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!

Farewell Fingerprint

Live music is very popular over in AD with most bars having a resident band playing music nearly every night. As we enter Ramadan music is not really played so a lot of the bands contracts come to an end and new acts come in October.

One of my favourite haunts is Hemmingways at the Hilton, it was the first bar I visited in January when I came to scope AD out. That night there was a 2 piece band from New Zealand playing called Fingerprint.

Have been going there a fair bit since I moved and they are extremely good and very entertaining. They play all sorts of music, blues, soul you name it and have been known to take request, though my constant request for Englebert Humperdink's Please Release Me has fallen on deaf ears!

As well as good band they are also very friendly people and always chat and have drink between sets with customers, whether regulars or tourists staying in the hotel.

Unfortunately it's their last weekend this weekend, so it's farewell Fingerprint, good luck, enjoy going back home and seeing all your kids, and if you ever come back to the desert for another stint, let us know and make sure it's on your web site!

Another very different drink

In an earlier post I mentioned the Fosters Mexican, a pint of lager with salt and freshly squeezed lemon juice. Well, another one has been discovered, which to be fair is more wrong than different.

On a recent night out drinking cocktails, and after one Mojito too many, I plucked up the courage to try a Bull Frog. Why it has the word Bull it in will become clear shortly, but why Frog it's not so clear! The ingredients of this very lethal drink are simple, white spirits, four in fact, tequila, vodka, white rum, and gin, then a measure of blue curacao topped up with a can of Redbull! A potent drink that after a couple you are gone, but still keeps you awake all night! The Bull obviously from Redbull, the Frog apparently because it is meant to be jade green colour. the ones I had were more turquoise and the only green was my face at the end of the night!

The Holy Month

In a couple of days time we enter the holiest month in the Islamic calendar, the Holy Month of Ramadan. Though not confirmed yet it is expected to begin on the Monday 1st of September and run through till the end of September or the first couple of days of October. During this month, Muslims fast and literally do not eat or drink or basically allow anything to pass their lips, everyday from sunrise to sunset. The reason is to teach patience and humility. It is also a month of giving and a focus is on giving to the more needy. When the sun sets, the fast is broken with an Iftar everyday where families and friends gather to eat together.

Over here, everyone is preparing for Ramadan. Marquis are being erected outside the different Sheikhs' palaces for the nightly Iftar, some shops are changing their opening hours, and the working day is different. Officially it is shorter, even for non Muslims.

We are also asked to respect Ramadan and not be seen to be eating, drinking, smoking etc in public.

As I've said before and believe in strongly, wherever you are in the world, you have to respect the local customs and traditions. Ramadan should be an interesting time, witnessing this complete change in the daily life and seeing the discipline of others. From a business perspective, it will be challenging, though I'm sure we'll be putting the hours in and work a full day, some of our clients will be on shorter days and subsequently getting business done will be that little bit tougher, but things don't come to a stand still. In fact, a lot of meetings are held in the evenings when the fast is broken as you have more of a chance of getting peoples attention. let's be honest, who wants to hold a business meeting when both parties have not eaten or drunk anything for hours. I'm can be a miserable sod until I've at least had my morning coffee!

Will keep you posted on how the month goes!

Holidaying in Blighty

I've not managed to post much recently, for a number of reasons, but the key one is I made my first visit back to the UK recently for a few weeks. Saying I was going on holiday to England was a bit weird but it was good to get back and catch up with friends and family.

I thought I would miss the UK a bit more than I do, but surprisingly i don't. Obviously the day to day contact with friends and family I miss, especially watching my two little nephews grow up. But when you go back after being away for a while, you realise more some of things about the UK that you don't like. Am not going to go on about the weather, that is clearly something I don't miss, but there are a host of other things. The key one being security, over here you can go to a coffee shop, and place your wallet and mobile on the table, walk away for a few minutes, come back and it's still there. Try doing that in the Starbucks in the Bullring! You don't even have to leave them unattended on the table and they risk being swiped. Times I leave my phone, ipod or laptop in the car over here, without worrying about the window being smashed and them gone as soon as my back is turned, again a sign of the times in the UK.

Going out in an evening is different, on the occasions I went out when I was back over, in Leicester Square and down Broad Street, I was shocked at the number of young, drunk people staggering in the streets and walking aimlessly in front of cars. Things I never used to notice much, but when you don't see it for months it really sticks out. The key thing I don't miss is the attitude of club doormen, going out in Brum one night wearing the type of clothes I would wear going out here, I got turned away from 2 places both saying I was "too casual". Admittedly one place was Mechu which has a reputation of not so much being fussy, but making up the rules as they go along, but still I can't be doing with that attitude on a night out!

One thing i do miss though, especially over recent weeks is my fortnightly trips to the sacred Villa Park. It's great that every premiership game is shown live over here so I won't miss a match, but it still doesn't beat watching it live, the banter with your mates and guys around you, and the scalding hot chicken balti pie and flat pint at half time! Bring on the 39th game!

Keeping up with the Al Jones's

When you go out to a club in the evening, there's always a bunch of people who like to show off, stand out and our do each other. At the Jazz Bar not so long ago, one group of revellers asked the band to announce they were getting everyone in the bar a drink and then all the waiters went through the whole club dishing out classes of wine. However recently i saw a hilarious spectacle.

On a recent night out at the Embassy Club in the Emirates Palace, there were a couple of tables sitting at either side of the dance floor, with what seemed like two unconnected groups at them. One table ordered a bottle of champagne, out came a waiter working his way through the crowds, holding a tray above his head with a standard bottle of champagne in an ice bucket, 4 huge sparklers, and delivered it to the table. Not wanting to be out done the second table ordered champagne and shortly after, the waiter comes out again, tray over his head with 2 standard bottles of champagne in ice buckets and the 4 sparklers. That wasn't the end of it. Not long after, the waiter is making his way through the crowds, tray over his head and a magnum of champagne in an ice bucket and the 4 sparklers, over to the first table. Score - 2-1 to table 1! But, as with most competitions, it's not over till the fat lady sings, or at least not until the waiter comes out again, tray over his head, 2 ice buckets with a magnum of champagne in each and the 4 sparklers delivered straight to the second table. Slam - dunk, it's all over table 2 wins! well actually the Embassy Club wins, the prices they charge for drinks, they would've made a pretty penny off the back of these egos!

Island Developments in AD

As is known, the UAE is still and will for a number of years be undergoing huge levels of development. One of the most exciting in Abu Dhabi is Saadiyat Island, one of the largest natural islands off the coast of AD, which is being developed as the cultural centre of the capital.

Alongside the Picasso exhibition in the Emirates Palace, there are models on the plans for the development, which include no less than 4 brand new museums, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, the Maritime Museum and the Sheihk Zayed National Museum.

The developments is one of the most exciting in Abu Dhabi, which will include more hotels, apartments, villas, retail and leisure, a business district, concert hall, performing arts centre, 2 brand new golf courses and still maintain 30km of sea front. It's taken them 20 years of talking to get Saadiyat to this stage, but looking at the plans it seems it will be well worth the wait.

It's good to see that nearly all major developments in AD have a masterplan to ensure their sustainability, but that they all seem to have a theme. Go further up the coast and you reach Yas Island, another exciting development, with the main theme being motorsports, and will include a Ferrari Theme Park and Abu Dhabi's F1 circuit. NB: first Grand Prix - October 2009

Picasso in AD

There seems to be an emphasis on Arts and Culture here in Abu Dhabi, highlighted by the development at Saadiyat Island of the cultural district, but more of that in bit. To increase the interest, for a period of about 3 and half months up to early September, there is a Picasso exhibition on at the Emirates Palace.

A fabulous exhibition with over 200 paintings, sketches and sculptures on display covering virtually all examples of his work. Apparently the total amount of pieces by the Spaniard is in the hundreds of thousands and seeing a small percentage in one place gives you an amazing insight into the numerous different phases he experienced, from the Blue and Rose periods to Cubism. You can literally walk from one exhibit to another and couldn't be blamed for thinking you were looking at the work of different artists. Even some of his self portraits were amazingly different!

The interesting thing as well is reading the explanations by each piece, you can understand what was going on in his personal life and how that influenced his work. More time and effort seems to have been put into works on his wives and lovers, than those done when he was alone.

A great exhibition offering a fabulous insight into his life.

Rumour - George Michael coming to town

Everyone gets excited when an act comes to town, it doesn't happen that often and when they come they usually only do one night. Apparently it happened at the beginning of the year when Elton John came and the same at the beginning of the summer when Bon Jovi played an open air concert in the grounds of the Emirates Palace.

A good mixture of people go to these concerts, people that aren't necessarily big fans but go because they happen so infrequently that they just want to go to a concert here.

A rumour I heard recently, which originated from a reliable source, is that to mark the end of this years National Day celebrations (2nd December), George Michael will be performing here. Nothings confirmed yet and there are also rumours that he will stop performing live soon anyway, but having seen him a couple of years ago at the NEC in Brum, if he does perform over here, then I'm there. And no doubt certain friends and family will make the effort and come over for it.

Other acts soon to come to the UAE, admittedly to Dubai, but still worth a trip nonetheless, are Queen, Kylie and Sting!

As Nelly said ...... It's getting hot in here .....

Clearly we're in the desert, we are not far from the Tropic of Cancer and we know it's going to get hot, but blimey, do the summers get hot? July and August are the hottest months of the year, with clear blue skies, scorching sun, and temperatures in the early to mid 40's. I like the sunshine so thrive on this type of weather in the day. The difficulty is in the evenings, temperatures don't drop as much as you would expect and humidity is high. This summer is apparently a particularly hot one, with daily temperatures way above the average of 43 degrees for this time of year, nighttime humidity at around 80% and 90%, and evening temperatures not often going below 37 degrees.

I had to pop out to a meeting at mid morning recently and was shocked at the temperature display in the car:

Just to let you know, the car was parked in the shade and later that day I was in the car again, unfortunately without a camera phone and the display showed 50!

Stinginess or a point of principal?

I've mentioned on a few occasions how cheap a taxi ride is around Abu Dhabi. Depending on what type of cab you hail, either an older looking white and gold taxi or the more modern silver ones, a typical ride from one end of town to the other will cost somewhere between 4 & 7 dirhams, or 60p to a quid. Subsequently you give a tip, and usually round it all up to 10 dirhams. Sometimes you end up giving as much as tip as the cost of the ride itself, probably something you would never do in the UK. A cab ride from the centre of Brum back to my house is about 17quid, and it's the norm to give 20 and leave it there, not double it to 34, but the cost here is so cheap, giving 5 dirhams for a 4 dirham taxi ride, with 1 dirham as a tip is a bit embarrassing. The other thing as well is, unlike most black cab drivers back home, over here the cabbies are employed and salaried, so what is on the meter is for the firm and a tip is straight in their pocket. And tips are very important to them.

Late at night it gets interesting. Recently every time I've got into a cab after a night out I've had to argue with a cabbie who refuses to put the meter on. Fair enough, he's just trying to make some extra money, but at the end of the day it's not right. If he insists, then you try and agree the price. Now, normally he's going to get a 5 dirham tip on a 5 dirham cab ride, so 10 dirhams back to the apartment is acceptable, but most try it on and try 20, 30 or even 40 for a ride that is only 5. OK we're only talking a couple of quid, the price of a pint, but if you're going to pull a fast one over your boss, don't take the mick out of the punter. In these cases, people usually get out and wait for another cab. While waiting for one outside the Hilton the other week, a girl in front of me got in and out of 3 different cabs because of this. We joked about it, and even though it's small amounts compared to the UK, it is a point of principal ......... or are we just being tight?

You know the rules, don't break them! You have been warned!

It's common knowledge worldwide that what some people may see as acceptable behaviour or may tolerate in some parts of the world, is frowned on and even illegal in the UAE. There are also those things which are also not acceptable anywhere in the world, that the UAE are are harsher on, and as well as not tolerate, punish, and punish severely. There are no hidden secrets, we know the rules, to live here contently you have to stick to them, and after all, we are guests in someone else's country.

One of the biggest topics over the past few days amongst the expats over here, and especially us in the "media" sector has been the story of a couple of Brits facing jail terms on a number of what are seen as serious charges. It's made headlines over here and back home, and the way the different national press cover it is funny, but that's a different story. If you've not heard it, a thirty year old girl who works in publishing in Dubai for one of the biggest publishers over there got extremely drunk at a traditional Friday brunch. A typical Friday brunch starts at 12, finishes at around 4 and consists of an all you can eat and all you can drink menu. At this brunch, this girl became friendly and acquainted with a male British tourist. They went for an afternoon walk down the beach and one thing led to another and subsequently began consummating their newly formed relationship. Unfortunately for them, they were caught in the act by the local police, who then advised them they were acting against the UAE laws, though very fortunately for them just asked them to stop and cautioned them.

Now maybe it's just me, but if you get caught doing something wrong and are let off, you count your lucky stars and take the advice given and just don't do it again. Well on this occasion, once the officer left the seen, the couple just carried on, only to get caught shortly afterwards by the same copper, who promptly arrested them. The girl allegedly took offence to this and threw a tirade of verbal and physical abuse towards the officer. She is alleged to have hit him with her stiletto, swore and was racist towards him.

This was last Friday, and soon afterwards she appeared in court facing three serious charges, having a sexual affair (sex outside marriage is against the law), indecency in public and insulting a police officer - there are rumours of a fourth charge of being drunk in public as well. She faces a sentence of between 3 months and 6 years. To try and lessen the sentence, the couple have allegedly got married to have the first charge dropped - a shot gun wedding if ever I've heard one and a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. She has also since been fired from her job, I wouldn't be surprised if this is partly because in their article on the issue, The Sun newspaper featured the companies big blue logo!

Their final fate has yet to be decided, if they are lucky they will just be deported, however legal experts are saying that she is likely to be sentenced to years not months.

Do I have any sympathy for her? Not at all. She has lived here 3 years and knows the rules, she broke them, and carried on breaking them after she was warned. The defence will be she was very drunk, and too me that is no defence at all, and I can't see that landing on sympathetic ears in the courts over here for obvious reasons.

As the saying goes, "if you can't do the time, don't do the crime!"

Grocery shopping

We're quite lucky where we live, we have all the amenities close to hand, KFC virtually under the apartment, Baskin Robbins next to that, then BK, MacDonalds and in between them Al Sahada which does the nicest chicken shwarmas ever. We also have a choice of handy supermarkets, the 24hr Abu Dhabi Co-op is 3 minutes walk and nearby we have the much nicer Abela, and 3 minutes in the car is the even nicer Spinneys.

Spinneys and Abela are great, they have everything you need, from freshly baked bread, cheeses and fresh fruit and veg, to toiletries, household goods and a lot of Waitrose products. They do have two other sections that stand out, the first is the drinks section. No supermarket sells alcohol on it's main shop floor (Spinneys has an off license underneath), however they do have shelves of Budweiser, Holsten etc. These are all alcohol free and in a lot of cases, flavoured! The strangest I have seen yet is apple flavoured, alcohol free Budweiser. As a friend said last night, it is called Budweiser, but it doesn't taste of beer, has no alcohol and tastes of fruit juice, so why don't they just call it fruit juice? Fair point.

The second section is a lot more welcome. Clearly we are in a Muslim country and pork is not allowed, however, like the discreet off licenses, some supermarkets that cater more for the expat community, do have dedicated, discreet, non Muslim sections. The other day I was like a kid in a sweet shop, stocking up on Pepperami, pork sausages, black pudding (yes, we found black pudding in the desert), bacon, pate, bacon fries and the best of all, Mr Porky Pork Scratchings - all the way from Wednesbury in the West Midlands. I must admit I did feel a bit guilty going through the checkout with all this, but the bacon buttie I had the next morning soon made me forget the guilt!

Exploring the Gulf - part 2

Another trip around the Middle East last Wednesday, this time a short hope on the plane over to Doha, the capital of the State of Qatar, for a morning of meetings. So you don't think it's all fun and travel, and hard work is actually invovled, the first meeting was at 7.30am, the second at 9.00am, the third at 10.00am, the fourth at 10.45am, then back to the airport for the 12.40 flight back to AD for another meeting at 3pm! Saying that, a few of our meetings were in the top hotels, and we were treated to a much needed and very welcome breakfast at the Sharq Village and Spa (check it out here www.sharqvillage.com). Work wise it was actually a good day. I'd have thought that out of 5 meetings, at least one wouldn't have been fruitful, but they all went very well and in some cases better than expected!

Like Bahrain, Qatar was dusty and also seemed underdeveloped, and didn't seem as there was as much wealth as Dubai and AD, more normal cars on the streets rather than Porsches, Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Hummers etc. which is quite suprising as Qatar has one of the highest and fastest growing GDPs in the world and is the richest of all the GCC states.

Good thing for us is it offers a great opportunity with potential, which I am pretty confident will happen in the next few months.

Our second magazine

We received the first copies of our new launch today, Future Energy Magazine, and it made it's first public outing at the Emirates Palace, at the press conference announcing nominations were open for the inaugural Zayed Future Energy Prize. The initial feed back from those that saw it was great (which is just as well as they were the main sponsors of the publication), but it has given me great confidence that this magazine will very soon become established, globally, as an authoritative publication on developments of alternative energy. Fingers crossed it will make it's next public outing at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday.

The press conference was an experience. Aside from the fact that one of the people speaking last year picked up a Nobel Prize, who was very interesting to listen to, watching the mixture of local and expat journalists was pretty funny. Though the press conference was conducted in English, the local journalists asked their questions in Arabic, which prompted responses in Arabic, which really confused the guy from the FT.

There were also more photographers and cameramen than press and watching these guys clamber in each others way for a shot was a sight, but I suppose they didn't want to miss the key event, the official launch of the Zayed Future Energy Prize web site!

The New Abu Dhabi Beach

Our apartment is literally no more than 400 yards from the beach, walk out the door, down the road, cross the Corniche and you are there. For a number of months, in fact from before I first visited 6 months ago, they have been busy renovating it, and adding more facilities to create a pleasant space for people to visit at any time of the day or night.

It finally opened last Wednesday after great anticipation, and in true UAE style, they had to have a "biggest ever" and break a record - they had the longest inaugural ribbon. The ribbon ran the full length of the beach and was actually 5555 metres long. As this record is now held by Abu Dhabi, I'm sure, not to be out done, it won't be too long before Dubai try and beat it!

The beach is fantastic, not only because it takes 2 minutes for me to get to it, but it looks good and the facilities are great. As you step down, there is the most beautiful green grass running the full lenghth, with loads of palm trees, a wide path and wooden decking leading down to the golden sand which apparently had to be imported from Saudi Arabia! Handy facilities include dedicated toilets and changing rooms, showers, an area with a cafe bar, ice cream parlour, juice bar, grocery store, etc. There are a host of well manned lifeguard posts and the beach is constantly patrolled by police, which has nothing to with poor security, as that isn't a problem at all. However, for those who know why that is needed, it is working well.

Sports are encouraged on the beach (apart from cricket which is banned, probably for the same reason as why the police are patrolling), football is played and they have also supplied a number of volleyball courts. The beach also has it's own purpose built mosque. I don't know why but it is quite nice to lie there, relaxing in the sunshine and occasionally hear the call to prayer. I suppose it reminds you of how different a culture you find yourself in.

Splashing around in the Dubai sunshine

After more than 2 months over here, I finally went to Dubai the other day for pleasure and leisure and not business for a change. After the obligatory visit to Greeneye (a shop in Dubai that sells clothes, watches and bags for all the top brands - only fakes), it was down to Dubai's famous Wild Wadi. For those of you that have not been to Dubai, Wild Wadi is a water park in the shadows of the Burj Al Arab Hotel (the self styled 7 star hotel).

Wild Wadi was packed, and surprisingly not overrun with screaming kids. There were families there, but also a high number of young groups of adults. It's a great place to relax and enjoy the sun, but also offers a handful of great water rides and activities that include Breakers Bay - a pool that every now and then goes from calm water to creating waves of over 1.5 meters high, Master Blaster - a water based roller coaster where you sit in a big rubber ring and are sent up, down, and round the park by high powered water jets (ride best left to those how are not a immensely clinically obese - but that's another story!) , and Jumeirah Sceirah - the tallest and fastest free fall speed slide outside North America, which is 33 metres long, and you free fall down the slide at up to 80kph (50mph) and for a brief moment, experience weightlessness.

A great day out for kids of all ages!

Male waxing

Before we begin, let me assure you now, I have not had a back, sack and crack!

Back in Brum, rather than go to a barber (who very rarely uses a pair of scissors, but prefers a set of clippers) to get my hair done, I go to my local Toni and Guy, see the same hairstylist and leave with my hair done the way I wanted it not the way the barber wants. It's a bit more expensive, but I don't go as often as I'd have to if I was going to a barber, so it nearly balances out.

Over here I've yet to find a place like that, that will do men, however there are hundreds of barbers shops, the Syria Saloon is across the road from Salon Syria, which are both a few minutes walk from Beirouty Barber. So out of desperation to get my big hair sorted, off I popped down to the Beirouty Barber. A nice guy, in a modern clean salon, who even took appointments and noted them on outlook on his laptop. He had all the gadgets there, clippers, trimmers, shavers etc. In fact every electrical item related to mens hair that you could think of, and not a set of straighteners in sight. Fair play he did an ok job on the hair, but then he went the extra mile. As I was sitting in the chair, he opened up his draw, picked out a couple of cue tips, dipped them in something from a tub, and then placed one in each of my ears and one up each of my nostrils. Left them there and carried on with my hair. Obviously I knew what was coming, so when I got over the fact of how ridiculous I looked, I then began to imagine the pain I was about to endure. And it was painful! Though it did a good job, I couldn't help but think, if my eyes watered by having four little tugs of wax from my ears and nose, how (and why) do women do what they do to a much larger surface area of their body?

Improving international relations

The UAE, Abu Dhabi and even our work are very cosmopolitan places. 80% of the population of the UAE and Abu Dhabi are expats. At work there are just over 30 of us and we come from over 10 different countries. A varied mix of people. As you would expect, we teach each other customs, words and phrases from our respective countries, most of the stuff is useful and interesting, but sometimes we do what everyone does and teach each other a bit of slang. It's a good bit of banter and a bit of fun as well. Every day you hear different accents, speaking in a language that you wouldn't expect, a Brummie like me trying the odd Arabic word, a Lebanese guy speaking Greek.

The funniest thing I heard was earlier on today. We have a local Emirati who works with us, like everyone he's a nice guy, very friendly, and he likes to get involved as well. There he was earlier this afternoon chatting away to me in the office dressed in the full kandura, the national outfit, and, when I told him I was Greek, he looked me straight in the face and said in true Only Fools and Horses fashion, "So Chris, you are a bubble!" I never thought a guy in a dishdasha would ever call me that!

Picking up the gauntlet

I'm very rarely ever someone who would walk away from a challenge, the opposite in fact and readily accept them, however trivial, or stupid or childish they may be! Yesterday one was set, probably the most stupid one ever encountered, and like most, I just couldn't walk away from it.

Three of us set ourselves the challenge of how many of the world wide phenomenon that is the Big Mac can we eat in one sitting! We gave ourselves individual targets, and all three achieved them and one in fact beat theirs!

I won't embarrass anyone by giving away numbers etc, but the below picture shows you the three participants and the three stacks correspond to the number ate by the individuals. The order of the stacks does not correspond to the order of the participants.

Business as usual

I was chatting earlier this week to my mate from the navy and telling him how safe I felt over here. Walking around late at night, whether in a busy part of town or down a dark secluded alleyway, I'd never felt vulnerable or at risk, not like I do back home in some parts of Birmingham. And though we are in the Middle East, there was no feeling of risk of terrorism. He just kept quite and looked at me as if to say, that's not the case, but I can't say anything!

The next day, a news story on the Beeb website said the Foreign Office had increased the threat of terrorism level in the UAE to high, story here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7456547.stm. And a subsequent email from the British Embassy said "It is more a case of higher vigilance - there is no specific threat to British interests."

So what do you do? It's simple, you just carry on. What has become apparent over the last 7 years is the threat is everywhere, and if it's not high now, it may be one day and vica versa. You can't let it control your life, where you go and what you do. The only other thing you can do is follow the British Embassy advise, and be that little bit more vigilant, but I'm not sure I know what to look out for!

It's a small world

Only a couple of weeks ago I was thinking that there is so much going on over here in the UAE, and so many people from so many countries working or visiting, that I wouldn't be surprised if, eventually, I bumped into someone I knew. The other week I spent 2 days at an exhibition in Dubai, and while walking around on the first day, overheard people speaking in Greek and as I looked up, I saw the cousin of one of my longest friends who I'd met a few times in Cyprus recently! As an architect, he was visiting the same show.

As if that wasn't coincidence enough, the next day, while driving up along Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai to the show again, I was driving behind a car with an Aston Villa scarf displayed and laid out across the back shelf! As the Holte End song goes, "Villa here, Villa there, Villa Villa everywhere!"

Bravo ADNEC

Well it had to happen somewhere, sometime. As of last Sunday, the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre became one of a few venues in the area to become completely non-smoking. It's the only way some of us smokers can cut down. The smoking area has now moved from literally the other side of my office door, to down two floors and outside. And believe it or not, it has helped most of us cut down. Not because the 2 flights and of steps and then a further 10 metres is hard to do, but because, when you're in a suit, going outside into the 40 degree heat and blazing sunshine just for a fag is not exactly comfortable.

Fair play to them, everyone seems to be following the rules, but there's only a few of us who work in the offices there now. It'll be interesting to see when the exhibition season kicks off again after the summer and visitors start coming in to the shows to see how well the non-smoking works.

The Royal Navy in AD

A long standing pal of mine from my Uni days is in Her Majesty's Royal Navy, and they docked their ship in AD on Sunday for few days. He's currently an officer on HMS Chatham and has spent the last few months in the North Arabian Gulf around Iran and Iraq. This was their first time on dry land for about a month and I managed to get together with him and some of his navy chums a couple of times, for the odd beer. Well, actually I had the odd beer, but they seemed determined to drink AD dry! But I suppose they deserve it as after these four days, they're back up to the North Arabian Gulf, and aren't going to be on dry land again for another month. It's actually pretty good to see a pal from back home over here.

He managed to take us onto the boat this evening and have a look round. An amazing experience. As you would expect, these boats aren't made for comfort, they're functional, and the equipment on there was pretty impressive, and that was before we saw the weapons, including the 4.5 inch "gun" at the front!

It was good to walk around a Navy boat and see how "our boys (and girls)" live when they're out at sea, and though they haven't yet fired (and hopefully won't fire anything in anger), they are risking they're lives in dangerous environments, and are doing it without the home comforts we all take for granted.

Here's my pal and me on the ships bridge - that's me in the captains seat!

New car

Picked up our brand spanking new car last week, and like nearly everyone when they get a new car, am pretty chuffed with it. As a rule, I don't like Fords. Memories of my Dad's old beige Sierra that I crashed 3 weeks and 2 days after passing my test, and left in a crumpled mess.

Well the new car is a Ford Edge, a pretty big 4x4, with a 3.5l, V6 engine and about 290bhp. An automatic that does about 14mpg. But then when you can fill up it's 60+litre tank for about 100 (dirhams that is), or just under 14 quid, it doesn't really matter. Has all the toys on, which on reflection are necessities, sat nav, reversing camera, bluetooth through the stereo for your mobile phone, remote control dvd player and the most important of all, the auxiliary input for your ipod!

You need a big car over here as nearly everyone has them and if you had something small, you wouldn't stand much of a chance on the roads! in fact the Ford Edge is probably one of the less conspicuous 4x4's out here. Porsche Cayennes and Hummers stand out like a sore thumb and are 2 a penny!

Join the "half" mile high club

As is pretty common knowledge around the globe, there is a phenomenal amount of building work going on in the UAE, and will be for some years to come.

Abu Dhabi is building whole new communities on new islands as well as race track for the first ever AD F1 Grand Prix in 16 months time and Dubai, as well as everything else, is building the worlds tallest tower, the Burj Dubai, which as I have mentioned in a recent post will stand over half a mile high!

There are loads of images available of the tower, and a fair few have been sent to me. However I was sent one recently taken from the top of the tower, some 2600 feet high or 800 metres, looking down onto Sheikh Zayed Road.It is absolutely breathtaking.

I was driving down Sheikh Zayed Road the other day and was in awe of the scale of the towers either side of me. The tops of those towers are what you see in the photo above. They are about 40 to 80 stories high, and to give you some perspective of the height of the Burj Dubai, that photo is taken from the top of it, about 800 metres high, over half a mile, or about 156 stories high.

Five fascinations

Over the past few weeks I have noticed there are a host items and inventions, that actually have no use over here in the UAE, items that most people would deem as useful and necessary.

1. Mirrors on cars - in most cases pretty damn useful, and in my opinion a necessity, to ensure your path is clear from traffic coming up behind you, over here though that is not necessary. Changing lanes is a lot simpler than that, just move over into any gap and expect the driver of the car you are cutting up has noticed your move and can slow down in time!

2. Indicators on cars - again a necessity in most countries, but over here they just seem to be lights on your car, controlled by a stick near the steering wheel, that you should never use. When I learnt to drive many moons ago, the thing you learnt was Mirror - Signal - Manoeuvre, over here it's ignore the first two and just manoeuvre. However the hazard light function is useful as with these magic little lights, you can park, double park and even triple park, literally wherever, but only as long as the hazards are on!

3. Zebra crossings - they look good and provide a guide to where pedestrians can cross the busy roads in apparent safety, however it is not to be assumed that cars will stop for you, the opposite in fact! And if you see a car approaching, the onus is on you to run the hell out of the way, which can be a bit difficult if you are wearing Havaianas or Burgenstocks!

4. No smoking signs - good idea, and nice thought, with the aim of benefiting every ones well being, however if you are seen smoking under one of these signs you are more likely to be given an astray instead of fine.

5. The green light at traffic signals - red for stop, amber for get ready, and as Murray Walker says it's green for Go! Go! Go! Not in the UAE, it's red for stop and amber for "Go very quickly"! If you haven't pulled away by the time green comes up, or actually the second amber comes up, then you are literally subjected to a blast from the horns of every car around you.

And the winner is .......

Huge congratulations to all our Turret ME colleagues who worked on the World Future Energy Summit 08. As I mentioned in a previous post, this event about 6 weeks ago won Best Congress at the Middle East Events Industry Awards. Well, they've gone and done it again!

On Wednesday the WFES team were all at Earls Court in London for the annual Association of Exhibition Organisers Excellence Awards, and picked up the award for the best launch show, beating competition from 3 other events organised by 2 much larger event organisers. A great achievement, but thoroughly deserved.

It is a hugely successful event on all accounts, sales, delegates, speakers, press exposure etc. which was all recognised by the wider conference, event and exhibition industry.

This is what was said about it: 'The judges chose the winner because of their genuine launch in an emerging market that surpassed its own very ambitious objectives and achieved extraordinary PR coverage on a global scale'

If you are struggling to recognise this event, it was across all the main UK papers and news stations in January, and was the event where Prince Charles gave a 20 minute opening address, and to save 15,000 tonnes of carbon emissions, he didn't come over to Abu Dhabi for it, he appeared on stage in the form of hologram!

Fun on the roads

I'm nearly done with all the paperwork and bureaucracy now (hopefully I haven't spoken too soon), all I think I'm missing is my alcohol license. I was issued with my UAE driving license last week. A very quick process in comparison, which involved a letter, translation of the UK license, more photos, an eye test, about 220 dirhams, then actually having a separate photo taken for the license. However, less than one our later I was the proud holder of a 10 year UAE driving license.

We ordered a new car straight away which we should get any day now, but hired a car till then. Getting mobile is good, though taxis are cheap, it's nice to have that bit of freedom to just not have to rely on lifts into work and taxis to shops etc. As it turned out I needed to be in Dubai twice this week, so just jumped in the car and hit the E11 from Abu Dhabi to Dubai.

First time on the roads is a bit scary, 4 lane motorways, where under taking is as common as over taking, tailgating is constant, and if you can't move out of the way for someone to pass, they will just slip onto the hard shoulders, and literally squeeze past! I don't think it's taken me long to get used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road, and being able to do u-turns at every traffic light junction. Hopefully I won't pick up too many of the bad habits the drivers have over here, but I'm not so sure.

Driving in the UAE seems to follow Charles Darwin's Theory of Evolution and is very much a case of "survival of the fittest", so to get ahead on the roads, it is a case of if you can't beat them, join them!

Friday Brunch

A very popular activity on a weekend over here is Friday Brunch. Brunch over here is not a big fry-up at about 11am on a bank holiday Monday, it is a long lunch held in most of the hotels around town. Friends and families get together, from lunch time to late afternoon, eating good food, having the odd drink, and basically enjoying a relaxing day together.

Today four of us went over to Al Fanar restaurant at Le Royal Meridien. This is probably one of the most talked about brunches in town, mainly because Al Fanar is at the top of the hotel, on the 25th floor, and is a revolving restaurant, offering fantastic views of the city. You get to see both extremes of Abu Dhabi, from the calm seas of the Arabian Gulf to the Manhattan like skyline that is emerging as AD develops.

Al Fanar is an experience, the food was endless, your glass was never allowed to go less than half full, and every time you looked out of the window you had a different view and different perspective of the city. Seeing the hustle and bustle below one minute to the tranquility the next.

It does take a bit of time to get used to the motion, though set at a steady pace, you could see and feel that you were moving. But nonetheless, it was really good fun and a very popular place, and you have to book a month in advance!

Top Nosh

As you may have read in some of my past posts, a lot of what you do in the evenings in Abu Dhabi is geared around bars and restaurants (unless you are a keen shopaholic and just love the malls). As I go to new eateries I will try and summarise them as much as possible, and so far have written about some great places ranging from top restaurants in hotels to cheap as chips curry houses in the side streets of AD. Well, last nights food tops the lot so far! Not only because the food was good, but because of the whole experience! And it wasn't in a restaurant or a back street cafe, we actually ate at home.

Yesterday evening we took a drive down to the AD fish market by Port Zayed. As we walked into the market hall, even at 7 in the evening there was the hustle and bustle of fish mongers selling the days catch. We walked up to a couple of stalls and chose a large whole hamour fish that was in the sea less than 12 hours ago. It was weighed at 2.5k, packed into a plastic bag and cost us a tenner!

Armed with our carrier bag of fish, we walked over to another side of the market, where for less than 1.50 a guy guts, fillets and chops the fish for you in front of you. A fantastic sight, done with skill, precision yet great speed! Then, with the same fish already now prepared and looking nothing like the whole sample we'd bought, it was over to another side of the hall, where special stalls coat and fry the fish for you to your specific requirements for less than 80p. 10 minutes later you have fresh, fried, hot hamour ready to take home and eat with a salad. Beautiful! What surprised me the most as how there weren't any expats there at all but apart from us, just locals, however it is a definite must visit and try experience! Will be going there regularly just to try all the different seafood, from whole tuna and sardines to sherry and hamour.

Residency at last but still more forms and photographs

My residency came through on Wednesday, so now have a visa for the next 12 months. As I said in a recent blog, with residency you can do the things we would take for granted being on the UK. I opened a bank account, and began the process of getting my UAE driving license. Opening the bank account was straight forward enough, the branch is in the exhibition centre where our office is so, right on my doorstep. All I needed to do was sign and few forms, was given my account number and in a couple of days would have access to Internet banking and have my cashpoint and debit card. A simple enough process, or so you'd think. Popped in today to check if my salary had been paid, and it had, but into my pals account. The bank had given me my pals account number, which I gave to HR and they paid my salary into. The banks reaction? They just laughed about it! Anyway, lucky I know who's account it's in so it will get sorted.

The driving license application is an whole new experience. Firstly had to have my UK license translated into Arabic at a cost of 50dirhams (7 quid ish). This was done, apparently everything translated properly, but the only bit that wasn't translated, the license number, which was just copied, but was copied incorrectly. So back it goes to get changed. In the meantime I had to get a letter from my employer, and then down to police HQ, for more form filling, more copies of your passport, more photos, an eye test, another photo taken and bingo! An hour and a half later I am the proud holder of a UAE driving license!

Takes a bit of time, can be very bureaucratic, as well as frustrating, but it's worth it to just get the small things you are used to and take for granted.

A Friday on the roads

Friday in the UAE is the first day of the weekend, and as far as the roads are concerned, up until early afternoon, they are very quiet. My apartment overlooks one of the busiest roads in AD and it is busy virtually all of the time, apart from a Friday morning.

AD's road system is based on a grid, very similar to Milton Keynes but with traffic lights at most junctions not roundabouts! The main roads are about 3 lanes wide each way, so pretty wide and plenty of space. On Friday lunchtime a pal and I were popping over to some friends from work in a taxi, and were driving along these quite wide roads. As we approached a set of lights, we noticed, just over the lights, a very congested road, with cars stationary in 2 of the three lanes. Our immediate thought was there has been yet another accident on the UAE roads. However as we approached this "traffic" and drove past, we realised all the cars were empty. They were outside a mosque and as the car park was full, the worshippers literally just parked and double parked their cars outside and went in for Friday prayers. No one would ever complain, and rightly so! It was considerate parking, they did after all leave their hazard lights on!

A very different drink

I came across a new drink last night that I'm just not sure about at the moment. I tried a bit and it just left me confused. Apparently it's not unique to Abu Dhabi (or the UAE) as it's name would suggest. The drink was a Fosters Mexican, but I guess it could just as well be a Heineken Mexican, a Carling Mexican or even a Stella Mexican! You get the idea. I tried to guess what this drink could be, but just couldn't! I mean, who would dare mess with the sacred pint of lager and start adding things to it? I have a pal back in Birmingham who drinks a lager top, and that I can just about accept as it adds a little touch of sweetness to a cold pint. So what is it? Three simple ingredients, two of which are usual accompaniments of the most popular Mexican drink, tequila. Take a pint glass, absolutely coat the rim with salt, poor in the bottom a very healthy measure of freshly squeezed, pure lemon juice then fill up with a draught lager of your choice. A very strange combination, which the barman at 3rd Avenue assures me helps you not get drunk! And who am I to argue with the font of all knowledge that is a barman! Was half expecting him to tell me that it also contributes to my 5 a day!

Eating out

We do a fair bit of cooking over here, but to be honest most people. most of the time, go out for food. There are some great places to eat, you are spoilt for choice, and I don't think I've ate anywhere that's let me down. Bice, Hemmingways and the Jazz Bar all at the Hilton served good food, the Marakesh at the Millennium Hotel has a great seafood buffet, so much choice, probably too much. 3rd Avenue at the Sheraton down the road has good English pub grub and Il Paradisso at the other Sheraton had a great menu, where you literally paid by the weight for your fish. Outside of hotels, the Lebanese Flower does a great meat grill. However the one that sticks out the most for me is the Starlight Cafe.

I was taken there the other week, and it was described to me as the place where the Indian taxi drivers go to eat. Now, these guys aren't on the best of salaries so my expectation levels were set pretty low before I got there. Even with this in mind, I wasn't prepared for what I saw. It was just like the greasiest greasy spoon in the back streets of Birmingham you've ever seen . The choice is chicken curry or fish curry, with rice, salad and chapatis. Drinks on offer are water and ...... water. We got there late (about 8pm), sat a table looking into the kitchen, and when we ordered was told there was no rice! The food came out with no cutlery, and when I asked for a fork, was given a very strange look.

Once you get passed this, and trying to eat with scores of flies all over the place, the food was great. It was simple, straight forward Indian food, not made for tourists, but made for Indians. The type of food they would probably eat in their own home & not like what you'd get in Birmingham's Balti Triangle or Manchester's Curry Mile. Tasty and plentiful. Definitely worth a visit if you are ever over here. The cost? Two of us ate (and ate very well) for 17 and a half dirhams, and with just under 7 dirhams to the pound, you do the maths! That's right, just under 2 pounds 50 for two! Where is it? Not 100% sure, but aim for BHS and it's just behind there.

Abu Dhabi v Dubai

Just shy of two years ago I had a great holiday in Dubai. My first visit over here and I literally loved it! A mixture of needing a holiday, going somewhere different and fashionable, staying in a great resort on the outskirts of Dubai, but mainly due to the experience of the place. After a 2 week holiday, I left feeling that I could really enjoy living and working there.

My next visit to Dubai was for a day on my first trip to Abu Dhabi about 6 months ago, and I wasn't too sure about the place, it just wasn't the same as Abu Dhabi, and in less than 18months it had changed a lot.

I went again yesterday for the day (it's no more than an hour and half in the car) and again it's changed. So busy, so much development, so many cars, so many people, it just doesn't look as appealing. The tower blocks they are building are just metres apart from each other, and they seem to have decided to get as many buildings on the smallest amount of land area possible. However what is impressive is the new tower the Burj Dubai (Dubai Tower). When completed it will be the tallest building in the world, over 750 metres tall, or half a mile high!

So why has the appeal gone? A number of reasons, the main one being able to compare Dubai with Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE, and bigger than Dubai, but internationally Dubai is more recognised. Abu Dhabi is behind Dubai in it's development, but from spending just over four weeks over here, it is a lovely place. Not over developed, more open spaces, not as many cranes (fact - 15% of the worlds cranes are in Dubai), and busy and congested in parts, but not as much as Dubai. The way someone compared the two to me recently was Dubai is the New York and Abu Dhabi the Washington, which is a fair comparison.

The Abu Dhabi of now is much calmer and cleaner (in my opinion) to the Dubai of today, and that's why I prefer it, but it's a few years behind Dubai in development and has a lot of plans. I just hope it doesn't suffer the same as Dubai and just implode? Honestly I don't think it will for two reasons, firstly it claims to be learning from the mistakes of Dubai and secondly it has it's masterplan called Plan Abu Dhabi 2030, which is aimed at joining up all the developments going on here. Again I hope it does manage things better, but it will be a challenge as, as in all cases, money talks. In the new newspaper today, The National, I read that residential property has gone up 53% in the year to April 2008, occupancy levels are at 98% and subsequently rents rising sharply (22% in the same period). Market forces are dictating what goes on. With the current population of 900,000 expected to rise to 1,300,000 by 2013, the demand will continue to outstrip supply. Currently there are 180,000 residential units, and a further 100,000 are needed by 2010, and a further 140,000 in the 3 years after that till 2013. And even after all this there will still not be oversupply! So, in 5 years Abu Dhabi will be every different, so to manage this huge growth in a controlled way, without it losing the charm it has now, is a challenge, but I'm sure one AD will rise to.

Becoming a resident of the UAE

Getting residency in the UAE is quite a long, drawn out process, and it is bureaucracy at its finest. More paperwork and more passport photos than you can imagine! But it’s a necessary evil as you are limited to what you can do until you have your residence visa. You can’t get a bank account, you can’t get a mobile phone on contract (it has to be pay as you go), you can’t get a booze license, and you can’t buy a car. All things I’ve taken for granted back in the UK.

The process begins by you applying through your employer, who is also your sponsor. They do all the paperwork, but you hand over 6 passport photos! Once that’s complete, you get a form to go for your medical examination which includes an x-ray for shadows on your chest in case you have tuberculosis and blood test for HIV! These cost you just over 30pounds and a further 4 passport photos.

These tests are carried out one after the other in a local hospital, which has absolutely no order whatsoever, no discretion, just from one desk to another for form filling, over to the cashier for paying, back to the desk for a form, in for the tests, back to the desk, over to the x-ray area, and then it’s done! Three day later, back to the hospital for the results! And you get given a form simply saying you are “FIT”. Not sure what it says if you fail any of them! Apparently though, it is rumored that if you do fail you are asked to leave the country straight away! In some cases it is alleged that they escort you from the hospital to your flat, are asked to pack your stuff and taken to the airport and put on the first available flight back home!

So, once you are declared “FIT”, you then take your certificate back to your employer who then passes it on to get processed. But so far no need for more passport photos!

Anyway, I was declared “FIT” the other day (which for those that no me, is probably not a way you would expect me described) and should hopefully have a residence visa in the next few days, then Abu Dhabi is my oyster!!!

Jazz Bar

I have mentioned this place in a previous blog, but now I think it deserves it's own little review. A group of us from Turret ME went out to the Jazz Bar at the Hilton for a bite to eat, a couple of drinks, and a little dance. Were about 11 of us in all, and the company was great, which then doesn't really matter where you are. However the Jazz Bar is like the icing on the cake of a good night out.

We got to the Jazz Bar at about 8 and left at 2, and it felt like we were there for about half an hour. The food was great, a massive chicken Caesar salad to start with, with more chicken than salad. After that I didn't need any more food, and I didn't think I'd manage the main, but when the lamb chops came out, my appetite miraculously returned. They were fantastic!

The same house band were on, called N2 from Cape Town and they entertained as normal. The variation of songs was brilliant, Sexual Healing (Marvin Gaye) one minute to Mysterious Girl (Peter Andre) another minute. A naff song admittedly, but the reggae style rap the singer throws in half way through just makes you love it! And completely out of no where, they throw in a bit of Bon Jovi. Not one of their usual songs but I guess they did it as Bon Jovi were in concert here on Tuesday. An intimate venue of a couple of hundred people and the band had them screaming for more at 2am as if they were playing Wembley!

Champions League Final at NRG

Watching the Champions League in Abu Dhabi was fun. Ended up in NRG Sports Bar at Le Meridien, watching it out doors till 2 in the morning. The place was rammed and a great atmosphere. There were people wearing Manure tops and others wearing Chelski, and there was great banter going on between all the groups. But the one guy that stood out from all was the big bloke standing in the centre all the way through the game wearing an Arse top! Fair play to him! Was going to wear a Villa shirt, but thought it might be best to save that one for the main European tournament that kicks off in July, the Inter Toto! It's importance is under rated!

Met a nice guy while at NRG from the FT. Originally from Yorkshire and a Leeds Utd fan, but still a decent bloke. As he was with his mate Colin the Manc, he felt he ought to support Manure, which I think is the first time I've ever heard a Leeds fan do that.

Jobs for everyone

In some aspects, we're just like any other established events company and fledgling publishing business. We have a Chairman, and MD, an accounts department, admin, sales people, journalist, designers, marketeers, basically everything you would expect. But we also have 3 very different, but just as important, roles to what you would find in many other companies. We have our very own Chauffeur/Debt Collector (that's how he is listed in the internal directory). You have a meeting in Dubai, he takes you - you need to get to the airport, he's there - you need a contract picking up, he gets it - a cheque needs collecting he's your man.

Then there's the guy, who does a lot of miscellaneous things for different people, not wanting to put him down, but a bit like an office gofer. The one thing he always does for everyone is bring you tea, coffee, water whenever you want one. Now, without even asking by 9am there's a coffee no sugar and a glass of water brought in for me. His official job title is catering Officer and he even has his own extension line in the kitchen so you can call him up when you want a drink instead of just waiting for him to walk past. You may chuckle and think it's lazy, but as far as i know every company has one. Personally, I feel embarrassed asking for a drink (but i do) however I've never called him up for one!

Thirdly, there's the other guy. Now how do I describe him? He's an Emirati, dresses in a dishdasha, has a desk with no computer, but a phone which he never uses. I've been struggling to work out what he does, it looks like he does very little! His job title is Head of Business Development, and apparently he's a "Mr Fix-it"! He's very well connected, with every organisation, even with the government, and can get you in front of people you may otherwise not get in front of. Can be very useful as sometimes Emiratis will only deal with Emiratis.

Thank you

A short message to thank everyone for their feedback and encouragement since I started this blog, I'm primarily doing it for my own record, but as it's accessible by anyone and everyone it's nice to get some feedback.

One thing I promise is I will put photos on shortly ......... and as soon as I work out how to!

Fun nights out

There's something for everyone to do on any evening of the week in Abu Dhabi. In the past week we've had some great nights out, Wednesday night we bowled down to Hemingway's bar at the Hilton, lovely bar, nice food, mainly Mexican theme. They have a great house band that play six nights a week, only two a two piece, a guy who plays the guitar and a lady who plays drums and sings. They're both from New Zealand, she has a great voice and I've spoken to them over a beer before and they're nice friendly people. After that we walked through the door of Hemingway's into the Jazz Bar. We were all a bit tired, so just sat there, unwinding listening to some relaxing jazz and soul. The band were new to Jazz Bar apparently, a six piece band from South Africa. About half way through the night they livened it up immensely, playing reggae, pop, you name it, but these guys, especially the lead singer were really entertaining. A group of us are going there on Thursday, apparently, as it's the start of the weekend, it is absolutely packed and has one of the best atmospheres in town. With this band i can well believe it.

Thursday a small group of us from work went to the Sheraton and ate in one of their 12 restaurants, Il Paradiso, the seafood restaurant. We had a table outside, it was in the mid 30's with high humidity, and those of us carrying a bit of extra baggage were getting a bit hot under the collar! Nevertheless the food was great, but not too sure if the soup they bought us was exactly necessary! After that, bowled over to a club called Embassy in Emirates Palace (probably the best - certainly the most expensive to build - hotel in the world). Good crowd, great atmosphere, and ok music if you like that sort of thing. Nice to go to a club where everyone relaxes, no attitude and you aren't worried if you get a glass in your face just for catching someones glance!