Saturday, August 30, 2008

approaching Ramadan...

Getting back into my daily morning stretching routine and having a few TCM and chiro treatments have helped my back and left leg in the last two weeks. I have to drive to Sharjah on Sunday - ugh! It's about a two hour drive but the traffic is horrendous. I hope that I make the right turn off to take the shortcut. Otherwise I will be very late.


We were invited to a brunch at a hotel here. Most Western hotels have Friday brunches with all you can eat buffets and some, including ours, offer bottomless champaigne. But they charge for water! So Ramadan is expected to start on Sept. 1. Business hours are reduced as Muslims fast during the day and also pray and read the Koran. So Darcy and I will work 9 to 3 which will be nice.

We didn't get our $600 USD economic stimulus package cheque from the IRS. I didn't expect to get one but I guess it was because I still file tax returns. Let's hope that the IRS receives my request to send another cheque. They said that it would take 6 weeks.

Below is the weekly roundup of interesting news stories......


Imams meet authorities to set holy month objectives

Job training for Emiratis ‘fails in key subjects’

Iran blames ‘big powers’ for island dispute

Forgotten cemeteries lie in disrepair

Cemetery is a mystery

Mark of faith sparks debate

Tall, blonde and ‘evil’: Barbie bedevils Iran
 
Paid parking waiting for green light - uh oh - we're going to have to start paying to park our car on the street

How to register for UAE national ID cards - guess we'll have to get our new cards soon

President defends relevancy of foreign universities - interesting stories about the tremendous growth of higher ed and the challenges that it faces

Universities warned against chasing student ‘gold rush’

At branch campuses, whose roots?

Brand UAE: only the best will do

UAE wants end to red tape in all govt depts - good luck!

With no will there is no easy way - hmmm....see the above article about simplifying bureaucratic procedures...

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

At least the venue is nice!

Welcome to the jungle


HCT annual conference 2008. Tried to rotate this photo after sending it and it just didn't work...sorry...you'll have to look at the screen sideways!

Friday, August 22, 2008

Struggling to get back into the routine

I hate IE! It crashed as I was writing my latest blog post and I forgot to draft it in Word. So I have to start from scratch again. Of course Word is prone to crashing too so I have to remember to save every couple of minutes.

Anyway we’ve been home for almost one week now and we’re catching up on our sleep. It’s been easier waking up for work as I’ve been up before 5:30 am. But I get dozy in mid afternoon. My sciatica really bothered me upon returning home. Spending 19 hours in planes on our way home was not good for my wonky back and left leg. But having an accupuncture, cupping and massage at my neighborhood Chinese place did wonders. Plus resuming my daily morning yoga stretches have helped.

Adjusting to work was difficult and I had to teach a class on my first day. The humidity has been surprisingly low and it’s been overcast too. I figured out that our wifi router can only support two devices at any one time – weird. That’s why I couldn’t sync my iPod Touch along with our two laptops. Although my Toshiba laptop was turned off the router still had its profile in its memory. So I had to turn off the wifi connection on the laptop to allow my iPod to access the wifi.

I’ve got all our music and many photos on the iPod now. I’ve subscribed to podcasts from my hockey team and EDUCAUSE. So I’m down to having 9 GB of space left. Luckily Darcy bought the top of the line 32 GB model!

Below is the weekly round-up of selected news stories from our corner of the globe.

After labour, it is right back to work

Middle East weighs Obama after emotional glow fades

Hummer driver 'killed expat in fit of road rage'

Prisoners expected to be pardoned over Ramadan
 
An island clings to its simple life
 
‘Breakthrough’ desalination system could benefit UAE
 
Oil spill strategy on hold until 2009
 
Ramadan offers real taste of UAE
 
‘Easy-living culture’ hobbles UAE sport
 
Meagre pay rise angers academics
 
UAE students justify cheating, research reveals
 
New Dubai residents gain up to 12kg during first year

One with nature

Oman’s oasis

You Still Can't Write About Muhammad

Sunday, August 17, 2008

To Canada and back.....

Well we're back in the heat and humidity of Abu Dhabi.  Darcy and I had a short but enjoyable time in Canada.  We visited friends and family but unfortunately there wasn't enough time to see more people.  We've been travelling home for vacations for 8 straight years and there is never enough time to do everything that we set out to do.  But it was still refreshing to get away and enjoy being outside, seeing greenery, watching clouds and rainstorms and having a few drinks with family and friends. 

My highlights of the trip were celebrating my birthday on Vancouver Island and in Edmonton.  Darcy got me a 32 GB iPod Touch!  My dad and I visited a few small towns northeast of Edmonton.  I saw the church in Lamont were my grandparents were married in 1939.  We also found the grave site for my great-great grandfather Joseph Schreyer in the tiny town of Radway.  He was an officer in the Austrian army in the 1880s so that would be interesting but difficult to trace.

The plane trips home were very long: Edmonton-Vancouver; Vancouver-Toronto; Toronto-London; London-Abu Dhabi.  We spent 19 hours flying (excluding layovers, delays, claiming lost baggage).  We've yet to get our bag despite reassurances that it's at the Dubai Airport.  It has all our books that we bought or were given as gifts.  We hope that our bag is found and returned in a day or two.  So combined with still being jet lagged and having to return to work on Tuesday we're not exactly in the highest of spirits.

As always I've found some stories below that may be of interest:.

High salaries pull in expats

At branch campuses, whose roots?

The mystique of a sheikh

Five new universities make the grade

68 new dams to capture water

More want to learn about UAE's culture

Meagre pay rise angers academics