Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I have updated the blog with all the latest goings on here in Abu Dhabi. I'm heading home to Massachusetts to spend time with daughter #3, Sarah, and some family and friends. I will leave you with these thoughts though. Despite what you might think Christmas is celebrated here. The malls have been decked out with all the usual Christmas stuff, the Christmas carols have been piped into my apartment buildings sound system for weeks now, there's a tree up in the lobby and there might even be a present under the tree down there for me, there's just no snow or cold weather.

Here's a link to a Chinese artist that has some interesting items to view. He has helpers paint him into scenes all over China and then has a picture taken of him. It's really very cool. As the artist he just stands there, while others paint him to match the background then someone else takes the picture of him.
www.ekfineart.com/html/artistresults.asp?artist=82&testing=true.

The only quote I have for you is one often repeated especially at this time of year.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family.

Stay warm..............Now where did I put that darn winter coat?

Rugby 7's

I don't think I've ever been to a more exciting, fun, crazy and entertaining sporting event in my life. In the middle of the desert near Dubai a stadium that holds about 40,000 people was built to host the Rugby 7's and people came. And they come every year and bring friends.

Rugby is normally played with 15 players from each team, but in this version it's 7 member teams on the same size field. So picture American Football with about 5 guys on the same size field running and tackling. There are very few scrums in 7's so you really don't see the guys piling on each other. It's pretty much constant action except for the 3 minute break at halftime.

The games are only 14 minutes long and continue non-stop from Thursday - Saturday. Many of the games are between club teams from different countries that have entered the tourney, both womens and mens teams. The main attraction begins on Friday when the national teams representing 16 countries compete in the pool play.

Australia, France, US, England, Kenya, South Africa, Russia, Samoa, Fiji, Scotland, Portugal, New Zealand, Zimbabwe and more. They play like crazy, run wild, tackle and score. I had never been to a rubgy match before, but we have it on our calendar already to go back next year. Much to our surprise when we showed up they were actually selling alcohol at the stadium. You could buy a 12 pack of Heineken and take it right into the stands. Of course I didn't do that (my kids are reading this), but some of the guys I was with might have done it.

Then you get the social aspect of people dressing up for the occasion in bizarre costumes that have nothing to do with matches or costumes that show their national pride. For instance these folks in their Union Jack outfits with the fake belly's.

Or these folks in their Pirate costumes (click on the picture it should open up larger)

Or the Purple crayon people.

I think these guys got sidetracked from their Mardi Gras parade. For all their NFL gear and the guy in the robe actually had a Paul Pierce Boston Celtic jersey on, they weren't even American, they were from Australia.

So if you have non-stop on the field entertainment, all these partying types, beer and wine along with food available in the stands and weather consisting of sunshine and 75 - 80 degrees you get a great sporting event.

And to revisit a classic photo: This is how you end your day.

QOB: "The man who follows the crowd will usually get no further than the crowd. The man who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever been." Alan Ashley-Pitt

Where are you walking today?

Vacation Over

Wayne and Kathleen at the top of Jebel Hafeet.

I couldn't find these pictures when I did that blog so I wanted to get them in here.

Kathleen and Fiona's vacation came to an end, but on Thursday, December 2nd perhaps the biggest holiday of the year came blowing into Abu Dhabi and all over the U.A.E. NATIONAL DAY!!!!!

What a crazy day that is. As I've said, for those paying attention the U.A.E. was born in 1971 so to celebrate their birthday each year and the national pride they have they go all out. Cars are decorated, buildings are decorated, silly string is sold by the case, cans of spray snow are sold and then the incredibly proud citizens of the UAE hit the streets and it's a rolling (okay stop and go) party.

Cars filled with families or kids or teenagers or young adults drive around festooned with the countries colors of black, green, red and white in any way they can. They also have pictures painted on them of the ruling family or Sheikh Zayed, Our Father. Or they'll have stuffed animals stuck to the cars. In the cars are people with as much silly string as they can find to spray on other cars or passersby or anyone they can find. They also have that fake snow you spray on your windows to make it look wintery.

It was just a wild celebration of people cruising, having fun and interacting. Most, if not all, alcohol free. It went on for hours on Thursday night. The whole week led up to that one night and once people hit the streets it was sheer gridlock.

The lights on the buildings go for 20 - 30 stories so you folks there in Battle Creek with the Festival of Lights, that's nothing compared to these photo's. There are thousands of lighted displays on road medians throughout the city and all the Emirates along with all the rotary's and fountains at them. It really is quite a display of national pride. Easily rivals what I've seen at July 4th in the states if not topping it.

There were fireworks off near Emirates Palace that were visible from a long way away. Of course there were thousands upon thousands of people along the beach and on all the main roads to watch the parade of cars going back and forth and everyone was spraying their silly string, I didn't have any so felt a little left out.

So December 2nd is a big celebration here and it's interesting to watch because there are many people that live here that were around 39 years ago when this was all mud huts with dirt paths. They must be blown away by where they live now. There weren't any cars here until the mid 80's.

The celebration and fun certainly seem heartfelt even if many of the celebrants are from other countries, they call this home now so have adopted some of the silly (pun intended)customs.

QOB: "The best things you can give children, next to good habits, are good memories." Sydney Harris, journalist, author of Winners and Losers."

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

Sheikh Zayed was the Founder of the U.A. E. back in 1971. He brought the 7 Emirates leaders and families together to form the U.A.E. So he is recognized all over the country on billboards, sides of buildings, pictures in buildings, virtually everywhere. Often it will have his picture with the caption underneath "Our Father" much like George Washington is considered one of the founding fathers of the USA.


So to recognize his greatness they planned a mosque in his name, but it wasn't complete until 2007, 3 years after his death. At the time it opened it was the 2nd largest in the world and believe me it is huge. He is buried at the mosque and there is always someone there praying over a loudspeaker, 24 hrs a day, 7 days a week, they change out every 30 minutes.




Oh, look there's Kathleen all dressed up for her mosque tour, legs and arms covered on the steps of the Grand Mosque, is that okay? Yes it is, since they do tours about 5 days a week.

Wait one minute, is she in an Abaya now? Evidently they wanted to be sure all women were covered properly. they still made her put an Abaya on despite the fact that she followed the instructions prior to arrival. Those flowers on the column are not painted on they are inlaid.





Some of the huge glass doors inside weigh 17 tons. There is a separate women's prayer room, but there is also the outside area along with the large prayer room with the world's largest single piece of carpet, where 7000 men can kneel and pray at once. Believe it or not there are lines on the carpet and on the marble outside that show the men how to line up for prayer and there is a very specific way that it's done, once the first man is in place. The whole mosque can hold up to 50,000 people for prayer at once.

Ahmed our tour guide for 45 minute tour explained everything we asked about and was very friendly. Here he is standing inside the main prayer room.






As I said about the Emirates Palace, it's all about opulence and so is the mosque. It has a 9.5 ton chandelier, it has more than a few of the etched glass 17 ton doors , the tile floor that is outside exposed to the sunlight is always cool to the touch so during prayer when they put their forehead on the ground it doesn't burn them and I'm talking 120 degree heat in the summer time.
The materials used in the building of the mosque came from all over the world and they are very proud of that fact.



Not much more to tell you about the mosque other than it's worth visiting when you come here. Very impressive, good tour guides and gives you a some insight to the Muslim faith.

This quote reminds me of the life of a friend of mine, unfortunately for her.
QOB: "Beware of the barrenness of an overcrowded life." Anonymous

I think Anonymous is the most quoted person in history. Looking back at this quote do you recognize anyone in your life or even yourself? Is there someone that seems so busy with so many things going on that either they don't realize how empty their life is or they simply want to avoid how empty it is?
Maybe you can take a minute and talk to that person and help them to realize that if they dump some of the things that are crowding them in, they may have more time for themselves and be able to fill that barrenness with something important that may stay around for a long time.

Kayaking in the Mangroves

I don't know if there are Womangroves too, but we went in the Mangroves. I think I've told you about kayaking before, but I have some pictures to share from our trip and some of you might want to see pictures of people enjoying warm weather.

Kathleen, me and Fiona after our adventure. Ahhh, the ubiquitous Boston Marathon shirt. Interestingly enough when I wear something from Boston I normally get people that will ask me if I'm from there, why I'm here etc.... So it's a good conversation starter.

On this day there was a young woman there from Newton who works in Abu Dhabi teaching autistic children. She's also a runner and works out with the local running club. There was a woman parked beside us in the lot who commented that she had done Boston a couple of times back in the late 80's when she was a student at BU.

The beauty of kayaking here is you get completely away from the fast-paced big city environment even though you can see the buildings while you're out on the water. The mangroves are a fragile eco-system that is slowly disappearing because of development.

The company that provides the experience in the Mangroves does eco-tours, clean-ups tours, 2hr paddles, overnight trips and anything else you can think of. It really is a treat to be out on the water with them. We've sent student groups out to help clean-up the area and they've loved it because it gets them out of the downtown area.

Mark and Annie Freeman are the owners of Noukhada Adventures, but any non-Emirate that wants to run or own a business in the U.A.E. must have an Emirate as a 50/50 partner and most of the Emirate partners are silent ones. They take their share of the profit, but end up doing very little work for it, but that's just the cost of doing business here.

Kathleen and Fiona on the water checking out the Mangrove trees.

QOB: "Strangers are friends that you have yet to meet." Robert Lieberman, film director.

$11.5 million?????

That is the value of the decorations on the Christmas Tree at Emirates Palace which many of you have read about by now. Emirates Palace is a hotel and a palace that actually lets people like me in there for a film festival, dinner or just to take pictures of an over the top christmas tree.

This is a photo of the front with the fountains going and when I tell you it's only one section of the hotel that's what I mean. It is incredibly huge with separate wings for the Sheikh's and their families when they want to stay there. True opulence at its finest.

This fleet of ten, yes 10, Cadillace Escalades sits on the 2nd level of the garage for use by hotel guests or Sheikh's I guess because the real fleet of limousines sits one floor above these and consists of 15 - 20 white 5 and 7 series BMW's along with a few Mercedes, a Bentley, a Maserati and even a Rolls Royce.

Those are some expensive ornaments in the photo. The ones in this picture have a value of 4,082,000 Dirhams or roughly $1,112,261. That's just the necklace, watch and tiara.

The tree itself stands 20 meters tall or about 60 feet and is in the main rotunda of the hotel. We actually had to go through metal detectors when we entered the hotel tonight, never had to do that before, they usually just let me right in. There are some large fake gifts under the tree, but the jewels that give it its value are hung all over it. The red ropes keep everyone about 15 feet back and there were 3 - 5 uniformed security guards around the tree the whole time. They also have some stands with flyers on them with pictures of the most expensive items and where they are hanging on the tree.

Finally just to prove I was actually there, the obligatory picture of me and all my friends standing in front of the tree. I'm the guy in the white shirt. At least I don't have the blue Boston Marathon shirt on in the photo.

I arrived in the UAE 144 days ago on July 30th. It's been sunny everyday since I got here. I haven't see clouds for more than 2 hrs if that much. Now I'll admit it's been really hot and muggy some days, but it's been sunny.

QOB: Our quote of the blog comes to us from one Marcus Buckingham, social scientist, consultant, speaker and author of The One Thing You Need to Know. "Discover what you don't like doing and stop doing it."

Heck, that sounds like a good idea to me.

Jebel Hafeet

Al Ain which is another city in the UAE is about a 2 hr drive from Abu Dhabi and our destination for Wednesday. Not an overly exciting drive, but as you get close to Al Ain you're traveling by some large red sand dunes which were pretty cool looking. Al Ain has a few "attractions". One is their Wildlife Park which houses a white tiger another is a number of old fortresses and the biggest attraction is Jebel Hafeet, a "mountain" which rises 1260 meters off the desert floor. So close to 4000 feet.

Now this really wasn't big compared to what Kathleen sees out her window in Longmont, CO, but it would have to do. The ride up was typical with switchbacks, paved roads and lots of other tourists. Jebel Hafeet also borders Oman.

I got a nice panoramic shot too. One thing we did see on our little trip were alot and I mean alot, of the male workers from places like, Thailand, Singapore, Pakistan, Afghanistan and other countries in Asia who come here to provide the labor force. You might see some of them in our pictures.

So we drove up as far as we could to a huge parking lot and then hiked the rest of the way to the top. I want to point out that often in these pictures I share I'm wearing a long sleeve blue shirt. I actually have two of them, but I also wear them to protect my arms from the sun, just the safe thing to do when I know I'm going to be in the sun for extended periods of time.

Kathleen is on the left, I'm on the right, oh wait a minute that's a guy who had a little too much to drink at the Rugby 7's.

After the hike to the top we headed back down and stopped at the Mercure Hotel for lunch. The hotel sits on the side of the mountain and offers its own fantastic views of the area including a strange ride pictured here.

We did try to stop at the Zoo on the way back to Abu Dhabi, but it was simply not possible to get in. A strange sight to see is hords of single men waiting to get into a zoo. Kathleen and I stood and watched the chaos for about 45 minutes before we left. If you go to a zoo in the US you'll see families, maybe just a Mom or Dad with their kids, but I can't imagine the circumstances where you'd see a bunch of single men going to a zoo together. It's not anything that ever crossed my mind to ask my friends to do with me on a weekend or holiday.

QOB: "It's a small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it." Comedian Steven Wright

A side note is that Steven Wright is from my hometown of Burlington, MA. He was 2 or 3 yrs ahead of me in school and I worked with him one summer on the paint crew for the Burlington School Department. It was considered one of the best paying jobs in town at $2.83/hr. He was a very funny guy then and also a pretty good artist.

Stay Warm

Wayne

Camel Beauty Pageant?

I know this is an interruption in my round up of Kathleen's visit, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to post a list of the judging criteria for the camels as it appeared in the newspaper yesterday.
I really have to do this word for word too. "Criteria for determining a camel's beauty include a large head, firm ears, a long neck, a shapely hump, strong shoulders, straight and strong legs, a shiny coat, good color and more."
Point System
Head and Neck: Whiskers 5, Nose Shape 5, Head Size 5, Ear Firmness 5, Neck's Length and posture 5.
Upper Part: Back Length , Back Height 5, Hump Shape and posture 5, Whole Back Length 5.
Front Part: Neck Width 5, Shoulder 5, Foot 5.
Back Part: Leg Size 5, Leg Straightness 5
General Shape and Fitness: Beauty Display 15, Toe Parting Length 5, Health and hair shininess 5.
Grand Total is 100 points. I supposed the US has it's dog and cat shows and the UAE has it's camel shows.

QOB: "Never bear more than one trouble at a time. Some people bear three kinds - all they have had, all they have now and all they expect to have." Clergyman Edward Everett Hale

Be well and enjoy the holidays.
Wayne

Islands...Yas and Saadiyat

Tuesday found us heading to Yas Island which is being developed as the entertainment island to go along with Abu Dhabi as the business center and Saadiyat as the cultural center. Yas currently has the Formula 1 Race Track where the final race of the Formula 1 season took place on November 14th. It also has a Marina that has room for all the huge yachts that come into Abu Dhabi for the race. Oh look, here's a photo of just one of many.

Yes, that is a helicopter on the front end, (I think that's called the bow).

Also on Yas Island is Ferrari World, the largest covered entertainment park in the world. Which is the current location of the fastest roller coaster in the world with a top speed of 240 kilometers/hr or 150 mph. I couldn't wait to get on this one. I've been fortunate to have lived near Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH and ridden the Top Fuel Dragster and the Magnum which are currently listed as #'s 3 and 7 on the 10 fastest list. I can attest that 150 mph on a roller coaster is a complete and total adrenaline rush. Wow, you shoot out of start area down the track to the top speed and then up the first hill and you're thanking your God that it breaks itself as it gets to the top of the hill or you're positive it would simply rocket you off into space. Then you spend another minute riding the whole ride leaning sideways, going around turns and up and down hills. Fortunately there are no loops that take you upside down.

Can you guess which one of those people in the cars is me? What a fun ride.

The rest of the park is interesting if you're into Ferrari cars and engines, but for me it was all about the roller coaster. I was going to buy this car, but with the way drivers are in the UAE it would just end up dented.

QOB: "I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar." Robert Brault, wanderer, poet

Wayne in UAE

Guests!

So I left off on November 12th talking about my friend Kathleen coming in town and she showed up and I guess I've been busy ever since because I haven't written anything. I guess you can all thank Kathleen and her friend Fiona for getting me out to see alot of different things.

Just to refresh, Kathleen got here on Sunday Nov 14th at night and I fortunately had the next 6 days off because of Eid. We were on the go for 6 days and then I got a break and went back to work while Kathleen wandered safely around Abu Dhabi walking miles alone awaiting Fiona's arrival on Tuesday.

On Monday the 15th I took Kathleen out for a riding tour of the city, to show her some of the sights while she got used to the heat. We went by Emirates Palace, where currently the most expensive Christmas Tree in the world has been placed.

And we stopped by the Saucer Building to snap a photo.

It was a good day to get her oriented to the island and we finished up at the golf course because our students had a golf lesson despite it being a holiday. So dinner on the terrace overlooking the driving range in the cooler night air was a welcome change.

Day two of her visit found us heading to Yas Island and Saadiyat Island and in the interest of breaking your reading up I'll put those photo's and notes in a separate blog.

It was actually a pretty cool two weeks because as the UAE is known around the world they always try to do anything bigger and better than anywhere else and in the two weeks Kathleen was here I was able to ride the fastest roller coaster in the world and go up to the observation deck of the tallest building in the world.

QOB: "Don't be afraid your life will end; be afraid that it will never begin." Grace Hansen

Stay Warm,

Wayne