Directorate of Traffic Licencing 1 def HSBC Bank 0

Well!  I returned as promised to my soap watching Arabic lady at the translation office.  She was all set to receive me because my translation was on her big desk.  It was the only piece of paper there too.  She was very pleasant, commented that I am the same age as her son.  I said politely that "yes, well 1972 was a good year" and she looked at me quizzically and said "he was born in 1973".... so much for same age.  I paid her 70Dhs and she had to fish 10Dhs out of her personal purse.  Very professional, but on the basis I cannot read Arabic, I was happy with what I received.

I rang Mr Amit at HSBC and said I am in the neighbourhood can I come around and pick up my ATM cards.  He said he wasn't in the office but all I needed to do was take a withdrawal slip and I could withdraw some cash.  I explained that no... he was going to give me ATM cards for my new account and set me up with net banking?  He was genuinely puzzled and thought I wanted to withdraw cash (see yesterdays post for what he promised).  When I explained what he said he was going to do he said "Oh, I will come around tomorrow to your work and give them to you".  Another delay and another shifting of the goal posts from the very friendly and polite Mr Amit.  I will see if he comes thru tomorrow!

So, I drove back up town to the Directorate of the Traffic Licencing Bureau and found a huge building with a huge stair case and inside was an information desk.  It had 2 ladies working the desk and two people being served.  I lined up patiently behind one of the two people being served and then a whole swag of Arab people walked past me and demanded service.  The two people in front of me were Indian / Bangladeshis and hence the Arabs thought they were more important than them or me in the queue... such is life here.

I finally got to the front and was now one of 15 people crowding the desk and they called a third lady to help.  I was the only anglo-saxon and in typical stiff upper lip style waited to be served.  Before I knew it people two deep in the queue were shouting for attention and were actually getting served and I finally started to get the shits.  Before I could, one of the ladies in perfect English turned and said "how can I help you" and I was swiftly given a number, a form, my photo stapled to my documents, my translation stamped and told to take an eye test in the next room.

From there it was a matter of queuing and going through the process but it was pretty straight forward.  I had a novel with me and read the time away.  Soon enough, I was called up to the desk, answered some basic questions and smiled for the camera.

I am now a licenced Emirati driver... long process, by the road rules around here I thought you just needed a Cornflakes packet :-)

The Great Wheel Keeps Turning

Yes, the Great Wheel of UAE Bureaucracy keeps turning as I inch slowly to getting thru all the crap.... today I had ambitions to have my drivers licence, but it is tantalising me just out of my reach.

With my residency, passport and photos I was about to embark on a trip to the magical place of "The Directorate of Traffic Licensing" but before I went I was told I had to have my Australian drivers licence translated into Arabic.  WTF?  My little plastic card with a bad photo and my non-donor status on it has to be translated into Arabic?

Yep, and I have to have it done at a special office in downtown Abu Dhabi... and it will cost 60Dhs for the pleasure...

So off I set and I drive my little Nissan Tiida which I am currently renting for the 45min drive all the way to the Corniche (the Abu Dhabi waterfront) where I am told that the office of "Dana Office Services & Legal Translations" is.  They dont use street addresses in the UAE.  Everyone refers to the building they are in and you're supposed to know.  I rang up the number I was given (by a Canadien girl here who went through all this last week) and I spoke to a lady who seemed genuinely surprised to be receiving a phone call.

She told me that they are in the ground floor of some building (rapid arabic names in english I am yet to master) and I asked where that is.  She tells me they're "behind the French Hospital" on the ground floor.  I happened to recall seeing the French Hospital on my previous site seeing trips so I knew roughly where that was.  I jumped in my little Tiida and headed into town.

45mins later, I am parked at the Corniche and walking towards a run down building called "Franco Emirati Hospital" and I realise I am glad I am not French or sick... behind it is a mosque and behind that is another office block and on the street level is a run down sign called "Dana Office Services".  I enter the door, which is slightly off its hinges and behind a big desk is a woman watching a big plasma TV with an Arabic soap opera on it.  She seems surprised and turns the volume down and realises I am the Australian who rang earlier.  I guess that maybe I am her only call so far today...

She takes my NSW licence and asks me to write down my mobile number and says it will be ready at 6pm but I make an arrangement to pick it up in the morning because the Driving Licence Bureau will be shut by 6pm.

So, I have to go down again tomorrow morning and get my Arabic licence and go and hopefully get my full licence!

Also, I am still yet to get my banking sorted and Mr Amit from the HSBC came and saw me again today, gave me a HSBC diary as an apology for giving me the run around, but tomorrow I am going to see him in the branch after my licence excursion and hopefully (fingers crossed) he will have some ATM cards for me!  And yes, he even agreed to transfer my salary into that account so I can actually get my money!!  Its been a long time between pay packets thats for sure!!

Mr Amit has certainly refined giving top notch customer service in the absence of delivering anything into an artform!  LOL!

But we're all on the Great Wheel and nothing can stop its turning... albeit very slowly ;-)

Back in the UAE

Well, my jaunt to London is done and I am back "home" at the Al Raha Beach Hotel...

Flight was good... nice to fly during the day and hence not be too out of whack with jet lag.  When I landed at the airport, I was able to hire a car (a bloody Nissan Tiida!) and drive myself to the hotel.

Which was excellent because today I drove up to Dubai and the Green Community to visit some fellow Aussies who have made their home there.  Catherine & Peter lived in our area in the mountains and their daughter Grace shared a class with Brooke before they left some 18mths ago.  Now they're living not only in Dubai, but also the place where Niki & I hope to settle and they offered to give me a tour and a home cooked BBQ (YES!! Real Food!!)

So whilst the link was via our respective daughters, I had never actually met Catherine & Peter but they were very welcoming of me into their home and gave me a guided tour of their home, the parks / cycle tracks where the neighbourhood kids play and the shops.  Best of all, with Catherine being a teacher at the local school, she took me around there and gave me a tour inside the school.  I have to say I was blown away by the facilities which included modern classrooms, plenty of skylights and natural lighting, fully kitted out labs and music rooms, a proper school cafeteria, 'soft fall' play areas and park style slippery dips and monkey bars, a massive gymnasium for indoor sports, an astroturf hockey field, a full size astroturf soccer / rugby field (long grass astroturf so its safe to fall on) and an outdoor swimming pool (25m long, 7 lanes) that is fully shade clothed and a kids wading pool for the junior kids.  Excellent stuff and I feel alot better now re their fees!

Also, Catherine and Peter's house is a lovely townhouse that is very very large compared to Aussie townhouses.  Very high ceilings, lots of natural light and doors that open up the entire back of the house to the back yard.  I was very impressed and am now 100% certain the Green Community is for us!

So, after a huge BBQ lunch, the tour and a good chat (and a packet of Aussie Tim Tams were produced, so that was an excellent bonus!) I headed home back to the hotel.  Being a bit bored, I decided to see The Watchmen at the movies next door.

My view is that it is a good pulp comic book movie but it was incredibly censored by the locals here.  When I saw Benjamin Button I thought they cut a scene in that because of nudity or something similar, but The Watchmen is alot more ruder than Benjamin Button so the movie actually got a bit disjointed for me... they were cutting scenes entirely I think so I lost the plot at times.  But I *think* it was good...  if you liked Sin City or 300 then you'll like The Watchmen.

A good day... tomorrow is a public holiday too, so even better!  I might go into Abu Dhabi tomorrow to see the sights a bit...

London - Land of the Monkeys

As I type this, I am awaiting a flight back to Abu Dhabi, which I am now supposed to consider 'home'. Odd feeling that is...

My trip to London has been very successful work wise and I personally felt I did a good job representing my company given I have only been there for 3-4 weeks at best. I travelled with our Group CFO and he was happy enough to let me run the show and it all went smoothly. A good start!

Also, had the pleasure of meeting one of my virtual gaming rivals Brian who lives in London. You play games via email and/or web and when you travel to their local part of the world, you have the surreal concept of meeting people who you have perhaps conversed with via the email for the best part of 2 years in the flesh.

But Brian was a great bloke who whipped up some real food (so sick of hotel food!) and we yacked about gaming for 90% of the time and his girlfriend joined us in a game of Settlers of Catan. A few beers later and a stroll to the tube station and I got back to the hotel happy to have a non-work / non-hotel related diversion.

London itself hasnt changed much of course since I was last here 18mths ago, but they are doing an awful lot of road works in the city... cab trips seemed to take an age this week... and the Conjestion Tax was supposed to fix that? I don't think its working...

So, its back to Abu Dhabi... I get to spend my Friday watching movies and episodes of the Family Guy on Etihads in flight system and then I have a long weekend because Sunday is a public holiday! Not sure why, but I'll take it!!

And the Monkey reference? Well I have just read this thoughtful article titled "What is the Monkeysphere". Thanks to Pete for the link!

London Bound

Well, I am flying out to London in a few hours on my glorious 2:30am flight and its quite surreal to have only packed an overnight bag!  London is such a long haul from Sydney that you tend to take alot of luggage, but tonight I have my briefcase with laptop and a carry on bag with my suit pants, some shirts and the basics...  I will be wearing my suit coat on the plane sports jacket style and I will definitely need it as the overnight temps in London at the moment are about 2-3 degrees celcius.

Two days of meetings and then back home again!

The other interesting thing is we got a public holiday announced this week for this Sunday.  I have no idea why, but we all get a long weekend.  This was announced the Sunday just passed so we get a weeks notice of a day off.  I heard that was the case here before I came over and thats my first experience of it.  Apparently it happens quite frequently too.

I will try to blog from London... probably just to tell you I am cold :-)

Banking Frustrations

Still havent got my ATM cards and the whole process seems to be going backwards.  When I first arrived here, I found out that my ATM cards were going to be sent to my parents in Australia (who I had nominated as my Australian forwarding address).

In frustration, I was told the cards would go to them and then they can send them back to me... I don't need to tell you how frustrating that is.

But then I found out HSBC have a man who comes to site to assist with expats getting set up and he told me what I had set up in Sydney was wrong and he would correct it and hand deliver my ATM cards...

2 weeks later he tells me that the cards are being sent to Sydney!  I let him know that he has taken 2 weeks to make zero progress after promising me direct delivery.  He is now trying "to rectify the situation, sorry Mr Clayton".  But this is indicative of life here and I have been told numerous times by fellow expats that the #1 commodity you need to have here is patience.

So I will let the HSBC man do his stuff and see what comes of it...

He told me also that I cannot register for internet banking until I visit the branch in Abu Dhabi.  They were open until 7pm so I mad a dash to get there last night but due to traffic jams I arrived at 7:02pm to find the bank doors shut.  Customers were still inside, but no more new customers were allowed in.

Again, I need to learn to allow more time as it took 20mins for my taxi to pick me up which cost me the opportunity to set up net banking... its a case of live and learn here!

PS - I just got an email!  My residency has been approved and I have a stamp in my passport which is being driven to me now!  At LAST!

London Logistics, Orientation, Code of Conduct

Well... been very busy.  Still getting my head around this "Sunday is a work day" business and when you're reading the papers from home or Aussie friends' Facebook pages and you realise that its still the weekend in Australia but you're at work it gives an odd feeling.

Like tonight, I had dinner in the hotel restaurant (first time I have dined alone in the restaurant... i tend to stick to the food court or room service) and it was "Sunday" night but a work night.  I changed out of my suit for chinos but left my business shirt on and joined diners, some of which were business men talking shop... all very odd for a Sunday night.

Then after dinner, its back to the room where I am catching up on work and am dealing live via Blackberry with the staff who book travel (do they ever go home?).  It seems that my flight to London will be at 2:30am (YES A bloody M!) and will land at Heathrow at 6:45am.  I think its 7hrs so basically, get on and go to sleep.  I will have a driver picking me up, taking me to the hotel... shower, suit up and first meeting will be at 10am.  Meetings are going through all day, there is an open invitation to dinner and its rinse and repeat again for the Thursday.  My flight back to Abu Dhabi leaves Heathrow at 10pm, but I am waitlisted and I have sent a request that I will probably prefer to go on the Friday morning rather than risk not getting on the plane...

I will be a very tired person methinks when I get back and if I do fly back on Friday, it will leave me just one day for the weekend!

Aside from the travel, today was orientation day at what is called "Masdar HQ" in Abu Dhabi.  I work on the Masdar City site out of town and the HQ staff will be joining us on site in the next month, but in the interim we have our corp offices in the city.  I finally met all the HR dept in HQ who have been receiving my many queries and stories of newbie expat angst (I am sure they have heard them all before!) and I was part of their "Orientation" session for all new employees.

If you have been through an orientation or induction process, then you know what these are like, but it took alot longer because alot of the important bits were spoken in Arabic for the benefit of the Emirati employees (who are all in IT) and it was a bit stop/start because of that but it went very well and I got a few tips re the Sharepoint Intraportal and how to take leave, apply for housing cheques etc (you have to pay a years rent up front and the company does that for you as a 'loan' against your accommodation allowance).  Also, a lady from the health insurance came in and discussed all the benefits and its far more comprehensive than my health insurance in Australia.

Funny bit was the discussion on dress code.  UAE Nationals must wear national dress but expats need to dress formally.  Jackets on for meetings, women must have skirts below the knee - one leggy Canadian woman in the room failed already - and we also had a run thru on common Arabic expressions.  "Keefak" means "How are you?" and now I know what it means because it is the traditional arabic slang greeting and I hear it all the time (e.g.  "Keefak Mahmoud, Keefak!")

Then we were shuffled into a "Code of Conduct" session in which we sat for 90mins listening to a British ex-copper now working for KPMG give a long winded and anecdote ladened spiel on why its "not on" to accept bribes.  To be honest, it could have been done in 20mins and he was far more boring than the 3 Emirati women who grappled with the long orientation session in two languages.  A lesson learned - long winded speaking is not enjoyable no matter the language.

Now its nearly 11pm... and I am still catching up on my emails and I have a teleconference with potential partners in Zurich early in the morning.  I cant say that my days are dull!