Air Show and other uplifting stories

Our weekend got off to a different but exciting start. On Thursday Darcy's employer (Higher Colleges of Technology) hosted an event for all its staff and family members. It was called Desert Evening and it took place in an HCT owned camp about 70 km west of Abu Dhabi. The day became very blustery and it was not fun being in the desert and experiencing shamal-like winds! (ed. by Darcy--he's wrong. It was fun. Wouldn't want to do it every day, but it was neat to experience.) There was a water truck that was spraying the sand in the camp courtyard. But it was neat to see the sand being blown off the tops of dunes. Plus it was a nice change to be out of the city. The music and food were good and there was a short fireworks show at the end. (ed. by Darcy--because it is not HCT if you don't have fireworks. Preferably indoors. You think I'm making this up, but I'm not.) People could have gone dune bashing or taken rides on ATVs up the dunes but that was too much excitement for us.

On Friday we walked across Corniche Road and watched the finale of the RedBull Airshow. It takes place in ten cities around the world. Watch the videos from Abu Dhabi at the bottom of their website. We were far away from the planes zipping around the pylons at speeds of over 200 mph. But we could see some of the incredible acrobatics!

Below are some interesting stories about goings on in our city:

This article says that it's getting more difficult to find taxis in Abu Dhabi. We agree and we live across the street from a bus/taxi depot.

The demographics of the UAE's workforce are unlike those of other countries in the world. This article discusses the problem.

Dubai Media Inc. just finished filming the Arab world's largest drama production. The title is Sera'a Ala Al Remal or Wars on Sand and we hope that it will have English subtitles.

Here's a story about another mammoth construction project that is long overdue in Abu Dhabi.

This article will likely promote much discussion about drinking among Muslims living in moderate GCC countries like the UAE.

A three day annual conference was recently held in Abu Dhabi's Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research. It was about political reform in GCC (Gulf Cooperative Commonwealth) countries. A variety of speakers had interesting comments about the speed in which the national governments are changing or not changing.

Your Life Work: Librarian

Learning Arabic

Marhaba!

I've now attended five Arabic classes at work and they've been fun. I don't have the time to do all the required practice but I did teach myself, while cleaning the floors, to count from 0 to 10. It took me about half an hour and now I have to learn how to write the numbers in Arabic. I can say a few simple words in an introduction type conversation.

This article is a bit old but it talks about the R&D that Abu Dhabi is spending on alternative energy. For that it won the 2008 Cleantech Award (shared it with Google actually). My interest has turned to electric cars as there are some new companies selling them. The first two are Canadian owned and operated but they've been handcuffed by the Canadian government from selling many domestically: http://www.zenncars.com
http://itiselectric.com
http://www.revaindia.com
http://www.teslamotors.com
This is a funny story about camels. Good on the UAE for supporting the Terry Fox run! I would never have thought we'd be in third place for fundraising.

Darcy's birthday dinner at the Emirates Palace last weekend was nice. We got there at 7 pm which was early so we were the only people there for about half an hour. Very classy place so we'd like to try the other restaurants there over time. The privately Islamic Art Exhibit was very interesting and it took longer than the two hours that someone recommended. We bought the coffee table book catalogue as a souvenir.

Bshoofak Ba'dayn...

Hockey Night in Abu Dhabi and other strange stories...

I better get everyone caught up on the local news here. I can't believe the excuses some people have against self serve gas pumps! But if you thought that was silly then read this article about carpooling. At least it's not happening in Abu Dhabi - yet....

I'm not sure what to think about not living in a democratic country after reading this article. I guess it could be a lot worse though. There have been elections for Emiratis to elect around 30 members to form an advisory council to help the Sheikhs. There was a terrible 60 car accident in Abu Dhabi emirate last month. The culprit was not the fog but idiotic drivers. So we now have the dubious distinction of having one of the worst traffic accidents in the world.

I forgot to mention that we saw a hockey game in town a couple of nights ago. It was Hockey Night in Abu Dhabi as we watched the third and final game played between former NHL players battle with the UAE all-star team. The former included the talented Claude Lemieux while the local team had a couple of good Emiratis. It was a high scoring game and the score was something like 11 to 8 for the NHLers. The Abu Dhabi Ice Rink's seating capacity was about 1,000 and there was no sound system or organ. It had the feel of being in an old arena in small town Alberta but it was refreshing to be in a cold environment. Darcy wore a toque and I took a photo which appears on her Facebook avatar.

We're into the last half of the semester so that is a relief. Our trip to Istanbul is coming up quickly. It's already April - where has the year gone?!