Summertime

Hey Blog readers!

Hope all is well out there in Blogland, wherever in Blogland you may find yourself. Blogland is an interesting place to live - you can say what you want, when you want, pay no taxes and have most of the world completely ignore you. This is not a bad thing at all because when the world is ignoring you, they stop sending spam to your mailbox!

Over the past 2 months, I have been spammed 3 ways, namely hard, fast and continuously. Every morning my junk mail folder is full of adverts - predominantly for Viagra, Cialis (as if I need them...) cheap branded watches (Rolex probably spelled Roll-X), downloadable software and dates with Eastern European women. I spend the first 10 minutes of each day adding spammers to my blocked mail list. Trouble is I can't just go and delete the contents of the Junk Email folder because Outlook, in its inscrutable wisdom, tosses a few genuine emails in with the junk, so I actually have to go through them. I'm on the lookout for a good, free spam filter.

Jacquie, our SA friend, has come and gone and it was magic having her with us. I only got to spend time with her in the evenings and it was great hearing all the news from Hillcrest. All sorts of interesting stuff happening, it would appear. Janene & Jacquie spent the days shopping, touring, shopping, chatting, shopping etc. They were on the go from early 'till late and seemed to have had an great, if not exhausting, time. I think having Jacquie around did Janene a power of good.

We went on a desert safari which included dune driving and dinner at a desert camp under the stars, complete with a belly dancer. And what a pretty belly she had. And other things too. We got dressed up in Arab gear and Janene & Jacquie had henna painting done. It was a great evening.

The next night we went on a dhow dinner cruise on the Creek. Also magic. A nice buffet on a traditional Dhow (albeit with added air conditioning) as we cruised around in circles on the Creek. In order to try to relieve the traffic congestion on the bridges that cross the creek from Dubai to Bur Dubai, the authorities in their inimitable fashion have built a floating bridge across the Creek. A section of the bridge lifts up after hours to allow marine traffic up the Creek. They only do this at 10:00 pm. No reasonable person wants to eat dinner at 10:00 pm, so the dhow dinner cruises start at around 8:00. They then sail up to the floating bridge and have to turn around. This action is repeated 3 or 4 times during the cruise. You could say the dhows are up the creek without a paddle. (And you would be correct as they have that most amazing of inventions, an engine!)

We have a nice spare room and all of you are welcome to come and visit. The food is good, the a/c cool and the fees modest!

The kids have been in SA for a couple of weeks now and sound like they're enjoying themselves. We've been having fun too - going out, eating out, shopping, eating out - oh, I forgot - eating out is about the only thing to do in Dubai. We also getto watch the movies we want to see.

Thousands of expat wives and kids go home to cooler climates for the summer, so Dubai is quieter, traffic is better and you can get into restaurants and shops. Apart from the heat, this is probably the best time of year here. I dread the return of the hordes towards the end of August/early September.

The same authorities of floating bridge fame have also installed a toll system at 2 points on Sheikh Zayed Road, the main drag through town. The toll system is called Salik, which is Arabic for smooth. It is anything but. They switched in on on 3 July, before they had enough stock of the RFID tag one is supposed to adhere to one's vehicle. The result was thousands of people without tags amassing fines. They still don't have enough and they haven't supplied one to the rental company for the car we rent for Janene. Fines are building and we've let them know we're not paying. Their bum!

The Burj Dubai is now officially the tallest building on earth. It is not yet completed but it currently stands at 512 m, 4 m taller than the previous record holder, Taipei 101. Next to it they are building the world's biggest mall. With all the emphasis on biggest and tallest, methinks the Arabs doth overcompensate for some other area in which they lacketh.

Work continues to suck and I've become a weekender - I live for the weekend. I also live for 5:00 PM every day - going home time. I guess that makes me an "eveninger" too. We've had 4 of our UK directors over for a week - we'll wait to see if there is any change. I hope there is.

I got a call today from another company who want me and are currently writing a job description for me, so this is serious. They will be making me an offer within 2 weeks, so I'll need to decide. This is your cue to commence praying fervently.

The guy Janene works for is on 2 weeks leave, so she is at a loose end st home at the moment. The lazybones only deigned to get out of bed at 8:30 this morning. She deserves it though - she is usually up at 5:30 making breakfast and lunches and then she drops the kids off and goes to work. She picks the kids up in the afternoon and continues to rush around. So I think she deserves a couple of weeks of sleeping in. As long as she makes my lunch the night before.

That's about all the bloggering around I have time for, so I'm going to blogger off. Have fun all and drop me an email to let me know that you've read the blog. If you don't, I'll think no-one cares and eventually pour my creative energies into an alternative pursuit, such as sulking.

Bye for now.