Aussie in (Al Ain) Bandar Seri Begawan

home is where the grunge is

2012-02-04T18:19:00.000+08:00

Should I remind people of who I am? Let them know that I’mnot worthy? The housing officer has been showing us houses over the last coupleof days. I’ve been left sockless – they’ve been totally knocked off. We saw a palace today – six bedrooms, all with ensuite, magnificententrance, separate maid’s quarters, beautifully landscapedgardens with water features (maintained by Singaporean owner), outside patiosoff huge lounge and dining, separate building with large covered sitting areadownstairs and enormous rumpus room upstairs. The Canadian Ambassador livesnext door and other notables are nearby. As K pointed out, all we have to do issay ‘Yes’ and it’s ours.

Okay, there is a downside to the palace - it won’t beavailable for several months and it’s a bit of a hike to uni at peak hourapparently. However, another tantalizing mansion is just 15 mins to uni and 10to the city and to Gadong (large shopping / business area). We weren’t able tosee inside, but it looks lovely on the outside, the area is gorgeous and arange of high (-er than me) flyers live opposite and on either side. It shouldbe available in a couple of months.

My socks were firmly back on my feet as I drudged back intoour grungy two bedroom hotel suite realizing that it will home for a while! Ah,well.

Mystery solved

2012-01-28T18:02:00.003+08:00

I got to work and immediately solved a mystery that had been on the minds of staff for many months. My name has been emblazoned across my office door for over a semester. There had been an extended drum roll followed finally by speculation that I was a no-show . . . and suddenly there I was. New rumours began immediately. People in the corridors were heard speculating that you could no longer get a job at UBD unless you were tall. Perhaps so.

Rumours and mysteries aside, I can factually report lovely views from my office over greenery and out to the ocean.

Operation Brunei

2012-01-27T16:04:00.007+08:00

As I look out my window I see the green of Bandar Seri Begawan all around me. The mad rush and comedic mishaps of the last two weeks seem as though they are from another life. Bottom line my cheque came through and is safely deposited in the bank (though it is in a UAE bank, so maybe I'm counting chickens) and I managed to say farewell to most of the nutters, crackpots and other varieties of dear friends I made in Al Ain. My goodbyes were said with great sadness. I enjoyed the Al Ain chapter of my life, and now it has passed.

Brunei was a long time coming. I've already learnt that nothing happens quickly here and I've learnt that things happen the way they happen, so it's best to just go with the flow. Never mind that after you've spent 40 mins in the queue to get through the first security check at Dubai Terminal One and a further 40 mins standing in the Royal Brunei queue only to be told "Karl's visa is not valid." We got nowhere pointing out that the Brunei embassy had arranged the visas and tickets. After much discussion a solution was found. We had to go out of the immigration area and buy an exit ticket from BSB. So we left, bought a ticket and argued and pleaded our way back through the immig queues carrying a ticket from BSB to Bangkok. In all the hooha we were suitably entertained for 3 hours and got to the gate at boarding.

On arrival in BSB the immigration folk were rather pleasant, but they insisted that we hand over 40 Brunei dollars. Thinking that the embassy was taking care of us, we hadn't checked requirements and weren't told about the 40. Of course we didn't have the Brunei dollars, but even worse we didn't have sufficient dirhams to exchange at the money changer. Sigh! So Karl was escorted outside Immigration to an ATM where he withdrew some cash to pay for the visas. It's all fun and games really!

The next instalment of Operation Brunei was the shabby chic hotel we were taken to (after having kept the people meeting us waiting for an hour! Sorry about that guys!). Well, to be honest, the hotel lacks the second part of my description. Let's just say it is adequate and has nice views.

So that's my life up to the present moment.

Brunei

2011-10-05T01:44:00.002+08:00

I've just sent my medical results to UBD. It looks like death isn't imminent, though one never really knows, does one? Endless days still stretch before us in Al Ain. Bandar seri Begawan is an eternity away.

writing woes

2011-10-05T01:28:00.003+08:00

When I started researching this current paper I knew exactly where I was going and what my arguments were. Now that I've read a gazillion articles, I have absolutely no idea what I'm talking about. I've realized I know zilch, nichts, nothing. The only comfort is that I'm a cliche, this is exactly what is supposed to happen. Problem is that the due date for the paper is looming . . . And I'm clueless.

How do we adapt validity arguments in assessments in the light of multimodalities?

Sigh! I'll sleep on it. That'll work, no?

keeping records

2011-09-01T01:05:00.003+08:00

I had no idea when I embarked on this doctoral path that it isn't about ideas at all. It's all about clerical work - finding materials, synthesising them and keeping records.

It's the latter that has had me busy for the last few days. Over the years you do a bunch of reading, write reports and essays and then pat yourself on the back for a job well done. But a doctorate is quantitatively different because it's a much longer term project. If you read something today, you may need the information in two years time, or four or five. When your memory has a lot in common with a sieve, how are you supposed to manage that? Solution ... I downloaded EndNote after a nudge from my supervisor. Of course I'm expecting that it will record the bibliographic information, find materials, synthesise them, pop out relevant material at the press of a button and do the dishes. One can only hope.

and so another chapter draws slowly to a close

2011-08-23T02:26:00.007+08:00

Another year has come and gone since my last blog. Another Summer holiday has been had. This time it took us off to exotic Australia where we landed in Melbourne, visited family and friends of old and dined in wonderful restaurants before jumping in a hire car and heading north along the coast. First stop Gippsland where they had the coldest night on record. We continued up into NSW along sensational beaches where we caught up with a band friend Karl had known for 40 years, continued up past Sydney where we caught up with another friend Karl had known for even longer. Wonderful times and wonderful meals were had. It's so nice to meet face to face every few years! On to Cabarita Beach where we had lived for a few years - what a sensational part of the world. Why did we ever leave? The whole trip from Melb up the coast to the Gold Coast was gorgeous. Aus is such a beautiful country. We found ourselves having dinner on the GC at Chiang Mai Thai which was fun as we'd just spent a week in Chiang Mai. The CMT on the GC had fantastic, incredibly heavy elephant chairs ... well, each chair had an elephant's head and trunk carved into the top and back. Great meal. Spent a week in Brissie with the kids - fabulous. I wanted to scoop them up and take them on the rest of the trip with us, but alas and alack, that wasn't to be.

Next stop Bangkok which is always a love / hate affair for me, then onto HK where after a few days we jumped on a cruiseship heading to Taiwan and South China. We met some fabulously entertaining folks on board ... world champion snooker player Rocky and his HK girlfriend / school teacher and Dutchman John and his lovely HK wife, Helen. Good times were had, company was enjoyed. But, like all things, it came to an end.

So here we are back in Al Ain. We got home to scorching heat. It took several days for the apartment to cool down. I'm back at work - well, if you can call it that. There's absolutely nothing to do but be sociable, which I'm not very good at. So I did a little of that, a bit of net surfing and ended up printing out a few kakuro puzzles and doing those. Tomorrow I'm taking some reading along with me.

I've just jumped, plunged, dived, foolishly leapt into a doctorate. First paper is sitting with my supervisor in Brisbane as I write. So it's onto the next one. Who knows, one day I might even know something about this topic I'm supposed to be researching. I may never finish the doctorate, or I may be 117 when I do, but it doesn't really matter. It keeps the grey matter bubbling along and I guess that's what's important. It may keep me out of mischief for a bit.

My other news is that this next few months will give my blog some shape. I started the blog as I was starting my journey to Al Ain, the next few months will see me packing up my life in Al Ain and moving onto greener pastures. They'll literally be greener as I'm moving out of the desert and into the tropics to see what life on Borneo will bring.

June 17 - Week One

2010-06-17T21:57:00.012+08:00

Last week we flew out Abu Dhabi into Amsterdam and then on to Paris. All went well except that our bags decided not to catch the same fights. When we were finally reunited with our luggage, we boarded a train to Montpellier and then dashed from one train to another to find ourselves in Carcassonne some hours earlier than anticipated. Unfortunately we couldn't get the key to our penthouse accommodation for several hours so we were forced to sit in a bar, enjoy a Limou bubbly and watch the passing parade - with our miscreant luggage at our side. Needless to say, we coped!

We've been steadily increasing our French from half a dozen words to a dozen and a half words over the last week! Slow going. We've visited the Medievale Cite - 'cite' being a bit of a false friend as it means 'citadel' or 'stronghold' rather than the more modern 'city.' To get there we had to walk across the oldest bridge in Europe and noted the height of three floods in the 1800s. Gosh the whole Bastide (area where our apartment is) would have been under several metres of water.

We've partaken of the local dishes, visited vineyards, a honey farm, a cheese farm and the hippy village officially known as Lagrasse and unofficially known as 1968. We've wandered the cobble stone streets and snooped in all kinds of alleyways. After each tiring, but invigorating venture, we've come back home to be faced with three flights of very uneven steps - uneven no doubt through centuries of people walking up and down them. I wonder if I'm the least fit person ever to have taken the gruelling route to our rather nice penthouse.

Yesterday, with a pile of washing, we were confronted with a front loader dual washer/drier that had lots of unfathomable diagrams on it and several French words that left us shrugging. We found the manual that had loads of instructions - in French. So back upstairs - only one flight - to find a dictionary and then back downstairs to squat on the floor in front of the machine pondering and researching. Several hours later the machine ground to a halt with our washing, clean, but still quite wet. Ah well!

Food: Unsurprisingly the local bread is accolade-worthy. The restaurants and cafes have been a mix. Some of them ridiculously overpriced, some with absurdly bad service and some of them with okay food for an okay price. In all they've been rather disappointing though the local produce is excellent and preparing something at home is always rewarding. We've taken upon ourselves the onerous task of deciding which bubbly and which rosee are superior.

Well, I'm about to bury myself in a book I found in the apartment and have been enjoying - 'Salmon fishing in the the Yemen,' a great read so far. Oh, gosh, it's almost the cocktail hour - where's the Pastis?

Medievale Cite
Hard work in the penthouse

Medievale Cite

Europe's oldest bridge
Streets of Lagrasse
Medieval Cite
Lagrasse
St Jean de la Gineste (vineyard)
Drainpipe
Apartment pic
At the Fromage Ferme

Ain't I cute?
Fromage Ferme

ramsay street happenings

2009-12-19T09:28:00.005+08:00

Ramsay Street has been full of excitement of late. It's all worthy soap-opera material.

Firstly there's the neighbour who beats her maid in the street. The other day the two of them were walking from the mosque store; maid in front and woman in local dress behind. The maid walks and cowers while the other woman walks and beats. It's a distressing sight.

Then there was the episode involving the teenager girl who lives with the woman (daughter? sister?). Woman is out. Car is parked on the street. Boy is at the wheel. Teenage girl gets out just as the woman arrives home by taxi. And it's on. Woman wails and screams as she beats the car and throws herself on the bonnet beating the window. Car speeds off. Woman falls to the ground screaming, gets up and begins beating the girl. They come inside the apartments, beating subsides for a few moments. Girl walks up stairs carrying her broken glasses and nursing her already bruised head. Apartment door closes and beating resumes.

The other excitement on Ramsay street is flooding after the recent rains when the street turned into a river as raging torrents of water swept past the buildings. People couldn't get to work because the water was too deep to drive through. White water rafting was an option. Hours later a Pakistani man was seen wading waist deep through the water manually attempting to unblock a drain. He was ultimately successful and within hours of his effort the water had mostly drained away. However, we were left with 6-inch deep mud and sludge. Next day the same man was out there with a shovel, shovelling away a lot of the mud. It took days to dry and now the street still looks like a dirt road. Huge dust storms are whipped up as 4-wheel drives from beyond tear up the street, honk their horns at the grocery, gather their goods and speed off again.

Dinner on the balcony now includes a healthy serving of dust!

star trek

2009-12-18T23:12:00.002+08:00

We've been watching the original Star Trek series recently. It's a an interesting study in history. The story line is incredibly slow moving and all punches are telegraphed - no surprises. It is soooo slow, the sets are quite silly sometimes and the story lines are plain juvenile for the most part. It's hard to imagine that it was ever taken seriously in the first place - though I do remember being glued to the set each Thursday night as a kid waiting patiently for the next thrilling installment of the voyages of the Star Ship Enterprise.

The actors are interesting. From his first appearance Captain Kirk has that trademark twinkle in his eye and it's been interesting watching as the writer has been playing with the characters who will soon emerge as the key players. The gulf between Spock and McCoy is beginning to become apparent by about Episode 3. Uhura and Zulu are still fairly background. Spock is becoming more like the Mr Spock that we know and love today. Scotty seems to spend most of his time in the transporter room at the moment whereas later he'll be elsewhere. It all makes interesting watching - if a little tedious.

There's just the one fairly flat, juvenile storyline per episode. It's funny to compare it to something like Seinfeld (which came 30 years later) where there are three separate story lines interplaying every episode. The writing is world's apart.

The one thing that I keep looking for, but can't see at all is how Captain Kirk 40 years later becomes the Denny Crane of Boston Legal. The glint in his eye and his confidence carry through, but it still seems such a gulf. I watch him eagerly for signs of his later alter ego.

lousy doctor

2009-12-18T23:07:00.002+08:00

Well, I'd make a lousy doctor. My diagnosis was all wrong. Coke was stopping my sleep. That bit was right and the problem has largely, but not entirely been conquered. Schmenopause had nothing to do with anything. I figured that out when my temp was 40 degrees ... it began to sound an awful lot like a fever. So I'd been dragging mysefl to work for days with a fever and exhaustion - what a hero.

Spent endless hours on two different days to find out a range of things that weren't the problem, but never did get an inkling of what was the problem. The doctors at the local hospital here make lousy doctors too!!!!! Only remaining symptom - headaches.

of coke, lack of exercise and womenopause

2009-12-11T12:37:00.003+08:00

The problem
Several factors have conspired of late to bring me to a situation where I had a thumping headache and broken sleep for 3 days followed by a mild headache and sleep deprivation (2 hrs a night) for 3 or 4 days. Once awake there was no way that I could get back to the land of nod. My joints ached/ache too. To compound things I've just been doing some experiential learning about night sweats. Come evening water just oozes from every pore in my body and I need someone walking behind me with a mop to ensure that the floor surfaces are safe for others to walk on. If you invite me to your place in the evening, throw canvas sheeting on the furniture or park me on the verandah! I've never sweated in my life. Even intense exercise barely raises a drop. So it's completely new to me. The big splash is followed by shaking and feeling intensely cold. Switching between the two goes on from late evening until the morning and is accompanied by an elevated temperature. All of this has enveloped me just in the last week.

How did this all happen?
Well I have to confess that some of this at least is self-inflicted. I was a reformed coke addict for a couple of years (the fizzy kind). Two years ago, after drinking two and a half litres a day and not sleeping, I went through a week of withdrawal headaches and gave the stuff up. Then a few months ago I had a coke and I was postively buzzing - a personality transformation. That was pretty good. So over the months it's built up again to a couple of cans - though the buzz has gone by the wayside! Again I'm not sleeping and again it has increased my anxiety. At the same time for the last couple of weeks I haven't been doing daily stretches which I know that I need to do for my back and I haven't been going to the gym or pool. And of course the third factor is my gender and age.

What to do?
1. give up coke (done as of yesterday! and currently suffering the consequent headache)
2. start stretching again (done as of a few days ago!)
(Result: slept from 12 - 8 last night. Woke up a few times, but got back to sleep again ... sleep ... it feels so good!)
3. dive into the pool again (that's hard to do when feeling achy breaky and headachy, but ... maybe tomorrow).

Caffeine and stress are triggers for symptoms of womenopause - so hopefully I'll be back sleeping regularly soon and ideally the big splash will pack up and leave too!

the long trek home

2009-08-14T18:47:00.010+08:00

Thursday 29th July
The only thing that went right today was that we managed to get up in time to get our 7:30 taxi to Fumicioini airport. It was all downhill after that.
The taxi dropped us off wrong terminal and after finding our way to the right terminal and a long wait, Air France, with whom we booked told us that we’d been queued up in the wrong place because though we’d booked with them, it was actually Alitalia who was going to be flying us to Paris for a connection through to Dubai. This wasn’t mentioned on any of our documentation. So after another substantial period of queuing and with the clock fast running down we finally got ourselves checked-in and through customs with moments to spare.
We raced to the gate, jumped onto the bus and breathed a sigh of relief. Soon we were on the plane, bags stowed, books and glasses organised ... all ready for the two hour flight to Charles de Gaulle. Time passed with nerry a word from staff nor movement from the plane. Word came that we had to disembark because of a safety issue. So after being herded back on buses and back to the airport, and standing around for 45 minutes not sure what was going on, we were lead back to the gate we had originally left from where we again waited. It soon became apparent that we were going to miss our connecting flight to Dubai.
Back on another plane that rattled and creaked like no plane we’d ever been on before, babies screaming and a teenager with lots of ‘tude sitting next to me, we finally got into Charles de Gaulle airport several hours late. After queuing for almost an hour we met a very pleasant man who kindly organised another flight for us ... leaving just before midnight; 11 hours after we were supposed to leave. As compensation Air France gave us a voucher for a free sandwich and drink! Were they kidding? After expressing disappointment at their offer and after a bit of argy-bargy I wangled access to the Air France lounge where we felt somewhat better after an OJ, a Bombay and tonic and a snack. Spending ten hours there was a bit over the top, but ... you get that. However, our revised expectations to be home by midday the next day were soon thwarted when once again we were sitting on the runway for 30 mins, 40 mins ... wondering what was going on. It became clear when a medical team boarded the plane that one of the passengers had suddenly taken ill. After an hour and a half the gentleman was taken off the plane to get the required medical care and the plane was soon in the air without further mishap.
This is the guilty plane sitting at Rome airport just before we boarded the first time.

Tuesday 27th July - Naples
Life-threatening, but cool.
Oppressive 40 degree heat, the taxi windows are wound down, we’re stopped in dense, noisy traffic and there’s no a/c. The driver decides this is a good time to light up a cigarette making it even harder to breathe in the thick, still air. His phone rings. He takes the call. The traffic moves, he accelerates still smoking and still talking on his hand-held phone. As the traffic speeds up, he changes gears without missing a beat in his phone conversation. He begins weaving in and out of the traffic, picking the gaps to the millimetre while still distracted by gears, the cigarette and his phone. The bright side is that with the taxi now moving, there is some air flow and thus some relief from the cloying heat. And ... who said men can’t multi task?
We had a pizza and some Pinot Grigio in an upstairs labyrinth on the main shopping strip in Napoli. It was magic!

Scene taken from the big square

When enough is enough

Much of what we saw in Napoli looked like this

And this

Though there are some lovely monuments and buildings, there's a sad and ugly side

Monday 27th July

Naples today and the penultimate day of our trip. The ship has become a home; a refuge from the world outside. Would I cruise again? Yes. Would I do it for 20 days? Probably not. The lustre begins to wear off around 12 – 14 days. Yesterday saw us in Sicily’s capital, Palermo. We did the sightseeing bus thing – pity they didn’t have much enroute in the way of sights that were worth seeing.

Reclining bunny

Another speccy sunset (with another crooked horizon!)

Dinner on the ship - last day. This was called a vegetable stack - though I'm not sure why.

Gardens of our hotel in Rome on the last night

different strokes

2009-07-26T00:45:00.008+08:00

Saturday 25th July - Tunisia

We had the shore excursion from hell today. La Goulette in Tunisia. The temperature was 40 degrees; the sun was out and the heat was oppressive. We were on the bus off the bus on the bus off the bus on the bus off the bus to look at the piddling ruins of Carthage. The first couple of stops had little of interest and certainly didn’t warrant standing under the hot July sun and clambering on and off buses. The third site held more interest, but again would have been better in January where a traveller’s thoughts are on something other than finding the next bit of shade with some standing room. From the underwhelming and oppressively hot ruins we headed off to a cemetery with the graves of 4000 American soldiers ... okay ... I can’t even begin to get interested in that! Then we were on the bus for about 20 mins before hopping off and being lead en masse 1km uphill in the beating sun. We landed in the middle of an open air street bazaar with crowds, a narrow shopping strip with goods spilling out, hawkers, pickpockets and two shops selling cold drinks with crowds jostling for a bit of precious shade while they waited to actually get in to buy a drink. Our guide turned around to us and said, ‘This is Sidi Bou Said. You have free time. I’ll meet you in an hour and we’ll walk back to the bus together.’ We’d been dumped in a hell hole!
Just over four and a half hours after we’d set off we arrived back at the ship where some of our fellow travellers bumped into some of their shipmates. I overheard snippets of their conversation and was stunned to hear them report on the fabulous day we’d had visiting Carthage and Sidi Bou Said. Were they really on the same trip as me?
The most interesting part of the day was learning that ‘Carthage’ means ‘New City’ ... which it was back in 800 BC. It predated Rome by about 80 years. Another interesting snippet, which I plan to verify once I can use the net more freely again is that the roots of some our script today can be traced to the Phoenicians who inhabited Carthage. If you turn a capital ‘A’ upside down, you have the head of a bull with its two horns. Turn a ‘B’ on its side and you have a drawing of two houses and if you look at the ‘M’ you are looking at two waves indicating the sea or ‘mer.’
View from restaurant in Sidi Bou Said, Tunisia.

Carthage, Tunisia

It looks like a mosque, but it has a street number. Can mosques have street numbers? It's a very pretty building.

Streetscape, La Goulette, Tunisia

Building worker with no safety harness - there are so many of them around seemingly risking their lives daily.

Friday 24th July - At sea
At sea day today and time to catch up on some reading and some pondering. What is the point of blogging? Do we blog for ourselves or for our audience? Is it a problem having inept writers like yours truly putting virtual pen to virtual paper to spew forth random thoughts? Does this enhance the writer’s life? Does it enhance anyone else’s? Does it create a sense of community in some way? Does it mitigate or diminish good writing in any way? Does it leave a record which, in the future will have the writer cringing at what they were prepared to publish? Why do we do it? Should we do it?
It’s sooo frustrating not having easy access to the net to be able to google a couple of my questions above to see what others have said on this topic. What did sci-fi writers like Bradbury have to say about it? Does Theroux have any comments? What of philosophers? What do the baa-humbuggers have to say on the topic?
At $25 per hour, my use of the net has been quite limited during the cruise – email and MSN to keep in touch with the kids and friends, a few bank transactions (eek! Have I spent that much??!) and a quick look at the Aus newspapers and that’s it. The net speed is quite slow too, which is a deterrent to googling.

Thursday 23rd July - Majorca, Spain
The whirlwind tour continued today in Majorca. It’s so hard when visiting so many beautiful cities and towns to appreciate the uniqueness of each. Majorca paled next to some of our other stops. We learnt about the devastating decline in the farming industry after European Union and the change of emphasis to tourism. Those farmers who weren’t completely driven out of business by the EU agreements, have turned their hand to growing almonds, an industry which only survives at the largess of the government and then only because the almond blossoms in spring are a drawcard for tourists.
Fresh in our minds was the idea of Majorca as a safe haven for Australian fugitive multi-millionaire, Christopher Skase. We were on the lookout for his mansion which we had seen so many times in Aussie newspapers.
We had a look at a boutique winery today which was interesting partly because it uses the work of local artists to annually design new labels. The walls, hung with a variety of the originals works, made it a winery cum gallery.

Wine tasting in Majorca

A farmer from Renmark, Australia - in his 80's and still going strong. Nice bloke!

Wine label artwork.

Majorca countryside.

Kennels that the best dressed dogs are using these days.

Manor house of a bygone era.

Majorca from the ship.

Wednesday 22nd July - Barcelona
In Barcelona our plan was to ride the hop on hop off bus to get our bearings and stop by a few places of interest. That didn’t happen. Everyone in Barcelona was waiting for the hop on hop off bus. We stood in a queue for a bit under the beating sun, but the length only diminished by between 0 and 10 people each time a bus came by as the buses were chockablock. We gave up and wandered around the port area instead finding somewhere for tapas and a calming glass of pinot grigio. Feeling somewhat better after that, we ambled up the Ramblas and then grabbed a taxi to show us the sights. The driver, a Pakistani man with good English, took us up Montjuic Hill and filled us in on the history of a lot of the sites. The 1992 Olympic stadium was interesting for its nod to classic style.

View from Montjuic.

I couldn't stop thinking about Red Dwarf when I saw this.

the full monte

2009-07-24T18:56:00.015+08:00

Monday 20th
Monaco today. We were here exactly a year ago. Last time we viewed Monte Carlo from above whereas this time we’re in the port looking up. After a leisurely breakfast, we’re about to venture out. We did the Martini at the casino thing last time (well, you have to do that, don’t you?) so we might skip it this time. I’d like to buy some new clothes, just a few shirts and some jeans, but I suspect that Monaco is not the place to do this! Ah well. Day after tomorrow we’ll be in Barcelona. Maybe a bit of clothes shopping will be on the cards there (I hate clothes shopping! Just bring me out clothes that I’m going to like and that will fit and let’s be done with it!). Well we’re off to once more enjoy the views of Monaco.

We decided to do a tour all over Monte Carlo and Monaco. That of course is not hard to do as Monaco is the second smallest country in the world, after the Vatican, with an area of just 1 sq kilometre. It has a population of around 40,000, no unemployment, the highest standard of living in the world and has the highest population density on the planet. The harbours are beautiful and can be seen from almost any vantage point in the city.

I’m losing track of the days. Tomorrow, I believe, is Wednesday and it will find us in Barcelona.

Note to self. Tilt camera down to right in future to correct crooked horizon!

Somewhere not too far up those mountains Monaco ends and France begins.

There must be a high demand for defibrillators.

Damn that bus and damn my lack of software prowess for cutting

Oops. There's that crooked horizontal again

Casino seen from the ship

Deceased butterfly on the balcony railing outside our stateroom

Sunday 19th
Today saw us in Livorno Italy. We wandered around ... and finally found ... somewhere to dine. Being Sunday most of the place was closed. We just wanted a Pinot Grigio and pizza ... we found it in an al fresco Ristorante and dined with pigeons.

Saturday 18th
Return to Rome. We stayed on the floating hotel.
I hate being involved in disputes and yet that is where I so often find myself. The common factor in the disputes is me ... so that leads me to think that the problems are of my doing ... but ... but .. no!
I had a complaint on-ship and the manager I raised the issue with handled it extremely poorly, leaving me, and probably her also, feeling pretty awful. So I escalated my complaint which now was both the original complaint and another about the manager’s handling of the situation. The escalation of the complaint left me feeling a lot better in that now at least my original complaint was being listened to and acted upon. I got what I felt I had been entitled to and the wording of relevant documents on terms and conditions has now been changed to reflect my original suggestions. I’m feeling a lot better about the whole thing, but I wonder how much of my current feeling is the knowledge that I’ve been vindicated ... and how much is simply that the dispute handling mechanism the second time around was much better.

Friday 17th July
Messina, Sicily today. The big highlight was the clock tower which puts on a 15 minute performance at midday. The lion raws (did I really spell 'roars' like that?), the rooster flaps and crows, people and angels move around; all to the tune of Ave Maria. The most remarkable thing about it is that someone designed it and someone invested in it and it got made ... and hundreds of tourists just like us turn up every day to go ‘wow!.’ I mean ... really ... why?

We lunched today with a couple from Nevada who we’ve spent a bit of time with on the cruise. Ks comment later was “And I thought that we were the Gurus of Grump.” We met the couple on the first or second day of the cruise and Mr Nevada has steadily become more disenchanted. K and I had commented to each other this morning that most of the coffee on board is that ‘weak American stuff.' Mr Nevada’s rant at lunch today was about the Espresso rubbish they serve in all these Italian ports. Apparently they need to learn to make good American coffee in Italy. Poor guy, he ordered a ‘filtered coffee’ and told us how much he was looking forward to it. I had my doubts that the waiter understood. K and I got the espresso and cappuccino we’d ordered, Mrs Nevada got her Coke Light, but Mr Nevada got a bowl of coffee flavoured ice-cream instead of his Americano! Sigh! The world is conspiring against him.

Clock tower with rooster that crows and lion that roars at midday.

Obligatory well dressed horse - cart ride.

Back to the ship

Thursday 16th
Today finds us at sea between Greece and Italy. Yesterday we visited Athens. I’m sad to report that I didn’t like it at all. It seemed to have all the worst aspects of some inner suburban areas to the west of Melbourne. Walls everywhere were bedecked with graffiti. We were twice ripped off by taxi drivers. We weren’t ready for the sleight of hand trick where the 25 euro we handed the driver suddenly became 15 euro. It was only an hour later that we realised that must have given him the 25 we thought we had – he had a neat magic trick that turned the 20 into a 10. The second driver tried the same stunt with a 50, but we were awake up to it the second time and stood our ground! That kind of thing leaves a bitter taste. Despite my gammy foot, we took the walk up to the Parthenon with 15 million other people on a hot July day. It wasn’t worth it, though I didn’t mind donating the 12 euro entrance fee that I assume is going to restoration works. We were both glad to be back on our floating hotel.

The Acropolis

At sea between Greece and Italy

Attarturk greets the dawn in Ephesus, Turkey

Ephesus from the Lido Deck

Monkey greets us when we get back to the ship

Diet coke makes a good icepack

santorini

2009-07-17T00:40:00.004+08:00

Monday 13th July
We visited Fira Town on the island of Santorini (Saint Irene), Greece today. Our ten story floating hotel was anchored in the Caldera of a volcano which last erupted in 1956. The tender to shore was rocky and mercifully short delivering us quickly to the few shops at the dock. The town, which is perched 300 metres up on the edge of the volcano, can only be reached by donkey or cable car. We lunched in the sky with a view over the caldera and the town as Greek music played and a gentle breeze wafted past. Then Johnny Cash started singing ‘Walk the Line’ and a huge wind started up only to disappear at the same time Johnny did.
People all around busied themselves with shopping, chatting, sipping coffee or Greek beer and eating Greek delights. The locals were all relaxed smiles and hospitality; they had all the time in the world to spend with us.
Santorini is the classic Greek island you see on all the pics – whitewashed houses with blue framed doors and windows. The church domes are blue too. It’s nothing short of gorgeous.

Santorini from the Lido deck of the ship.

The dock and town on high.

Donkey and his dad. This is one way to get to the town. The only other way is vernicular (cable car).

Here's a donkey that made it up.

Looking down from Fira Town. You can see our ship in the distance.

Details.

We got back to the ship to find a turtle waiting for us.

just like a chocolate milkshake only crunchy (it beats as it sweeps as it cleans)

2009-07-11T20:48:00.006+08:00

A cruise is not just about toe-dipping tourism. Sure you flit through ports looking around for a few hours, maybe pick up a few souvenirs directed specifically at tourists, learn a little and then move on. However, as I’ve learned on this holiday, there is so much more. It’s a health resort if you want it to be. There is 24 hour food service which is free (well, paid for in the ticket price) so if you want to you can chow down all day on hamburgers and high calorie, low nutrition delights, but it’s also easy to find salads, soups and seafood and eat healthily and modestly. There are all manner of health and beauty services on board. I dragged my bad back and gammy foot off to the resident acupuncturist / Chinese herbalist. The treatment was both beneficial and educational and I’ve been lounging lazily in the hydrotherapy pool and then wandering off to the heat treatment chairs to lounge some more. All this lounging is done while watching sparkling aqua ocean and gorgeous Adriatic islands pass by.
So it’s not the same as doing the Paul Theroux and travelling through Asia and India by train while chatting to and learning from ordinary and colourful local folk. In fact it is probably at the opposite pole, any cultural knowledge gained is extremely shallow, but cruising has an awful lot to recommend it. Just expect a totally different experience to other forms of travelling.

Bet Theroux didn't get towels magically whipped into a different animal each night. Towel Art. You gotta love it!

Endless beautiful views at sea.

The ship
She's my favourite

it's just like Venice without the water

2009-07-11T20:47:00.006+08:00

That seemed like a pretty wild claim to me. Venice is all about the water so how would old town Dubrovnik be just like Venice? K claimed he’d accept that claim if it had narrow streets, piazzas, gelati and Venetian style masks. Well, the old town has narrow streets, piazzas, gelati and even masks not unlike Venetian masks. There are no cars or motorcycles just like Venice, but then there are no Vaporettos and no canals. So while not being a totally bizarre claim, there are essential ingredients missing.
It’s incomprehensible that just twenty years ago this town was being bombed in the Serb-Croatian crisis. It’s a lovely town set on hills rising out of the Adriatic. We dined on a terrace overlooking the diamond water. A pair of pigeons preened next to us as we ate.
The old town is like many in Europe. It has massive 25 metre high walls surrounding it and it is well preserved. It only functions because of the tourist trade. Small shops house paintings and crafts by local artists, others sell the usual run of souvenirs – it seems that every city in Europe claims Pinocchio as their own! Some of the buildings house international clothing companies like United Colours of Benneton. Every thing is aimed at extracting euros/krunas from tourists who flit into town, take photos, eat, buy a few souvenirs and move on.
In the fleeting visit what I learnt was that this part of Croatia is breathtakingly beautiful. it survives on the tourist trade and that the locals, like many throughout Europe, are multi lingual.

Lots of greenery and ocean views in Dubrovnik.

I rather liked this sculpture in the main square. It was both amusing and beautiful.

Hills. Venice doesn't have hills, but it does have lots of steps!

paris

2009-07-01T16:45:00.006+08:00

bad photo, great jazz bar

French Rosee

Paris finds us sans fun art in a grand old hotel. We've stumbled on a wonderful place that oozes 19th century opulence, has jazz in the layback bar, great Rosee, good coffee and knowledgeable, helpful staff. What more could one want?

Pics to follow. There seems to be some kind of limiting device stopping pic uploads at present!!

refuge from the thronging crowds

2009-06-28T13:32:00.003+08:00

Brugge lives up to its reputation of being jam-packed with people on the weekend. You'd have needed a shoe horn to fit anyone else in yesterday. While wrestling our way onward we spotted a Kempinski Hotel down a narrow cobblestone laneway. A minute later we were in spacious air-conditioned luxury.

The building is a 15th century residence which has been refurbished beautifully. Fun art is a theme. The bar has a sculpture of a giant set of paintbrushes as well as several paintings of musicians which combine paint and brass. The most amusing though is the giant red poodle in the manicured gardens.

planes, trains and automobiles

2009-06-26T04:47:00.007+08:00

We had a day of varied transport. An uneventful automobile trip to the airport was followed by a cattle-class flight across Europe to Paris. The plane took off late so we were at the airport for over 4 hours. On the bright side the Air-France crew got us safely to our first destination. We arrived rather later though and had to hot tail it out of there to make our connecting train. What was reputed to be a 100 metre stroll turned out to be a one kilometre fast paced limp. We leapt on the train as it was pulling out and made it to Brussels. After a quick brekky we headed for the train to Brugge. I think that they pinched a train from India and plonked it in Belgium for the day. People were standing cheek to jowl, hundreds were hanging out windows and others and their cows were strapped to the top of the vehicle as the train laboured and grunted under the weight of cows, baggage and people. Okay, maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but it was close.

Brugge was a thriving and important seaport until the 16th century. Interestingly many of the buildings were rebuilt to original specifications in the 18th century. They made it all a bit more gothic than it had been to start with so now it's ubergothic.

This was outside the Gruuthuse museum. Apparently 'gruut' or 'gruit' was a herb that was used in beer. Mr Gruut had a monopoly on it and made a killing. When gruit was replaced by hops, Gruut was given the right to tax the brewers and managed to make even more money. How the rich do prosper!

This is the view from the top of the brewery.

Belgium is reputed to be have the best beer in the world, or so the Belgians say. Aussies would dispute that. Anyhow, in respect of our hosts I had to have a beer. Normally I get the glass to my face and back out. The yeasty fragrance is too much for me. But, being a good tourist, I gave it a go. It wasn't completely disgusting.

Brugge is quite lovely with its cobblestone streets, lovely old buildings and canals. It's a bit reminiscent of both Amsterdam and Venice, but at the same time it is quite different.

This pic is simply a case of playing with focus. I like it so I thought I'd chuck it in.

mussels and chips are fine by me

2009-06-22T21:51:00.006+08:00

There are many enjoyable aspects of a holiday; the sights, the colours, the sounds, the smells and the strangeness of the places you visit amongst them. I think though that one of the best elements is the opportunity to reinvent yourself. No-one knows you. You don't know them. It's a relatively clean slate. I don't need to be the shy introvert. I can be the confident extrovert. I can be lazy, energetic, dull, excitable ... anything I like.

Hmmm. On the other hand, I'm going to be taking my gammy foot with me. And ... can you go to Belgium and enjoy mussels, chips and beer if you don't like beer? Can you start liking beer? Do you want to start liking beer?

Well that's obviously a question of earth-shattering importance that I'm going to have to answer in the next few days.

Picture nicked from http://punchin.net/blog2/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/steak-frites-mussels.jpg

hospitals yet again

2009-06-22T21:39:00.002+08:00

I'm walking through the a shopping centre without a care. All is well with the world. Suddenly with the next footfall I'm writhing in pain. Each footstep is incredibly difficult. I limp across the shopping centre, along a passage, out a door, across a carpark and into the car. As I do I realise that the pain is in the exact parts of my foot that hurt two years ago when I fell and sprained my ankle. It took me months to recover from that injury ... and here it is again out of the blue.

I limp off to see an orthopedic surgeon as last time it was suggested that I may have broken a bone in my foot. He quickly tells me that despite the pain and despite the swelling, there's absolutely nothing wrong with my foot. What I am feeling is referred pain from a problem with the lower back. As strange as it sounds, I come to terms with that.

A few days later I manage to get an appointment to see a brilliant osteopath in Dubai. Upon hearing my story he doubts the accuracy of the diagnosis. The upshot is that he is sure that the pain I am feeling in my foot is a result of injuries to ligaments and tendons. My back is fine. I look down to see that he is wearing a hard plastic boot; the same one he wore when I visited him two months earlier. He fell off his motorbike and fractured several bones when the bike landed on top of him. I figure he knows about foot pain!

So here I am about to set off on a walking tour of Europe with a gammy foot. Or is it a gammy back? I'm going with the foot.

you've gotta love banks

2009-06-14T22:07:00.003+08:00

Well you know it's a funny thing. A year ago I was blogging and grumping about banks here in Al Ain. We were about to do a grand tour of Europe and had applied for an HSBC card. All was going well. The card was approved and we'd received it, but when I decided to test it, it didn't work - declined. That was a great start! I rang the bank. Yes, I'd activated it. Yes, I'd done X, Y and Z. It turns out the bank had cancelled the card for some, still mysterious, reason. It took us several days to figure out that this had happened. After making umpteen phone calls, in desperation, we ended up going to see the bank manager, who was a very nice young-ish Emirati man. With his assistance we finally got the account reinstated and received a replacement card the night before we took off for Europe. This was a great relief to us on the eve of our holiday.

Well, as it happens we are about to head off on holidays again and true to form HSBC have decided that now would be a good time to mess us around again. Our credit card, which had a 35,000 dh limit has just dropped to a 600 dh limit. 600 dh? They have to be joking. It turns out that they reduced our credit limit because we haven't been using the card. Apparently one has to use 1000 dh per month to maintain the limit. Not that we were ever told that, it must be in the extra-fine print. Of course it's not possible for the bank to adjust the limit up again, but if we keep the card at the 600 dh max for six months, they'll review the situation and may adjust our credit upwards. That's so helpful. I am completely underwhelmed!

Cards are now cancelled and we're not in a hurry to have dealings with HSBC again!

new camera

2009-05-27T00:24:00.008+08:00

Jumping for joy. New camera ... finally. I've only wanted one for a hundred years. I've been using dicky little point and shoot numbers forever. I figured out my budget, did my research and came up with the perfect camera for my needs. All was well.

Well, that it is, until I got it home. It's so damn fandangled! The last time I had a decent camera it was well before the D appeared in DSLR. It used to be a matter of light, aperature, speed. But this new number has so many buttons, knobs and dials that I don't know where to start. I'm terrified of it.

I've taken it out for a few runs and it keeps producing unexpected results. This camera is the boss of me. I can see myself spending the next year or so attempting to subjugate it.

The first pics are of the apartment. I thought I'd show the folks back home, who are never gonna come and visit us, what the place looks like. The aim of this first one is to make the balcony look bigger as it's really just a tiny elongated postage stamp. And because the folks are not likely to visit, they'll never know the deception I've perpetrated.

View from the postage stamp.
And the loungeroom. The aim here was to give an impression of what the room looks like. That didn't work! I'm sure it doesn't look this messy in real life, does it?

As you can see, it might be a year or more before I can both manage all the bits and bobs on the camera and take a pleasing shot. At any rate I do expect, in 365 days, to be able to award myself a Master of Cameraology. Oh and the camera ... a Canon 450D ... and I'm so far out of my depth it's silly! Imagine being able to step up and manage the Canon 5D MkII. Crikey! How do you do that?

Oh, and we're off to Rome. What are the chances of coming out of the trip camera intact?

2009-05-22T21:29:00.004+08:00

I was heading to Al Jimi Mall the other day when I noticed the left lane of the road was blocked off by witches' hats. (I'm not sure if that's Aussie English or international English - witches' hats - you know those orange cones indicating road works or a road hazard). An official yellow, diamond sign helpfully informed me 'lift lane closed.' That was good. I like road signs like that, they get the imagination going, but my all time favourite road signs in Al Ain are the arrow markings on the road.

This used to be my favourite bit of road in Al Ain.

Until I saw this. Sorry? Which way do you want me to turn? Seriously?

long time coming

2009-05-22T13:56:00.005+08:00

Decisions have been made. Plans are afoot. This baby (pic) is going to take us on a 20 day Mediterranean cruise. Our cabin comes with a balcony so the plan is to lie back with feet up, book in hand and a coffee or fermented grape substance in easy reach.

Before and after the cruise we're staying in each of Brussels, Bruges, Paris and Rome for a few days.

Sorting out itineraries, accommodation and transport is not a great deal of fun and has the potential to spoil a good holiday. But on the other hand, I guess that it's so wearying that one is ready for good holiday after that!

Another month of teaching, marking and adminning. Then we're off.

New York Paris Rome?

2009-04-16T22:10:00.003+08:00

Part of the cost of living in the Emirates is the summer holiday expenses. Staying here in the heat with half the city closed down is just not an option. So where to?

In our holiday planning in the last few weeks, we've taken virtual trips everywhere. We spent a few weeks in South Africa and a week in Zanzibar. We did a road trip of the US and a trip back home to Australia. We did a week in Amsterdam, a week in Rome and a three week cruise of the Mediterranean. But ... we're no closer to making a decision. In fact, after all these virutal trips and decisions we're pretty much sick of the whole thing.

So where to?

some nights one just can't get any traction on the pillow

2009-04-13T06:57:00.001+08:00

Three in the morning. Any sensible person would be all tucked up in bed by now.

emeg

2009-03-21T17:36:00.004+08:00

Last week we took a trip out to the Emirates Marine Environment Group. What a fabulous trip. I've never seen the girls so relaxed and happy. They had a ball and so did we. There was lots to learn and see. Wonderful place.

Unfortunately I forgot to recharge my camera battery before I left. I'd hoped to at least be able to get a few shots off before it died. I guess that I should be grateful for the one solitary shot I did get. It hardly does the place justice but here it is.

desert days

2009-03-20T19:45:00.009+08:00

Two of us ventured out into the depths of the desert the other day with a group of local girls. Okay, it wasn't the depths of the desert, it was just a ten minute trip from Al Ain, but who knew that they were hiding a lake out there. With Jebel Hafeet as the backdrop, it was very pretty.

I loved the colours; the orange of the sand, the blue of the sky and the lake, the green of the bushes and the reeds and the contrast with the black abayas and shailas.

Check the sky.

Three girls go strolling.

Shot!

Jebel Hafeet makes a lovely backdrop.

hospitals

2009-02-21T12:18:00.001+08:00

^%$*&%$$ !$@%!

London

2009-02-16T01:17:00.009+08:00

Long time passing.

Pics of London. I love the red telephone boxes. I remember them from when I was a kid in Aus, but that was a hundred years ago. They've all packed up and gone now.

I'm a sucker for a romantic comedy, so I had to visit Notting Hill; love Portobello road with its old buildings, ramshackle array of goods spilling out of shops and brightly coloured doors and walls - pink, green, red, orange, blue, purple. And as an extra bonus George Orwell lived there. No sign of Hugh though. How trendy does a street need to be?

And of course there was lots of weather!

cold hot cold hot

2009-01-23T15:27:00.003+08:00

Grey skies, rain, hail, momentary glimpses of sunshine (if you look up at the right time!). Of course I'm in London. Love the red double decker buses and the red telephone boxes. They are so iconically London.

Food and drink are criminally expensive. Just a modest snack sets you back an arm and a leg, and most of the fare is very ordinary so one resents having to pay for it. We've had a few nice meals, but they seem to be the exceptions.

Checked out a Kevin Spacey play at the Old Vic; 'Complicit.' Theatre in the round. Minimal set, very talky. The play dealt with the moral issue of journalist non-disclosure. The script didn't get to the nub of the problem and was somewhat shallow. We were disappointed and thus can't presently bring ourselves to book another play - we should though before we leave.

The Tube is fantastic - easy to navigate and trains arrive the instant you set foot on the platform - I think a footfall triggers the trains' appearance. The pace of the city is frenetic. People rush by at a great rate of knots. They've obviously got places to be and things to do!

Galleries and museums being free is fantastic. I gained a new respect for Gainsborough. I'd always thought of him as 'the landscape guy.' Seeing his work up close, I loved it. The detail and brush strokes are stunning.

Today's plan is to take in The Globe, Millenium Bridge and St.Paul's amongst other landmarks.

The weather is icy, especially when the wind picks up, but is quite bearable when wearing lots of layers. The problem is that the indoors are heated/over-heated to the point of being stifling and one doesn't want to strip down to one's undies for fear of offending others! Or maybe I'm just too prudish and should just do it and be comfortable. ('Maybe not' I hear you say.)

quietly adding another year to the tally today

2008-12-27T11:29:00.006+08:00

Happy festive season to all my readers (I think that's just me and the stray cat that's walking along the balcony railing and peering over my shoulder). Let's trust that 2009 will bring lots of great things, though of course it is hard to determine just what that is. For me it includes a rocketing British pound and US dollar and a plummeting Aussie dollar.

We've had the usual round of expat do-s, all of which have been enjoyable and all of which involved copious amounts of bubbly. Last night it was a murder dinner and I thought for a moment that 'I done it,' but turned out to be that floozy across the table from me.

One problem that I always have during Christmas - New Year is that my birthday falls smack bang in the middle of that period and brings with it more festivities. I feel that a reprieve from festivities is needed. Maybe if I just say a quiet, "Happy Birthday me," no-one will notice and the day will pass otherwise unremarked.

Well, it's 7:45 am and my son, T, just texted to say that he and his girlfriend, C, have arrived in Doobs. They're staying for a couple of days at a swish hotel right near the Burj. K actually checked The Age newspaper this morning at 1 am to make sure that no planes had fallen out of the sky between Australia and here! It seems that one never stops being a parent and never stops worrying about the offspring!

Looking forward to seeing T & C for a few days before they continue their journey on to Egypt to check out the pyramids and take a Nile cruise.

PS - pic above knicked from net.

how to win friends and influence people

2008-12-22T04:36:00.006+08:00

Ennui sets in.

Psychologically limping through to the next hols. Dispute with neighbour over cats. What next?

Actually I feel bad about the cat thing. The neighbour took an instant dislike to me 18 months ago when we first met. I made a flippant remark way back then which I heard through the grapevine was absolutely misinterpreted and held up as evidence of my skinflint ways. Ah well, what can you do?

Said neighbour is one of a small group feeding the stray cats in the neighbourhood. The cats are mangey, thin and some are injured. One has only one eye and one seems to have some kind of conjunctivitis as it can't open it's eyes very much. I understand the pity for the animals, but it seems to me that feeding them only encourages breeding and has the effect of inviting cats from further afield to move into our neighbourhood.

The neighbour has taken to feeding the cats right at the entrance to the apartments. This has encouraged the cats to hang around the door. Instead of the usual one or two cats we had to ensure didn't find their way into the stair wells and common areas, we now have to shoo several cats away. The car park and entrance area sometimes smell strongly of cat pee. The newspapers delivered to our door have even been peed upon.

I don't know what the answer to the cat problem is - letting them starve is hardly humane. A neighbour who has moved out used to have them neutered. That's a better solution, but I really don't know who footed the bill.

I've never been a fan of cats. I don't wish ill for the strays, but nor do I want them, their food or their pee stench at my door. Seeing said neighbour feeding them today, I felt obliged to say something. Needless to say it didn't do anything for our relations! I'm not sure that it did anything to encourage the feeding of the cats in another location either. I guess time will tell.

When you see them like this, they look pretty innocuous, don't they?

of lumbago, subdural haematomas and pain

2008-11-22T13:07:00.006+08:00

I've been somewhere on the 'sick ... well' scale during the last several weeks. I'm mostly at the 'well' end now, but have to head in to the hospital for another minor operation in January. It's nothing life-threatening! There were two botched attempts in October/November and I'm going back for more! Some people just never learn!

On each of the previous efforts they gave me an anaesthetic and the doctor assured me that I'd be partially awake, but wouldn't remember anything. Well, I remember everything including the pain and the exact conversations the doctor and nurses were having. I remember the doctor shaking his head and saying 'I've never seen anything like it. Really. Never. Nothing like it!' I remember the nurse saying 'Doctor. The oxygen. She's not getting enough oxygen.' I remember them saying, 'Breathe. Breathe deep. Breathe deep. Keep breathing. Deep. Open your eyes Madam M. Open your eyes. Look at me. Can you look at me? Breathe deep. Keep breathing.' While all this was going on I was thinking, why? What's all the fuss? I'm fine. I just feel like a nap. Leave me alone.

For the second op they told K they knew exactly where they had to snip out some bits and it would just take 20 minutes so he might as well just wait outside rather than go home. I can remember lying on the table watching the clock. 20 mins. 25 mins. 40 mins. An hour and 10 mins. Two hours and 20. Three hours. I remember thinking, poor K. What's he thinking? He must be really worried. He's probably wondering if my life insurance is paid up ... calculating the monetary value of my continued life v my demise. When it got to 3 hours and 30 mins the doctor decided to give up saying it wasn't fair on me or on him. The pain was awful and I'd been begging him for the last hour and a half to give me more anaesthetic or to stop. When he finally gave up I thought 'About bloody time!'

Since then I've been on meds and the challenge has been to get the dosage right. Too much or too little and side effects are just awful. Things were going quite well until today. I'm wondering if today's symptoms are related to the meds or something altogether different! Do you know the senstation of just wanting time to roll on so that you get past an unpleasant episode in your life? That's kind've how I feel. Let's just fast forward a few months please.

Another random thought ... you know how some old people live for their illnesses? It's all they ever talk about ... well ... hmmm. I think I need a new topic of conversation.

went to the hospital and lived to tell the tale ... barely

2008-10-08T23:37:00.004+08:00

Oh dear. Another hospital story. These places are run by clowns! I see a GP who neglects to take any kind of medical history and then names my disease. I tell her that is very unlikely to be the case because ... (I give her the details) ... she prescribes meds which I have to point out aren't appropriate because ... (I give her the appropriate information) and then she tells me the next step to take at which point I have to point out that that's an inappropriate course of action because ... (I give her the details). Had she taken any kind of medical history, she'd not have made any of the errors she made, any one of which could have resulted in a law suit. Can you do that here? Sue doctors? Hmmm. I could be rich. Maybe I shouldn't have so arrogantly corrected her.

After seeing her I saw a specialist who was marginally better on taking the history though he wanted to send me off for inappropriate testing.

We've had a few hospital ordeals since we've been here. K can't understand why I'd choose to go to a hospital rather than just lie in a corner and die. He thinks that'd be a much easier option. It's the course he's decided upon should he fall sick again. I just hope it's not a corner of our abode. That'd get smelly after a while.

good one Bill

2008-10-03T13:36:00.009+08:00

One of the great things about holidays is that you get a lot of reading done. I've just finished a book called quite simply 'Shakespeare' by Bill Bryson. He questions every 'fact' that we have about Shakespeare and in the process we learn a lot about Elizabethan England. For example spelling was pretty wild. One word could often be written in half a dozen ways and often was on one page. The spelling of Shakespeare for example is not clear. The version we use today wasn't one of those used in Shakspeare's (Shakeshaft's / Shappere's / Shakspere's / Shakespear's - apparently there are up to 80 versions) time. Shakespeare's own signature appears in at least six different forms.

Understandably the printing press back in Shaker's day was not what it is today. Editors took liberties with grammar, spelling and wording. When multiple copies of a book were pressed, it was a big job that could be sent to several different printeries. Each one would have proof-readers/editors pawing over the books. They'd all make different decisions about what went where and what was intended. Lines sometimes got cut because they didn't fit neatly onto a page or because there'd been a transcription error. The original documents were often dodgy. Most of the plays for example had several working versions. Sometimes they were what the actors recalled and were written retrospectively. Sometimes people would sit in the audience and transcribe while listening. These versions became mixed with more original versions. Later no-one was sure which version or which parts of which versions were authentic. One version of Hamlet's soliliquy came out as

To be, or not to be, I there's the point,
To Die, to sleepe, is that all? I all.:
No, to sleepe, to dreame, I mary there it goes,
For in that dreame of death, when wee awake,
And borne before an everlasting Judge,
From whence no passenger ever returned

Hmmm. That doesn't quite have the same ring to it. All that we have left today are the print versions that editors came up with a few years after Shakespeare's death.

Words Shakers contributed to the language incluce zany, abstemious, critical, frugal, dwindle, excellent and eventful. He was big on 'un' prefixes and created unmask, unhand, unlock and untie. Some of his words didn't stick though - undeaf and insultment being among them. Phrases include vanish into thin air, budge an inch, flesh and blood and blinking idiot.

Little is known about Shakespeare's personal life though much clearly incorrect information has been written and repeated through the years.

I loved reading about what Queen Lizzy The First was up to at the time, the politics, the bizarre laws (at various earnings you were permitted to wear silk of various colours. As you stepped up you were allowed to wear velvet) and the lives of ordinary people. If only the Shakespeare course I did at uni in my youth had been as interesting as Bryson's book.

cypriot sunshine

2008-10-02T12:58:00.010+08:00

Near Aphrodite's bath

Desert scrub, mountain pines and Aussie gum trees; Cyprus has a varied, if largely brown (due to months of drought)landscape. Yesterday brought the first rains in ten months flooding the roads hastening our exit from Paphos.

We were singularly unimpressed with Paphos. We entered the city and found ourselves in a traffic jam snaking endlessly through narrow streets in the city. We found our way to the beach to be met with an uneventful line of shops. In reality there were only three of them, but they were duplicated ad nauseam; over-priced largely tacky restaurant, tacky souvenir shop and clothing shop. We thought we’d play it relatively safe and cheap by getting fish and chips thinking that at least we’d get a passable version of something the area is reputed to specialize in. However, it seems that they can get it horribly wrong. The streets were crowded with overweight, underdressed, smoking, sunburnt non-natives. Perhaps we found a less desirable part of Paphos on a bad day.

Scenery along the back road home - Paphos to Kato Akourdaleia

Polis is old and a little less tourist oriented, but give it time and it will no doubt offer up the same charmless scene as Paphos.

What I do like in Cyprus is the things you discover off the main roads. There are any number of villages worth a visit. Many have breath-taking outlooks over mountains and sea. Roads through and around many of the villages are narrow and steep, but filled with delights.

Our host, Mrs Angela, cooks the best food we’ve discovered so far on the island. Eating out in the courtyard is lovely and very social. We’ve had some lovely evenings and have befriended a delightful Turkish man and his friendly German wife. We’ve met a Scotsman who has my daughter’s dream job. She always wanted to ‘blow the shit outa stuff’ for a living. He does just that as an explosives engineer. Mrs Angela’s Inn is in the tiniest of villages. It has just a few houses, lots of cats, a few dogs and extremely narrow roads! The buildings, gardens and countryside would best be described as ramshackle, but the village is quite charming with fruit and flowers bursting out of every nook and cranny.

Entrance to the Inn

Views in and around the village

distant memories

2008-09-22T21:56:00.007+08:00

Just when I thought holidays were a dim and distant memory, 'they' announced a nine day Eid break. And in that single gesture, holidays are upon me again. So we're off to Cyprus on Saturday.

Life's good.

the party's over

2008-09-01T21:31:00.002+08:00

Two days back teaching and I'm thinking, 'Holidays? What Holidays?' They seem so remote now!

I'm already planning my next break, but I'm not sure what to do with K. He's developed planeophobia. He swears he'll never get on a plane again. I'm not sure how he'll make it back to Aus when we're done here. I think he's planning to walk across the dessert and them swim.

highlights and lowlights of our summer travels

2008-08-18T01:03:00.005+08:00

ten highlights
1. Bergen, Norway – a truly beautiful city with views from everywhere. Fjords, majestic mountains, sparkling water and the lucky sods who live on mountainsides with magnificent fjord views. How could you be anything but relaxed there?
2. Bitterballen, wine and the wonderful bar and barman at the Radisson in Amsterdam
3. Martini at the casino in Monte Carlo
4. Coastal views in Villefranche and along the Riviera
5. Mountain views in Switzerland
6. Food in Budapest – probably the best in Europe – a real surprise!
7. Wine in Provence
8. Amsterdam – we had some lovely moments there and finally got to see all the places I’d heard so much about over the years
9. Shanghai Chinese restaurant in Berlin where we spoke English, German and Chinese variously depending on which waiter was looking after us
10. Japanese art restaurant in Rothenberg, Germany

ten lowlights
1. Scandinavian trains which were variously 4 hours late, 40 mins late and 1 hour late.
2. Train toilets
3. Couchettes
4. Trains – they’re crap throughout most of Europe
5. Being ripped off by taxi drivers in Vienna and Amsterdam
6. Expense of food throughout Europe, but most notably in Scandinavia in general and Stockholm in particular.
7. Our first hotel in Bergen – we ended up paying for that rat trap as well as the ritzier accommodation we quickly booked as an alternative.
8. Endless restaurant touters on Vaci Utca in Budapest
9. Food fodder breakfasts in Stockholm
10. Stuffiness indoors throughout Bavaria

bergen and the last few weeks

2008-08-11T18:21:00.004+08:00

We pulled in to Bergen at 9pm after a gruelling 33 hours on the trains. The trains throughout Scandinavia are absolute crap! We spent 1.5 hours sitting on a track in the middle of nowhwere with no aircon and no opening windows in 30 degree heat. Just to add a bit more spice they locked the dunnies! After 45 minutes the passengers revolted and finally the staff relented and opened the train doors. People leapt off the train with many disappearing into the bushes for a quick squat. And that wasn't even the worst of it. Couchettes. Don't get me started on couchettes! Anyways, where was I? That's right. We arrived after 9pm, more than four hours late, and found our hotel locked. We eventually dug out a phone number, contacted someone and got a key. We opened the door to what had been advertised online as an internet lobby. In reality it was a dirty, run-down, paint-peeling-off-the-walls, narrow corridor with a couple of filthy Ikea chairs and no power points. We looked up at the stairs at the end. Hmmm. No lifts. Okay, 9:30pm, no shower for days, tired and pissed off after a grueling train trip, but stairs, we can do stairs - even with all our luggage! It was only when we were on the third floor that we realised that our room was going to be on the fifth floor. Well our room turned out to be a cupboard with a double bed and a 1 metre by 1 metre bathroom with a toilet almost directly below the shower. Laugh was all we could do. So we did. Then we showered, went out for a pizza and stopped by a 5-star hotel where we booked ourselves in for the rest of our stay in Bergen.

Bergen Harbour

Fjord Cruise

From Bergen we headed to Stockholm where the food is more expensive than anwywhere else in Europe. We paid 16 euros each for a glass of house wine! It was a very nice glass of wine, but ... that's like $26AUD each! We stayed for a couple of rainy days and then decided to move on to Copenhagen. We packed our bags and headed off to the station where we queued for two hours to be told that the 12:17 train to Copenhagen was fully booked, as were the 5pm train and the 12:17 tomorrow. However, we could take the 5pm the next day and we were lucky because although there were no sleepers or seats available, we could have a couchette! Lucky? Couchette?!!! So we promptly headed over to the internet cafe at the station, booked two train tickets from the station to the airport and two seats on a flight to Amsterdam. A few hours later we were in Amsterdam.

Amsterdam is my mother's home city. So we checked out Vondel Park, her old house and some of the locales I'd heard about over the years. We did the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum, visited a few coffee shops, where you could get all manner of things, but not a decent cup of coffee, checked out the redlight district, walked the canals and bridges and generally enjoyed ourselves before heading off to our last stop - Frankfurt where we booked ourselves into a Kempinski hotel and lapped up the luxury before heading home.

bridges

2008-07-21T18:03:00.010+08:00

There's been a bit of water under the bridge since the last post. We've moved on from waterbound Venice by train. We spent a wonderful few days in Vienna. What a civilised place that is. It's like a perpetual lazy Sunday. The transport system is great and there aren't too many cars on the road. Interestingly the buildings aren't very high. St.Stephan's church towers over the surrounds. It must've seemed an awesome structure to the locals all those years ago.

I was just about churched out by the time I saw it, but St.Stephans still managed to leave a huge impression with it's magnificent gothic interior. What a sensational piece of architecture. We took the mandatory visit to the top of the building. I can't remember ever being so terrified! We got out of the elevator to find ourselves on scaffolding which you could look right through to the ground so far below! I walked around gingerly for a bit and then headed back to the elevator only to find myself in a queue stuck on the scaffoling waiting. I had visions of the scaffolding collapsing and me clinging to the side of the building. I decided right away that I wouldn't be brave and try to cling on for life, I'd just accept my fate as I let go. Well, the scaffolding didn't collapse and I didn't need to make such momentous decisions. The elevator eventually came bringing me down to safety; my heart still pounding.

We then ventured into the catacombs below the church to see the macabre sight of thousands of skeletons of plague victims who'd been tossed down a hole, from the street above, into the catacombs back in the 1600s. Apparently way back when ... the stench got so bad, that they couldn't hold church services anymore, so they had to seal the catacombs for years!

After Vienna, where they can't make a decent martini - but that's another story, we jumped on a train to Budapest where we were ensconced in an apartment on the Pest side of the river where the Blue Danube certainly isn't blue!

From Budapest we moved onto Berlin which we loved and then on to Hamburg which we didn't exactly fall in love with, but where we entertained ourselves by searching out all the Beatles' haunts.

We checked out the Bambi Kino where they lived and several clubs where they played including the Kaiser Keller and the Indra. From there we drove down to Nienburg where my family hails from. It was interesting to see the area, the house my family lived in and all the old streets and haunts they talked about over the years. It's a lovely town on the River Weser. Then it was on to Bremen and a train to Norway. Norway. It's lovely and Bergen IS the most beautiful city on the planet.

rocket man

2008-07-10T12:06:00.012+08:00

The sound system was excellent. The lighting was very pleasant at times. They were the high points of the Elton John concert we saw in San Marco in Venice last night. Even though it was a solo performance it consisted of thumping piano and shouting voice most of the night. There were some pleasant sounding interludes, but they were few and far between. My expectations weren't all that high, but even so, they weren't met.

Venice is an interesting enough place to spend a few days with it's narrow streets, market squares and complete absence of traffic.

Our travels have taken us through a few places of note starting in Paris, moving on to Provence which was just gorgeous, then onto the Riviera (sensational), Tuscany in Italy (beautiful) and Switzerland which was just picture post card perfect. Then on to South Germany / Bavaria which I didn't enjoy much at all. We stayed in an old walled city on the Rhine. The accommodation, restaurants, shops and hotels were all stuffy inside despite the lovely weather outside. There were doilies, rugs, mats, seat cushions, curtains and worst of all plastic flowers everywhere. Internet access was just about non-existent. It really wasn't my cup of tea. The funny side of it was falling into the Rhine - well done me!

Well I've done a bit of griping ... so what are the highpoints of the trip so far? It has to be the fun of learning the signage and some basic transactional language in each country, as well as the scenery a lot of the time. Then there's the people you meet, whose company you enjoy briefly before parting never to see them again.

Lourmarin in Provence - a lovely spot to spend a week

The view from our hotel in Villefranche on the Riviera

Interlaken in Switzerland is beautiful from any angle

Despite my griping about Bavaria, the Rhine cruise is wonderful

I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed the Night Watchman tour in Rothenburg (another plus for Bavaria!)

Venice reminds me of the 1995 Kevin Costner movie, 'WaterWorld.' It was always a bizzare place to build a city!

new bank story

2008-06-19T00:53:00.004+08:00

First our last 500 Dh gets eaten by an ATM. Then another bank stuffs up our credit cards so our holiday spending money is severely curtailed. As if that's not enough. I realise that we have a bit of headroom on our Aussie Citibank card which I haven't used for a long time. I put it into the Citibank ATM to do an account balance and ... the machine eats the card and spits out a message telling me to contact my branch to sort it out. My branch is in Aus!! I ring up Citibank, they have no idea why the ATM ate my card. There is no problem with the account, but it's okay, they can organise to have a new card sent to me within 10 days. Sigh! Problem is I'm leaving in two days. Is the universe trying to tell me something?

banks

2008-06-09T19:54:00.012+08:00

Three days before pay day. We're down to our last 591 Dh. We pat ourselves on the back pleased that we've managed to pre-pay so much of our upcoming holiday and still get through the month. A job well done!

Well, we ARE in the Emirates and things don't usually go as smoothly as we'd like. And of course ... things didn't go as smoothly as we'd have liked. The first ATM apologised for being busy and not being able to help us now, and it politely told us that we could try again later. So we tried the next machine and it gave us the same message. We lumbered up to a third machine, did a balance check and were notified that our balance was 91 Dh. A phone message confirmed that 500 Dh had just come out of our a/c. The only problem was that we didn't get 500 Dh! A call to the CALL centre told us that we'd need to go into a branch to fill in a 'dispute form' which we promptly did only to be told that we'd be notified of the result in about two weeks. Fan-bloody-tastic!

Anyway payday came and went and our coffers were spilling over with money when lo and behold 500Dh mysteriously appeared in our account. I was very pleased to see it because in all honestly I didn't think there was much chance of ever seeing it again. However, with full coffers, the 500 Dh was not nearly as welcome as it would have been just before payday.

During that same few days we tried out our shiney, new visacards that we had just organised with a different bank for our holidays. We're off on a grand tour with no idea of how much it will cost. We figure we'll have just enough or we'll be just a bit short. So we decided to get ourselves a credit card so that we could have the odd splurge if we felt so inclined, and in particular we wouldnt have to curtail our holiday if we'd wildly underestimated the cost. We left ourselves plenty of time to get the cards because of course, we ARE in the Emirates and ...

We tried our cards out in a store in Dubai only to have them rejected. So we later rang the bank and were told that we had cancelled our cards. We very politely insisted that we hadn't in fact cancelled them! The bank finally acknowledged that it was a bank error. For some reason they decided that they'd better close the accounts because they'd been 'opened in error.' Luckily though we didn't need to worry because, and I quote, 'No problem. You apply again and you have new card.' Never mind that last time the process took five weeks from go to whoa! We thanked the CALL centre operator very politely and went into a branch to see if they could help. The girl at the helpdesk looked completely unmoved by our situation and told us she couldn't help and that we'd need to ring the CALL Centre. I bit my tongue and insisted that she ring them which she did promptly handing the phone over to me! Sigh!

We rang the CALL centre back a couple of times and got different people each time who each had a slightly different version of what had happened and what needed to happen next, but all involved a suggestion that we simply apply again! We have one slim chance of being able to pull something off and get our cards reactivated, but we are reliant on one contact's assurance that she can sort it for us.

So that's our current situation. We're off on holiday in a week and a bit and the credit cards that we thought would give us peace of mind on our holiday, have turned into a royal pain.

Don't you love banks? Breathe deep Aussie, after all, you ARE in the Emirates ...

alain (de botton)

2008-05-29T16:52:00.005+08:00

Alain de Botton raises some interesting points in his beautifully written book, 'The Art of Travel.'

He starts off by talking about anticipation being all-important. In the past my travel has involved booking, jumping on a plane and seeing what's out there. Of late, my well-travelled neighbour has planned/helped me plan trips. I've been stunned by the amount of work she puts in, and also stunned at the outcome.

Clearly, thinking about which parts of a city you'll visit, which attractions you'll stop off at, what the 'must do' restaurants and venues are and thinking about the location of the accommodation all help to ensure a fun trip, but most importantly they whet your appetite. She helped us plan a trip to Bangkok. The outcome was that I hated it and loved it at the same time. Interestingly the bits I loved were the bits I'd probably never have found if I walked in with my old 'let's see what comes' attitude. My impression of the city would have been quite different. I enjoyed the planning and the anticipation, and the trip itself was greatly enhanced.

Botton also talks about two different views of travel itself, both of which ring true. One is that if you're moping around and unhappy, you won't enjoy the trip because the fact is that when you go on a trip, you bring yourself with you! The other side of that argument is that on a trip you are out of your normal environment and your old patterns. You can reinvent yourself. Both views seem to me to be true.

Another issue he raises is the romanticisation of travel. We sometimes have wildly inflated views of the thrill of what we'll experience. When the reality doesn't live up to the dream, we can pretend it did. This is the approach that the French novelist, Gustave Flaubert writer of Madame Bovary, apparently took. Or we can reflect on our expectations.

I haven't got to the end of Botton's book yet. I'm too busy planning our European extravaganza. Only 21 sleeps left. Whoo hoo!

difference between a laptop and a macbook

2008-05-16T20:05:00.003+08:00

I published the previous blog from K's Macbook and noticed a difference post-publishing. When I publish on my laptop the pics remain a reasonable size when you click on them on the blog. However, from a Mac-published blog, the pictures are enormous when you embiggen them.

Given that I've been in danger of tossing my laptop out the window on several occasions recently, I decided I'd never talk to it again and would use the Macbook from this day forward. Everything on the Macbook is in the wrong spot. I feel quite dislexic at times. Even the mouse behaves differently. I guess I'll get used to it and even figure out how to publish pics that don't require a giant screen to view them in their entirity.

trip to Fuj

2008-05-16T18:52:00.014+08:00

We set off on an overnight trip to Fujairah last weekend and came home via Dibba. Some parts of the trip were sensational. The first pic is dried out palm fronds that have obviously been growing out of this ute!

In a previous post I mentioned the camel hazard on the road to Fujairah. They are likely to step out in front of speeding cars at any time. Here they did just that. The car in front of us stopped to let a camel by. It was just outside the town of Al Madam. Luckily we, and they, weren't going all that fast! Note the three camels on the other side of the road! Glad no one was driving in that direction at the time.

Building in progress on the outskirts of Fuj.

The beach scenery outside Fuj is pretty.

Sunset in Dibba

Mosque in Dibba

Sunset over an industrial area outside of Dibba

City in the sticks 1 & 2 (In Australian English 'in the sticks' = in the middle of nowhere!)

Houses in the desert

May day

2008-05-02T10:26:00.007+08:00

May Day has a long history. I remember, 100 years ago when I was young, reading about girls dancing around poles adorned with long, colourful ribbons. May Day was a pagan celebration which, like many, was picked up and adapted to a Christian ritual. In my lifetime though May Day was always workers' day. There were marches through the city of Melbourne celebrating workers' rights.

The workers' marches began in the US in 1986 and soon turned into bloody clashes between workers and police. The actual catalyst for the marches though was an event in Melbourne in April of 1856 when stonemasons downed tools and went on strike for an eight hour day. They achieved their goal and battles ensued in other industries and workplaces around the globe. A speaker at the 1901 May Day celebration in Melbourne talked about 'the worker being an abject slave who was downtrodden and oppressed both by capital and the government.' Nothing new here! Another speaker talked about the 'abominable deluge of infernal rubbish' produced by the press. At uni, also a hundred years ago, I had cause to look at many old newspapers. The standard of writing was quite different, but in many ways it had an air of innocence. The 'infernal rubbish' produced back then had nothing on the 'infernal rubbish' we get these days. (How is Madonna these days? And Kylie?)

The 1901 meeting in Melbourne expressed solidarity in the aim of having industry owned and run by the people, to have fair wages for all and to bring an end to militarism. More than a hundred years later none of these things has happened.

I can't see it being in place a hundred years hence either!

pics around al ain

2008-04-20T10:47:00.007+08:00

The first two pictures are of houses facing out to a carpark in Al Jahli. The standard of housing gets a lot less salubrious than this for some workers.

These next few shots are of the desert out past Jebel Hafeet and a couple of shots of the mountain itself.

These last few are more shots of Sanaiya; the industrial area.

trekking Europa

2008-04-17T22:22:00.002+08:00

It's the end of another week ... and only 63 sleeps until our European trek. We've organised a week in each of Provence, Venice and Budapest, but we'll play it by ear/budget for the remaining weeks. We've pencilled in a few days in the south of Germany and a few days in the north with no firm plans. Apart from that I'm torn. I want to go in two directions; one to Greece and Cyprus, the other to Holland and Belgium.

It's sad really that I'm concerned about such matters when the news is full of price rises for basic food items and the devastating impact that'll have on millions. There are probably billions of people who'd trade places and take on my problems if given a chance.

I know that I'm very lucky to have the opportunities that I do. I daily see the contrast between my life and that of the shop keepers and labourers here.

sight seeing in Al Ain

2008-04-11T17:04:00.005+08:00

You've got visitors coming into town on a whirlwind tour. Where do you take them?

1. The Al Ain Museum - My social buddy took me there when I first arrived and I enjoyed it. The static exhibits are a bit the sameish, but they're okay to poke around for a while. I really enjoyed the videos though. They're quite long, but they are an interesting account of the history of the area. The nearby oasis is worth a walk through if it isn't too hot. And then there's the markets opposite.

2. Jebel Hafeet - That's an obvious attraction with the obligatory stop off on the way down at the Mercure for a coffee or a meal.

3. Green Mubuzarah - (how do you spell that?). It's a picnic area with running hot springs. Interesting.

4. Airport Road - There's the road out the back of town and the road to the airport. They're pretty stunning on a first viewing. Well the airport isn't stunning, but I like the plane sculpture on the roundabout; particularly when the water is running. There's quite a variety of desertscapes in a small area too.

5. City Centre - the look of the shops, particularly in the backstreets is fairly interesting.

6. Roundabouts - Can you do a tour of the roundabouts? Seems a bit boring, but I'd actually like to do a roundabout tour and take pics of each roundabout. Have them all recorded before they disappear. I"m sure I'm not the first person to think of that. There are probably several people with lots of roundabout shots and a few with a comprehensive collection. I wonder if anyone has a pic of the clocktower roundabout before it was dereoundabouted.

7. Camels and Building Site - Apparently if you go out on the road to Jebel Hafeet and Green Mubuzarah, but don't take the hafeet turn off, you end up on a road out the back of the mountain that has wall to wall camels and a huge shopping complex that's under construction. Why would they build a shopping complex out there? It's the middle of nowhere. Either it's a completely hair-brained scheme, or it's a good example of forward planning.

8. International Hotels - for a coffee and dinner. There's the French Bakery.

9. The Zoo - haven't done the night walk. I wonder if that's still on, or if it's getting too hot.

10. Malls - yea. I guess.

11. Cinema - There's the one at the mall and there's the one at the Rotana. Why don't they have a gold class cinema? I like a bit of pampering every now and then.

12. Palace Museum - that's an interesting look at how life may have been in the past.
...

I guess there's more, but I've run out of ideas for the moment.

not before time

2008-04-04T20:03:00.001+08:00

A few days ago the Gulf News carried this story. Yay! I'm happy.

'Al Ain Municipality bans smoking in all public places
WAM
Published: March 31, 2008, 15:21

Al Ain: Al Ain Municipality will ban smoking in all enclosed public places as of April 15, according to an administrative decree issued by Awad Khalifa Bin Hasoum Al Darmaki, Director General of the Municipality.'

city centre

2008-04-04T19:28:00.007+08:00

The city centre can be scary. While most roads in Al Ain have three car lanes in each direction, much of the city centre is older and less planned than the newer parts. There are many narrow two way streets with one lane each direction. Toss several double parked cars into the mix and you've got a scary scenario at busy times of the evening. It's not a place I like to be at certain times.

However, the city centre does have some charm too. The coloseum roundabout is stunning, the lanterns on the flyover are pretty and there are bits of beauty dotted here and there.

Sanaiya

2008-04-04T19:03:00.007+08:00

Sanaiya is an ugly place and scary as all %$#@! It's an indsustrial area full of poorly paid, overworked guys with little or no education. Men outnumber women 1000 to 1. However, that's not why it's scary. It's the driving ... probably that's a result of the testosterone. Cars and oversize trucks compete on the roads dodging and weaving. Groups of male pedestrians criss-cross the road any time they see half an opportunity. It's a battlefield and I always breathe a sigh of relief when I'm safely out the other side!

The buildings are mostly old and run down and were poorly built and conceived in the first place. Sanaiya is a 2 minute drive from Ramsay Street where many of us-mob, who came in July last year, live. Despite its ugliness though it does have a certain charm. Somewhere in the shapes, colours, sounds, squalor, danger, fading signage, sand and mountain-backdrop there's something likeable.

man-eating mozzies

2008-03-29T19:49:00.004+08:00

There are giant man-eating mosquitos in Al Ain. I've never seen such big ones. They're quite easy to see and swat, but there are sooo many of them. We had to leave the classroom the other day to get it fumigated because we were all chatting away and simultaneously swatting mozzies. Apparently the college is being fumigated over the weekend and the surrounds are being 'fogged.' I hate to think what 'fogged' might mean. It conjures up visions of giant DDT clouds.

I keep wondering what diseases the beasts are carrying. I'm told that malaria disappeared from this area in the dim and distant past, but I'm also told (lots of rumours flying around in Al Ain) that if you are diagnosed with malaria you are refused treatment if you claim you got it here. However, if you got it in another country, you'll get treatment. I've heard of problems being legislated out of existence and of unemployment queues being substantially diminished simply by redefining terms. Simply refusing to acknowledge a disease as being away of getting keeping the records clean is another lateral thinking approach!

bizarre news stories today

2008-03-22T03:01:00.004+08:00

A story I spotted in a Brisbane paper today about an incident in Florida, USA - Stingray leaps on to boat killing woman. Stingrays don't leap out of the water and attack people! That's just ridiculous! What was the ray thinking? They're only supposed to attack when they're under threat. A woman sitting in a boat shouldn't be a threat. How bizarre.

And one from a Melbourne newspaper - Infected Australian computers fetch top dollar. Say what? Apparently if you infect 1000 Aussie computers with viruses, you can score $100 USD from Russian bad guys. UK computers are worth $60, US computers $50 and Spanish computers $25. Why is anyone paying for this and why are Aussie computers worth more? Apparently the computers are being hijacked for mass-mailing SPAM. Aussie computers are hot property because Aussies are the slackest when it comes to protecting their computers so it means their computers can be hijacked longer than UK, US or any others.

And finally, Perth man sells life on Ebay. A man in Perth is selling everything on Ebay including his home and all of its contents as well as his car, clothes, introductions to all of his friends and even a trial at his work place. Apparently he's recently separated from his wife and he's not happy with his life. He's going to sell everything and start again.

road to Fujairah

2008-03-15T14:27:00.008+08:00

We jumped in the car with the duo (T & C) yesterday without any particular plans. The car took us to Fujairah where we visited an old fort. The drive off the main road and up to the fort was a bit hair-raising given that it was a narrow road with lots of blind corners and we were armed with the knowledge that others are quite happy to do 140 kms on roads like this based on the assumption that there couldn't possibly be other cars around. We managed to get to the fort and back without mishap. The road took us past a new village that noticeably had one mansion and lots of dorm-like housing for workers. We continued along the road to the fort and ducked around the back where we were greeted with stunning scenery. There's a wadi rich with plant life and a hillside opposite dotted with caves.

Furjairah itself was interesting to see. There's a really weird seaside picnic area with multiple drive-in booths with individual shelters for cars alongside seating for 8 - 10 people. It was a little reminiscent of drive-in movie theatres back home. The place had a forlorn feeling of a bygone era. It looked like it would have been a happening thing in 1963. Other parts of the town were quite modern with high-rise buildings and international hotels.

On the trip home we headed back on a new road that is totally unsigned. It runs from Kalba through to Al Madam. It's a regular freeway with two lanes in either direction and is fully paved; an easy drive. There are a couple of tunnels along the way and some wonderful mountain views. Parts of the road have attractive fencing and footpaths which is quite strange given that it's apparently in the middle of nowhere.
There are a couple of government buildings and some very swish looking housing dotted here and there, but otherwise nothing.

One thing noticeable on other roads on the route was the free roaming camels. There were many on the sides of the roads. Two steps to the side and the'd be right in front of the car. From what I can gather this used to be quite common all over the Emirates, but it is unusual now. Rumour has it that if you hit a camel, you are liable to pay the owner the price of the beast. Rumour also had it that this was a bit of a racket in the past when unscrupulous owners would lead their old or sick camels onto the road and wait.

two things I hate about Al Ain

2008-03-08T21:37:00.005+08:00

The weather is beautiful again today. I've got the windows and doors open and there's a gentle breeze. I live close to a small store which is very convenient at times. However, I've got a couple of gripes about it all.

1. Why do delivery people turn up to the store at all times of the day and early evening leaving their truck engines running for up to half an hour at a time? The noise is horrendous and the contribution to excess engergy use and to air pollution can't be good! Not to mention noise pollution ... even after closing our double glazed windows the noise is disturbing.

2. Why do customers think it is reasonable to drive up to the shop and hoot their horns? When he's there the guy working in the shop rushes out to assist them. Is it really too much to get out of your car and take 6 steps into the store? Why do people think it's reasonable to have the shop guy at their beck and call? The hooting is annoying especially when the guy isn't there (he's often out on his bike making deliveries of water, gas or other items.). It seems that a locked shop door isn't enough of a signal and people sit there hooting for several minutes before they finally give up and tear off down the street; often at break neck speed.

The delivery truck that prompted this entry has been making a racket out the front for 40 minutes now.

Just as I hit publish, the driver got back into the truck ready to take off. I caught the culprit on camera albeit through the flyscreen!

massive price rises

2008-02-29T12:24:00.005+08:00

I dined last night at my fave Al Ain restaurant in one of the International hotels. One of the things I've always liked about it is that the service fee of 10% and the tourism fee of 6% are built into the prices, so it is easy to calculate your bill. At the other hotels you have to total your bill and then add 16%, so you sometimes forget and get caught off guard with a higher cost. Having it included from the start seems much more honest to me. Well low and behold (I think that is the first time I've ever used that expression!) the menu prices at my fave were the same, but a bit of paper stuck on the bottom said 'add 10% service fee and 6% tourism fee.' In one little sticky bit of paper, they'd upped their prices 16%! So disappointing. So costly.

An article in the Gulf News the other day talked about the huge increase in the cost of food. In the last year rice has gone up 51%, chicken 66%, cooking oil 80%, potatoes 23%. Overall the increase is 36% in a 12 month period.

Apparently some people are going to neighbouring countries to stock up on cheaper supplies.

The rises have been blamed on the currency being pegged to the US dollar. This has meant that imports cost a lot more. A further rise of 70% is expected this year. There doesn't seem to have been a great deal of discussion in the news though about unhitching from the dollar.

And to make things worse, many of us didn't get a pay rise to offset the cost of living rises. Bleat. Bleat.

crimson skies

2008-02-29T11:44:00.002+08:00

I got up at 4am today and looked out the window, as you do. Jebel Hafeet wasn't there. Usually it's somewhat visible at night because of the lights snaking up it. Last night it wasn't there. It was cloaked in a crimson sky. It was the most amazing colour. The world seemed to be on fire. I've not seen anything like it outside of war / armageddon type movies.

who knew?

2008-02-28T17:57:00.010+08:00

NDD is a factor in ADHD, depression and violence. Reseachers have found that NDD is associated with health and societal problems. Reducing NDD may well reduce the incidence of these other problems. What is NDD? Nature Deficit Disorder; a lack of trees and greenery in our environment.

Sounds like an idea worth pursuing. I heard a program on the radio last night Greening our Psyche where the point was made that 'our brain didn't grow, evolve and adapt in an environment of grey filing cabinets.'

Poets and artists have long admired greenery. Psychologists have begun using it in therapy. However, town planners have seen it as something that is 'nice' if we can afford it, but not a necessity. Is it a necessity? A study in Chicago looked at 14 fairly identical public housing developments where low income people, often single parents with young children, lived. The apartments tended to be small and overcrowded. Children had little opportunity to play outside. Researchers found that the incidence of violence and crime was highest in the developments that had fewer or no trees.

Apparently greenery seems to psychologically rejuvenate people. We are better able to withstand pressure and more able to control our impulses. The research claims that by greening the worst affected housing developments, crime could be reduced by as much as 7 percent. The Chicago Housing Authority has taken the research on board and is now greening the developments. Trees, grass and playgrounds are now appearing where before there was nothing. Green spaces are increasingly being viewed as community living rooms.

Interesting to see if the crime rates do drop and if depression and ADHD reduce. It seems like a safer, cheaper, healthier approach than medication.

But what about desert dwellers? Are we doomed?

Pic from http://www.lhhl.uiuc.edu/girls_self-discipline.htm

buraimi

2008-02-23T22:01:00.002+08:00

My favourite kind of pharmacy. I'm all for science in medicine. I wonder what basis 'non-scientific' pharmacies run on.

new car

2008-02-23T11:38:00.002+08:00

Hey! We got the new car ... and it only took a week longer than we were told it would. That's not bad! It's all white and shiny!

We were at a dinner last night where people who'd been here a while were talking about cars and driving in Al Ain. There were stories of deaths, accidents caused by being hit from behind, a car just the other day lying upside down on the median strip with people trapped inside and wheels spinning forlornly in the air, and one of a recent incident near Al Ain mall where a large 4 wheel drive, rather than stop at a red light, chose to drive over the top of the car in front and come to a stop with it's back wheels dangling through the front window.

It seems that a Hummer would have been a wiser purchase than my little 4 cylinder job, but then ... I got the car I was prepared to pay for. I just have to hope that it remains all white and shiny and manages to avoid bingles.

blog attack

2008-02-20T11:16:00.003+08:00

I've had three comments on my blog recently that make statements like

'Doushura said... For a more complete comments, I would advise you to be more detailed information, for example 'here or here.'

When I mouse over 'here' and 'here' I can see that they are both links to websites. One is a link to a site with the word 'pharmaceutical' in it. What is this all about? It seems like SPAM has arrived in blogdom. To post to a blog though you need to type in the free form group of 6(-ish) letters that appear at the bottom. This suggests that the spamming is manual rather than mass.

This is all a bit disappointing. We have to contend with daily email SPAM (despite paying for SPAM filters) and now it's arrived in blogs too.

the universe unfolds

2008-02-15T11:23:00.004+08:00

We took the big step on Tuesday of putting down a deposit for a shiny new car. We were told that it would be registered and ready to drive away on Thursday. We've been here long enough to know that that wasn't going to happen. This is the middle east. Things don't work like that, and of course they didn't work like that.

The car dealer can get much cheaper finance through the banks than we can, so we left it in his hands to organise that. Well, the first three banks he tried rejected us. Why, you ask? The problem is that we've got a joint bank account and our bank statements list K's name first. It shows his Surname, his first name, his middle name and then the statement says '& Mrs' but it doesn't get any further. So my income is going into the account, but my name isn't on the statements. The other banks don't like it and they say they'll only give us the finance if the account is in my name only! Sigh! We haven't heard back from the 4th bank yet. The 4th bank is our own bank, surely they won't reject it ... ? I guess we'll hear the next instalment of that saga on Sunday.

There is another spanner in the works ... of course. To get a loan you need to have a salary statement from your employer. I got one of those a while back when we first started thinking seriously about getting a car. The catch is that the salary statement can't be more than 30 days old. Mine was 28 days old on Tuesday when we put down the deposit on the car. It was 30 days old on Thursday. So I'm guessing that the next thing that will happen is that our own bank will approve the loan pending a current salary statement. The last one took me almost two weeks to get by the time the employer had lost my application for it and I'd reapplied, then they'd given me one with wrong information and finally 14 days later I got the right one.

So I've got a car in waiting, but I don't expect to see it in my carport any time soon!

What drove us to finally make a move to get a car was our utter annoyance at the hire cars we were getting. The one we've got now reeks of cigarette smoke. As soon as you put the a/c on there's a huge dose of eau de fag. The car doesn't have central locking let alone keyless entry ... how did we ever survive without those necessities? The auto gear shift is clunky, there are scratches all over the body and to top it off it costs Dhs 200 more than we were paying when we left for hols a few weeks ago.

If the universe unfolds such that our shiny new car never actually gets to us, we'll let it rest there and say it wasn't meant to be and we'll probably keep hiring for a bit ... or maybe we'll just walk everywhere! But, all being well I'm hoping to be the proud owner of the new beast by week after next, or the week after that. Inshallah.

green green green - back in australia

2008-02-09T15:32:00.000+08:00

I love a sunburnt country
A land of sweeping plains
Of ragged mountain ranges
Of drought and flooding rains
I love her far horizons
I love her jewel sea
Her beauty and her terror
The wide brown land for me

(from a poem which every Aussie child learns in primary school – written by Dorothy McKellar 100 years ago.)

GOLD COAST
Strangely my first impression on going back to Aus and the Gold Coast is of green trees, green grass and beautiful skies. It’s lovely to smell the fresh sea breeze and to walk around the Broadbeach restaurants and beaches. There’s been a lot of rain. The dams are full, but the water restrictions are still in place and may become a permanent feature of life in Aus.

MOURA
(On the road to Moura)

Our travels took us up to Moura; two hours inland from Rockhampton. Rocky was flooded with the Fitzroy river having burst its banks leaving some houses with wet feet. Floods are not an uncommon phenomenon though and the typical house in the area is built 2 metres above the ground. So no major damage was caused.

MELBOURNE
(Bathing boxes on the beach at MtMartha - just outside Melbourne)

We traipsed 3000 kms south down to Melbourne which is gorgeous; so green. We’re thinking that when we move back to Aus we might buy an apartment in St.Kilda; the suburb we both grew up in. It has wonderful restaurants, coffee shops and the beach, and it’s just a short tram ride to the city.

(Shots of the city centre. Melb is a great mix of old and new and has lots of greenery even in the CBD.

BANGKOK
We spent a few days in Bangkok with which we quickly developed a love / hate relationship. Frankly, it reeks. The stench on the streets is unbelievable; quite overwhelming at times. I gave up smoking more than 25 years ago but during one short stroll from the river to the station I felt like I’d inhaled 25 years worth of cigarettes (that’s over 180,000 cigarettes!). The pollution just seemed to hang there and the air had a black pall to it. In addition to the pollution there’s an ever present stench of rotting food, mingled with sewer and intensified by the heat, which attacks the olefactory nerves! (The river banks are a constant contrast of old and new of wealth and squalor.)
(This was one of the nicer street markets we saw.)

However, a lot of time is spent above street level. We were introduced to some sensational places including a Jazz bar with the all time coolest band. They played largely favourites from the American song book. Two of the band were from Chicago, one from New York. The bass player was from Aus. She was fantastic. I’ve never appreciated that instrument so much.
The drummer was wonderfully sparse. He used brushes most of the night. The sax player was great as was the singer / pianist. The venue was just wonderful with comfy arm chairs, no overcrowding and good food and drink. Our friends also urged us to see the Moon Bar, but hadn’t told us much about it. We were blown away! Sensational; a must-see on any Bangkok trip.

tuscan dreaming

2008-01-19T20:01:00.000+08:00

I've got it into my head that I want to go to Tuscany in July. I hadn't given it much thought before today, but suddenly it's a 'must do' despite two huge drawbacks; firstly the net is covered with stories about thieves and pickpockets targeting older travellers (I think that includes me these days!!) especially around stations and areas where tourists hangout in Firenze. The second drawback is that I have it on good authority (Seinfeld episode from about 1997) that it's impossible to find accommodation there. Seinfeld wouldn't mislead me on that or any other issue, I'm sure. So I'm gonna be Tuscan-dreaming for the next few months, or at least for the rest of the day.

The other big issue on my mind is cars; to buy or not to buy? All the arguments are in favour of buying rather than continuing to rent, but I seem unable to take the step. I'm afraid of commitment! I thought that was supposed to be a guy thing!

Some days I decide, 'Yes, I'll do it.' Others days I decide, 'No, not yet.' There are also days when I struggle with 'shall I get car X which is very sensible and gets lots of good reviews, or should I get car Y which is gonna be more fun, but is more expensive and doesn't get such good reviews.' So I can't decide whether to be sensible, a little reckless or just plain indecisive. Indecision is still winning out.

it rained today

2008-01-14T01:07:00.000+08:00

Yay! It rained for about 5 mins while I was in Khalifa Street today. Sensational! It was continuous rain, but not all that heavy. Interestingly the water didn't have anywhere to drain and there were huge puddles in the right lanes of the road.

This is where I should have a good picture of Khalifa Street puddles, but I was enjoying the rain too much to even think about getting a pic.

jebel hafeet goes missing

2008-01-11T21:20:00.001+08:00

As I look out my lounge window I see grey sky where the mountain used to be. Jebel Hafeet has gone. It is no longer there; finished, kaput, nichts.

One wonders how it could have been moved over night and where it went. Did a conga line of large trucks come and 'disappear it' in the middle of the night? Is it being used for off-shore palm fronds in Dubai? Were aliens involved?

There's an obvious crack waiting to be written here, but in view of the unfortunate naming of a teddy bear in a near-by country, I'd best refrain.

The simple answer to the mystery is desert storms. The air is full of sand effectively screening the mountain from view. I've not seen it quite like this before. The atmosphere is heavy and pregnant with expectation and perhaps anticipation of imminent relief. It seems that rain is needed to lift the heaviness and clear the air. I wonder whether that happens here.

I'm hoping that I can soon report 'It rained today.' In the almost six months that I've been here I think I've seen about six drops of rain - one for every month. Rain would be nice. Funny how much you can miss it!

OSCAR

2008-01-02T23:09:00.000+08:00

Oscar died in Australia today. He was 11 years old and was taken by a tick. I'm going back to Aus in a few weeks and hadn't realised how much I was looking forward to seeing Os again. He'll be terribly missed.

Os we all loved you dearly. RIP.

christmas, birthdays and all that

2007-12-28T12:49:00.001+08:00

I'm another year older. A year ago I hadn't imagined myself celebrating my birthday 10,000 kms from home, I hadn't imagined having 5 waiters come to my table carrying a tiny cake with candle and singing 'happy birthday' and I hadn't imagined dining with new friends. The other things I hadn't imagined were manifold, amongst them the increasing saggy-baggyness of my skin, my increasingly drooping eyelids and the increasing number of wrinkles. To be fair though, I am sitting at my computer with strong morning uplight reflecting my face onto the screen in front of me. Frankly I'd rather not have to be looking at it!

Christmas has come and gone. We had a lovely Christmas dinner with half a dozen of our neighbours. The hosts went all out. The table and dining room were beautifully decorated in red and green with sparklies all around, the food and drink were top notch and the company was wonderfully engaging. Christmas day itself was topped and tailed by other 'does' around and about the place. It's been a lovely few days.

I ventured off to the zoo with my students on Christmas day. We had a ball.

The bird show is always a highlight. It was quite up close and personal as there were only 14 of us. Later some of the girls were even brave enough, after a few minutes, to have snakes dangling from their arms. Unfortunately it's not appropriate to take pics of the girls, so I didn't get many shots. This is the largest falcon in the UAE.

Now the New Year is almost upon us. My plan for this year is simply to survive another year reasonably intact. That's not so ambitious and should be achievable.

On a completely different note, we had pizza for lunch the other day and later ventured out into the laneway at back. I spotted a room full of sheesha pipes with these three out the front in the process of being cleaned.

muscat

2007-12-22T11:40:00.000+08:00

We ventured right into the thick of Oman for the first time. The border crossing was messy. You have to drive through an immigration post, then get out of the car, fill in a form, hand it in to a guy who takes the form, checks the passport and stamps it. Then you have to pay to leave the country, get back in the car and show some papers at the exit booth. That's to leave UAE.

After that you drive through a kind of no-man's land for 5 - 10 mins before finally driving past an Omani immigration booth, handing in your passports, getting out of the car, going into a fairly swish building, queueing up to get your passports back, queueing up to pay for a visa, filling out some forms, queueing up again to have the forms and passports checked and finally being able to leave. But, hey, not so easy ... there was the issue of the Omani insurance that, though it had been paid for when buying the car, was not evident on the card we had. So we couldn't get past the immigration exit booth and had to go back to immigration to repay insurance that had already been paid! During our initial stint inside the building the other woman in our group was questioned about where her husband was (he was standing next to her) and K was looked upon with suspicion and questioned about why HE wasn't working in UAE. The implication here was that as a man he should be working. Never mind that he is actually working, just not in UAE and not for a UAE organisation. Also it seems that a woman on her own shouldn't be travelling. She should be accompanied by her husband. We were left wondering if these moral judgements made us unworthy travellers in Oman and why on earth the bureacracy couldn't get the insurance right. None of this was consistent with the stories we'd heard about how lovely and friendly the Omani people were.

An hour later, after passing a lone mosque set in the mountains, we found ourselves in Sohar. We'd heard about the beaches there and decided to check them out. Our drive took us through some narrow back streets that were really interesting for us. The housing was very basic brick huts, some with ornate doorways. Groups of men and youths were sitting in doorways (it was a holiday). We didn't see many women, but a few colourfully dressed girls were about. We got the impression that we were reasonably interesting for the locals too as they were all waving and saying hello as we drove by. Had no westerner gone this way before?

The sea seemed to be undervalued. A few old houses backed onto it, but none made use of the views. The sand was littered with debris; soft drink cans and papers. We found a relatively clean area and had a picnic lunch (making sure not to add to the debris!!). After lunch I ventured down to the water and was shocked to find that the 'lumps' I'd seen from the distance, and assumed to be jellyfish, were actually goat pelts. They were mainly skin and fur with the odd hoof. One goat consisted of just a pelt and a head. I quickly remembered that it was Eid. At this time of year the locals sacrifice an animal in memory of Ibrahim's sacrificial offering of his son to God. Along the highway out of Sohar towards Muscat there were goat carcasses strewn here and there. Although I knew about the practice, it was difficult being confronted with it in this way.

Things picked up once we hit Muscat. It is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful city with many forts, magnificent mosques and an array of interesting buildings, old and new. There was no confronting evidence of sacrifical practices. We indulged ourselves well beyond any kind of sensible budget and stayed at the Grand Hyatt. Wow! It was sensational; a feast for the eyes. Every interior, every exterior view was magnificently opulent. From our room we had a view over the beautiful gardens and pools out to the Indian ocean.

Muscat is set in a valley with the white houses and buildings nestled against a magnificent rugged mountain backdrop. The roadsides are green and planted with colourful flowers again contrasting with the red / brown of the mountains and the white of the buildings. There were no signs of rubbish. Everything was kempt and picture perfect. Later we drove through some of the less salubrious parts of town. They were interesting in their own right. The older areas had narrow streets with fairly shabby housing. All of the housing seemed to have air-con and satellite dishes though. Some of the areas in, around and just out of the city have magnificent views of housing, mountains, bay and / or ocean. It is picture post-card perfect in all directions.

We visited a wonderful village. Goats and chickens were wandering freely in the sand, scrub and laneways. A few locals were sitting about or getting on with their day to day lives. Wooden boats rested on the sand attesting to the importance of fishing in this village.

Everywhere we went was either sensational to look at or remarkably interesting. I'd happily go back to do some exploring. I'd even give Sohar another look in, but not at Eid! The return across the border went reasonably quickly and without frustration.

don't get sick on saturday

2007-12-15T20:30:00.000+08:00

The hospitals here in Al Ain are plain weird. It is difficult to locate the appropriate outpatients desk and then once you get there, you don't know what to do. Should you queue up? Should you go straight to a desk where people seem intent on ignoring you? What are the procedures? Should you let your spouse keel over and die while staff happily ignore you both? I decided against the latter and insisted on getting some attention. My spouse was quickly seated while I was sent to the other end of the hospital to register. Once I'd registered, I had to make a point of asking what we had to do next, because I wasn't told. Armed with the appropriate information, K and I went to the nurses' desk and again I had to let it be known that we needed to see a doctor quickly.

Saturday, I have to tell you, is not a good day to get sick as the hospital has a lot in common with the Japanese subway where they have staff employed to stuff half a dozen more people into the already overcrowded carriages!

We soon jumped the queues and got to see a nurse who wired K up to a machine and then attempted to administer some oxygen. Unfortunately the oxygen cylinder was empty, so an orderly was quickly called to bring in a new one. The new one was wired up and the mask was put over K's face. With his entire body pinioned under a series of leads going off in all directions, he started trying to get to his hand to his face and was told to leave the mask alone as he needed oxygen for his heart muscles. He kept struggling. The nurse took the mask off his face and K informed him with his last gasp that he couldn't breathe. It turned out that the replacement gas cylinder was empty too! A third one was soon delivered. After the ECG K was given some meds and choofed off to another room for blood tests. Two and a half hours later some of the results came back! I was despatched to an office in Area B. I wasn't told what for, but I dutifully went. It turned out that I had to pay my 50Dhs insurance excess. An hour later the rest of the results came back. Half an hour after that he saw the doctor, who was very good!

When queue jumping takes over 4 hours you have to feel sorry for those who patiently wait their turn!

The whole time in the hospital you are not sure where you are supposed to go or what you are waiting for. You get told to go to various locations, but you are not sure why. It seems that the staff know their routines and what everything is, and it is assumed that patients know it all too!

The standard of medical care is good (apart from the odd incident of almost suffocating patients with non-existent oxygen), but the standard of communciation about where to go and why is very poor. And ... I'm not sure that there is actually a triage. It seems that to get urgent attention you need to jump up and down a bit.

Well that was my Saturday! How was yours? Oh, K's much better now.

the honeymoon is over

2007-12-11T05:36:00.000+08:00

I've read about the phases we go through with new events in our lives like working or studying overseas. The graph starts about 70 percent up the vertical axis (denoting satisfaction level) and increases albeit with a few dips over the first couple of weeks as our emotions range from anticipation and excitement through to frustration and disappointment. This is quickly followed by a honeymoon period, often lasting about three months, where the graph peaks. During this time everything is wonderful. The odd setback is hardly noticed.

After this there is a sharp dip where we wonder what we are doing in this strange place with these strange people. Why are we doing what we are doing? Should we have come here? How long can we manage to stay? What is going to go wrong next? Were we crazy to embark on the venture? The graph bottoms out.

This period can last weeks to months and is then followed by a recovery period during which we tend to go up to between 60 and 80 percent on the satisfaction level scale and pretty much stay there, though it can be interupted by a period of homesickness.

For me the honeymoon is over. I'm tumbling and hoping I've bottomed out! Can't wait for the recovery phase to hit. It will hit, won't it?

istanbul

2007-12-05T02:27:00.000+08:00

Darkness. The narrow cobblestone road glistens, reflecting shoplights as a light rain falls. A man walks by hands in coat pockets. A girl wrapped in a woolly hat and scarf passes by chatting on a mobile phone. Couples hand in hand stroll by as the rain drizzles. A man in uniform comes running around the corner and disappears down the stairs into the Turkish Delight shop opposite. We watch it all from our vantage point by a large window in a warm and cosy restaurant.

We just got back from Istanbul. What a fabulous city!

It’s late afternoon and we drop into a sweet shop for something to have after dinner. The girl behind the counter urges us to try a piece of Turkish delight with pistachio in it. Yum. Next she wants us to try some pistachio with orange, then some chocolate delight, then some … and it goes on until we tell her we couldn’t possible try anything else. It’s all delicious. We purchase some of the things we tried and some we didn’t. There are some absolute gems amongst them. The 5-star winner is the pistachio nut surrounded by chocolate flavoured Turkish delight and then choc dipped with pistachio powder on top. Who thought of that one? Sensational! Some of the sweets are cut from 45 centimetre wide, 60 centimetre high cylinders much like the cylinders that kebab meat is cut from.

Some of the shop names make us laugh; ‘Dagi’ has to be a bad name for a fashion shop! The person who named the 'Hotel Ufuk' probably wasn't an English speaker!

We found that the restaurants advertising 'authentic Turkish food' were very ordinary while the little cafes (borek shops) were fantastic; cheap and delicious. Interestingly we didn't come across what we understood to be Turkish food. We were familiar with Turkish food from Sydney Road in Melbourne, Australia. This kind of food didn't seem to exist in Istanbul, or we couldn't find it, and we are wondering if perhaps it is peasant food. The Turkish bread in Melbourne is senstational, and is quite different to the bread in the restaurants in Istanbul where it was largely Greek style white bread.

I adored the Blue Mosque. The Hagia Sophia was really interesting. It has a history of hundreds of years as a church before being converted hundreds of years ago to a mosque. Although I enjoyed visiting the Topkapi palace and the Dolmabache, I found that I got a bit of a case of 'opulence fatigue.' Gold plated walls and ceilings are amazing, but you can only maintain interest for a limited number of rooms. The remains of a Roman hippodrome are pretty amazing.

I'd never realised previously that the river Bosphoros splits the city in two with one side being on the European continent and the other being in Asia. But then, I'm sure that there's an awful lot I haven't realised!

election day

2007-11-24T12:01:00.001+08:00

It's election day in Aus. My daughter is casting her vote for the first time and, surprisingly, she is actually revved up, has done her research and has been instrumental in getting her mates to do their research and take their vote seriously.

My son and his girlfriend are actually running a polling booth in central Queensland. Previously my son has shown lacklustre interest. This time he's right in the thick of it.

Voting in Aus is compulsory with a monetary penalty for not doing so. K and I had a 'vote and dine' trip to Abu Dhabi yesterday, so we've done our bit.

I'm ecstatic that my kids are taking their votes seriously; it's so good to see the younger generation feeling like they can make a difference. I remember when I felt empowered! Ah, thems were the days! NowI've become one of those jaded, cynical, older people. I vote in a safe seat that is held by a party I'd never support. My vote will be a vote against the incumbent, but it won't dislodge him. I wonder if there is any point.

I'll be watching the live streaming broadcast this afternoon hoping that my vote will be part of a swing that will see seats change hands and hoping that the results will continue to enthuse the younger generation and make them feel like they can have an influence. How good would it be to see the young actively involved and pushing for change to make this a better planet to live on?

november

2007-11-12T23:54:00.000+08:00

There's been an extraordinary number of birthdays here in Al Ain this month. There must be something about expats and locals alike that happens in February.

no fuss hairdressing

2007-11-06T22:05:00.001+08:00

A hairdresser who comes to your home here in Al Ain,cuts your hair, chats pleasantly while she works and then leaves! The whole ordeal is over with in no time. What a find!

I don't usually like going to the hairdresser because I don't like the whole 'pamper me' thing. I far prefer the 'do it quick and efficient' approach to hair cuts. I'm a happy customer today.

Al Ain has lots of little secrets waiting to be uncovered.

expat trap

2007-11-04T22:04:00.001+08:00

I'm starting to feel comfortable with this expat lifestyle and I can see how people find it difficult to ever go back home! The salary here isn't fantabulous, but it is quite reasonable and more than most EFL teachers would get in their own country. The cost of living is cheaper than at home and a huge plus is that we don't have to pay health insurance, accommodation or tax. The teaching and professional development standards are excellent. There's lots of opportunity for travel. The holidays are wonderful.

If we go home, it becomes something of a struggle to make ends meet. Why would you do it?

family, fossils and the zoo

2007-10-27T15:20:00.000+08:00

I've been to Aus and back since my last post because my brother-in-law passed away quite suddenly. Although it is sad, there is some comfort in the fact that he was happy and quite active in his last few years. He regularly rode his bicycle 200 kms or more on the weekend. That's like riding to Dubai and back! He had lots of friends, family and was involved in the community in a number of capacities.

His passing struck my niece and nephew hardest. They lost their mother 10 years ago and now their father. Their courage in the circumstances was amazing. They are both married with young children. Both have a three year old and a one year old. They organised the funeral at which they both spoke. They met all of their father's friends and relatives and remained composed throughout. As well as managing their familes and the funeral, they had to sort out their father's business affairs. He was a lawyer who worked from home and had a large client list with many cases half done and in urgent need of attention. Neither of them work in that area, but they managed to contact the appropriate people to help them sort through it all. In addition they had to find the will and start thinking about what will happen to the property. I was amazed by their ability to cope. I was proud of them and know that my sister, their mother, would have been very proud of her children.

On a far more mundane note, I finally ventured over the border into Oman. We went to a souk in Buraimi and on to a hotel for lunch. Later we peeped at fossil valley which is quite a sensational landscape. Speaking of fossils, I wouldn't have been surprised if John Wayne had ridden by on horseback wearing his red and white kerchief. It is a stunning landscape.

Oh, and I recently went to the zoo. I just love it. We went during Eid but having heard about the likelihood of crowds, we got there at 8:30 in the morning so it was reasonably quiet. Some of the exhibits are a little sad. There is a lone gorilla who was intent on showing his back to any onlookers. The monkeys looked a little cramped. The highlight was the giraffes. It was quite funny to see a keeper wheeling a wheelbarrow along being followed by giraffes, deer, ibises, emu and an assortment of other animals. Clearly it was breakfast time!

driving in Al Ain

2007-10-11T12:36:00.000+08:00

This strikes me as being a telling juxtaposition of postings! If anything drives me out of Al Ain, it'll be the traffic. It's just manic. We took a wrong turn last night at about 9pm and ended up in the city which was not quite what we had in mind. It was 10pm before we managed to get out the other end!

To say the traffic was bumper to bumper is to put it mildly. It was side panel to side panel, front right corner to front left fender, back left fender to bumper. If there was half a centimetre to spare anywhere, a car was sure to see that as an opportunity to jump in. Pedestrians were leaping off dark sidewalks criss crossing the traffic, so anytime cars moved at more than .25 of a km an hour brakes were slammed on suddenly. A couple of times we wanted to go one way, but someone more determined and more assertive muscled their way infront of us and forced us to go another direction. At one stage we ended up in a grid locked car park we hadn't intended to be in. It took a 53 point turn and some derring-do to get out. It was impossible to see what was happening at roundabouts because there was almost always either a 4WD or a car with tinted windows on our left.

I should laugh, but it really is quite stressful.

all grown up

2007-10-08T19:30:00.000+08:00

I got my licence. I got my licence. (sung to the tune of the kids taunt ... nah nah nah nah-nah.)

a good day in doobs

2007-10-05T12:18:00.001+08:00

I went back to Dubai last weekend for the first time since 'the accident.' I felt quite safe as we were in a ginormous 4-wheel drive. My previous impressions of Dubai were that it was one huge construction site with unreasonble heat, traffic accidents and ridiculously big shopping malls.

This time it was a magic place. At sunset we wandered through the narrow cobblestone laneways of a souk near a river where dhows were making their way up and down and the call to prayer was sounding in the background. (The cost of a dhow trip is Dh1 unless you are a westerner in which case they'll try to charge Dh10. If you happen to be Japanese it seems that the cost is likely to be Dh100. The thing to do apparently is to hand over Dh1 and laugh if they try to tell you it is more.) We'll save the dhow trip until next time as the spice market across the river wasn't open; and that seems to be the place to go.

That evening we went out for dinner and had drinks on a lantern-lit terrace by a river upon which once again dhows were criss crossing. It was beautiful; straight out of a fairytale. I wouldn't have been too surprised if Aladdin had flown by on a magic carpet. The weekend was topped off by getting up at 8am on Saturday morning just in time to watch the Australian Football League Grand Final live from Melbourne. A sensational, unexpected treat; and Geelong won for the first time in over 40 years - way to go Geelong!

So what do I think of Dubai? Well, it has bad days, but it definitely has good days too.

damned

2007-09-27T03:25:00.000+08:00

Why does technology insist on being 2 steps forward and 1.99 steps back? It's soooooo frustrating sometimes. 'They' say (and we all know what an authority 'they' is) that problems with technology are as stress-inducing as divorce. I've never tried divorce, but I can attest to the absolute frustration and elevated blood pressure induced by FTP program glitches and various other technological mishaps. It's a wonder that my laptop hasn't been flung across the room to lie shattered into teensy slivers. A compounding factor is that my website host is in Aus and is virtually incommunicado.

On the other hand, I can't imagine life without technology.

Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

jebel hafeet

2007-09-22T05:42:00.000+08:00

Have I mentioned that I can see Jebel Hafeet from my lounge window? It's the highest mountain in UAE, though to be fair, it isn't very high at all. However, in a largely flat landscape it is significant. It has a paved road snaking up it which is lined with street lamps and looks just sensational at night. It really does look like the stairway to heaven.

time to grow up

2007-09-19T00:37:00.000+08:00

The hardest thing about being an expat here in Al Ain is the sense of being a child again. I feel like I can't do anything without assitance. I need to get my driver licence, but first I need to get my Aussie licence translated. Where do I do that? Why can't it be at 352 High Street near the corner of Smith? Why does it have to be past this roundabout towards Choitrums (how do you spell that) down that lane with the women's tailor on the corner, three doors up, take the stairs ... etc. And what time are they open during Ramadan anyway? I need some more water delivered. Why can't I give the guy a street address? Why do I need to describe it in terms of landmarks to someone whose language I can't speak and who only has a bare smattering of my language? Why haven't I figured out yet how to get some stamps to post a letter? How on earth do I get my electricity bill? How do I pay it? Aggghhh.

Either this is going to beat me, or I'm going to beat it. I think I have to just grow up!

ramsay street - listen to moi

2007-09-10T20:30:00.000+08:00

What does it mean when you get in a cab in Al Ain and give them directions to your apartment ... dewar Sanaiya, cedar, yameen ... and so on, and the driver, who has very little English, says, "Ah, Ramsay Street?"

Okay, I find it hard to believe too, but I'm told that it happened! I think that I got it third or fourth hand ... and now I'm passing it on.

For anyone who isn't an Aussie or a Brit, that may be a bit cryptic. Ramsay Street is an imaginary street in Australia that's the setting for an Australian soapie called 'Neighbours.' Ramsay Street residents all know each other and each other's business and are forever in and out of each other's houses borrowing cups of sugar, giving advice or offering a shoulder to cry on.

When we arrived here, we jokingly dubbed the apartments 'Ramsay Street' because of the large number of Brits and Aussies here, and it seems that someone's been training the taxi drivers. Hmmmm.

Another Aussie show that's been talked about here at Ramsay Street (Al Ain) recently is 'Kath and Kim.' If you get a chance to see it, then do! It makes one cringe so much that it's funny. Kath and Kim are a middle-aged Aussie woman and her adult daughter living in the suburbs of Melbourne, Aust. They live in an imginary suburb (I think/hope it's imaginary!) called Fountain Gate. We see their every day problems with husbands, weight loss, shopping and so on. They send up life in the burbs (suburbs) in Australia delightfully. Critics refer to them as the 'foxy morons.' The women who play the roles of Kath and Kim are the creators/writers of the show. Kudos to them. They've done it brilliantly. One of the catch cries from the show is 'Listen to moi. Listen to moi.' (moi=me). Totally cringe-worthy.

The pic of course is 'Ramsay Street' Al Ain.

and it hasn't even been a month

2007-08-31T01:18:00.000+08:00

Before I came to the UAE I read and heard so much about the roads here and how they are wild. Accidents, I was told, are a far too frequent occurence and an inevitable result of too much speed. I haven't even completed my first month here and already I've been involved in a traffic accident.

Two buses, too much speed and then indecision at a red light. Our bus slams on the brakes and comes to an abrupt holt jolting us all forward and then back. Then miliseconds later ... kabang! The second bus runs up the back of my bus shattering the back window and again throwing all the passengers forward and then back. Whiplash and confusion all around. People in shock. People holding their necks, some crying, others limping. Taxis taking people to hospital. New buses to ferry the other stranded passengers to our destination.

And all of this by 11am. The day ended reasonably well and I believe (and hope) that no-one has a lasting injury. It's certainly a day to remember. I hope it's the last experience of a traffic accident for all of us.

week 3 in Al Ain

2007-08-23T22:26:00.000+08:00

What a funny place this is! I'm learning about local time. There've been a few problems with our apartment. There's been a burst water tank (and consequent flood), a tap strategically placed so that we couldn't use the oven and various minor issues. However, as it's a brand new apartment, we can take these things in our stride. Luckily we have contacts to ring and get these kinds of things sorted. The drama in all this though is the constant waiting. The guy to fix the plumbing issues is supposed to turn up at 9am. By 3pm he still isn't here. We ring a few times and are always told that he'll be here in half an hour. He eventually turns up at 11am next day and decides that he can't do much until the guy who fixes the electrics does his thing. The electrian guy turns up 5 hours after the appointed time, does half the job and says he'll be back in the morning. He arrives the following evening and finished the job. Then we have to wait again for the plumber guy and then the guy who's gonna fix the tiling that's been damaged by the electric guy and the plumber. This situation is repeated again and again with each problem that we discover! So we're forever waiting.

Luckily for me, I get to go to work during the day. K is supposed to be working from home, so he gets to do most of the waiting. Of course, K can't actually do much work yet as the net connection which is supposed to be 2mg is less than a quarter of that speed, so the provider is going to pull up the cables which they laid last week and relay them next week. So our net connection is likely to disappear.

Whenever someone turns up to do something at the apartment, there is always one guy to do the job and two who just watch. I haven't quite figured that one out yet. A couple of days ago an Arabic guy turned up with 3 guys who spoke no English. While the Arabic guy was talking to K, I was communicating with one of the non-English guys via sign language. We had a good understanding of what I wanted and what he was going to do. We'd sorted it. The Arabic guy then turned to me and said something quite incomprehensible. I said, 'sorry?' He repeated it. I said 'Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean.' He repeated it looking quite annoyed. I had to tell him that I just didn't understand. He asked me, in a very irritated tone, if I spoke English. I had to laugh.

So far I've learnt about 10 words of Arabic. They enable me to communicate reasonably adequately with most taxi drivers. Most of them seem quite amused at my pronunciation, but that's fine. It's kinda fun and a bit of an ice-breaker.

I daily feel more comfortable here. Tomorrow I'm off to Abu Dhabi to check out the 'bluer than blue ocean' I've heard so much about.

cigarettes and taxis

2007-08-11T12:43:00.000+08:00

The standout items from my first week in Al Ain are that cigarette smoke is ubiquitous and it's challenging to get in a taxi and end up where you want to end up.

In Aus smoking is banned in hotels, restaurants and most work places. It's restricted in outdoor areas. So we've been quite spoilt. Al Ain is a bit of a blast from the past with smoking allowed in most places. Some restaurants seem to have non-smoking areas, but no one has told the smoke to keep within those boundaries and it wafts around as it pleases. Even our hotel room reeks of smoke. I can normally tolerate a bit of smoke, but it is quite overwhelming here as we seem to be subjected to it all day only to retire to the hotel room and inhale it all night.

I'll finish the rant at that point as smoking is obviously something I have to learn to be more tolerant of.

The taxis are all fun and games. We've had some really good taxi drivers with quite good English, but several who have no English, not even 'yes' and 'no.' We can't even show them maps of where we want to go as they are illiterate. They don't understand our poor pronunciation of things like 'jebel bil maya roundabout.' I haven't figured out yet where anything is in relation to anything else, so I don't know my way anywhere and have to rely on the drivers. I even had trouble at one stage communicating 'Hilton Hotel' to a driver. After numerous attempts he eventually got it. He put the stress on 'ton' rather than 'Hil' which explained why he had trouble understanding my prounuciation.

We're moving out of our hotel today and into our apartment. That's a bit scary because at least the hotel is a landmark and it's not too difficult to get drivers to understand. How on earth can we consistently get drivers to and from our apartment? Clearly I'll have to work out where things are myself so that at least I know where I'm going. It's funny to think that in a few weeks this will all be quite easy, but now it's challenging.

zero

2007-08-06T15:34:00.000+08:00

Teleporting - when's it gonna happen? How can I invest? How can we make it happen sooner? Long haul travelling ... well frankly, it largely sucks (not that there are any complaints about the staff or service).

We arrived in Al Ain at 3am this morning and were hit with a burst of 37 degree heat as soon as we walked out of the airport. Amusing! We were escorted through passport control and the visa process went through quite easily, though I did feel some guilt at the queue jumping. Scores of people were waiting and we were taken the front of the queue each time.

I've only been here a few hours, but what has struck me so far is the number of staff involved in each service. For example we had brekky at the hotel this morning and each time a plate was emptied or we finished a cup of coffee, someone was at our side offering us more (it was a fixed price smorgasbord, so there was no finanicial incentive for the service). There seem to be scores of staff at the hotel sweeping leaves and sand from paths, polishing floors and doing various jobs. This could take some getting used to.

I'm not sure about the tipping situation. The hotel staff don't seem to expect it, so I haven't given anything. I'd have no idea how much to tip anyway. A website I just checked out said that 2 - 5dhs was a good tip. I'm not sure though and would be interested to hear from others on this.

Oh, and the other point to mention (again) ... it's a bit hot outside!

one week to go

2007-07-28T20:03:00.000+08:00

Bags not packed. Electricity, phone, internet disconnections not organised. Kitchen not packed. Lawns not mowed, gutters not cleaned, pest control not done, palm fronds not cleaned up, contact for services like pool cleaning, pool fencing, council rates and so on not redirected to estate agent. Hmmm. I think I'll have a busy week this week.

On the upside though, a lot was achieved last week. Best of all my 18 year old daughter and her friend finally found a house in Brisbane. They'll be moving out in a few days, thus making the rest of my packing and the house cleaning and letting easier to organise and putting my mind at rest. J will be fine.

The big challenge for this week is firstly to make sure that all the loose ends mentioned above, and those not mentioned, are tied up and secondly to somehow squeeze our worldly belongings into 54kgs of luggage. I keep wondering why the luggage itself has to weigh 4 - 5 kilos per case. Surely they could get it lighter!

sand storms

2007-07-25T09:04:00.000+08:00

I've read that you can get a great view of Al Ain from the nearby mountains, but the downside is that the city is usually covered in a yellow pall.

I've been wondering just what the dirty air is. Is it pollution? From what I've read Al Ain doesn't seem to be an industrial city. I'm thinking that the yellow may be sand in the air.

two weeks to go

2007-07-21T16:03:00.000+08:00

I've discovered with some amusement that there're at least two stages to solving problems. There's the macro panic and the micro panic. For example:

MACRO:
OMG What'll we do with the cat and dog when we go?
Solution - Stage 1: Ask all our friends and rellies. Finally ... T, our son will take them.
Response: Great! Problem solved.

MICRO:
OMG. T lives 8 hours away by road. How will we get the pets to him?
Solution Stage 2: Make some phone calls, get some quotes. Finally ... send the dog by plane and cat by road.
Response: Great! Problem solved (again).

Hmmm. The transportation won't happen for a couple of weeks. So is the problem actually solved at this point or have we got a virtual solution, or maybe a solution in waiting?

Life must be a bit on the humdrum side when one's waking hours are consumed by such thoughts.

Things are plodding along nicely with lots of problems (mostly employing the two stage panic technique) disappearing and the 'to do' list being whittled away.

The cold here on the GC is unrelenting. It is the coldest winter on record. Usually the highs and lows in winter are 12 - 22. This year they are 0 - 19. What's the point of moving north for the warm winters when the lows are just as cold as in the south?

three weeks

2007-07-15T13:27:00.000+08:00

I wonder how easy it is to upload pics here. I'll give it a go.
This is home on the Gold Coast (to be later contrasted with 'home' in Al Ain.)
Firstly, the beach.

Next, my lounge room.

And a frill necked lizard in my front yard.

And ... it turns out it's very easy to upload pics.

three weeks to go

2007-07-14T16:22:00.001+08:00

Another week has raced by. We've chipped away at the many tasks that need doing. Still need to bring the house up to scratch so we can let it. Lots of little things like smoke alarms and a few big ones like spend billions (okay not quite that much!) on a new pool fence in order to meet safety regulations.

Flights are organised.

It's Saturday night and we just got back from spending the day in Brisbane watching hockey. I'd have liked to have gone to the Gabba to see a game of Aussie Rules Footy tonight, but K and our hockey playing daughter had run out of steam! Pikers!

The local Chinese takeaway is supplying dinner tonight. ... I wonder if there will be many/any Chinese restaurants in Al Ain. They're all over the place in Aus, many dating back to the gold rush days of the 1850s when there were many Chinese here.

Just found out that the Socceroos (Aussie team) copped a walloping from Iraq in the Asian Cup last night! Sigh.

Time to go hunt and gather dinner (from the local Chinese).