Trick or Treat

My week long business/leisure trip to London was great!  I visited the Tate, National and National Portrait Galleries, British Library, British Museum, and London Museum.  Plus I did a lot of walking.  The weather was a bit cooler than I expected but at least it wasn't uncomfortable walking around the city like it still is in Abu Dhabi.  I hadn't been to London in over nine years and I met up with an old friend too. 

Darcy finished her last day of work on Oct. 29 and is looking forward to a break.  She booked our hotels in Paris, Brussels and Bruges for our two week trip in late November and early December.  The weather here is still fairly hot as we head into November but it should be a bit cooler by now.  The Formula One race here has dominated the local news this weekend.  I'm not really much of a F1 fan but it is interesting to see all hype behind this event.

Although Halloween is not a big day here we still bought a carved a pumpkin.  It was expensive since it had to be shipped from either North America or Europe.  But it was huge and looked neat lit up.  Check out Darcy's Facebook profile for a photo. 

Whale shark springs big surprise at beach club  we stayed one night our first summer here.

How should a mosque look?  The mosque has a 21st century design.  It's not very large but it took years to build.

At last, another way off the island and another article about the new bridge. 


New route halves time commuting to Abu Dhabi I drove it last Thursday and the new highway is fairly quick to reach from our place.

Single card for residents next year - I hope there's more success with the implementation compared to the first national ID card attempt.

UAE is top Arab state to live in  The full report is at http://www.prosperity.com/rankings.aspx and Canada is ranked #7.

Clinton to meet Abbas in Abu Dhabi They'll likely meet at the Emirates Palace which we'll drive close to on our way to the mall today.  I wonder if we'll see any black limos.

Debate over Arabic instruction heats up Ironically many Arabs in schools say they don't get very good instruction with learning English!

Waypoint on the old silk road

Planning trips abroad

I'm off to London on October 14th to attend a two day conference.  Then I'm spending four extra days to sight see the city and hopefully meet a friend that I haven't seen in seven years.  I'm staying in a low budget hostel that is close to Hyde Park.  Meanwhile Darcy's last physical day at her job is October 29 and her separation day is Dec. 23.  She's going to use up her remaining vacation time in between so we're going to visit Paris and Belgium for a couple of weeks. I have a bunch of unused vacation too that I need to use before the end of the calendar year.

The weather is slowing cooling off and I braved the elements and did my first evening corniche walk earlier this week.  The corniche beach extension project has extended all the way to our neighborhood.  So there will be almost two kilometers of beach.  But the grand opening of the entire stretch has been delayed (no surprise!)

Motorists blind to dangers of tinting  - we have 30% tinting for our car and it's fine.

Drivers face fines and seeing their cars impounded but they still want tints


License plate I 44 fetches 2.3 million Dirhams - that's about $626,000 USD


Police call for ban on passenger minibuses

Life after the meltdown

Parking problems the space race - luckily we don't have to pay in our neighborhood....yet!  I guess we should keep an eye on the parking permit website.


DNA database set to start in a year

Burj Dubai not quite a tower but a free-standing structure