As I reversed my car out of the space (it was herring bone parking, drive in, reverse out) I felt a clonk. I found my back light hanging off by its wires and a gouge just under two feet long down the passenger side rear wing. You can't get a repair done here without a police report but they have relaxed the rules a bit recently so if there is no serious damage and no witness, you can report the incident later, and not call 999 to summon a Saeed officer (a private contractor working on behalf of the police who log and record minor traffic incidents) , especially during peak hours. Saket, my Ops Manager had suffered a similar thing a few months ago and said that the police station in Musaffah would be able ... read more

The Middle East has had a higher than normal profile in the press recently, Hosni Mubarak has been ousted and is now hiding in Sharm El Sheikh, a curious place to hide given the Mossad trained sharks that cruise the waters there. There are violent protests in Bahrain and Yemen, and the ever present behind-the-scenes meddling from Iran. There may well be other things going on, but its no secret that pretty much all of the press in the region is state controlled, they've even cottoned on to international news sites and the likes of Facebook and Twitter getting news out, and they are restricted. Even Blackberry Instant Messenger is government controlled, although I find it difficult to see how the ability to send someone a very small grainy photo and a four second voice recording ... read more

So there we are, a full hour and ten minutes before departure at the security check at gates E2-E5 at Frankfurt airport, having had a pleasant hour in the Sky Lounge, reminiscing about how much nicer it was than last year when we were stuck in the airport for twelve hours due to a scheduling cock up. I empty my pockets and walk through the metal detector, rolling my eyes in a smug manner at the inexperienced air traveler at the next scanner who had to go through four or five times, each time removing keys, coins or a phone from a pocket, obviously annoying the security personnel. I'm watching my bag go through the X-Ray scanner, the woman stops, zooms in and scrolls through the filters, my bag goes back out and is turned 90 ... read more

Way, way back in oh-five when we first moved out here, getting a taxi was a bit like in a Hollywood film, you'd walk up to the curb, stick your hand out and instantly a battered white and gold Toyota Celica would swerve across the road and sqeal to a halt next to you. Once inside, you'd tell the driver your destination, he would come up with a figure for the fare, I would inform him that I wasn't a f*cking tourist and he'd either reduce his fare by 95% and say "sorry my friend" and strike up a conversation with you or begrudgingly put the meter on. The Gold Wings as they are known were part of the intrinsic charm of Abu Dhabi, Dubai had long since brought it's taxi fleets into the 21st century, ... read more

It's official, I am finally fed up with the Salam Street roadworks. I can cope with the modified working hours to avoid the traffic. I can nearly always get a parking space close to our building where I won't get blocked in. We're even sort of used to the noise at night, but last night took the buisciut. Toby was stuck in traffic caused by some sort of accident so instead of just sitting there he quite sensibly swung into the Sheraton for some Tapas and phoned us to meet him. "Great" I said, "we'll be there in ten minutes". I was quite confident in the ten minute meeting time as The Sheraton is less than ten minutes walk from our flat. You can bloody see it from the Salam Street car park of our building. ... read more