Dubai 11 - Drinkies

Wow, either I was really drunk last night, or everyone else at the barbecue was talking Afrikaans.

Speaking of drinking, booze isn't hard to get here, it's just a little awkward. Technically you need a licence just to consume the stuff, and you definitely need one for take-out. The alternative is a trip to Barracuda in Ras Al Khaimer, an alcohol supermarket where the laws are different, the duty is less, and you don't need a licence. Of course, it's technically illegal to transport it between emirates (say, back home to Dubai), but you'd be pretty stiff if you got done.

The other option is to drink someone else's, which is what our cleaner does. This was welcome news in a way (it turns out I do know how much I drink), but also disappointing (Black Bush is hard to find in the Middle East, and idiotic new airline laws might make buying it at various airports problematic). So we're going to mark our bottles. I'm also going to replace my whiskey with tea, just to stick it to the dirty pig-fornicator.

Meanwhile, it's starting to heat up here, but the cold water isn't hot enough to shave with yet, so it's not officially summer in my book.

Later.

Dubai 10 - Side Trips - France and Switzerland

Following on from the previous post, I took some time to continue the World Ski and Dive Tour the other day and went to Les Arcs with Rob.

We flew into Zurich, then drove down to Luzern, a stunningly beautiful town, where we decided to take a suite for the night at a 5 Star hotel on the lake (may as well treat yourself occasionally). Bit of a look around, a couple of oversized beers and a fondue and we felt right at home.

Then it was down to Wengen where I'd been tipped off about a cheap restaurant. Wengen is a ski town (without snow in the village this year) and the drive to get there (or to Lauterbrunnen where you catch the funicular - I know, my spelling's terrible) is spectacular. Driving through Switzerland is like driving through a postcard. Everywhere you look (scenery-wise) is so spectacular you become desensitised after a while.

(Everywhere you look shop-wise, however, are souvenirs. Victorinox and Wenger Swiss Army knives, Sigg drink bottles, cookoo clocks, flags.)

From Wengen we caught the funicular to the top of the Jungfrau (ironic name considering the train that penetrates the tunnel to the top, right through the Eiger!) where there are spectular views and where I froze my phone.

Then it was onto France for a week of skiing out of Arc 2000 with Mick from London and a bunch of his mates. Good snow, but not great. It snowed just before we got there, then it was sunny for the rest of the week. So south faces got a bit slushy and cruddy, the lower runs were patchy (ie, patches of snow!) but the top was nice. Lots of nice steeps runs! It was a good crew, too.

The funniest thing about Arc 2000 was the resident sports hero: Kevin Alderton, the double blind speed skiing champion. (It took us a while to work out he was the champion twice over, not blind twice over!) Basically, this bloke holds a record in an event with only one competitor: skiing fast down a hill without proper sight. How he gets his seeing eye dog on the skis is anyone's guess! So this bloke from the rough part of London, judging by his accent, props up bars in 2000 trying to score free drinks. His record is around half the speed of someone with eyes, which I find odd as they can at least see enough to be scared!

But here's the thing. His not even blind. He's "differently sighted" at best. And it's not a congenital disorder: he had his eyes gouged in a bar fight!

France, and Switzerland, are on the list for a return visit.

Dubai 09 - Side Trips - Mussandam

I've been slack, I know, so a quick update is in order.

Life in Dubai continues on with ridiculous amounts of work and not enough time. I've had one new starter in my team (Bridge, a good mate from my Peterborough days, who was tempted across from Dublin by tax free money and lots of it), and a graduate (Saif) starts later this month. After some cunning manoeuvring in concert with the Marketing team, I got my position renamed from "Regional Building Physicist" to "Regional Head of Sustainability", which sounds a lot more important, if possible less maningful.

Naturally, all this work encourages the odd break to recharge, so a few weekends ago Sarah and I headed up to Mussandam in Oman to cruise through the fjords.

Now, when I think of fjords I think of Norway - snow capped peaks, ice bergs, blonde women: that kind of thing. But Oman has them too.

And they are beautiful to behold. Massive peaks rising vertically from the sea, and barely a single plant in sight. These hills are barren, but spectaqcular. Luckily the sea is full of life, and our first stop on our dhow cruise was to watch dolphins. Or watch grown men frantically push little kids out of the way so they could get a better vantage point themselves. And video the sea in the hope of getting a glimpse of a dolphin. (What is it with people video taping EVERYTHING on holiday. "Look, a fountain. Let's video it and subject our mates to it when we get home.")

After an hour and a half of circling these majestic and harried sea mammals, we were told the rudder was on the fritz so we transferred to two smaller dhows to continue the cruise. Everyone piled onto the one without the hordes of screaming Japanese children who wound up with a boat almost to themselves, while we all sat almost in each others laps. After a while we anchored for a spot of snorkelling where I discovered that the side of a dhow is a little too high to do a backwards roll into the water. I also discovered that the water was full of jellyfish and that most of these had a mild sting.

That night we went for dinner at a restaurant down the road a bit. We asked the waiter what the laws are regarding drink driving in Oman. (In Dubai you go to jail. Even if some muppet runs into you, if you have any alcohol in you, you go to jail.) His response: "Don't worry. Drink as much as you like. Drive home. Crash the car. No problem." I didn't crash my beautiful new Mercedes CLK 200 Kompessor, but I did have a quiet drink with my buffet. Good old Oman.

This is a really poor way to end an entry, but if you don't like it, write in and tell me.