Hamthrax.

So, after changing my menu around this week, I am still a bit peeved that I can't get pork if I want to because the government here says we could all die from swine flu. Educated, real doctors? "No connection." Hmmmm... It is just one more thing to add to my things-I-hate-and-most-certainly-do-not-understand-about-this-country list.

Sheikh Issa tourturing a man for a missed delivery of a couple thousand dirham worth of merchandise? No problem, says the UAE government. But allowing pork products to enter the country, which have absolutely NOTHING to do with swine flu. Biggest issue ever. Grrr.

On a related note, we went to Marina Mall (you know, the hugest one) last night to eat pizza from our favorite little Italian place, Figaro's (yep, back from Italy for a mere two weeks and we're already craving more) and the mall was nearly deserted. Ok, ok, there were still hundreds of people there, but usually when we go we have to drive around for 20 minutes before lucking into a parking space on a Saturday at dinner time. This time, we got one easily that was pretty close and all the others near it were empty too. Odd.

So I'm wondering if the international economic turmoil we've been hearing about is starting to rear it's ugly head here too, in the form of less unneccessary spending. Normally there are loads of people shopping for their next designer handbag (with one on their arm and probably dozens more in their closet at home) or shoes, but no one seemed to be shopping last night.

Then, I was sad to learn that I personally would be effected by the economy finally. The pizza I ordered, which I've had half a dozen times, had a mere 4 shrimp on it (which hardly constitutes a "Shrimp Lovers" pizza...) as opposed to the usual ten or so. I nearly cried.

On a happier note we discovered a little Asian restaurant tucked in the very farthest corner of the mall, which we will have to try out next time. It smelled delicious at the very least.

I have been working on a knitted doll for Melissa's baby the past few days and we had a pretty enjoyable weekend (even if it was fairly bland). We watched half of Frost Nixon, which was surprisingly not boring, but it started to skip so we stopped (stupid cheap DVDs). Hopefully we'll be able to finish it this week sometime.

That's about it from me. Hope everyone else is having a great weekend!