Safer than HDB

I have been wanting to make this post for a while. You can see above a very boring photo - a water sprinkler for a fire emergency. Why it deserves a place in this blog is that there are several of them in my apartment. Also this apartment cost my landlord less than the equivalent of S$500K back home. Some of you have seen photos of this place, and the views it offers. It is beautiful, comes with white goods, wardrobes, nicely tiled floor etc., by the way, there is also a free fire extinguisher.

Imagine if Singapore HDB flats and condos are also fitted this way (note my landlord pay only $500K), there would be far fewer sad stories of fires, loss, grief and death in our newspapers.

I almost forgot to mention that there is also a speaker in the living room where the building manager can pass us important messages - God forbid, a fire in the building. It is like what we have in our tall grade A office buildings back home.

Belated Birthday Present

A few weeks ago, Daisy saw a very nice Cross pen on the back cover a magazine at our Nuran's residence. She showed it to me and I made a mental note to get it for her birthday.

Unfortunately her birthday came and went, I was not able to find the coveted pen. It is not easy to find things here in Dubai, or may be put it down to me for being a newbie. I found a Cross Pen counter in Magrudy's at Festival Centre on a secret shopping trip on my own(Where Ikea is and the family's favourite mall) but they do not have it. At first they told me it hasn't arrived, then they said it was all sold out. You see, in Dubai you get different answers from different people depending on who you ask. Imagine government servants also behave like this too!

In the end, I could only buy her two beautiful cards for her birthday. One from the children and the other from me.

Last night, we parked our car on a rare upper level of the Mall of the Emirates. When we entered the complex, I spied a Cross Pen counter I have never seen before. Excitedly I walked into the store and lo and behold, set beautifully in a glass case is the pen I was looking for. I told the salesman, I want it now. I would have paid up even the price was double.

Daisy was quite happy to have this pen. She has a pink ribbon lapel pin to match it with. She and the girls are enthusiastic supporters of the Breast Cancer Foundation.

First visit to the Atlantis Hotel

Arrived at the newly opened Atlantis Hotel at about 7.30am this morning. Daisy had a full day of meetings at this signature hotel on the Palm Jumeirah (For those who do not know, this is the Palm which you can see from space).

The temperature was a cool and pleasant 25 degrees Celsius. After I let Daisy off I turned around parked the car and took these pictures. There were tour buses at this early hour packed with tourists to take in the view too.

Shantou, Singapore, Dubai

Above is a picture a typical village home in the outskirts of Shantou.

Sometimes I imagined what it must be like for my father who left China as a 12 year old orphan boy to come to Singapore. I think I am beginning to understand it a little better since coming to Dubai.

On our travel papers, we are here for three years. In reality, we could be home next month or never.

In a very fluid and mobile world, we have become global citizens. A few leave home for better opportunities elsewhere but looking around in Dubai, most are here because they had limited or no choice.

I have met an unsual number of Teochews here, and most Teochews come from Shantou.

Where to get a haircut

Back home it is so easy to find an EC house to get a quick and cost effective trim. Over here, it is completely different, or may be I haven't found the lobang yet. I know there are no unisex hair salons here. Even on the public buses, there are male and female sections. It would be the same for the metro when it comes online.

The above hair salon is found on the ground floor of the Mall of the Emirates near to the Carrefour hypermart. It faces a bank of ATMs.

Of course, it wouldn't be a woman who will be sniping your hair here.

Crazy Parking

This is the crazy parking situation around Daisy's office tower ever since they started charging for parking. Unless you are given free parking by your employer, most are not paying and they end up parking in any empty space they can find. I bet they will even park on top of each other if only they know how to.

Furnishing our apartment

Finally we could move our books from the boxes to some shelves. The Ikea Ivar systems and Poang arm chairs were easy to set up. We also bought a small table for the telephone. We had earlier bought the dinning table, which is foldable and has coasters which we can push away to make way for the Poangs to face the TV. We are short of one Poangs - for me, but I hardly watch TV anyway.

Trolleys at the right time.

We bought a trunk full of Ikea Ivar furniture, and Poang arm chairs. We were delighted that someone had left these two trolleys at the basement carparks. We commandeered it and took it upstairs.

They were still there for "residents use" after several days. The cleaners also used it, but tonight I found them missing. Perhaps the supermarket has reclaimed them.

Go read this blog on Dubai

I highly recommend this blog because it is kinda of a proxy for what I want to share with you guys but often do not have the time to. Its latest post (October 23) on Jumeirah Beach Residence is exactly what I also want you all to know. I took those pictures too and was also stopped by the security guard. There is an October 16 post about the fog here. I drove through those thick fog on that morning. It was indeed quite and unnerving experience.

See http://dubaithoughts.blogspot.com/

Taking driving lessons again!

I sat across the desk of the senior official from the RTA (their LTA equivalent). I told him I have 25 years of experience on the road. He was very apologetic. He told me the rules have changed. I cannot go directly for the driving test. I need a minimum of twenty lessons!

My driving class will start in about two weeks time. I signed up for the VIP package to accelerate the process but of course it comes with a handsome price tag.

It used to be we could exchange our drivers' licence for theirs. Not any more. I shan't go into the details except that our consulate has not been successful with helping us. We are left pretty much on our own to solve this problem ourselves.

Lots of people ride the cab to the driving centre for the lessons. As it is hard to get a cab from here, they get the cab to wait for them. Imagine the cost!

Dubai has no personal income tax but many creative, honestly clumsy indirect taxes. If you don't want to pay them, stay at home and live like as a recluse, even that you still have to pay the 5% municipality tax. Surely death and taxes are the two constants in life.

By the way, the weekly updated Dubai government website continues to insist that our drivers' licence can be exchanged for theirs. They have refused to update it. I can think of several possibilities but this is not the place to discuss this.

Totally outsized and outrageous ambition

Found this blog today - Dubai in photos.

Nothing is going to tell the completely outsized ambition of this emirate unless you use photos and pictures. Be shocked and enjoy yourself at http://www.lazydesis.com/chai-time/34558-dubai-photo.html

I think what they are trying to do is going to make feats like the Great Wall and the Pyramids blush.

All the best Dubai. At least you dare to dream and walk the dream. Those dreams have inspired other wannabes. That is real leadership, taking others to a new place which they will never go themselves. Bear in mind that you will not get there in one straight line and we pray you have the strength of character to to survive the present global financial crisis.

Warp engines staying engaged.

Nervous about Citi?

I cannot decide if I should be nervous about Citi. The card to the left was the most useful card when I am overseas. But just three days ago I could no longer get any cash from Citi ATMs here in Dubai, and I needed the money to pay the real estate agent for her services.

When I got in touch with Singapore, I was told that their Business unit in UAE has stopped indefinitely their ATMs from dispensing cash to foreign Citi accounts. No reasons were given. I am grateful to the staff of Citi in Singapore for providing the workarounds - Use HSBC ATMs

Eventually my relationship manager emailed me and I told him that this is very bad. People could start a bank run rumour here.

Today, I stood one floor above a Citi ATM at the mall and observe customers trying to withdraw cash. Many of them were unsuccessful. I find this most incredible. Citi is going to have many unhappy customers here in Dubai. Citibank in Dubai really has to get their act together. At the very least they ought to provide more helpful messages on their ATM displays.

The reason why people here hasn't panicked is because for now Dubai seemed on the surface to appear unaffected by the global financial tsunami. I am sure it will come because I believe this place is leveraged to the eye balls. :-(

Food, Glorious Food

This entry is a photo tour of the food highlights we have experienced. Sometimes we were so hungry, we just tucked it in totally forgetting to snap some photos. Other times we were totally engaged in conversation and forgot.

Our culinary adventure didn't begin well. Most of the foods that are easily available, especially in the food courts are not designed for our singaporean palates. With time and experience, experimentation and advice from singaporeans and malaysians we are discovering better and better food.

Bon Apetit.

Parking: Before and After

The service road from our service apartment to the main road is always congested in the morning. A few like us leave an hour early to avoid it. Some of the longer staying or permanent residents in other apartment blocks park their vehicles on this road which leads to a construction site. This help them to avoid the morning rush. As the traffic situation is so bad, some drive in the opposite direction and than make a U-turn over the curb as you can see above. Reminds me of Singapore in the 70s.




A few days ago, the authorities put a stop to this illegal parking. "No Parking" signs now guard the entrance or perhaps exit of this road. I wonder if anyone would quietly come and remove the signs at night. This would be very interesting to watch.

Coming sunday, we will revert to normal timings because Ramadan is over. I was told that the traffic should improve as a result because during Rmadan, the school and work hours coincide.

Found! Steamed Rice at S$1.20

Finally, we found steamed rice at S$1.20 instead of S$4.80 in a Chinese restaurant a stone throw away from Lamcy's Plaza in Deira.

A fellow Singaporean invited us to this restaurant - Spring Bamboo Restaurant. He offered to take us there in his car but wanting to be more adventurous, we went there guided by GPS. It was really hard to find the place as the coordinates obtained from Google Earth were not sufficiently precise. We were at least 400m away from the destination when the GPS suggested - "You Have Arrived". Fortunately helpful people point us to the right place.