Living the Dream

Last weekend (which, of course, is Friday and Saturday here now) we went to a really good Chinese restaurant called Zheng He's to celebrate a friends 40th birthday. The food was the best chinese I've ever had and the location was spectacular. It wasn't cheap, but not outrageously expensive, although I was a bit upset at being charged 180 Dirhams for a bottle of wine which we can buy in our local booze store for 20 Dirhams. As our friend regularly points out when the bill arrives, 'that's the price of living the dream'. And, all in all, it's a price worth paying. Tomorrow evening the dream continues, at a cost of 800 Dirhams this time, when we're going to see Cirque du Soleil at Ibn Battuta mall. I'll let you know if it was worth it.

This is the view from my office (until next week when we move into a bigger one at the back of the building ovelooking Jumeirah and out to sea). It's called Emirates Towers and is a bit of an improvement on the view of the Manchester Ship Canal from my old office in Warrington. The hotel is very chic and there is a great bar on the 51st floor (in the triangular bit on the right) called Vu's. It's where I took Janet when I wanted to persuade her to come and live here. It did the trick (and she isn't normally easily impressed).

The UAE won the Gulf Cup yesterday beating Oman 1-0 in the final. It's the first time they've ever won it and the locals have all been very excited. This was my favourite pic from the newspaper coverage.


Often, it's easy to forget that you're not living in a western country and culture. Then you read a story like this from the neighbouring Emirate of Ajman.

Ajman: The Federal Supreme Court is looking into the
case of a man who was found guilty of having illicit affairs with his four stepdaughters and sentenced to death by stoning

The four women involved have already had their sentence of 80 lashes each carried out for 'allowing their stepfather to sleep with them' even though they were teenagers at the time, said he threatened them with a knife, and he admitted his guilt at all stages.

January blues?

Not here! I always think of January as a long and miserable month but it certainly hasn't been this year in Dubai for us.


We've settled back into the usual routine of early starts for school (7.30!) and work. The weather has been a bit mixed, but generally it's warm and pleasant. Nothing compared to the storms battering the UK.

All 18 of the local swimming pools apparently have 'faults' with the heaters and the water is freezing - ironic since they have to chill them in summer. As a result we've been going to the beach most weekends and the parks here are also really good with boating lakes, playgrounds, funfairs and camel rides.

The tallest building in the background is the Burj Dubai, which last week topped 100 floors and is now already the fifth tallest in the world. It will be the tallest by some distance when it's finished. I hope they've given more thought to fire safety than the company constructing the tower in Jumeirah Lake Towers, quite close to our house, that caught fire last week. Four men died and 60 more suffered serious injuries. Rescue efforts were haphazard and the emergency services were also held up by passers by parking up to get out and have a good look. Apparently all of the injured men in hospital were really worried that they weren't going to get paid for being off work as this would affect their families back home (mostly in India). After quite a bit of publicity the company has announced that they'll pay 12 years wages to the deceased families. This will probably amount to around £15k per person. Not a lot for a life.
There was another story in today's paper about a scaffold collapse which killed one man. Construction safety standards here are absolutely lamentable.

Dubai 10K

Last weekend was the Dubai marathon and 10k. In spite of a lack of training and over indulgence at Christmas, I managed to get round in just under 55 minutes. As this picture shows, I look more like I've just finished the marathon (well, you try running over 6 miles at 7 in the morning!).

One of the best things about living here is definitely the climate. Although it's mid-winter, we've been down to the (nearly deserted) beach for the past couple of weekends and it's great having the 4x4 to be able to drive down to the water's edge.

I still haven't managed to get a car and am back in a hire car after a couple of weeks risking the crazy cab drivers to work and back. I almost bought a Dodge Charger but backed out at the last minute after Janet turned her nose up at it and I had some nagging doubts after the test drive about it being a bit under-powered (after all, it only has 250BHP from a 3.5L engine and I can't afford the 5.7 or 6L versions!). It still remains favourite but I'm also looking at some 4x4s. There are some pretty bad stories about crashes involving small cars, and you do feel very vulnerable in a saloon car when a Nissan Armada (bigger than the Spanish fleet!) cuts you up with the owner on his mobile not noticing you're there.

Happy New Year

A very happy new year to you all. We're now back from our trip to England and have finally thawed out and caught up with lost sleep. However, I think my liver may take slightly longer to recover after a few days with the very hospitable Paul, Julie, Rox and Alexandra.




The karaoke versions of 'Fairytale of New York', my favourite Christmas song, were fantastic. Even I had a go (anyone who knows me will have an inkling as to the amount of inebriation involved).


The trip back was hard work with the increased security at Manchester and the number of people going off on skiing trips. I hope they weren't going to the Alps since I noticed as we passed over that there was practically no snow at all.

The weather here, in stark contrast to winter in West Lancs, is idyllic - a lovely 23 degrees and we had lunch and played most of the day in the garden (the first time I've done that on January 1st).

Father Christmas delivered an olympic size trampoline for some reason - the kids haven't had a look in.