Global Warming Is Starting:

It's true, global warming is among us. No matter what people say, it's true that the world is falling apart (literally speaking). Take a look at what has happened to Haiti, there was an earthquake that destroyed the country, leaving thousands dead, lost and homeless. It's bad enough that they got affected but now Chile got affected with an earthquake with the magnitude of 8.8 (YIKES), leaving 11 aftershocks that had magnitudes of at least 6.0. Poor them, they are in so much trouble and to make things worse, With the earthquake destroying Chile, the President has announced that this is a "Catastrophic Disaster" and the earthquake has left so many Tsunami warnings to many islands and countries. These places include: Philippines, Russia, Japan, Hawaii and so on.


Now with parts of the world breaking away into pieces, Dubai on the other hand has been changing like crazy. Before I remember it would rain at least once or twice every few years, since we're living in a desert. We never get to see frequent rainfall like what some parts of the world get (Europe, London, Some parts of the US and so on). Sometimes we would wish to see that but not too much.

Since the year 2009, Dubai has been getting some weird weather systems. lets see we've been getting a lot of rainfall, at least about 5 to 10 chances of rainfall during the year. Also along with the rain, we get hail and winds. I remember sometime on March last year (2009), it had been really windy one day and I remember we had a few strong gusts of winds along with some electrical storms but there was no rain until later that night and we got a surprise, most of Dubai got covered with Hailstones and it was like as if it had snowed here but it didn't and don't get me started on the temperatures.

This year (2010), the temperatures have been going a little nuts, one day it's 20 degrees, another day it's 9 degrees and another day it went up to 31 degrees. Well I'm telling you, it's insane. Also just on the 27th of March 2010, we had a set of strong winds, they were so strong that things kept flying around and wouldn't stay in it's place, leaving dust along it's windy footsteps (Don't you just love my metaphors or what?) and then at around 8:30PM, we had a Severe Electrical Thunder Storm. Leaving all outside the UAE's residents to view nothing but loads of flashing bolts along the country. Since many people live in the Jumeirah Area, Some sources told me that even some lightning had struck around the ocean and the lightning was so strong that most phones were down, TV Signals were gone, Internet Signals were fading away and many places flooded.

Then it finally started to drizzle for about 3 seconds followed by a gush of water. Many people were drenched with water and some hail hit some areas. I remember at around that time, I stuck my head out the window to call someone and I couldn't because in just a couple of seconds, I was soaking in a lot of water .
With all this going on, my lazy cat "Dido" (Yes, I named my cat after the singer), managed to sleep through the storm. How could anyone fall asleep during this weather, I remember that my own grandfather couldn't sleep with all that flashing light and rain making so much noise. He kept blaming me for it, but frankly I can't make all that noise on my own :P

Eventually the rain had manage to cease for a while but as Gulf News predicted, that we will be facing some unstable weather for the next couple of days. Oh great, just my luck, I was planning to go to Aquaventure this coming week since I have nothing to do on my free time. Well so much for that theory, I guess I better plan something to do indoors.

Don't you just love the weather we've been having across the UAE or what? I'm actually enjoying the weather until the summer because, I know for a fact that the temperatures will go above a million degrees :P

Dubai's Weather Predictions:

OK, so for the past few years there have been many people/companies  trying to predict the weather forecast but it seems that they have been giving some incorrect information. For example Gulf News Predicted that on Friday it's "Supposed" to rain severely. Well  guess what, They were Wrong. And then just last week BBC News Said that it was supposed to be 14 degrees last Sunday but unfortunately they were incorrect (but thats ok, everyone makes mistakes). So far many people have been saying that the weather is supposed to be hot and boiling (yes, just like how we bake things in an oven) but now the weather has just been unstable for the past 5 days. I am now hoping that it would rain at least for a few days and it should rain a lot not just a few drops and that's it. No, I actually wish that it would just rain a little more than millimeters (at least 3 meters would do, you know like how it rains in Europe) and also so that everyone could go out and play in the rain :)

Minor Incident At Dubai Mall:

There was a minor leak that had happened at the Dubai Mall's aquarium and it turns out to be that on Thursday the 25th of Feb 2010, Half of the mall was closed due to the minor crack of the 100000 Liter filled Aquarium Tank. Thank God no one was hurt, actually not many people cared. It's as if everyone turned into robots. Some people didn't even realize that a specific part of the mall was flooded until the stores were forced to close earlier than expected. However ALL other levels remained opened but about 35% of the Ground floor was closed due to the flood. Most people were evacuated when the incident had occurred. No Injuries to any Human nor Animal. All the Marine life survived, well none of them came out.
Update: The Aquarium has just opened up today but some of the boat rides are currently unavailable!

The Aquarium Has Just OPENED Up Today :)

The Aquarium is Officially Opened!

Retrotrut's Gets really Sick:

              This is how my head feels at the moment

              The room is always spinning like crazy

 

And the result of all of this is a typical common cold 

Over the past 9 days I have been having these constant migraines (Yes, that long) and I have gotten to the point where I can hardly sleep at night because of my freaking headaches. All the time, almost 24 hours a day I keep getting a bad migraine followed by a massive dose of dizziness and now today my headache has gone from bad to terrible to worse to OMG My HEAD is KILLING ME!!!!!
And to make things worse today my migraine got so bad that I had to leave university earlier just to go to the doctor. I tried taking some caffeine(such as a cup of coffee) and even Panadol and those two things made my head spin even more and I did start getting nauseous .
So I went to the hospital and now I am FORCED to RELAX (I wish people would quit telling me to relax all the time). Now I have to skip about 2 - 3 days of university but, the university is closing this coming Thursday because of a public holiday. So I'm getting the entire week off to relax (except for Monday, because even though it's the Doctors Orders, I still have to go in tomorrow and attend a class).
The doctor told me that today I am in such a bad shape (not in weight but in every other way). I have deep eye bags, I'm very unstable, my nose is congested, my ear's nerves are getting infected, my thyroids are swelling and the list goes on. Oh Yeah and I've over-stressed because of the amount of work I've been doing and of course I have to try and get some rest. Normally when I get home, I rarely play any games or even watch any series. I barely watch any horror movies (because there aren't any good ones on TV) but I do watch TV, whenever I get to have lunch or dinner.
So  now as of the doctor's orders, I will NOT be updating my blog until further Notice. Please Be Patient With Me Until I Get Better!

Retro's Mall To Be In:

Now we all heard of all the malls we have here in Dubai. There are so many malls such as Mall Of Emirates, Mercato Mall, Town Center, Dragon Mall, Ibn Batutta Mall, Marina Mall (Dubai Marina) and so on. I think that those are enough malls in Dubai but Dubai keeps on building more and more malls. It's nice to get a chance to explore the New Dubai (Bye Old Dubai, We'll Miss You).

Now which is the Mall To be in?

Dubai Mall is the Place to be in. Now forget Mall Of the Emirates, that mall is literally boring. The only good thing about Mall Of The Emirates is that they have a Virgin Megastores that is a billion times better than any of the branches located in the UAE and that they have Ski Dubai (an indoor Ski & Snow Park). Oh Yeah and a Metro Station.

So what does Dubai Mall have to offer the world?

Dubai Mall has so many things to offer, they have an amazing book store called Kinokunia (sorry if I spelled it wrong), Some amazing electronic stores, A bunch of clothing stores (Start with the letter A and ends with the letter Z. Such as: Hang Ten, CK, Gucci, Prada, Bossini, Zara and so on), they have both Formal and informal clothing stores (Bloomingdale's has just opened this month at Dubai Mall). They also have an amazing food court (we even have our First Halal Taco Bell) and it ranges from expensive (Karma Cafe) to Less Expensive (Taco Bell, Mc Donalds, Baskin Robbins & so on). For all you ladies out there, Dubai Mall is one of the largest malls in Dubai and that means that they have the largest Gold Souq here. Prices may vary during the DSF. Now for all the children here, Dubai Mall has some really nice stores for the young ones (Sega Republic, KidZania -Now the kids can start training for some of their future careers like being a pilot and so on. Also Hamely's Toy Store is NOW Open for everyone ).

Now For us Teens, What does Dubai Mall have to offer us?

Say Hello to Reel Cinemas, Enjoy a luxurious treat with nice fluffy seats and watch some amazing movies (WARNING: Side Effects Include: Overdose of Happiness, turning into a Shoppaholic  and dizziness as well as Nausea (from too much fun)).

Calling All Chocoholics:

Please direct your taste buds to Dubai Mall as you can go to Dubai's largest Candy Shop Ever. Experience delicious New types of chocolates (such as Tea infused chocolates & Chocolates with different types of twists like citrus flavor, chili flavor -yuck and so on) and if you are interested in candy (there is Taffy, Fruit Rollups, Tootsi Pops, Lolli Pops and so on.) And with all of this, you can even buy your own bag of mixed Jellybeans. Imagine how wonderful that sounds, and to make things even better, Dubai Mall is not as expensive as most malls in Dubai. The prices here vary. It all depends on what you buy.

Home Department:

Dubai Mall also has a Home Decor Department. In this department, there are many stores that sell furniture for your homes. These include beds to sofas to chairs to kitchens and so on. If you're interested in buying some furniture. Please STAY away from the following stores, since they are expensive for no reason:
-Iwannagohome (the name sounds corny and their furniture sucks big time and the prices are outrageous)
-Armani Home (Most of their products are made up of cheap materials except for their kitchen department).

Coffee anyone? Lets sit outside on the terrace and have a wonderful cup of coffee or even have a meal and just sit and enjoy the fantastic Dancing Fountains in front of the Burj Dubai  Khalifa 
Last but not least, if you have to do some last minute grocery/supermarket shopping, step right up into the Waitross Supermarket or if you want to try something Organic, then visit the Organic Market. Both of them are located in the Lower Ground Level of the mall.

Education Wise:

Dubai Mall has a great place to get some sort of education, other than going to school or to the university, why not explore the Marine life by visiting the Dubai Mall's Aquarium. You can learn about the different types of fish and other exotic animals and now Dubai Mall has their own set of Penguins at their discovery center. There is even an underwater zoo, where you can see all the sharks, stingrays, hamours (the local type of fish in Dubai) and the rest of the 330000 types of species. The prices for both the Underwater Zoo and the discovery center is 100DHS per adult (I'm not too sure about the prices for kids)***
Now, as for the Children, you can now let your kids go and start training for their future careers over here. There is a place called KidZainia, where your children can start learning more about their future careers and even get a head start on them. They can choose to be either Teachers, Artists, Pilots, Firefighters and much much more.

Are you convinced yet? Well I hope so, because to tell you the truth Dubai Mall has EVERYTHING you can imagine, except a Virgin Megastore (those B@$#!%!$ for treating me with disrespect) but if Dubai Malls open  that, then EVERY single mall in Dubai would go bankrupt. This is from my point of view of course. So if you're game, then come on down to the mall. This is the place to be in. Also this mall offers a great form of exercise because since the mall is about 12000000 square feet, then you can walk around the entire mall and of course lose weight as you go shopping :)

*** Prices may vary when it comes to visiting the Underwater Zoo and the Discovery Center, because if you want to go on a glass-bottom boat ride, that costs you an extra 25DHS per person and if you want to feed the fish in the 5 story glass aquarium then that costs 5 DHS per Jar per person (you literally buy a jar of fish food and feed them yourself, NO, you're not swimming with them, you're feeding them from the top of the aquarium)

"Good" Services At The Virgin Megastore In The Mercato:

On Monday, the 8th of February 2010, I had decided to call Virgin Megastore in the Mercato to ask them about some information on a game that I was awaiting for. Now before I continue, generally, How are employees supposed to treat their customers? With respect, right? Well NOT for the Virgin Megastore in the Grand Mercato.
So as I was saying, I went and called Virgin Megastore and to think that they would have the game that I wanted. Here is what happened: (V.M is Virgin Megastore)
Dial Tone Rining, then someone picks up:
Me: Hello
V.M: Hello, this is Virgin Megastore, Mercato, How may I help You?
Me: Hi, I was wondering do you have The Sims 3: High Ends Loft?
V.M: Hold On, let me check
.........................................................The lady goes and checks on the computer..................................
V.M: ........................She hangs up on my face.......................
I redial Virgin Megastore and then they keep closing the phone on my face and they don't even have the Nerve to say their sorry.
I called them about 10 times and they kept hanging up on my face, Well I then decided to go to them and give them a piece of my mind. I then started to BOYCOTT Virgin Megastore and I convinced some people to do the same thing (I don't know if they bothered to do that)

I went to them on Wednesday (2 days later) and I went up to the lady by the phone and I told her "Look, it's bad enough you keep hanging up on my face and it's bad enough you're not treating your customers with ANY respect. So if I were you, I would either shape up or I'm going to call the Dubai Municipality and have them shut this place down!!!!!!"
Oh man, the lady had flipped and she then apologized and said she was sorry and then that was it. So the moral of this story is NEVER trust Virgin Megastore AGAIN!

It's Celebrity Spoofs Watch:

Britney Spears Spoof:

Britney Spears - Oops I Farted Again



Other Celebrity Spoofs:

Cooking With Retro: New Recipe Revealed

Today is a great day for what I have created. Well it's not much, but I thought of the perfect Low Calorie Dessert that has about 300 Calories included (if you don't include any whipped cream of course).
This creation that I have invented is a Double Chocolate Cake with a Mint Chocolate Sauce. Doesn't that sound tempting? or what?

Double Chocolate Cake with Mint Chocolate Sauce:

Double Chocolate Cake Batter:

• 3 eggs
• 4 drops of Olive Oil (less than half a teaspoon of Olive Oil)
• half a big block of Spinney's Dark Cooking Chocolate or some other brand of Dark Cooking Chocolate (it should be grated into shreds of chocolate)
• 4 cups of Low Fat Milk. (NOT Skim Milk)
• 4 table spoons of Cadbury's Cocoa Powder. It looks like this 
• 1/2 a bag Chocolate Chips, like the ones they use for making chocolate chip cookies (Hershey's Dark Chocolate Chips are recommended)
• 6 - 8 large spoons of flour
• 1 - 2 large spoons of sugar (optional)
• 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 a teaspoon of baking soda
• 1/2 a teaspoon of salt (optional)

Mint Chocolate Sauce:

• 2 Random Branded Chocolate Sauces (Not Nutella, it should be like 2 Different types of Belgian Chocolate Sauces)
• Pepper Mint Extract
• Crushed Chocolate Chips
• Cherries for what you put on cakes, ice cream, etc....

Directions:

Take 1 large bowl and add all the ingredients for the Double Chocolate batter and mix them all together with a large metallic spoon (not wooden). You need to mix it until the batter becomes almost liquid but there are going to be some lumps. Now is this normal to see lumps in the batter? well, yes, that is normal. Is this supposed to happen? the answer is yes, because as always, when you see lumps it means you need to use  the mixer (yes, the machine. We can finally use it :P ). Then preheat the over to 185 *c, while the oven is being heated, base the cake baking tray with flour and butter and then you should put the cake batter into the oven and let it bake for 30 to 45 minutes.

While the cake is baking, you should then start making the sauce for the cake. To do that, you need a small bowl and you need to add the 2 brands of chocolate sauces, the crushed chocolate chips & the peppermint extract and mix it together with a small spoon (No Mixer is Required).
Once the cake is done, just leave it to cool for about 30 minutes or an hour at max and then just spread the Mint Chocolate Sauce on top of the cake and decorate it with the cherries. The pictures above will explain how the cake should look like!

This is Copyrighted to Retrotrut!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Charmed Manor Discovered on Google Earth 5:

View Larger Map

Dido Updates: Brief Album Info.

Did you deliberately decide to make this album hark back to your electronic roots, or did it just turn out that way?
As with everything I've done, it just turned out that way. I'm not good at planning these things out or thinking too far ahead. I never have been. Part of it is I just make the music I want to listen to at that particular time and the other part is that I'd put a new logic program on my computer last year and was really enjoying playing with it at home and the record just grew out of that and all the inspiring sounds I could find or create. The difference now to before is that making the last album taught me so much about playing and arranging and engineering and production etc.. That I can really enjoy just being self sufficient and making records wherever I am on my own. It feels really good to get lost completely in my own world and create a new sound that way. Then on top of that, when I do get into a studio with Rollo or Sister Bliss it just feels amazing to have their extra inspiration and input at that point and watch the tracks transform. I'm having a lot of fun making this record.

When you're in this stage of the process, do you find yourself thinking about nothing else but recording? Or are you good at leaving it behind when you shut the studio door?
I'm not great at leaving it behind properly if I'm in a proper studio situation and I've always got songs and ideas going round in my head at all times. It's how I see the world around me I suppose. But I have good periods of time when I don't think too much about it as there's so many other things I like doing or learning about and people I want to see. I also get my best ideas when I just forget about it all for a minute and let my brain relax!

Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and written lyrics?
I've dreamt a few lyrics and I've learnt that you have to write them down. I always think I'll remember them in the morning and never do.

Finally, what was your favourite book of 2009?
My favourite by far of last year was BROOKLYN by Colm Toibin. Really moving and engaging. I was gutted to finish it as I wanted to stay in that world for longer.

A View From The 124th Floor Of The Burj Khalifa:

About a couple of days ago, I went to visit the Burj Khalifa. When I went there, the enterance was temporarily closed as it was still under construction, so the "Temporary" enterance is located in the Lower Ground floor of the Dubai Mall. The Burj Khalifa is actually still under construction, even the Armani Hotel isn't even finished yet, not to mention the 160th floor is still needing some work done (the scaffolding is still there from what my sources mentioned). So here I am sitting on top of the world (Literally speaking), since the Burj Dubai Khalifa is the tallest building in the world. If you go to the Dubai Mall and get yourself a ticket, it only costs about a 100Dhs for the walk-in tour and 440Dhs for the private tour. The walk-in tour is way better because now there is simply NO tickets left for the private tour :/ .
As soon as I got my ticket, I just went into the elevator and started from the Ground floor and it took me about less than a minute to get up on to the 124th floor as the Burj Khalifa. The speed was like the airplane taking off (it was that fast). By the time I reached up to the 124th floor, the Burj had some type of telescopes where you can view the entire city, you can even view it as the following: Day, Live and Night.

Day: View the city in daylight (it's like Google Earth - Not in Live traffic)

Live: View the city in Live Traffic (cars moving, planes flying, etc..)

Night: View the city in night time (again it's like Google Earth. It's not in Live Traffic)

Also when you get upstairs on the 124th floor, you have the option of going outside on the patio, which is covered with a wooden plank floor and some metallic windows as well as some metallic Kiosks (which are closed) and you can put your hands out the metallic window and take pictures with your camera.
Other than that, when you are also upstairs, you will get to see some pictures of how they got the idea of making the Burj Khalifa and there are some models. There is also an expensive gift shop that is selling the exact things in the main gift shop downstairs but just a little more expensive. For example they are selling 700ml of water that is in a nice looking packaging and selling it for about 300Dhs. And it's only normal tap water that has been imported from London (I heard that from Gulf news).

To some it up, it was a really nice experience to go view the Burj Khalifa. So if you ever get a chance just go in and have a look at it. It costs a 100Dhs to enter. So far the Hotel of the Burj Dubai is not going to be opened till sometime on March 2010.