Out and About in Dubai

On the way to work in the mornings, DB likes to listen to Dubai Eye FM 103.8 (therefore subjecting me to listen to it as well). From 6 to 9am, they have a segment called “Business Breakfast” where the hosts Brandy Scott and Malcolm Taylor interview different guests on business and financial topics like oil prices, inflation, the USD-Dirham peg, etc.

Yesterday morning, Robert Norton, CEO of Dubai-based Zabeel Properties, was interviewed from Las Vegas about Brad Pitt’s involvement with one of their luxury and economically-friendly 5-star properties (location in Dubai is top secret but DB knows and won’t/can’t tell me!).

Anyway, you can read some of the details here.

At the end of the interview, Mr. Norton was asked why Zabeel Properties chose to suddenly make public the Brad Pitt association even though they had been in collaboration for a year now. Norton responded that there was so much publicity on this recently that they decided to go public with the news. Something about paparazzi and taking the pressure off Brad.

Norton was also asked if Brad Pitt would get a free condo/unit in the new property since the consulting work that Brad is doing is all pro bono. Well, the answer is no, Brad will not be rewarded with a free unit. (Not that he needs one, he’s already bought a private island in The World.)

The final question that was asked of Norton was if they will use Brad Pitt’s name as a marketing ploy? Again the answer was no. (WHAAAT?! Not use a celebrity figure as marketing? Ha! That would be a first for Dubai.)

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A weird thing happened to me at lunch today. I got into my car, turned on the radio, and expected the usual Jay-Z, Maroon 5, or Rhiannon to be blasting through the speakers. Instead, all I heard was classical music. I tried another preset - more classical. In fact, ALL my presets were either classical (or worse: elevator) music.

I thought that someone had broken into my car to play a practical joke on me. Then I pinched myself to see if I was awake or in some alternate universe where hip-hop and rock music were banned. Eventually, a veejay came on the air to relay the news that one of the Sheikhs had died. Sheikh Nasser, the brother to the President of the UAE (that would be Sheikh Khalifa of Abu Dhabi) had died in a helicopter accident last night. So I guess the nation is in a state of mourning and rock music is not allowed?
 

From Business 24-7:

The Ministry of Presidential Affairs on Tuesday announced the death of Sheikh Nasser Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the brother of The President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler of Abu Dhabi.

Sheikh Nasser died on Monday night when the helicopter carrying him and his colleagues crashed over Gulf waters.

In a statement, the Ministry of Presidential Affairs announced a three-day mourning period starting on Tuesday, during which ministries and government departments will remain closed.

Funeral prayers for Sheikh Nasser and his colleagues will be performed at the Sheikh Sultan Bin Zayed Mosque in Al Bateen.

Sheikh Khalifa will receive condolences on Tuesday at Al Mushrif Palace after the funeral service.

The Court of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai mourns the death of Sheikh Nasser bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The Court announces three days of mourning in Dubai.

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I went to Smiling BKK by Al Wasl road for some Thai food last week. The food was disgusting so don’t even think of going there unless you are a glutton for punishment or do not care about eating good food. Consider yourself warned.

I did however enjoy the Thai iced tea. It reminded me a little bit of Bubble Tea that I used to get in the Chinatowns of New York. So now I have a huge craving for taro Bubble Tea (in the image below, it’s the one on the far right).

Don’t know if I can find Bubble Tea here in Dubai - but I will try Karama where I found the Korean grocery and maybe even Deira where I found the two Chinese groceries. Wish me luck!

Plan B would be to order a Bubble Tea kit off of Amazon.com.

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The last couple of days I have not been able to get on any blogs hosted by Blogger. I am receiving the feeds in my Google reader so that would lead me to believe that the problem is on my end, not Blogger’s (especially since I am able to post with no problems).

This is really putting a damper on my blog surfing. Maybe it’s a sign that I should be job hunting and not reading blogs?

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Just when I have caught up in my blogging about the Seychelles, I’m off again - this time for some snowboarding in St. Mortiz, Switzerland.

See you guys in a week. After which, it will finally be time to hunker down and find a job.

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I know, I know, I have been very delinquent lately at blogging. Over 3 weeks without a post! After my last post, we lost all internet service in my area due to the damaged undersea cables. You’ve probably already heard about this incident as it’s old news by now. But if you haven’t, go ahead and read about it here on Wiki (boy, Wiki’s fast). Latest reports are that the cables were not cut accidentally - how do 5 fiber optic cables “accidentally” get damaged within a few days time of each other? And they all just happen to be in the Middle East? Hmm…

At first, the cable cuts significantly slowed down my web browsing but by Jan 31st, I was cut off completely from the internet. As I was leaving for the Seychelles on Feb 2nd, this meant that I could not print out any of my flight details nor hotel confirmations. DB said web service wasn’t restored in our area until Feb 4th or 5th.

Speaking of the Seychelles, that is the other reason I have been MIA. My sister Diana flew from Beijing to Dubai where I met her at the airport and we continued together to the Seychelles (about a 4-hour flight due South from Dubai). We spent a week there sunning and exploring the islands, then back to Dubai where Diana spent a week with DB and me. It was great to have my sister around again. Now I just need to get the parental units and my other li’l sis over.

More pictures and details to come later - promise!

I will leave you with a photo of the beach in front of our guest house in Praslin (the 2nd largest island in the Seychelles):

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Hubby and I went to the gym last night and all was going well until the chicken club sandwich in my tummy interfered with the treadmill running. I guess 4 hours between eating and exercising wasn’t enough. I moved over to the stairmaster which seemed to help alleviate the abdominal cramps.

Little did I know that my problems would be the least of my worries as 10 minutes into my stair work-out, DB comes alongside me almost double-overed in pain. He said he was stretching after his run and all of a sudden felt this acute pain shoot up his leg into his lower back. He could barely walk, bend over, or sit let alone tie his shoelaces. Said he had never been is so much pain before and that he felt faint. Yikes!

Trooper that he was, he still insisted that we keep our dinner reservations at the Madinat where I had made reservations for the Wharf restaurant that night. I had been dreaming of grilled lobster in lemon pepper sauce…mmm.

Poor DB! He couldn’t move his lower back at dinner and it was a struggle trying to bring food from the dinner plate to his mouth without dripping sauce all over himself! Two gin and tonics didn’t seem to help much either. But I must say that his grilled scallop appetizer was amazingly delicious and my grilled lobster with fresh thyme did not disappoint except maybe they could have give me 2 servings instead of one!

On the way home, it took DB almost 5 minutes to get into the car as he couldn’t sit down in the front seat without grabbing onto the car roof and cautiously lowering himself down….very…very… excruciatingly…slowly. I’m going to skip over him trying to get into bed - oh! it was awful to watch and listen to grunts of pain. You never realize how much you use your lower back muscle until it’s of commission.

DB refused to go to the doctor but when he woke up this morning stiffer and more in pain than before, he relented.

Anyway, today I made an appointment for him, then took him to the the doctor who diagnosed him with a badly pulled muscle and gave him a prescription of muscle relaxants and anti-inflammatory drugs. Interesting thing about healthcare in Dubai - you pay the co-payment (25 Dhs for us which is about $7) and then whatever drugs are prescribed is given to you for free!

Well, I am glad to report that the prescription drugs worked like a charm. DB is now able to stand and sit without any pain and hopefully he’ll be better in a couple days and can come off the (highly-addictive) drugs.

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