Random Firings...week 3

For my Beautiful daughter, Julia…They really like ‘bendy’ straws in Dubai—they come with almost every drink.

They use radar cameras to enforce speed limits around here. It sucks to be driving down the road and have a flash go off in your face…you know you’ve been caught and somewhere down the road, when you register your car, or have to renew your driver’s license, or maybe even when you load up your Salik toll card, you will also be paying your fine (or fines). So far, both Rod and I have both been ‘flashed.’ He got tagged for his fine (21km/h over) when we converted our temporary driver’s licenses to permanent. ..500dhm ($135). I’m still in my rental car, so I guess I will get my bill from National when I turn in the car. The other bad part of it, is you can't let a faster car run interference for you; you will both get caught--but they will pay more. On the plus side, you do learn where the cameras are if you drive the same roads every day.

Salik? Means open or clear, and it’s the name of the toll system for Sheikh Zayed Road and a couple heavily used bridges. It’s all automatic. You register and buy a card to mount on your windshield and you pay on your account to stay ahead of the tolls that you plan to incur. Everytime you pass underneath one of the electronic toll gates, you are charged 4 dhms ($1.08). I usually hit the gates once each way to and from work…and a few other times if I’m running around town. Guess that will be another expense on my rental bill.

There is a spray hose next the toilet…I haven’t figured out is it’s for spraying my ass clean or spraying the bowl…I’ve done a little of both. TMI?

How about this? The bathrooms at the tower have cold water to wash your hands and warm water to flush the urinal…anyone want to know how I know that?

I’m having my first VCD experience…video cd (or cds in this case—it takes a couple to hold a movie). They are dirt cheap…about $3 for ‘The Bucket List’. The quality is comparable to watching on a regular analog or a vhs tape, which is probably not what you want for a cinematic epic; but is just fine for a buddy movie like this—the movie was very good, if anyone cares.

I have had to return a few of my purchases. An iron…which was the cheapest available and worth every penny. Unfortunately I had lost the receipt (ok, threw it away while moving in), so that made the return a little trickier; but 3 folks at the HyperPanda (yes, that’s the name of the store) plugged in the iron and watched it light up for about 10 seconds and then turn off—so I think they felt sorry for me and offered me another of the same type. I told them I would rather spend a bit more…it all worked out. Also returned some pots and pans; and some bed sheets—just found something better, and I had receipts for those.

Speaking of returns, I bought a living room suite…a 3-seater, a 2-seater, and 1-seater, to use the local vernacular. Well, the delivery guys tried their best, but they could not fit the 3-seater into the elevator. They got very close, getting the door to within inches of closing, before shoving so much pressure on the overhead light, that it blew and blew the fuse for the elevator. A crowd of workers had gathered by then and I think they were prepared to carry it up 23 flights of stairs; but I dissuaded them because someday in the future, I will have to carry it down 23 flights of stairs. So now I have two 2-seaters and a 1, and a 1200 aed credit at TepeHomes.

I found a nice Caribou Coffee shop nearby—but I’m getting back online at home (along with cable and phone). Guess I will just have to use it for coffee and reading. It’s at the Al Bahar Souk in Old Town Burj Dubai. There is a Starbucks right next door. The Souk is right next door to the Dubai Mall which has 2 Starbucks (that I have found so far) and a Caribou opening soon directly above Starbucks in the main atrium. (guess I should mention there is also another Starbucks across the street from the Al Bahar Souk and they say a Starbucks is going to be opening in the retail level of our building in a few months). That’s a lot of Java.

My spell check goes nuts with all the local terms and names.

I keep forgetting to mention it, but I have heard Xmas music playing and seen Xmas displays since I set foot on the ground here.

I went to the gym here at the apartments this week. Treadmill asked me for my weight and I entered 240…well, it doesn’t go that high, because I only weigh about 108kg. I feel thinner already.

I just counted 14 different high rises going up outside my window within ½ mile. Most are still at ground or basement level—one is about 4 stories. There are work crews in blue, green, and yellow jumpsuits…or yellow ants, green ants and blue ants.

I had another Tundra sighting. That’s number 3…maybe. This one was black…so was the first, so they may be the same one. There is still the chance that the Tundra will be hijacked and ransomed by Somali pirates—I’m not paying the ransom.

I discovered something new today. There is a knob on the front of the sink with a logo on it. I couldn’t really figure out what it was for other than decoration or to plug up a place where some kind of option (like a spray hose) might go-though it made no sense for the option to be placed at the front edge of the sink. Essentially I just wrote it off as some things are just a little different here. Well, yesterday Rod showed me what the knob did (his realtor had shown him)…if you have a full sink of cold, greasy water, instead of dipping in up to your elbow, you turn the knob and it will dislodge the stopper enough for the sink to drain. How clever.