Through the Keyhole

New blog coming soon, but in the meantime, Archie wants to give you a tour of our villa.

This is the second version of the tour Archie did. Jo has banned us from uploading the first one because we didn't tidy up first!

 

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Driving in the UAE

Last week was a two day week thanks to Eid Al Adha. Private sector employees were given three days off, whereas Government sector workers were given five days, making a nice nine day stretch if you include the weekends at either end.

The weather is cooling down slightly, so we took advantage of the break to get out and do a few things, including a desert safari, a walk around the Grand Prix track, go karting on the Corniche, and our first Friday Brunch (a subject for a future blog entry).

Dune Bashing

The highlight was the desert safari when we spent the afternoon and evening being driven up and down sand dunes (as good as any roller coaster), riding camels, and sand boarding (which Archie demonstrated a talent for). There was also a BBQ, belly dancing (which we didn't partake in), and shisha smoking (which I did, because you have to do these things once). The evening ended with the lights in the camp being turned off for ten minutes so we could lie on our backs and look at the stars in total darkness.

We were only really on the edge of the desert, but we enjoyed ourselves so much that I have moved camping in the desert to the top of our Bucket List for the rest of this year.

Go Karting on The Corniche

Alongside enjoying ourselves progress continues slowly with getting visas, etc sorted out for the whole family (including me, given that I lost my wallet a couple of weeks ago, containing the collection of ID cards, driving license, etc that it had taken me a month to accumulate!).

Jo's visa should arrive this week, which means she will finally be able to get a UAE driving license, and drive the car that we bought a month ago.

The rules about driving here are unclear to say the least. From reading certain Government websites it appears that if you have a UK license you can drive a rental car, but only until the point that you apply for your residency visa, when you must stop driving until you have received your visa and then your UAE driving license.

This would be a real pain for Jo given that until Flossie moved school just before half term, the afternoon school run involved a 15 mile dash across Abu Dhabi.

However, other websites suggest the rules are open to a different interpretation, meaning Jo would be able to continue driving a hire car. This is the route that we chose to take. Jo did try to get definitive confirmation one way or the other, including a visit to Khalifa A Police Station, where she asked a succession of officers to clarify the position, until she got the answer she wanted!

Abu Dhabi Skyline

Driving here is a lottery most of the time. Everybody is in a hurry to get wherever they are going which means that normal rules of the road are often forgotten. You have to be constantly alert to what is going on all around you, because undertaking is common, often using the hard shoulder (or rough ground if there is no hard shoulder), or worse, squeezing through between the fast lane and the central reservation, where no lane actually exists.

New roads are being built all the time, meaning that a route you have been used to using can change overnight. And it doesn't help that some roads have at least two different names. Signs for motorway junctions often don't appear until you are pretty much on top of the junction, so it is also common for cars to swerve across five lanes of traffic to get where they want to go.

The authorities are trying to clamp down on speeding, and think nothing of putting speed bumps on three lane roads. The road I use to get to the motorway every morning has at least ten in a stretch of a couple of miles, which makes for a very frustrating first part of the journey.

New bumps can appear without warning. Indeed last week two appeared almost overnight on a road I use regularly. If you don't watch out you can do your car some serious damage!

We have very quickly got used to some practices that we wouldn't dream of doing back in the UK. For example, the majority of motorists (us included) leave their engines running whilst they fill up with petrol. When I say "they fill up", I mean the attendant fills the car up whilst the driver sits in the air conditioned cool of his or her car, winding the window down just briefly to thrust a 100 dirham note out as payment.

All of the above doesn't mean that you can get away with driving how you like. The Abu Dhabi Police website lists 147 offenses for which you can be given a fine and /or a number of "black points", including three points for "overtaking in a wrong way"; "abuse of a parking place" (poor parking place!); "opening the left door of a taxi" (why doesn't the left door want to be opened!?); or "using your horn in a disturbing way" (the mind boggles).

Apparently you get a text message each time you commit an offense (none of those so far, touch wood), and at the end of the year when you go to renew your license you must settle your accumulated fines, and take any other penalties. Allegedly at this point, if you break down in tears, it is likely the fine will be reduced. I will have to try this if it comes to it!

The system makes for some interesting stories. A case was reported in July where a woman had committed 1,551 offenses over a period of four years, accumulating fines of approaching £200,000.

I have probably rattled on for long enough, so I shall let you get back to whatever you were doing. As always thanks for reading.

 

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Eid Al Adha

Just popping by to say sorry that there hasn't been a post for a few days. It has been half term, and also a public holiday for Eid Al Adha, which meant I got three days off. We've been busy doing lots as a family which hasn't left much time for blogging. However I'm hoping to have a post up in the next few days. In the meantime I'll leave you with some information about Eid Al Adha.

 

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Weird & Wonderful UAE: Part 1

As we go about everyday life in Abu Dhabi there are regular reminders about how different the country we are living in is to the UK.
I thought it may be interesting to share some of these stories, to give those of you less familiar with this part of the world a flavor of what it is like here. So this is the first in an occasional series of "Weird and Wonderful UAE".
I should note that I am not passing judgement about any of these stories. "Different" can be positive or negative. The fact is that these are things I have read or heard in the last couple of weeks that have made me do a double take.

I will leave you to form your own views.
Medical news
As you may be aware homosexuality is illegal in many countries in this part of the world. The news this week is that apparently a number of countries, led by Kuwait, are developing medical tests which will allow them to "detect" gay people, and prevent them from entering the country. This one has, perhaps unsurprisingly, made the news back in the UK. Link
Legal matters
Just like in the UK there are court cases here that make you stop and listen.
This week a woman was cleared of "brandishing" her middle finger at a fellow motorist after he objected to her stopping to take a photo of a vintage car. Whilst she was cleared, it's a good reminder to keep your temper in check when dealing with some of the suicidal driving here. Link
At the other end of the spectrum there has been outrage in the last couple of weeks when a drunk driver was sentenced to one month in prison for knocking a triathlete off his bike, and killing him (link). And there is further anger this week because a man who beat his son to death for doing badly in his exams has only been sentenced to three years (Link), and another drunk driver who smashed into the front of a restaurant killing three people has been given a sentence of one month (link).
It's not the UAE, but this one certainly caught the attention. A Saudi teenage boy has been given ten years in prison and 2000 lashes for dancing topless on a jeep. Apparently the authorities intend to appeal the sentence as being too lenient. Link
On a lighter note it has also been reported that so far this year 119 car owners have been fined the equivalent of £85 for washing their cars in public. Apparently doing this can cause a health hazard or even a flood. Just the excuse I need! Link
A grand scale
After a few tough years following the financial crisis, the economy of the UAE seems to be picking up pace again (not that it ever got quite as bad as elsewhere in the world).
There has been a big property exhibition in Dubai this week, where a number of big projects have been announced, including the completion of the Dubai Canal project which will effectively turn a large part of the city into an island (Link), and the city is also to get the world's largest man made lagoon. This lagoon is not just going to be slightly bigger than the previous record holder, it is going to be FOUR times bigger (Link)!
I can't remember which at the moment, but one of the above projects is going to include thousands of new homes and offices, and 450 new restaurants.
The mind certainly does boggle at the scale of some of the projects here.
Catching up
Whilst leading the way with mega projects there are often reminders that the country still has some catching up to do in other areas. For example, there has been much fanfare this week about direct debits coming to the UAE (Link). Until now, things like rent had to be paid by writing a number of post dated cheques at the start of the year (or paying the whole years rent in advance), but now this is all going to change. The central bank is very pleased with itself, putting regular adverts on the radio congratulating itself on the achievement.
And finally
Only in the UAE? A retailer is offering a free BMW with each of a new range of TVs that it sells. Mind you, the TV does cost $35k. Still sounds like a good deal. Link
We've not watched any local TV yet but this caught my attention on YouTube. An "Arab's Got Talent" competitor bites the head off a live snake and skins it with his teeth! Beat that Simon Cowell! Link

As always thanks for reading. Let me know if you'd like to see more of this type of post in future.

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Party Time

Yet another weekend almost at an end, and it has been another busy one. It was Flossie's Birthday Party yesterday, which turned out to be a Leaving Party as well, as we had the fantastic news in the week that she has got a place at Al Yasmina starting tomorrow. Needless to say Flossie is delighted about this. She has dealt with everything really well but has been getting a bit fed up of the long, hot journey to and from school every day. It's also a relief for Jo as it means she doesn't need to do a rally drive across town every afternoon to pick everyone up at the right time.

Back to the party. Unsurprisingly, whilst kids parties in the UAE have some similarities with the UK, in other ways they are different. For example no one responds to the invitation to say whether their child will be coming or not, so it is a surprise to see who will turn up on the day.

Another difference is that people don't think twice about bringing siblings to parties without asking if this is ok. It usually is ok, but it means you can end up with significantly more children than you were expecting. Even worse is that children that haven't been invited sometimes turn up, thankfully we only had one of those yesterday.

Turning to presents, Flossie was pleased to find that people are very generous here (and Archie is counting the days to his birthday already!). Most of the party locations are huge play parks in shopping malls (Flossie's was at Sparkey's at Mushrif Mall should you be interested), and there seem to be strategically placed toy shops next to them. The approach seems to be to pop into the toy shop on the way to the party, grab something expensive, and off you go.

To her credit, Jo is refusing to get drawn into this approach. Archie and Flossie have been to one party each so far, and our gifts have been book sets (Famous Five, and The Magic Faraway Tree) brought from home. Who knows how well these gifts went down, but I bet they couldn't get classic books like those anywhere in Abu Dhabi.

Next the cake. Big is better seems to be the motto here as well. The cake at the party we went to last weekend was a Skylanders one, and whilst the cake itself wasn't huge, the Skylander stood on top of it was enormous!

Having looked at the cakes on offer in the local shops, Jo again decided not to be drawn into the competition, and opted to make Flossie's cake herself. It was a bit of a saga finding the ingredients, especially the icing, but I'm sure you'll agree that she did a great job.

Jo's Handiwork

The entertainers aren't quite as polished as we get in the UK. It seems to be a staff member plucked off the shop floor, given a clown costume and a microphone, and told to get on with it. "Getting on with it" involves shouting as loud as possible and lots of dancing. To be fair the kids absolutely love it, so I'm not complaining.

At the party last week, rather than dressing as a clown, the staff member turned his hand to magic instead. He didn't look comfortable about this, and wasn't helped by the cocky child at the front telling everyone how the tricks worked. I think he finally gave up when, as his finale, he produced a scruffy looking dove out of a hat, which immediately made a bid for freedom. It hid behind the huge pile of presents in the corner of the room, and there was absolute chaos, with presents and feathers flying everywhere, as various small children tried, and failed, to recapture it!

The play parks usually have rides and roller coasters, so the final part of the party is spent going on these. The approach to health and safety is a little more relaxed than the UK. The kids were allowed on rides that they were clearly too young or short for, which of course they loved, but Jo and I were a little nervous at times.

Anyway, despite all that, or maybe because of all that, Flossie had a great party yesterday, and both Archie and Flossie enjoyed another party at the same place this afternoon. In between the parties we had our first BBQ at home yesterday evening, inviting two families with children at Al Yasmina. We had a great time, and the kids especially enjoyed staying up until past midnight.

I've rambled on too long again, so I will leave you with a video with some of the highlights of Flossie's party, including some very entertaining dancing.

As always, thanks for reading.

 

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