Chris Al Tarrant

As we get out and about more at media events, we are beginning to meet the great and the good of Abu Dhabi, UAE and the wider Middle East. At a recent event we were introduced to the guest of honour a certain Mr. George Kerdahi. I’ve made a point of not mentioning names on this blog, but this guy was very popular, and clearly worth bending the rules for and naming!

So I greeted him, told him it was a pleasure to meet him etc. etc sat back down and politely asked our host, who this guest of honour was. He went on to describe this very popular TV quiz show, where you have to answer 15 questions in a row by yourself, however you have 3 lifelines, take 50-50, ask the audience or phone a friend, and can win money. I was asked if I’d ever seen it!!! Well it turns out that Mr George Gerdahi is the very popular (mainly with the ladies) host of the Middle East version of who wants to be a millionaire.

Those of you that don’t recognise him, he’s the one in the middle with the suit.

Do you recognise him now?

Iftar Number 1

Though Ramadan is a giving and sacrificing month, it is also quite sociable. Traditionally when the fast is broken every day, people gather at a variety of places for Iftar, the first meal after the all day fast. Families go to each others houses or out for a meal, and some organizations and businesses use the opportunity to host “networking” Iftars. As we are now being welcomed into the “media” community, we’ve been invited to a number of Iftars at the different hotels around town, and one recently was at Le Royal Meridien.

The invitation says 6.40pm, and at 6.40pm on the dot, guests people are arriving. Strange to see over here as being early or even on time for any kind of meeting is usually unheard of, but then eating for the first time in 14hours is good enough reason not to be late. Even though the fast is traditionally broken by eating dates, the food was fantastic, absolutely everything you can imagine. Soup, fish, grilled meat, vegetables, salads, but my personal favourite, a “whole” lamb sitting in a huge tray carved up for you as you went fill you plate.
Do the Iftars last all night? Not at all, literally as soon as people had eaten, it was up from your seats and out to another event or location. Less than an hour from start to finish! No time to hang around and natter over a coffee! Absolutely fantastic!

Shamed!

I've just received a message from probably one of the best editors and journalists I've had the pleasure to work with and also an all round really nice guy, who, as someone who keeps a very good blog himself, gently to reminded me (and shamed me) to post more. And he's right!

Yet again, I've let slip and not kept this blog as up to date as I planned, can make some excuses, but there aren't any really. It's not like not much has happened, because it has, so expect to see a few posts shortly on the past months experiences and especially how the Holy Month of Ramadan went.

A Fish Shop ...... Abu Dhabi style

I went in detail in an earlier post about getting fresh fish, cleaned, gutted and cooked from the fish market. It really is one of the things I enjoy the most over here, simple food, as fresh as you can get it and a really fun, enjoyable experience.

I went again the other night, this time armed with my Nikon ready to capture as much of the process as possible. The food was delicious, but the fun bit was again being one of the only non-locals there and I soon became popular with the market traders once the camera was out.

Here's a few shots of the whole thing:

One of the fish monger stalls in the market

Some of the different varieties of fish you can choose

The catch of the day and that night's dinner

The man in red gets it ready for cooking!

Make sure there's no bones left in!

Bite size pieces please!

Not quite Harry Ramsdens, probably better!

Salt and Vinegar and a bit of Tartare Sauce sir? No thanks, just spicy, spicy!

For some strange reason, people I know don't want to eat here but i think it's the best. Arranged to take a friend here again recently and told them we would go to the "Fish Market for" dinner. They jumped at it however soon changed their mind when we realised we got our wires crossed. I meant the Fish Market as above, they thought I meant the restaurant by the same name in the InterContinental Hotel!

The first days of Ramadan

I honestly thought, apart from the odd thing, I wouldn't notice much difference around Abu Dhabi during Ramadan, but I am completely surprised by how different things become so quickly.

On the first day of Ramdan I was in Dubai all day for meetings, and literally went 10 hours on just 2 glasses of water, no food and no cigarettes. One of the glasses of water was only because a local Muslim Emirati who we we were meeting with, after we declined, kindly insisted we took a drink, though was fasting, himself. When you are out and about in public, whether in hotels or walking the streets, you just don't eat, drink or light up.

At the office it's different, we have a closed off room set aside where we can eat and drink, and an area walled off outside where we can smoke. In the office, we simply do not eat and drink at the desks during the official Ramadan working hours (10-3), and also outside of this period as longs as our Muslim colleagues are not around.

Out and about it's also very different. The hotel bars are different, they start serving alcohol at 7pm, there is no music and you can't drink in the open air spaces for those that have them. Our apartment over looks a very busy road, in fact the road is constantly busy, 24/7 apart from on a Friday morning. The first thing I noticed on the first day of Ramadan, was how quiet the road was at 7pm when the fast is broken, and how busy it is at 3.30am shortly before the fast is about to start.

It is literally as if the whole place becomes nocturnal and the day turns upside down. It's easy to forget and carry on as normal, I like my coffee and cigarette on the balcony first thing in the morning and walk out there with them both every day, only to remember and walk straight back in!

We are in a foreign country, it may be odd for us, but it is the norm here. It is part of the culture, and you accept it, adapt, make your small sacrifices and live according to it. Personally I find it both fascinating and actually quite honourable. In a world where in a lot of places commercialism has overtaken the importance of religion, faith and belief for most, it's nice to see a period where the priority is given back to peoples beliefs. Things don't stop, they just for this period come second to this religious observation.

Record Breaker

The UAE, mainly Dubai and Abu Dhabi, are constantly raising the bar and creating world records of some type or other. As I have mentioned, Dubai, at half a mile high, is building the worlds tallest tower, at 5,555m long Abu Dhabi had the worlds longest inaugural ribbon and in Liwa a month ago, they broke the record for the largest plates of dates ever, a steel plate 10.06m by 2.03m with over 2,000kg of dates or over 2 tonnes.


Well even though I am in the UAE, I am proud to say I have played a small part in a world record that Britain has achieved. Yesterday on the River Thames, Britain broke their own world record and held the largest ever yellow rubber duck race.

The record in 2006 was held by Singapore who raced 100,000 of our rubber friends over a 1km distance. In 2007, Britain rose to the challenge and broke that record by racing a staggering 165,000 of these loved creatures a kilometre down the River Thames. On August the 31st 2008, Britain, to safeguard their record, raced an amazing 250,000 rubber ducks from Molesey Lock, near Hampton Court Bridge the 1km to Sherriff Boat Club at Albany Reach. The race took around 3 hours, and the sponsor of the winning duck won 10,000 pounds. My part I sponsored 5 of the little fellas, and though it was a tight fought race, doesn't seem like any finished amongst the leading pack. Still, money was raised for a good cause and a world record firmly secured for Britain ............. for now!

The power of air con

With the heat and humidity over here, it makes you wonder some times how people managed without air conditioning. It's on wherever you go. It's on constantly in the flat, constantly in the car, constantly in the office, all the shops, bars and restaurants operate with it on and even the tents that are being erected for the different Iftars have air conditioning units with them.

Earlier this week we learnt why air con is so needed. The air conditioning system in the whole of ADNEC went down and you felt the difference the moment you stepped into the building. Getting into the more enclosed space of the office it was even more uncomfortable. It was advised we all work from home that day, which is just as well as I managed 15 minutes in the office before it was time for another shower and a new shirt!