School's Back...

A general catch up post today... after being away in London, things got a bit busy on the work front but in other news:

The kids start school this week.  The girls seem keen and excited but slightly nervous as well.  Monday is orientation for 2hrs and Tuesday is the first full day.  I will be taking Tuesday off work to see them off and to pick them up as well.  Ramadan sees the school day being reduced to a 1:30pm pick up time as well, so they'll ease their way into it.

Also on Tuesday, our dog Zoe is to have an operation.  They have found a tennis ball sized tumor attached to her spleen and they're going to operate on Tuesday.  We have been monitoring her since we discovered the lump a while ago but she's gotten slower and a bit lethargic and we're having it taken out.  Fingers crossed!  Surgery is the easy bit, the recovery will be tough.

As an early Fathers Day present, I got myself (well Niki & the girls got for me after many hints) a new PlayStation 3.  Got two free games in the box and I have to say highly impressed with the game "LittleBigPlanet".  Its a great kids game and is also fun for adults.  The other game is a very hard "save the world, shoot the aliens" game called "Resistance - Fall of Man".  Its gory and violent so that only gets a play when the kids arent about.  I am hoping that the good little cherubs will surprise me with a copy of Madden NFL 2010 on the weekend (hint hint).

Ramadan is going OK... I hardly notice it on site, not too big a deal.  Weekends are lazy around the house and pool and we actually left the house to go to Dubai Mall on Friday night at 7pm and didnt get home until 12:40am!  So tiring and odd to be out at such a late hour.

Also, finally, to my Dad, glad to skype you on the weekend... hope you're feeling OK and will call you on Monday.

Sydney Press For Us in the UAE

Am happy to say I have been working with these guys on their design for the our hotel and convention centre.

Glad to be working with Aussies...

LINK

In London...

so no major posting, but saw this just now...

http://www.smh.com.au/travel/flight-test-etihad-business-class-20090819-eqor.html

This is my home airline at the moment and how I am getting about the place on these work jaunts.

Such a hard life!

Ramadan has started

Well, Ramadan started over the weekend and I have gone without my morning coffee this morning... I may wander over to the cafeteria and see if its open for coffee but I do know its open between 12-2 for lunch.

The weekend was pretty uneventful for us with Ramadan as we hung around the pool and the TV (damn!  We're losing the Ashes) and didn't go out until last night.

At a totally spur of the moment decision, we decided to go to the local hotel for their "Iftar Buffet".  Iftar is the meal that "breaks the fast" each day and all the hotels in the UAE put on Iftar buffets.  We decided to try the local one first and I rang up and booked a table.  When booking I asked what the go with the buffet was and found out it was from 6:49pm and the buffet will be on until 7:30pm only.  Odd... I had noticed that all the buffet advertisements had a finish time ranging from 7:30 - 9:30pm and this one was 7:30.

Considering the sun didnt set until 6:49, it seemed a very short time.

But we went and was glad we booked because all the tables were filling up very quickly.  We were sat down at our table and whilst we weren't the only Westerners there, it was predominately non-Emirati muslims (Lebanese, some Africans, Jordanians etc).  A TV was playing Arabic prayers and all the glasses were upside down and people were patiently waiting and talking amongst themselves.  Then we noticed that the food at the buffet was there and people were queing and filling their plates.  It seemed that the routine was to dish up the food at the buffet and then eat it at the moment of the setting of the sun.

And then on the TV, a picture of the sun setting was showing and everyone was eating!  The food was good and the girls tried alot of it.  Arabic food has some odd names, but essentially its alot of lamb and chicken cooked in savoury but not spicy herbs and natural juices.  Add rice, some prawns and your regular salads with a dash of hommous and its really not alot different from home.

In 40mins we stuffed ourselves and it was very filling... lots of meat and rice and salad and then the desert bar in which I had creme caramel and the kids had chocolate mousse alonside some sampling of some arabic sweets.  The kids tried a milky white jelly thing and I had a very nice baklava / spring roll styled crepe with cream in the middle and it was all very filling!

The Muslims were piling on the food and one table next to us had 2 men with about half a dozen plates stacked with food and they were going like the clappers.  But a bit after 7:30, we were done and paid the bill and it was all over.  It was a good experience and it was also a good time to tell the kids about Ramadan and to try some local food and show that its not "hot and spicy" which they seem to have a fear of.

And, we'll probably do it again very soon!

International Ramadan?

I am off to London next week... the thing I asked myself this morning is how does the airline (Abu Dhabi national carrier Etihad) handle Ramadan?

I have a 1:30pm flight... right in the middle of the fasting period.  I am presuming that the airport lounge will be barren to all food and drink.  You cannot even have water during the day.

And when you get on the flight and I will be in business class, what happens to the complimentary wine before take off and then the nice food and drink during the flight?  They serve alcohol freely despite being a Muslim carrier and Muslims simply abstain, but what about the Ramadan period?

And you can eat after sundown during Ramadan.  Flight lands at 6:30pm in London which is 9:30pm in Abu Dhabi and 2hrs after "Iftar" which is the official time each day you can eat.  Will we be served a meal two hours prior to landing?  Will the plane assume itself to be on London time after take off and hence wont serve a meal at all because it will be fasting time during the entire flight?

Will the airline ignore Ramadan all together and offer full service to non-Muslims?

Intriguing!

Everything gets so hard sometimes!

Am going to London on business next week.  Need to arrange 2 nights accommodation but the cost is on my personal account but I get an allowance for each night away to cover it.

So, I ask the Indian guy in the travel dept to find me a hotel around the St James Park area... and he comes back with a 4 star and a 1 star (yikes!) option but the 4 star is within my allowance so I approve him to book it.

In ALL my trips so far, I turn up at the hotel and give them my card and I pay for the room like any other guest in any other hotel in the world.  When I get back, I apply for the allowance and 2 weeks or so later, I get the allowance.  If the cost is less than the allowance, all good!

But something changed today.  I get offered to have the accommodation arranged and for me to be issued with a "voucher" which I present to the hotel upon my arrival.  I have to however pay for it now and am offered to pay it cash, cheque or card.

I agree to pay via VISA and then am told that it will cost 2% extra in bank charges!  I then tell them to forget it and I will pay at the hotel concierge on the day, I get told that its too late and its done, but if I pay today they can waive the 2% charge.

Confused?  I am!  How can my little Indian travel guy, who is an employee of my company "waive" bank charges?  I am guessing its going into his own pocket more than likely.

So the deal is done, I have a pdf voucher to print and give to the hotel and I said if for whatever reason the hotel rejects the voucher, I will be on the phone to my mate here in Abu Dhabi faster than you can say "dodgy deals".

And all this hassle is apparently better in terms of cost and efficiency than allocating all employees a corporate AMEX card.

Fast Track to Success

Well, yesterday I had to take the day off to get Niki to her medical in Abu Dhabi (some 150kms from home) and go through yet more red tape.

When we arrived at the Centre for Preventative Disease, it was the usual bedlam of a 99% male population of which 99% were Indian / Pakistani trying to get in to do their medicals.  Walking in with Niki, Kate & Brooke (new Nintendo DSi's in hand) we looked, how shall we say, a tad conspicuous.

When I did my last medical, I was whisked away for "Golden Service" which was essentially straight in to a seperate area and was seen by the GP, Blood Sucker and X-Ray person in just 15 minutes.  This extra service was paid for by my company and was a world away from when I queued for 2.5hrs the first time and I was hoping Niki would get the same treatment.

We were directed upstairs to the woman's clinic and when we got to the entry, we were asked to wait outside for an hour before we would be allowed to then take a number.  This is not unusual and I have no idea why they dont allow everyone to take a number straight away.  I then asked about "Golden Service" and they said to go back down stairs and ask.

We go back down the stairs and approach reception again and I ask for the "Golden Service" stamp... "No sir, but you can ask for Fast Track but ask back upstairs."  OK... now I we go back upstairs and ask the same people again for "Fast Track".  We get directed to a different guy 10 feet away who puts a fast track sticker on Niki's paperwork and she's away.

The uniformed security guard at the door (a lady) takes Niki inside and we wave good luck.  Kate, Brooke and I find some seats in the crowded waiting room (full of Pakistani men) and I tell the girls they can play their Nintendo's whilst we wait.  I am expecting that we may be here for about 40mins but in just 15mins Niki is back!  All done, all stamps and a needle mark in her arm.

Apparently, the security lady took her in, past the 200 odd women waiting with numbers for their turn, tells a woman who's number has just come up to sit back down and Niki is sat in front of the desk where her paperwork is processed and the fee (350Dhs) is collected.

When done, the security lady takes her to the next stage, the GP and Niki retells the story that the security lady rudely pushes Niki in to the GP, telling everyone else to get back and the GP asks her some banal questions (including the critical medical question - "Are you Married?") and she gets her card stamped.

Same again with the blood and a woman is basically told to get out so Niki can sit down and her blood is taken and then she is placed in the front of the queue again for the X-Ray.

All over red rover and the key was to a) ask for Fast Track and b) the cost was an extra 100Dhs.  The only issue is you get to be made out to be a right royal bitch of a princess as you get rudely advanced through the waiting hordes.  Niki wasnt too happy about it as she felt bad for everyone she was forced by, but the reality was if she didnt go down the "Fast Track" we'd have been there for a long time and heaven help us if the Nintendo's ran out of battery.

I was happy though, Niki now has her first story of UAE government process and is now no longer "a rookie".

When the medical test results are back, she'll get her residency and then she gets to go back to Abu Dhabi to get her UAE drivers licence.