Welcome to the Wild West

This week's blog entry is a little different, in that it doesn't appear on my blog page at the moment, instead it can be found here. I have been persuaded to put it forward for the "Expat Blog Awards 2013".

The contest runs for the next few days, and the winner for each country will apparently be the person with most (positive) comments on their post. So, the reason for my entry here is to ask very nicely if you (or those of you who weren't offended by my rant last week!) would mind popping over to the competition site and leaving a comment on my entry.

The organizers are looking for more than just comments saying "great", they are asking for at least ten words. For example, if you were to cut and paste one of the following it would meet their criteria ;)

"This is a wonderfully entertaining blog post, I loved it"

"Very informative, I feel like I understand the UAE much more now"

"A masterpiece of writing, this man should be published immediately"

You get the idea!!

Of course, if you see fit to ask your family, friends, long lost cousins, family pets, etc to do the same I wouldn't complain!

So, once again, the entry can be found here, or you can click on the rosette that says "Entry" to the right.

Thanks in advance to anyone who is kind enough to comment.

Blast from the Past

Jo was looking for this video earlier today I think: seven years ago, my goodness how times change!

Doing Business in the UAE: Part 1

I'm conscious I haven't blogged much about life at work in recent weeks, so thought I would remedy that this evening, with a few reflections on my first three months with BDO (cannot believe how quickly time is passing).

The first thing to report is that everything is going well, and despite the odd frustration, I am very much enjoying the role. It goes without saying that I'll always be grateful to PwC, because I learnt a huge amount there which is helping me now, but I have to say it is refreshing to have respect for, and feel appreciated by, those I report too, and good to wake up in the morning looking forward to work (most mornings). It seems Jo was right (how annoying!) when she used to tell me I'd be happier in a smaller firm.

Turning to the "odd frustration", the main one is the approach to procurement in some public entities. In theory everything is done strictly by the book to ensure that no firm is given an advantage. In reality it is clear that once bids are in, in some (many?) cases the incumbent (usually one of the big four who have dominated the market for many years) is given every opportunity to reduce its fee as far as is needed to keep hold of the work. Why they would want to do this given how low some of the fees must be, I don't know, but they clearly have their reasons. Of course this was not unknown back in the UK, but it is definitely worse here.

Despite this I'm pleased to say that we have a steady stream of work coming in, and lots in the pipeline, so there is plenty to keep myself and the team busy.

Like in the UK, the key to success is winning work outside of formal procurement processes, and the key to that is having great relationships with potential clients. Relationships are critical wherever you are in the world, but I suspect few places more so than the UAE. For example, it is hard to get meetings with many senior officials unless you have someone who can introduce you, and when you do get in front of someone, it is important to invest time in earning their trust rather than going for a hard sell too quickly. It can sometimes be the fourth or fifth meeting before you can really start talking business.

The first meeting usually includes some local customs, especially if it is with an Emirati. First you exchange business cards, I have never given or received so many! And it is not a matter of just taking someone's card and putting it in your pocket, you must treat it with respect by showing a genuine interest in it. Most cards are in both English and Arabic, and I had an embarrassing moment in my early days when my host informed me that the Arabic translation of "Lead Partner, Abu Dhabi" was incorrect, although he didn't tell me what it actually said (I dread to think!).

At the same time you will be offered some Arabic coffee, served in small cups. Even if you hate coffee, you shouldn't refuse or your host could take offence. It is quite bitter to taste but I'm getting quite partial to it now, it is caffeine at the end of the day! Your cup will be refilled until you indicate you have had enough, which it is fine (I think) to do after just one cup.

The rest of the meeting will then consist of chit chat, in my case mainly asking how I am settling into the UAE and subjects like that, and only right at the end - if at all - will talk turn to business. If it does turn to business, this is a good sign, and usually means a deal can be done pretty quickly.

It seems that time has caught up with me, and I need to stop for this evening. I'm not sure if I'll get chance to add more to this post this week so I will publish it, and do another work post sometime soon.

As always, thanks for reading.

 

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Happy National Day

I shouldn't let National Day pass without a brief post on the subject.

National Day is celebrated from 2nd December each year in the UAE for two days or more (usually the 2nd and 3rd). It marks the UAE's formal nationalisation from the British Protectorate Treaties which ended on December 1, 1971 and the eventual, federal unification of the seven emirates in 1971 which combined to form the modern-day country, headed by Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the federation's first president.

The occasion is marked by much celebration if this year is anything to go by. For days beforehand people are hard at work decorating their cars, homes and offices. Some people do seem to get a little carried away.....

Turning to houses, in the same way that some people go overboard decorating the outside of their houses for Christmas, some people get a little carried away. As we walked out onto the main road to get a taxi at the weekend we discovered that one of the Emirati families that lives on the compound had hired a crane to come and put a huge flag up.

Flossie counted the UAE flags that we saw on the way to dinner that same evening. We were only going a few miles but it didn't take long to get to well over 100, especially as she seemed to reset to 40 every time she got to 79!

Thankfully she didn't count them on the way to Al Ain on Sunday. We must have passed thousands, including this gentleman riding his bike up the hard shoulder of the highway.

The celebrations normally culminate with big firework displays on the Corniche in Abu Dhabi, and other locations. We gave them a miss this year as apparently the city centre gets gridlocked and it can take more than two hours to complete the journey home (a journey which normally shouldn't take much more than 30 minutes). One for next year I think.

How many flags?

Thanks for reading.

 

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Al Ain Aerobatics Show

A few photos from Al Ain Aerobatic Show yesterday. Al Ain is a 90 minute drive from us, although still in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. It's a two or three lane highway most of the way so we made good time, and arrived with plenty of time to collect our tickets (no repeat of the "hunt the ticket counter" that we had at the car park drift competition a few weeks ago) and have a quick look round the static display before taking our seats in the grandstand.

What followed over the next five and a half hours was an entertaining program of various aerobatic displays, fly pasts, and other entertainment, including a rocket powered bus and the UAE's strongest man pulling a fire engine in a fetching outfit that looked like it had been made out of the hide of a cheetah.

We may be biased, but the highlight was of course our very own (and I still allowed to say that?) Red Arrows, who have been touring the Middle East over the last few weeks. Archie in particular was mesmerized by them, and can describe every move that they did, including the names that the commentator gave them.

We didn't think we would last to the end, but a couple of runs for provisions (again very reasonable prices, no getting fleeced here) kept us going, and just as the signs of boredom were starting to appear the next display would start.

The show finished as dusk fell, with a couple of displays where the planes were lit up with LED lights, were shining lasers, and firing off the odd firework.

We've had a few surreal moments since arriving in the UAE, and for me another one to add to the list was watching a brightly lit plane doing a routine to Nessum Dorma as dusk fell over the desert we were sat facing. Can't say that I imagined I would be doing that a year ago!

 

As always thanks for reading.

 

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Henry's video of our recent trip to Dubai

Weird & Wonderful UAE: Man in hot water in Dubai over parody video

   US man imprisoned in UAE for posting a video intended to be funny. Ouch.

U.S. man in hot water in Dubai over parody video - CNN.com

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Expo 2020

Those of you not in the UAE may have missed the fact that this evening Dubai has been selected to host the World Expo in 2020. The vote took place this evening in Paris and Dubai romped home against three competitors. The results of the vote were eagerly awaited throughout the UAE, it reminded me of waiting to hear if London had won the right to host the Olympics. And the outpouring of job seems to be the same too, fireworks on the Burj Khalifa and celebrations on the streets of Dubai apparently.

More importantly we are all now sat waiting to find out whether - as the rumors suggest - tomorrow is going to be declared a public holiday, with schools and offices shut. It's already 9:30pm but we still don't know! Hopefully it will be a holiday because then the whole population of the UAE can head to their nearest Baskin Robbins shop as they are giving free ice cream away all afternoon to celebrate the news!

 

 

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Flossie's School Trip

Flossie has been on her school trip today, to the Heritage Village. She seems to have had a good day, being very pleased to have seen "a donkey, a horse and a camel", and telling a story about some ducks and geese escaping. It's National Day tomorrow so she and Archie are dressing up in the colors of the flag, and there seem to be all sorts of festivities planned. More about that in the next proper blog entry.

 

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Flooding of the Nile (aka Al Yasmina)

Archie's year has been doing a project on Ancient Egypt this term, and it culminated today with the whole year dressing as Ancient Egyptians and enjoying a range of activities. Jo was very creative and made Archie a fantastic costume out of pillow cases and various other bits and pieces. She also volunteered to help out for the day, which was very brave, especially as she made a dressing up outfit for herself as well!

As it turned out the weather decided to get involved as well. The annual flooding of the Nile has been an important natural cycle in Egypt since ancient times, and today the school played the part of the Nile, as the weather broke in Abu Dhabi and we witnessed the flooding of Al Yasmina (hopefully it's not going to be an annual event!).
It has felt as though a storm has been brewing for a few days, with grey skies, gusty winds blowing sand about, and increasing humidity. Finally it broke this morning, firstly in the city centre as I arrived for work, and then at Khalifa A as school started.

To be fair there was thunder and lightning, and the rain was torrential for a while. It wasn't long before the water was pouring into the school hall, and it only took a few hours before the school was closing for the day, as were many other schools in Abu Dhabi, Dubai and other Emirates. Overkill? Quite possibly.
Archie and his classmates did manage to do most of their planned activities, other than their procession round the playground. He seems to have particularly enjoyed mummifying a banana; he described the process to me earlier and it certainly sounded quite complicated.
The impact of the rain has been a little comical. It is definitely the UAE equivalent of how the UK grinds to a halt when there are a few flakes of snow. I even had Dubai based members of my team asking if they could leave early due to the adverse weather. It has been the headline on most news reports I have heard, and has played havoc with events such as the Dubai Air Show.
Things seem to have settled down this evening, so it looks as though we can tick off one of the ten days of rain we can expect in our first year here. I'm sure it will be back to 30 degrees tomorrow, joy!
As per usual, thanks for reading.

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Weekend in Dubai: Part 3

Just realized that I didn't finish my blog entries about our weekend in Dubai. I'm sure you have all been waiting anxiously to hear about what else we got up to (not).

After tea on Friday we headed to the World Trade Centre where we had tickets for the regional final of the Red Bull Car Park Drift competition. Except we didn't have tickets, we had a receipt that needed to be swapped for tickets before we entered the arena, or should I say car park. The problem was that no one seemed to be able to tell me where to collect our tickets from. The first counter I went to directed me to the metro station some distance away. The man there looked at me blankly, then sent me back the way I had come to another ticket desk, and so on, until I had been to five different desks.

By this time the start of the competition was only ten minutes away, so Jo had taken the kids to wait by the entrance we were supposed to use. Whilst she was waiting she got talking to someone, who informed her that we could get our tickets from a counter right next to the entrance. Irritating? Not at all!

We finally got our tickets five minutes after the competition had started, and joined the throng at the gate. There was a mass of people waiting, and no queuing system in place (where are the numbered ticket dispensers when you need them!). The security guards were taking a very relaxed approach to checking tickets carefully, then checking bags, then putting a wristband on.

The throng of people trying to get in

Finally we got in, found some seats, and settled back to enjoy the action. For the uninitiated car park drifting is exactly what it sounds like, competitors driving round a course set up in a car park, skidding as much as possible, and generally making as much noise and generating as much smoke as they can (very much like driving on the roads here). The winner seems to be (I think, I never quite worked it out) the person who can complete the course quickest and with as much skidding as possible.

My iPhone camera didn't cope well with the conditions

The event seemed to consist of a lot of sitting around listening to an excitable (the only drink on sale was of course Red Bull, and he seemed to have had more than his fair share) commentator gabbling away in Arabic, punctuated by 20 second bursts of action. Whilst the bursts of action were exciting, they were few and far between, and the competition seemed to fall further and further behind the timetable, not helped by the local favourite managing to get his car stuck in the crash barrier, and nobody being able to shift it.When it became obvious that the competition was likely to go on until the early hours we decided to call it a day, especially as Archie and Flossie were getting tired.

All in all it was a surreal experience, but one which we enjoyed in a strange way. Who would have thought a year ago that we would be sat in a car park next to the busiest road in Dubai, in view of the Burj Khalifa, watching cars doing their best to destroy themselves!?

Saturday was less surreal, but we had a great day at the motor show. Archie in particular was in his element looking at all the super cars, and both he and Flossie (and Henry) enjoyed getting as many freebies as they could (although Jo did best of all as demonstrated by the photo below). We didn't manage to get round the whole exhibition before it was time to make tracks back to Abu Dhabi.

Jo weighed down by all her goodies

All in all a great weekend, and I'm sure we'll be back in Dubai soon.

Thanks for reading as always.

 

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Abu Dhabi Science Festival

Yet another busy weekend draws to a close, and we all need an early night before school and work tomorrow. Yesterday was Friday Brunch in an Indian Restaurant on Yas Island, with two other families from school. The food was fantastic, and there was a playground right outside which kept the kids occupied whilst the adults "relaxed".

Today we were back at Yas Island, but this time at the Du Forum for the Abu Dhabi Science Festival. The Festival is running for a couple of weeks and consists of lots of interactive exhibits (think Manchester Museum of Science & Industry if you know it), plus a big selection of workshops that you can book in advance.

Archie and Flossie had a great time (Henry declined to come) doing the following:

1. Building and then racing a rocket powered car (involving air and water).
2. Watching a show featuring lots of "experiments" involving dry ice.
3. Making some "slime" out of various ingredients (and being able to take it home).
4. Learning about magnets, and doing lots of experiments with them.
5. Having a 3D video made of themselves.
6. Playing football with robots.

The great thing was that it only cost £10 in total for the four of us to spend the afternoon there, and the volunteers running the workshops were fantastic with the children, helping them out if they got stuck and being very patient with them.

An indication of how much we enjoyed ourselves is that we are going back next weekend to do some of the other workshops (and this time Henry is coming, no choice).

So if you happen to be reading this in Abu Dhabi and you have kids of any age, get along there to see what it's all about (it's at Du Forum and on the Corniche for the next week or so).

As always, thanks for reading.

 

 

 

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Weekend in Dubai: Part 2

Finally it was the moment Archie had been looking forward to, a trip to the top of Burj Khalifa. As I'm sure you know Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world, at 828m, with more than 160 floors. Like many super tall buildings there is a bit of cheating, in that the top part of the tower is unoccupied, and (dare I say it) just there to allow the record to be claimed. Still the tower also has the highest occupied floor in the world so I suppose it is fair enough.

We joined the queue just before our allotted time of 4pm, and followed the corridor towards the elevator. Along the way there were various informative displays about the inspiration behind the tower, and the process of designing and constructing it. These were really well presented, and there was a calmness to the whole queuing process, it certainly wasn't like queuing for a roller coaster in Florida!

Fairly quickly we got to the final door before the elevator. This was a rotating door with an attendant carefully managing the flow of people going through. Alongside him was a cleaner wearing a pair of white gloves who insisted on polishing the glass of the door every time somebody had passed through, which seemed a little over the top but there you go.

Finally we were allowed into the elevator, which of course is the elevator with the longest travel distance in the world. It was no surprise that it was a very smooth, and fast, ascent - the only evidence we were moving was the floor numbers on the display increasing rapidly and our ears popping at intervals.

Not many seconds later we were at the observation deck. Because numbers are managed carefully, whilst there were lots of people up there, it was by no means packed. This meant we were able to take our time walking round the whole 360 degrees! including the outside observation deck. Needless to say the views were stunning, although it was a little hazy so I'm sure they are even better on a clear day.

We took in the views for half an hour or so and then decided to head back down. Before we did Henry insisted on doing some filming for a video he is making. Jo offered to be the cameraman, but was rejected in favor of me. I did my best but my attempt was not up to scratch so Henry insisted on filming himself and drew some strange looks as he made a speech ending with "Welcome to Henry's random life". I'm not sure what the video is about - other than his random life - but hopefully all will be revealed soon.

The trip down was as smooth and quick as the trip up, and we were soon wandering round to the restaurant we had booked for dinner, from where we were able to watch the impressive Dubai Mall fountain show.

All in all we really enjoyed our "trip to the top", and I suspect this is going to be a "must do" for any visitors we have.

One thing I am glad about is that we weren't up there yesterday. Apparently they had a practice emergency drill and evacuated the tower, or at least parts of it. I wouldn't have wanted to have to walk down 100+ floors of the fire escape!

Thanks for reading as always.

 

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Weekend in Dubai: Part 1

Another weekend gone in a flash, but we had a great time in Dubai.

We drove up on Friday morning and got to our hotel, the Marriott Dubai Harbour, without too much trouble. As expected our room wasn't ready for us, so we dumped our bags and asked the concierge the way to the nearest Metro station. He informed us that as it was Friday, the Metro doesn't start running until 1pm, which hadn't even occurred to us. But it wasn't a problem, as we just had to jump in a taxi instead.

The taxi dropped us off at the Dubai Mall, our centre of operations for the afternoon. The Mall is huge, even by UAE standards. Apparently it is the world's largest mall based on total floor area, and houses approximately 1,200 shops and restaurants. It is so big it even has its own taxi service, consisting of elongated golf buggies (apparently based on Rolls Royce designs), to cart people around.

We grabbed lunch in the Rainforest Cafe, and then headed off to the Burj Khalifa ticket office to exchange our vouchers for tickets for our allocated visit slot later in the afternoon. If you don't book ahead you can struggle to get in.

Rainforest Cafe

Our next task was to find some tickets for the Motor Show on Saturday. We found out that they were on sale at the Metro station next to the Mall so headed off in that direction. Foolishly we assumed the station would be very close to the Mall, however it turned out to be almost a kilometer away. Thankfully you can walk (or use moving walkways) all in the way in an air conditioned walkway which opened a few months ago (it really is true that if you want to, you can pretty much stay out of the sun all the time here!).

We got our tickets, which left us with an hour to kill before the Grand Car Parade, being held round the streets of Dubai to mark the Motor Show. We realized that the main road outside the Metro station would be a good vantage point, but to kill some time decided to walk back to the Mall to pick up a couple of things.

An hour later, having done the length of the walkway both ways, and getting pretty tired, we were sat next to the busiest road in Dubai waiting for the cars to arrive. The parade was to consist of 500 of the UAE's most expensive cars, estimated to have a combined value of around £100m.

Before too long the cars started passing, led by a number of the super cars which are part of the Dubai Police Force. Health and safety rules were completely absent as the crowds at the side of the road pushed forward to get a better view of cars passing them at at least 50mph. The road started out as five lanes wide but there were barely two passable by the end.

Anyway, we enjoyed seeing the cars, especially Archie who is going through a real car phase at the moment, but before too long it was time to hurry back along the walkway (again!) as our slot to go up the Burj Khalifa was fast approaching.

To be continued in "Weekend in Dubai: Part 2".

 

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