Archive for the ‘Dubai’ Category

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I’m easily amused

April 25, 2009

I love WordPress and should have moved here earlier. I can see statistics of visitors to the site and if someone arrives at my site by doing a search, I can see what they searched for. Someone searched for “is kfc home delivery free in dubai?” I’m afraid they didn’t find the answer on my blog. However, I think most delivery here is free or for a very nominal fee. Everyone delivers. There are few drive throughs, but there is a lot of curbside service, where drivers just pull up to the curb in front of a restaurant, honk, the waiter comes out to take their order and later brings their food to their car. It causes a significant amount of traffic problems.

I haven’t had KFC in a very long time and I haven’t had it here in Dubai. (The one and only Burger King burger I’ve had here was very tasty and way better than any American fast food burger, so I suspect that the KFC might be better, too.) But, I say, screw KFC, I am hooked on Marrybrown chicken sandwiches. It’s not chicken patties, but actual chicken breast, breaded, on a bun with the works and HOT. So yummy. I haven’t had sushi in about two weeks because I’ve been distracted by Marrybrown chicken. Now that is saying something!

Now for something completely different.

Bus stop to nowhere

Bus stop to nowhere

I took this picture because it so aptly portrays the wonder that is Dubai. A bus stop bench in the middle of a construction area advertising the Mega Mall. It doesn’t get any more succinct than that.

Permanent sign about temporary road layout

Permanent sign about temporary road layout

This, too, is iconic of Dubai. This sign is metal and firmly planted in cement. Road diversions here seem to go on forever. With the economic crisis causing construction postponement and slow down, I’m not sure if there will come a time when roadways are stable and construction is rare. I hope so.

Results of a blow out

Results of a blow out

Unfortunately, another characteristic of Dubai is automobile accidents. We witnessed this one and pulled over to check on the driver. Amazingly, he had only one scratch on his arm. He was in the roadway you see in the background when his front left tire blew. He was in one of the left lanes and traveled all the way across to the right and then rolled and flipped when he hit the curb/flower bed. His car is wrapped in the irrigation hose. The temperature is heating up here and people are encouraged to have their tires checked because the increased heat of the pavement often causes blow outs like this one.

So, this entry ends on a not so amusing note. We are thankful that he was not badly injured and that he did not collide with other cars. It is amazing to me that more accidents don’t happen here, but most drivers are very defensive drivers constantly on the lookout. That makes all the difference.

Posted in Dubai, Dubai traffic, fast food | 1 Comment »

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Jumeirah Beach Residence Sights

April 24, 2009

jbrtouristsThis probably seems like an innocuous picture to you. Nothing out of the ordinary. However, if you live in a Muslim country and are aware of local customs and standards, you would know that there is too much skin showing in this picture. These tourists are apparently unaware of where they are vacationing. Yes, Dubai is very liberal, especially in areas predominately populated by tourists, but I still find scenes like this odd.

jbrfountainThe wind was gusting so hard that it was blowing most of the water out of this fountain.

jbrhotelThis “old” hotel is being torn down. No wrecking ball, just a large jackhammer slowly nibbling away at it. Keep in mind that this country was formed in 1971, so old is not necessarily old here. This hotel was probably the best at one time, but it is sitting on prime beach property and is behind the times, so down it comes. Everything is made of cement here, so this is a tangle of rebar and cement chunks. I don’t know if they don’t know about explosive demolition or if there is some reason not to do it that way.

Posted in clothing, fountains, Jumeirah | Leave a Comment »

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Watch out!

April 12, 2009

I’m a big girl now! I drove myself to work today (and yesterday). I needed to work on Saturday for a special event and Daddybird needed to stay home due to the fact that our ID cards were being delivered. So, circumstances forced me to brave the traffic. Actually, my biggest fear has been that I won’t be able to get out of our parking space. It is very tight and our parking space neighbor drives a large SUV, so we have to park very close to the cement pillar on the other side if we want to get the driver side door open. After getting out of the parking space is the equally difficult challenge of pulling out into traffic and negotiating the first few blocks which you understand if you have watched the videos I’ve posted previously.

Now, however, I have to figure out the way to Daddybird’s office to pick him up. This I was not prepared for. Could be interesting.

Posted in Dubai traffic | 2 Comments »

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Sometimes I hate the news

April 7, 2009

When the news tells me something that already happened that I would have liked to have know before hand, it can be annoying. Like *** Dr. Who episode filmed in Dubai! *** How can I stalk David Tennant if I don’t even know he’s in town until after he’s gone? Sigh. On top of that, I won’t even get to see the episode until it’s on DVD. So, watch it for me and think of me. http://www.7days.ae/storydetails.php?id=76243&title=Planet%20of%20the%20dead Notice that they had to dig up the plant life to make it look desert enough to suit them. Ha!

Another gripe I have *** I’m not very happy with the Blogger website lately. May be shopping around for another place to put my blog. Will keep you posted and make the transition as smooth as possible. Grumble, grumble, grumble, grrrr.

Posted in Dubai | 1 Comment »

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Raining – Oh when will it flood!?!

March 30, 2009

Raining hard again. Paul is out there somewhere stuck in traffic and I am here waiting. There’s a rumor of a tornado in Fujairah, but just an unsubstantiated (rapidly spreading) rumor.

Posted in Dubai, rain, video | 1 Comment »

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Afternoon out with the Tweeters/Twitterers/Whatever

March 29, 2009

Just another ugly place in Dubai.
In case you are interested in the current state of the world’s tallest building, here it is as of Friday.
Here we are in all our glory. Yes, Donna, we are eating yet again. Notice the blur in the center of the picture. The waitstaff are really fast here.
Paul and Rami discussing Shufflegazine.
PK and Abha above, Rami and Kedar below.
We left this restaurant and headed across the street to a place where those who wanted it could smoke shisha.
Here’s a little snippet of conversation. Just a short panorama of our group (minus me, the benefit of being behind the camera!)
Paul smoking shisha. Sexy, huh!?!
Here’s Rami and Jamie just kicking back.

Posted in Burj Dubai, Shisha, Shufflegazine, socialization, Tweet up, video | 2 Comments »

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Documentary on Dubai

March 27, 2009

Here’s a short documentary on Dubai http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_RNoxO-5ms worth watching, aside from the hypocrisy of the four wheel drive club guy who worries about preserving the desert while he drives all over it in his gas guzzling SUV. Listen carefully to Hessa Lootah. She has some very important things to say.

Posted in Dubai, video | Leave a Comment »

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Rain in Dubai

March 26, 2009

Wednesday evening we had RAIN and it has been raining off and on since. It began with a spectacular lightning and thunder show. This first video is of the worst of the downpour that we were in. It involved large hail pelting the car. Watch for the guy who is riding a bicycle. By the end of the video the hail has stopped but the rain is coming down so thick that the wipers can’t possibly keep up and we are “rain blind.”
The next video is more of the same driving rain. Notice that everyone turns on their hazard lights, as if that makes it better. After every foggy day, there is an article in the newspaper telling people not to use their hazard lights while driving in fog. I’ll have to check and see if there is a similar article after this rain storm. The comment I make about maybe not going to work the next morning is because if this had kept up all night the flooding would have made it impossible to get anywhere. Notice that already there is significant puddles (less than 10 min. of rain).
This third video starts with one of the many rather spectacular puddles. Keep in mind this is within a few minutes of the start of the downpour.
Next morning, still raining, but not flooded, so we are off to work. If you compare these to the previous videos of our drive when it’s dry, you’ll see that the rain has little impact on people’s driving or pedestrian behavior. We saw a few guys who had put a plastic grocery bag on their head and tied it so that it was a sort of hat. At one point in this video I point the camera at the storm drain that is definitely not doing its job.

The next, and last, video is of the end of the drive to work. Watch for the construction workers who are perched on top of cement blocks in a puddle. They created their own stepping stones in an attempt to get across. The automatic focus of my stupid camera was focusing on the windshield, so everything outside of the car is blurry. It is not really that blurry in real life, even in the rain.

Posted in Dubai traffic, rain, video | Leave a Comment »

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Day at the Races

March 21, 2009

This is what I call a serious bumper.
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We spent the afternoon at the Dubai Autodrome because Paul’s boss Omran and his brother were racing and we thought it would be an interesting experience. Just driving out there was an experience in itself. It is far from the city and is surrounded by construction. We missed the turnoff due to vague signage. We had to go quite a ways to an enormous ROUNDABOUT (my favorite thing) and come back to a different turnoff. Then we wondered around driving generally toward the grandstand which we could see at that point. When we got to what looked like the entrance to the grandstand, it looked deserted except for a few cars parked out in the street and on the sidewalk. We found a parking lot, which was a significant walk away (through construction), so we decided to join the cars parked on the street right outside the entrance.

As we were walking in I saw a sign that said “Ear plugs 5 AED.” This was truly a sign as you will see if you play the videos with the sound all the way up. There was, however, no one in the ticket booths selling tickets or ear plugs. So, we just sauntered in and found a seat in the grandstand. There were only a few other people there as you will also notice in the videos. Racing hasn’t quite caught on here yet. The addage “if you build it, they will come” is taking a while to come to fruition. They built this big race track about three years ago and it’s only now that they are seeing enough racers to make it interesting. It hasn’t caught on as a spectator sport, yet. It hasn’t caught on with sponsors either, so the drivers are those who can afford to finance their own cars.

Here’s a overall view of the race track.

The bike race was first. This shows them coming in from their warm up lap, lining up and then starting the actual race.

Then the first of two car races. My camera doesn’t cope with the speed, so it looks more like stop action animation than live action.

Then the Formula One cars raced. They take their warm up lap behind a pace car staying in a particular order, then start the actual race without coming to a stop.

During that race we moved over from the grandstand side to the pit side.

Above is the back side of the pit area. Below are Omran, Crystal, Magnus and Paul chatting between races.

CentimeterCube – Omran’s architecture company and publisher of Shufflegazine. Notice the circles in the bumper. They have cut these holes to improve the speed.
Filling the gas tank – three guys, a gas can and a funnel.
We got a peek under the hood.
Even Hello Kitty gets to go to the races.
Here is Paul hanging through the gap in the fence to get pictures. The guy behind him is Magnus, doing the same.

Apparently, the day wasn’t quite exciting enough for Paul. He watched part of the second race from the fence behind the pit area near one of the curves. He also dropped his camera phone on the other side of that fence down between the tires piled there for cushion. So, after the race was over, he snuck onto the track to try to retrieve his phone, which turned out to be just out of reach. After some consulting and brainstorming for what tools might be available to reach the wayward phone, he raided the emergency kit in our rental car and found something he could use as tongs to reach it. So, snuck back onto the track a second time to grab his phone.

We had a really great time. It turned out to be nothing like what we expected, but those are usually the best experiences.

Posted in car racing, Dubai Autodrome, video | Leave a Comment »

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Silly roundabouts

March 13, 2009

Here are two of my favorite silly roundabouts. In this first clip we have just turned into the Outlet Mall. We can’t turn into the parking area until after we have gone around a dead end roundabout. It was very windy that day, which is why I started recording. This is the day when we saw someone washing a car in this parking lot in this wind.

This next clip is a slip road that connects two major roadways. We take this route often. We can’t just merge onto the road at the left where we want to go. We have to first turn right, go around a roundabout, then back the way we came to where we can finally merge onto the road. The “soundtrack,” if you will, is coming from the car radio. We usually listen to an Emirati station even though we don’t understand a word (yet). This snippet seems to be the call to prayer.

Posted in Dubai traffic, roundabouts, video | Leave a Comment »

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