I realise that the Middle East does not have a great reputation for Health & Safety in the workplace - or to and from the workplace for that matter - but I'd like to redress the balance a bit and show an example of a company that is not only keeping up with European standards, but knocking them into a cocked hat. Mushrif National Construction L.L.C. are building a 20-odd storey tower right next to our building, and as the HSE stats board proudly proclaims, in the Month of August they held 5,404 Toolbox Talks or HSE meetings! Since they are [View Full Entry]

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I don't want to get into a big debate about ethnic origins of various races, nor do I want to get into details regarding numbers, but the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of the people on this planet are not white. The world population is currently estimated at about 6.78 billion. The bulk of the white people are to be found in Northern America, Europe, Russia and the Antipodes. Add together their populations and you can just about scrape together a billion people, not all of whom will be white of course. This means that for every [View Full Entry]

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I've consulted an expert on this, and yes, a "Golden Facial" is exactly what you think it is. [View Full Entry]

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Being a hub of international travel and major oil producer, the UAE gets a lot of stuff that you don't see in Europe. To be honest, most of these luxury goods are really aimed at a better class of shopper, not something that the average Lakeside or Bluewater consumer could really afford. Behold a glimpse of the luxury clothing and scents that is on my doorstep, but only in your wildest dreams. [View Full Entry]

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While the standards of HSE don't compare to Europe, at least in the Oil & Gas industry, a genuine effort is made to do things properly, and incident rates are comparable with any installation or fab yard across the world. Once you get out of that environment and on the construction sites around town it is a totally different matter. This site is on the corner of two of the busiest roads in Abu Dhabi. As you can see by the photos, anyone walking by can walk into the site totally unhindered - as I did to take these photos. Apart [View Full Entry]

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Since they have started the 1.4 billion dollar, 3.1 kilometre tunnel from Fallah to Mina, they have closed off a big section of Salam Street. Not only has this caused traffic chaos (imagine shutting 2 miles of the busiest road in your town) but it has also taken a few thousand parking spaces away from the area. The parking was never brilliant, but 99% of the time you could park within 100m of your building. This has also removed the 20 or so disabled spaces, so they have been going round with a truck filled with signs and blue paint and [View Full Entry]

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Did anyone see this in the news? Sea Ice Ends Year at Same Level as 1979 No, and why not? Because the media is being controlled. I did a search on the BBC for this and look what comes up: [url=http://search.bbc.co.uk/search?uri=%2F&scope=all&go=toolbar&q=Sea+Ice+Ends+Year+at+Same+Level+as+1979] Search BBC for "Sea Ice Ends Year at Same Level as 1979" Think about that next time they show a photo of a poor ickle polar bear being forced to swim due to “lack of polar ice”. Did you know a polar bear [View Full Entry]

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* - as taken by someone with an eye for the puerile. You can take your BBC, your National Geographic, or even your Boston.com Big Picture, but if you want to see the very best images of the year, this is the place to be. Top 3 Albums of the Year: 1 - Calexico - Carried to Dust 2 - Devendra Banhart - Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon 3 - Iron & Wine - The Shepherd's Dog Top 3 Vehicle Accesories of 2008: 1 - Old Man Emu HD Springs & Torsion Bars 2 - ARB Safari Winch Bumber (Government spec) [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday afternoon on the way home from work I saw this Peugot balanced on the curb on the first roundabout from my office. Bear in mind that the curbs around Musaffah are all 10" to 12" high, about 6" higher that the front end of your average car. I've got a fairly furtive imagination, but I still can't see what he was doing, or trying to do to get his vehicle in that situation, other than being a total cockwit. Speaking of cockwittage, on Monday night, some bloke was so keen to get in the parking space I was about to [View Full Entry]

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On Friday, Gerry, Toby and I set off for the desert. Toby wanted to see how his Nissan Patrol handled in the sand, I wanted to see how much of a difference my new Old Man Emu heavy duty suspension made and we all wanted to sod about in the dunes. We'd all made it down the saddle and were heading back in the direction of the track that runs parallel to the ridge when we came across a British woman waving her arms obviously trying to get our attention. Over the brow of the dune, about 15 metres down was [View Full Entry]

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