The rain continues

I had the misfortune of having to drive to Dubai this morning through torrential rain. Normally at home I wouldn't think twice about this really, but here this involves seriously putting your life at risk. Actually it wasn't too bad - I only saw 9 major car crashes between Abu Dhabi and Dubai! The first 2 were on the Saadiyat highway (emptiest piece of motorway in Abu Dhabi) two cars on the fast lane hard shoulder and another on the slow lane hard shoulder for the first accident and another 2 cars in the second (2 more on this stretch on the way home btw). These drivers really are the most brain-dead individuals, I actually think the drivers of the UAE share 1 brain cell, but the one they share is used up working their mobile phone.

I would bet that all of the "accidents" caused this morning could have been avoided if they weren't driving like tossers (not sure if "tossers" is going to get the web police onto me, but hey, that's what they are!). Even in sideways rain they still drive at 160kmph (100 mph) on their phone, tailgating within inches. I had to slow to 70 because any faster and I couldn't see a thing.

One of the most annoying things they do here in rain (and fog) is put their hazard warning lights on the whole time. This helps no-one. Now you don't know if they are going left, right or whether there is actually a hazard coming up. They seem to think that rain per se is a hazard, whereas in fact, they are they hazard!

Below is a short clip taken on Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai this afternoon. Once again Caz says I am a hazard by doing this, but trust me, I could be videoing, making a cup of tea, doing a Rubik's cube and putting my tie on all at the same time and still not be as dangerous as some of the guys I have seen today!

It’s raining- fantastic!

It happens so infrequently here that when it does, it is beautiful! It makes me want to go out and just stand in it. We get so much rain at home, we moan and moan about it (as is the English way). Here, we moan and moan about how bloody hot it is (have to be whinging about something). So rain is a very welcome site. I’ve even opened some windows so I can hear it. We were going to sit on the beach today, but actually, I don’t care one bit we can’t, I’ll just enjoy the rain instead……

Windy again

The winds got up dramatically this afternoon from nowhere. Because it is so open where we live the winds howl around the place and the air just fills with sand from the desert -very unpleasant. We also had a few drops of rain again.

As I was driving into the City on Airport Road I passed a building site hoarding that had completely blown over in the wind and was causing a traffic hold up. Sorry about the shaky video clip - and yes, as Caz has pointed out, I am a road hazard when taking video while driving! But I can still drive 100 times better than most out here, even while holding a mobile phone taking video!

Strange weather

As I am typing it is absolutely hacking it down with rain. The weather this week has been awful. We have had gale force winds blowing sand everywhere, hail, torrential rain and generally gloomy weather. At least it has kept the temperature down which is a good thing. And anyway, we Brits are pretty much used to this kind of weather for about 70% of the year! But very weird for here. Even people I have spoken to that have been here years have never known it this bad. Global warming to blame no doubt. Here's a clip of me driving down Airport Road this morning...

Most problems out here get solved by throwing cheap labour at them. This was evident this morning when I saw teams of municipality workers sweeping the kerbs clear of the sand that had blown into them over the last couple of days.

Exciting news today though!! Tickets for the Abu Dhabi F1 GP went on sale today. I got myself 4 tickets, hopefully with a great view from the West Grandstand. The tickets will be for myself and 2 of my bros (Steve & Mark) who are going to come out for the weekend. I'm sure a good time will be had by all! There is still lots of work to be done on Yas Island, the venue, but it will be another cheap labour situation again and it will get done!