Saturday, October 13, 2007

Eid al Fitr

The 30 days of Ramadan came to an end yesterday and the Eid al Fitr holiday has begun. Muslims celebrate the ocassion when the angel Gabriel revealed Allah's words to the prophet Mohammed where they were in turn written in the Koran. Early yesterday morning (5 am or so) we heard singing coming from the Mosque's loudspeakers. This signaled the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid. It was quite interesting to listen as we did not hear the joyful singing last year when we were in Sharjah.

Darcy and I have a five day break that began last Thursday. We've spent the first couple of days sleeping in and watching dvds. It's been a busy semester with a lot of uncounted overtime. So we needed time to decompress. We haves many dvds to watch including a ton of Star Treks. I've ordered the 49 disc 20th anniversary of The Next Generation tv series. I've also ordered the complete series of Deep Space Nine. The first season of the origional series has been re-issued (again) but this time it includes a completetly remastered version. But I'll wait until the price comes down a bit.

Darcy and I will venture outside today and do some grocery shopping at Abu Dhabi's newest mall (Al Wahda). We will start planning a trip to Musandam Peninsula. It's the northern tip of the Arabian Peninsula but it's Omani territory. It has many fiords like in northern Scandinavia and the area is drivable from Abu Dhabi.

As usual I'll mention some interesting articles from the Gulf News. There are more new building projects in our city. Construction on the the Louvre Abu Dhabi will officially get underway soon. Then there is the 2.7 billion USD commercial and residential project. Our city's old airport is getting a new facility too. Of course we can't forget Dubai. That emirate just announced a staggering project to build a 75 km canal. They're also helping to plan a 350 km cross country railway.

Finally there was an interesting article about 138 prominent Muslim scholars writing an open letter to heads of all Christian churches. I don't know if this made major headlines in the West.

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