Ferrari World again

We  decided last weekend to pay a visit to Ferrari World as it was something to do inside out of the heat, and we had 2-for-1 vouchers. Sadly, the best thing about FW, the Formula Rossa, was closed for maintenance. Well, at least it gets some maintenance I guess.

In the middle of Ramadan, on a Saturday morning, the place was deserted which at least meant we could walk right onto the rides we wanted to try.

There is a display of Ferrari's in one part of the place which was cool. There were some old ones, working up to some of the more recent models. A pretty penny's worth all on loan from the same guy, Mr Tariq Shaikh. Clearly he had driven at least one of them on the UAE's roads as it had the SALIK (toll) Tag still on the windshield. Here's a quick (but poor, sorry) video of the room.

Biting your tongue...

This is a frequent occurrence in the UAE. Such an occurrence happened to me tonight in the extreme.

I was already pissed off because I had been to Yas Marina Circuit to run and my Garmin GPS's battery had died at 4.8KM, leaving me not knowing what my time was for 5KM. Annoying.

So, the route home from there takes me through a short tunnel (imaginatively called 'Yas Tunnel') which has a 40kmph (c.25mph) speed limit. This in itself is ridiculous for a three lane (or is it 4, can't remember?) road, even if it is in a tunnel. So, I am driving in the outside lane of said tunnel, absolutely not doing about 80kmph and neither was anyone else (!) , when a twat in a (wait for it.... yes,  you guess it.....) a Land Cruiser (shock, horror!) came tearing up behind me, flashing his lights and positioning himself about 4" from my rear bumper. This is in a tunnel remember? 40kmph limit.

So anyway, as he didn't actually have anywhere to go i.e. no hard shoulder to overtake on (which is a favourite) and cars on my inside, I do my usual thing....just sit there. Save ramming me (which I wouldn't put past some) there wasn't really much he could do, except continue flashing his lights, sounding his horn (he did, a lot) and kind of swerve from side to side like a demented cobra. As he was being a particularly irritating rear orifice, I did in fact slow down somewhat just to wind him up. Yes, childish I know, but it just had to be done. This was "bite your tongue" moment no.1. I'll explain later.

When we exited the tunnel, I sloooowwly pulled over so he could pass, which he did and performed the totally predictable "lets try and swerve in front of you to make you break hard" manoeuvre, which they learn as small children on their bikes in the street most nights between the hours of 11.30pm and 1am. I followed him as he screeched round the roundabout and up to the traffic lights, which much to my amusement, were on red. As I pulled my car up behind his, I thought this is it, I'm going to get out and have a quiet chat to him and explain the error of his ways. Or something like that. So I put the car in "park", undid my seatbelt and then started counting to 10. I reached about 3 and had my second "bite your tongue" moment. I put my belt back on, waited for the lights to change and let him speed off.

So why all the tongue biting, the uninitiated may ask? Back home it would be for different reasons. Back home, these days you never know who you are dealing with and could end getting stabbed. But the odds are more in your favour of this not happening, so road rage kicks in and arguments abound. So why here? Because the odds are totally stacked against you. Try to argue your case against certain people and you are just going to fail every time. So when my instinct in the tunnel is to slam on my brakes and let the pillock smash into the back of my car (why should I care, it's a lease car and the insurance will cover it),  I have to remember that when the police are called, all he needs to do is say is that during the inevitable confrontation that would occur after, I had verbally insulted him and flipped my finger at him. This will be enough for me to be arrested, thrown in jail and eventually given a short jail sentence, followed by deportation. No need for witnesses. No burden of proof. My word against his. Happens time and time again. Same at the traffic lights. Whatever I may have said to him, would just be relayed as something totally different to the police and include the inevitable finger flip too.

So - biting you tongue my friends is the way to go. Not very satisfying, maybe galling, but will keep you out of jail. After nearly 5 years here now, my tongue is very sore.

Visit to Yas Waterworld

Whenever our kids come over they want to go to a water park. Until now, this has normally meant a trip to Dubai, to either Wild Wadi (next to Burj al Arab) or Aquaventure (next to The Atlantis). As we have been many times, we generally drop them there and go find something to do in Dubai, and then pick them up later. For us, it's a bit of a pain to be honest. Be, hurrah, no more! The long awaited Yas Island Water Park, Waterworld, is now open. (the website is pretty good and has videos of the rides etc.) This is great, as it is literally 10 minutes from our house.

So we went last weekend with Alice, Josh and Alfie. It was the opening weekend, so we were expecting it to be rammed, but it was really pretty quiet when we arrived, although it got a bit busier as the day went on. I would say the park was easily as good as the Dubai ones, and it is slated to grow even bigger with 2 more phases I believe. But even now, there is a good selection of rides, from real adrenaline rushes, through to kids stuff.

We decided to splash out on a Cabana to hire for the day. It's probably something we would only do once, but we thought "why not". The main reason was that it would give us chance to keep Alfie properly shaded during the day. They come in two sizes, for 4 or 6 people, and you get free cold drinks included all day, towels and a waiter service for F&B (just pick up the phone :-) )

Nice and quiet at opening time on Saturday!

I guess they are not heading for the slides!

They have an interesting pearl diving experience, where they will dive down and get you an oyster. You open it and are guaranteed at least one pearl. Then you can have it made into jewellery if want.

Alfie is a water baby!

Football mad

So we've made it through to the Quarter Finals. England play Italy tomorrow night. I have watched all the England games so far, despite the last few not kicking off until 22:45 here. All the games now kick off at that time. So I'll be off to Y Bar at the Yas Rotana again with a few mates to go and shout for my country. And if we win, it will be the age old rivals, Germany, in the Semis! Can't wait. Surely our time has come! And I hear Hodgson has been making sure the guys do plenty of penalty practice!

So in support and celebration I have decked out the front of the house. I had to. There was a house round the corner that had German flags all over it, so I can't let them have a free reign!

I think I will augment them with some Union Jacks and leave them up for the Olympics too!

Milo and Archie on Yas beach

Wow, nice car!

Saw this as I was going down Yas Highway today. I didn't know what car it was, but as I pulled up along side it at the lights at Mina Port I had a quick chat with the driver. It is a Weismann. A hand built German car, with the GT version I saw having only 80 produced so far. It looked stunning. c.$250K. I'll have two please.

Visit to Ferrari World

We paid our first visit to Ferrari World today, mainly because of a 2 for 1 offer, so it was half price. We came away with mixed feelings really. As an adult the experience isn't all that thrilling if you have been to other theme parks around the world. The one exception to that statement is the Formula Rossa ride which is fab! More about that later.

If you visit the park as a family with kids, I think you could have a good day out. There are lots of rides and experiences for children to have. If you have teenage kids, I would think it would be less interesting. there are only 4 "thrill rides", one of which you have to pay extra for and one that was closed today (V12).

Having said all of that - the Formula Rossa ride is, for me, worth the ticket price alone! The exhilaration that comes from the way it bursts out of the "starting grid" is amazing. You can hardly breath as it shoots it's way to top speed and climbs the first incline. It's only a matter of seconds (0-240kmph and up 52Mtrs in less than 5 seconds), but it feels like ages - you just need it to end so you can breath again! It's a great ride and should be on any 'coaster fan's list.

Here's a link to some piccies and my video clip of the Forumula Rossa

Ferrari World - Yas Island, Abu Dhabi

Formula Drift - Yas Marina Circuit

We took our young nephew to the Formula Drift yesterday. It's the first time I have seen this live myself. I have to say it was really pretty cool. Some of the drivers have been stunt drivers in films like "The Fast and the Furious" - they are seriously skillful. The Yas circuit was a great venue for it - using the chicanes and hairpin of the North Stand for the action. The "duals" where they send out two cars at a time were particularly exciting.

I had to shout for the guy driving the Mazda RX8 'cos it reminded me of my car back home...I couldn't seem to find a picture of it in full, but it is the red one behind behind the silver MR2 (I'm sure you can guess whose that was?!) ....

Some video and pictures below......

Formula Drift Yas Marina Circuit

Stars 'n' Bars

We paid our first visit to Stars 'n' Bars this evening and it was great. This American style sports bar and restaurant is located at the Yas Marina. They had a good choice of food at reasonable prices and as the venue is not part of a hotel there are no extra taxes to pay (would be at extra 16% in Abu Dhabi and 20% in Dubai). Caroline chose from the cocktail menu a couple of frozen Mohitos, but as I was driving I stuck with Coke and coffee. I was tempted to order off the shots menu, but I was concerned about getting arrested for asking for "Blow job" for 30Dhs from the waitress!

We sat outside (trying to make the most of the good weather while it lasts) on the shisha terrace so I could indulge. The "shisha man" was great and made all sorts of creations out of the foil on the top bowl> This is what I got, with added "garnish" of mint!

All in all we had a good time and will definitely return - it would make a great night out with a group of friends.

Wedding Anniversary

Today is our 7th wedding anniversary. I thought about buying Caroline some itching relief cream in case of need, but didn't get round to it! This was us with our sprogs on our wedding day:-

Tonight we had dinner at the Cipriani restaurant at the Yas Marina. We have been lucky enough to eat at Cipriani's "Harry's Bar" in Venice and also their Rainbow Grill on the 65th floor of the Rockefella Centre in New York (now closed), so I thought it would be nice to try out the new Abu Dhabi venue. It was lovely. The food was great (calamari followed by langoustine "scampi" for me!), the decor is lovely (I particularly liked the port holes either side of the bar complete with video of an ocean scene!) and the overall ambience was very nice. As the weather was good we decided to sit outside, where we had a nice view of the Yas Hotel ....

The funniest things was as we were leaving. A local guy was leaving the restaurant and gave his ticket to the valet parking attendant. The attendant proceeded to drive his Mercedes SL63 AMG 5 yards, parked it and opened the door for the guy! The car ended up further away from him that it started! Brilliant!

1-1-11

Ohh err, spooky date!

It is the second anniversary of me writing this blog. So much has happened in this time it is really quite unbelievable. We are in our fourth home, Caroline has starting her own work venture and we have visited some amazing places. Here's to another eventful year!

Just so nobody bothers asking - no, we had a crap new year's eve!

We had already decided to have a quiet night in, but Caz wasn't feeling great and I had a fever with a chesty cough. We were tucked up in bed watching a film Caz wanted to watch by 10.30pm - a lovely cheery story with Julie Walters going through an assisted suicide. Great way to see the new year in!

We decided to pull ourselves out of bed to go and see the fireworks on Yas Island from our balcony at midnight. We couldn't see them. We could hear them though. So as midnight came we just, well, listened to the fireworks, then went back to bed to watch the final moments of Julie Walters' life.........

Today was a better day though, well what we saw of it. I think we finally surfaced just after 1pm. We went to the Abu Dhabi World Tennis Championship and watched Rafa Nadal beat Roger Federer 7-6 7-6 in the final. A very civilized way to pass the afternoon of new year's day.

I commented to Caz on the way back that we are fortunate that Abu Dhabi does manage to attract world class sports and other entertainment, the venues for which are mostly less than 15 mins from our house - Yas (F1, Concerts), Zayed Sport City (Tennis, Concerts), Abu Dhabi Golf Club (European Tour Championship in a couple of weeks time). If we wanted to go and see these sort of events at home, they would normally be quite a trek.

Best news of the day though.... Watford vs. Portsmouth live on Al Jazira Sports tonight! Yes, get in there! So I am off to watch my team live from Watford, in Abu Dhabi - doesn't get any better!

F1 Tickets

My F1 tickets have come through! Woo hoo !!

I’ve got Mark , my brother coming over and Steve and Doreen, Caroline’s uncle and aunt. Should be a good time had by all!

Thinking of booking to go up the Burj Khalifa on the Monday as part of a day trip to Dubai.

Getting excited already about F1.... ☺

Yas Marina Drag Centre - best drag night since Danny La Rue!

Last night we went to the Yas Marina Drag Centre for the inaugural Abu Dhabi Drag Festival. Caz and I went with Caz's aunt and uncle (Doreen & Steve) over from the UK. I had never been to a drag event before (well not involving motors anyway - ah hem!), but I have to say it was awesome. The raw power of the cars is amazing and fills all of your senses - the smell of the rubber and fuel, the sight of the flames and the wicked speed of the vehicles, feeling the heat of the flames and the rumble of the whole area under you as the cars roar away, and the sound so loud you really do have to wear ear plugs!. Well exciting.

The event builds up through different categories of vehicles; bikes, cars - some which don't look too different from the modified cars you see racing up and down Southend sea front at the weekends! Then you get to the serious stuff, first what they call the "funny" cars - I'm not quite sure why, but I don't think it is because they are supposed to make you laugh! They are basically hugely modified muscle cars with nitrous oxide injection systems.

Then we came to the main event - the "Top Fuelers". These things are truly amazing. The video below gives you an idea and some of their stats............ 0-100 mph in 0.8 secs, hitting 310mph !!

The drag centre and the two top fuel cars have been designed in partnership with Don Schumacher Racing - Don Schumacher (or "The Shoe") being a legend of the sport in the USA. Below is a news story about the partnership. Don's son Tony is himself now 7 times champion of the sport and is sponsored by the US Army.

http://speed.ae/2010/01/17/yas-marina-in-partnership-with-drag-racing-legends-don-schumacher-racing/

We left the event after the second run of the top fuelers, just before 9pm. We had booked dinner at the Noodle Box restaurant at the Yas Hotel - which I have to say was excellent, Kung Pao Chicken, yummy! After dinner we went up to the Skylite bar under the coloured roof of the Yas Hotel. From this location you could still see most of the drag strip, although it was at least half a mile away. As we knew the top fuel cars were due to go off again around 11pm, Steve and I were standing at the side watching. I got talking to a couple of American guys stood next to me and it only turned out to be - one Mr Don Schumacher! He joked that this was race control for the night! He was being fed all the stats to his iPhone from the strip. He was very chatty and friendly and shared with us some insights from "behind the scenes". He said that he was trying to persuade the "powers that be" that they should end the F1 days with top fuel drag racing afterwards. Now that would make an awesome way to round off the day!

I have some video clips I took on my phone below (sorry for low quality). When you see the top fuel cars you will notice that as they reach a way down the strip some fireworks go off. Where we were watching from the bar, we didn't hear the initial roar until long after they were through the fireworks. Was cool to see.

Here's an album of my photos from the night........

Yas Drag Festival

Drag racing hits Yas Circuit

I never been to drag racing before, despite living not too far from the leading UK drag venue, Santa Pod, for most of my life. However, drag racing arrives at Yas Marina Circuit on 19-20th March, so I think I might just go.

Details from Yas Marina Circuit here

They have issued a video showing some practicing on the circuit this week.

See the video on YouTube

Dinner at Yas Hotel

We have made good use over the last year of our "Entertainer" book, which gives 2-4-1 offers for loads of restaurants and activities across Abu Dhabi. This year's book has lots of new venues, including a number on Yas Island. We decided to pay a visit to Amici, the Italian restaurant at the Yas Hotel (the one in the middle of the F1 track that lights up at night).

The restaurant wasn't as formal as I was expecting, which was quite nice - I don't like it when it is too stuffy (i.e. Mezzeluna, Emirates Palace on NYE). The food was great though I have to say, very nice and well presented (Lasagne followed by Lemon Cake desert for me - yummy!)

After the meal we decided to check out the Skylight Bar at the top of the hotel. I have to say it looks fab up there, a great atmosphere and it just looks cool. While we were there there was some kind of Porche owners night, as various road spec Porches went whizzing by.

All in all, it was a very pleasant evening - we will return.

There are a few pics in the album below....

Yas Hotel

Yas Marina event

I attended a business event at the Yas Marina Hotel yesterday. The hotel was very swish as you would expect. As part of the day I won a VIP tour of the race circuit, which I loved. It was supposed to include a lap of the track, but because of some flooding in the tunnels this had to be scrapped.

Below are some photos from the day….

Yas Marina Hotel Event

Madness on the Saadiyat highway

I was travelling from Khalifa City home using the Saadiyat highway this afternoon. This motorway has 5 lanes each way and there was literally only the odd few cars around. Then I saw the flashing lights. A car (looked like a Lumina SS – same as a Vectra VXR or Holden Commodore SS) was smashed up facing the wrong way in the central reservation. Go figure.

The highway travels across Yas Island, Saadiyat Island and in-between goes across some mangrove swamps. It turns out that some people (you know who I mean!) have complained that you cannot enjoy the sight of the mangroves because the safety barrier is too high and blocks the view. As I was driving over today there were teams of workers cutting through the middle of the concrete barrier to make it about half the height is was. I suspect that the height of the barrier is designed to stop cars crashing over the top and ending up in the said mangrove swamp. So now they can drive at 200kmph (there are also no cameras on this highway) taking in all the beautiful views as they crash into the wall and plunge into the lovely aqua blue water below. I’m thinking of opening a book on how long it will take – but then that would be illegal…..

Art Cars – Saadiyat Island

Paid a visit to the Art Cars exhibition on Saadiyat Island. It is held at Al Manarat, visitor’s centre for the Cultural District of the island. This is a project I am involved with, so I know the original intention was to have the whole centre open for the F1 weekend, however projects being what they are here, this never happened. They currently have this exhibition outside and after this they will open another art exhibition inside. Anyway, it was a funky clutch of cars, pictures below……

Art Cars - Saadiyat Island

Yacht at Yas Marina

I was on Yas Island today and out of curiosity I went to have a look at the Marina. It seems that you can’t just walk in, it has security on the gate. However, I did see this yacht moored just outside where there were quite a few during the Grand Prix weekend.


The name of the Yacht is “Delma”. After a bit of googling it seems it is currently owned by one of the UAE Sheikhs, although I can’t seem to find which. Apparently it is available for charter, the last published price I can find is 450,000 Euros a week. Think I’ll book it up for Eid!

F1 GP Weekend

We had a fantastic time with my brothers for the GP weekend. The final race was actually a little dull, but the whole weekend was really good. The circuit was fantastic, the Yas Hotel looked great and overall the organisation was actually pretty good too – a miracle has happened!

Here’s a few piccies from the weekend….

F1 GP Abu Dhabi

Video clips of the Yas Marina Hotel "doing it's thing" !