Ski Dubai – take two

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We had the opportunity to go to Ski Dubai again last night. Following our last effort in the Snow Park, Myles and I made a pact to both learn to ski.  Unfortunately (or fortunately) we could not go in the same ski school.  My session was at 5pm, which gave me an hour’s headstart to get it before he made me look really slow.

The class I joined was very small which is always best. The instructor had maybe a German accent. It sort of matched her personality. She didn’t laugh at our gags, but her descriptions were entertaining.

We started out extremely slowly.  At first we learnt to duck walk, then turn when we walked. Soon enough we were struggling like crabs up the slight hill they use for babies who wish to learn to ski. I should mention that one of the guys had already fallen over by this stage, so a great deal of pressure was taken off me.

On the first downhill I thought I was almost professional-like, but maybe with a bit of a wobble. My instructor on the other hand saw a hell of a lot more going on with my body than I could have ever imagined. My upper half was dancing all over, my knees were like chickens, and I was looking all over the roof instead of straight forward.

After a few more snow-ploughs I thought I was almost perfecting it, yet the instructor kept raising her standards and always supplying direct feedback.

Just when I thought it was time to hit the black slope, our time was up and we went back in.  The timing was perfect, as I reached the meeting point, Myles was there all suited up for his lesson.  He looked so cute! We exchanged hugs and I wished him well – despite my worries that he’d very quickly surpass my efforts.

I met up with a friend in a coffee shop where we had the perfect view of the slopes where I could see the four year olds learning on the same slopes I bravely conquered. I could also see Elle and the others zooming down confidently.

It was hilarious seeing Myles doing the same tasks that I did. There was equal measures of terror and pride when I saw him zoom down the slope without a hint of snow plough (required to maintain speed). I was assured that there would have been an instructor at the bottom of the run to catch him.

All in all it was a great introduction to skiing for both of us.  Myles’s boots were in fact too big, so the instructor suggested he do the Discovery session once more.  But not me, my Skiing Achievement Passport has six ticks, including

  • “I can put my skis on and take them off”
  • “I can walk and slide with my skis on the flat”
  • “I can walk up hill”

Can’t wait til we go back again.

For the record, ours is on the left with the spare wheel on the back.

For the record, ours is on the left with the spare wheel on the back.

It was funny when we returned to our car. We’ve joked several times about the difficulty of finding our car in carparks, cause Silver Toyota Prado VXs are just so popular.  Well, on this occasion, our Prado happened to be one of three, side by side.

Sick of people bashing Dubai

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Last night a banner ad on Facebook caught my attention. It was for a group called, “I am sick of people bashing Dubai” (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=79706383856&ref=mf).  Perhaps the title is a bit strong, but I did sign up.

The last couple of weeks I’ve received at least four different articles about Dubai and how terrible the place is.

One of the more scathing and regular is from the Independent, http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html entitled The Dark Side of Dubai.

But all the stories follow a basic theme.  As a permanent resident of Dubai it’s made interesting reading, mainly to identify all the inaccuracies. While some of the concerns are correct, some of the conclusions are questionable at best.

My eyes have certainly opened to the level of bias in various forms of media.  I’ve never been ignorant of it, but just how much the mainstream press sells its news is quite a shock.

I’m glad people have sent the stories on though.  Ever since friends and family have learned that we were planning to  here, we’ve been getting a steady stream of emails of all things Dubai.  Some promote the wonder of Dubai and all the extreme developments, but more and more it’s been the stories of Dubai sinking amidst the financial crisis and suffering from being too ambitious.

All I really know is things aren’t as bad as they seem. I can’t remember if it was Frank Sinatra or Carrie Bradshaw who once said that New York is so big that no matter what you’ve heard about it, it’s probably true. Well, I would suggest no matter how many articles get written about Dubai it’ll never be like New York.

From Elle……….

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Well, our first month in Dubai has certain gone quickly, it doesn’t seem that long ago that I was freezing my bum off in Tassie with Cath. Not any more however, it’s getting hotter and hotter here. Each day Myles, Lewis and I go for a walk in the mornings around Deira. We were going around 11am then coming back home for lunch, but we have had to start going at about 9am as by 11 it’s way too hot for poor Lewis in the pram, and for Myles and I as well! We have discovered some interesting things on our walks so far, namely some very beautiful Mosques which Myles finds fascinating. I have also discovered a chocolate shop which makes handmade chocolates which very nearly compare with Anvers. I don’t think they will replace Anvers as my favourites, but it’s certainly been a good find regardless.

I have been trying to find a school for Myles for the past few weeks, but with little success until this week. We have finally reached the stage of actually going into one school for an appointment, whereas previously I had only been able to get onto endless waiting lists, some of which they actually wanted you to pay for (that’s right, you pay to go a list, when you might not ever actually get a place!) The schools here are quite different from Australia, most are private schools and all seem to have endless waiting lists. There have been a lot of expats leaving Dubai lately though, so it looks like some places might finally start opening up. The school year starts in September here as well, but I’d love to get Myles into a school as soon as possible as he is starting to get bored staying at home with me and Lewis all day. It’s quite difficult where we are living at the moment as there are no parks within walking distance and it’s too hot to go out by mid morning, meaning we have to stay inside all day. This is certainly not what Myles is used to, but he has been finding lots of ways to keep himself busy. He has started learning how to write, and is progressing well through the alphabet.

Last week I got my Dubai drivers licence, and since we now have a car this week the boys and I have been on a few outings. We went to Creek Park again on Monday morning. We were the only people in the park when we got there at 10am! People here tend to go out later in the day and in the evening, which is quite different from what we’re used to in Australia. The one advantage though was that Myles had the whole park pretty much to himself, which of course he took full advantage of – running around yelling his head off and generally having a blast. We also made yet another trip to the local shopping mall to do the grocery shopping. That has been quite an experience so far, as every time we have been there it has been absolutely packed with people and quite difficult to find anything that we’re looking for. We usually just grab the essentials then escape as quickly as possible. We went early this time though, and again found the place to be almost deserted. It was good to actually be able to have a look on the shelves and see what’s available. We have found a few familiar brands so far (Milo, Kellogs, Nestle) but have also had some difficulties finding some products. Most of the labels on things are written in Arabic, so it’s hard to know exactly what you’re buying sometimes. I suppose it’s been good in a way though, as we have certainly tried some different foods from what we would normally eat in Australia. The shops where we go have a good selection of Australia meat though which is good. They do have Australian vegies as well, but they are nowhere near as good as what we get back home. That’s one thing that I am definitely missing!

Dubai is also very family-friendly. The locals here absolutely love children. It’s hard to walk around the shops at times because they always want to stop us and look at the kids. The children here also like to just walk up the Myles and Lewis and touch them on the face, which Myles thinks is fantastic. Lewis is probably not so sure yet, as he has copped a few fingers in the eye from over-enthusiastic kiddies! I haven’t had any issues here so far being a female yet either. At some of the shops, I have found that the Arab men will act as though you are not there and push in front of me in the queue, but I haven’t had any other dramas. I have found the streets here are very safe to walk alone for a female. I sometimes walk to the corner store after dark and feel completely safe, something which I would not normally do at home. I’m not sure why I have the feeling of being so safe here. There are a lot of police, but it’s just a feeling that you get walking around. People here, especially the locals, are generally very friendly and very helpful to foreigners.

We have a Nepalese security guard in our building named Manoj. He is a lovely guy who does the day shift for our building (12 hour shifts, from 6:30am – 6:30pm). He has become quite fond of Myles and Lewis,  I think especially because he hasn’t seen his own family in Nepal for well over a year. There are a lot of workers in Dubai who do the blue collar jobs like security and construction who have come from countries such as Nepal, India and Pakistan. These workers get paid what we consider to be very low wages (around 500 AED or $180AUS a month) It is however a huge increase on what they could earn in their home country, so lots of them come to work here, and then send all their money back home to their families. They work very long hours though, and generally don’t get any days off at all (maybe one a month).

When I first arrived here, I discovered that Ryan had been employing our building’s cleaner Sathi to clean our aparment (floors and bathrooms). When I found out how little these workers were paid each month, I was quite hapy to let him keep cleaning our apartment once a week. We pay him extra (around 50AED) which is a huge help to him. It has been quite hard for me to not feel guilty about going out and spending money, or going to nice places and then coming back to the building where Sathi and Manoj have been working all day. Despite this, they always greet us with huge smiles, and offer to help me upstairs with the kids and shopping. It has certainly made me appreciate how very lucky we are and also what a wonderful country Australia is.

All in all I am thoroughly enjoying Dubai and all the new experiences we have had so far. I’m looking forward to lots mre exciting adventures over the next month or so.  Will keep you posted.

We have a car

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Thursday afternoon I picked up our set of wheels.  We had gone without for quite some time, but the last three weeks I’ve had the use of my boss’s other car and it’s just way too convenient to have your own vehicle.

I originally thought I’d go through a dealer, but the right second-hand Prado came up at the right price so we saved ourselves some money. This  meant we didn’t have to deal with bank loans with lots of interest so it suited us right now.

The whole experience was more pleasant than my experiences in Australia. Over there I always felt like I was getting screwed.  Here, the prices are generally so much cheaper it’s hard to see any of the cars as a bad deal.

We went for a 2006 Toyota VX Prado. It’s a V6 with a 4.0 litre engine, but with petrol so cheap it didn’t phase me.  I’ve seen a similar vehicle perform amazingly on the dunes.  In fact, one guy mentioned the only car here that does better is the same vehicle in the short wheel base.  I can’t wait to take it out.

A guy named George from Egypt sold it to me. It was his wife’s car.

The Sharia Law is  a major advantage to buying a car in Dubai. This means there is no way to buy a stolen car, or car with any existing finance or fines owing.  Well, it would have been a total comfort at the time if I had understood some of the process. The whole thing was in other languages. My seller’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) was speaking Arabic, all the forms I filled out were Arabic, and when the RTA folks did converse with me in English I mostly needed the PRO to translate anyway.

I did what I could and just matched my name to my license number to the car’s registration number, and so on.  I probably wouldn’t be too surprised if George drops in to take one of my kids away as a result of the forms.  Or alternatively leave me with a whole brood of his kids.

Unfortunately the car has never been serviced in its 52,000km life.  Almost ironically the inside still has some of the protective plastic on the duco, so it’s at least been partly looked after well.

Just like every other time I’ve bought a new car I notice only after I buy it that there are a billion other ones on the road.  We’ll need to be on our toes when we park at shopping centres, cause there’ll usually be a dozen other models exactly the same.

The price of home and contents insurance here is cheap as chips. But for automobiles it’s a hell of a lot dearer. And with good cause.  Less than three days after getting the car we had our first traffic incident.  On a routine trip to Deira City Centre (shopping centre), we were stuck in quite a bit of traffic. Nobody was going anywhere, yet as we sat there I heard a bump next to me, and low and behold a police car had hit my mirror as he tried to struggle through the traffic! It was at very slow speed so there was no damage, except to maybe the police man’s ego. He looked a bit embarassed by the incident. An added plus was his mirror was folded back, where as ours was proudly unaffected.

Investment Banking Explained

Young Chuck moved to Texas and bought a donkey from a farmer for $100.

The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day.

The next day the farmer drove up and said, “Sorry Chuck, but I have some bad news.   The donkey died.'”

Chuck replied, “Well then, just give me my money back.”

The farmer said,” ‘Can’t do that. I went and spent it already.”

Chuck  said, “OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey.”

The farmer asked, “What ya gonna do with a dead donkey?”

Chuck said, “I’m going to raffle him off.”

The farmer said, “You can’t raffle off a dead donkey!”

Chuck said, “Sure I can. Watch me. I just won’t tell anybody he’s dead.”

A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, “What happened with that dead donkey?”

Chuck said, “I raffled him off.  I sold 500 tickets at two dollars apiece and made a profit of $898.00.”

The farmer said, “Didn’t anyone complain?”

Chuck said, “Just the guy who won.  So I gave him his two dollars back.”

Chuck now works for Morgan Stanley..

Is there something wrong with my son?

My four year old son is interesting to say the least.

With tongue in cheek, I have to ask.  Is he normal?

I know a lot of kids of the same age, but my son’s certainly different.

In a country where you see a large representation of the most flash cars on earth, he’s most interested in seeing a VW (“Herbie car”), or a mini (“Mr Bean’s car”).

While most of his friends back home ran around bare footed, we have to battle with him to take off his shiny “work boots”.

With such a huge variety of kids clothes bearing the latest cartoon movie motifs, he wants nothing but plain coloured apparel.

And in regard to simply wearing clothes in general, we know more than a few kids who don’t like getting dressed at all. Yet Myles selects his own clothes early each morning, and quite often wants to wear a neck tie as well – even if it’s one he’s made himself from drawing on a piece of cut-out paper.

I guess the conclusion is simple. He’s definitely not normal. He’s hilarious and fantastic.

What a weekend

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My family and I have had another hectic weekend.

Tecom

On Thursday – the equivalent of Australia’s Friday – we managed to get a viewing of our permanent accommodation at Al Barsha. Getting into there is not the finest introduction at the moment as due to the rain the ground’s mostly muddy, and there are still plenty of ad hoc signs to get you through the many construction sites in the area.  But the actual building wasn’t too bad.

As there is still a little bit of construction there was definitely no kids allowed, so Elle and I viewed the apartments in turns. I went first.  I firstly had to work out the major things such as which blocks were the ones available and what not.  There were no authorised staff around to start the lifts for me, so I was only able to climb the stairs, which meant I stopped as soon as I could work out how many flights til you got a half-decent view – which incidentally was floor 10.  After my turn, Elle just happened to bump into the facilities manager who took her to the roof so she could view the pool & BBQ area.  Despite some of my colleague’s concerns, the area was apparently not too bad.  There’s been a bit of talk at the office that the area is extremely unsafe as there’s only a 1 metre glass wall stopping you from falling the 26 floors to the ground.  But apparently C block which Elle viewed was a fair bit higher than this, and can be managed.

There’s also quite a bit of talk around the traps whether now is the right time to use company accommodation or not.  The financial crisis has dropped the values and rents of a lot of the real estate.  Allegedly villas are now at prices less than most of our accommodation allowances, so we could conceivably ditch the apartment, lease our own villa, and still get extra money in our pocket.  But you’d be at the mercy of local landlords, and have to manage all the utility costs yourself.  And who knows where prices are going next. Most papers have quite a few competing predictions.

Ski Dubai

I dropped Elle and the boys back at home, then went back to work for a few hours before picking them up again and heading off to Ski Dubai – within the Mall of Emirates.  There’s something not right with the order of things, when my son sees snow for the first time in a desert. All in all though, it was a fantastic first introduction.  We took my boss’s son who is a very competent skier. Elle had to provide some level of adult supervision as she was the only one left who could ski. I say “some level” of supervision, as Alex was zooming down the slopes like a rocket, while my wife had to initially spend some time back on the learner’s slope.

One this occasion Myles and I just visited the Snow Park, which was no problem at all.  The place was great. All the kids there were so adorable with their snow suits, boots, and helmets.  I thought some of the activities would be a bit advanced for him, but Myles enjoyed the tobaggan and donut rides immensely.  I thought they were pretty cool also, but for our next visit the two of us made a pact to learn to ski.  I should add that our baby went shopping with my boss during this time.  Apparently whenever people were watching she was boasting that Lewis was her kid. 🙂

Mall of Emirates shopping

The following day my wife was a little worse for wear from skiing for the first time in many years. We disregarded this though and hit the Mall of Emirates again, but this time only the shopping mall. My goodness!  I viewed it very quickly last November after I finished my job interviews, but I really had no idea of its actual size. The place has a bit of absolutely everything. We bought plenty of things off the shopping list, but as we’re still “setting up” it’s still outside of full scrutiny.

When we returned to our car, there was another example of Dubai’s shoddy driving.  On either side of us there were massive 4WDs over their line wedging us in.  With great difficulty I put the boys into the back, but then had to get into the passenger’s side to get out.

The Gold Souq (Market)

And today to complete the weekend a Prado load of us visited the Gold Souq. We were warned to get a ride there as there are limited parks, and they weren’t kidding. The traffic was horrendous, and there were absolutely no street parks. In the end we were lucky to get a space in the paid car park. From the street it looked like it was already oversupplied, but they managed to squeeze us in on the proviso we left our keys so they could reconfigure the place each time someone needed to leave.

The markets were nice. The constant line of people asking us to go off and look at their copied watches and handbags was no so nice after the 30-40th  suggestion.  The amount of gold on display was almost on the obscene level.  Some of the gold chains would floor Mr T. I should mention only I thought they were obscene.  My wife and boss both thought they were perfectly appropriate.  Go figure.

According to a map I saw, the gold souq was very close to the perfume, spice, and fish souqs also. But that was incorrect.  They had spice and perfumes only.  My wife may have been relieved by this, as I promised to buy equal value of fish to gold.  Actually I think the threat worked a treat, we didn’t buy any jewelry at all.  Although a bit of negotiating with shops occured, and a few business cards were collected.

We did pretty much a full round, and bought only specials which I was happy with.  We now have an authentic beautiful table runner, and a few other useful items. And contrary to a lot of the advice I received before going, we’ll certainly be back. Next time though, we’ll get a driver to drop us there.  Well, actually the next trip is (thankfully) purely for the girls,  so I mean the time after that.

Generosity and rain

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Last night I went to the electrical shop just down the road to see if I could get a certain connection.  I failed, but the trip was certainly worth it.  The centre I went to was the more expensive one which has  a lot of fancy clothes shops especially, but I had heard previously there was a Spinney’s there also – a supermarket which is popular, although overpriced compared its competitors.  I had never seen the supermarket in my travels, but on this particular trip I saw one of their shopping trolley so I figure I’d walk a bit further to see if I could find it.  As soon as I got to the end of the street, and looked around the corner there it was in huge green fluoro lights.  I can’t believe I was so close, yet not ever seeing it before.  I had very nearly walked there quite a few times previously.

The good thing about Spinney’s and a few other supermarkets is that they have a noticeboard, which is handy as I’m currently looking to buy a car.

There were also plenty of other shops that would have been useful a while ago if I had known it was all there.  There was a kids entertainment place which we may utilise one of these days.

When I returned home I was a bit chuffed at my discovery, but that was nothing.  Our night time doorman had a bit of a grin on his face, and as I approached I noticed he was fidgeting through a stack of envelopes. With a big beaming smile he said this is for you Ryan.  It was an invitation to his wedding in India.  I think it was a bit tongue in cheek, but he proceeded to tell me about all the details, and how good India is to go to for quite a period of time I think he would like us to attend.  Unfortunately it’s too short notice, and probably not the ideal time to visit.  He also told me that he doesn’t give them to anyone, just his friends which was a nice touch. The pile of envelopes was quite high, so I figure he’s friends with just about everyone in our apartment.

This hasn’t been our first invitation to India, or Sri Lanka. Quite a few of the guys I work with have been very welcoming, and have offered to show me around their respective countries, and that they would love to show me around.  I’ll definitely take them up on the offer one day. One guy also made a deal with me to show me around if I take him to a cricket test match in Australia one day – which I obviously agreed to.

Thought I’d also mention, tonight it has been raining quite a lot. It’s rained so much that the road has flooded (probably 10 cm of “flooding”).  It’s been interesting to see the drivers reacting to water on the road, like it’s a deadly creek crossing. Actually the flooded road doesn’t necessarily indicate lots of rain as generally there hasn’t been much thinking or design for the effects of rain, as it’s not traditionally an issue.  With the effects of climate change, perhaps they should begin thinking. I mean, a couple of days before I arrived here it actually snowed in Ras Al Khaimer – a neighbouring Emirate.

Hatta Pools

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We’ve had quite a hectic weekend.

Thursday night after work I went out with colleagues to Irish Village.  In the morning Elle, Myles and I had already decided to have dinner somewhere so I organised a driver to bring them along also.  The Village is very child-friendly (until 8:30pm – at which time they must leave).  They do great steaks! The beer is nice also, but at the equivalent of $15 AUD a pint they’re not as appealing as they could be.
A family from our apartment came along with their son who Myles got on famously with.  The two were playing the entire night.

They were within eyesight, but some distance from us.  The parents took it in turns to walk by and make sure everything was going ok. Elle mentioned when she had finished her round, that a group of bikies had arrived next to the rocks where the two boys had made their fort.  She had a bit of a giggle, as the boys mistakenly thought the bikies were police.  I got up to have my turn when I saw the boys weren’t on their rock. They had actually moved into the circle of the bikies, and were getting photos taken with them.  It turns out Dubai’s currently hosting their 4th annual Bike Week, and the gang that had become quite fond of the boys were the Ukrainian chapter of Hells Angels.  All the bikie stereotypes were thrown out the window when you saw the bikies getting photos taken proudly posing with the kids.  Must Google for their site to see if our kids got published.  They boys also got some stickers which were happily accepted.

The next day we went for a drive to Hatta to have a picnic.  With a few late cancellations, there were only seven of us so we all traveled in the one car. This turned out to be great because the place proved difficult to find with plenty of driving around in circles.  And also, at the end of the day we were all extremely tired so it was good to divide the driving.

The trip was mostly on one of the major roads leaving Dubai. It’s always interesting, and scary at the same time, to see the appalling driving on display on any straight road with more than two lanes. Without fail you’re bound to see a Porsche Cayenne travelling over 150km/hr within a metre or two of the car in front of it. Also scary were the group of guys riding their four wheel motorbikes on the highway near a popular dune-bashing site. They were standing up on their bikes, with no helmets or any protective gear.

Getting there was an interesting experience of its own.  We’re not entirely sure, but we think we passed over a national border with Oman.  There were a couple of road blocks with an army presence equipped with automatic weapons.

Another interesting site to see were one town’s warning of the effects of driving while talking on your mobile phone.  Around their round-about were four former cars that were absolutely smashed to smithereens in car crashes. Each had a sombre warning below of the dangers of talking on phones while driving. It was a coincidence that earlier in the day we saw a policeman driving his 4WD while talking on his mobile.  I guess no one was going to arrest him.

We picked up a biryani in a small village in Hatta to take with us to the Hatta Pools. However the pools were almost impossible to find – particularly after we took directions from the locals. But the wait was definitely worth it.  The place was quite a contradiction. We drove through a couple hundred kilometres of dry Dubai (and maybe Omanian) desert. Yet Hatta happened to have a series of beautiful rock pools tucked away amongst the sand. It was almost mirage-like to spot the many rock chasms all filled with extremely cool water. We found one in the shade which we sat at with our feet dangling in. It was amazing. We were all in agreement that it could only be improved with a nice chardonnay.  While we were kicking back enjoying the moment, groups of locals kept arriving in their swimming gear. It seemed a popular place for them was near where we were slothing. The noise from them jumping in was hysterical. In fact, at times it sounded like they were having a little too much fun – if you catch my drift.

The temperature in Dubai is starting to climb so we didn’t stay at the pools for too long – much to the boy’s disappointment. The road blocks were still there, but this time rather than spotting that we were foreigners and letting us go, the soldier stopped us and asked for all our paperwork. Christine and I both had driver’s license and UAE gate card, but Elle’s passport is still with Immigration. The guy didn’t care too much about any of these though, but took an interest in Christine’s houseboy, Mani.  Luckily Mani takes a photocopy of his passport, visa, and work permit wherever he goes. The soldier seemed OK with this, so we kept going. We had a big laugh as we left and Christine mentioned that Mani must have had the face of a terrorist. Mani giggled, but said it was because he was black.

Happy Holi

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For most of today I walked around work with red paint on my face. This was to mark the 12th day of Spring – a Hindi tradition called Holi (or Festival of Colours). As Spring brings out the most beautiful colours, Holi is about launching these colours in the form of natural paints, and some times coloured dyes. I felt a little odd, but my little dab of red was nothing compared to others. I saw a couple of guys in the office with white business shirts covered in so much red they looked like they’ve escaped some form of massacre. A nearby colleague arrived after the vandalism had occurred, but the ladies were able to get enough paint from my cheek to do him also. I was disappointed they didn’t go with my suggestion to apply it to his shirt’s collar in the shape of a women’s lips. Shortly after I was done I asked if I could wash it off, but I was warned not to as it would just mean I’d get done even more a second time.

It’s been good to experience a week with my family. It’s been really interesting to hear the things that they find amusing which I have become a bit blase about. An example is the constant use of car horns in traffic. My wife has found this a constant source of humour. In fact she has mentioned I don’t use ours nearly enough. It was kind of exciting when I drove and experienced getting horned for the first time. I believe it was because I was more than 30 centimetres from the car in front.

While I’ve become accustomed to the constant horning, yesterday afternoon I couldn’t help but chuckle. At a a cross-roads from work, there was an impasse of mass proportions with no one going anywhere. There must have been at least seven or eight cars involved. Around half were trying to get out and half were trying to get in, and each of these were going in different directions. The situation was totally hopeless. From my position away from the mellee I couldn’t work out how it got so bad, and how they could alleviate themselves from it. It seemed to me that they’d need a team of a dozen Mensas doing calculations on butcher’s paper to sort out this mess. But it seemed each of the cars thought the best solution was to sit there and use their horns, along with a few hand gestures. It may have taken me three of four minutes to walk past the scene, and the entire time there was a full chorus of car horns.

After work today I visited the post office for the first time. It’s quite a bit different from Australian post offices which go out of their way to sell everything and anything. I’m not sure if it was just this post office, but inside there was virtually nothing except a desk and the guy that worked there. They didn’t have envelopes for sale. A bit surprised by this I just had to ask if they had stamps. But the process was OK.

Tonight we went out for dinner. I carelessly chose a restaurant within a four year old’s eyesight from a kids mini-fair with loads of rides. The dinner was a pizza place, but Elle and I couldn’t go past their pastas. The service there was exceptional! They were all in love with Lewis, and looked after us very well. Our waiter guessed we were from Australia from our accent, and said he likes Australia and is a big fan of Tania Zaetta. I’ve never heard of that association to Australia before.

At the fair they had all the rides we’re used to. Our budget for Myles allowed him to go on five. Well four – I joined him on the roller coaster. While they were all the same as you’d expect at home, there were a few distinctive Dubai touches. For example, there were babies on the roller coaster with no protection. And I’m not used to being getting thrown around on a roller coaster while one of Muslim workers was on the ground below praying on his blanket. I hope he was praying for religious purposes, and it wasn’t due to his concerns about the ride.

A big hit with Myles was the four wheeler motobike. I wasn’t sure how long it’d take him to get used to it. He’s good at driving cars, but this thing had a thumb throttle. I shouldn’t have worried, he was a natural. Within a couple of laps he was tearing it up with sand flying everywhere. There were a couple of close shaves – particularly when he got so confident he started waving to us – but he managed to turn just in time to avoid the tyre walls.

After some initial naughty behaviour when he was obviously feeling the effects of the flight, Myles has been amazingly good. As a reward, tomorrow we’re going to Children’s City. We’ll report back later.