ole, ole ole ole...

You would not believe how wired this city is at the moment. viva espana! off I go to watch the euro 2008 finals...

free fallin'

All this talk of Umm Al Quwain reminded me to post footage of our 10,000 ft jump in December when Mike was in town. Nothing beats a bird's eye view of the Persian Gulf at sunset...

marvel

this is my neighborhood, not a preview to the next summer blockbuster. i know i posted about the rotating tower already, but this was too cool to pass up.

unda da sea

Umm Al Quwain just keeps getting better. We first found it about 2 1/2 weeks into this gig when the Barracuda Beach Resort opened its sliding doors to thirsty Americans looking for an underground place to satisfy a scotch craving. Frequented just about every month for the usual case of Miller lite and Sailor Jerry's Spiced Rum, Umm Al Quwain soon became our spot for skydiving in December. Little did I know that crab hunting would also land on my "to do" list for the Emirate. Not only do I love crabs, but I can't imagine anything more fun than spearing for them in the Arabian Sea followed by a crab boil with friends.
check it out.

you spin me right round baby, right round..

Dubai will be unveiling the first ever rotating tower, 68 floors of awesomeness:

My favorite part of the article:
"Each of the villas will have designated parking on the same floor with vehicles brought up and down in special elevators. The roof of the 'Penthouse' villa will also have a swimming pool, a garden and an Arabian majlis. For a quick return home, the tower will have a retractable heliport, a platform that will extend from the shell of the building at the 64th floor at the moment of landing, thus maintaining the ergo-nomics of the tower."

euro 2008

The last three nights have been consumed by heineken drafts, double decker, and European soccer. Considering that 80% of the population here is expat and most of those expats are European, you can only imagine how wild the city is right now with Sweden playing Spain, Greece playing Russia, Croatia playing Germany (amazing game). I never cared much about the World Cup aside from the 1994 games when we were living in Guatemala and going to dinner with my family would turn into us waiting for our food while the sound of Spanish-speaking broadcasters echoed "goalgolgolgolgol...." from a 10 inch tv in the back of the restaurant. Soccer has completely cut into my productivity, but rightly so with the pulse of Dubai at the moment. Every pub and street corner is packed with people from all over the world supporting their team. It amazes me now after seeing this why Americans can't live and die for soccer the way everyone else seems to. Ironically enough, all the sports anchors here are from England, which sadly did not even qualify for the tournament!

i do

This was a nice compliment to my coffee this morning. Another reason why getting married scares the crap out of me.

sheikh killed the radio star?

Whoa, it's been over a week since I last posted! They always say that you don't feel the time in Dubai and I'm starting to realize it right now with my feet starting to tingle from not having sat down all day. I just took over a couple major product lines for Johnson and Johnson in the Middle East, which is really exciting but quite an addition to my workload. Either way, tonight I was looking to unwind on the way home with the usual flip between Dubai 92 and Dubai One 104.1 and was shocked to hear DeBussy's Clair de Lune instead of the usual UK top 40. Last night Sheikh Nasser bin Zayed passed away in a helicopter crash - he is the brother of the UAE's President and Ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed. I can safely say that I've never experienced or will experience again living in a place where everything shuts down for three days of mourning, including television and radio stations in memory of a political figure. Let's just say that people here do not take such losses lightly. You can read a bit more about Sheikh Nasser here.

Looking back on the last week, my boy Ahmed Bukhatir rocked it out at the concert he had. Mind you, he was singing Islamic hymns in a cappella, but they sounded great nonetheless. I also had a chance to attend a really crazy and out of this world desert rave on Friday night called SOS in the Desert.

The evening involved a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the middle of nowhere in the desert, followed by a 10 minute ride in a SUV that dune bashed its way into a man made hole (flat valley of sand with decorative tables low to the ground and plumbing) in the sand surrounded by sand walls that would echo the sounds of Audiotonic and world famous djs. The night was accompanied with unlimited Arabic bbq (think grilled kebabs, hummus, tabouli, Arabic bread, etc) and lots of other tasty treats (think black label, red bull, Stoli, etc). The "rave" scene here, I imagine, does not compare to other parts of the world where you merit a slap on the wrist for drug possession... Getting caught with such in the UAE is not worth the battle or the risk, so people for the most part were tame and under control. I met some fun Lebanese kids in the process, which made the evening even better. Although I'd never been to a 'rave' before, i'd say attending one in the desert was a nice start.