While I can’t imagine the sorrow her parents has to endure with the loss, I can only hope she’s at a better place now.

M.T., my friend, may you rest in peace.

I don’t know what is the root and cause of this depression anyway. Is it PMS? Work? general crappy issues that are popping out of nowhere?

I must have this three year curse when it comes to work. When I have learned the ropes and can do my job with closed eyes, I get tired of it. Doing something for hours and days on end that you don’t enjoy kills and seriously? I am dying inside!

Or is it because Pristine is sick and begged me to stay with her at home and I can’t? My mom is staying with her at home although my entire being wants me to be there too. Hate this lump in my throat. Tsk, this is baaad.

Or is it because I have seen too many photos doctored by photoshop this morning, in blogs? I don’t know if it is just me but don’t you think in this technology era, it’s so difficult to know the real good, talented photographers and the really good equipment (camera brand, type, lens, etc) because of this thing called Photoshop? How many photos have you seen that are unedited, raw, straight from the cam? Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE looking at beautiful pictures but if something is uberly doctored I think it steals the natural beauty of it and it loses value. Plus it looks fake. I don’t like fake. That’s just saying – what do I know. (Maybe I’m just jealous because I don’t have and don’t know Photoshop?)

Ah and it’s freaking cold in the office again today. And I didn’t wear socks. And gloves. And ear mufflers.

My feet and hands are freezing and I can’t get out because of work and because I am blogging this first. 18C! Hah, take that! It’s like early winter inside.

Ok, forget everything you read. I highly suspect that this is just the hormones talking.

Happy Mother’s day to all moms who are reading this post! May you enjoy your day, no matter how busy you are and remind yourselves how blessed you are to have experienced motherhood!

Every year, I celebrate mother’s day for my mom and as long as she’s still with me, Mother’s Day will be all about her, not about me. So I won’t complain that today there would be no special breakfast, lunch or dinner and I have to be in the office, to swim all the way to the top of this pool of paperwork!

So, what are your plans for today?

Sunday’s almost over and I haven’t written a post for today! One day off (yesterday) meant a lot of work (the real deal and blog-related work) for me when I came back to office today.

I’ve got 15 minutes before the office closes so here goes.

Calling the winner of the Eenamaria handbag giveawaywinner! Libby/Neas Nuttiness of Libneas blog, did you get my email and my comment on your blog? I don’t want to draw another winner so please reply! I’ll wait until Sunday night, your time. If you are friends with Libby, please nudge her. Thanks!

I’ll be busy with work this week as Japan prepares to go on a week-long holiday for the Golden Week next week. I need to clear things associated with them before their offices temporarily closes. Sometimes I wish I could take a break when it’s a holiday in Japan, after all, my work is dependent on them. But no, I am still required to come to office despite having (almost) nothing to do.

Finishing off,  I’ll write something interesting in the coming days, like how I got to interact with some local (UAE) people for the first time since coming to Dubai. It’s an awesome experience and totally blogworthy so stay tuned! I even have photos to share.

Meanwhile, hope you all enjoy your Sunday!

Dubai has received lots of bad publicity pre and during this global financial crisis. Mostly, the dark side of Dubai” type of publicity is widely written by British newspapers and magazines who seems to enjoy a new hobby called Dubai-bashing-for-fun. Most recently, one from “The Independent which one famous Dubai blogger thinks as the most vitriolic piece on Dubai so far. 

Today, Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum held an e-media session where he answered questions from the press. The full text of the session is long but I admired how the ruler of Dubai said, in relation to this negative writeups about his homeland:

Criticism and negative statements do not really disturb me. We do not mind receiving objective criticism that helps us improving our services and methods. If there were negative aspects, then we will address them and work toward revamping them.

As for the motives of the campaign, God Almighty knows. But it seems that the success of the Arab, whether individual or state, city or a company, is seen as unacceptable. It seems that seeing distinct images of successful Arabs and Arab countries disturbs some people. They would rather stick with the distorted images of Arab stereotypes in their minds.
 

So much have been written about Dubai and up to this day, I refused to write about it in this blog. It is energy consuming to point out the sometimes fabricated, highly sensationalized (Dubai as a ghost town with expats leaving due to global crisis – WHAT?), biased and written by journalists who have been sent here for a few days trip (Tournalists) and expected to meet all the suffering expats and write about their woes like they’ve been neighbors for 10 years.

One comment on the other Dubai blog says, “for every British journalist, willing to vilify Dubai for the sake of sensationalistic headlines, there are tens of thousands more willing to vacation, or do business in Dubai, even move there.”

But the sleaze will not stop. Dubai bashing has become a new sport and the international media is excited to play.