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.

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Kayaking in the Abu Dhabi Mangroves

And relax. It's been a busy few weeks with various visitors either staying with us or in Abu Dhabi. It has been great seeing everyone, Jo in particular has enjoyed showing people round, and the kids have enjoyed playing with friends they remember from Bolton. But it is also nice to be able to get back to the normal routine we have established.

One of the activities we have done in between visitors is kayaking in the Eastern Mangroves of Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi supports nearly 70% of the mangroves found in the UAE, some natural and some planted, including the Eastern Mangroves. The mangroves serve a number of purposes, acting as an excellent breeding ground for fish, attracting birds, and also providing some protection against wind and flood damage to the low lying areas they surround.

Various companies offer guided kayak tours around the mangroves. We went with Noukhada Adventure Company, mainly because we had Entertainer vouchers entitling us to two free places (never go for a tour without getting hold of some of these vouchers).

We turned up at the appointed time of 8:45am one Friday morning. It was a lovely sunny day, with the temperature already hitting 30 degrees at that early hour. Once we had slapped on our sun cream, had our safety briefing, and advice on paddling technique, it wasn't long before we were on our way.

We had three kayaks between us. Henry was on his own, Flossie started with Jo, and Archie with me. There were between ten and 15 kayaks in the group, including a couple of guides, one at the front and one at the back. We spent a happy, if hot, couple of hours paddling along, stopping at intervals to gather our breath and learn a little more about what we were seeing, including the plants, the fish and the crabs (LOTS of crabs!).

On the way back we stopped at a small beach area for a little while, where you could go for a swim to cool down. Archie, Flossie and I were very happy to take advantage of this. The only mishaps I recall were those of us in heavier kayaks running aground in the shallow water a couple of times, and Archie toppling out of Jo's kayak when she put in a sudden burst of acceleration (no harm was done).

All in all we had a fantastic time, Jo describing it as "the best thing we have done since coming to the UAE". We enjoyed it so much that we are now on the lookout for some cheap secondhand kayaks so we can get out there on our own.

For anyone living in Abu Dhabi I would very much recommend this as a "must do" activity. You don't need to be an expert kayaker, and you get plenty of breaks to gather your energy along the way. Remember your sun cream, some drinks (although the guides have plenty of water with them), your swimwear and your camera, and you'll have a great time.

You can find out more about the mangroves of Abu Dhabi here.

As always thanks for reading.

 

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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.

 

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Qasr Al Hosn Festival

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it again, but 2014 is flying by. This week has been busy, with our first visitors of 2014, Mark and Kate, with us for three nights. It was lovely to see them and Jo enjoyed showing them around whilst I was working. We've also finally taken the plunge and decided to trust Henry with looking after Archie and Flossie, so we managed to get out for a couple of grown up meals in the evenings as well as spending an hour cycling and walking round the Yas Marina circuit on Tuesday. Kate even managed to fit in an impromptu talk at one of the local schools.

Work itself continues to be varied and busy (and enjoyable). There is a healthy pipeline of new work, and every day brings a new challenge. In just the last week I have been liaising with BDO firms around the world about a bid focused on Abu Dhabi, and it's been great to see just how well the network works at times like these. Tomorrow I have an intern starting for a few months to support me with various projects which will be great as they are things I have been struggling to find the time to progress.

Turning to the weekend, we had a busy day yesterday, heading onto Abu Dhabi Island to watch some of the Red Bull Air Race, and visit the Qasr Al Hosn Festival.

The Red Bull Air Race is an international series of races in which competitors have to navigate an obstacle course (see the strange little cones in the distance in the photo below) in the fastest time. The series started in 2003 and ran every year until 2010, before being cancelled in 2011, 2012 and 2013 due to safety concerns (apparently there were some near misses). Following changes it has started again in 2014, with Abu Dhabi being the venue for the first race of the series.

There was complete traffic chaos so we couldn't get very close to the action. Still it was nice to sit on the beach for a while watching the planes navigate the course, which a couple of them struggled to do without knocking one of the cones down.

Having spent an hour watching the planes we jumped into a taxi to Qasr Al Hosn to visit the festival. Qasr Al Hosn is the oldest building in Abu Dhabi. It started out in 1761 as a round watchtower defending the only freshwater well on the island, and was expanded to become a small fort in 1793, at which point it became the permanent residence of the ruling sheikh.

It stayed this way until the 1930s when revenue started flowing from the granting of the first oil license, at which point it was expanded. It remained the seat of government until 1966 and is now a heritage site, with the fort currently undergoing extensive renovation. The photo below shows the fort in the 1940s. It is now completely surrounded by modern day Abu Dhabi, showing how much the city has changed in a relatively short period of time.

Each year there is a festival at the fort celebrating the history of Abu Dhabi. There are various sections focusing on areas such as the desert, an oasis, Abu Dhabi Island, marine life, and the fort itself. There is also a programme of workshops for adults and children, including palm weaving, kandura dyeing and making fishing nets. Archie and Flossie enjoyed a couple of workshops, including painting an Arabic goblet and making a traditional toy, a hobby horse.

Apart from there being complete bedlam when trying to book onto the workshops, the sessions themselves were very well run, with lots of helpful instructors on hand to help the kids if they were struggling. It was a shame we didn't have longer to do more of the workshops but there is always next year.

As well as the workshops Archie held a falcon, Flossie petted a hunting dog (Saluki), and they both had a ride on a camel. To round off an enjoyable day we watched the UAE's aerobatics team, Al Forsan, performing to mark the end the first day of the Red Bull Air Race. There was something quite nice about watching the modern day air display taking place over the ancient fort.

After a busy day it was back home where Archie, Flossie and I enjoyed a pizza whilst watching Man of Steel (superman), and Jo went out to a traditional Arabic bridal shower at a house on the compound, about which I'm hoping she'll write a "guest post" soon.

Archie's first ride on a camel

Al Forsan Display Team

Anyway, almost time for tea so I shall leave it there for now. As always thanks for reading.

 

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Many Happy Returns

There has been a public holiday today to mark the Prophet Mohammed's birthday, so we have had a three day weekend to recover from the first week back at school and work. Everyone seems to have settled back in ok, although we've been spared homework so far so it's been a fairly gentle start.

We've had a good weekend, whilst not too busy. On Friday morning Jo, Archie, Flossie and I headed down to the Corniche for a bike ride. It is about five miles from one end to the other and both Archie and Flossie did really well, Archie completing the full ten mile round trip, and Flossie managing about nine with some encouragement, and strategically timed picnic and ice cream stops. The weather was perfect for being out on our bikes, and there weren't too many people to dodge out of the way of two kids zig zagging their way along.

Friday evening saw us at a BBQ at a friend's house on the compound. They are from Canada originally so are expert BBQers, meaning we enjoyed some great food. We staggered home at about 11pm as the kids, and the grown ups, were ready for their beds.

Saturday morning was spent "relaxing" / recovering from the previous evening, then we dragged ourselves out to a local park in the afternoon. Khalifa City A is dotted with some great parks with kids' play equipment, splash zones, football pitches, BBQ facilities, etc. We decided to have a game of football, Archie and Jo versus Flossie and I. However within a couple of minutes a number of other children had decided to join the game. I never quite worked out what the teams were as there were a few language barriers, all I know is that most of the time it felt like everyone else against me. I've no idea what the result was either.

Last night we all, including Henry, went out for tea to Yas Marina. We admired some of the yachts which were moored there, including one that was once owned by Roman Abramovich, until it went to his wife in the divorce settlement, who then sold it for $300 million. Jo would like one for her birthday but I suspect that isn't going to happen!

Before I go I'll leave you with a little Slideshow that Archie made when playing on the iPad.

That's all for now, but I'm hoping to post again in the week, introducing you to my lifelogging project for 2014. Until then, thanks for reading as always.

 

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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.

 

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Flooding of the Nile (aka Al Yasmina)

Archie's year has been doing a project on Ancient Egypt this term, and it culminated today with the whole year dressing as Ancient Egyptians and enjoying a range of activities. Jo was very creative and made Archie a fantastic costume out of pillow cases and various other bits and pieces. She also volunteered to help out for the day, which was very brave, especially as she made a dressing up outfit for herself as well!

As it turned out the weather decided to get involved as well. The annual flooding of the Nile has been an important natural cycle in Egypt since ancient times, and today the school played the part of the Nile, as the weather broke in Abu Dhabi and we witnessed the flooding of Al Yasmina (hopefully it's not going to be an annual event!).
It has felt as though a storm has been brewing for a few days, with grey skies, gusty winds blowing sand about, and increasing humidity. Finally it broke this morning, firstly in the city centre as I arrived for work, and then at Khalifa A as school started.

To be fair there was thunder and lightning, and the rain was torrential for a while. It wasn't long before the water was pouring into the school hall, and it only took a few hours before the school was closing for the day, as were many other schools in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and other Emirates. Overkill? Quite possibly.
Archie and his classmates did manage to do most of their planned activities, other than their procession round the playground. He seems to have particularly enjoyed mummifying a banana; he described the process to me earlier and it certainly sounded quite complicated.
The impact of the rain has been a little comical. It is definitely the UAE equivalent of how the UK grinds to a halt when there are a few flakes of snow. I even had Dubai based members of my team asking if they could leave early due to the adverse weather. It has been the headline on most news reports I have heard, and has played havoc with events such as the Dubai Air Show.
Things seem to have settled down this evening, so it looks as though we can tick off one of the ten days of rain we can expect in our first year here. I'm sure it will be back to 30 degrees tomorrow, joy!
As per usual, thanks for reading.

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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.

 

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Abu Dhabi Science Festival

Yet another busy weekend draws to a close, and we all need an early night before school and work tomorrow. Yesterday was Friday Brunch in an Indian Restaurant on Yas Island, with two other families from school. The food was fantastic, and there was a playground right outside which kept the kids occupied whilst the adults "relaxed".

Today we were back at Yas Island, but this time at the Du Forum for the Abu Dhabi Science Festival. The Festival is running for a couple of weeks and consists of lots of interactive exhibits (think Manchester Museum of Science & Industry if you know it), plus a big selection of workshops that you can book in advance.

Archie and Flossie had a great time (Henry declined to come) doing the following:

1. Building and then racing a rocket powered car (involving air and water).
2. Watching a show featuring lots of "experiments" involving dry ice.
3. Making some "slime" out of various ingredients (and being able to take it home).
4. Learning about magnets, and doing lots of experiments with them.
5. Having a 3D video made of themselves.
6. Playing football with robots.

The great thing was that it only cost £10 in total for the four of us to spend the afternoon there, and the volunteers running the workshops were fantastic with the children, helping them out if they got stuck and being very patient with them.

An indication of how much we enjoyed ourselves is that we are going back next weekend to do some of the other workshops (and this time Henry is coming, no choice).

So if you happen to be reading this in Abu Dhabi and you have kids of any age, get along there to see what it's all about (it's at Du Forum and on the Corniche for the next week or so).

As always, thanks for reading.

 

 

 

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Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2013: Day 3 & 4

After a good start, last weekend got too busy for me to do an update on days three and four, and here we are again at another weekend.

In summary days three and four were fantastic. In reality it's easier to follow qualifying and the race on television, but nothing quite beats the sight of the cars, the scream of the engines, and the smell of burning rubber. We all watched at some point over the weekend, and Archie in particular enjoyed himself. It did help that I was able to download an app which had a virtual representation of the track, with dots going round it (in almost real time, maybe 5 seconds delay) representing all the drivers. This meant Archie could watch his favorite driver, Jenson Button, on the app, and look up at the right point to watch him passing us by.

Mind you, Henry was the big winner. His friend's dad is senior in one of the hotel groups here and had a number of "spare" tickets in the main grandstand overlooking the start / finish line. So Henry spent both days in there, with one of the best views on the circuit. I'm not jealous at all!!

As well as the racing I went to the Muse concert, and Jo, cousin Pete and myself went to see Depeche Mode on the final evening. Both concerts were fantastic, Muse was the better of the two in my opinion, but I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Depeche Mode - they teased us with newer stuff before playing some of the classic hits.

That's Muse, honest, or maybe it's Depeche Mode.

After such a hectic weekend it was hard to drag myself into work on Monday but I just about managed. It's been a busy four days, mainly spent responding to proposal requests which seem to be coming in thick and fast at the moment, often with very short timescales (makes some of deadlines I had at PwC positively relaxed). These timescales can be even more pressured when you have to send the request to a local typing office to be translated from Arabic to English so you know what you are actually bidding for, and then you have to build in time to have the proposal translated from English to Arabic before you submit it.

This weekend is shaping up to be another busy one. Tomorrow morning we are heading to Dubai for a night, Jo and the kids first visit. We have a packed programme, including:

• A trip to the top of the Burj Khalifa, which Archie has been desperate to do since he arrived in the UAE.
• A visit to the Dubai Motor Show to see some of the new supercar models.
• Watching a Car Parade round the roads of Dubai, apparently there are more than 500 cars taking part with a combined value of a ridiculous number of millions of dirhams. The procession is being led by Dubai Police who seem to have one of every super car you can imagine in their fleet.
• Attending the "Red Bull Car Park Drift Final", which apparently is lots of cars skidding round a course in a car park, making as much noise as possible, and creating as much smoke as they can from their tyres.
• Watching the fountains at Dubai Mall, which are meant to be spectacular.

Just looking at that list suggests we are becoming petrol heads doesn't it!? I think we'll have a break from cars for a while after this weekend.

The weather should be fine for all that though. It is definitely getting cooller, indeed the forecast on the radio on the way home from work predicted "a cold weekend, with the temperature unlikely to get above 29 degrees centigrade"!

I'll be back next week to let you know how it all went.

Thanks for reading.

 

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