Monday, July 31, 2017

Stairway to...



Hey All ✋😉,

Let's start yet another beautiful day with a good thought...





As if I'm in a dream... A place that came out of a dream... A nostalgic feeling... Calm and peaceful...


This photo was taken near our home back in Kerala. This is only one side of the river. the opposite side too have similar stairs. During summer the water levels goes really low that we can walk and cross this river. It feels really really good to be here...

Device: FujiFilm FinePix T200 / Date: 24/03/2012

My Photoblog post is here


Saturday, July 29, 2017

Xperia Experiments


Hi Friends 😊,

Let's start the day with some Positive Thoughts...

Image Courtesy : Google Images


Guys as you all know by now my best Camera buddy is my Sony Xperia C5 Ultra Dual Sim Smartphone with the best Primary Camera- 13 MP, f/2.0, 25mm, autofocus, LED flash. And its features include Geo-tagging, touch focus, face/smile detection, panorama, HDR If you want to know more about this smartphone see here

Furthermore it helps in taking macro photos. So obviously I wanted to test the functions and features. I have the habit of picking up flowers or stones which I see along my walking path around my room or office. And I happened to pick some Royal Poinciana / Gulmohar (commonly know like this in our native). As many of you residing in Dubai and other places already know that during April-May months, specially during summer months these trees are in full bloom and can be found in most parks and road sides. The flowers have orange-red colored petals. The whole flowered trees are a great sight to the eyes. 
Know more about these flowers here


Now moving onto my macro shots with a smartphone. I didn't get to pick the whole flower, but only the withered flower with the Anthers and somewhat thick petals/sepals (I'm not sure if this is the right wording. Kindly correct me if anyone know the exact word for this).
I took these photos on 20/5/2017 and 21/05/2017. And here I'm just trying to test my phone camera Macro shots features and I think it captures the details pretty well. I adjusted the colors and effects wit Pixlr Express. The colors were captured well, except that few photos were taken on low light. I think the lines and colors and the fur like substance on the filaments were captured well too. And the bokeh background looks good too. And the anthers are pretty clear and visible. I guess the overall performance is of good quality for a smartphone to take macro photos. 

Guys do check it out and let me know what you think about it. Help me out with your tips and tricks to better photo taking. All and any positive comments are critiques are always welcome. 

I took photos of these same flowers using my Huawei Honor 5X and will share those in a different post. 
































Stay blessed and happy friends...
Silent Gaze 💕

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Flowers...




Hi All 😊,
Let's start the day with a thoughtful quote...

Image Courtesy: Google Images


Today I will share with you all few flower photos that I took while I went to Kerala for vacation. A lot of things happened during this vacation and never was there a more painful vacation than this one. I won't be able to forget the things that happened and at times I keep remembering those painful moments. Even so thanks to those painful events I keep getting stronger...

I used my then Smartphone to take these photos. You can see my PhotoBlog of this post here
Device: G-Tide Shining 7 Phone / Date: 18/05/2016


Hibiscus flower buds



From a different angle



White flowers



White flower buds


Flower buds


White flowers



Pink flower buds


Yellow flower buds


Rose flower

What do you think about my flower clicks 👀

Silent Gaze 💕

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

A little visitor




Good morning 😊


Let's start the day with on a good thought.
"Life is so much simpler when you stop explaining yourself to people and just do what works for you".

This beautiful blue butterfly gave a visit inside our house (in Kerala) and wanted to stop-over on our refrigerator top. This photo reminds me how crazy my cousin sister n I went trying to take photos of this blue beauty.

Device: Nokia Lumaia 625 / Date taken: 23/10/2014


And photoblog post is here

Friends show me your love and care with your sincere comments for improvement 😊



Sunday, July 23, 2017

Sandstorm






"Remember, when you forgive, you heal. And when you let go, you grow."




This post has few clicks from April 2015 when there was heavy sandstorm in Dubai. All of these are clicked with my mobile and the results not the best, but still are better than what I expected. I would like to share it with you all. I have edited the images by adjusting the vibrance, sharpness and softness and of course some cropping too.

Downtown Area






Walking towards Dubai Mall (on the opposite side)


The Address Hotel Downtown covered in the sandstorm

I captured the above images on 02nd April, 2015 around 9:00 am on my way to Downtown Area. Even though I have to walk only a few minutes after getting off the bus, I remember how hard it was because of the sandstorm. Even when the whole place was crazily covered in sand and heavy wind, the place still looked beautiful.




Around the corridors
This photo was shot around 10:07 am on the same day from the corridors outside my workplace and as you can see even after 1 hour passed the situation still remained the same. 






I took this photo around 2:13 pm the same day, while waiting for the bus. Even after 5 hours passed it still looks the same. All things and everything covered in sand.


This climate kind of brings some sort of emotions. I feel happy at some moment and then get sad for no reason at all...
Let me know your thoughts on my posts. I would like to improve my know-how :)

And here is my PhotoBlog post incase if you want to follow me there.
Device: Nokia Lumia 625 / Date: 02/04/2015




Friday, July 21, 2017

First ever Eid Staycation (July 2015)



" I WISH I HAD MORE VACATION DAYS."



Hi there Folks 😉,

Today's post is a review of a Hotel Apartment.


First and foremost this was really the very first first time we (me n my husband) had a Staycation after our marriage in December 2012. So this was kind of a honeymoon trip too for us; away from work, away from family members and nothing to disturb us. Just peaceful and happy moments of love and being loved.


NOTE: THIS IS NOT A SPONSORED POST AND ALL THE CONTENTS ARE PURELY BASED ON OUR EXPERIENCE ONLY.


After much thinking and discussions we decided to book our 2 Night Stay at Emirates Grand Hotel Apartments from 17/07/2015 to 19/07/2015. We considered the following while we decided to stay here:

1) Instead of being in Ras Al Khaimah we decided to spend our Eid Holidays in Dubai.

2) This property has a good view of Sheikh Zayed Road and Burj Khalifa on the front side and the views of Al Wasl and Satwa areas on the back side. Front side is always busy and bit noisy because of the never ending flow of vehicles on the Sheikh Zayed Road.

3) Very well aware of the property and it's location

This hotel apartments is located on Sheikh Zayed Road and on the opposite side of Financial Center Metro Station. Moreover before this property became a hotel apartment, I used to work in the very same building, where my workplace was situated.

It is less than 5 minutes walk to Financial Center Metro Station (Red Line) and using the metro you can commute to any nearby locations easily. Moreover buses and taxis are easily available too and there is no difficulty in finding the location.

4) Close to Malls and other Attractions

EGHA is very close to Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa. Using the metro it takes less than 5 minutes to reach Dubai Mall Metro Station and another 15-20 minutes walk through the Metro Link connecting to Dubai Mall. Else there is the option of riding the Feeder Bus F13 if you don't want to use the Metro Link. The time to reach Dubai Mall kind of remains the same depending on the traffic on the roads leading to Dubai Mall and Downtown area.

Other than Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa, you can ride the metro to Mazaya Center, Mall of Emirates, Times Square Center, Ibn Battuta Mall, Oasis Center etc towards the Jebel Ali side and to Zabeel Park, Burjuman Shopping Center, Union Metro (Deira), Deira City Center, Dubai International Airports, etc towards Rashidiya side as well.

5) Easy availability of Food and other necessities.

This property is close to lots of food outlets like Pizza Hut, AppleBees, Tim Hortons, KFC, Subway, Wendys, Chowking, StarBucks, Coffee and Costa and other restaurants and cafes as well. Union Cooperative Society Hypermarket is located on the back side of this property and there are few supermarkets nearby as well.
Banks, Clinics, Pharmacies etc are nearby as well.
Moreover you have the option to head over to any food courts, ATMs etc in the nearby malls as well.



Now let's move on to the review part...

1) The property being in the center of Sheikh Zayed Road, we felt really good.
See collage of a night view and an evening view of Sheikh Zayed Road and Burj Khalifa as seen from the room



2) We made the reservations directly with the hotel and the price was cheaper compared to other booking websites. The price was the best we could get for a 2 day getaway considering the location and the prices will definitely be on the higher side during holidays and such.

3) We booked a Studio room (double occupancy).

4) Our booking was inclusive of all taxes, breakfast and free internet; plus an additional 10Dhs Toursim Fees.

5) We had requested for a room in higher floor with a view to Burj Khalifa with balcony; and we were given a studio apartment on a corner on the 15th floor with a small balcony which had a great view to Sheikh Zayed Road and Burj Khalifa. Room was very spacious and was well maintained.
We are thankful to Ms. Dilrukshi who arranged our reservation and to Mr. Rajan at the Reception for processing the payments and then to Ms. Jenny who helped us with our check-in and check-out in a matter of few minutes and for accommodating our requests. She provided us our complimentary Wifi details and briefed us about the restaurant breakfast timings.
Wifi connection was good and fast.


Below is a collage of the view from Room, the spacious bed and the round side table with 2 chairs.



6) Room was really spacious and big and had electricity outlets, built-in wardrobes, a spacious 2-seater sofa, TV (channels were limited), another tea table, dressing table with a chair.

7) Inside the wardrobe there was an iron box and ironing table, cloth hangers, safety deposit box, and extra pillows.

8) The bathroom was spacious, clean, fitted with a bath tub, had enough face and bath towels, free toiletries (but no dental kits), fitted hair dryer etc.




9) The room had a pantry area with a refrigerator, an electric kettle, toaster, stove, oven, washing machine, enough utensils, bowls, plates, cutlery etc. Everything was so neat and clean.








10) EGHA have a rooftop restaurant - Panorama Restaurant with a 360 degree view of the area and it is really awesome. This restaurant serves buffet breakfast from 7:00 am (I think) and have lots of options available as well. But the restaurant serves breakfast only. The staffs are really helpful and hard-working here.

You can take a walk around the balcony outside of the restaurant as well.





11) The rooftop is equipped with a small gym and swimming pool. We didn't use these facilities but had a tour around.

12) From some online reviews we noticed that housekeeping was done only on alternate days, but to our surprise when we came back after at night our room was cleaned, bed was arranged, refilled the pantry, bathroom was cleaned and replaced all the used towels etc.

13) The reception staff were pleasant and helpful. Housekeeping staff are meticulous and clean and did their work very well. The restuarant staff was really helpful too.



Overall Rating of the Property, Facilities and Location: Out of 5 I will give it a 4.5 score

Will I recommend this Property: Yes, I definitely recommend this property. If you are travelling as group of 4 or more people this property would be the best. They have different room options available ranging from Studio apartments to Two Bedroom Apartments.


Kindly check with the hotel directly for best offers and room options. You can do a comparison through other sites like Booking.com, Tripadvisor.com, Dnatatravels.com, Agoda.com and many such similar sights. I'm sure you will be able to lock a good deal.


Incase you want to contact the hotel directly here is their details and make sure to mention that you are checking about Emirates Grand Hotel Apartments; because they have another hotel on the opposite side of this property named Emirates Grand Hotel. So inorder to avoid any confusions and issues later mention EGHA.


Emirates Grand Hotel Apartments
Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, UAE.
Tel : +971 4 3230000
Fax : +971 4 3230003
Email : reservations@emiratesgrandapartments.com






Thursday, July 20, 2017

Amba Restaurant- Food Tryout



Hey Guys ✋,

Today let's have some FOOD THOUGHTS 😄😄😄
This is ME most of the times 😉😋



It has been a while since we (me and mom) ordered some South Indian dishes and we were craving for some South Indian taste so badly... ZOMATO is our savior. As I already had the app downloaded it was only a matter of few minutes until we found some restaurants to our liking.

And AMBA Vegetarian Restaurant happened to be the one. We browsed the menu and were happy to find the food that we liked. With out further delay we ordered their food through ZOMATO APP on 07/07/2017. We live around this area, but never had the chance to try their food.


We ordered the following food from them:
1) Poori Kuruma
2) Poori
3) Onion Uthappam with extra topping of Paneer
4) Gulab Jamoon

As you can see from the below bill the food is priced reasonably and didn't cost much and the delivery was on time too.




This is how the whole delivery packing looked like. I guess this kind of packing is normal around Deira area.




Kurma and Coconut Chutney (white)
White chutney tasted good and it seemed like it was made of real coconut rather than coconut powder or cream. There was a Red colored chutney/pickle too, but not sure if it was chutney or pickle. Failed to get a photo. Sorry friends, just that I was eager to eat the whole thing 😆😏




Chickpeas Kurma
Kurma tasted good too, except that chickpeas was a little too less. Unlike the usual green/yellowish colored Kurma this was in brown color, as if how a Masala curry would be.




Poori set
Their Poori set has 3 pcs each when you order it as a set or separate set of Pooris only. It was not fluffy, but rather it was all crumbled (may be because of the packing) as you can find in the below photo. Regardless of the appearance Pooris tasted good and was not much oily.




Onion Uthappam
It is one of my favorite dishes and I really really liked their option of choosing extra topping of Paneer or Butter. The diced onion covered the Dosa/Rice batter and it was just the right mixture. Since I like paneer, I chose that and it tasted really really good. Powdered cumin seeds was sprinkled as well and the whole thing just tasted delicious.






Gulab Jamun
Evening snacks combined with a dessert as sweet as the Gulab Jamun is just the perfect thing to my taste buds. I have the habit of munching something sweet after most of my meals. I'm sure many of us are into this 😋😎😆
Gulab Jamun tasted perfect and the sugar syrup was ample too. I didn't want to doze off, so didn't finish the syrup 😴😴😴😵😵



Now the Overall Rating (On a scale of 5)
Price                  :   4.5 / Good value for money
Quality/Taste     :   4 / Good ( Because I'm yet to try other dishes)
Quantity             :   4 / Sufficient and filling
Delivery             :   4.5 / On Time
Packing              :   3.5 / So-so and normal (Poori crumbled)
Recommend       :   4.5 / Definitely worthy of trying and moreover it's a Vegetarian Restaurant. Good for those who would like to try Indian/ South Indian vegetarian dishes on a budget.


Amba Vegetarian Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

If I had wings...




If I had wings...




I will fly every single day...




Fly High...



These photos were taken while flying back home to India for a vacation on 11/10/2014. I remember how my brother was trying to take a photo of the outside view holding a Red Bull in his hand 😈😉

These were taken using my Nokia Lumia 625 and I did the color corrections using Pixlr.


My Photoblog post is here if you would like to see 😊




Monday, July 17, 2017

@ Naif Souq

Hi All 😉

Hope you guys are fine. I'm doing well.

Today I will write to you about Naif Souq (aka Naif Market) where we (me and my husband) frequents on most of the weekends; some shopping or some window shopping. This place is always busy and crowded and I think that's what makes this place more interesting.

It is one of the oldest traditional markets in Dubai where locals and tourists visits and it is one of the best places where you can BARGAIN and buy clothes of various varieties, abayas, bags, artificial jewelry and accessories, toys, footwear and much more. And the photos that I'm sharing are the ones of the renovated Souq (after the fire incident happened in 2008). The new interiors are more spacious and still have a traditional touch to it in the building architecture and traditional kind of lanterns/chandeliers hanging almost on all the areas inside the souq. Also the photos that I'm sharing are only a glimpse of what I captured on that particular day and if I get a chance again I will try to get more photos to share with you all.


Around the corridors


A shop selling clothes for children.


Kurtis and tops on display



Handbags on display


Ladies shirt tops on display


Tassels hanging


While we walked round and round around the corridors I convinced my husband to buy me 2 summer dresses 😈😉

"Shopping indeed lifts up your SPIRIT" 💃💃💃😈😋😍


Here is the LOCATION in case if you plan to visit.


And outside of the souq you can find a lot of shops trading in fabrics, clothes, tailoring supplies, footwear, discount shops and cafeterias as well. Shopping and Dining in the same area. Best theraphy 😊


Date of our visit : Friday- 17th March, 2017
Camera: FujiFilm FinePix T200