Travel to Syria

Tomorrow we travel to Damascus. I will wear my sunglasses in case of bright lights, voices from the sky and blindness.

End of Ramadan

Ramadan is coming to an end. At the approach of Ramadan, it can be viewed by non-Muslims as a bit of a nuisance - all the restrictions, lack of places to get lunch etc. But actually, I haven’t found it quite so difficult this year, maybe I’m just getting used to it. Mostly you are busy with work, so the time passes quickly and before you know it, it’s Iftar time and you are allowed to eat and drink again.

The government departments and companies started their Eid holiday today. Officially, it has been announced that Eid will begin on Friday - so therefore tomorrow is the last day of Ramadan (for those that don’t know, Ramadan is the name of the month we are in, in the Islamic calendar).

Since the start of Ramadan I have been meaning to take some pictures of the lights along the Corniche. Lights go up for various celebrations through the year and they do look very nice. Finally, tonight I managed to get some!

Friday we fly to Damascus, Syria, for two nights which we are really looking forward to. Should be lots more photo ops.!

Building Fire Hazards

I went past this building today that was on fire last week (I think it was last week).....





Thankfully, no one was killed.... this time. There are many of these old buildings around the city. They have no sprinkler systems, do not meet any kind fire safety regulations and are a total liability. The people who live in these buildings really do not have any choice, because they will be the only type of building that they could afford to live in. There must be 1000s and 1000s of people who are risking their lives whenever they go home. People have died in similar fires over the years and more will die in the future. This should be a priority for the government. Instead of building more and more office space which they will never attract enough businesses to fill (not just my opinion - comes from numerous sources well connected in the commercial real estate business), they should build some quality housing for the masses of workers in the (mainly) services industries who live like this in the city (construction workers generally live outside the city in workers camps, which thankfully are improving - so I will give the government credit for that).

Dragonmart

We took a trip yesterday to Dragonmart in Dubai. This is a mall that is full of Chinese trading companies selling everything from mobiles, to sofas, to industrial compressors! The mall has been built so that from above it looks like a Chinese dragon....




There were some really good bargains there, especially in the furniture section. Curtains can be made really cheaply too. The only things I bought were a couple of audio cables (£1 each) and a wireless mouse (£5).

I did have to smile at these two stores next to each other.......






Well it was a good warm up for our trip to China in October... more about that later......

I want one of these!

I guess there are already a few of these around Abu Dhabi........

http://twistedsifter.com/2010/09/apple-icar-mercedes-brabus/