A fine line!

Getting a driver’s license in the UAE is not an easy task. But I managed it with ease and so I declared myself from that day onwards – a good driver. Actually to be honest I have been driving for more than half a decade in Dubai. To date I have never received any major fines. However I did receive two small ones. One, for not paying the parking ticket and second for obstruction of traffic.

I have very good explanation to justify myself on these two counts too. In the first case, it was just a technical glitch. You see here we can pay tickets via sms, but I happened to send to the wrong number, realised it when I found a ticket on the car. For the second one, I would like to blame the hubby darling. Dropping him off one day, in front of the office I happened to have stopped the car on the narrow road for not more than 20 seconds but that still did amount to obstruction of traffic. And it would not have happened if the hubby had not asked me to drop him. Right ?

Now coming back to square one. I am good driver! I can give good lectures too on the subject, I can also give you few of feelers from some my previous posts.

1. Driving me crazy

2. My massive problem of passive road rage

3. Take care, not chances

But this New Years I got my first speeding ticket. Sob, sob! Yet again I would like to state that it was not my fault. This time too I have a perfect explanation to the slip-up or should I say speed-up and the photo shot that ensued.

1.      The weather was lovely, with slight drizzle and moonlit sky

2.      The mood was happy, as we were driving to Muscat to meet the extended family

3.      My daughter’s favourite song Jiya Jiya Re from Jab tak hain jaan was playing

4.      On one my favourite radio channels, City 101.6 fm

gettyimage.ae

So singing along with Smera, I accidently happened to step on to the gas a little more than I should have. Should I be blamed for it? No, City 101.6 should be for held responsible for constantly playing lovely music that instantly perk me up and put me in such a jolly good mood that I forget the road speeding limits too.

It was just a mistake but that still cannot take away the fact that all of us had a wonderful time listening to the radio during the long drive.

Economist - 0, Farhan Akhtar - 1

I love listening to music. Perhaps good music might be the only thing in the whole world that the same affect on everyone (except my husband, more on that later) and today’s post is all about Sangrywords having fun at Dubai Music Week.

Saturday night was the most spectacular concert night that I have been to in a real long time. I was almost going give this concert a miss with us the house shifting, the other headaches surrounding it and the hubby travelling, there was no chance. But the lady luck smiled on me - The one sms to City 101.6 with an answer to a question got me premiere tickets to the concert. But the biggest surprise was the chance to meet Farhan Akhtar in person.

Even with tight schedules, the event manager in me made sure hubby landed just in time to head straight to the concert. In my anxiety to reach the venue on time I ended up 45 minutes early - as the saying goes, better early than sorry! Wearing a 5 inch stilettos waiting for the gates to open for concert must be easy-breezy for most girls but for a mum of toddler who is always in snickers or flat pumps, that was really a tough ask.

Once we got in of course there was another customary an hour and half wait before it all got going. So we managed to find a place to sit down and thankfully it was not on the floor. After a while, I saw my hubby plugging headphone to his iPod, and was nodding his head appreciating some good music, or so I thought. The truth is hubby is musically challenged, I mean it’s something that he does not really enjoy, he’d rather watch news channel.   The curious devil in me got me to ask him what was it that he enjoying so much and it turns out that he was listing to "The Bo Xilai trial: End of the road?" from the latest audio edition of the Economist. I can also reveal at this stage that my hubby is the arguably the only person in the entire universe with out even having a single song in an almost full 32GB Ipod.

The fun had just begun, when I was swiftly escorted back stage to meet n greet Farhan Akhtar followed by a photo opportunity. I did not miss this golden opportunity to shake hands and hug him. Feeling ecstatic I ran back to the darling hubby like a child who got her favourite gift.

Image: 7days.com

Pritam was a bit late coming in and hence he really was the cause for the delay, however it is understandable since he was wearing sunglasses at night, must have found it difficult to find his way to the venue.

Image: City 101.6

Image: City 101.6

Arijit Singh’s Kabira song and Neeti Mohan’s act, kick-started the night and even my musically demur hubby too was caught dancing (this time without the Economist audio edition in the background). Next was Benny Dayal, my first time watching him perform live and it was worth waiting every second of it. Benny and Farhan Akhtar are two supremely talented boys and add up to that, these pappus can really dance. Unfortunately we had to leave before Mohit Chauhan came on but it’s was for an even more priceless reason Smera. It was past 1:20 am and I was worried if she found us still missing from home then the baby-sitter would have had a tough time to placate her.

Thank you City 101.6 for making the evening so special for me and my hubby, it was a pure prodigious night to cherish!