Dubai touch footy

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I played a game of touch footy this evening as a fill-in. The conditions were superb. So the weather was almost the opposite of two nights ago when I went for a run to the Burj Al Arab and back. That night I returned possibly three kilograms lighter from loss of fluids.
Contradictory to this statement, I was actually running quite strong cause throughout the run I really had to find a bathroom. Dubai is not the kind of place to “go bush”. And the longer I was running, the more urgently I required the finish line. I was definitely running negative splits toward the homeward stretch.

Touch footy, Dubai style is the same as at home – except you generally need a litre more sweat. It’s one of those activities in a country of expats where you see the usual suspects. Just walking to the field you hear the clear accents of the Aussies/Kiwis, South Africans and British. In fact I made the comment that there were probably only four nationalities on show. The very next second, one of our own team joyously arrived for the game speaking with a distinctive German accent. Woops, there I go making generalisations again.

Wrestling diss

This morning my boys and I had a wrestle, like we often do.

The two of them are really starting to work well together. I can see I’m clearly in danger in the years to come.

Myles especially is starting to take our little contests to the next level. He’s almost starting to sound like a WWE professional. While struggling on top of me, he exclaimed “We’re not trying to kill you, we’re just going to break your head off!”

Not very comforting.

Aussie fined for Dubai drunkiness – nope, not me

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In local (Dubai) news, as well as back home, Australian football (soccer) player Craig Moore has proven to be a total dipstick here in Dubai by starting a “brawl” with a taxi driver over a 50 dirham fare. The story goes, he also assaulted the arresting officer.

Thankfully for him after getting bail, he was let off lightly with a 1000 dirham fine (just under AUD$300).

Not a good way to make Australia proud. Although some friends here from other nations think it’s unsurprising – as if it’s an Australian pastime.

It turns out Craig has quite a bit of property interests here in the Middle East – or perhaps he used to.

Google suggestions

Prolific Tweeter @Stephen Fry tweeted a link to the Google Blacklist. It’s supposedly a list of words where Google does not suggest the rest of the search in order to avoid offending anybody.  It relates to Google Instant which works by anticipating your search as you type each letter and giving the remainder of potential phrases to you as a possible link.  From processing 400 million queries per day, it usually has a pretty good idea of what you could be after.

Going through the list is slightly amusing.  But perhaps it’s more alarming how much time people have devoted to searching on rude words to work out if Google will keep quiet on the subject matter or not.

I thought it was interesting to also see Google take quite an innocent search into a totally inappropriate direction.
 
Earlier in the week I wanted to know if hummus (the Middle Eastern chick pea foodstuff) was healthy.  That was before I knew how to spell hummus.
 
Typing just “Is homo” to search on threw up 10 queries about homosexuality I never considered.

Some time ago I also found that typing a simple “How to” into Google would have some strange suggestions around -making babies -french kiss, and so on.. but checking this out now, it seems they’ve vetted the suggestions more sensibly.

Virgin Blue joining forces with Etihad

It was only a matter of time before more carriers cottoned on to the massive demand for Australia<->UAE flights. My family have known the demand first-hand, after having a few close encounters with getting bumped from flights due to being on staff tickets.

Emirates is obviously our first-choice, and the choice of many more.  But non-employees now have even more competition.  I assume the global financial crisis was a key factor for Emirates fares becoming among the cheapest (according to my friends at least). It was apparently a huge dive from their usual prestige prices.  With the crisis now well behind the industry, and our plane’s loads now completely filled, the prices were only to go in one direction – up.

It was interesting though to see – our Abu Dhabi rival – Etihad’s announcement thhat they would reduce their prices significantly.  Some fares will dropp by 40%!!

And in some other news is there is go ahead for an alliance with Sir Richard Branson’s down under carrier, Virgin Blue – Interim approval given to Virgin Blue/Etihad alliance – Plane Talking http://bit.ly/9BWPep.

Interestingly times ahead for the region. I wonder how this will affect my hopes that Emirates would put one of its incoming A380s onto the Brisbane-Auckland leg just so I can experience the wonder.

These shoes are made for running

In my 33 years on this planet I’ve run two marathons. My first was at Gold Coast in 2007, my second was in Berlin, Germany last year. This has led some of my colleagues to be misinformed into thinking I’m a marathon-er.

A marathon-er runs constantly through the year, running marathons whenever it takes their fancy. They are always in marathon shape, and at any time can prove they can run 42.2km.  This person is not me. I have not run seriously for nearly a year. I have had episodes on the treadmill where I run til I’m bored, and I always walk away thinking I could go a lot further if I wanted. Truth be told, I have huge lapses in my running where my fitness is shot.  I found this morning that I’m really not that fit, or that good a runner, I think my ability to continue to run distances is just on account of being stubborn.

I could probably count on one hand the number of outdoor runs I’ve had in the last year.  The most recent was while on holidays in Tasmania I managed a pleasant 10 kilometre run along their newly created walking path.  Today I managed another with the Dubai Creek Striders, but it was a definite struggle.  It was the same distance as my Tassie run a few weeks ago, however even with three drink stops the temperature and humidity made if feel honestly like twice the distance.  NB: although it’s currently Ramadan, we do have drink along the way, we just make sure we’re discrete.

When you’re out of shape and running there are voices in your head doubting your ability, telling you to quit. They’re difficult to ignore, but perhaps you should not. It is these same voices that can lead you to even better results when you’re on top of your game.  Telling you to stop and that you’re no good can be fantastic motivators.

For today’s run I arrived at the meeting point earlier than normal, and there were already a dozen or so cars there but no runners. This is a tell-tale sign that a large part of the squad are putting in some big kilometres preparing for a marathon. I was in a little bit of a panic when I saw this. I wondered to myself were all these people already doing the more than 20km training runs in preparation for Dubai marathon in January – the same Dubai marathon in January I’ve come out of storage to complete? Oh, bugger, my first thoughts were I must be way behind on my training – I assumed four months (if I start today and stick to it) would be adequate.

Later I learned off someone that a large number of the group are training for the Athens marathon which is in October, which was a big relief. The Athens marathon has a lot of interest this year, as it’s the 2,500th anniversary of the original 42km run which all of us nutters now replicate to challenge ourselves in the alleged name of fun and fitness. For those who don’t know the story, a messenger called Pheidippides was sent from a battlefield in Marathon to send word back to Athens that the Greek army had an unlikely victory over the Persians. He made the 26 mile journey to deliver the message with one word Niki! (victory) before dying.  A lot of runners have some romanticism about the concept, and even that original course he followed. Maybe one day we’ll find on snopes.com it was just an email hoax we lapped up. Having said that it is a run I’d like to do it one day.

In a word, the run today was tough. We had one hard stretch where we had to run toward Dubai’s extremely large flag pole, which was a little offputting to think we weren’t getting any closer as its height was not changing – but again it was just my mind playing tricks on me.  The pole and flag were once the tallest/largest in the world – but each new request for a taller flag pole makes this a fast-changing record.

I drove home after the running feeling a little dehydrafted. If only there was  a way to process the weight of sweat I was carrying in my clothes. I didn’t risk taking a drink.  On the drive back along Sheikh Zayed Road, only southbound traffic (my direction) was moving. I saw the cause for the delays, the entire six lanes were blocked by Police, and out in front there was a movie or a commercial being filmed. Seemed like maybe a car chase video, as there were big boom cameras fitted on top of a Range Rover following maybe a sports car.  The traffic was banked up at least 3-4 kilometres. Although after coming from my harrowing run, maybe my perspective was skewed – it could have been 200-300metres. There’s never much sympathy for other people being stuck in traffic, it’s just so great that it’s not yourself.

Soon after I got back home I soothed my muscles with a nice relaxing swim. So I only have a bicycle leg to finish to complete a triathlon today. But instead I have decided to lie on the couch and read.

Tension about Middle East tensions

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The middle east has been relatively stable since we arrived nearly 20 months ago. Just recently however, tensions have reached breaking point in Lebanon/Syria/Israel.  I am sure that I’m partly responsible.

Less than a month ago I suggested as our family’s first overseas holiday that we “hit” Lebanon. Lebanese people are abundant in Dubai, including my workplace, and they all speak so fondly of the place, all the pictures look lovely, and as the icing on the cake, we get a chance to eat their food quite often. And after a little research it seemed like a lovely place to visit, we even had the offer of a friendly colleague to be our tour guide. But as soon as I put the idea in my head, war broke out!
I subscribed to the Australian Government’s travel warnings for Lebanon, and almost every day for the past week and a bit I’ve received an update with a more strongly worded warning. So our plan to fly to Beirut are now shelved for some time.

I’m sure we can find another interesting location in a similar proximity to the UAE. Sri Lanka looks the most promising at the moment.  Their civil war finished last year, after 25 long years.

Interestingly with the Lebanese conflict, I heard some news which I thought would surely help sort things out. It seemed the US were sending in the Hof – which got me excited that things may still be possible.  But it turns out it is not David “Hof” Hasselhof from Knight Rider fame.  Instead, it was US Diplomat Fredric Hof. 

What can he do that’s nearly as useful as a talking crime-fighting sports car?

Audi

Myles and I saw our friend Alan in the lift of our apartment building. Myles has an interest in cars, so when Alan left I mentioned that he has a nice Audi. My little guy looked up at me a little strangely, and asked what did it look like so I responded it’s a nice sporty Audi TT. Aah, to this he was a bit relieved. Myles thought I had said Alan had an “outtie” – Australian slang for an unusual belly button that protrudes out instead of going in.
NB: I cannot confirm whether Alan’s belly button goes in or out.

Scary Stickers

Myles and I were looking at a book of his stickers this morning. It’s a collection of poorly copied Thomas the Tank Engine pictures, and a few buzz words. I got Myles to tell me what one of the words said, he was able to sound it out – “SPEED”. He pointed at one to show me, but without looking at it I asked, ‘what does it say?’ Myles looked at me and said it’s a picture of a pencil – in a tone which sounded a bit like “what are you going on about Dad?”. But then with a cheeky grin he put the sticker book to his ear, and eerily said to me – “It’s saying it’s going to kill you!”

The Wiggles in Dubai – 12 June 2010

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The world’s most popular children entertainers, and possibly Australia’s greatest export visited Dubai over the weekend.  They had quite a whirlwind tour performing just three shows over our weekend. I took my two boys on Saturday to watch the final show in a packed Palladium –  just over the road from our place.

Unfortunately Murray – the red wiggle – was absent, due to a pressing family commitment, so we were introduced to a new red wiggle in Bobby – apparently Australia’s greatest surfer.  But otherwise all the characters were there.

I knew what to expect, Elle had gone to a previous show in Australia, and told me how the event goes at such a frenetic pace. But it must be seen to be believed, particularly when you know their ages.  It was interesting when they did their usual gag of Jeff falling asleep so the kids can scream “Wake Up Jeff!”. However while Jeff was standing there ‘asleep’, instead of telling kids the instructions on how to wake Jeff, Anthony mentioned Jeff ‘s tired because he’s getting old. He then proceeded to tell a story of what had happened earlier in the day.  Judging by Jeff’s giggles he knew what was coming. Apparently Jeff got news from Australia that he had received his Senior Citizen’s Card.  Apparently Jeff was dancing around the hotel room repeatedly singing “half price at the movies”. By the end of the story Jeff was visibly laughing, so Sam interjected telling kids that Jeff must be having a really funny dream. Once the kids had succeeded waking him up, Jeff jumped up and hung upside down from a bar, again singing “half price at the movies”.

The Wiggles are a real class act. Even a minor mistake was extremely smooth, and then highlighted to make an even more entertaining moment. It happened when Henry the Octopus couldn’t stand on the thight of a couple of wiggles and fell. Captain Feathersword couldn’t stop laughing, and explained it was just so funny – and they made the three do it again when the song had finished.

They are also expert at seamlessly introducing local influences to their show. Apparently they fell in love with our fruit dates – a traditional local treat – and were re-considering the lyrics of their song ‘Fruit Salad’ so it would become just “Dates”. And after doing “Incey Wincey Spider” quite a few times, Anthony cut it off abruptly and said, actually it doesn’t rain that much here – which received a lot of laughter.

It was good to see quite a mix of people attending. The Wiggles are  a real world wide phenomenon, and it was present in the crowd.  While it was mostly Western looking families, you could easily spot a few locals were present in their Konduras and Abayas.

I saw a couple of guys from the office at the end of the show, one of the guys apparently insisted on going it was just lucky that his wife and kids were interested in coming along also.