Monday, January 21, 2008

Desert Diary 2



Where I live. Here's a couple of shots I have handy, one romantic, the other the cold reality. Both of these are taken from the balcony of the front room of our 1st floor apartment in Al Ain (UAE). The mosque is outside our front gate, and it is what is called a Friday mosque - one which broadcasts a sermon over the loudspeakers for 30 minutes every Friday around noon. As the UAE is a devout Moslem country, prayers are called 5 times a day at full volume. That means we have had to get used to 4 - 5 a.m. prayer calls rattling our windows every day. And that takes some getting used to as it really sounds as if someone is in the bedroom bellowing in your ear. This is not surprising as the whole object of the exercise is to get people up out of their beds in order to pray.

The other shot is an autumn sunset. Spring and autumn bring clouds, which make for pretty pictures. When the weather is pleasant in March - May and October - December, evenings are spent out on the balcony, supping a cooling can or two and enjoying the muzak from the front room. More on this later when I get my interior shots uploaded.

3 comments:

nilpferd said...

That reminds me of an article about Erik Truffaz who was giving an outdoor concert in Lebanon once when a Muezzin's cry began, and he integrated it into the piece he was playing at the time, responding on his trumpet.

Tempusfugit said...

I can believe that of Erik. A couple of years ago, the Al Ain Classical Music Festival was culminating with an outdoor concert by a Viennese chamber orchestra given in the courtyard of Al Ain fort. The local Sheikh decided to come and pay a visit, so he landed by helicopter just as the orchesta were ploughing through a Mozart symphony. Unfortunately, the orchestra couldn't quite compete or complement, so they stopped. The Sheikh and his entourage were ushered in, the symphony started afresh and 10 minutes into it, the Sheikh and his entourage up and left . . . by helicopter of course. Laugh or cry?

Anonymous said...

So Ah tek it yuh divvent gan yem to Morpeth fo' yuh dinnah, bonny lad?