A funny old week

There was an eerie silence to the main roads on Monday. The whole city came to a complete halt for the visit of George Bush.

Traffic came to a standstill for about nine hours on Monday with
arterial roads being blocked as part of security measures for US President
George W. Bush's visit to the city. Road diversion plans were changed without
any intimation, leaving thousands of motorists stationary. Many took between
five to eight hours to travel to their destinations

In the aftermath of the chaos caused by the George Bush visit came the heaviest rains ever recorded in Dubai (110mm) in January. Needless to say, the drains are designed for desert conditions and were completely overwhelmed.



I took over 3 hours to get to work yesterday. Many people never made it. Driving conditions were atrocious. Five people were killed and 500 accidents were reported by 10.00. I saw lots of people who obviously wished they hadn't driven their saloon cars into flooded roads.

The kids school closed due to water causing electrical short circuits and then the Ministry of Education announced that all schools would be shut be for the rest of the week (even though it has now stopped raining and most of the floodwater has gone!). Quite the strangest week I've had here.

Let's hear it for the President

George Bush was in Abu Dhabi yesterday and the Dubai police spent the day practicing closing roads.

A combination of heavy rain and rumours of mass road closures across the city for US president George W. Bush’s visit brought traffic to a standstill in Dubai on Sunday.

Frustrated motorists reported taking hours to get to and from work as confusion surrounding which and when roads would be closed led massive tailbacks on many roads across the city for much of the day.

Then, late in the afternoon, it was announced that today will be a public holiday. The whole economy brought to a standstill for a day so that one man can do a bit of sightseeing and have a cup of tea at the Burj al Arab...

More interesting yesterday was the news that the UAE has signed a deal with the French to build two nuclear reactors. In a country with enough oil and gas for a very long time to come this strikes me as being extremely odd.