The Ramadan prayer calendar for the UAE is here.
Sunday, 31 August 2008
Saturday, 30 August 2008
Down by the (Business) Bay
We went for a look around the development at Business Bay today. Like most people, I've been over the Business Bay Bridge but I've never been exactly sure where Business Bay itself really is. Now I know and the photos are here.
Friday, 29 August 2008
NZ elections: Overseas Kiwis can vote
Overseas Kiwis can vote in the upcoming NZ elections. There's a couple of sites, Every Vote Counts and Elections New Zealand that give all the info plus the links so you can enrol to vote from wherever you are overseas.
Don't roll your eyes and tell me its boring and/or you're not interested in politics.
1. Its our country and even though we're overseas for however long, we have the right to have a say in how our homeland is governed.
2. Ladies, NZ was the first country to give women the vote (19 September 1893). As women voters its our duty to show that the sacrifices made by the pioneering women who fought for our right to vote, weren't in vain.
3. The pollies will run amok if the electorate doesn't slap them around occasionally. Remember the electorate voting for the bizarre and confusing MMP? For better or worse, that was the NZ public in action, drop kicking the entire NZ political sector and saying "We've had it with *all* of you". Its a chance to keep them in line, so let's make the most of it by enrolling and voting.
Sunday, 24 August 2008
A Public Service Announcement
Barracuda at Umm Al Quwain closes for Ramadan at 7pm on Friday 29th August and will reopen on the first day of Eid.
Saturday, 23 August 2008
Wednesday, 20 August 2008
Dubai traffic: It's finally happened, I've snapped!
One man in a white Merc, that’s all it took to finally make me SNAP! Its a regular part of driving in Dubai that people are constantly cutting you off, or changing lanes without indicating (and doing it just inches from your front or rear bumper) but today there was one incident too many.
It started as a regular, for Dubai relatively event-free, drive to work: First I was monstered by a large workers’ bus on Al Khail Road that thought it would just move over into my lane despite the fact that Madame and several other cars were already in the lane exactly where he wanted to go, then a Pajero tried to muscle his way into the queue in front of me on Za’abeel Road. These guys cruise down the queue of waiting cars looking for a driver they think will be intimidated and will let them in. The guy in the Pajero came up beside me, looked in, saw I was female, thought “Easy meat” and moved the nose of his car close to Madame’s front bumper to show he was cutting in. Wrong choice mate! This female in the V8 was annoyed already, so I moved fractionally forward to show that he wasn’t going to force his stupid Pajero in front of me. He gave up on me and moved up the queue, eventually frightening a lady in a little Nissan and cutting into the queue in front of her.
Then, coming along the road outside the Novotel a moron in a white Merc cut me off, missing me by a millimeters, it was so damn dangerous and I was furious, and it happened. My brain fused, SSNNAAPP! Suddenly there was a break in the traffic, Merc Moron put his foot down and accelerated away which was big mistake for him because I'd just had a complete brain-fade and I chased him. Yes I confess I did everything I complain about other people doing. We went through the tunnel under SZR with me right on his tail (and I mean right on his tail with Madame really growling) and as we raced up the ramp at 120 I had a moment of clarity: “For &%*^ ‘s sake, its Dubai, its 7:45am and you’re chasing a bloke in a Merc at 120kph in the peak hour traffic. What are you doing?” Yes, that’s what I thought in my flash of sanity, but did I take my foot off the accelerator? No way!
As a friend at work said later, “You're a free person, it is your right to be foolish.” This is the same lady who, when I arrived at work, was pacing up and down saying that she was going home to the US to get a gun and in the Sharjah traffic she ain’t afraid to use it!
So, that's it, I'm officially a Dubai Driver. God help us all!
It started as a regular, for Dubai relatively event-free, drive to work: First I was monstered by a large workers’ bus on Al Khail Road that thought it would just move over into my lane despite the fact that Madame and several other cars were already in the lane exactly where he wanted to go, then a Pajero tried to muscle his way into the queue in front of me on Za’abeel Road. These guys cruise down the queue of waiting cars looking for a driver they think will be intimidated and will let them in. The guy in the Pajero came up beside me, looked in, saw I was female, thought “Easy meat” and moved the nose of his car close to Madame’s front bumper to show he was cutting in. Wrong choice mate! This female in the V8 was annoyed already, so I moved fractionally forward to show that he wasn’t going to force his stupid Pajero in front of me. He gave up on me and moved up the queue, eventually frightening a lady in a little Nissan and cutting into the queue in front of her.
Then, coming along the road outside the Novotel a moron in a white Merc cut me off, missing me by a millimeters, it was so damn dangerous and I was furious, and it happened. My brain fused, SSNNAAPP! Suddenly there was a break in the traffic, Merc Moron put his foot down and accelerated away which was big mistake for him because I'd just had a complete brain-fade and I chased him. Yes I confess I did everything I complain about other people doing. We went through the tunnel under SZR with me right on his tail (and I mean right on his tail with Madame really growling) and as we raced up the ramp at 120 I had a moment of clarity: “For &%*^ ‘s sake, its Dubai, its 7:45am and you’re chasing a bloke in a Merc at 120kph in the peak hour traffic. What are you doing?” Yes, that’s what I thought in my flash of sanity, but did I take my foot off the accelerator? No way!
As a friend at work said later, “You're a free person, it is your right to be foolish.” This is the same lady who, when I arrived at work, was pacing up and down saying that she was going home to the US to get a gun and in the Sharjah traffic she ain’t afraid to use it!
So, that's it, I'm officially a Dubai Driver. God help us all!
Sunday, 17 August 2008
Fire near Burj Dubai Square
These are taken from our office building showing the smoke from a fire in one of the construction sites adjacent to the Burj Dubai. Smoke is billowing across into Burj Dubai Square, sorry new name, Emaar Square.
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