Weekend!

The weather in Dubai has been improving every week and we're having beautiful weather at the moment.  I went out this morning for a walk before work and the weather was cool without the chill and the early morning sunlight was really nice.  We have massive parkland around our place and I walked along there until I got to the end of my estate and saw for the first time the next stage of the estate development.  Workers were already busy installing palm trees at 6am this morning and its coming along.  The area has really filled up and is very popular.

This weekend is going to be a good one too.  We're off to the mall this evening for a bite to eat and a look around.  Ibn Battutta is our local mall and we'll go for pizza or something... maybe even check out the movies.

Tomorrow, is D&D game day and I will be nerding it up during the day which is always a good bit of fun.  No plans for the evening, but we'll see how it goes.

Saturday will be quiet... I have to go to DEWA (the local water and power company) to sort out some bill issues (I am not getting them) and then we'll relax around the pool.  Have a couple of work colleagues potentially coming over as well (trying to convince them to move to the Green Community) and other than that we're doing nothing but "chillaxing".

So, all is good! 

London Calling... again

Am off to London again next week.  The joint venture project I am involved with over there is getting increasingly busy and it seems to be that I am expected over there every 4 weeks.

But on top of that, we're having the corporate accountants trying to "minimise" costs and I have been asked once again to fly out of Abu Dhabi on the 2am flight, land at 7am London time, work a full day and then come home on the 9pm London flight (1am body clock time) and land at Abu Dhabi at 7am the next day and go straight to the office.  In addition, I live in Dubai and would have to get home from Abu Dhabi and there is no way I want to do that.

I did this once before and I got a cab home at 7am and "worked from home" but was virtually useless the next day and slept for half of it.  There is no way I can be functioning in the office... but that's what is expected... Sit up to 2am for two nights in a row, sleep 4-5 hrs on a plane, manage the time shift, work a full day and come straight to the office from the airport.  All for the sake of saving a hotel cost for 1 night.

I have though managed to argue this and have got my one night, but fly out in the early morning the next day.  Much more manageable and humane.

Crazy Drivers...

Was late home last night once again... my 50min drive turned into 90min as once again, a semi trailer found itself on its side and across the 3 lane road.  This is increasingly being a normal event lately.

It seems to me that the trucks in this country travel incredibly slowly when compared to Sydney as they stick to the slow lane and convoy along at no more than 80km/h and yet they seem to end up on their side more often than not.  Again, a truck turning around a round-a-bout rolled and lost its load last night and I think I have seen approximately 10 vehicles (mostly trucks or vans) on their side since arriving here in February.  I did also see a car on its roof once, but that would have been excessive speed.

I find driving in the UAE a breeze now... people cruise at 140km/h, trucks stay in their slow (right) lanes and everything seems fine, but BANG and suddenly the traffic backs up because something has gone wrong.  I have never seen these incidents live but always seem to end up behind them in the traffic.

I presume that its because trucks are being overloaded, but the one last night was a big truck with a shipping container on its back... really difficult you would think to overload such a defined cargo?

Fan(s)

Wow, surreal experience today...

Went to Festival City today (yet another shopping centre) and whilst we're walking around, this lovely young lady comes up and says "Are you Mr Clayton?".  For a minute, I was thinking "ooh, I dropped my wallet or something" and I said yes.  She then said that she reads my blog all the time and really enjoys it.

I was stunned... and I was really stumped as to what to say to that, and I probably came off a bit rude because I was trying to comprehend how a complete stranger can recognise me in a shopping mall from my blog.

But anyway, we went to lunch and I was still trying to comprehend it all as I was sure the only people who read this are friends and family... but I guess, I must have some regular readers and I am quietly pleased someone recognised me!

So, thanks for the hello Mystery Lady, you made my day.

Its a long way to Dubai...

Well, went to the F1 Grand Prix at the Yas Marina Circuit yesterday.  Niki & I went on Sat night for the Qualifying and then saw the Kings of Leon concert which was excellent!  And yesterday I took my father in law Geoff who is visiting to the race itself.

In the build up to the weekend, the media has been warning everyone to leave themselves plenty of time to get onto the island at Yas Marina as this was the first ever Abu Dhabi F1 GP and in addition everyone I spoke to said it was "going to be hell!".

So, when I was invited to get myself and Geoff onto a privately hired bus from Dubai to Abu Dhabi that would take us in and pick us up, I jumped at the chance.  The alternative was to drive myself and then park at a place called Al Shahama about 10kms from the track and then ride the government supplied buses.  With rumours that there wouldnt be enough buses and long queues, I took the private bus option.

Niki and I however took the public park and ride option but in all honesty, it worked extremely well!  Suprisingly, we had very little waiting and were straight in and out.  The bus after the concert was packed, but we waited just 5mins and got on the first bus that came along.

But with the promise that the crowds would be massive on race day, I stuck to the option of the private bus for the Sunday.  With an 80yr old father in law in tow as well, it was the better option for sure...

Well, on Sunday the bus down was fine... no problem, the organisers had two buses in convoy and we trekked down the highway from Dubai to Abu Dhabi's Yas Island which was about 80kms.  We went straight in and the bus parked in the car park close to my grandstand and we were told that the bus would be here at the same spot at 8pm to take us home.  The race was scheduled to finish at 7pm at the latest, so no worries there!

Had a great day... the GP was fanstastic and all was well.

Got back to the car park well before 8pm and no bus... I called the organiser who was in a different grandstand and she said that the bus was running late in traffic and would get there at 9pm.  So we hung around the car park.... and waited and waited.

By 9pm, still no bus and there were now 9 souls looking for a ride home.  The deal was that there would be an 8pm bus for the people heading home and then another bus at 11pm for those who stayed for the Aerosmith concert... Geoff's not a big fan of Aerosmith, so we were keen to head home.

The organiser (Katie) rang the bus company and it was pretty heated.  Aparently the bus now wasnt coming at all and we were stranded... and now looking for a taxi amongst the throngs of people.

We walked out of the car park and asked the parking attendent for the nearest taxi rank.  Fat chance in my mind, but the guy said "15mins walk that way" and pointed down the road... which had no foot path and was choked with traffic.

But then Katie's husband (who was Finnish and had a couple of Finnish friends in our group) had talked the driver of a rickety labourers bus (think a 1970's school bus fitted to carry 60 Indian workers on a construction site) to open his door.  We all piled in and asked if he could drive us to the taxi stand.  This thing was a driving mechanical health hazard and we crawled through the traffic for ages and for at least 4kms (15mins my arse!).  We tried to bribe the driver to get us to Dubai and after 600Dhs we gave up... and then the Finns started singing and the driver turned up the Sitar music to 11 to drown them out...

Soon enough we reached a massive on grade carpark chock full of taxis.  Waving 100Dhs notes in her hand, Katie started calling for someone to take us to Dubai but all the drivers kept pointing us away to the far side of the carpark... here, there were taxis on the driveway out of the carpark with their engines going waiting for passengers.  Given that they were 4kms away from the circuit, not sure how much passing traffic we got, but we piled in to taxis and Katie handed out the 100Dhs notes to cover costs.  I can only assume this was the money for the bus driver, but he was long forgotten.

And then we were away with a happy Pakistani cabbie and we were home... we walked in at 10:30pm... some 4hrs after the end of the race!

M4 Toll Cash Back

OK, been probably 10mths since I wrote about local news in Australia and you're all probably sick of my banal tales of Dubai etc, so here is something to hark back to my old roots of why this blog existed.

This article is one such article that makes my blood boil... when I lived in Sydney, the M4 was an unbearable mess and the traffic grind to get from the mountains to Sydney (well Strathfield, where the M4 inexplicably ends some 20km short of the city) was ridiculous.  Having seen roads in Dubai where highways are anything between 4 and 7 lanes, the 2-3 lane M4 is a nightmare and worse still you had to pay for it.

I do acknowledge however that of all the toll roads, its cheaper and that the traffic is not as bad as say the M2 in morning peek, however it was still a bad road.

Then this article... in which finally the toll will be removed, and they claim (and who are 'they'?) that the "effect of removing the toll will see an additional 2000 cars an hour on the road".

But read the detail again... 1500 of that is from "natural growth"... 500 cars for the toll lift itself.  So "they" are wrong. Exaggerated headlines profiling doom and gloom if we stop giving $2.50 a trip.  What a load of crap.

A word of advice to the NSW government... build the M4 East.  Make it 6 lanes and demolish everything in its path.  Widen the existing M4 and M2 to also 6 lanes (each way!) and again, demolish everything it its path.

The costs to buy real estate and compensate those directly effected will be minimal when considering you will future proof Sydney for the next 100+ yrs.  How much money has been sucked up by 3x3 cent petrol taxes and PPP driven toll charges over the past 30 years?  And what have we got for it?  Proverbial side streets in which speeds of 30km/h are deemed as "flying along".

Current infrastructure planning in Sydney needs a good overhaul!

Family Business

Hey all,

Apologies for the delay, but it has been a very hectic fortnight in which I traveled to London and am now in the middle of a family visit from home.  Niki's parents are in town from Sydney and also our nephew is staying as well and he has flown in from London.  So we have the House Full sign up!

Have had many great experiences though this past week with the highlights being a trip to the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi and my first foray into sand dune 4WD'ing.... got some great pictures from those two excursions which I will post up soon.

The family will be here for another 2 weeks and including that time I have secured tickets for the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix.  The tickets include access to the Beyonce, Kings of Leon and Aerosmith concerts.... not sure which of these we'll be going to yet, but we'll be trying to organise something to go.

So sorry once again for the lack of posts, will try and get some time in front of the home PC soon to knock out some pictures.

Clay