Good bye to May and hello to June

Well, another month has flown by and it was a somewhat uneventful month.  But with living here that's a good thing!  We got our visas renewed for another three years and it was a surprisingly quick and painless affair.  I even got reimbursed 100% for the processing fee. 
We will have been in Abu Dhabi for 3 years on June 2.  The time has gone by fairly quickly and we've now reached the minimum amount of time that we initially committed to staying here.  So we'll now take it one year at a time as to what to do next.   We leave for Edmonton in 1 month!

Temperatures soar past 50 celcius  

Villas show their (not so old) age

Search starts for the UAE's first female mufti

Majlis is a key feature of civilization in the UAE Al Hosn: A Pocket of Peace - Darcy's former supervisor is quoted in this article. We live on the northern edge of Al Hosn and we love it too. Although the construction is getting bad.

Slowly transitioning into vacation mode

This week is my first 3 day work week and it feels pretty nice!  I can spend a bit more time at the gym and watch some dvds that I bought years ago in Florida.  The heat and construction noise continue to go up but what can one do?  We went out for dinner last night at the Beach Rotana Hotel.  That's where we lived for 6 weeks when we moved here in 2006.  We couldn't believe how much the skyline to the northeast had changed!  The expanse of water across to Reem Island from the hotel had been shortened considerably.  And there were numerous buildings under construction along with a freeway.  I don't think that the hotel beach there has much of a view anymore.  Poor Darcy is frustrated by some big personnel changes at her work - 'nuff said!  It's now 7 weeks and counting until we leave for Edmonton...

Shoppers are paying a premium - ouch!!

Mosques campaign seeks donations 

Sir Bani Yas to host four new lodges - Looks like we may want to visit there again some time...

Young men need more motivation, study finds-a report like this being made public is astonishing!

Dream hospitals unveiled - this is desperately needed

Big spenders at Big Boys Toys

UAE could help clinch climate deal

Lack of confidence hampers Emiratisation

Post office plans home deliveries

Earthquake strikes off coast of UAE

Welcome to May!

The month of May began with a really hot day so summer is just around the corner.  When we get into our car the temperature gauge reads in the high 40s celcius or about 100 farenheit.  My walks on the Corniche may be over until the fall.  Darcy and I start our summer vacation in exactly two months on July 2.  I've been enjoying my three day work weeks to use up excess vacation time. The construction noise around us seems to be getting worse plus Darcy has to deal with it at work. 
Meanwhile we're still investigating making a will.  It's more complicated with living overseas but there is a company in the city who acts as a go between with a major provider.  We're just getting clarification about fees.  What's more complicated is getting life insurance.  We're getting quotes from two different companies but we want to think this through carefully. 
We're going to have to bite the bullet and get our plane tickets for our Edmonton to Vancouver return trip.  The fares are awful and have actually gone up by about 200 CDN for WestJet!  So we'll pay just over 600 CDN for both of us which is the same as what we paid last year.  Luckily the airfare from Abu Dhabi to Edmonton is cheaper this year.
Work in somewhat uneventful for us.  Although I'd like to start making some online screen casting tutorials for some of our databases and library catalog.  Below is an assortment of regional stories.

UAE bars pork imports - the WHO has confirmed that the swine flu is spread by human to human contact and not from eating pork!

Conference centre soars with falcons

National anorexia levels astonishing - ironic considering that the UAE also has terribly high levels of obesity too. 

A rower's tearful tribute to Zayed

Labour day may become a permanent UAE holiday

Rights body reviews abuse video claim

Sheikh unveils his replica ark

Access to universities to be widened

US university to launch DIFC campus


Abu Dhabi room rates highest in world

Expats urged to embrace culture

How well do you know the emirates?

So, could you pass the emirates patriotic test?