Interesting times

This evening we went out to a going-away get-together for a friend who is moving to Qatar. The bar we were at was an approximate 20 minute walk from our house, and the weather is finally a little drier and cooler, so when we left we decided to walk home. Well, it turned out to be an interesting walk. Not 2 blocks from the hotel the bar was in, we look up to see lights flickering in an apartment overhead. At first we thought it was a party, but it quickly became apparent that the apartment was on fire! The curtains caught just as we got close to the building, which eventually resulted in the patio windows shattering and glass and sparks falling on balconies--and spectators!--below. We got closer with the intention of going in the building to alert the watchman or security guard, but people were already coming out of the building and then, with the glass shattering, it was not safe to go near.

At first, I thought emergency workers were already present, as it looked like people were being evacuated and directed away from the building, but it eventually became apparent that the only people around were tenants and onlookers. When I realized there was no one there I called emergency, only to be told that someone was already on the way. They seemed to take a long time to get there though! The fire was still going strong long after the emergency vehicles pulled up and smoke and sparks and glass were still flying as we left.

We can't help but wonder what started it--I'm guessing either a cigarette or a candle, as is usually the case--and we certainly hope that the tenants were either not home or got out in time to be safe. We'll be watching the papers tomorrow to see if there is any news on what happened!

After all the excitement we decided to stop in a cafe I've had my eye on that was also on the way home, called Zyara. It is indeed a very cool place, and once the weather is good enough to walk outside comfortably I think I will be going there a lot. Lots of ethnic fabrics on the walls and the tables, funky decor and a Lebanese type menu. I had really good turkish coffee, and Michael had jallab, a date juice served with pine nuts that is served just at Ramadan (sounds weird; tastes good). We also had an interesting Arabic dessert made of flatbread rolled with a filling of tahini and carob. It was served with strawberries and very good!

yet more newspaper articles

Our Gulf News newspaper has had some interesting articles of late. One is about the UAE's first animated series called Freej. It means neighborhood in Arabic and Darcy had mentioned it in an earlier entry. Apparently one of its second season episodes has caused some controversy. We've been enjoying watching the first season on dvd.

There continues to be more construction news in our capital city. Earlier I mentioned the city's newest five star hotel to open. Its grand opening will be in December. It looks impressive but the Ramadan room rates are still fairly expensive at 750 AED or about $204 USD for one night.

This article caught my eye as a huge construction project has gotten underway on the Corniche. We're not sure where exactly but it may be close to us. Another big story here is the decline of the mighty American dollar against foreign currencies. The UAE Dirham has been pegged to the U.S. dollar since 1980 which means that the exchange rate does not change. However, the weakened dollar has affected savings for expats here from Asia and Europe. The devaluation of the dollar hasn't affected our savings much yet. Most of our savings are in U.S. dollars but trips to Europe and the UK would be very expensive. We hope that the Canadian dollar doesn't surpass the U.S. dollar.

Just when I was hoping that Abu Dhabi would not fall into Dubai's trap of building Western style entertainment theme parks, the capital city signed a deal to build one! Warner Bros. I guess entertainment will have a big presence in the emirate after all...

more construction news in our fair city

Ironically after mentioning not too long ago about Abu Dhabi's pace of construction not being in step with Duabi's, there appeared several stories about the capital gearing up for massive growth. The Gulf News had a story yesterday about Abu Dhabi's Vision 2030. There were more articles about the booming economy but for some reason they aren't available online. There's one article today about development in an area very close to where I work. I used to go biking around that area last year but all the construction has closed off roads for the public. So I bike inside now using the indoor bike trainer.

Here's a video that someone took of driving on Corniche road. At about the 1:10 minute mark in the video they drive past a large blue office building which is beside our apartment. I think I'm over my terrible chest cold from last week. One drawback to living here has been coping with battling many viruses. One reason may be because of so many people from all over Asia living in close quarters here. There may be more flu strains here too. I may also be more prone to chest colds from having allergies and mild asthma and breathing in the sandy air. Lucikly Darcy seems to have had a stronger constitution.

A big story in Canada is that the Loonie reached parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time in almost 31 years! The last interesting article that I saw was about the commercialization of Ramadan. It's sad but true and the phenomenon is following the pattern with the commodification of Christmas in the West.

Well, I suppose it is about time I stopped relying on Michael to update the blog and write a post myself. I know it's been a long time...I've been busy at work and tired/distracted at home but I know that's not really all that great of an excuse. Just means more catching up to do later!

Ramadan has started, and this is the first time I'm working during Ramadan, which is interesting. We have reduced hours during the month, so we work 6 hours a day instead of 8 (well, 9 with unpaid lunch break time). No food or drink can be at our desks, of course, and there is a closed-off staff break room upstairs where we have to go to drink water or have coffee or lunch. There is one non-Muslim in our office who observes the fast. I have not tried it, though I will admit every year I think about it. I am reading the Quran this year, though. Ramadan is the time of year when Muslims are supposed to (re) read the Quran and Quran recitals take place in the mosques every night (especially around Laylat al Qadr, the night in the latter part of the month when the Quran was revealed to Mohammed). I have been meaning to read the copy my brother bought me a few years ago anyway, so this is as good a time as any to do it.

I am quite overworked right now, as I am working two jobs. My regular job at HCT Learning Resource Services, which brings new responsibilities and changes all the time, and which I really like, and my new part-time pinch-hitting assignment at HCT Abu Dhabi Women's College, which just lost all their librarians and many of their paraprofessional staff. Unfortunately it is the start of term, and Libraries are responsible for textbook distribution. On top of this our system has just instituted an entirely new online system for textbook ordering, distribution, and issuance. Double-whammy: not only do I have to get books for over 2600 students distributed to teachers who all really really think they needed them yesterday, I have to learn a new system, educate them on the new system, and deal with all the problems incurred by their insistence on fudging orders and fixing books "the way they've always done it before". Guess what people...if the way you did it before was appropriate and actually worked, we wouldn't have had to implement a new system with hyperaccountability! And you have to work with it whether you "like" it or not. Sigh. Work has just got a whooooolllle lot more frustrating. I have discovered anew my gratefulness for my permanent, central services, job.

Michael may have mentioned that I was going to a bellydance class before we went on our summer vacation. I have decided not to go back to the class this fall. The class is at too elementary a level, the students are not serious at all about learning to dance, and the teacher is, to be honest, not all that great a dancer OR a teacher. I did get something out of it for the time I was there, even if nothing but a structure to actually get me started dancing again and a space to refine some technique. However, especially given the fact the studio has moved and is now farther than walking distance from my house, it's just not worth it for me. If I am going to take classes here, I'd also rather take from an actual Middle Eastern dancer instead of one from Calgary!

So I got a couple of new technique/drilling videos over the summer and now I'm back to my old problem--getting the energy and discipline to practice regularly on my own instead of just sitting thinking about dancing, reading online about dancing, watching video of other dancers, etc. This is always my sticking point with any project; I'm much better at thinking than actually doing.

My boss at work is a yogini and used to be a yoga teacher. She's started up a small class for people at work, so I am going to that. We are practicing in her house right now, but after Ramadan we will have access to the Assembly Hall at work. Her style is more restorative and introspective than Iyengar style, which is what I practiced before. However, given how long it's been since I've actually practiced regularly it's at a good level for me right now.

Finally, I'll share the website of a popular made-in-the-UAE animated show, FREEJ. The first series of these 15-minute shorts just came out on video. I bought them a couple of weeks ago and we started watching them this week. The show is about a group of widowed Emirati women who live in Dubai's old town. It's pretty cute :) Our DVDs have subtitles but unfortunately the clips on the site don't! You can get a bit of a taste of it anyway, though. I love their traditional dress right down to the old-fashioned henna on their hands!

Ramadan Kareem

Ramadan started at dawn this morning. However, I was bedridden with battling a bacterial infection. I had been sick for a few days and I finally found time from my busy work schedule to see a doctor, get medication, and obtain medical clearance to rest at home for a couple of days. I hope that Darcy doesn't catch my bug! We were able to see the Ramadan fireworks from our spare bedroom window tonight. They were very impressive! Once again Dubai is in the news...

Ramadan and a new hotel

Ramadan starts in a day or two and I saw a good article in the Gulf News that discusses what it means to Muslims and non Muslims. There is also a new hotel that is opening in Abu Dhabi. Thanks to Sepideh for finding it. It's very close to where I work. We would consider booking a room if there was a promotion or a deal like the Emirates Palace hashad for UAE residents. Poor Darcy is still working close to 12 hour days and I'm sick as a dog....

Construction projects in Abu Dhabi and Dubai

There were two interesting articles in the Gulf News newspaper that I recently read. The first is about a huge construction project that is taking place one block away from our apartment building. Abu Dhabi is building a huge Central Market complex that we can see from our living room window. In the article's photo our building is near the far top left and to the right of the very large building. It would be interesting to see when it is completed but it will take years and we may be gone before then. The pace of erecting new buildings is much slower here than in Dubai. A case in point is a three month abandoned building near us still seems no closer to being demolished.

Meanwhile Dubai continues to surge ahead with its incredible number of construction projects. They are building cities at about the same pace that it's been taking Abu Dhabi to construct single buildings. Here's a good article on what's going on in Dubai. It boggles the mind as to what is happening about 100 miles up the road from where we live. Despite all the hype and excitement that surrounds Dubai, we are content with living is the country's more sedate capital. Abu Dhabi does have many other grandiose projects that are on the drawing board but I've not seen them in the Gulf News yet.

UAE culture

Darcy found an interesting site for the group Watani. It's a program that was developed to help strengthen the local culture in the UAE. They have started publishing a comic book called Ajaaj. Ajaaj is Arabic for "sandstorm", and the hero travels within a storm. The artwork is pretty good. You can read the first issue online if you like.

Edmonton Grand Prix 2007

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This was fun to watch during my vacation in Edmonton.

We're back!

Hello everyone! We're back to blogging after having a two month hiatus. Our six week summer vacation in Canada (Ottawa, Toronto, Edmonton, Vancouver, Vancouver Island and Jasper was wonderful. There were many highlights such as watching the fireworks in Ottawa on Canada Day, the changing of the guard on Parliament Hill and seeing my Mom and Stepdad's new place on Vancouver Island. We visited with family and friends on our trip and we managed to relax much of the time. Although it still a bit stressful at times with doing that much travelling and we unfortunately we were still not able to see all the people that we wanted.

But it was sure nice to have the long break. I carried over ten work days to use in the fall or winter. It will be difficult adjusting to the short North American vacations whenever to move back! We took many photos and video but it would take a long time to make an online movie. I did make a short video of the Champ Car race that my Dad and I attended. I'm using my Toshiba laptop at the moment so I'll have to use our Mac to upload the video.

We've both been very busy at work and I will have a full load of teaching classes (among other duites I have) this semester. My library now has four vacancies so hopefully we will get some good candidates soon. Darcy is now officially working full-time at the HCT.

The start of our vacation....

It's Thursday night here and our vacation officially has started. Seems a bit surreal that we won't be working for six weeks. But that's one of the perks of living here. We've not packed anything yet.

The weight restrictions are quite limited for checked and carry on baggage so we won't be taking many personal things with us. Besides we still have many clothes in storage that we can use when we arrive in Edmonton. Much of what we'll be bringing will be gifts for people. So we'll have room to bring back things with us too.

Last week we drove back to Sharjah's Blue Souk and bought more carpets and gifts. We went with two friends who are leaving the country. We also went to an interesting historial themed mall called Ibn Battuta on the outskirts of Dubai. The mall is ostensibly the largest themed mall in the Middle East. But it didn't seem overly ostentatious as it had many educational exhibits.

I was impressed with the exhibits of historical figures including the 14th century Arabic explorer Ibn Battuta. I'd never heard of him despite being a History major in university. The explorer travelled far more than his contemporary Marco Polo. The Chinese section of the mall featured famed explorer Zheng He whom I'd also never heard of before. His fleet's ships dwarfed those of later European ships and were modern marvels. A replica (not to scale) of one of his ships instantly reminded me of the Santa Maria vessel at West Edmonton Mall. There were many other famous Oriental and Asian scientists whom I'd never heard of. Sadly this is due to a lack of exposure or interest in the West combined with a lack of Arabia promoting their heritage and history to the West. I hope that their works have been translated into English so that I can buy them for our library.

There was an interesting article this week in the Gulf News about the political and economic stability of the UAE vis-a-vis the Middle East. I suppose that I am biased since I'm living in the UAE but I agree with the author. The country does have its faults such as deplorable working and living conditions for tens of thousands of poor laborers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

The humidity has been unusually low of late which has been refreshing. There's a building close to us that is about to be torn down. We're hoping the demolition will occur when we're gone! Below are photos of the PI dinner party from a couple of weeks ago and a recent photo of me wearing my new Pierre Cardin shirt. I'll be sure to wear it on St. Patrick's Day next year! So this may be our last posting for a while. But we'll bring our laptop so we may have time to post an entry or two with some photos. Au revoir...

A gift for Darcy

On Thursday June 7 The Petroleum Institute hosted its annual Family Gathering Dinner Party. It was held this year at the remodeled InterContinental Hotel. I had been working only a few days when it was held a year ago so I didn't go. It was free of charge and was a chance for us to meet other people so we decided to go. Attire was formal so I wore a suit and Darcy looked stunning as usual. It was the first time that I had worn my Jose Banks jacket that I had bought at my brother's store in Denver last year. Many people came and each employee got a free 1 GB flash drive with the PI's name on it. It's the identical one that I bought a year ago before leaving Florida. The price has come down dramatically and Darcy recently bought a 2 GB drive that is half the size of mine for about the same price. Dinner was a buffet and it was delicious. There were local men that danced a traditional style of circular line dancing while holding each other's arms. They also did rythmic foot stomping so it interesting to watch. However, we were sitting at the last table in the hall so we couldn't see up close. There was a drummer and a man in a kilt playing the bagpipes! The bagpipe sound is apparently commonly heard in the music but I don't think that kilts are normally worn. Many photos were taken so I'll post more in our next entry.

After dinner the giveaways began and my name was the first drawn. I wasn't paying attention thinking they would not call my name. So I ran way up to the front of the room and picked a prize number. It ended up being a Krups Espresso maker! Darcy's Starbucks Espresso maker that I got her is in storage so this was a great gift since I don't drink coffee related beverages. Below is me receiving the espresso machine. Work was very busy for me last week with managing the free ejournals that come with my library's print subscription. I'm also trying to get the records from full-text journals from the EBSCO database loaded into our online catalog. There are close to 5,000 ejournals that we can add to the catalog. This would make their accessibility easier for students and faculty. Here's an example of one test journal record called Chemical Week that has a record for the electronic version and a merged print an electronic format record. Our librarian friends likely know what I'm talking about but this whole issue is difficult because we don't have an electronic resource management system. This will change in the next year or so Inshallah. In the meantime I, and staff in Technical Services, have to rely on maintaining countless excel spreadsheets. I'm becoming a Jack of all Trades librarian as we don't have a Systems and Acquisitions librarian.

Darcy was also busy at work as she made road trips to attend training sessions. She's also had to complete paperwork for her new three year full-time position. Darcy was very busy with her play rehearsals and the three live performances. I attended the four one act plays on June 14 with friends from work. They were quite good and I took video of Darcy's performance. Watch for it in an upcoming posting!

The recent events in the Gaza Strip are arguably one of the most significant since the Six Day War. The victory of the Shite Islamic Hamas Party in Gaza over the more secular Sunni Fatah Party was not predicted. So there now appear to be two separate Palestinian regions: Shite Gaza and Sunni West Bank. Hopefully there won't be sectarian violence in both places like what Iraq is experiencing.

The humidity is rising as the windows tend to collect condensation on the outside. Evenings are worst to be outside. We've both seemed to fought off our colds and I went on my bike for a 45 minute indoor ride. Hopefully we won't get sick on the flight to Canada. Only two weeks until we leave!

Odds and ends

We recently learned of the Global Peace Index from the association called Vision of Humanity. Apparently it is the first ever attempt to measure nations' and regions' positions of peace. We were pleased to see Canada rated 8th, the UAE was 38th and the USA ranked 96th out of 121. I'm not sure how much the results will influence public opinion and foreign policy of nations I think that the data will be studied by in the fields of academica and think tanks.

Despite my undergraduate degree being in History I did not know much about the Six Day War in June 1967. It's been interesting to read about it from an Arabic perspective this week due to the battle's 40th anniversary . The Israeli-Palestinian problems stem largely from the aftermath of the short battle which is why you hear the phrase of regions returning to pre-1967 borders mentioned a lot by the Palestinians. I believe that solving that problem is a key to defusing the flames of war and rhetoric that have engulfed the Middle East.

Other regional news is that the UAE has the highest country Internet connectivity measure ranking in the Arab world. Meanwhile the latest reports state that Cyclone Gonu killed 35 people.

We went to the mall today and I bought a 49 litre Samsonite carry-on bag, 5 Pierre Cardin dress shirts, 5 Cardin ties, and an Apple international power adaptor for our laptop all for just under 1,400 AED or about $380 USD. I hadn't bought a new tie in over 7 years. They are pretty phat (slang for cool) plus they are fatter/wider and stiffer than my old ones. Maybe ties soften up over time after being tied so many times.

I was looking at a neat book called Earthcam that had images taken from the same NASA satellite that took the photo of Cyclone Gon. On page 150 of the book was a satellite image of Hurricane Wilma's eye passing over south-east Florida on October 24, 2005. What an eerie reminder of being in the center of that terrible storm!

Below are photos of some of the things that I bought at Sharjah's Blue Souk a few weeks ago. The two darker colored kilims are from Afghanistan the lighter brown one is from Iran. The incense burners are traditional Middle Eastern design but are surprisingly hard to find. The post modern ones are more rounded in shape. Darcy and I are still sick. I'm stuffed up and achy while poor Darcy is constantly coughing. Hopefully she will recuperate for the play next week.

Cyclone Gonu

One of the main reasons that we left Florida was because of the increasing number of destructive hurricanes. But guess what? The biggest cyclone to hit the Arabian peninsula (since records began being kept in 1945) will narrowilly miss hitting Abu Dhabi. There's only a couple of news stories about the category 4 Cyclone Gonu due to tightly controlled media in the region.

NASA's Aqua satellite took a photo of Gonu. The front page of today's Gulf News brought back memories of the 2004 and 2005 hurricane seasons in Florida! The weather is calm in Abu Dhabi but the skies are hazy. The storm is likely a culprit of climate change but I hope that no more will hit near here. Although the same can't be said for other parts of the world.

I'm very sick and should not have gone to work today. But there's only one more day until the weekend. Darcy's also been very sick in the midst of rehearsing for her play. Tomorrow (Thursday) is my workplace's annual free dinner. It's supposed to be an extravagant affair with many prizes to give away. But it's also a dry event. The countdown to beginning our summer vacation now stands at 24 days...

Trip to Liwa Oasis

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A montage of clips and photos from our trip to the Liwa Oasis and Liwa Hotel in March 2007.

Happy Anniversary!

Darcy and I arrived in Abu Dhabi one year ago on June 2. I made dinner reservations at a posh restaurant called Finz which is at the Beach Rotana Hotel where we lived for six weeks last summer. We both feel pretty run down at the moment and I hope that we'll feel better by tomorrow night. Darcy has been very busy with bellydance classes and her play rehearsals at The Club. The two plays that she is in will run from June 13 to the 15th. After that many date Western expats leave the city for the summer.

We can't wait for our vacation to start. Darcy has seldom left the city in the last year and I have only taken one day off since we arrived here. Two librarians will be leaving late this summer so I will be really busy in the new academic year. Four positions will be posted: Associate Librarian; Acquisitions Librarian; Systems Librarian and Information Services Librarian. I also realized that I'm the only person at the library who has not taken an extended vacation in the last year. So I definitely need a break!

I went for an hour and a half bike ride with two friends last weekend and I was pretty tired afterwards. We followed a loop three times in a residential area at the outer edge of one of the corners of Abu Dhabi City island. I've never had much stamina for long cardiovascular endurances. So I lagged behind them most of the time but at the last open stretch of road I pushed myself to the limit until I could pedal no more.

My indoor bike is working out well too and I try and use it once a week. I've been going to the school's gym twice a week (Sunday and Thursday) for the past five weeks. It's felt good to be lifting weights on a regular basis. I hadn't done that since we left Florida.

My mom and stepdad moved to Saanichton, B.C. earlier this week. Darcy and I look forward to visiting their place in mid July. So my family is even more dispersed now. But I guess that's common with many families now.

I went with two friends last weekend to Sharjah's Central Market or Blue Souk. I bought three kilims (can be hung on a wall or placed on a floor) that had shades of brown. Two are from Afghanistan and one is from Iran. We're planning to go back there on June 22.

Darcy got me hooked on using the del.icio.us website to save and tag favorite sites. I've known about it for a couple of years but I didn't make it a priority to see what it was all about. So I'm going through my dozens of bookmarked webites that I've collected over the years. I've been adding several boxed dvd sets like all of the Star Trek series and Looney Tunes. I don't know how many I would buy when I visit Canada. Darcy and I have several dvds that we have yet to watch. We've told ourselves that we need to take a week or two off and relax in our apartment and watch our movies.

May 30 was the third anniversary of my proposal to Darcy. Sadly the Everglades Park Hotel where we stayed has not reopened since the devastating hurricane season in 2005.

library stories

With spring in full force now the temperatures and humidity are rising. I have stopped walking outside at night and cycling on weekends. I've used my new bike trainer a few times and the adjustments are pretty good now. The first few times I had the resistance wheel too tight (despite what the bike store staff told me). It was shaving off rubber from the bike's rear tire and leaving rubber powder on the floor. I've moved the bike by a window so I can see outside plus I can listen to my iPod. I could also move the bike by the television so I could watch the Al Jazeera English news station. I don't think any North American stations have picked it up but it's worth viewing. One certainly gets a different perspective of the news and especially in the Middle East!

Abu Dhabi has been in the news lately as Vice-President Dick Cheney visited here and then made a bombastic comment from the safety of a U.S. aircraft Carrier about 20 miles off the coast of where we live. Then the following day Iran's President visited the city! I think that it was a shrewd move by His Highness Shaikh Khalifa to host those two in short succession. The UAE is definitely a moderate country in the Gulf. I learned that the UAE is Iran's biggest trading partner. Also read in the Gulf News about the tiny, exotic Iranian island called Kish. I wouldn't mind visiting it for a weekend and Kish Airlines has a direct flight from Abu Dhabi. The island is in the Arabian Gulf so it would be a very short flight. It's a popular destination for Iranian tourists and UAE tourists who want to renew their travel visas.

Today I discovered a very interesting online diary from Saad Eskander, Director of the Iraq National Library and Archive. He was recently interviewed by the American Library Association and his comments about daily life in Baghdad are sobering. The war/occupation there is bad enough but also the Middle Eastern bureaucracy is incredible! I know a bit what that's like with my proposal of creating a blog and a RSS feed for my library meeting resistance from our IT Department.

Darcy is busy with her bellydance class and rehearsals for two plays. Meanwhile I'm trying to maintain my twice a week workout at my school's new gym. So far my wonky back is holding up with the weight lifting. My Chinese accupuncture and massages are probably helping.

The last bit of news is that we have registered this blog with a RSS (Real Simple Syndicate) feed. Notice the orange icon near the top right of the blog's home page. What this means is that you can subscribe and receive blog entries in your feed that may be connected through your email account. This also means that I don't have to pester everyone with emailing updates! You don't have to remember the URL for our blog and just simply check your RSS feed for our blog.

So I think this will be the last time that we will notify people of a new posting by email!

ParticipACTION

After almost one year of relative inactivity I'm finally back to having a somewhat regular work out schedule. A week ago a friend convinced me to use my work place's new gym. It opened in December but the university has not promoted it too much. I had known about the new building since December but procrastinated with walking to it after work. For some reason I had thought that it was much farther than it was. I went twice with a friend who had his car and today I walked over after work and caught the late bus home.

I'm done work at 3:30 and can be in the gym warming up within 15 minutes. My work out lasted just over one hour before I walked back to the library to catch the 5:30 bus home. It makes for a long day but I already feel better and have more energy after just three work outs. The place is practically deserted so there is no waiting to use machines. Unfortunately there is no pool but that may come in phase two of the expansion project.

Darcy and I were watching episodes from season three of the Canadian sitcom Corner Gas and one show featured a parody of the old 1980s ParticipACTION Do It tv ads. I hadn't heard the catchy theme music in about twenty years so naturally I had to check online for the ads. The University of Saskatchewan has a great archive of them.

Yesterday I got up at 7am and drove to Dubai to the country's only decent bike store to buy an indoor bike trainer. The mark up is about $50 USD more but it's worth it with not having to worry about having it shipped overseas. It's getting pretty warm outside now so my days of walking on the corniche are coming to an end. But now I can cycle inside in my exercise sanctuary room.

I paid for the last of our plane tickets for our summer vacation in Canada. It's not cheap flying domestically in Canada and the money that we had left over from our travel allowance with flying home from Abu Dhabi is used up. We leave in two months!

Adventures in the Arabian Desert

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We travelled to the second highest mountain in the UAE and then took a half day safari to the desert.

2007 Abu Dhabi Terry Fox Run

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Annual Terry Fox Run in Abu Dhabi on February 16, 2007. It's approximately 7 kilometres that follows part of the Corniche. This year had about 8,000 participants and a majority were not Canadian expats.

more news...

As I write this (11:00 pm) the UAE has just defeated Saudi Arabia in the semi-final game of the 18th biannual Arabian Gulf Cup. The celebrations are reminescent of National Day in December. Cars honking and engines reving and backfiring. I can see that traffic on the Corniche is backed up too. The host team (UAE) was an underdog going into the tournament and they barely squeaked into the playoffs. The UAE has never wone the cup so the country is pumped up for the final. I don't know who they play though. The defeat of defending cup champions Saudi Arabia is obviously cause for celebration. Despite the loud celebrations it nice to know that virtually none of it is alcohol induced. Just good, clean fun unlike professional sports victories in the West!

I forgot to mention that we just started subscribing to the Gulf News newspaper. It reputed to be the best English language daily newspaper in the UAE. It features several articles from the New York Times along with good European and Arab coverage. It only cost about $100 USD for the year so it's pretty cheap.

That's all for now. I better get to bed as tomorrow's Sunday and back to work. I have to get up at 5:15 am....

What's New....

We've been busy digitizing our music CD collection since we bought a 500 GB hard drive. It cost about $300 USD and is more space than we need at the moment. But over time I'm sure that we'll take advantage of the storage capacity. The first bit of news is that there will be a Formula I race here on February 3. It's not an official F1 event but is organized by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority. However, the cars will be barreling down the Corniche so we'll have front row seats. So we'll try and take some video of it.

A friend lent us his dvds of the Canadian television sitcom called Corner Gas. It's pretty funny and the character of Hank seems like a younger Joe Pecsi. The latest new Canadian sitcom is the CBC produced Little Mosque on the Prairie. At the moment it's blocked in the UAE due to it's "controversial" content. The first episode is at Google Video. It's generated a lot of news in the U.S. as it's the first television comedy about Muslims.

A couple of weeks ago we bought a sofa bed for the spare room. I also put one of our carpets from the Caucuses in there so the room looks a bit more comfortable.

Darcy cooked a delicious picnic dinner that we had on living floor. This was before we moved our two carpets to our guest rooms. We turned out the lights and burned a bunch of candles so it really felt like being in a Bedouin tent in the Arabian desert. Below are some photos of the dinner.

I found an interesting article published in the New Statesman...a special report on the world's top ten dictators. I was a little surprised to find that Dubai's Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum was on the list! You can read their analysis of the "Ceo of Dubai, Inc" on this page

Now that Darcy is working we decided to split doing chores. I now sweep and wash the floors and will also try and cook dinner sometimes. We bought our plane tickets last week. We depart on June 29 and return here August 12. We also booked three nights at Alpine Village in Jasper (our secluded honeymoon site). Unbelievably they only had the one room cabins left for that date. The site just began accepting reservations at the beginning of the month so it's good that we reserved now! That's all for now.....

Friday Muslim Call To Prayer

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A twelve minute recording of the Friday Call To Prayer taken from our apartment bedroom window.

Update!

Well, not long after I wrote my last blog post, I got an email from the HCT asking me if I could start work Monday. So, I guess I have the job! I still don't know much about it, and I'm feeling nervous and a little out of my depth at the moment, but I just keep telling myself that they know they are getting someone with no experience and that I will pick things up and do fine.

Now I need to go clothes shopping! And fast! I got rid of most of my old worn-out work clothes before we moved and have not done much clothes shopping since we got here. Plus I will have to adjust to working again...it seems so strange but I've been unemployed for almost a year now. 2006 as a whole went by so fast it seems a blur.

More news next week on how things go.

Post holiday

Sorry it's taken so long for me to upload our Christmas photos and post them...they are on my flickr account now so you can take a look at what our Christmas was like by clicking here!

We are slowly getting back to normal after the holiday season. We ended up quite busy through the holidays with Christmas and New Year parties, so after all the eating and drinking and socializing it's time to get back to a more moderate routine! We are going to take our Christmas tree down this weekend. Late to have it up still, I know, but with few of the regular "holiday season" markers--weather, street decorations, and so forth--we feel like we just put it up!

I have spent a lot of the post-Christmas time taking care of pets and plants for people who are currently on vacation. Some better behaved than others! My friend Rachel's tomcat is a real hellion and is even learning how to open doors himself, so that one has been quite a "challenge". My Arabic conversation class has also started up again, so I am in the middle of learning how to say "hello, how are you" and count to 20. I have also started doing the exercises in the Henna Page's Index of henna pattern elements in an attempt to improve both my skills and my atttempts at creating original patterns. It would be nice to get proficient enough that I could do henna as a part time independent business someday.

I have also had a few developments on the job front. I met some people at the Higher Colleges of Technology Library this week, and actually ended up in an impromptu interview due to their critical need for new staff. The job is in Acquisitions, Cataloguing, and Technical Services. I really have little to no practical experience in those areas but it sounds like they are looking for a willingness to jump in and learn the job as much as prior experience, so I think my chances there are good if our previously planned vacations for this year don't get in the way (the contract is a temporary one for six months, so I'm not sure what the vacation rules are like). I also met the Dean at the Zayed University library this week, and while they don't have a specific opening right now, she encouraged me to send in a resume for their files in case of future vacancies. I would really ideally prefer something part time, but if I don't start working soon I will have a lot of difficulty getting back into the field, so I am starting to feel like in the short term at least I should take what I can get. Especially if, as in the case of the HCT job, it will provide me with a lot of new skills and experience I would be unlikely to acquire elsewhere!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2007! To back track a bit, we had an ejoyable Christmas as I had the day off unofficially. Officially I was on call but no Christians or very few came to work on Christmas Day. I managed to make my Mother's French Breakfast Puffs and my Grandfather's Sin Fizz drink. They were delicious but quite filling. Darcy spoiled me with buying lots of nice gifts including the new iPod Shuffle. I spent my four day New Years and EID long weekend copying old Napster songs to iTunes. The songs weren't recognized by the software so I had to search many in Google to get the names.

I also got books from Darcy and her parents. One is called The Middle East From Space. Another title is a revised edition by HVF Winstone called Howard Carter and the Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankahmun. We took some photos on Christmas Day and Darcy will shortly post a link to them. We spent New Years Eve at a friends place and it was a fun time. So this was our first holidays spent outside of North America and it was an interesting experience celebrating the season in a Muslim country. We hope that the new year wil be full of happiness and good health for everyone!

Forgot to mention...

...The Sheik was at the mall when I went to go grocery shopping today!

I didn't see him...just the entourage of black cars with single and double digit licence plates accompanied by police. But, it's my first brush with royalty so I will milk it for all that it's worth ;)

Yuletide

So, the Christmas Pantomime is over and I can finally turn my attention to other seasonal preparations. The play literally seemed to come together at the last minute--we did not have a good run though with all props and costumes and lines remembered until the dress rehearsal 3 days before the performance! Missing cast members and some disorganization throughout rehersals all contributed to the last-minute crunch. But, we pulled through and the whole thing seemed to go pretty well. Only a couple of my friends saw this one. A fellow Edmontonian from the PI said that I was "disturbingly good at playing a lecherous man", so I guess I managed to pull my part off. I was worried a little, because I had never done a panto before--or even seen one!--and so I was unfamiliar with the stock characters, mannerisms, and conventions. I seem to have got enough thigh-slapping in there, though, and ultimately if the audience likes it then you can't complain.

The one thing I was really worried about was making it through all the shows and rehearsals wearing the Instruments of Torture: four inch stiletto boots. I thought they fit when I first tried them on, but something must have been off because while I have worn heels that height or almost that height before, I have NEVER had such pain from shoes. After some of the rehearsals my feet were still hurting two or three days later! And that's from just going on stage for my scene, going off, and sitting down until I have to go on again. Anyway, FORTUNATELY I finally got enough padding and "stuff" inside them to make them marginally wearable. It took cotton balls in the toes, three pairs of insoles, gel cushions, foam padding for the balls of my feet, and thick socks, but I got there. I was still uncomfortable when wearing them, but when I took them off the pain went away shortly. The only other explination I can think of is either nerves exacerbating the pain beforehand or adrenalin helping me ignore it during the show.

I have too many photos to post as a blog entry, so I posted the pictures I took in my Flickr gallery. You can see them by clicking here.

Since then, I've been busy with other Christmas activities. I baked gingerbread cookies, and made ginger almond biscotti. I think I have finally finished my Christmas shopping, and almost done wrapping. I have also been out getting things for Christmas dinner. I was originally going to roast just a turkey breast, but I couldn't find one (turkey is not a normal product here). So we are getting the whole stuffed bird again this year, which means shopping for dishes and other necessities as well as for food and drink. We've also got a few more party invitations this weekend. It's hard to believe that Christmas is only a few days away!

Season's Greetings!

I can't believe that Christmas is less than two weeks away! Luckily the cooler weather and shorter days make the season feel a bit like the holidays. I went Christmas shopping today and a helpful clerk from Lebabon wished me a Merry Christmas. It probably doesn't sound like it's worth mentioning but it's the first time that I've heard the word Christmas spoken by a non Christian. I didn't expect to see as many signs here proclaiming Christmas and having photos of Santa. I saw one sign that had Happy Holidays in English and Arabic. A Marks & Spencer store has a three story Christmas tree! There's also a large model of Santa with his sleigh and reindeer.

We've had our Christmas tree decorated for a while and it looks nice. I haven't had a tree this big since 1993 while this is Darcy's first large fake tree. We're able to use diffusing pine scented oil in order to make our tree feel more natural. I need to wrap presents and put them under our tree. Darcy wants to do some Christmas baking next week. It's too bad that we both didn't bring our family recipe books!

Darcy's Old King Cole play finished its three day, four performances yesterday. It was interesting to be a backstage hand from my standpoint. However, my brief involvement in the play was a time committment whlile Darcy's was much bigger. I don't know how people can memorized lines and act at the same time. It was difficult enough for me to remember which props had to be moved around in between scene changes!

That's about all for now....

Catching Up

I see that Michael has not been posting on the blog...well...guess I will have to take on the burden of bringing everyone up to speed.

We spent the weekend of American Thanksgiving having a traditional turkey dinner with friends. Much good food was eaten, much wine was drunk, and much fun was had playing cards. I do have some incriminating video from the night in question, but I will be nice and not post it online for the world to see :)

Believe it or not, we have had MORE rain!!!! Last weekend it absolutely POURED all day Saturday. There have also been a few other scattered showers in the past week or 2. I think we have now had the equivalent of over a year's worth of rain...and all in about 10 days! Michael and I always seem to bring atypical weather with us wherever we go.

The rain put a bit of a damper on the National Day celebrations here, which took place from the 1st to the 3rd. National Day is the anniversary of the UAE becoming its own country independent from the British--previous to 1971 it was a protectorate. It's strange to think that the country is only about as old as I am, and that all this urban development has taken place in so short a time. Wind the clock back two decades and there was not much more than sand, small fishing villages, and beduin tribes living off dates and camel milk. It's amazing how much this area has accomplished in so little time.

Michael got a long weekend for National Day, which was nice. There were fireworks on Friday night...we could see them from our apartment building's front door, but sadly I forgot to bring my camera down with me when we went to investigate what "that loud banging noise" was. Both Friday night and Saturday night the Corniche road was packed to a standstill with people out celebrating. Cars full of people all hanging out the windows cheering; people standing up through the sunroofs and riding on the roofs and hoods of the vehicles; loud music playing, and lots of noise as people spun their tires or gunned their engines until they backfired. Some people were dressed up, and some people had decorated their cars with hearts in UAE colours, flags, and pictures of the late Sheik Zayed and his two oldest sons, the current ruler of the UAE and the crown prince and ruler of Dubai. There was dancing in the streets--even some women who uncovered their hair and tossed it around Khaleeji style!--and much fun. We captured some of the chaos with my camera, and posted a rough video of the night on our video site at darcyandmichael.blip.tv. Blip.tv does allow you to imbed your video on blogs or other sites now, but I haven't been able to get it to link up to this blog properly yet, so for now you will have to click off Inshallah to see it.

The rehearsals for the Christmas Pantomime continue, though I am starting to be afraid that we will NOT be ready for our opening on Wednesday! Michael has been recruited to work backstage, so he will be back there with me during the shows, which is nice even if it will impede our ability to get photos of video of the show in progress. I have all my costume bits finally, and with the waistcoat, ruffled shirt, four inch stilletto boots, and tricorn hat with feather I look more piratical than Lord Chamberlainish, but my costume is less embarassing than some so I am DEFINITELY not complaining. Just this week, we finally managed to find a song for me to sing...Woman in Love from the movie version of Guys and Dolls. Cutting it close much? whew! I am also a little worried about the fact that I have to spend much of the first act hopping in high heeled boots that don't seem to fit very well. BUT, the show goes up on the 13th, and three days later it will all be over, so I am trying not to worry about the incidentals too much.

Last night we attened a wine tasting hosted by one of the local liquor shops, which was fun. It was in the same hotel we were staying at when we first got here. They provided grazing food and desserts, which were quite lovely, and there were 10 tables of wines from different countries to be tasted and compared. Nice to be able to sample some expensive wines, chat with the experts, and compare all the different varieties. I know, what a decadent life we lead :)

Apart from that we are just trying to get ready for Christmas. We have finally mailed our cards, and we are putting up our tree this weekend. We do have a couple of parties to go to already, and after the play is over I will have to seriously start cookie baking and planning our Christmas dinner. Michael is being his usual UNHELPFUL self as far as Christmas wish lists goes...he always asks for boring things like socks or shirts or other things he "needs." I keep on trying to tell him that presents are not for things you NEED but things you would LIKE--fun rather than necessity--but he seems to remain unconvinced. Well, at least he can't ask for a cheque this year! Any money I gave him would be his already!

Enough for now...hopefully Michael will provide the update next time!

It's raining!

We got quite a surprise today. It rained at about 1:30 this afternoon! I noticed the sky getting dark...then the rumble of thunder...I grabbed my camera and got outside just as conditions went from a sprinkle to a full-on downpour. The clouds were very low, and moving incredibly fast--I could see them being pierced by a tall building across Khaled bin al Waleed street. Winds were gusting very high; high enough that a chair at the side of our building flew out into the parking lot and hit a car! Trees were whipping around and I could see fierce gusts of rain and wind whipping down the street. The gutters and streets were flooded. I felt right at home, back in the middle of a typical Florida afternoon storm!

Apparently the UAE gets about 6 to 10 cm of rainfall yearly. After today we should be at least halfway there...

happy housewarming!

This has been a pretty party-full weekend. We had our own housewarming party last night! We think it went fairly well...we didn't really run out of anything, lots of people came, and everyone seemed to have a fairly good time. The last guests did not leave until after 3am, so it was a pretty late night!

I had to do some last-minute shopping for decorations and such, and I was also lucky enough to find some household things that I actually liked in the stores. Maybe it was just that the seasonal stock and end-of-range sale stuff this summer was not to my taste...or maybe after a couple months off from house shopping I don't feel so burnt out on it all...but I like a lot more of the things on offer right now than I did when I was out every day trying to find the "least offensive to the eye" furnishings. I got some new curtains for my sanctuary, some cushions for the couches to match the ones from the souk in Sharjah, and some nice candleholders and accessories. We also borrowed a drill and managed to hang one of our divider/curtain thingys that we bought at IKEA months ago...we tried to hang both but encountered problems drilling into the solid concrete seems to comprise our ceiling and all our walls. As it is, to be honest, I am not really 100% convinced the one we did manage to hang will not fall down at some point. But at least it held up for the party!

So between shopping for the house, shopping for the food, shopping for the drinks, uploading music to our computer and figuring out how to set up iTunes to be our DJ for the evening, cleaning, decorating, rearranging the furniture and preparing our buffet I was pretty busy this week! By the time the party was set to start I was almost ready to go to bed for a nap! But, we had a good time and it was all worth it in the end. Bigger parties like this one actually may not be as common here as we are used to. Michael said more than one person commented during the night that smaller dinner parties are more the norm. Both types have their charms but every once and a while it is fun to get everyone you know together and have them meet each other!

I've created an online gallery from some of the pictures we took...you can view it by clicking here.

Hallowe'en party

This evening, our friend Rachel hosted a Hallowe'en party. It was a relatively small gathering...a dinner party rather than a big event. I got to meet some more people from the PI and FINALLY see Rachel's apartment and her two new kittens, who are very tiny and VERY cute!

I didn't know about the party until a couple days before, so it was a bit of a last-minute scramble for me to get a costume. I ended up improvising an "American Tribal Bellydance Lite" costume from some things I brought from home and a few pieces of fabric I bought in Sharjah. Michael wore his biking gear and went as Lance Armstrong.

Here are a couple photos of my costume, and a group photo from the party. You can see my new sanctuary curtains in the background of my photos!

post vacation details

Well, we are just back from a week in Sharjah and Al Ain. Sharjah is an emirate to the north of us...so close to Dubai that they are kind of blending together as construction expands the sprawl. It markets itself as the cultural capital of the UAE because of it's many heritage and arts attractions. It's much more conservative a culture, and still dry, unlike Dubai or Abu Dhabi. We were in the older area of town, which was interesting to say the least. The kind of place where you have a restored historical fort next to a normal looking highrise bank building next to a crumbling slum where the poorest labourers live. I would stay in this same location again, actually, because it was a facinating mix of places and people within walking distance of the galleries, historical and heritage areas, and souks, but I would NOT stay in the same hotel. we were right above a taxi stand and a square with a tent market selling cheap goods where hundreds of the local Indian and Pakistani men came to socialize and hang out every evening. So very noisy 24/7, very crowded, and extremely difficult to drive in and out. Strangely, the traffic and the crowds disappear about a block in every direction! Also, the restaurant in our hotel was terrible. I actually got sick one night we were there, though fortunately it came on quickly and did not last long and I was fine for the remainder of the trip.

We saw many more men holding hands and walking with their arms around each other than you do in Abu Dhabi. Actually, we saw very few women on the street period! I don't know if the population in this district was made up more of men who left their families at home to work here, or if it was just because more of the women were at home or running home-related errands, due to the more conservative mindset, rather than out on the street with the men. We saw very few other Western expats there.

We paid a visit to the central souk and ended up buying a couple of Caucasian carpets--deep reds and greys, and bolder tribal patterns. The souk is also known for its jewelry stores...I don't think I have ever seen so much gold in one place in my life! Beautiful Asian styles, totally unlike the things you see at home. We also visited some historic buildings and a couple art galleries.

After 3 nights there we travelled on to Al Ain, an oasis city in Abu Dhabi that borders on Oman. *Much* nicer accomodations there--the only options in Al Ain are 5 star!--and it is a quiet, peaceful, relaxing city. Unlike the other places we've seen in the UAE so far, the city is made up of low rise buildings, and since it is an oasis there are lots of trees and working date palm farms. There is also a mountain--Jebel Hafit--that we could see from our hotel room balcony. The woman we had our first UAE job interview with lives there, so we got to meet her in person; she took us up the mountain and out for dinner one night and met us for coffee the next day, where she introduced us to some other librarians that live and work there. We visited local coffee shops, the Al Ain Palace Museum, a couple of the oases, the Al Ain National Museum and Sheik Zayed Fort, and also managed to find time to relax by the pool and hang out.

So for the most part a very good vacation.

Almost every woman I saw had lovely henna for Eid. I wonder about it though...whether it was wholly natural or not. The colour was such a uniform mahogany, and often little to no variation from fingers to hands to wrists and forearms. It would be sad if adulterated henna was the norm here. I still haven't gone out and found a salon to do henna on me, so i don't have any personal experience yet. Mostly the very flowery Gulf/IndoArabic style, with a lot of dipped fingers.

Lots of the little girls were out in their sparkly new Eid clothes...so cute!

where we were this evening

Turkish coffee, shisha and chocolate...mmmmm....

crazy streets

Well, since we have a new car it was time for me to bite the bullet and start driving. Not a wholly comfortable proposition. Traffic here is....well....slightly less than sane. Especially during Ramadan when everyone is lightheaded from hunger and dehydration! Tailgating is routine, as is speeding and merging without warning or ensuring you have enough room. Add to all this the fact that if an expat and a national get in an accident, the expat is automatically at fault...and...you have a recipe for nervousness! However, after a couple of successful short trips to the mall and the grocery store, and a drive from Michael's work back home (a half hour highway drive), I am feeling a little more confident on the road. So far so good! Michael has created a video about the car...take a look for it in our video postings at http://darcyandmichael.blip.tv.

So far I have learned that the concept of "letting someone in traffic" is definitely not understood. I tried to let someone merge my first trip out and caused confusion, to say the least!

Of course, we do still have to take taxis to go out anywhere where we will be drinking. There is an absolute zero tolerance policy for drinking and driving, due to Islamic views on alcohol consumption. Being caught in a car with any alcohol in your system at all is an invitation for legal problems. Apparently the current city taxis are going to be phased out during the next year, which will mean that taxi fares will go up by a lot. But then if you double the price of a one or two dollar taxi ride, you ar still getting around pretty cheap!

This weekend was a pretty busy party weekend for us. The tradition of Ramadan house parties continues even if bars do now open during the holy month. On Thursday night, the cast of The Flesh Game met for a belated cast party/potluck dinner. Our director had gifted us with a bottle of champagne on the final night of the show, and this is the first time we had been able to get together to drink it! Last night we were at the home of a couple we met through the PI (the husband works there) for dinner and drinks. They've posted some pictures on their blog...if you'd like to see us and some of the people we know here you can click here.

Other than that, we are looking forward to our vacation trip to Al Ain and Sharjah at the end of the month. There are supposed to be a lot of good souqs in Sharjah, so we are hoping to get some Christmas shopping done!

Celebrating Thanksgiving and a new addition to our family

Happy Thanksgiving to our friends and family in Canada! Darcy cooked a delicious dinner and we had nice Chilean wine. Big news is that I drove home our new car on Saturday. Darcy had a name picked out for it - Galahad. The car is really nice and it seems really strange to be driving a brand new vehicle! I have to pay the interest free loan back over four years. The price was about $28,000 USD which is pretty good. We took some photos of the car and we're in the process of making a video of our new addition to the family. Stay tuned...

a new bike!

Well I continue to spend money like there's no tomorrow. Last weekend I went with my work colleague to Dubai to the only reputable bike store in the UAE. It's called Wolfi's . I decided to buy a road bike as my previous bikes have been mountain bikes. This way I have two different types. I had no intention of buying one but I test road two (rode around the block) and really liked the light weight feel. So I decided to treat myself (again) and bought a Scott CR1 . The gave me free clip shoes and clip pedals. But I also needed to buy one pair of shorts, fancy bike shirt, gloves and a helmet. But I think it's worth the high price tag in the long run and I told Darcy that she can spend that much on herself too.

I'll put the bike in the car and drive to work sometimes to ride near the university. My colleague rides out there and there's not too much traffic yet. It's a new development area and It's flat like South Florida so I should be able to get a good cardio workout. The timing is good as the Calypso cardio machine that I've been house sitting for will be picked up in a few days. I can also bike on the corniche bike path that follows the water. It's about four miles long but I'll have to watch out for pedestrians. People often walk on the separate bike path.

The citation for my journal article is:

Article title: A Library of One's Own: A Survey of Public Access in Florida Academic Libraries
Subjects: Academic libraries, Library resources, Public access, Polls & surveys
Author(s): J Michael Shires
Document types: Feature
Document features: Tables, References
Publication title: Reference & User Services Quarterly. Chicago: Summer 2006. Vol. 45, Iss. 4; pg. 316, 11 pgs
Source type: Periodical
Text Word Count 7261
Abstract (document summary): Public users represent a small but growing clientele in academic libraries. Many academic librarians grapple with the issue of serving public users, partially because of shrinking academic library budgets and growing user demands. This article presents data from a 2002 survey about public access in Florida academic libraries. A Web-based survey consisting of nine questions was sent to sixty-six libraries, of which thirty-six responded. Results show that while a majority of publicly and privately funded academic libraries allow public users to access their resources and services, many do not actively promote themselves to the community at large.

I'm still waiting for the new car to arrive. It should be ready to be picked up by this weekend. The big news for Darcy is that she auditioned for another play called Old King Cole and won the part of Lord Dan. The character is called a principle boy where a woman plays a man. It should be interesting for her. Since she has a role that means that I will be a stage hand in the play. I'm not sure how good I will be....

A Productive Week!

This week ended on a high note as three things that I had been waiting for finally arrived. The first item was that I picked up *the document* (code word for liquor permit). Western expats tend to use that phrase in public and not offend the majority Muslims. The permit looks a bit like a passport and is valid for one year from the date issued. I paid 180 dirham fee for the two of us which translated into our monthly liquor allowance being a generous 1,500 dirham. You first decide on how much you want to pay for the liquor application fee. That figure is taken into account with your monthly allowance and then calculated based as a percentge of your monthly salary. It sounds a bit confusing but our amount is more than enough. A bottle of rye (whiskey for you Americans) and an average priced bottle of wine is around 80 dirham or about $22.00. We're thinking of having our apartment warming party on October 20 so we'll be able to buy booze for it.

ThenNext piece of good news is that I received a cheque from my work to buy a car. I finally decided on getting a 2007 Volvo V70 stationwagon and I managed to get the price down to 100,000 dirham ($30,000). I went to the dealer this morning and gave the money and signed paperwork for registration. I will get special window tinting called V-Kool. Apparently it uses NASA technology that heavily reduces heat and other harmful rays from entering a car's interior and without using really dark tinting. It will cost about $600 but I think it will be worth it. I should get the car in about a week.

I saved the last bit of news for last. My article that took me almost four years to write was finally published! It appears in a peer-reviewed American Library Association publication called Reference and User Serivces Quarterly. The article's title is A Library of One's Own: A Survey of Public Access in Florida's Academic Libraries. I wished that it had been published before I left Florida but c'est la vie. It was a lot of work to write it but I owe my thanks to many at my last job with helping get it published. Darcy and I need to get ready to go out now so until next time...

Ramadan Kareem

So, this week marked the beginning of our first Ramadan here.

Ramadan, apparently, is the time when the Qu'ran was revealed to the Prophet Mohammed. During the month, the gates of heaven are open and the gates of hell are closed. It is also a time of charity, generosity and sympathy towards the poor.

Muslims are fasting for purification from sin, and in sympathy for the poor and hungry, from sunup till sundown. They are are also not allowed to do things like smoke (you could swallow the smoke and thus break your fast) or chew gum (which produces saliva that breaks your fast). Apparently really pious Muslims will even spit all day rather than swallowing any saliva! They are also supposed to eschew sex during daylight hours (at night is okay), follow Islam's proscriptions against gossip, lies and bad speech more strictly, and read the Qu'ran through at least once during the month. There are Qu'ran readings every night in the mosques for a couple of hours after the last prayer...we can hear the ones going on across the street in our living room!

Before the dawn prayers, usually around 3am, they have a small meal called suhoor. Then right before the sunset prayer, they break their fast with a small snack--traditionally an odd-number of dates, soup and water. After prayer they have the first real meal of the day, called iftar. All the restaurants in town are having big iftar buffets, of course, many with an "arabian tent" decor and including shisha, etc.

Pregnant women, old people, prepubescent children, and sick people are not required to fast. Neither are menstruating women, though they have to make up the days of fasting after Ramadan is over. I am wondering if that last is an example of pollution taboos or an acknowledgement that a menstruating woman's body is already purifying itself! I'd like to think the latter, but don't really hold out much hope. People who don't fast are supposed to feed the needy each day they miss.

What all this means for us expats is we cannot be seen eating, drinking, smoking, etc. in public from sunup to sundown. Store and office hours are reduced, so one must take that into account when running errands, and apparently we should be more careful than usual about modest dress.

In the past, bars have been closed completely during Ramadan, leading to the expat tradition of stocking one's liquor cabinet and having Ramadan parties every weekend. However, as of last year, the bars are staying open. I am assuming it's because our neighbor, good old Miami-meets-the-Middle-East Dubai with its more liberal ways, has been keeping their bars and nightclubs open for a while now, and Abu Dhabi is feeling the need to be competitive. Yet most of the expats of my acquaintance are actually unhappy with the new policy, and most are having parties at home this month rather than going out anyway! It seems Ramadan work hours in some places are also stretching longer than in previous years. Just another example of global homogenization, I suppose :(

Play and Video News

So, my play went up last week. I think things went really well, all things considered. There was only one night where I forgot any of my lines--the one night almost everyone I knew was there, of course!--and people who saw the shows seemed to enjoy them. I was lucky in that I think I managed to get into the best cast of all four plays. The women I performed with were all really nice and I'm glad I got a chance to know them! Our director gave us a parting gift of a bottle of champagne, so we are having a party in the next couple weeks to get together and drink it.

Michael took a couple of tiny video clips with his digital camera, which I've edited and put up on our new...video blog! Yes, we finally found a site to host all of the videos we end up making. If you'd like to see a bit of the play in action you can surf to http://darcyandmichael.blip.tv.

So next up is the Christmas Pantomime. I auditioned on the weekend, and I have managed to snag a role--Lord Dan, King's Chamberlain. Yes, you read that right, I am playing a man--and a womanizing, terror-of-the-maids-quarters man to boot! Apparently, along with the tradition of the cross dressing "dame" character, it is common for Pantos to have "Principal Boys", which are men's roles played by women. Not my typical casting to be sure, but I'm sure it will be a lot of fun!

Relaxing on Friday...

It's Friday here and it's the weekend. Darcy is out at a long play rehearsal today so I'm happily browsing the web on our Mac laptop. I'm currently listening to Florida 's National Public Radio radio station online. I've not missed not having cable television as I can get a fair amount of news, sports and entertainment online. It would be great if NHL games were available online to view.

Weather has been very humid here for the last few days. At night condensation forms on the windows outside and during the day the evaporated water leaves a mucky mess. So it's difficult to see outside. Living on an island means that's often windy so that prevents window cleaners from doing their job on the highrise buildings.

We finally got our UAE driver's licenses yesterday. We were denied the first time because Canadian citizens need to have Arabic translations of their local driver's licenses stamped by the Canadian Embassy. But it was tense for a moment yesterday as the government workers were confused by our Alberta licenses being called Operator's License and not using the more standard Driver's License term. Then there was confusion about our newly revamped Alberta driver's licenses not matching what was pictured in their book of Canadian provincial licenses. We explained that our licenses were newly issued with a re-worked design.

I have now passed my three month employment probation but I've not yet received official word from Human Resources. So I can't yet start the paperwork for purchasing a car. We're in no hurry as we've grown accustomed to not owning a car. I've not owned a car in six months. Renting cars is about as expensive as in North America. But it's difficult to rent for a day or two and the companies prefer people that rent them for a month. It works out to not being too much cheaper than car payments for owning a new car.

We need to start thinking about where we want to visit on our next vacation. I have asked for a week off at the end of October and the end of Ramadan. We'll probably vist Liwa (desert oasis), Al Ain and the northern Emirates and maybe northern Oman. I've been Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) for a few days. I got a referral from a colleague and the place is in close walking distance from our apartment. The lady performs a massage, accupuncture and cupping. It's provide some relief but my problems with my left ulnar nerve and sciatica like symptons will not go away quickly. But I will continue to get treatments and the $30 dollar fee for an hour treatment is a heck of a deal!

car shopping

Over the past week I've been looking at new cars. My employer gives new hires a car allowance (equivalent of up to $30,000 USD). I'm slated to pass probation in a few days which means that I can qualify for that four year interest free loan. I've looked at the Mazda 6, Honda, Subaru, Mitsubishi and last but not least - Volvo. I liked the 2007 Mazda 6 four door hatchback as it has much storage room. The engine is only a four cylinder as the V6 is not offered in the Gulf. Price is about 18,000 under the car allowance limit and the car was loaded with options. But the ride wouldn't be really smooth and expats here have told me that the car doesn't have a strong resale value. I couldn't test drive it as they had no 06 models left and only one 07 model in the showroom.

The Mitsubishi Outlander didn't look too bad but it's classed as an SUV which we decided not to buy. Honda had no cars to test drive when I visited and the new Accords are not cheap. Ditto with Subaru which also has poor resale value. People here love Toyotas. I've been told that for safety from all the idiotic drivers that it is smart to drive an SUV. Dubai Police recorded over 900,000 traffic violations over the last eight months. That works out to 157 an hour! Sixty-three percent of those were recorded by radar. I was still thinking of looking at stationwagons but there aren't too many models here to choose from.

So I naturally turned to Volvo as I've driven them most of my life. I loved my old Volvo Max despite the mechanical problems that it had. It was a heavy car with comfortable seats and was great for cruising. So I decided to test drive a 2007 V70 stationwagon. It's got the venerable 5 cylinder 170 hourspower engine and 17 inch mags. Despite being owned by Ford the car still has the Volvo feel. We bargained the price down to 106,000 Dirham which is 6,000 over my limit. I need to go back and do some more negotiating. One of the best sites for looking at new and used cars here is Drive Arabia.

We tried unsuccessfully to get our UAE driving permit last week. We discovered that the Canadian Embassy requires Arabic translations of your driver's license to be stamped by the embassy. Plus if you license is less than one year old then you may be required to take a driving test first. I got my Alberta drivers's license in April and I stupidly didn't keep my Florida driver's license number so I may end up having to take the test. I'd like to get my license and buy a car within the next two weeks before Ramadan starts. The month long religious holiday makes for strange business hours and some people not wanting to work much (especially the poor Muslims who are fasting all day). I paid $7.00 USD and watched a Canadian Football League (CFL) game online yesterday. The CFL seems to have a new broadband service for this season so I will take advantage of it. Now if only the Edmonton Oilers hockey team could offer the same thing as the new season starts in a month!

Darcy and I created a video tour of our apartment but the files are a bit large. The Mac imovie software can compact it down to a maximum of 10 MB and our first year honeymoon viedo was well under that. But it would be nice to post a link to video somewhere. Unfortunately Blogger doesn't seem to offer that service so we'll check around for other sites. Using our digital cameras and Mac are easy to use to make videos but we'll likely get a camcorder at some point....

Macs rule!

That's all I can say.... :)

Our laptop has come with all sorts of crazy software. We are creating comic books and editing videos from our digital cameras and subscribing to podcasts and rss feeds and essentially doing our best to wear out our internet connection and new hardware. I'm sure that this is just new-toy syndrome, and it will settle down with time, but wow is there a lot of stuff to play with here!

We just had a long weekend...the UAE is switching from a Thursday-Friday weekend to a Friday-Saturday one, so during the turnover Michael got three days off. Everyone seemed to expect we would go away for the weekend, but this was really the first chance we had to just hole up at home and relax without having to run errands or go shopping, so that's essentially what we did. Nice to not to *have* to do anything for a change!

Rehearsals for my play are going along well...we only have a few to go before opening night! We are missing one cast member, who seems to have done a back-door exit at the last minute, so that is a bit of a worry (jus a bit!) but otherwise everything is going well. I managed to learn my lines before we started so now it's just a matter of getting comfortable with the flow of doing it "live", and the voice projection issue. The Club has one of those stages where all the sound goes up instead of out, so we have to speak up and speak out!

Other than that not much news, except I tried getting back to the yoga mat after a long haitus only to find out how out of shape all those yoga muscles are. Lots of work to do there I guess!