D4 ...

... is an even bigger explosion than you get with C4?

(or maybe one of R2D2's or C3PO's mob?)

No! - it is the Daft title I came up with when I logged in to blogger (where the first place I get taken to is my "Dashboard") and noticed that I called last year's D post "D" so that meant I would have to come up with something else ...

so what Dopey stuff can I Divulge about the letter D for ABC Wednesday?

I Definitely have to mention the Dog! (he Doesn't like to be left out of whatever is going on;-)

- I have lots of photos of our Dog, Diesel, on this blog - http://spot-theblog.blogspot.com/

(and a few on here as well - I knew labels were useful for something - )http://aykayem.blogspot.com/search/label/dog and/or http://aykayem.blogspot.com/search/label/Diesel ... another D word comes up at the top of that one - "Don't touch" - LOL - I Did enjoy writing that post ;-)

and D is Definitely for Desert - a rather Delicious part of Dinner to Devour ... oh Drats - I Don't think I have any ice cream in the freezer ... what a Disaster! LOL

(hmmm - Does anyone remember this Delightful (Disgusting?) concoction? - http://aykayem.blogspot.com/2008/01/sticky-bananas-and-other-stuff.html )

maybe I should talk about Devilled Kidneys instead (which I think are rather Delightful Do Dads to munch on, even if Dozens of people I know think they are rather Disgusting - even to the point of them Divesting themselves of whatever they were currently Digesting, and producing something Diabolical that seems to always contain Diced carrots ... oh - sorry - Did you just Do that too?)

D is also for Digress - which I tend to Do way to often - and you probably wish I Didn't after reading that last paragraph!

I probably Do that because I am Disorganised ... I am not even sure where to start Dealing with that topic of conversation - just read my whole blog and you will probably get the idea - lol

(you will also notice that this is not the only post that mentions, and/or has photos of, yucky/goopy/icky stuff that looks/sounds Disgusting - I tend to Delight in Doing that - I guess some people might find it Disturbing, and maybe they might think I have some weird Disease or Disorder? but who would Dare to Diagnose something like that? ;-)

Dictionary is one D word that I Don't need to actually go and use - I seem to be thinking of enough Darn D words as it is!

D is also for Dunlop Environment Volunteers - which is the Landcare group I belong to.
http://www.ginninderralandcare.org.au/category.php?id=26

... and for Distilled/De-ionised water ... not quite the same thing as each other but near enough for the "bucket chemistry" they do in high school science classes ... which is why they get the Dodgy De-ionised stuff whenever they ask for either one - because that is what we have ...

It is also what I Dissolve stuff in when I make up chemical solutions and stuff for the science classes to use ... but I had better stop talking about my work before I bore you all to Death - LOL

but - talking about science - DNA also starts with D ... and stands for DeoxyriboNucleicAcid or somesuch ... and is the stuff that gets Decoded to Define what we look like ... but just before I logged in here I found a rather Different page about DNA - http://goldennumber.net/dna.htm - it mentions the geometry of the Double helix and Decagons and Diagonals and Degrees and stuff - and could be Decidedly exciting for those who like to Delve into the mysteries of geometry and fractals and other weird stuff like that ... (a much more exciting part of maths than times tables and long Division!)

D is also for Dubai, which I WAS going to do most of this post about ... until I thought of a whole pile of other stuff before I even got around to opening my image editing software and finding some of my Digital photos that I took in Dubai earlier this year ...

I also just (when I first came in here and Decided to check my e-mail first) got sent a link that led me to this interesting blog written by someone who lives in Dubai - http://sonenskadu.blogspot.com/ (Definitely one I must remember to go back to another Day - and oddly enough, it was also her site that led me to the thing about DNA)

- you can Dally there for a moment or 50, while I go dig around and find MY photos of Dubai - lol


oh yes - I have Definitely got to include this rather Different one! ...



- some Daft cat ... Probably trying to lie Doggo in the Drainpipe until it felt that the Danger had passed. I Don't think it was stuck (but I wasn't about to touch it and risk having it Dive out and Dig it's teeth and/or claws into me or somesuch - not in some other country where they have horrible Diseases like rabies and stuff! ... and definitely not on the first Day of my month long overseas holiday! any kind of Disease or infection could be Dangerous when in a place where it can be Difficult to find a Decent English speaking Doctor)
I never Did see it's head - lol
but - Did you notice the Designs on the Drain cover (or whatever it is) ... a geometric Design ... and a Diamond - LOL


Mum and I also Did some walking Down at the Docks, on Dubai Creek - and we took Digital photos of Dhows (I think that is how it is spelt - they are the boats that were traditionally used for trade in these parts - and many still are) and watched the men unloading and loading stuff, and sitting around talking, and staring at us because we were female and female tourists probably don't usually wander around that area taking photos while it is getting Dark! LOL


... if you look at the horizon/buildings in the Distance (you can sort of just see them through the Desert Dusty haze) you can see some of Dubai's Distinctive buildings ... the tall skinny one on the right is the Burj Dubai ... which is probably going to become the world's tallest building (if they ever actually get it finished).

I took lots of photos of Doors:



single Doors

and Double Doors



... because I liked the interesting Designs.

I also like these Designs:



... this was part of the wall of a rather large (and rather blue) Mosque.

I am not sure what they are building here - but it also has some interesting Designs on it:



... but what on earth are those workers Doing?! (in orange clothing, on the scaffolding on the right) ... I wonder if there was a reason for them being all lined up one under/over the other like that? - maybe if was just so us tourists could take a Different photo - lol ... actually - they all look like part of one of those old "platform" computer games - like "lemmings" or something! LOL

ok ... just to prove that Dubai has/is Desert, and I went there:



not that this photo proves anything - tourist camels could probably be found anywhere - Desert or not - LOL
... I wonder if those thingys on their faces are crochet? ... could this be "Camel Crochet"?!
(yes there is a type of crochet called that - the stitches are done a bit differently than normal crochet)

The camels were where we went for our Dubai "Dune Dinner" tour (yes - we had to to the tourist thing at least once - lol) ... we went for a 4WD over some Dunes, stopped for a few desert photos, but we only stayed for a few minutes at the stop they usually use for the "Sunset photo" - because it was too Dusty and there wasn't anything spectacular to see in the way of a sunset ... it just kind of gradually got darker until it was night time ... lol
I think I did go for a camel "ride" (if you can call sitting on one and being led around in a small circle "riding" - lol - I guess that is what kids do for "pony rides" too ... but it was all pretty tame for a person like me - who has actually ridden a camel in a camel race! ... it was a long time ago ... back in "another life" - before I met DH, when I lived in Alice Springs for 3 years ... but I would ride in a camel race again now if the opportunity presented itself - LOL)

While the tourists were still fighting over the camel rides and getting henna tattoos and stuff, I went for a walk up a very big sand Dune:


... every time I thought I was nearly at the top ... another, even higher, Dune would appear behind it! I gave up when there was still at least one more much higher Dune behind the one I was standing on to take this photo - that is the Dinner "camp" Down in the Distance. Boy was I Darn puffed out when I got up there ... it probably took me 10 minutes to walk up there (I kind of needed the couple of "photo stops" I had on the way up - so I could catch my breath!) ... but it only took about 2 minutes or less to get Down - because I ran down - what fun - wheeeeeeeeee! LOL

After Dining on a Delightful Desert Dinner, while we were eating our Desert, we got to watch the belly Dancer Do her stuff:



she was actually quite good ... pity my photo wasn't!

After the show was over we got to spend a while sitting around and have a smoke on the water pipes (no - not opium or some other Deadly Drug ... just what was probably a little bit of tobacco with a pile of spices and apple and stuff mixed with it) ... then we piled back in to the vehicles for a nice Drive, in the Dark, back to our hotel in Deira City (one of the suburbs/whatever of Dubai).

Another tour we did was a Drive, in a bus, around a few of the other emirates (Sharjah, Fujira etc, and some weird little part of the country of Oman that is inside the UAE - the borders/etc do some odd things over there!)
I Didn't put a photo of it in here, but we got to take a Dip in a Different ocean Durning our lunch stop (hmmm I might have to do a whole blog post about all the different places I have been swimming - lol).

I think we were still in Fujira when I took this photo:



I actually took this out the window of the bus as we drove past! - I noticed how amazing the sun looked through the clouds, and I was taking a few photos of it over the craggy mountains beside us, when I noticed that this Minaret was up ahead ... and I did the usual thing I do on moving vehicles that are not about to stop just so I can take a weird photo - I lined it up and clicked when I thought would be about right, and hoped for the best - and in this case it wasn't "Did I get it? ... Drats, I Didn't" it was "Did I get it? - oh wow! yes I Did!" LOL
... and no - I have not Done anything to this photo, other than made it a bit smaller size so it wasn't too big for uploading - this is how the camera saw it - and how I saw it as well ... (kind of eirie, eh?)
Don't forget you can click on these photos to see them bigger (and if you want to see them bigger than that I guess you will have to ask me to e-mail them to you in their original size - lol - I doubt that anyone really wants to Do that though ...)

I actually got a few other good photos on that trip (to Dubai, etc) ... and quite a few of those "Drats I missed it" ones ... but that is enough for now - especially seeing DH got home from work while I was typing most of this last night (Monday evening), but I still had not added the photos - so I Decided to Do it "tomorrow" (Tuesday) ... which I Did ... but now it has got rather late again - in fact it is just past Midnight (so now it is actually Wednesday, but I might leave Tuesdays Date on here - lol - and the time I have just put on here is the time I was actually having my Dinner! - I kind of Didn't get around to it earlier because DH was at work and I was in here messing around finding/fixing the photos to put on here!)


The reason that the stuff about Dubai was only going to be "most" of a post is because I was also going to mention the other Deserts I have been to ... like the ones here in Australia (hmmm - maybe I should just let you google that? lol), and the other Deserts I ended up in while on the same trip that took me to Dubai - like the corner of the Sahara Desert that is in Egypt ... which had some areas that were quite Desolate, and some that were Delightfully Different (like the Black and White Deserts)

but ... seeing those were in Egypt, and, because the letter E comes immediately after the letter D, I could actually now be posting my E post - I might have to put some photos of that Desert in there!

but I Do have one for you to go on with ...



and I Didn't have to Dodge trees whizzing past a bus window to take this one ... we were camping for the night in the White Desert, and while the guide and driver were setting up camp I Decided to go for a walk - so I just had to Dash around to the right places to get the right angles to line up what I thought might make interesting photos as the sun set and Darknes Descended upon the White Desert ...
(and Mum started to wonder how much longer I was going to be as the guide and Driver had Dinner almost ready and apparently they were starting to look Decidedly worried about the fact that I was not back from my walk yet - Mum wasn't that worried because she knows me, but they Didn't know that I am me and I Do that sort of stuff all the time ... they also Didn't realise that even though I had Disapeared into the Distance, and had Ducked in and out from behind a few large rock formations, I could see exactly where the camp was and I knew it would only take me a few minutes to Dash back if it started getting too Dark - LOL)

oh Dear! - I hope you liked my (Decidedly Different? Disturbing? or just plain Daggy?) Dally into the Delights of all sorts of things to Do with stuff that starts with the letter D ...

(and I hope you Didn't find it too Disturbing? ;-)

btw - yes - D is also for Delivering this stuff Decidedly late! - oops! LOL




Note: the following paragraph probably makes no sense - feel free to Decide it is too Dopey and ignore it - I originally wrote it when I first started typing up this post ... then added the red bits later. (then I added this blue bit because it still didn't make sense anyway - LOL)
(yep - been too busy Doing other things ... maybe I should just post my E post at the same time - LOL ... nah - I Don't want to be a Day or 2 Early er ... no chance of that seeing I wrote this bit on Monday and it now IS the Day my E post is Due ! (just) ... so this whole paragraph probably Doesn't make any sense now - lol ... then again ... Early does start with an E ... but tomorrow is Early Enough - if I feel Energetic about it tomorrow Evening Energetic - maybe, but did that Eventuate? no - not when I didn't Even finish this post! ... or if I Even remember! I guess what I now need to remember is to come in here tomorrow Evening and DO my E post while there is still Enough of a chance that it will be posted in time for me to be able to add it to their silly linky thingy before it stops letting people add any more links)

wow - this post is a Doozy!