Settling In

I'm nearing the end of my monthly "normal" 2-day weekend and feel like I have a few minutes to blog.

We're quite well settled in now. Lucas has been at school for a couple of weeks. The final piece of the jigsaw is to get Jackie a driving licence. According to the rules here, a newly licenced 17-year old from the UK can get a UAE licence in minutes, but Jackie (who's been driving for over 20 years) has to go through a minimum of 20 lessons because here licence is not from a "recognised" country. Even more crazy is the fact that the strict yet nonsensicle driving licencing rules here don't seem to do any good. I drive along the same 3km stretch of Al Khail Road every day and I have seen at least 2 accidents every day since Ramadan began - some serious ones. The shocking thing is that the reason for the accidents is blindingly obvious - tailgating.

I've managed to get out for a few rides and runs recently. Starting a few weeks ago I joined the Dubai Roadsters 70km Friday a.m. ride. My first ride included a puncture after 43km and a solo ride home after that.

My second ride was better. My colleague Jim (ex British road-race champ) joined us after a few km and we chatted all the way to the 35km point where there was a sprint. I then bumped into Karen Hales and for a moment was not sure what continent I was in. It turns out that her disapperance from KL was becasue she moved to Dubai! No punctures this time and I made it back in 2:08 at an average of 33kph - my fastest ever road ride of that distance.

Last Friday I did the same ride but was more ambitious than last time. I did a few km stint at the front and went for broke in the last km to see if I could catch the sprint. Jim attacked first and was followed. A few secs later I managed to latch on to the back of a train I surprisingly managed to stay with it @ 50kph+ until we caught Jim with a few '00m to go. But my HR had reached 99% so I stepped of the gas and watched the real sprinters fly by.

The return leg was faster as usual and I had fun time-trialling across gaps to try to stay with the leaders. That ride ended in 2:11 @ 32kph.

The evening before I joined the Dubai Road Runners 5km Iftar (breaking-fast time) run.

This Saturday I've got a 800m/5km Aquathlon and a 10km run and a 168km bike race in my calendar.

That's all folks.