Foggy Greetings

Foggy greetings on the last day of 2008 early in the morning. Foggy about the future, but staying hopeful that eventually there will be clearer skies.

The future is also foggy because leaders with flagging courage have been telling lies that all would be well and the fundamentals are strong. Fortunately for me, I never believed them. I thank God for putting me with previously the right jobs and experience, the good friends to know. I feel sorry for those who have been misled into the wrong investments, who had trusted others who claimed they could see through the fog who are actually themselves clueless.

The fog will eventually lifts not because we make it so. It is only natural that it clears but we will have no lack of personalities to claim credit for it. If you think hindsight is 20/20 vision you are mistaken. Just look at one of those historical events that we have tried to attempt an honest study - The Great Depression and you will see how controversial it is. Professional historians know we cannot see history with clarity, how often facts are disputed, what more the hows, whats and whys. But we also cannot do without them, a broken compass is still a compass. We are humans.

We cannot agree on the past, the present passes too quickly, as like the fog I drove through this morning and the future is even murkier. So plans are for education and prayer, the expression of our hope and faith, and the future is engaged with courage and character than with brains. Brains is only good for the now, like choosing healthy over bad food, preferring to save than to waste on unnecessary spending...

See http://www.inspiringword.net/daily/all-dailies.php?day_is=1231 then.

Happy New Year!

Water is precious in the Desert

You can tell from this photo that I have bought far too many packs of water. Back home you get your water from the tap, boil it and if you prefer it cold pour it into a tumbler to be placed in a fridge. Here everyone buys water, and I have inadvertantly developed a habit of buying too much. Each time I push a trolley in a supermart, I feel that I must carry back some water. I think I should just quit this and start ordering them to be delivered in 5-gallons bottles.

There is a brand of bottled water that sometimes taste like our new water back home. To avoid being sued, I am not mentioning their name here. Also my Canadian friend daughter works for them.

We have experimented with several brands and have settled for Masafi, which I am told is the choice of the Emiratis. We have to avoid Evian, Volvic and Perrier. They have set a far too high standards for price. Ideally you should only pay so much for water without even knowing how much it costs, otherwise you would eventually count the number of times you go to the toilet too right?

Collapsing Real Estate

The above came from my more technical blog on NaviMap (http://navimap.blogspot.com/2006/05/dubai-real-estate-bubble.html)

I visited Dubai in May '06. Upon returning to Singapore I drew the above NaviMap. So much has changed in two years.

Even as the prices of high end property is nose diving, the rental market remains relatively resilient. We paid 190K AED in in a single cheque for a year rental. Yes, for the uninitiated you are reading it right - One year's rental paid in advance. Stupid market. Last time, I checked Dubizzle, apartments like ours are still going for between 200 to 210K AED. This is a little better than when some landlords were asking for 220K AED and occasionally even 230K AED a few weeks earlier. The day of reckoning of the rental sector could be coming.

The market here is quite opaque, otherwise I feel prices would have responded faster. I wonder if they have not set themselves up for a fall over the cliff as a result. And as this happen to real estate, it should also apply to cars too, and an eminently depreciating asset to boot. We have decided to stay with pricey car rental (3.5K/month) for now.

There will be collateral damage of course - Lots of people will be laid off. We don't know if we will eventually join their swelling ranks, but I am sure except God nobody knows. So as confidence evaporates given that the crazy and greedy behavior of the past few years get exposed, commerce is braking towards a grinding halt. Once locked, the grease of liquidity has not been sufficient to remove the friction. It is because the road ahead on the old paradigm isn't tenable any more. As and when the path is secure again, governments and central bankers will discover there is too much liquidity. Some worry that it might take a war to make this happen. They pointed out that despite FDR valiant effort, he couldn't get America out of its economic malaise. It took World War II to do it. I don't know, this is too difficult for me to figure out. I just hope we are not entering a dark age. I haven't met anyone who can point the way to a new dawn yet but that does not mean there isn't one. My grand father generation will tell you that they felt the world ended when the Japs took Singapore. They could not be more wrong.

Conclusion: The future is beyond us to fathom, but let's have faith. If this is not good enough for you, go and read Taleb's, "The Black Swan" and get a good dose of intellectual humility.

"Ghim Moh" market

Don't you think this look like a wet market in Singapore and Ghim Moh's in particular. This is the wholesale cum retail Fruit and Vegetable Market near the driving school.

I spent some time there to watch some people come in pick ups to buy lots of vegetables, probably their daily supply for their food business. The bid-offer start off at 50%.

For small families like ours, it isn't worth making the long trip here. The quantities we need are small and it is a long way from our place - Almost like going from Queenstown to Changi Airport.

Car shopping

Visited several car showrooms yesterday. To go straight to the end, our conclusion is still the car we are driving now - the 2009 Honda Accord is best. We checked out the Toyota Camry with high expectations given the solid reviews it has received but feel that the accolades should have gone to its predecessor. This new model is very cramped at the back seats and the children didn't like it.

We were roundly impressed with the tiny Honda Jazz. It is a marvel in engineering and design but feeling it is not adequate on the safety aspect, we decide to pass.

Cars here are a world cheaper than back home. An entry level Accord will only set you back 83K AED or about S$33K. We can well afford to pay cash for it. Even back home we have always not taken a car loan unless it costs more to pay in cash. Yes, this is a stranger and stranger world isn't it? Your finance and economics texts would tell you that you always pay more taking on a loan. I can't go into the details here, but the concept is quite simple. In an integrating world, and don't we already try to teach our kids in school to think integratively across disciplines, there are full of surprises. That is why the financial markets have also become so confusing. The economics we have been taught were never sufficiently integrated with other disciplines to mentally prepare us for market surprises.

Back to car shopping. The Toyota showrooms while not crowded were receiving enough visitors to keep many of their sales executives occupied. Looks like the biggest wave of the financial tsunami is still on the way. We kicked the tires of many models - I mean it only figuratively before a sales person approached us.

At the Nissan showroom, the salesman lost interest and literally disappeared when he found out where were from. It didn't matter actually. He didn't know we will pay cash. Too bad. Perhaps most Nissan buyers take out car loans.

As to why we are not keen on SUVs, well for the same reasons Freakonomics repeatedly explains why people always do not make the best choices.

Christmas Gathering

We were invited to a neighbour's apartment for dinner last night. Yummy korean barbecue. Everything was excellent, and I especially like the bee-hoon and beef. I experimented with the lamb but as feared, it was less successful for me.

Christmas is not celebrated in the UAE. So the only thing that make me bill this as a Christmas makan was because we had bought presents for the children.

Back home, without fail for almost 20 years now, the same old friends will meet for a simple dinner and chit chat until the early hours of the morning. The children will be at the basement of the house having their greatest fun of the year. So you can understand how sad our girls were to live Christmas here as just another work day.

Well, at least we make some calls home to our old friends with our speaker phone on the 24th.

How big is big?

How big is the aquarium at the Dubai Mall. This is big (see above) but not bigger and less crowded than the one we visited in Monterey, California, which is considered among the top three in the world.

Accidentally Singapore

Like Ngee Ann City, the new flagship Dubai Mall by Emaar also has a christmas tree, only much bigger. We were surprised when we visited a few days ago, to see the symbols of Singapore pacing around the tree. A few days later when we were there again, but I didn't get a photo, they have even upgraded it to colour.

Creative TravelSound

The iPod may be the coolest MP3 player but I think the best sound comes from the Creative Zen XFi incorporating the namesake technology.

We badly wanted to buy the TravelSound for the Zen XFi before coming here, but it wasn't available yet. We had absolutely no luck getting it here until our new friend Jordan sent me a link to Creative's Ecommerce site for the UAE. Unlike my internet banking token from DBS, it took only slightly more than a week from the day I ordered to delivery via FedEx. Courier charges was only $8. I assume Creative has a special arrangment with them. In contrast my DBS internet banking token took weeks to arrive because the first one was lost in the mail. The second one came by speedpost and a local courier (probably contracted by Emirates Post) and cost me more than $40 and over two weeks of waiting.

Christmas cards stuck here

This is our box of pretty Christmas cards. None of them went out to any of you because we do not know where to buy the stamps. The only post office I know about is quite out of the way. Only yesterday did we discover that the mall we frequented the most, there is a post box on the ground floor (we almost always park our car on the first floor and so we missed it) and that one of the customer service desk also double up as a postal agency.

Well this is Dubai. Unless you are very rich, you will find things very haphazard and even hazardous here.

As at this time of writing, I believe they are still carting away a lot of the sewage in tankers to be treated. The situation is so bad that the typical waiting time for a tanker to dispose of its load is about eight hours. So it is little wonder that some of them prefer to find alternative dumping ground. Of course, some hours or days later the evidence will appear in all the wrong places!

Foggy on the 23rd

Sorry very busy. Have quite a few things I want to put up on this blog. Give me some time. Anyway above is a photo Daisy took from her office window two mornings ago. It was also very foggy this morning. I was a little nervous going on the road because of the recklessness of so many drivers here, but it turned out that my fear was unfounded because the fog seems to hog mostly the mid levels of tall buildings.

This morning, i.e,. 24th on the way to the driving school, (Daisy's turn to take lessons now) I saw a tow truck on the side of the freeway. I guess this an evil sign of an evil kelong waiting for unfortunate fish (wrecked cars). I wish him absolutely poor business.

Finally, a worthy bookstore

All the bookstores here have been disappointing until this one - Kinokuniya at the Dubai Mall. It is set up by the Singapore Kinokuniya instead of the Japanese parent. I think it is bigger than the one in Ngee Ann City, at least it is far more spacious. I came with several latest titles in my mind and tried to see if I could locate them. Passed with flying colours, I found all of them and more.

This is the bookstore to go to in Dubai. The others do not even begin to come close.

What car to buy?

I shall begin with a quote from the commander of Dubai Traffic Police department in today's Gulf News.

Al Mazroui said four-wheel drivers and drivers of towing vehicles specifically need to pay more attention and abide by speed limits, because it is more difficult for them to control their vehicles on wet roads if they speed.

Nearly everyone, including the relocation specialists assigned to us have advised me to opt for a 4WD vehicle. My research on the Web has suggested otherwise. When we first got here, we were given a 4WD.

Back in Singapore I will never consider a 4WD. I drove an Altis and my brother complained his Accord was too big for his family. I am really enjoying my rental Accord now and we would probably opt for a Camry eventually. I can even double up as a night shift taxi driver with that. Just kidding. Yes, I don't care that most taxis are Camrys. I think it is a practical and wise choice.

By the way petrol isn't dirt cheap here, only cheaper than Singapore and about the same price what the US consumer is paying now, US$1.77/gal.

Good bye to CL Teachers

The sign says, "Welcome!" but from today onward, there are no Chinese Language teachers to welcome the pupils. They have left and the school will have to look for replacement as quickly as possible.

CL is not a priority here. The teachers are very good but there are simply not enough curriculum time devoted to it. The girls would be horribly unprepared if they have to rejoin the Singapore system.

Our visit to Knowledge Village

Knowledge Village is a little "university town" next Internet City and Media City. We were there to have a quick lunch at the food court yesterday. I was told on Fridays, there are church meetings here.

Our new rental car

Last night we collected our rental Accord at the Mall of the Emirates. A few hours earlier, I had picked up my Dubai driver's licence. I prefer this to the company sponsored one when we first arrived here, but that Pajero was good when we were trying to set up home here. The big storage space at its back is very handy for the pieces of furniture we bought from Ikea.

Nature Downstairs

Some nature shots of my place taken on December 8.

Second hand bookshop

We have always enjoyed our visits to San bookshop and Sunny bookshop in Singapore, but second hand bookshops are no so common here. We finally found it of all places, at Ibn Buttuta which we visit so often. It was located outside the shopping complex. We never knew given the hot Dubai weather that there would be shops outside. We found many Enid Blyton's originals for Yi Lin here. We are glad that she is finally showing an interest to reading. We bought her seven books for less than the equivalent of S$40. If we return them, we get half our money back. There is no time limit.

No under one roof shopping here

The shopping malls here are very much larger than those in Singapore but true to what a friend told us, it is nearly impossible to experience under one roof shopping here. Here is my personal experience with book buying.

Before coming over, we were excited that Borders have a shop here but they are the biggest let down. Since we arrived in September, the shelf with the new non-fiction books still proudly display the same titles. The next time we are there, we should check how much dust have settled on them.

I finally found some of the latest titles e.g., "Snowball", "Outliers" and "The Ascent of Money" at various book shops. "The Ascent of Money", only one copy was available at Magrudy's branch in the newly opened Dubai Mall. "Snowball" and "Outliers" were discovered at City Centre Magrudy's but not at the larger Festival Centre outlet or the Ibn Batutta's branch.

Recently we collected our second order from Amazon.com. The three books I mentioned earlier, they are in my smart phone as ebooks.

As for Borders, why bother?

Jasmine Green Tea

Was quite surprised by serendipity to see a few cans of the familiar Pokka Green Tea at Choittram supermart in the Greens Village last night. We bought four with each costing us the equivalent of S$1.30.

If you take a closer look it is not exactly the same as the one in Singapore. This one is made in Malaysia.

For comparison a six-pack of Coke Zero costs between S$2.15 to S$2.35

From my balcony: The World's Tallest Tower

I didn't know I could see the Burj Dubai, which when completed will be the tallest building in the world, from my balcony. May be when it is ready, I will try to go up on it and spot my apartment from there. I used to amuse myself this way when I had my office in DBS Tower 2, Shell Tower and UOB Plaza 1. Yes, most of the offices I occupy happened to be above 40 storeys.

Aircon shelter at the Golf Course

I can see this faintly from my balcony but not until I took out my old Canon camera and zoom in did I discover that it is an aircon shelter on the golf course. We don't have something like this back in Singapore but we can find their equivalent at our Mandai Zoo.

Actually I am only guessing that this is an aircon shelter. May be if I get the chance to check it out in person, who knows, it might actually be toilets. The absence of windows has arose my suspicion.

Post Box: A rare find

I have been looking for a post box since I arrived in Dubai about three months ago. Finally we found one at Diera City Centre today, which is a very busy and noisy mall, I hope to avoid.

Beside the red post box is a much bigger thrash bin. What fantastic company this post box has got!

This post box is so small, and it is hardly full. It is easy to understand why. As it is hard to buy postage stamps, there must be scant need for many and large post boxes like we have back home. Furthemore Dubai does not have a zip or postal code system. It is the same in Ireland but the postmen in Ireland knows their way, I am not sure about Dubai. Taxi drivers routinely lose their way, which is not a problem for them as the bill is passed on to you.

Hailstorm in Dubai

(photo by Gulf News)

We missed the exciting hail fall in Dubai this morning, but got to know about it tonight in the Gulf News (sometimes euphemistically called the Good News here). See full report here.

Steamboat dinner at home

Today when we left the house about 11am, there was a light drizzle and the temperature made a new low of 15 degrees Celsius. On the way back, we bought stuff for a steamboat dinner. There will be many opportunities for such dinners in the next couple of months.

Our potted plants

Lin has been endlessly persuading me to buy her a potted plant to take care. I finally relented with not one by five plants. Only four are shown here, and they cost us the equivalent of S$4 including the box. They are beautiful little plants with outsized flowers, and they also happen to be Marigolds, which were my first flowering plants I grew as a kid.

It seems to rain every day now, which is beautiful provided it doesn't flood.

It was only raining lightly

I don't know how long the rain lasted last night. We tried to go downstairs for a walk in the early evening but had to abandon the idea because of the rain. It was very light rain and we didn't even know till we were downstairs.

The next morning there were pools of water every where. This is our second experience of what to expect, and so were more prepared going to work in the morning. The roads were uncannily quiet, probably because most people have taken advantage of the long holidays to go away from work.

Yet another mall

There are a great many malls in Dubai. On UAE 37th Independence Day, naturally a public holiday, we made a trip to the Dubai Outlet Mall. Most of the time, except for groceries shopping we buy almost nothing - the prices are wrong. We were pleasantly surprised to be able to pick up quite a few things on this trip. As usual, I got nothing for myself. I was almost tempted to buy a clock that reports both inside and outside temperatures, as I am always curious about how hot it is outside (at this time, I should say how cold actually).

Construction workers transported me home

This morning, I was disturbed by very loud talking from somewhere outside my apartment. I thought it was one of my neighbours practising preaching! I opened the sliding window to my balcony and what greeted me was two happy workers from the subcontinent chatting with each other. Today is UAE Independence Day, I thought most of them weren't working, perhaps their supervisors have the day off but not them.

I should have known better. Many years ago, before mobile phones became common, most calls outside were made with pay phones. Once late at night I was at Comcentre at Exeter road. There was an Indian man shouting over the phone (I assume he was calling home) and I could hear him loud and clear a good 300m away. These two incidents connected nostalgically in my mind.

A princess in school

Yesterday I was at the girls' school to pay the school fees when I chanced upon these pictures. They were so brightly and joyously litted that I just have to snap a couple of shots with my camera. I didn't know they were the work of a 9-year old princess who is joining the school.