Dubai Diary

hi folks!

just a quickie again - i'll have www access in my office from sunday so will hopefully do some more posts.

been at work a week now and will be very busy i think. i am the project manager for 15km of new sewers and irrigation for Jumeirah Golf Estates - loads of outrageously expensive villas around a Greg Norman golf course. another amazing dubai project - google it and see what its all about. Aishwarya Rai just bought a house there.

in 1 hour or so i'll be off for my first run (or exercise of any kind) for nearly three weeks. gym or a nearby park - i dont know yet.

we have been super lucky so far - my company only had one house available for us and it is better than i expected - in The Lakes - a gated community with pools, play areas etc... its a 3 bed house with a garden. will be able to have bbq's when its cooler (next 2-3 months wil be high-40's celcius!!).

also mega-lucky was that we managed to get Lucas into Dubai British School - 2km from the house.

some interesting things about dubai -

driving on the right (1st time ever for me)
free parking in malls, with a system to indicate where spaces are
its dusty - visibility sometimes 2-3km only
cars and petrol is very cheap
loadsa expats
british DJ's on the radio - they even play The Smiths!
i've never seen so many Hummers, Range Rover's, 4WD's
our housing area feels like a factory for caucasian mums with toddlers and 4WD's
sun rises at 5-5.30am, sets at 7.30pm
traffic is very bad
my day off is friday
many stunning arab women - many very glamorous, some very skimpily-dressed!
men dress very well
internet is censored
only 20% locals live here!
i work with indians, belgians, dutch, scottish, iraqi, egyptians, aussies, french....
blogspot page here is in arabic text - difficult to login!

ttfn

more on sunday.