Home sweet home!

We now have a place to call our own. After much stress, research, and countless kms in three different cars, time was running out to find a place fast and I woke up today and thought to myself… Stuff it. I am going to hire a car and drive myself around Dubai finding my own damn place. And… at 4:30PM I did find that place. Suburb – Al Barsha. Just 10 minutes walk to Mall of the Emirates (that big-arse shopping centre with the indoor ski runs). I was stoked. There are few pics on here for you to enjoy. I was a bit happy with the camera and there are more pics on flickr – just click on any one of the pics in this section. I won’t explain in too much detail. It’s 2 bedrooms, two bathrooms, big kitchen, laundry, parking and other cool stuff. I like it. I hope Quyen does too. It’s about 25km from the office… (30mins without traffic).

If you click on the link below, it will open a pretty cool PDF map of Dubai. Our place is in D3. If you zoom in to that area at about 250% you will see on the left hand bit of D3 is Mall of the Emirates. Just under the text of the shopping centre name is a couple of yellow blocks - our place is in the bottom yellow bit. My work is in section F3 - on the other side of town. I will be commuting against the traffic which helped with the decision.

http://www.gis.gov.ae/en/downloads/pdfs/Major%20Projects.pdf

Deposit time….At the risk of having my name spelt wrong from me spelling it yet again… basically, the majority of people I have to spell my name to over here think when I say ‘A’ it is ‘I’ and when I say ‘I’ it is ‘A’. As a result, my name ends up being written as ‘IADIN’ when I spell it out aloud. I now hand them something with my name on it and tell them to write the name down on it. This guy today though takes the cake. I gave him my AMEX card with my name on it and he writes my name down on my deposit-for-the-unit receipt as ‘REWARDS MAXIMISER’. Yep. Rewards friggin Maximiser. I don’t get how he could do that either. But, pretty funny. I kept that piece of paper. Maybe I can start a scrapbook. Oh.

Winny out of Sydney

Well, the next stage has now begun for Quyen back in Aus… she was absolutely exhausted on Friday night and barely had energy to move by the time her head hit the pillow. Come Saturday morning, mid-sleep and receiving a 7AM Saturday text reminding her that the clean-up job was not quite finished, Dad drove her up to Sydney from the Gong to clean the balconies and do a couple of minor jobs to ensure all was well with the incumbent flatmates.

It’s amazing what Quyen could get done all on her own with packing up the kitchen, emptying the fridge of all the stuff and ensuring it kept cold and fresh by getting bags off ice into the laundry sink!

So, that’s it for Sydney living for a little while at least. Quyen will spend the next week with her Mum before the two of them jump on a place to Vietnam next Saturday for a fantastic holiday – where I will also finally see her after three weeks of battling through a whirlwind introduction to Dubai.

No pics for this one either, sorry! Although Winny scraped some skin off the tip of her nose.... somehow.

I have asked for pics.

First big night out on the town.

Next morning - ouch. It started with a cab ride to a hotel in the heart of Dubai to a karaoke bar to meet up with a few guys and girls from work (there were five of us all up). The drinks were ridiculous prices (consistent with the rest of Dubai) so I had to drink to forget the prices of the drinks. A bottle of Heineken was 30 Dirhams (about $11 aussie) I expected private karaoke booths Sydney style. No - not to be. It was a karaoke bar. I was packing major ones wondering what I should sing. I belted out ‘Piano Man’ by Billy Joel – to video footage that was set in the Aussie outback. Turned out that there were a couple of Aussies in the bar too that sparked a good hour long conversation about their experiences in Dubai.

Next we were to head to a nightclub (Infinity I think… can’t really remember). On the way out of the hotel where this karaoke bar was we got talking with four ladies to the point of being in the driveway outside the hotel. All of a sudden an extra stretch Hummer limo pulls up and they invite us all to get in it. I did get a pic of the outside with my phone once we had gotten out at our destination. On the inside was gold and leather, plenty of champagne and video screens galore. This thing would have been about 12 metres long. Although, removing my beer goggles it may have been closer to 9 or 10. Either way, it was a monster. Going out. Dubai Style.

Will upload the pic as soon as i can from my phone. technology is a little limited for the moment.

My old work’s Xmas Party!

I missed it…. Damn! Enjoy the pic...

Where to live...

This is by far the toughest part of the whole settling in process in Dubai and making it our home. With rents currently increasing at crazy rates, it’s hard to keep up with the market. There is currently a big shortage of supply due to a few major projects being delayed – approx 150,000 apartments in various areas of Dubai that were due to finish by end of December are now pushed out to end of March – and then people are tipping the prices will start to fall. This is creating a big headache. We have until the end of Jan to find a place. The question is – do I choose a place now if I do see one out there or wait until Quyen comes over?? As much as I would love to wait until Quyen comes over, the risk is that we may find it harder to find a place in our price range, we may get less for our money, or may find nothing at all!

To help with the process though, I am having a look and spending a bit of time in each area that I think would be OK. I have had a couple of whirlwind trips of Dubai to give me an idea of proximities and general feel of the place – this helped narrow the selection down to five key areas. The thing is that they cover all four corners of Dubai, and the middle.

Part 1 – the middle – DEIRA.

(as I type this blog at about 5:15AM Monday morning I can hear the first call to prayer of the day – it’s very faint and it’s only because I am awake I can hear it. On the street though, it’s pretty loud and a well selected place in relation to a mosque is advised!)

(also as I type this blog, i have burnt my sausage. oh.)

I went for a nice long walk in around Deira – starting with the main shopping centre ‘Deira City Centre’. This was the original biggest shopping centre in the Middle East. Deira itself is situated by the creek and has some lovely gardens and parks. I took a few snaps. Here are a few, there are some better ones on the flickr site - http://www.flickr.com/photos/aidanwinny/ . (When more time is available on the net - instead of US$12 per hour i will make this blog a little more technical!) The advice I have had on this area is that you have to choose carefully which spot you live as the horns and traffic noise can drive you mad (yep – getting me back for my years of sitting on my horn).

I am heading out on Tuesday to look at a whole lot more places… and have appointments for actual apartments. Let’s see how we go…

Whirlwind trip of Dubai

My first weekend started today… and it was a day that had me in the passenger seat of a car covering 300kms of Dubai. Travelling from the Western, Sharjah end of Dubai all the way to the Eastern, Abu Dhabi end of Dubai…then heading South about 80kms to a fantastic place that shall remain nameless until I have spent some more time and effort in appreciating it’s wonder. Although I am pleased to say that a brushed the Sheikh of Dubai. Yep, the head honcho, grand leader, superman – and most important of all the son of the man that had the amazing vision back 30 years ago to build Dubai to what it is today. Pretty cool. Kind of weird though – you wouldn’t know as it was just him and the GM of the place we went to walking around. No bodyguards or anything.

The main purpose of today though was to try and work out where to live… it was a fantastic insight into where everything is in Dubai and I was able to see a good deal of different places in the travels over the day. The first place we saw was Deira and I was quite excited about this area with it’s location on the creek, offering fantastic outlooks and nearby to Deira City Centre (DCC) – the second largest in Dubai. On that note, it’s safe to say that everything will eventually be the second largest in Dubai as the amount of construction here is just impossible to explain or imagine. Truly – it’s mad! In a good way.

We then went on to a number of other areas including the Marina, Arabian Ranches, Umm Sequim, Mirdif, Muraqabat, among others. No Mt Druitt to be seen. With me being such an indecisive person, I really don’t know where to even narrow the list down to for when Quyen gets here. I have a few in mind though – and one of them is Deira, the other the Marina. Maybe. See, indecisive.

I did play the tourist today at a few places and I photographed the most photographed building in all of the UAE… the Burj Al Arab. I only enjoyed it from the outside – with permission to enter inside only allowed with a prior booking at the restaurant (which involves a AUD$150 per person deposit so Mr. Dodgy Aidan can’t make a reservation just to get through the gates and change his mind once he has had the pleasure of seeing the inside). I did take a couple of nice photos. These were taken from an area along the Marina-ish that is just near the Burj Al Arab hotel. I took a few pics. There are more here…enjoy

Don’t forget to post comments!!! You won’t die of you do – I promise.

First walk 'home' from work

I am finding myself in an internet cafe now. i was walking 'home' from work (for the first time!! - the company driver has been picking me up and dropping me off and will do so until i find a place - but that feels kind of weird!) and i noticed an internet cafe with a few people on ladders and stuff hanging around the outside. There is a sign saying 'now open', so i thought i would go in - that i did. i was greeted by the owner. i was the first customer. although about 10 of his relos are in here. he hadn't officially opened to welcome customers until about 25 mins ago. before the internet was happening where i am sitting now, i was up on a coffee table having a complimentary coffee and cake (he is so sweet!) when this dude rocks up and everyone crowds around him - kissing him and greating him. turns out he is the local Mufti and he was giving his blessing.pretty cool to hear and witness!!!!! no photos sorry...don't have my camera.

It's the weekend now!! woo hoo! will hire as car tomorrow for two weeks and check out the exciting sites on Dubai. Went to a couple of malls yesterday though - awesome. will save the post about those for another time though - with pics!

OOPS!!!

During my first day of work at the office, I decided to head to the loo and mentioned to my colleague that was training me that I needed to. Thank God I did. I started heading over to the doors – one had a picture of a Mans head and the other of a Womans head - barely distinguishable with the only difference being a slight difference in the length of hair. I placed my hand on the door with he Mans head and my name was called out by the same colleague insisting she needed to talk to me for a second – I got the point and headed over. Turns out that the doors I was heading to were the prayer rooms. Oops. I marched off to the right day – next to the pantry (lunch room) and felt that extra sense of thanks and relief.

First day at work

OK, again, I don’t want to bore you here – and with the wish to keep this blog anonymous for the time being, won’t add too much detail… the company I work for is one of the largest in the Gulf region and in my section (retail brands) there is a good mix of people including Irish, German, Finnish, South African, English, among others. A real multicultural office! Not to mention people from many regions of the Gulf including Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi, Lebanon… and of course a few locals.

I get picked up for work by the driver at 7:50 and he arrives at the office in the afternoon at about 5PM waiting until I am ready to leave – pretty much 5:30. He is great and kind. He’s a local. Which brings me to my next point. The coffee man!!! Woo hoo!! Yep – I no sooner put my stuff down on my desk of a morning and he brings me an icy cold glass of water and says “coffee?” and I say - “yes, thanks” and he brings me exactly how I like it – white no sugar. Then I have my lunch in the ‘pantry’. Yep pantry. That is what they call the lunch room. Anyhoo… I return to my desk after lunch and the coffee man again brings me a cold glass of water (after earlier clearing the other glass off my desk) and asks me if I want another coffee. Of course I say “yes, thanks”…loving this.

Hotel & Supermarket

I don’t want to bore you too much – so I will keep this one short. The place I will call home for three weeks is the Al Bustan Hotel (www.al-bustan.com) – just like any other hotel, except they are serviced apartments which means I can remain on my tight ways and go to the supermarket and buy loads of food and cook back at home. Tandoori chicken is what I whipped up on Sunday night – with a lovely side salad.


The Supermarket was pretty damn good. Although they are called Hypermarkets. The LuLu Hypermarket is two blocks away from the hotel which is handy. They are like the biggest Woolies and the biggest Big W combined, times 2. massive. I found out later that is one of the biggest LuLu Hypermarket in UAE. Not too different except the fruit and veg section is kind of like a deli approach. Where you walk around as normal gathering up your apples, bananas, tomatos etc and you take it to a mini counter and get it weighed, bar-coded and priced, then add it to your trolley and continue on your merry way before heading off to the checkout.

First Taste of Dubai

The picture says it all…. Rain. It has not rained as hard and as much as it has last Sunday as long as locals can remember. With no drains anywhere on the roads in dubai, the place was a mess, the sand washed off the every roof and onto the ground like falling mud, the roads had massive lakes at every intersection with broken down cars due to not knowing how to handle the conditions. It was pelting down!! Crazy!

Goodbye Australia

After a very teary and emotional farewell from Sydney Airport with Quyen, Mum, Dad, Quyen’s Mum, Peter, Ian and Paul, I marched on through the gates to start the new journey of our new lives in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was tough to say goodbye – with many tears and many hugs. Walking through the guts alone though was the hardest part, although I new that it would be only three weeks before I would see Quyen in Vietnam. Getting through immigration turned out to be fine – although there was a hiccup at the check-in desk a couple of hours beforehand as my name had been recorded as my surname and first name the wrong way around. Doh. They had to stamp the boarding pass with an approval stamp and everything and this is what helped me get through. All that aside though, I was all excited to buy a magazine or a SMALL book from the book shop. They had a little sign on their window that read “CLOSED FOR STOCKTAKE”. I created a little sign in my mind that it is best not to read out, but I am sure you get the gist.

Emirates airlines was fantastic. From the moment I stepped on the plane and made my way down to cattle class, knocking the knees of those in business class as I tried to pass by with my rather overweight and oversized ‘onboard’ luggage to the time I stepped off the plane - just tops. The flight itself was smooth and everything seemed to happen in 2’s. Two screeming babies -bad. Two hours of sleep- bad. Two meals – good. Two rather large people either side of me – not too bad. All in all, Emirates is an A+++ airline and no wonder they are recognised as such. With an in seat TV with 500+ movies and 3000+ songs, I certainly not going to be looking for things to do. They had everything from classics such as Mary Poppins and Never Ending Story to Finding Nemo, Van Helsing, The Da Vinci Code, among many other current releases. The man that had the piece of paper with my name on it at Dubai Airport was hard to find – but I eventually found him and he drove me to the hotel and I stayed up the whole of the Dubai day and went to sleep that night – that was a major help in getting my body clock inline with the 7 hour time difference fairly quickly.