Dubai 13 - Busy times

I know, I know, I’ve been incredibly slack with this blog: sorry. I’ve had my head down leading the environmental design on the world’s lowest energy hot-climate skyscraper, so as you can imagine it’s taken a bit of my time.
None the less, I’ve still managed to get some other things done.

1. We moved house. I’ve ditched the soullessness of Legoland – I mean The Springs – the suburb of identical houses lined up one after the other, distinguishable only by the cars parked out front. The population was European, Indian, Asian, Arabian and Antipodean. After some nine months there for me sharing with Chris, about five for Sarah, and three for Tanya, I think everyone thought four people was too many, so Sarah and I left Chris and Tanya to it. I never did find out why the guard at the front gate took down my rego every time I entered, and now I guess never will.

We’ve moved to a two bedroom flat in Bur Dubai (the older part of town with bustling people, laundry hanging from balconies, stray cats and dirt – ie, character). Some people don’t like this part of town. Jumeirah Janes (see previous posts) are a rare sight here. I’ve even known people to take a shower after just walking through it to the tailor’s. Anyway, it’s super cheap as it’s owned by an Islamic bank and they don’t like ripping people off, and only a three minute walk to work!

Plus there’s a pool on the roof and a lot of my mates are in spitting distance. As a result the past few weeks have seen impromptu pool parties that, despite the total lack of organisation, have gone off like a frog in a sock. The other day the watchman came up and told us to leave as they had to have a lifeguard on duty and they shut the pool at 10:30. I told him I was rescue trained so effectively was a life guard, and that, being 4:30, it was still some 18 hours before closing time.

2. I did my Royal Yachting Associating Level 1 course (passed with flying colours) and am currently trying my best to ingratiate myself with the sailing club to accelerate my membership bid.

3. I bought a flat in Singapore. I took Sarah down one weekend to see it and to sign some papers and I’ll be back in September for settlement. It’s a three bedder in one of the best parts of town and is already valued at more than my partners and I paid for it.

4. I learnt how to snowboard. Yep, I finally got bored of skiing – at Ski Dubai. (I mean come on! It’s like doing Bourke Street at Mt Buller all day long.) Skiing is still where it’s at, obviously, but should I now find myself in a situation that requires a knowledge of snowboarding, for example being chased by machine-gun wielding thugs on ski-doos and my skis have been mysteriously mislaid but there’s a snowboard there, then I’ll be able to get away. Provided there are no bumps, no sharp turns and I don’t catch a front edge.

(If you want to learn how to snowboard, do it on a hill with plenty of snow, not a hill with concrete base. Ouch!)

5. And did I mention I delivered the concept design on the coolest bit of sustainable design in the region, if not the world? I did? Oh well, thought I’d repeat it in case you weren’t paying attention.

So that’s my life right now. Sarah’s back in Australia for a few weeks, but is back next weekend (yay!), in time for the tail end of the summer sales. Looking forward to that.