Wednesday, 25 September 2013
As I write this, the most important thing on my mind is in fact Team NZ as Oracle get back to 8-8. OMFG!
We, Emma, Ava and I are living in Ajman which is the smallest of 6 Emirates making up the UAE. At present we are still in a hotel after six weeks.
The hotel is a bit of a shitter, Tulip Inn, Ajman. It has a 1 bedroom apartment, 2 bathrooms, TV with 150 channels (90 % in a foreign language), tiles, a balcony with a sea view – all sounds good, but its quite dirty (above the superficial surfaces which get a daily chemical blast from the ever cheerful and incompetent cleaners), the air con is a law unto itself, and if anyone occupies the unit above, our bathroom ceilings leak (god knows what). Complaining is now we understand, a waste of time – but I think I have resolved the leak issue. All the right noises, no action. Best to stay friends. Hey, we only pay NZ $1800.00 per month.
Our efforts to find a place to live have been a little difficult. Initially we got into it with great enthusiasm, well one of Emma’s super enthusiastic colleagues lined us all up and off we went. It was about 48 degrees and we nearly passed out – sometimes from laughing. One place, Horizon Towers has 4 or 5 massive tower blocks of apartments. On the 4th or 5th floor (everything below that is a mall) is a roof top artificial lawn with artificial trees where people go to relax. There was a sad looking playground and some sadist had given their kid a toy trumpet. You can get any 1 of a thousand apartments which look down on that.
Many other apartments were filthy, right by the generator or gave a great view of your very unfriendly looking neighbour’s place. A 50 storey apartment can be run on a generator here. A further disincentive seems to be the convention that, before you leave your apartment at the end of your lease, you liberally distribute the contents of a cleansack throughout. The next guy is supposed to see the gold that glitters beneath, and as it was explained to us, hire some Indians to get it cleaned up.
In the last few days, we have found an apartment we like. It was on the beachfront (just 6 lanes of traffic away) fully (beautifully) furnished and listed for 70,000 d (= NZ$25,000.00). The school only give us 45,000 d plus a furniture allowance of 15,000 d (this parsimony is a subject of some debate). So we decided to offer 60,000 d. We carefully explained this to the agent, reminded her several times of our offer and finally she rang back and said could we meet the land lord last night at 6 p.m. We arrived and sat waiting with the landlord for 45 minutes, I went back to get my passport (a deal looked imminent) and when I came back the landlord had gone. Finally the agent arrived and said no, the price was $70,000.00 and that was it! Emma started to lose it a bit, so we left! This place is nuts.
We are next to a mosque. We can see three from our hotel and there is another on the other side of the building. The best of them are great, like rappers. The worst are a torture. Our ones are pretty good.
We have been to lots of malls. The largest, Dubai Mall and Mall of the Emirates are Botany on steroids. Three storeys, possibly a k long and half as wide. Every store you can imagine. Shopping is a national sport of the Emiratie people who are pretty well paid. They are about 10 percent of the population. Most are employed by the government on an average monthly wage of 35,000 d (more than twice what Emma gets). When you get married you get a house, and a myriad of other benefits. Pretty cool.
Cars are cheap and petrol is NZ $25.00 for 50 litres. People drive like absolute maniacs. At home I was the angry guy flashing lights, driving a few centimetres behind people. I’m a pussy in these parts. The basic rule is never, ever, indicate and if you do, do the opposite! Driving is on the right side of the road. There are very few left turns allowed. You can get very stuck wanting to go somewhere, seeing your destination but completely unable to reach it with a whole lot of angry people honking their horns at you. However, you don’t get too worried, as that is all they can do, as making obscene gestures whilst driving is a jailable offence.
Ajman allows people to drink. There a very few bars and three liquor stores (no signage) which do a roaring trade. Spirits are cheap, wine is expensive, beer is ok. We have consumed very little alcohol. I wonder what has happened to myself!
I now realise that a glass of wine forms a very important function in restaurants. It gives you something to do whilst you wait for your order. Here, we just sit and drink water or coke and look at each other. There is always something to complain about and when you are tired and hungry, meals can get off to a bad start.
The food is pretty good. Very little gluten free though. Flat bread with everything. Lots of Indian restaurants, Lebanese, and some Arab restaurants. Can be very cheap but just don’t look too closely. Heaps of tropical fruit, Mangos, Melons, Pawpaw – cheap as.
Our first attempt to buy fish was not good. I will spare you the details. This morning I got down there nice and early. The fish came out of the hold in a basket looking like it had been in a slurry. They spread it over the warm concrete. One trader brought about 100 fish, probably 40 kg, getting it for 250d = NZ$75.00. I followed him inside and pointed to a 1 kg trevally and he asked for 20d. I told him I had just watched him buy the lot for a quarter of that per price per kg. He laughed and halved the price and gave me another smaller one for free. John Good would love it here! I decided that I would pay to have it filleted. You take you fish over the filleters. They sit at evil looking wood blocks. I tried to explain that I wanted it filleted. He could not get his head around that. Once he had headed and gutted it, I rescued it back before the flesh could come into contact with his equipment. Might look after my own fish from here.
December is the month it rains, apparently. Well they got a shower or two last December. Rather different to NZ recently I understand. The atmospheric viz is a about 10- 15 k. Very poor. A mixture of dust, moisture and pollution. We had a dust storm and the viz dropped to nothing. Weird. This place would be be a set for Planet of the Apes in no time of they did not have the ubiquitous Indians working for NZ$300.00 per month.
The temp is heading down. Yesterday it was only 37C. We went to the beach down by Dubai. You pay 5d to get in. It is a man made beach. Full of Russians and I can report that they are unconcerned by the local customs concerning appropriate beach gear. The Ajman beaches are nice but full of rubbish. One beach has a mechanical cleaner but the others are disgusting. That said Ava and I swim often and Emma sometimes comes along. The water is 32 C. The Persian gulf is very shallow 35m at the deep point I think. It is therefore fast to heat up but cools to 18 degrees in Feb. The locals won’t go in then – not that they swim much anyway.
I have been diving with the Sharjah Wanderers Dive Club. Great outfit. A ship sank out in the gulf a couple of months ago and they have found it and have been getting tools and other equipment off it. Lots of fun. Big currents.
We are interested to join the Sharjah Wanderers club. Even though it is a dry emirate (meaning no alcohol even in your home), the Sheik of Sharjah by decree has given these guys a licence to eat a pork sandwich at midday during Ramadan and then wash it down with a pint. A faded colonial edifice peopled by ex-pat wives and teenagers with Dad coming down on the weekend. Great pool and dive club though. Meeting some good people.
I have yet to find work. I actually think my email is not getting through; leastways I don’t get a lot of replies! I have had it confirmed the half my emails don’t get through which answers a few questions I had. I am changing to rogerjamesbowden@gmail.com . There is good work at good pay. Quite different to what I have been doing. I just need to get in with the right people. Luckily thanks to an overhang of old files which I invoiced before I left, I am still getting paid. Thanks legal aid and the long suffering Helen Roberts from the Whangarei Legal Aid office.
Emma likes her job. Its pretty tough. Long hours. The school is having difficulties adjusting to a vastly increased roll. They are teaching the IB system which is radically different to the local school system. They have Arab teachers who aren’t completely with the program and parents who don’t quite follow. Nor do the kids because half of them don’t speak any English. But Emma is a master of conflict resolution and is very popular with all.
Ava is just gorgeous. She seems very happy. She detests the early mornings though. The people here love kids and love her hair. She gets a bit sick of them tugging on it all the time. She attends the school. I doubt she has learned much because she is ahead of most 5 year olds around here – thanks Pipis and her teacher Mum.
So, after six weeks, it is going OK. We wanted a change, and we are getting it. Its a bit like being stuck in a very badly run beach resort somewhere in the islands after a hurricane has just been through. There is still fun to be had. When I do get back to New Zealand I will appreciate it a lot more. Everyday will be one I make the most of. Quite difficult here not to make constant comparisons with our life in New Zealand. Got to live in the present. A holiday in a couple of weeks (you might ask what I have been doing so far) and we will probably go and see our friends in Al Ain and then go to Muscat in Oman. The travel will be awesome.
Cheers
Roger
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