Catching up on the news...

Marhaba! The spring semester has now ended but the summer term begins next week. I'll be teaching a few classes and working on other projects. Darcy is also very busy at work but the days continue to pass quickly.

A couple of anniversaries have come up for us. May 30th is the fourth anniversary of our engagement. We arrived in Abu Dhabi two years ago on June 2. It doesn't seem that long ago.

A couple of weeks ago Darcy and I visited Ajman, the smallest and poorest of the seven emirates in the UAE. We stayed one night at the Ajman Kempinski Hotel. The Petroleum Institute offered its employees a discount for staying there. Apparently Ajman is only the second emirate (after Dubai) to allow 100% freehold by foreigners. So we could buy property there. It's about a two hour drive north from Abu Dhabi and we were surprised by the amount of construction going on there. The hotel had a fantastic beach and our room had a nice view of the Arabian Gulf. One interesting feature of the hotel was the shoeshine station. See the photos below.

Abu Dhabi has a new newspaper called The Nation. It's been publishing for about one month now and it looks promising. Apparently it's the emirate's first English language newspaper. I've subscribed to a couple of its RSS feeds. The UAE ranked fairly well on a listing of peaceful countries

This is a sad story about a ghost town in the UAE. Below are other articles from the same newspaper about a few interesting stories. Awareness of pollution continues to be an issue but not enough action is being taken. There's also pollution being caused from construction.

Public transportation in Abu Dhabi continues to deteriorate as the city's population increases. I'm so lucky to be able to to take a PI owned bus to work every day! Plus housing prices continue to spiral our of control. We're going to see the Picasso exhibit at the Emirates Palace. It's still amazing that we can park for free at a conditional 7 star hotel and pay no entrance fee to see exhibits there! The Emiratization program continues to encounter some problems -especially in the all important tourism industry. Until next time, Ila Aliqa...

To Turkey and Back

It took us a lot longer than we had planned to make the online video of our trip to Turkey. You can also watch it on a bigger screen at our video blog (http://darcyandmichael.blip.tv). Images from the video doesn't do justice but hopefully it captures a bit of what we saw. We bought a few things with the more expensive items being a carpet (of course), drum, ceramic plates, and silk. We didn't know that apple tea was so popular in Turkey. More so than Turkish coffee, to Darcy's surprise. ;) Trip highlights for me were the Hagia Sophia and the Green Mosque. But we saw many wonderful places.

The big drawback during the trip was that poor Darcy got very sick with the flu the night we departed Abu Dhabi. She had no appetite and was very weak and tired for most of the trip. It was also frustrating for her as she wanted to do a lot of exploring but she didn't feel well. But we did see the important things that we had wanted. We do want to go back and see more. Ideally we'd like to take a trip every spring, summer and fall/winter.

The weather has heated up here daytime highs are approaching the mid 40s centigrade. I got into our car last weekend and took off the windshield visor and the car's temp inside read 51 celcius or about 130 farenheit. The humidity is still quite low - like being in Arizona. But it will get miserable here when the humidity comes. The windows will start crying as the high humidity causes condensation to stream down the windows outside and obscure your view. A small price to pay I guess for living in this part of the world.

We let our Gulf News newspaper subscription lapse a couple of months ago but Darcy signed up on a couple of its news feeds. One municipal story is about our fair city improving its infrastructure. Abu Dhabi will apparently open its newest public beach on Canada Day (July 1). But things that open here seldom mean that they are even partially operational. We've been tracking progress on this beach from our apartment bedroom window and there is a lot of work to be done! Work began in earnst last October with several bulldozers digging up the sand one night. But work soon slowed to a crawl. The photos in the article are showing the most developed beach areas. They show the flatest stretches of "beach" with several unwrapped palm trees. I don't see how it can pass health and safety regulations in seven weeks.

The housing prices continue to escalate in Abu Dhabi. It looks like we arrived here on the cusp of the escalation. A table in this article suggests that we should be paying upwards of 100,000 AED per year for our three bedroom place. The situation seems desperate for many people with lower incomes. There is a sad story about the living conditions for bachelors. Check out photo number 4 from these shots that we submitted by the public. Not much rain fell in Abu Dhabi but it was cloudy last week. We learned that this was the result of cloud seeding!

I'm still taking the Arabic language classes at work. The class has dwindled in size but it is interesting. I hope that I can retain some of what I've learned as the class ends in a month. Ma'Salamaa...

Our Spring Break Trip to Turkey

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The sights of our ten day trip to Istanbul, Princes' Islands and Bursa in April 2008.

Air Show and other uplifting stories

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Your Life Work: Librarian

Learning Arabic

Marhaba!

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

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

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

Bshoofak Ba'dayn...

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

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

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

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

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

Enjoying the last long weekend of the academic year

Marhaba!

That's the secular Arabic greeting for hello. I've seldom heard it spoken so I guess Muslims prefer the religious salamalikom greeting. I've started taking Arabic classes at work. After two sessions I can say a few greetings like good morning and good afternoon/evening. There are two classes a week for two hours in total that will run through early June. I don't know how much information I'll retain but it's fun to be learning a new language.

Yesterday was the Prophet Mohammud's birthday so we got the day off. It flew by as we relaxed and then did some household chores. I treated myself to a Chinese massage, accupuncture and cupping treatment. I've only had two this year due to being busy at work and getting chiropractic treatments. My MRI that I had done last week stated that the spondolethesis had vanished and my L4 disk showed improvement. But the L5 disk is still degenerating. I continue to do my daily morning stretches so this is the best that I've felt in almost two years.

I was sick with a cold for two weeks that was likel due to people being sick from the sudden change in weather. We had some foggy days (see Darcy's last post) due to the weather warming up. But I'm back to normal and working out again although my left elbow is still feeling the effects of being hyperextended.

Darcy is doing well. We finished watching the BBC's Planet Earth series. It was spectacular! Now we're watching Absolutely Fabulous. It's got some funny moments and I think this is the most British comedy that I've ever watched. We still have a ton of dvds to watch so it will my turn next to pick a series. We watch them at night as we enjoy our tea and dark chocolate.

Abu Dhabi's Zayed Mosque officially opened late last year and I took a tour of it through my work. Darcy had attended a women's spa that day. This article has some facts about the third largest mosque in the world. It was spectacular.

Here's an article about plans to develop Lulu Island which is very close to us. This story is about a fort that is also in our neighborhood. Our apartment is behind the set of buildings in the middle of the photo.

It's now halfway through the semester and in less than one month we fly to Istanbul. So time continues to pass very quickly for us. Before we know it we'll be getting ready to fly home for our summer vacation. Happy Easter to everyone....

Wrapped in Fog

The above photo is a reader-submitted picture published in the Gulf News showing current UAE foggy conditions, which are expected to last a few more days at least. I could hardly see more than a block ahead of me on parts of my drive to work this morning, and when I got out of the car I could feel the fog like rain on my face! I think it's lovely, although I'm sure many people are now grumbling about the "cold".

Success at last!

So, booking our hotels in Turkey has been more "interesting" than we anticipated. Our first choice hotel in Istanbul, the Empress Zoe, was already full by the time we tried to get a room there (our travel guide advised to "book well ahead"...with 2 months to go we thought we had enough time but apparently not!). We chose another Istanbul hotel, plus a hotel on the islands and a hotel on the Asian side of the water, and tried to book through their online reservation forms. No confirmation, no reply. We tried calling to follow up, but couldn't get through. We tried emailing the email addresses posted on their websites. No reply. Michael got referrals and information about a travel agent here in Abu Dhabi and one in Turkey, but even they would not respond to our calls and emails!

This afternoon, however, we learned that to dial into Turkey you need not just the country code, area code and phone number, but also an "international dialling code" unique to the country you are calling out of. We've never called a country that required one before, so we hadn't realized we needed it. After looking up that code the phone numbers for all our hotels suddenly worked like magic, so we were finally able to talk to live people and reserve our rooms.

In Istanbul, we will be staying at Turkoman Hotel. This hotel is close to our first-choice location and close to the big attractions like the bazaar, the blue mosque, and Topkapi. Then we will move to the islands for one night, and stay at the Halke Palace Hotel. After that we will ferry over to the Asian side and spend two nights in Bursa at the Efehan Hotel.

We are greatly relieved to have our rooms booked after 2 weeks of trying. We will be in in Turkey over ANZAC day, so even though the main focus is Galipoli we assume it is a high -demand season all over. We were starting to wonder if we were going to have to sleep on the street!

As for the rest of life...we attended a presentation on the ABC's of Carpet Buying hosted by the American Womens' Network this past week. We now have a better idea of some of the things we should be looking for--and watching out for!--when carpet shopping. We also went over to Pat's Antiques Exhibition this week. The woman who owns this business shows her wares a couple of times a year; some are small touristy things that you can find many other places, but many of her things come direct from Oman. We decided to splurge a bit and buy an Omani Mandoos (marriage chest). Pat said she believes this chest is between 80-100 years old. The decoration is done with hammered metal and metal studs and is quite beautiful:

Schadenfreude

Mean I know, but SO nice to read from afar rather than close up:

Libraries brace for effects from latest Florida tax cut: looks like the good days of Bond Issue-feuled expansion are over...

Supporters of African-American Research Library protest budget cuts : note the tidbit about the library director getting fired with no notice, and then reinstated at my old library, South Regional, as Assistant Regional Manager. TYPICAL Broward County.

Tax Rollback strains Broward's joint-use model. Love the last paragraph--again, totally in line with personal experience of the quality of BCL decision-making.

Planning our vacations

We've just about settled our summer vacation in Canada. It's still hard to fathom that it costs $100 US dollars more round trip per person to fly 1000 km from Vancouver, BC to Edmonton than from Abu Dhabi to Istanbul. Air Canada and Westjet are ripping people off! Anyway we'll stay at the same hostel in downtown Vancouver as last year.

We're also planning our April trip to Istanbul and we may end up staying at the Empress Zoe Hotel. It's at the top end of the mid range hotels in the Lonely Planet book for Turkey. It's not cheap at nearly 140 Euros a night for the top level room but it looks very nice! We've got ten days to spend so we may travel to the Asian part and spend a few days there.

Yesterday I participated in the annual Terry Fox run. It was fun and my back held up. Actually I feel much better since seeing a chiropractor for the past month. The run this year was bigger than last year. It was for a great cause and in my view Terry Fox was one of the greatest Canadians who ever lived.

On the weekend we received in our newspaper a nifty magazine full of photos taken of Abu Dhabi from the air. Now I know why there was a helicopter that flew around for a few days in December. The online article shows some of the photos and our apartment building is one building away from the big blue one (tallest in the city) in many of the pictures. It's the headquarters for the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which is apparently has the world's richest sovereign wealth fund.

Last bit of news is that apparently negotiations were, or still are, going about awarding contracts for the city's new souq. They're either digging a heck of a deep hole and/or they're taking their sweet time with the construction. It looks like nothing has happened with that massive site since we moved here.

Another weekend goes by too quickly....

It's Saturday night now and the weekend, as usual flew by. This past weekend was typical of sleeping in both days, reading the newspaper, browsing our favorite websites, watching some dvds from our numerous boxed sets, doing household chores and grocery shopping.

There are many things that we need to do and would like to do. We still have to plan our trip to Istanbul in late April. We're finalizing our plans for flying to Canada in late July for three weeks. Speaking of traveling, here is an article about the booming air traffic in the Middle East. I guess one reason for that is so that people can visit all the theme parks that are opening now and in the future.

I joined an online usergroup called the Emirates Natural History Group. I get alerts when there are free activities at the city's Cultural Foundation. The building is withing walking distance of our place. The sandstorm yesterday blew in sand from the beaches onto the Cornich road and also knocked over some signs. The temperatures have dropped but unfortunately we have to keep the windows closes. Otherwise sand will blow inside.

Emirate Palace in Abu Dhabi is hosting another vanity license plate auction and this story discusses it. Where else could an outrageous event like this happen - besides Dubai?! I came across a blog about events in Abu Dhabi. It's new and it's not clear who the author is but it looks promising. Many blogs and sites about the UAE usually focus on Dubai.

A post for Troy and Jennifer in Cincinnati: job hunting in the UAE

(Post edited for name correction--Jennifer, please accept my most abject apologies for the error! How embarrassing...ds)

Hi Troy and Jennifer,

I just saw your comment on our last blog post. I clicked through to your profile, but I couldn't see an email address there for you, so since you indicated that we could reply to you by blog posting I'm writing here.

It took us just about a year for my husband to find a job in the UAE, so we understand your frustration. Hiring processes here are very slow and bureaucratic. But it can be done.

The tendency here is towards very strict, literal interpretations of language. Be as specific in your employment profiles/job applications as possible. If the job asks for experience in Microsoft Word, and your application/profile says you are experienced with word processing software, HR may screen you out because you didn't mention the specific program instead of contacting you and clarifying your skills. If the paperwork requires a non-objection letter/certificate, and your documentation does not specifically use the words "NON OBJECTION", it will be rejected.

Also be prepared to do a lot of follow-up and, if necessary, re-applying. Your information will not automatically be kept on file, and you will often not get clarifications or updates unless you ask. In keeping with the point above, ask lots of very specific questions even if you think they are obvious or "stupid"--you wouldn't believe the things you won't get told if you don't ask.

Job turnover is pretty high just about everywhere, because the normal contract length is three years. So again, patience and perserverance is probably the best strategy.

You didn't say much about your personal experience, and you probably wouldn't want that kind of discussion posted up on the internet anyway, so if you'd like to continue the conversation feel free to email me at dsharman (at) gmail (dot) com.

Thanks for reading our blog--we're glad you enjoy it!

--Darcy

Projects for sandstorm weekends

Well, once again it's been a long time since I've posted. Day to day life is pretty boring when you're working...not much to write about when all you do is work, eat, sleep, do chores, and then start all over again.

One of the nice things about my job is that working on the department website and library OPAC is allowing me to expand my web site authoring and graphics skills. I have been a steep CSS learning curve lately, and thanks to a new coworker who has a background in graphic design I finally have enough of an idea of how Photoshop works that I can open it and understand enough about the layout to start learning by trial and error. Besides the web presence revamps at work, which should be online soon, I've used a couple of little side projects as platforms for experimentation. I helped a friend redesign her website for her freelance editing business, and this weekend, I have been working on developing an HCT Library Catalogue Google Gadget:

It probably isn't as good as I think it is, but I am inordinately proud of it all the same :) It can be added to iGoogle pages and embedded in outside web pages, too. Haven't really had a chance to test it in Explorer (I use Firefox at home), so if something looks seriously out of whack to you let me know so I can fix it!

The big news here this week was, of course, the accidentally-severed undersea cable that knocked out Internet access for much of the Middle East. We were not affected; our connection did seem slow that night but thanks to our ISP slow connections are not unusual for us even on good days. The fact that this story is such big news, though, is a testament to how much we now rely on the Internet for work and for recreation. Though some might find it hard to believe, I can live without being logged on in my spare time; all of my work is dependent on online/networked tools, though, and I'd be hard-pressed to find anything to do in the case of a network outage! I suppose I could write out catalogue records for inputting later, but that's about it.

Edmonton has been struggling under extremely low temperatures this week. We have nothing that dramatic here, but we are in the middle of a pretty impressive sandstorm. The howling wind woke both of us up quite early this morning, and visibility is very low. The intire sky is a dull beige-grey...it's like fog, but created by sand instead of moisture! Even the Corniche waters are being whipped up into little baby whitecaps, which is VERY unusual.

Out on the highways, driving in sandstorms is much like driving in a snowstorm: sands blow across the roads and you can get whiteout conditions very easily. So I'm glad we don't have to go anywhere and can stay in today. I am going to attempt a roast beef for dinner (believe it or not I've never actually cooked this myself before) and we have apple cider supplies left over from Christmas. This is the closest we're going to get to a "winter day" in Abu Dhabi so I feel like we should make the most of it!

Gearing up for a new semester

I resume my primary job of teaching library information literacy classes on January 27. I taught 67 in the fall to 943 students so I predict I'll teach about 70 this term. I begin the week with teaching library resources to the new Islamic Studies class so that will be interesting.

Abu Dhabi has begun building a green city called Masdar City. There will also be a new post secondary institution aligned with this development called the Masdar Institute. For me these initatives are fare more interesting and vital to the region and the world than most of Dubai's engineering marvels (biggest mall, tallest building, etc.).

Our fair city continues, I think, to quietly upstage Dubai by hosting an Islamic Arts exhibition at the Emirates Palace. It should be an educating experience too. It's too bad that we couldn't have also built a new Museum of Islamic Art like Doha did.

I won't say too much about Bush's trip to the UAE. I think it was a short vacation for him to see the area for the first time. It's unfortunate that Bush had to be the first sitting President to visit the UAE. His only speech during his week long trip was at the Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi. The next day Bush traveled (by car?) to Dubai. All residents of Dubai were told to stay home or at least not drive so that Bush's convoy would not get stuck in traffic. It was strange to see photos of Dubai's empty streets - imagine shutting down a city of over 1 million people for 1 day!

Brrrr......

It's been refreshingly cool here for the last couple of days. Last night (for the first time ever) we turned off all the air conditioners in our place! This story talks about the bone chilling weather. Another story mentions near freezing temperatures. It would be cold for many people here because, like in Florida, houses here have poor insulation. Many buildings have tiles for floors which make it really cool.

The Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council recently published a book called Plan Abu Dhabi 2030: Urban Structure Framework Plan. It talks about about how our fair city will be transformed within 25 years. It's an interesting document to read and it rivals Duabi in terms of wholescale change for an entire city. It's available online but the contents have been split into several downloadable sections.

January 10 is the Islamic New Year so we're enjoying another holiday! But there will be no more breaks until the Prophet's Birthday in late March. We will start planning our April vacation to Istanbul this weekend. And we'll also try and book tentative flights to Canada this summer. We've asked to have July 27 to August 18th off. It won't be as long a break as last summer because we'd like to plan other trips. We'd like to go somewhere this fall and maybe winter too.

Our trip to Oman's Musandam Peninsula

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In mid December 2007 we stayed four days and three nights at the Golden Tulip Hotel just outside the town of Khasab, Oman. It was a very picturesque and secluded place to relax for a few days.

Enjoying the December Holidays

It doesn't seem like we've worked much this month due to many secular and religious holidays. We're busy creating our video about our trip to Oman. It'll be ready in a few days.

I returned to work after a nice ten day break and discovered that a reporter for a newspaper here wrote an article about my recent conference co-presentation. It was the Information Literacy Network's Professional Development Conference in Dubai. The title of the newspaper article is Don't Just Google It. It sums up the point of educating students to use reliable sources and not be dependent on solely using Google and Wikipedia.

Our Christmas tree is up and we have some presents under it. Darcy has baked gingerbread and shortbread cookies. Tonight she made hot apple cider. She has to report for work on Christmas Day but hopefully she can come home early. If not then I'll do my best to cook dinner that night.

UAE National Day celebrations

We enjoyed out four day long weekend. On the first day we had a picnic and it was so nice to spend time outside! We had another picnic, this time at night with friends. The National Day celebrations this year seemed more impressive than last year. Authorities built an entertainment area on reclaimed land along the Corniche. We watched some Emiratis sing and dance up close. The fireworks were great and took place over three nights. Unfortunatel we missed two interesting events: seeing the world's largest flag and a marching band on the Corniche. More newspaper coverage about the celebrations are here. The festivities weren't complete without the traffic at night and engines revving and backfiring. It sounded like a warzone! But it was all in good fun and little to no alcohol was involved.

Getting ready to visit Fujarah

Darcy and I are going on a PI sponsored weekend getaway to Fujairah. We're getting a discount to stay one night at the Fujairah Rotana Hotel. We're driving our car and taking two people from work so it should be fun. We've not been there before. Work, as usual has been busy for both of us. I've finished teaching library classes for the semester. I taught 67 sessions to 928 male and female students - whew! I've also been working on a powerpoint presentation with a librarian in Al Ain. We'll be co-presenting at an Information Literacy conference in Dubai in two weeks. The weather continues to dry out and we've got three windows in our living room open right now. All our windows have been cleaned for the first time in about ten month. The sand and grime in the air quickly dirties windows here and you can't clean them yourself. Some interesting newspaper articles are about Abu Dhabi's soaring oil revenues. Another factoid is that the UAE apparently has one of, if not THE most, highest mobile/cell phone subscribers per capita in the world. There are 7.3 million subscribers out of an estimated population of 4.3 million. This is craziness! But another soaring statistics, albeit negative, is the severe housing shortage in Abu Dhabi.

catalogued!

tee hee....

Michael and I are going to the camel racetrack tomorrow with some friends. It will be the first time we've seen camel races, and we are really looking forward to it. Pictures to follow...

Travel plans

A few days ago I signed us up to go on a work sponsored weekend getaway to Fujarah on the Indian Ocean side of the UAE. The hotel price is heavily discounted so hopefully we'll make the cut.

We've seen the new taxis but we've yet to take one. Despite the subpar service that you get with taking the old gold and white taxis they are definitely part of the city's culture. It's an experience all visitors should have in Abu Dhabi.

Here are some staggering numbers about the amount of money being spent on airport construction projects here. Staying on the topic of flying, Ethihad Airways (UAE's national airline that's headquartered in Abu Dhabi) has grown quickly. But it's not as large as Dubai based Emirates Airways and its profits haven't skyrocketed as high as Sharjah, UAE based Air Arabia. Here's an article about being able to listen to our local newspaper articles online. Amazingly the new Ferrari theme park here will open in two years in time for the first Formula 1 race.

Friday night we went out for one of the few times this fall. We just haven't had the energy to do much beyond collapsing on the couch at home and surfing the web and watching dvds. Many of my co-workers have said that their workloads have been heavier this year compared to last year. So we're looking forward to our upcoming Oman trip and possibly Fujarah. We've also got to start planning our spring and summer trips soon...

Welcome to November!

Where the heck did October go? I guess I was busy teaching classes, revising my library's website, working out at the gym and sleeping on weekends. Darcy was only working three jobs and squeezing in her weekly yoga class. The weather continues to dry out and I took my first evening walk outside in six months. It's so nice to be outside! It's major news here when its overcast and rainy. It was refreshingly cloudy today because of the tropical depression that's heading towards southern Oman.

I just read a disturing article about the Canadian Government's lack of transparency in reporting arms exports. I guess I was naive to think that this could not happen to a nice country like Canada!

I just discovered that our Gulf News newspaper has a neat PDF version that includes what they call a Smart ePaper edition. You can read the paper in a PDF like format or listen to articles that have VOIP (voice over internet protocol). Simply choose an article in the box on the right and then click on the interactive radio button on the left. Pretty neat and it's free! So we'll let our newspaper subscription run out and then listen to the news online.

Another relaxing weekend

This past week I revised my work hours to be more flexible with helping students later in the day. I think that it will work and working later two days a week allows me to sleep in a bit too. I noticed that my energy levels were much higher during the day. I'm still able to work out at the gym on Sundays and Wednesdays. I'll try and book my massage and acupuncture appointments on Thursdays. But my periformis and psoas muscles have been causing me much grief lately. It may be from working out twice a week so I'll try exercising once a week to see if there is an improvement.

My library's blog went live last week and over 100 people viewed it in the first two days. That's promising and I've since made two more postings. I have ideas about stories and library events to post but hopefully students, staff and faculty will remember to read the blog.

The weather has dried out in the past week so fall is definitely here. But it's still a bit too humid to shut off the a/c and open the windows in our apartment.

We booked three nights in mid December at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Khasab, Oman. It's in the very scenic Musandam Peninsula which forms the bottle neck of the Arabian (Persian) Gulf. They had no vacancy the following weekend for Eid Al Hada. The price is high but it should be worth it. We need to decide soon when and where to go for our spring vacation. Darcy's work needs confirmation from staff very soon.

Today we visited Abu Dhabi's fifth annual ADIHEX (Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition). I enjoyed the human exhibits of men and women doing handicrafts. It seemed a bit strange to view them as living exhibitions but you don't really see them in the city doing this. The camel racing season gets underway this weekend too so we'll want to see one before it ends next spring.

I'll end this post with yet another article about the booming construction market in the GCC region (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman). Over $1 TRILLION (USD)has been invested in real estate construction! The UAE has 390 projects valued at about $430 billion USD.

Music From The Middle of Nowhere

BCC world service played a series called Music from the Middle of Nowhere a couple of weeks ago. It's hosted by k. d. lang, and it is much more than the "discussion of her musical influences" the online description suggests, delving into the history and music of the Canadian Prairies. I caught most of the first segment, which covered Alberta, on the way to the grocery store, and found it so fascinating I had to sit in the hot car in the parking lot until it was over. The BBC has finally posted more than a brief description of the series on its website; I hope you can listen to the episode and enjoy it as much as I did

.

We also found an interesting site called Meebo, which allows you to aggregate all your chat/instant messenger accounts into one place. No more logging into multiple IM programs at once--this is all in one place AND it's webbased so you don't need to download yet more software! Michael and I have signed up and are trying it out.

We had our Eid holiday from Thursday to Monday, which was a relief. We are both feeling more than a little burned out right now. We didn't do much more than go on a picnic on the Corniche and hang out at home working our way through Michael's newly-completed collection of Director's Edition Star Trek movies. It was certainly nice to relax and not have to go anywhere, or even change out of our pajamas if we didn't feel like it!

Life continues to be challenging on the job front for both of us. I have been seconded from my secondment, if that is even possible, and am now answering phones and handling VIP event RSVPs for the Festival of Thinkers that starts next week. Feeling a little squished as I try to essentially do three jobs in the space of one. I keep on telling myself that it won't be much longer, but every time i do that something else comes up! Hopefully things will settle down relatively soon...

Eid al Fitr

The 30 days of Ramadan came to an end yesterday and the Eid al Fitr holiday has begun. Muslims celebrate the ocassion when the angel Gabriel revealed Allah's words to the prophet Mohammed where they were in turn written in the Koran. Early yesterday morning (5 am or so) we heard singing coming from the Mosque's loudspeakers. This signaled the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Eid. It was quite interesting to listen as we did not hear the joyful singing last year when we were in Sharjah.

Darcy and I have a five day break that began last Thursday. We've spent the first couple of days sleeping in and watching dvds. It's been a busy semester with a lot of uncounted overtime. So we needed time to decompress. We haves many dvds to watch including a ton of Star Treks. I've ordered the 49 disc 20th anniversary of The Next Generation tv series. I've also ordered the complete series of Deep Space Nine. The first season of the origional series has been re-issued (again) but this time it includes a completetly remastered version. But I'll wait until the price comes down a bit.

Darcy and I will venture outside today and do some grocery shopping at Abu Dhabi's newest mall (Al Wahda). We will start planning a trip to Musandam Peninsula. It's the northern tip of the Arabian Peninsula but it's Omani territory. It has many fiords like in northern Scandinavia and the area is drivable from Abu Dhabi.

As usual I'll mention some interesting articles from the Gulf News. There are more new building projects in our city. Construction on the the Louvre Abu Dhabi will officially get underway soon. Then there is the 2.7 billion USD commercial and residential project. Our city's old airport is getting a new facility too. Of course we can't forget Dubai. That emirate just announced a staggering project to build a 75 km canal. They're also helping to plan a 350 km cross country railway.

Finally there was an interesting article about 138 prominent Muslim scholars writing an open letter to heads of all Christian churches. I don't know if this made major headlines in the West.

This and That....

For those of you who are interested in news from this part of the world, there's another article about Freej, the UAE's first animated series. There's also another article about the new Warner Bros. theme park and hotel deal. For us the only positive thing about this is the last sentence in the article. Apparently the UAE has the world's highest saturation rate of cell phones or mobiles (as they're called here). There are about 7 million subscriptions and the country's population is approximately 4.4 million. We've never calculated the price of gasoline here but this article says that it's $1.56 USD a gallon (3.78 litres). That's more than I thought! Staying on the topic of money, the Canadian dollar (loonie) traded above the U.S. dollar for the first time since 1974. The loonie has risen 17% this year against the U.S. dollar which is the most of any nation in the world.

The next article talks about the Global Talent Index ranking countries Middle East low in attracting and producing talented workers. Yet another survey, this time by Transparency International, ranked Middle Eastern nations low on weeding corruption. The UAE is tied for 34th out of 179 nations. Not surprising to see Scandinavian countries dominating the top. Canada placed a strong 9th place.

On a more sombre note, there is an excellent op ed piece about Iran's President Ahmandinejad's visit to Columbia University.

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.