More on that update

Chapter 4. Ramadan
I've started the update afresh. Uploading pics onto blogger is a total pain in the arse. Speaking of which, when the world wide web was coming into prominence in the early nineties, I knew, deep down, that one day my arse would be on it. I picked up this bruise walking down a scree field after climbing all day. No injuries climbing, but walking is a different matter.

Where was I? That's right, Ramadan. The above bruise happened in Ramadan, the holy month for Muslims where we work shorter hours and get to not eat or drink in public all day long. Which is weird, because the whole thing is about Muslims testing their faith, so they should be tempted in order to really test themselves. Non muslims should be encouraged to eat bacon in front of them, and drink beer in front of them, that sort of thing.

Actually, I've got nothing else to say about Ramadan, except that it's a crap time for visitors.

Chapter 5. Visitors

Roger and Lynn came to visit the other day. I can't believe it's been a year since their last visit. I also can't believe that once again it coincided with other visitors on the same weekend, this time Jenny and Bill. The tour of Dubai was much as it was for Natasha, except this time I could drive right up to the top of the Palm, which hadn't been opened in May. A new hotel, Atlantis, is up there, which is famous for its underwater suites (they look into an aquarium). Apparently big aquariums have divers in them an awful lot, so as much fun as it might be to get on the job in an underwater suite, it may no be a very private affair...

No visit during Ramadan is complete without iftar, though. This is the evening breaking of the fast and is much like Friday brunch, only it's typically all-Arabic food and the booze is substituted, for some reason, with television. We went to an upmarket one at the Palace Hotel and were sat next to a TV. We got it turned down and eventually turned off, but instantly a nearby arab decided he was watching it so it went back on. Other iftars have been the same, even outdoor ones. Restaurants that normally have no TV in sight, suddenly wheel them out and turn them on full. I can't imagine what people did at iftar before TV. Talked?

We also went to Hatta which is in the Hajjar mountains on the border with Oman. It's a funny area as you actually go through Oman to get there but there is no border post. It used to be an enclave, just a little couple-of-kilometer stretch on the main road that actually belonged to Oman, but now it is connected up to the rest of the country. If you turn south off the main road, as we did this last week, you do hit a border post (no passports needed, just insurance papers) but you can loop around and get back to the UAE on another road without any more checks. Pretty slack, but so much more convenient than the alternative!!

6. Eid

The last few days have been Eid Al Fitr, the holiday to mark the end of Ramadan. Most people got at least three days off (Tue - Thur) but Atkins only gave 2 (Tue - Wed), so creative timesheet scoring was called for to go camping in Oman on Wednesday night. Stunning scenery but we forgot the camera. I will post shots if I get copies or when I go again, and I will be back! We went to a wadi near Ray which you could wander along. It's very mountainous and rocky, not at all sandy like the west cost. In fact, on the drive the scenery goes from yellow sand (coast), to red sand, to rock to jagged, barren mountains. It is just sensational.

Afterwards we went to Ghantoot (Thursday night) for some wakeboarding. The Thursday night session was choppy as hell, but we camped on the canal and on Friday morning the water was like glass.

We wakeboard on a canal on the Abu Dhabi - Dubai border, and the king of Bahrain has a palace there. It was occupied at the time, so we could only go as far down the canal as the gunboat patrolling near the palace, which was a bit of a pity, but who can complain when you've got the rest of it to yourself?

Right, that is it. You are updated. I will try to be more regular from here on in. Keep the comments coming.

Long overdue update

I have, I admit, been a little slack. My last post was just after coming back from Jordan which means I haven't covered the following:

1. Engagement;
2. Natasha's visit;
3. Tuscany;

4. Ramadan in Dubai

5. Multiple visits

6. Eid

Chapter 1. Engagement

Yes, most of my readers should know by now that I asked Sarah to marry me and she was good enough to say yes. We were eating at a Spanish restaurant at Al Qasr, the waitress kept calling her Mrs Nicholas, so it wasn't too hard to work the conversation around to "Mrs Lander" and how did she like the sound of that. And so, in my typical fashion of being a little too laid back for my own good, I found myself engaged.

Now, of course I cleared this with Sarah's father. I phoned him up, got the all clear and said I was going to propose. But not when. Now, Sarah's parents had been giving her a hard time for quite a while about the whole marriage issue, so we thought it was only fair to leave them hanging for a bit. The day after the Big Question, Sarah phoned home and made small talk for an hour without the slightest hint of what had happened. This must have been agony for her mum, who had been awake all the previous night waiting for the call, and had spent the next day phoning people to give the good news.

Anyway, after an hour, just as she was about to sign off, Sarah slipped in that she had to go ring shopping and the cat was finally, and officially, out of the bag.

Me, the future Mrs Nicholas, and the in-laws.

Ring Shopping.

Oh. My. God.

What a pain in the arse. Dubai's Gold and Diamond Park, aka The Place To Go For Jewellery, has approximately 10,000 shops, 4,969,000 rings and 4 designs, all of which are crap. So we were excited to find someone with some interesting designs and we decided to get him to design one. Option 1 sucked. Option 2 was based on a design seen elsewhere, but took about 3 attempts to get right. Even then it wasn't andthe whole process of perfecting the ring took about 4 months, the highlight of which was Khalid, the shopkeep/designer, accusing me at one point of being drunk when tearing strips of him for being a lazy, lying, nogoodnik. Awesome! The end result, though, is a beautiful ring loaded with diamonds, and a plan to start a Facebook group "Don't Use Khalid The Jeweller".

Chapter Two. Natasha's Visit
Natasha stopped by in May on her way to Europe for a trade fair. Dubai was, she said, the number one place she wanted to go, following all the documentaries she's seen on Discovery Channel. So the morning tour, in my beautiful car (or maybe Sarah's beautiful car, I forget which, but wanted to throw in that I have a beautiful car) was much the same as all of them: Our place to Jumeira, past the big flag pole, past Jumeira mosque, down beach road to the Burj Al Arab, down to the Palm ("I can't believe I'm actually on the Palm!"), Dubai Marina, across to the Springs, where we used to live, to laugh at the soullessness of it, and up Sheikh Zayed Road past the Burj Dubai and the monstrosities lining the highway between Trade Centre and Defence Roundabout (which has nothing to do with Defence and isn't a roundabout. But it's like that here. I live in a part of town called the Old Pakistani Consulate area, there's an intersection nearby colloquially named after a long-demolished cinema, and a building similarly named after a billboard that was on it 15 years ago).

Tash's visit coincided with my birthday so it was off to Brunch at the Dusit Hotel. I think I've covered brunch before, so in brief, it is an afternoon-long affair involving a large buffet of great food, free flowing champagne and as many friends as you can muster. (Unless you go to the Double Deckers brunch, in which case it is English food (I'm guessing), lots of beer (I'm pretty certain), appalling music (sad experience), and abhorent drunk middle aged English chavs and laddettes (ditto).) Anyway, we had a grand time with all my friends from Dubai and even Mike and Emma from Abu Dhabi. All up, a great day and a great time the whole time my big sis was over. Come back soon!

Tash getting into the Dubai lifestyle with free Champagne.

Natasha and I by the Burj.

Chapter Three. Tuscany

July saw me at my wit's end at work and desperate for a holiday. Roll on Italy, then! That's right, 10 days in Tuscany was exactly what I needed, especially staying at a friend's apartment in San Baronto for just €100.

We started off with an overnight flight to Doha, then Rome, then a train to Florence. Half a day there checking things out put me in the mood for history, but in the afternoon we picked up the car and drove to San Boronto, where history was instantly replaced with the mood for sitting on my arse and looking out over the valley and the town of Vinci.

Don't get me wrong, Florence is beautiful. Its one way system is a little annoying, especially when you want to return the car, are about 30m from the hire place and then have to detour around for another 50 minutes on a full bladder. But Florence itself is superb. Beautiful scenery, architecture, lines at the Uffizi that were too long to even contemplate, and gelati. Awesome.

But San Boronto is what a stressed young professional needs. Clear mountain air, names of Giro D'Italia heroes painted on the road, and a view from the bedroom many would give their right arm for. I'd give their right arm for it, too. You can see for yourself:

View from the bedroom

Once settled in the flat, we occasionally made forays into the neighbouring towns: San Gimignano; Lucca (stumbled upon an orchestra practicing for an outdoor summer concert, and a gelati shop); Sienna; Volterra; and the Chianti region, where we couldn't help but stock up on Chianti and salami. But half the time, we just stayed in the mountains, relaxing, reading, eating, drinking and generally, (ahem), having a good time. For photos, see:

http://picasaweb.google.com/njlander/Tuscany#

Sarah did all the driving. She asked me once if I wanted to, but honestly, I found it too stressful! I'm used to highways and Indian and Pakistani and Arab drivers who have no concept of the size of their car who cut you up and cut you off and change 4 lanes in the space of 50m at 120kph. I'm used to being undertaken and overtaken on the hard shoulder. In fact, I expect all that now. What I'm not used to is two way traffic and tiny narrow, curvy lanes that articulated lorries thunder along with inches to spare. Nor am I used to order on the roads. It did my head in! I told her I was there to relax and if she was happy to take the wheel, I was happy to navigate. Play to your strengths, I say!

On the way home, we stopped in Rome for a quick visit. And I mean quick - 4 hours, in fact. Ah, Rome, the poor man's Paris.

I've actually been to Rome before, but I was 10. I do remember, though, seeing the Fourm from the street and not caring about it because I was 10 and didn't have a degree in history yet, and it just looked like a yard full of rubble so I wan't fussed that we didn't go in. In fact, I didn't realise you could. But this time we went in and I'm glad we did. We saw Augustus's house (who was NOT the first emperor of Rome, as the tour guides tell you), the remnants of the Vestal Virgin's house, which reminded me of the Lego houses I used to make as a kid - one block high and just showing the outlines so you could get the idea but still get inside it - and various other temples.

Other than that, we only had time for gelati on the way back to the station. (Why don't icecream companies make fruit flavoured icecream that you can buy at the store? Do the gelati shop people have some kind of cartel arrangement?)

All up, it's the thumbs up from me in Italy, although I found it hard having no Italian beyond semaforo and cacchio. A useful couple of words, it is true, but sadly not enough to get you fed or out of trouble with the police.