Blogger's Block

When we first came to the UAE I was keen to find out as much as I could about where we had moved to, so I decided to search out blogs by people who had done the same thing.

There are lots of them out there, it seems that many expats take up blogging when they come here, no doubt - like me- to keep family and friends updated. Indeed it seems to be more unusual not to blog.

One thing I did notice though is that in many cases the enthusiasm seems to disappear within a few weeks or months. Maybe people become too busy living their new lives so don't have time to write about it. Maybe they run out of things to write about. Maybe they get discouraged by not attracting new readers, after all, I'm sure most of us (at least secretly) want to feel that what we write about is interesting to a wider audience than just friends and family.

For me, like I suspect for many people, it is a combination of the above. I haven't blogged much in recent weeks, firstly because we had a few visitors so evenings were busy, then we got hooked on a couple of crime drama series on TV, which I had to concentrate on and we all know men can't multitask.

I still have lots of things I want to blog about, the exciting things we have done over the last few weeks, interesting things we are still learning about the UAE, and so on. Hopefully this short post will help me break through the "blogger's block" I am suffering from and I'll be back with a vengeance soon.

But before that, it's the weekend, so I'm off to enjoy myself.

Posted with Blogsy

Six things to bear in mind if camping in the UAE

We've been back from camping for two days and have just about got rid of all the sand from various nooks and crannies. I thought I would report on the weekend in the form of some tips for anyone else who may be considering their first camping trip in the UAE, or is packing their life into a container about to move here, and wondering whether to use space for their camping gear.

1: Don't think twice about driving 200 miles for one night camping

It may seem a lot to drive 200 miles, spend an hour unpacking and putting your tent up, only to do it all in reverse less than 24 hours later, but it's worth it. You are in a new country and you need to see as much of it as possible so make the effort. I never imagined I would be camping on a beach close to the border of Saudi Arabia, and yes the landscape was desolate, but the beach was beautiful, and it was great to see another part of the UAE. Anyway the main roads here are always at least dual carriage way so quick progress can be made, indeed it was only a little after lunchtime when our convoy of six cars turned off the main road, drove round the camel track, and arrived at the beach.

Who wouldn't want to camp here?

2: Leave your gear behind, start again in the UAE

We brought most of our existing gear with us from the UK, taking up valuable room in our container. With the benefit of hindsight I wouldn't have bothered. You can pick up all the equipment you need for a night or two camping easily and cheaply here, particularly from places like Carrefour. Some of the gear you can get here is probably more suited to the desert or beaches. We discovered this with our tent, which was a pain to erect in the sea breeze that was blowing when we arrived at Al Sila'a, whereas our friends had their tent up and were ready to enjoy their first beer within 15 minutes of arriving.

Finally, a little lopsided, but somewhere to sleep

3: They make special pegs for the sand

It never even occurred to me that the "normal" pegs we bought from the UK would be completely unsuitable for sand, particularly when pitching a tent in windy conditions. I only realized there is such a thing as "sand pegs" when a fellow camper (the one who had already pitched his tent) asked whether we had any. I felt somewhat foolish when answering in the negative, but we battled onward and managed to get enough pegs to stay in the ground to get the tent up, albeit a little lopsided.

It wasn't to last though. Having been buffeted by the wind for 12 hours, at 2am on Saturday I awoke with a start having been clattered in the face by a collapsing tent pole. I quickly woke Jo and the kids and we had to make a bolt for the car where we spent the rest of the night, the kids sleeping in the boot (which they thought was great) and Jo and I on the reclined front seats (not getting much sleep).

Windswept

This is the scene that greeted us at 6am. Needless to say we have now said goodbye to this tent, and will be visiting Carrefour before our next camping trip.

4: Take some friends, lubricate with a drink or two, add music, a roaring camp fire and marshmallows

Between getting our tent up and it blowing down in the early hours we had a lovely time. I'm still not quite sure how many kids were there, they never stood still long enough for me to count them, but I do know that they all had a great time running riot around the campsite and toasting marshmallows on the campfire. Meanwhile the adults took the opportunity to relax, sitting round the fire chatting, listening to music, and enjoying the food and drink we had taken with us (including a lovely Chilli, and Jo's slush punch). We finally turned in around midnight once the battery on the music player had run out, and the last of the punch had gone, but it was a great afternoon and evening.

5: Take it all in

In between everything that is going on take some time to enjoy what is going on around you. A couple of things I took some time to take in were the stunning sunrise on Saturday, and the locals exercising their camels on the race track next to our campsite. It has to be said that Jo was a little disappointed by the race track. She had been expecting something along the lines of Aintree I think, with huge grandstands and modern facilities. What we found was a huge oval track with railings that had seen better days (probably about 40 years ago), and ..... nothing else. Never mind.

Exercising the camels

Seen better days

A beautiful sunrise

6: Clean up after yourself

One thing that disappointed me was the litter on the beach when we arrived. I'm not sure whether it had been left by previous campers, or had been thrown overboard from passing boats and washed ashore. It doesn't really matter either way. I understand there can be similar issues if you visit many of the wadis here as well. Anyway, it goes without saying my final tip is to clean up after yourself, indeed why not make a point of taking away more rubbish than you create? Lecture over!

Happy campers

So there we go, my top tips for camping in the UAE. All in all, despite the collapse of our tent, we had a great time, and can't wait for our next trip.

If you have experience of camping in the UAE, what tips would you add to those above? Leave a comment to let me know.

As always thanks for reading.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Happy New Year

As I write this many of you back in the UK will be starting to think about returning to work tomorrow after (hopefully) a good break over Christmas and New Year. Having done this myself today, I wish you all the best for the coming year.

We had a lovely time back in the UK, catching up with as many family and friends as possible, although that wasn't a huge number due to limited time and busy diaries. In particular we were very well looked after by Jo's Mum, who ran around after us as we created chaos from the moment we arrived. We also had a good day at my parents between Christmas and New Year. Thanks to everyone who played host to us.

We were a little unsure how we would all feel about the prospect of coming home after our first trip back to the UK since moving here. As it turned out, whilst it was sad to be saying goodbye again, we were all happy to arrive home on Thursday evening. We were particularly happy due to the fact that we managed to get all our Christmas presents and sundry other items (toaster, sundry pairs of shoes, new suits, etc, etc) that we had had delivered to Ainsdale back safely - we left with three suitcases, and returned with five bursting at the seams!

I can't say I'm sorry to be away from the horrid weather the UK is experiencing at the moment. Spending yesterday at the beach, and getting a little sunburnt in the process, was a reminder of how lucky we are to be here. The weather is perfect for outdoor activities at the moment, and it is starting to become a distant memory about how hot it can get. We need to make the most of it, as it won't be long before the temperature starts going the other way. We are planning various activities at the moment before our program of visitors starts in February.

At the beach

I'd like to thank you all for reading my blog in 2013, and especially those of you who commented on my entry in the expats blog competition. Despite Jo's best efforts to drum up support I fell short of the number of comments to make the top three UAE blogs, but I was touched by the number of comments I did get, and the nice things that many of you said. It is nice to know that the effort I put in is appreciated.

I'll be continuing to blog in 2014, but now that we have settled into our new life, the subject matter will inevitably broaden a little. I still intend to keep everyone updated on what we are getting up to, and to share reflections on life in the UAE, but I also hope to start to cover some other areas which interest me, particularly aspects of "lifelogging" or "the quantified self", which appeals to my (boring?) love of statistics. More about that next time.

I may also start to add a food element to the blog. One of the winning entries in the blog competition was one that focuses on restaurant reviews, and that generated more than 100 comments (versus my 34). In addition to that I received an email a couple of days ago from someone who had seen my blog asking if I would like to apply to be a "mystery diner" for a restaurant review website covering Abu Dhabi. I've not applied yet, but the chance of some free meals is a tempting.

Until next time, thanks as always for reading, and best wishes for 2014 wherever you are.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Happy National Day

I shouldn't let National Day pass without a brief post on the subject.

National Day is celebrated from 2nd December each year in the UAE for two days or more (usually the 2nd and 3rd). It marks the UAE's formal nationalisation from the British Protectorate Treaties which ended on December 1, 1971 and the eventual, federal unification of the seven emirates in 1971 which combined to form the modern-day country, headed by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the federation's first president.

The occasion is marked by much celebration if this year is anything to go by. For days beforehand people are hard at work decorating their cars, homes and offices. Some people do seem to get a little carried away.....

Turning to houses, in the same way that some people go overboard decorating the outside of their houses for Christmas, some people get a little carried away. As we walked out onto the main road to get a taxi at the weekend we discovered that one of the Emirati families that lives on the compound had hired a crane to come and put a huge flag up.

Flossie counted the UAE flags that we saw on the way to dinner that same evening. We were only going a few miles but it didn't take long to get to well over 100, especially as she seemed to reset to 40 every time she got to 79!

Thankfully she didn't count them on the way to Al Ain on Sunday. We must have passed thousands, including this gentleman riding his bike up the hard shoulder of the highway.

The celebrations normally culminate with big firework displays on the Corniche in Abu Dhabi, and other locations. We gave them a miss this year as apparently the city centre gets gridlocked and it can take more than two hours to complete the journey home (a journey which normally shouldn't take much more than 30 minutes). One for next year I think.

How many flags?

Thanks for reading.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Weekend in Dubai: Part 3

Just realized that I didn't finish my blog entries about our weekend in Dubai. I'm sure you have all been waiting anxiously to hear about what else we got up to (not).

After tea on Friday we headed to the World Trade Centre where we had tickets for the regional final of the Red Bull Car Park Drift competition. Except we didn't have tickets, we had a receipt that needed to be swapped for tickets before we entered the arena, or should I say car park. The problem was that no one seemed to be able to tell me where to collect our tickets from. The first counter I went to directed me to the metro station some distance away. The man there looked at me blankly, then sent me back the way I had come to another ticket desk, and so on, until I had been to five different desks.

By this time the start of the competition was only ten minutes away, so Jo had taken the kids to wait by the entrance we were supposed to use. Whilst she was waiting she got talking to someone, who informed her that we could get our tickets from a counter right next to the entrance. Irritating? Not at all!

We finally got our tickets five minutes after the competition had started, and joined the throng at the gate. There was a mass of people waiting, and no queuing system in place (where are the numbered ticket dispensers when you need them!). The security guards were taking a very relaxed approach to checking tickets carefully, then checking bags, then putting a wristband on.

The throng of people trying to get in

Finally we got in, found some seats, and settled back to enjoy the action. For the uninitiated car park drifting is exactly what it sounds like, competitors driving round a course set up in a car park, skidding as much as possible, and generally making as much noise and generating as much smoke as they can (very much like driving on the roads here). The winner seems to be (I think, I never quite worked it out) the person who can complete the course quickest and with as much skidding as possible.

My iPhone camera didn't cope well with the conditions

The event seemed to consist of a lot of sitting around listening to an excitable (the only drink on sale was of course Red Bull, and he seemed to have had more than his fair share) commentator gabbling away in Arabic, punctuated by 20 second bursts of action. Whilst the bursts of action were exciting, they were few and far between, and the competition seemed to fall further and further behind the timetable, not helped by the local favourite managing to get his car stuck in the crash barrier, and nobody being able to shift it.When it became obvious that the competition was likely to go on until the early hours we decided to call it a day, especially as Archie and Flossie were getting tired.

All in all it was a surreal experience, but one which we enjoyed in a strange way. Who would have thought a year ago that we would be sat in a car park next to the busiest road in Dubai, in view of the Burj Khalifa, watching cars doing their best to destroy themselves!?

Saturday was less surreal, but we had a great day at the motor show. Archie in particular was in his element looking at all the super cars, and both he and Flossie (and Henry) enjoyed getting as many freebies as they could (although Jo did best of all as demonstrated by the photo below). We didn't manage to get round the whole exhibition before it was time to make tracks back to Abu Dhabi.

Jo weighed down by all her goodies

All in all a great weekend, and I'm sure we'll be back in Dubai soon.

Thanks for reading as always.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Weird & Wonderful UAE: Part 1

As we go about everyday life in Abu Dhabi there are regular reminders about how different the country we are living in is to the UK.
I thought it may be interesting to share some of these stories, to give those of you less familiar with this part of the world a flavor of what it is like here. So this is the first in an occasional series of "Weird and Wonderful UAE".
I should note that I am not passing judgement about any of these stories. "Different" can be positive or negative. The fact is that these are things I have read or heard in the last couple of weeks that have made me do a double take.

I will leave you to form your own views.
Medical news
As you may be aware homosexuality is illegal in many countries in this part of the world. The news this week is that apparently a number of countries, led by Kuwait, are developing medical tests which will allow them to "detect" gay people, and prevent them from entering the country. This one has, perhaps unsurprisingly, made the news back in the UK. Link
Legal matters
Just like in the UK there are court cases here that make you stop and listen.
This week a woman was cleared of "brandishing" her middle finger at a fellow motorist after he objected to her stopping to take a photo of a vintage car. Whilst she was cleared, it's a good reminder to keep your temper in check when dealing with some of the suicidal driving here. Link
At the other end of the spectrum there has been outrage in the last couple of weeks when a drunk driver was sentenced to one month in prison for knocking a triathlete off his bike, and killing him (link). And there is further anger this week because a man who beat his son to death for doing badly in his exams has only been sentenced to three years (Link), and another drunk driver who smashed into the front of a restaurant killing three people has been given a sentence of one month (link).
It's not the UAE, but this one certainly caught the attention. A Saudi teenage boy has been given ten years in prison and 2000 lashes for dancing topless on a jeep. Apparently the authorities intend to appeal the sentence as being too lenient. Link
On a lighter note it has also been reported that so far this year 119 car owners have been fined the equivalent of £85 for washing their cars in public. Apparently doing this can cause a health hazard or even a flood. Just the excuse I need! Link
A grand scale
After a few tough years following the financial crisis, the economy of the UAE seems to be picking up pace again (not that it ever got quite as bad as elsewhere in the world).
There has been a big property exhibition in Dubai this week, where a number of big projects have been announced, including the completion of the Dubai Canal project which will effectively turn a large part of the city into an island (Link), and the city is also to get the world's largest man made lagoon. This lagoon is not just going to be slightly bigger than the previous record holder, it is going to be FOUR times bigger (Link)!
I can't remember which at the moment, but one of the above projects is going to include thousands of new homes and offices, and 450 new restaurants.
The mind certainly does boggle at the scale of some of the projects here.
Catching up
Whilst leading the way with mega projects there are often reminders that the country still has some catching up to do in other areas. For example, there has been much fanfare this week about direct debits coming to the UAE (Link). Until now, things like rent had to be paid by writing a number of post dated cheques at the start of the year (or paying the whole years rent in advance), but now this is all going to change. The central bank is very pleased with itself, putting regular adverts on the radio congratulating itself on the achievement.
And finally
Only in the UAE? A retailer is offering a free BMW with each of a new range of TVs that it sells. Mind you, the TV does cost $35k. Still sounds like a good deal. Link
We've not watched any local TV yet but this caught my attention on YouTube. An "Arab's Got Talent" competitor bites the head off a live snake and skins it with his teeth! Beat that Simon Cowell! Link

As always thanks for reading. Let me know if you'd like to see more of this type of post in future.

Posted with Blogsy