Dubai Gamesters :: Let the games begin Dubai!! Real-Space games, who plays them anymore?

We were 14 people, and the meal was a certified British bake off.  Owen, Helena and I took it in turns to rotate the contents of the oven with cheesy bake after cheesy bake. Following a starter of cheese plates it certainly was a cheesy affair far from my normal vegan meals! I took some halawa there from Lebanon, and sprinkled it over ice-cream for desert as Dei had shown me in Beirut, and once again it won people’s hearts and perplexed their minds.  Those who had never had halawa wondered what that nutty honeycomb stuff was and those who knew it marveled at the idea of mixing it with ice cream! Good one Dei.

So back to the games.  We had all sorts from levitation, to murder winks.  There were choreographed routines performed by a trio to the music playing in their heads.  It was the kind of stuff that comes from a group of people who know each other, and have a shared history to refer to.  Although having said that, I did not share their history, and I still picked up the rules of engagement without too much fuss, so they were pretty good at getting the point across. I was completely astonished at the complexity of communication and group organisation that this lot achieved.

I think we went for 2.5 hours, and it was action packed, not a dull moment.  We had a complete mixture of nationalities, Palestinian, Russian, British, Canadian, Australian, South African, American and Chinese. Looking back it was one of the only ones I have been to where we did not go through a period of awkwardness at the beginning before people settled into it.  I guess that awkwardness was squandered by Darren, one of the people who had so graciously lent us his apartment to host in, appearing dressed in a floral frock with a soft toy on his head. A sure ice-breaker.  He had asked me earlier if he could come to the dinner nude, me being a nudist at heart, and in his house, I don’t see how I could possibly deny him, but he chose the frock instead! People were in the moment and jovial from the start – it was a really fun adventure. I mean, check this lot out, they don’t look quiet at all, but believe it or not they were!