Oh So Tasty...

I quite enjoy grocery shopping at the moment in Dubai as there is often an eclectic mix of goods ranging from Waitrose juices (I love cloudy apple juice) to a wide range of Indian, Philipino and Asian brands. On a little trip to Choitrams the other day I was delighted to discover Diet Dr Pepper and Tab clear - while costing three times the amount of a regular can of soda (3AED vs 1AED) I was pleased at least to have the option of enjoying something a little different.

Also whilst browsing a range of packet Indian goods caught my eye - with the promise of me simply having to "Heat and Eat" I was put off by the brand name:



Somehow eating "Gits" just does not appeal to me - I am sure it is really good though!

How Much?

Over the long summer in Dubai with not much to do but shelter from the blistering heat I was wondering how nice it would be to live in the UK again. Although now with the weather changing I am super happy in Dubai. Never the less it still irked me as to why I missed the UK.

Well after a few days back in the UK this week it was very clear to me that I had been wearing rose-tinted sun glasses during the Dubai summer. I guess I am a little bit detached from day to day living in the UK now but everything seemed super expensive and crowded:

1. Petrol - 103p for one liter of unleaded fuel

That is the equivalent of over $8 a gallon where it is about $1.80 in the UAE

2. I thought the the traffic in Dubai was bad till it took me nearly two hours to drive the twenty odd miles from Reading to Basingstoke one afternoon

3. The average cost of a house in the UK is around the 200,000 pound mark - it was 160,000 when I left.

4. I look at some of the very nice places a couple of my friends have brought and am shocked at not the cost of the property per say but rather at the cost per square foot. The places all seem really tiny now. An example - a nice 2 bedroom character apartment of 900ish square foot brought for 2300 AED a sq. foot or my friend's beautiful town house (1500 sq ft) now valued at amazing 3300AED a sq. foot and even my little place in Camberley fetched over 2000 AED a sq. foot.

I suppose I do not feel so bad paying 1200 AED a square foot for my Marina apartment now. Of course all these places are in different locations with different facilities (there are way more in Dubai) - I feel a dollar is a dollar wherever I am and I am currently getting great value in Dubai from a property perspective at least.

Still - I had a nice time, caught up with some friends and manged to get in a Yorkshire pudding fix and it was nice to watch a little British Television.

If absence makes the heart grow fonder - then I need a few more regular trips back to the UK to help me appreciate Dubai a little more.

Desert Recovery

The weather has taken a fantastic turn in Dubai now with the days reaching about 35c and a very pleasant 28c in the evening. This has now opened up the desert for a little bit of dune bashing and we made our first trip this weekend to the old favourite "Fossil Rock" scene of my maiden off road adventure just over a year ago.

Over the summer I had picked up a couple more accessories to my recovery kit

1. A couple of high quality shackles - making it much quicker to attach the tow ropes
2. A high quality tow rope
3. A "Super Max Air" type compressor - we timed it re-inflating one of the Hummer tires from 14PSI to 30PSI in about 80 seconds which was excellent

All of which got used on our first trip out. I thought I might pre-empt the stuck the hummer was going to make by poking a little fun at myself and making a small modification to my spare tyre cover:



However as the trip proceeded it was not the Hummer to get stuck - quite the opposite in fact.

We had a couple of first timers with us and myself and Duncan gave the safety driver briefing beforehand. Duncan led the trip which saw taking in some nice dunes to begin with, however it was not long before Celia in her shiny new Wrangler got stuck. I was some distance away - but we could easily see plumes of sand billowing into the air. This was perhaps a sign that it might take some time to get them out - and when they came back - the wrangler had gotten a nice two tone body colour:





As it was Celia's first time in the sand I let Matt drive the Hummer and I jumped into the Wrangler to provide a little tuition and to re-instil some confidence back into her.

After some quick instructions about how to safely descend a dune and advice when to get on the power, Celia was into the swing of it. She went from "I think this is terrifying" to "I really enjoyed that" by the end of the day. I was pleased, as I remember clearly that having a good co-driver to offer advice and also scream in sympathy is a valuable learning aid.

I really like the Hummer as a day to day car - off road on rocks and dirt trails it is fantastic. However I have always longed for more power under the hood as instant on power can really help out in the dunes. On this trip we had along a big Durango with a huge 5.7 litre HEMI engine. I was keen to see how it would get on. Sadly on this day it did not fare to well getting in two serious stucks, complicated by the fact we could locate no rear recovery point.

On both occasions we had to perform up hill tows which was not ideal and involved a lot of digging of sand and numerous attempts at towing. At one point we had about six guys scrumming down behind the Durango to get some momentum into the tow.

The last stuck for the Durango initially had Duncan using the Pathfinder to drag it out - however a gut-sickening wrenching noise came from his car. He then called in the Hummer to help in the recovery - firstly because we had no idea what the noise was and secondly the weight of a bigger car would help.

I spun the Hummer around and two sharp jerks later the Durango was free from the sand. Here we are setting up the tow:



Sadly this day we did not make it down to Fossil Rock as after the recoveries and a late lunch the light was failing. So instead we had some fun on the dunes. Rupert got a great shot of Duncan and Matt getting some serious air:



Again a really fun day - sure we might not have made it over to Fossil Rock, or driven as many dunes as we all might have liked. We still enjoyed a fun day out, teamed together in recovering the vehicles and a number of us enjoyed fruity cocktails later that night at the Roof Top Terrace bar at the Royal Mirage. It offers an amazing vista of the Palm Jumeriah where we re-told our desert tales and whiled away another balmy evening in Dubai.

A Sancturary of Efficiency

There are a couple of things that when you are expat you cling onto very dearly. One is your medical insurance card the other is your passport. A little while ago I went through a small stage about being totally paranoid about the location of said passport - including stopping the taxi that was taking me to the airport so I could jump out open the boot and just check it was where I had left it. Irrational behavior? Perhaps, but every time I am forced to give my passport over to an embassy for a visa or hand it over at a security desk in exchange for an ID card at a company I am visiting I can not help but get anxious until I get it back.

As resident of Dubai - the two things you need to do nearly anything to interact with companies with is a copy of your passport and a mobile phone number. Without these things you become a faceless member of society unable to open a bank account, buy a car, get cable TV or even get basic utility services. The thought of having to replace both my passport and mobile left me with rather more anxiety than is reasonable.

In the UK if I wanted to get a new passport - I would have to go and pay a man a totally unreasonable price for a couple of passport photos. Queue for an age in the post office and pay an extra $10 to ensure I had managed to fill out the form properly then wait patiently for two to four weeks for it to eventually fall through the letter box.

I was so impressed by the British Embassy Passport service in Dubai - I can not really see myself going through the rigamarole in the UK again.

After seeing a friendly man who charged me $5 for eight good quality passport photos I headed down to the British Embassy with forms filled and photos "verified". On arrival at the Embassy I signed in and after a quick security check I wandered through the verdant gardens to the consular section. I was greeted by an empty room and a friendly member of staff processed my application at lightning speed and took the 1080AED from me in a matter of minutes with a promise that someone would call me before my travel date to tell me I could collect my passport.

Not even 48 hours had passed when the embassy called me to come and fetch my shiny new jumbo sized, biometrically enhanced passport. I was staggered. I went down and again I was met with an empty consular service desk. I don't think I actually spent more than six minutes in the Embassy in both trips.

Now for the other crucial bit of Dubai identity - a mobile number. I had to get a temporary Du SIM card which for a bargain 1AED gave me 125AED of credit however a pre-paid mobile with no international roaming is not the best business solution for me.

So I went in search of an Etisalat office for a post-paid SIM card with international roaming enabled. I made sure I had several copies of my shiny new passport with me. After locating the office - filling in the form and handing over a 2000AED deposit I was all set. Easy.

Somehow doing both these things made me feel like I was a Dubai citizen again after being in a state of limbo. How very odd, but full marks to both organizations for letting get my identity back so soon.

The World Within

Continuing the line of having fun with my photography I recently filled a gap in my lens collection with the addition of a Nikon 60mm f/2.8D macro lens. This type of lens is often referred to as the "Flower Power" lens as often reference shots are flower stamen or something similarly botanical. For me I just love the way the detail of every day ordinary objects is brought out that makes you look at them in a new way.

I went on a little spree taking some macro shots of "important" things - do click them for a better look:

1. Room Fan



2. Home Cinema Speaker



3. Liquid Refreshment



I am currently on the look out for the large gecko that lives around the villa. I think a macro shot of him will resemble something out of Starship Troopers

Touch Me, Feel Me

The advent of the iPhone has generated more blog postings and technology column inches than any other single item of technology in recent memory.

Having been in the fortunate position to have a "play" with an iPhone from the lucky few who not only managed to get hold of an iPhone in Dubai but more importantly who were willing to spend hours trawling the web to be able to unlock it to work - I salute you.

It is an excellent device. The problem I have with all phones like this - is that you need two hands to be able to use it. This is an issue in daily use when you want to make a quick call or check that sms that has just come in. Also I know I shouldn't really say this - but how can you make a quick call with two hands if you are driving and your forgot your hands free kit?

To this end - while I will inevitably end up with an iPhone - I really want an authorised product that I can update with all the new features apple will undoubtedly release as firmware/software updates. I put the purchase on ice for now.

I have been in the market for some form of mobile media player - my current video iPod while capacious at 60gb and while it is great for Podcasts, music and audiobooks what it really is not good at is video. The tiny screen, while clear, is just to small to watch anything on for any reasonable length of time - all it ever gave me was a headache. Which is a shame as watching your own selected TV/Movies is a great way to while away the time on a flight.

The PVR market is awash with offerings now - Archos has a wide variety of models as does Creative. Also a host of Far Eastern manufacturers have some very nice offerings. But the choice was easy for me, iPod Touch:




While it might not have the largest capacity, biggest screen or most features. It has a desirability, usability and all round coolness that makes you want to pick it up - play with it. Then play with it some more.

The 3.5" screen is crisp and clear and bug enough not to turn my brain to mush should I choose to watch an episode of heroes on it. The mutli-touch interface that it shares with the iPhone is a work of genius - and like the click wheel innovation on the first iPod - will go down as a miracle of 20th Century interface engineering. Though Apple should really include a handy cloth to keep the finger prints off.

The moment of joy when one of your friends discovers how to zoom out a photo with the "pinching" method is pure gold. The effortless browsing of albums with "cover flow" as you flick it with your finger to select your mp3 of choice. The fully functional, fully zoomable web browser. The instant re-orientation of the screen depending on how your hold it. Built in wireless. The youtube.com application. All go to make this the coolest, most funky media device on the planet today.

Others have tried and give you more functions. But none will grab you the way this does. Beneath its child like simplicity of operation is a sophisticated touch controlled media platform. Without doubt the add on applications coming to it will add to its usability - but for now I just want to play. The prices in the UAE are a little dear - 1399AED for 8GB and 1799AED for 16GB. I am glad I got mine from the US - the 16GB model costs $399.

10/10 - The ultimate iPod/mobile video player/mobile web browser. You touch it. You will want it.

Camels to Cheese

An action packed weekend has left me with the odd sensation of the the end of week break being entirely too long. To take it in reverse, there were a lot of bleary eyed expats walking around the city this morning in the wake of late night watching the Rugby World Cup Final.

A big group of us headed down to the Barasti Bar to watch the game and despite fears that there would be queues to get in and we would not be able to see anything the opposite was true. Barasti had gone to great lengths to ensure plenty of screens and staff on hand and the only chaos was trying to get out of the car park after the game. From a match perspective - Congratulations to the Springboks they have been the form team during the tournament and equally congratulations to England.

They had been written off and the first pool games were dire. However the bulldog spirit showed up for the last three games and I was proud to be an English rugby supporter again. Win, lose or draw last night - I felt England had nothing left to prove and it all looked a game too far considering the amount they had given in beating Australia and France.

The Bokke will enjoy their win and I spent all evening marveling at the basketball style skills that the Boks displayed at the lineout. That was world class.I look forward to the Lions touring South Africa in 2009 to test their worth against the world champions

Early in the weekend I took my guests Anna and Matt out for the classic day trip to Hatta Pools with a stop at the Hatta Fort Hotel for a spot of lunch. It is always nice to get a small break into the rugged countryside surrounding Dubai. On the walk into the hotel there was a nicely decorated camel waiting patiently to take tourists on a short ride.





Following a dip in the Hatta Pools and a quick drive back to Dubai we all headed out for "Cheese" at the nightclub called the Lodge. This was the opening night of the club following the Ramadan break. I had never been there with the full place was open. I was amazed at the size of the venue particularly the huge open air dance floor surrounded by bars and VIP Gazebos. The large group I was with and the accompanying 2500 other guests certainly had a tremendous time that evening. Here are the lads from Villa 16 enjoying themselves:



The winter is now well and truly here and we have all ready made sure we have our tickets for the Dubai sevens. The camping trips, dhow cruises and villa parties are all being planned over the next couple of months. With the weather cloudy and 11c in London - I know where I would rather be.

Note: Part of this blog was quoted in the Gulfnews 23rd October 2007

Virtual Boy in a Virtual World

A lot can change in a few short weeks. For example:

1. Three weeks ago England had been trounced by South Africa in the pool match - now they are the first team in the Rugby World Cup Final

2. I was wondering if my nephew has a tiny Australian accent - two weeks later I know now that he has when he says the word "cake"

3. Three weeks ago I was working for Sun Microsystems - today is my first day with VMware

Over 15 months ago I came to Dubai looking to broaden my professional and personal horizons doing a job I had lived and breathed for several years. It has been a fantastic experience and I have learnt so many new things and been to places I could never have imagined.

Just sometimes - a thing will happen that turns your world upside down. For me that is prospect of working with possibly the hottest software company on the planet today. They IPO'd in August at $29 and as a type this their stock currently sits at $102.98 in less than eight weeks. Remarkable.

Sun for me - was like your favourite tracksuit bottoms. You have had them for years and you are totally comfortable in them. I guess however there comes a time for a change into something new and exciting. This is what VMware offers me.

In my seven years at Sun I have had a fantastic time and met many good friends. The last 15 months working for them in Dubai have been without doubt the highlight of my career. I will miss everyone dearly and I received a very nice send off - but will continue to work with them in my new capacity.

The next 12 months is going to be a roller-coaster. I am the first employee for them in the middle east region - so it is going to be tough. Of that there is no question. But as somebody wise once told me "Aaron - If the thought of doing the job you are going for doesn't make you wet yourself - you are going for the wrong one"

I guess I had better bring lots of underpants with me.

I want one of those

Knowing a number of journalists in Dubai is often a good thing as I sometimes get to experience the fun of their "fringe" benefits. It was a pleasant surprise the other day when my friend turned up to take us down to the pub in the new BMW X5 rather than her normal Suzuki Jimny run around. Here it is parked outside the villa I stay at:



I have always had a hankering for the X5 though when I test drove one in the UK it did not really do anything for me. The new model is a marked improvement. The lavish interior seems lifted directly from the seven series and the smooth 4.8L engine never missed a tick through the rigors of Dubai traffic. As you might have guessed I liked it, I liked it a lot. Getting back into the H3 suddenly made me realize the quality that goes into the BMW marque. However at nearly twice the price and probably giving a reduced off-road experience I will be holding onto the Hummer (for now at least)

Overall 8/10 - Comfortable, powerful and safe. The new Jumeriah Jane favourite? I think so.

Saudi on Sea

A lot has been happening for me over the last couple of weeks hence a bit of a shortage of posts. I spent last week running around Jo'burg and Cape Town and this week I write this from Saudi Arabia.

I first went to the The Kingdom just over a year ago and visited Riyadh. This time I flew into Bahrain and took the limo across the causeway to visit a very large oil customer based in the city of Al Khobar.

It was interesting crossing from Bahrain into Saudi Arabia. First you have to pay the Bahrain Toll, then you stop for the Bahrain customs. Once this is done you take the nice drive across the causeway which I guess can be described as the "neutral zone". On arrival at the Saudi border you present your passport and then finally go through Saudi customs which seemed to involve opening the boot of the car. Oddly enough the first thing you see when you drive out of the border is McDonalds.

My visit to Al Khobar has given me a different perspective on the Kingdom. Situated on the coast and being smaller than Riyadh with a long palm lined corniche running through it - it has the feel of a resort town. Laid back and relaxed.

I stayed in the Gulf Le Meridien hotel which offered spectacular views of the Gulf:



During Ramadan there is "enforced" fasting i.e. all the super markets and restaurants are closed during the day. I had to get room service for breakfast and am currently patiently waiting for the flight back to Dubai where I will be going for a tasty meal. I am rather glad I hid a banana in my bag, from the fruit bowl in the hotel room - it is providing me with the energy to see out the day - though I had to hide in an office to eat it!

I have feeling that I am going to be seeing lot more of Saudi Arabia in the near future.

Note: Part of this post was published in the Gulf News 15th October 2007

Ramadan Kareem

The holy month of Ramadan has begun and to all my Muslim friends and colleagues I wish you peace and happiness.

"I know Gee-tex" - "Show me"

The annual GITEX exhibition is in town this week. Along with it brings the usual traffic chaos, oversubscribed hotel rooms and packed bars and restaurants.

This was my first visit having been on vacation last year. I was certainly not disappointed. I found GITEX to be a large and imposing trade show. While not of the ludicrous proportions of CEBIT in Hanover there appeared to be at least branding from the vast majority of major IT vendors in the world.

I am still wondering on the correct pronunciation of "GITEX" - currently I hear:

"Gee-TEX"
"Ji-TEX"
"Geet-ex"
and my least favorite:
"GIT-ex"

Whichever way you chose to say it combined with whatever accent you might have leads to myriad of different ways of the acronym GITEX sounding.

It struck me as I walked around that while there were a number of 'Enterprise" IT Vendors exhibiting the show to my mind is clearly focused at the consumer and SOHO user. Nevertheless I had a productive day of meetings with customers and partners.

During my break from "Stand Duty" I got take a little look around and was impressed by the vast quantity of "gadgets" on display at the show. Notable things that caught my attention:

1. The new iMacs continue to look like works of art - but no sign of the new iPods at the show
2. Playing Wii bowling on a 103' Plasma screen is an amazing experience
3. The number of high end gaming PC's on display made me think my year old shuttle at home has all ready dated significantly:



4. There were so many nice PC accessories on display that I have never seen in Dubai - I think a trip to GITEX shopper might be in order for some retail therapy.

5. Similar to the gadgets - where do the bevvy of attractive "stand assistants" come from?

I left GITEX feeling drained, sore feet and with a rather large headache. Still only two more days to go!

Note: Part of this post was quoted in Gulf News 18th September 2007

Hopping Mad

Having now moved into the old Dubai area I am starting to enjoy social life in some different locations. One of them is the very famous Irish and Century Village. I can imagine it would be very nice there in the Winter as you can comfortably enjoy the gardens and lake where there are tables to take in the view and a beer, not to mention a wide selection of restaurants. The most notable of which is St Tropez a french steak house which I would recommend as providing the best value for money steak meal in Dubai ($11 for a Sirloin)

This weekend the “Hopfest 2007” beer festival took place in a large marquee on the grounds of the Irish village. A number of my friends suggested I should attend and seeing as I enjoy a good beer festival I made the relative short journey being careful not to end up in Sharjah with the newly divided lane arrangement on the Gahoud bridge.

On arrival at about 5.30pm we were greeted by a snaking queue from the marquee. It seemed that the beer tent was all ready full and they were operating a one in one out policy. In times like this the great British talent for queuing in quite patience was very evident. However add to this cold beer, humidity at 70% and an air temperature of 39c made it all rather uncomfortable.

After waiting for thirty minutes and moving about twenty feet we decided to take more radical action. I believe the term “blagged our way in” would be appropriate as my friend's press passes came out and I was ushered in as a “photographer”. It is amazing what lengths people will go to have a beer in a cool enviroment.

Once inside I did wonder a little about the huge desire to get in. The sawdust on the floor was the first clue. Around three walls of the marquee were stalls selling various beers from across world, a fun rock band were cranking out classic anthems to which about thousand (mainly expats) staggered around to in an effort to dance.



Now usually I would love this type of thing but I made the fatal mistake of turning up sober with all my friends falling around and having fun.

I think the hopfest could improve in a couple of ways:

1.The tables were always going to be used for standing on to enhance the singing and dancing performance of the beer fuelled bold. Sadly they were not built of the same “fibre” as the ones in the Oktoberfest. By the middle of the afternoon most the trestle tables were flat as pancakes:


2.My fun ended when I decided I needed to visit the bathroom. Please to the organizers of these events – make one door for entry only and the other for exit only. Simple I know but there was just a huge crush at each door. So once I finally got out there was little chance to get back in. I called it a night after that.

I felt it was a shame that simple logistics stopped me from enjoying the event as much as I would have liked too. Next year I must also remember to wear a plain white T-Shirt and bring a magic market with me. This would allow the perfect place to record which beers I drank, in what order and their alcoholic content was. Some of my friends did this and appeared to be apple of many a girls eye!


Overall 7/10 – An event to get in as much beer and live music as possible before the quiet reflection time of Ramadan. I hope they will do better next year.

Back To School

September is here and has brought with it super high humidity which you can enjoy through the super heavy traffic. The pleasant journey I currently enjoy to work can be done in as little as 12 minutes with “summer traffic” however this morning the journey time had tripled. I just put it down to everyone coming back from vacation and some of the schools opening up for the new term.

I can not even imagine what the Sheik Zayed Road would be like without the Salik toll charge but if you get caught in a “rat run” to avoid it you will be there for some time.

Next week all the schools are back, GITEX is in town and it will be last few days before Ramadan. My prediction? Total chaos on the roads.

Full Wash Sir?

The dry, sandy and wind swept conditions in Dubai make for a very dirty car in no time. The nice thing is that there are men to wash it for cheap money at seemingly every corner. For instance park in the right place at the shopping mall ($3), take it to the car wash machine at petrol station ($6), get your gardener to do it ($2) or perhaps take a contract out with the security guards (14 washes $30).

The problem with these methods is that with the guys with buckets in car parks seem to spend most of their time “wiping the sand off” as opposed to “washing the car”. Also while machine car washes do a reasonable job you always end up with fine hairline scratches from the brushes.

I was always a fan of getting a car jet washed back home and I finally found one here in Dubai. I pulled into the large Emarat gas station where as per normal a friendly chap filled my car, then I moved it over the “lube express” station where another chap checked and topped my air pressure. The service was free but I like to tip ($2) and the smile the guy gave me made my day.

I was going for the hat trick and was looking to drive the Hummer through the machine car wash which fortunately under repair. As I prepared to drive out I saw the sign “manual wash” I headed there fast. A very brief discussion between “body wash” or “full wash” left me signing up for a full wash ($12). I sat back in amazement as the Hummer was hoisted off the floor and got a full under chassis jet washing:



Not too mention a full engine bay clean and then a hot soapy soak:



And to finish up four guys gave it an interior detail and a final buffing:



To me it was the best value car wash I had ever had or seen. For one hour the hummer had the time of its life and looked much shinier – well for at least a day or so...