Blogs from United Arab Emirates, Middle East - page 146

Quote for the day: Every time we remember to say "thank you," we experience nothing less than heaven on earth." --Sarah Ban Breathnach Oh what a day! We toured the city of Dubai, visited the Dubai Museum, got pictures of the Jumeirah Mosque and, of course, the famous 5* hotel - Burj Al Arab hotel. Construction continues at a feverish pace in Dubai. As was the case last year, 75% of the largest cranes in the world are here in Dubai! It's crazy! Cost of living is soaring; millions of people are moving here; business is coming in droves. Haliburton is making this their home base. You used to be able to get some good deals at the gold markets, etc. Not now. They aren't interested in bargaining. Costs are high. The city is gorgeous though. ... read more

I just had to put these pictures up. I volunteer for a charity over here called Feline Friends. They have a ball coming up on Friday night so I went along the other night to help wrap up the prizes for the raffle. The people who live in the villa that we went to foster cats and they just had the most beautiful group of cats there. They had a little group of kittens that were so cute and small. They were so playful. Everytime we tried to do something like cut the cellphane or put a bow on something a kitten would be there dangling from the other end of the piece of ribbon, or sitting smack in the middle of the present, or would be chasing the cellophane over the floor. It was very ... read more

Greetings from sunny, HOT, gorgeous, "very-different-than-India", Dubai!!!!!!! (and birthday greetings to my friend and editor, Linda Fletcher, in London!) We left our hotel yesterday morning in good time. Everyone was quite ok with leaving India, after having seen the Taj Mahal and having experienced the traffic, the smog, the crowds of people, the animals everywhere, etc. etc. Time to head out to Dubai........where we were scheduled to have "free" time for the afternoon and have some fun. Not to be! All went well at the airport, we boarded the plane, and then........we sat! For almost 2 hours! Not that it was a hardship, since the Icelandic Air crew are so amazing. We were served (our usual) champagne, orange juice, etc. The air-conditioning was on (thank goodness!!!!!). We had a chance to visit with each other, read ... read more

It's official, on Friday I received my Z3 (Zombie Marksmanship - Level 3 Uprising) certification. The photo is of my exam target. Unfortunately the level 4 training is only available to military personnel or nationals here in the UAE as it involves a lot of fully automatic weapons and explosives, both of which expats aren't allowed to have. The regs say that for Z3 level, you must be able to "place 14 rounds of calibre .32 or larger within a seven and one half inch diameter disc at head height while it is moving towards you at 2 feet per second". It doesn't sound a lot, but 16 seconds to hit a target smaller than a head sized that starts off 12 metres away is trickier than you think. The test rules are nearly a century ... read more

Trip to Dubai I had a short but great trip. I was amazed at the diversity in the city, there were people from all over the world. Coming from India, I enjoyed the wide, open sidewalks, clean taxis, ....and, yes, the Starbucks! ... read more