Winter Begone!

Since the Dubai 7s the weather in Dubai has been unseasonably cool with the odd rainy days. I am sure that the "boys in blue" or construction workers have appreciated more than others the cooler months.

I have missed the sun a little and have been enjoying the summer in Johannesburg, South Africa this week. On my previous two trips, security aspects have ruled my thoughts. This time however, while I am still ultra cautious, I am feeling much more relaxed and am enjoying my time here. The weather has helped a lot - dry, warm (35C) and sunny - this has led to a number of outdoor coffees and al-fresco dining. Even having breakfast outside at 6.30am seems to lift my soul and mood for the rest of the day.

Once again the local team and business partners have looked after me really well providing a packed agenda and excellent entertainment. However I am continually reminded where I am when I pick up the newspaper and read about the latest gun crime or I go to the office to find the power out for most of the day.

Still this has continued to add flavor to this trip and hopefully there will be more when I visit Cape Town this weekend. I hope the snow has melted in the UK by then....

A Little Piece of Dubai in the Sky

When I arrived in Dubai back at the end of June the amount of tall buildings and tall buildings being built is something that you can not help but notice. At the time I was ignorant of the Burj Dubai tower and surrounding development. However after finding out that the Burj Dubai is goaled to be the world's tallest building had led me to following its progress closely.

June the 28th the Burj Dubai was 54 stories high. Just recently the tower passed the 100 floor mark and had has joined the league of only six super-tall buildings in the world that are 100 or more. I find this startlingly a floor every 3days! The final height of the tower is a closely guarded secret but it is thought it will be at least 800 meters and maybe as high as 900 meters with over 160 usable floors.

Across Dubai there are numerous other tall buildings going up being built by the major developers Emaar, Nahkheel, Dubai Properties and Damac. By far and away the largest is Emaar whose projects in Dubai Marina, Downtown and villa developments such as the Springs, the Meadows and Emirates Hills have all been in staggering demand from new release and on the re-sale market. This has been predominantly driven by the lack of completed properties and influx of expatriates (like myself) coming to Dubai as well as people speculating on this fast moving market. The net effect of this is that rent is expensive - though now capped at only 7% a year (a great move) and the housing market continues to surge.

As a result of this I have made the decision to buy into the Emaar dream, and have purchased an apartment in Dubai Marina. It will be a year before it is ready but I can watch it being built from my current rented apartment. Quite a unique position...roll on January 2008

Dubai Reds

After some press speculation it looks like the Football Club I have been a life long supporter of will be taken over by the Dubai International Capital Group.

I am pleased Liverpool FC have found investors of this nature and I think the long term success and outlook of the club will be assured. The promise of a new ground and some further investment into a few key players will really bolster things.

It took an old friend and even bigger Liverpool supporter than myself to find the Dubai Liverpool Supporters club - know as the Dubai Reds. Checking their website one of their goals is:

"To make watching televised Liverpool matches an ‘event’ to be enjoyed with fellow supporters."

This really is the tradition I got use to during the four years I lived in Liverpool. The "match" was usually a major family event with food and drinks put on and many people invited over. Even if the result did not go Liverpool's way - it was always good humoured and enjoyable.

My only question is will the Dubai Reds be serving scouse?

To Wii or PS3

Just prior to Christmas Nintendo with their Wii and the Sony PS3 went head to head for the "hot" new console of the year. The battle was over really before it had begun with the latest figures showing Nintendo outselling Sony 3:1 - which shows that playability and a low price seemed to have more appeal than graphical eye candy and Blu-Ray movies.

Dubai being a consumer playground both consoles were available the day after the release. Some stores were charging as much as 6000AED for a 60GB PS3 - similar to the launch of the Xbox 360. Post the festive season the PS3 in Dubai can now be picked up for almost half that - making it close to the UK launch price. The same is not true for the Nintendo Wii while only $249 in the US it is still consistently 2500AED everywhere I have looked. So going against the market I brought a PS3 and will import a Wii from the UK for more sensible money.

The PS3 has received a lot of criticism since its launch for being too expensive, too heavy, needs firmware patching out of the box and a poor selection of launch titles.

However I look at the PS3 as providing -

1. A quiet Blu-Ray player - the HD-DVD drive for the Xbox 360 just makes too much noise (great picture though)
2. A simply stunning photo album style slide show - putting to shame anything even Apple has delivered
3. 1080i/720p - is excellent for gaming on large screen displays
4. Resistance: Fall of man - is a great game and will be a classic - I prefer it over Gears of War the stand out title for the Xbox 360 right now
5. Breathes new life into my old PS2 collection

I also can not wait for the first lot of triple A titles - Tekken 6 and Heavenly Sword in particular. In the mean time anyone know where I can buy Blu-Ray movies in Dubai?

Going a bit barmy

I am now back in Dubai following a couple of weeks in Australia. It was very relaxing and actually it was nice to get some warm weather as Dubai has been decidedly cold and wet.

After spending a fun filled week in Perth I headed over to Melbourne to stay with an old friend of mine and also to go and watch the Day 3 of the 4th Ashes Test. A lot has been written about the capitulation of England to Australia in this series and the Melbourne and Sydney tests were about as comprehensive wins could be.

I found solace in that spending a day with the "Barmy Army" was really a great cure all. For eight hours I sang and drank with them. Wickets were tumbling (14 that day) but this only encouraged them to sing louder and longer. The Australian fans were all a bit bemused by it - to be fair English sports supporters have decades of refining their songs to have poke fun with good humor at not only the players and the away support but themselves as well.

Here is a little example of "Jimmy" one of the Barmy Army's Generals leading with his "one song":




After England had suffered an innings and 99 run defeat - the Barmy Army were not to be moved. They stood there and sang their Anthem for 90 minutes till moved on by the police "We are the army, the Barmy Army, we are mental and we are mad, we are the loyalist cricket supporters the world has ever had" and repeat...

However the song is true in so much " we are the loyalist cricket supporters the world has ever had" - I left with the feeling that England's cricket team on their recent run of form are very lucky to retain such supporters. Good on you lads.

Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a happy, peaceful and prosperous new year. I will be celebrating new year in Melbourne which should prove to be fun.

Normal blogging service to resume later this week.

Happy Christmas

Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas. I have to admit having just had a nice barbeque I do not feel very "Christmas" right now in Perth. I am sure that will all change tomorrow when I see my little nephew open his presents.

Perth Out Loud

After a very relaxing flight into Perth - immigration and customs were a breeze. It was great to be picked up by my sister for the short journey back to their "duplex". A bit of an odd name as I usually think of a duplex as a building with two floors (this would be called a town house in Perth). Here it describes a semi-detached home. After a busy day of Christmas shopping I noted again the little differences in day to day phrases i.e.

UK vs. Perth
Pre-Order vs. Raincheck
Credit Counter vs. Layby
Duvet vs. Doona
Chav vs. Bogan

I am sure there will be plenty more - but these were a few that caught my interest.

My main purpose of being in Perth is to spend Christmas with my sister, her husband Keith and my little nephew Julian. I of course think he is totally adorable (but then I would think that as his Uncle):




After a fun filled day with Julian and with his Grand Mom babysitting we drove into Perth City to an area called Northbridge. A lively place with lots of bars and restaurants:



We headed to comedy club called the "Laugh Resort" situated above a pub the "Brass Monkeys" - by some very odd coincidence that night a family friend - Danny had been invited to perform a spot at the club hence our visit there.

I had seen Danny present to a public audience before - that was giving the Best Man's speech at my sister and Keith's wedding some three years ago.

This evening Danny was the first act on, following the intermission. The acts prior to Danny were very middle of the road, this would be the most polite way I could describe them. Danny's ten minute performance was a real breath of fresh air, on what so far had been a rather dour evening of entertainment. He immediately connected with the audience and I noticed a change in people's body language as they leaned in, keen not miss any nuances in his jokes.

I have always found the best comedians to be the ones you could imagine have a beer with and them entertaining you all night with amusing stories. Danny fitted this mould perfectly. He finished his routine with a cracking shaggy dog story which left this author and most of the crowd wanting more. Danny well done mate - the few nerves you had gave you tremendous energy leaving the other acts in the shade.

Overall 9/10 - Perfect - but I wanted more!

Danny giving it "large":

Sven, Sven, Sven Goran Eriksson

The ex-England manager somewhat randomly made a visit to the Dubai office last Thursday. Sadly I was in Turkey as I would have liked to ask the chap a question or two!

Australian Gold

Tomorrow I fly to Australia for Christmas in Perth and New Year in Melbourne with a visit to the Test match in between. I have been planning this trip for some time and am surprised at how quickly it has come round.

The flight down to Perth is my "Golden Ticket" and will earn me Gold with Skywards - Emirates frequent flyer program just before the cut off date of the 31st of December when Tier miles are reset to zero.

The main advantage with being a gold card holder with Emirates is the ability to use the lounges when not flying business. A great bonus as the company I work for enforce a strict economy class only policy (fine for me) - which without lounge access can be pain on long layovers.

Poseidon

Rather than mention the distinctly average remake of the great sixties movie - I thought I would mention the restaurant I recently had the pleasure to visit in Istanbul last week.

With the Pope's recent visit and the Turkish having a hiccup with their EU entry - they have been making world headlines. However on my second trip to Istanbul I only managed to sit in record breaking traffic jams but also eat some rather spectacular fish dishes in a restaurant called "Poseidon".

It was great to have a native Turkish speaker along with us and to my surprise I did not see a menu all night. On my last trip to Istanbul we visited another excellent fish restaurant - but this time I noticed the faux pas me and my colleagues had made. The waiters bring over a large tray with a number of cold starters on - last time we simply got these on the table and started to dig in - this time I find out they are actually for display purposes only - once you have selected they will then make fresh dishes and serve us each individually....it could not have been too bad last time as no one mentioned anything to us!

It was with some regret I did not bring my camera with me as the display of fresh fish outside of the restaurant looked like a scene from 20000 Leagues Under the Sea - with all manner of interesting looking fish and other sea food. I am sure through the five course meal we sampled a great deal of it with a rather fantastic Jack Dory served fried and filleted as a main.

I sometimes feel rather humble I am able to experience all of this.

Blog Upgrades

Earlier today I took the opportunity to migrate this Blog from the regular www.blogger.com application to the new Google Beta Blog application. While this keep the blog looking more or less the same the new version has some really nice features which improve maintenance of the site:

1. Labels - finally I can categorize my posts and I have now labelled all of them
2. Instant publishing - once I have made a post I no longer have to wait for the whole blog to be re-published. Only the latest update is published
3. Template editing - a whole new drag and drop interface for this

A worthwhile upgrade and probably now approaching a Web 2.0 application.

Wheels

Following the recent Hummer HUB trip I went on, Wheels magazine in the UAE ran a feature on it. I was a little surprised when I picked up a copy of the this magazine to see a little reference to my good self as well as making an appearance in one of the numerous photos:

" We congregated in a rocky valley and stopped for lunch at mid-afternoon. This was the point of the event, when Hummer owners exchanged experiences, stories and accessorisation advice. A fellow H3 owner called Aaron White shared his moment of glory with me as he recounted rescuing a Toyota Land Cruiser from certain death by thirst and starvation, which was stranded in the dunes near Big Red.

As Aaron told his story with a wicked glee, I pitied the owner of the Land Cruiser, who is now forced to live a life of shame — he will no doubt regret accepting cheeky Aaron’s assistance for the rest of his days. Aaron went on to chastise the Land Cruiser owner for being ill-equipped as he proceeded to show me his snatch rope, travel air compressor, air gauge and gloves.

He’s the sort of man you could do with on a deserted island (that is, until you ate him)."

The full article can be seen here. I want to thank Mark for taking the time to listen to my ramblings and I would urge people with the slightest interest in this to pick up a copy of Wheels magazine at a modest 2 Dirhams.

Just to prove I was not making it all up - here is the video of the Hummer performing its first recovery, which happened to be Paul and his Land Cruiser. Probably best with the sound down as there is quite a lot of wind noise:

Shopping, Chopin and Terracotta Armies

I visited Warsaw on only one previous occasion over nine years ago. I clearly remember taking the impression that the old town was beautiful, the people were friendly and it was still very much an "eastern bloc" country. Last week on my visit I still found the old town to be beautiful and the people friendly but now Warsaw has undergone dramatic change and feels like a modern European city which is developing at a quite staggering rate.

On arrival at the new international terminal of Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport I was surprised at how quick it was to get through - however I still had to go over to the old terminal to find an ATM for some Zloty.

On driving through to the hotel I was startled by the number of new modern buildings and hotels that had sprung up in the interim nine years. The Palace of Culture and Science still dominates the city central skyline:



I was presenting at the quarterly partner "Akademi" - this was held some 150km outside of Warsaw in a resort location called Spala. I can imagine in the summer the forest location would be very nice but in the depths of the winter it was a little bleak. The local team did a great job with the event and had high attendance though like last week in Moscow it can be tough to listen to four hours of presentations not understanding a single word.

On my way back from Spala to Warsaw some of Poland's growing pains became evident. The road system struggled to meet the demands placed upon it and a single accident on the main dual carriageway back to the city sent the Taxi driver on a rather adventurous route across the Polish countryside. A journey that should have taken one and half hours was doubled but I had fun talking to the driver in a strange mix of broken English and German.

A little weary from the journey back, I was determined to see more of Warsaw in its new form. So hopped into a cab and went to visit the newest Mall in Warsaw - Blue City:



I am kind of spoiled when it comes to Malls living in Dubai - but with over 250 shops it certainly had a lot space to have a good window shop. What did catch my eye was the exhibition on the famous Chinese Terracotta army - something I have always been fascinated by. I paid my 20 Zloty and had a fun 20 minutes looking at the replicas:




After that I headed to the Old Town Quarter. I certainly started to feel very Christmas-like when I saw the huge tree outside the Royal Castle:




and the square had a number of the restaurants with decorations on - in the summer the square is packed full of chairs and tables. Winter tells a different story:




With the aid of my Ski Dubai hat on - I kept walking around and took a couple of photos of some impressive buildings. St Anna's church:



Not sure what this building is - but I liked the look of it...



I had a very pleasant trip to Warsaw marred slightly by the fact that it is a long journey from Dubai with a three hour layover in Vienna. It is hard not to draw a comparison between Warsaw and Moscow - as a English speaking westerner, Warsaw wins on the user friendly side of things as English is widely spoken, it feels safer and is much cheaper. Either way I look forward to return trips to both cities.

Light Fantastic

While sitting in my lounge last night watching a movie - a glinting of light caught my eye. This was not unusual as Dubai Marina is lit up well at night, with the various construction projects and towers - this one was slightly different.

Upon inspection there are now three rather magnificent beams of light marking out the development of a new building development. A little research on the web found this to be Bay Central a hotel and two residential towers. I do recall seeing an intriguing ad in the Gulf News and coupled with this makes it one of the best marketing launches of a development I have seen in a while.