Roger and Zoe at the Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi

Musandam dhow cruise

Grand Mosque Abu Dhabi

Google the desert owl and Roger at Banyan Tree Al Wadi

Zoe and Ava enjoying the Waldorf Astoria pool

Google the owl with Emma and Ava

Ava’s first school certificate

Ballet

Ava and her friend

A common sight on the drive home from work

Emirates Park zoo

Khasab camp playground in Oman

Feeding the Giraffe at Emirates park zoo

Camping in Khasab with Tony

Up the Burj Khalifa in Dubai

Friday 11 April 2014

Well, a lot has happened since 24 December 2013.

We continue to live in Al Hamra in the Northern Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah 100 km north of Dubai. Outside it is 35C and inside 25C. Beautiful day. Yachts sailing in our little harbour, jet skiers blast about. The 80 foot sailing ship Prince of Arabia AKA the Party Boat has sailed off, music blasting

We got up early and skyped family. We were gonna do this and gonna do that but had to pay some bills and now we are now gonna do nothing very much because Emma has gone to sleep and its now the middle of the day and too hot to go down to the pool which was probably all we were going to manage in the first place.

So, I’m doing some family legal stuff, some work legal stuff, and this neglected blog.

Going back, the first thing that happened in time was that we received some great presents from home for Christmas. We sent nothing in return as postage costs more than the presents, but a 90kg luggage allowance in July will set that situation to rights.

On the 27^th of December 2014 Tony Savage arrived and stayed till the 5^th. I met him at the airport all dressed up in my Kandura. He was suitably impressed and one thing led to another and before we knew it we were being ushered back into the boudoir of Dubai’s finest fakers. Tony emerged several thousand dirhams lighter resplendent head to toe in fake Armani, Gucci, Tommy Hilfiger, Paul Smith and a lifetime of spares all wrapped up in his fake Mont Blanc suitcase. So if you see him parading the streets, resplendently resembling an advertising hoarding for upwardly mobile sartorial clobber, take heart, it is careful constructed artifice!

Tony, very good naturedly joined us on a trip to Oman, the very northern part called Musandam, which is separated from the rest of Oman by the East Coast (Indian Ocean side) of UAE. We camped on the beach for three nights, went diving, went on a Dhow Cruise, saw dolphins, had fires on the beach. It was quite like camping at home. Arabs were encamped up the beach and every morning as the breeze got up, all of their rubbish was gently blown down the beach, through our camp and out into the Gulf and henceforth into the Indian Ocean. Can’t get more convenient rubbish disposal than that! It really is no wonder that the searchers for MH370 cant see the flotsam for all the jetsam.

People here have a centuries ingrained habit of just leaving stuff and moving on. Now, sadly, what they leave stays forever. I might have said it before, but the leading cause of Camel death is the unwitting ingestion of a plastic bag.

We went inland through a plateau and to as far as we could drive then walked, to the border, sat amongst the ubiquitous debris and looked down on the UAE and out and across to Iran.

We celebrated New Years here where the promised fireworks were a fizzer when we should have gone to Dubai where, apparently they were amazing.

Another attempt to travel to the rest of Oman was thwarted as my immigration status had changed and I was stranded in UAE for some weeks. So we just hung around the malls shopping, sightseeing and enjoying being on holiday. Tony was a great visitor.

Within days, Zoe arrived in town for six weeks following her cousin Libby’s wedding and before her start at DLA Phillips Fox. More shopping. Hard out this time.

She’s not quite such a faker as our Tony, but close inspection might reveal…haha. Very sensitive, and I am not sure she has Tony’s fine sense of humour.

Having Zoe was great and we were very sad to see her go. She has a lot of energy, likes lists and ticking them off. She went home with a pretty complete corporate wardrobe thanks in part to the Dubai Shopping Festival which is a half price sale covering every mall in Dubai, every Feb for the entire month. Pretty incredible. Billions spent by millions, true.

Since then it has been all about work.

Emma has a tough job. The school she is at is two years old (almost). They are attempting to get PYP, the Primary Years Programme, which is part of the International Baccalaureate phenomenon sweeping the world, in July 2014. Given it is an open ended non-prescriptive new agey type thing, that equals a lot of work developing their own curriculum. The human toll from this endeavour is very high, and staff morale has certainly suffered.

Against that, she has learned a huge amount very fast. That is really what we are here for and the experience is putting her in a good position, both here and back home, so she really is not too concerned. Emma has received great reviews for her teaching.

I have a job too. I have heard that the internet is not the best place to complain about your boss, so I wont say too much! But, oh boy, do we have some rows.

That said, my boss has great clients, the work is of reasonable quality, the pay is pretty good and, whilst occaisionally snarling at each other, we actually produce pretty good work. The UAE is all about getting stuff done – yesterday. Forget the analysis paralysis, plan to be right but above all, get it done NOW. I think I was the slowest lawyer in the world, so this has been quite a culture shock.

Dubai has a legal system which is best described as interesting. My job is managing litigation in that system. The local advocates have the exclusive right of audience in the Dubai Courts. Everything must be translated. The languages are fundamentally different. Just to illustrate that, Arabic is read right to left and from what we would call the back of the book to our front. Translations can markedly differ. The concepts of law are very different. There is no interim relief, so that certainly encourages people to just have a go and deal with the consequences later.

I’m not saying the right result can’t be reached, but it really is a matter of having your ducks in a row.

That said, the consequences of wrong doing are pretty harsh. Criticising the government, or the system of government, or making defamatory statements is a criminal offence, so is giving the finger to your fellow motorist.

Emma and I get in our his n hers silver 2014 VW Passats. She drives 50 km to her school on the E311 and I drive 90 km to Dubai on the E611 motorway. Set the cruise control to 139 kmh and go for it. Most of the way its pretty good.

The major problem is the guy who wants to go 160 km or 180 km. So, you see them coming in your rear mirror headlights flashing as they hurtle towards you.

The best thing to do is get out of his way, but in the lane inside you there is likely to be an Indian guy (sounds bad but it always is) and he is doing 80kmh and resolutely ignoring the kilometre long tail behind him.

Failure to move has Mr Angry less than one metre from your bumper, flashing, swerving, backing off and rushing at you. All this conducted at 80 mph and all because he wants to go 100 mph! He is invariably driving an old gold Lexus or a Landcruiser. The comfort of superior relative mass and the Muslim adherence to the preordination of one’s destiny means that the prospect of an horrible accident is only of passing moment to this guy. What he really wants is for you to get the F*!k out of his way.

One evening, sick of this, I was doing at least 140 with Mr Angry tucked in behind, like an angry gnat this time in a Golf GTI. Keeping the foot on the accelerator, give the breaks a touch. Angrier than ever, swerving, flashing. Do it twice more, then a little bit harder! This guy takes to the 1.5 meter gap between me and the concrete median barrier, screams through there cutting me off, and slams his breaks on right in front of me!

Lesson learned. These guys are quite happy to take things to the next level, even if it means hospital for everyone. I am a family guy after all.

Tonight, on the feeder road we have to venture down to get to the motorway a taxi turned in front of me. We skidded to a stop. He just laughed. Then as I went to move off, a truck is driving along my side of the road !

Sadly, the long and intense days have meant that we have not really had the energy for travel and trips.

We are going to change that.

Sat 12 April 2014

We do live in a resort style location so its not too bad. This morning, for example we went to the Hilton Doubletree Marjan Island. We met our new best friends, had a breakfast for NZ$35.00 (kids free) omeletes pancakes, buffet, order what you want, make you a coffee, whatever then lazed by their half acre or so of pool.

Next we went shopping brought some beautiful tomatoes for NZ 35 cents a kilo, cucumbers for $1.00 per kilo, eggplant (same), capsicum (same) – anything local and in season will be NZ$1.00 at the supermarket.

We buy NZ Beef Fillet for NZ$ 30.00 per kg, Aussie lamb for $12.00 per kg. All NZ produce same or cheaper here than in NZ including the wine which has a substantial tax. Whats with that? If cheap vodka is your thing, well you can literally fill your boots with the stuff.

As I write this, Emma is off getting a pedicure for NZ $20.00 or $30.00 and whilst she is there, some guy will stand in the 35 degree heat and clean her car for NZ $5.00. This is the benefit that the few derive from the many who live here on an absolutely pitiful wage. Its hard to get your head around. You hear some terrible stories. The most one can do is be fair and tip well.

At the same time, the person most likely to leave the UAE in debt is the white expat. Something like 90% of expats leave the UAE in debt. Its the cars, the furniture, the holidays and the endless spending opportunities. There is not a woman here who does not sport a designer bag. Some like Emma, have fakes!

Ava has been the real star of the show. She has grown, has a truly international accent and is a smart little citizen of the world – accomplished shopper!  She hates mornings but crawls out of bed at 5.45, chugs down her breakfast puts on her uniform and then she and koala wait stoically by the door . School for three year olds is a bit weird, but she really has thrived.

Thanks for reading. We will try to improve the quality of the news.

Roger and Emma.

Photos to follow.

Dear Readers,

Well, so much has happened.

The first thing was that it rained. The actual amount of rain was 20 mm but its effect was quite stupendous. Schools across the emirates were closed. Panic reigned and every (Emirati) driver drove around with their hazard lights on, thereby ensuring that there was in fact a hazard

The roads here have no drainage at all. That is not as silly as it sounds as for 360 days of the year they would be sand traps. But when it does rain the results are unpredictable and spectacular. Our friends drove into a water hazard on the road nearby and cooked their new BMW. They subsequently discovered alien attacks were an insured event but floods were not. Luckily the UAE Govt has retrospectively legislated that any vehicle under 18 months old would be covered by insurance. One can only assume that a Bentley or two suffered the same fate.

The next thing was that things  grew and birds nested and sang. The Emiratis celebrated by taking to the desert in their 4 wheel drives en masse. The road to Al Ain looked like Mystery Creek after Fonterra raised the payout. Hundreds of 4 x 4 ploughing up the desert, sideways down the dunes, rolling and polling, all the sort of fun that you can have when the Govt subsidises you U$D 55k a year before you go to work.

Another casualty of the rain was the car we intended to buy. A 2004 Dodge Durango V8. It was taken to the garage for a final lick and polish by its careful owner, got flooded and has not gone in the 5 weeks since. Very sad.

Next up came the Dubai 7’s. Lacks the unbridled passion of the Wellington 7’s but a good show nevertheless. NZ got walloped by Fiji in the semi’s. Ava announced herself over it and we ditched our flags  and slunk off to good natured jeers from the overwhelmingly English and Jarppie crowd.

Roger had to get a Visa. First up went with new friend Russell, who circumnavigated the carpark which was completely full, both of cars and would be residents from the sub-continent. Perhaps in recognition of the fact that Roger had forgotten the family passports, Russell floored it back to the exclave.

Next day Roger was on his own with passports in hand. Shorts were the problem that day. They are unacceptable clothing inside a Government office.

About to buy a pair of strides he remembered the dress he had in the car. Full arab dress. Slipped into that,  back inside, ushered past the queue, straight to the desk reserved for emirati. The emir in charge, whilst a little taken aback at the poor command of Arabic (“kiaora kiaora” can only take you so far) nevertheless entered into the spirit of things, stamps were flourished and he was back on the pavement in 15 pleasant minutes (people have grown old and died in that queue).

With the kind assistance the next day of Hamad (a real emirati) to manage the translation, at considerable expense (there are no taxes just exorbitant fees for this and that)  of documents into Arabic for the benefit of people who read English perfectly well, Ava and Roger have provisional (pink slip) approval for 3 years. Next stop for Roger, blood tests (aids), xrays (tb) and Iris scanning. You can bet on the outcome at www.TAB/privatebets/bowdenhasaidsandortb  .

The temperature has been tracking steadily downwards. Today was 20 degrees. The emirati had ski jackets over their Kandura. Mind you almost next door, over past Saudi, they had snow in Cairo for the first time in 100 years. Mostly it pans out at about 28- 30, and the pool is a nicely heated 24. The sea has headed down below that, so we don’t go there any more.

Our friend Tony Savage is coming for a fortnight on the 27th. First up we are going to the Musandam Peninsular  Diving in Oman and later to Muscat, also in Oman.  We went into the Hajar mountains for a looksee the other day. Absolutely stunning. Can’t wait to finally get on the road. We are tolerably familiar with most of the Malls in the UAE, the fake beaches, and the motorways.

 Hajar Mountains Ras Al Khaimah

We have now worked out the ultimate day trip to Dubai, at least from here. Drive to the Metro terminus, train to the Dubai Creek, walk through the souk and the heritage village to the undersea walking tunnel, across to the gold souk, onto the water taxi past the Palm Jumeriah and the Burj al Arab to the Dubai Marina, train back to the Dubai Mall, up the 1 km Burj Khalifa, and train back to the car. Cheap and cheerful all the boxes ticked in a day.

Dubai has long been a smugglers paradise. Hilariously we were taken to a den at the souk and shown an Aladdins Cave of counterfeit Prada etc bags and suitcases. All beautiful. When we went to leave, the place went into lock down because  there were authorities about.

Emma has tamed her class. They love her and the first formal assessment rates her as outstanding. She has fantastic colleagues in her year group who are highly competent and motivated teachers, one of whom is even married to her boss! Thats all good. Not so good is the 5.30 a.m. wakeup and back home at about 4.30 carrying an exhausted child back up to the apartment.

Ava has nevertheless flourished. Her already unusual pronunciation has morphed into an amalgam of Arabic, Kiwi, English, South African and US with a bit of Aussie thrown in. It sounds beautiful but a lot of the time we are quite unsure what on earth she is saying.

Emma and Ava are on holiday until the 5th of January. That is a real blessing as the going is tough for them. So far just doing holiday stuff at home. Trips to Dubai. Trips to the Malls. Hanging at the pool. Walks. This is the best time in the UAE and it really is a fantastic climate right now. One just can’t quite forget that furnace from August and September. Our home in Al Hamra, Ras Al Khaimah is a really nice place to live. It is quite like Tutukaka but bigger. Even has a pale imitation of Snapper Rock, but you want to see our Oceans Resort. It’s called the Waldorf Astoria and visible behind the Superyacht in the picture below the picture of our finest equestrienne.

There has been some sad news. Our friend Len Johnson died. Long life, short illness, great guy. Finn Benton has been the victim of a car crash. Other dear friends have separated. Funny, but these things really affect you when you are far away. It is a lot harder to process it.

On the plus side, Zoe has completed a BA (double major)/Llb inside 5 years. William passed all his exams, got an A, and cleverly kept the rest of his marks at such a level that future improvement will be easily noted.

Roger finally has some good news on the job front. Negotiations are afoot. The family income will at least treble and the good times will roll – an offer has been made but he is busy being a lawyer about accepting it. Poolside shirking is likely over.

Roger argues over which boat he gets as part of the contract.

Christmas is in Al Ain this year courtesy of our friends Jenny and Alex and their perfect daughters who Ava idolises. Then back for a soiree at the new would be bosses on Boxing Day. Going to be interesting.

We wish all our friends and family a merry Christmas and a happy new year. We will be booking our tickets for July to NZ.  Get the welcome mat ready please.

The Dubai Souk. Hilarious merchants absent from this photo.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  We are thinking of friends and family at this time.

Love Roger, Emma and Ava.

Dear Friends

Thank you for the feedback from my last blog. The advice tendered, including the offers of money, were very much appreciated. I think the person who said that I sounded like Sir John Kirwan discussing a run of good weather, was a little unfair, nevertheless, I will try to reflect the majesty of our journey in a more upbeat fashion.

In order to please everyone however, I will continue to chronicle my problems. The Tulip Inn, Ajman is a convenient starting point.

I think I previously reported on our problems with the leaking ceilings in our room. I considered this issue, and consulted with maintenance staff who reported the problem fixed several times, before one of them admitted that it could not in fact be fixed. Whilst pondering on the likely health issues emanating from other people’s shower water, I could only really reference back to things that I had done in the shower. As innocuous as those events were, we promptly moved.

The next suite (we call them that) demonstrated why it is that water can ingress from one floor to the next. Emma inspected the suite in great detail including running the shower because hot water was previously an issue. There was a slight smell which was waved off as the unit had been sitting empty. Emma was standing there making pained faces, half a dozen hotel staff (the chief house keeper, the manager guy and three porters) were watching her. I made an executive decision and said, yes we will take it! Off we went to get our stuff (we now have heaps) and moved in. We then discovered the real cause of the smell. The shower had weeped foul smelling water all over the place. It is a slate shower, the water infiltrated the plinth, absorded an awful smell then it then oozed out for the next 30 minutes.

Emma was a little upset. We hauled the maintenance guy up and I gave him a long lecture on the shortcomings of the place and a detailed explanation of the required fix, which was a little more than the squirt of silicon he suggested. He then wanted to have a go at me for using bluetack on the wall to hang Ava’s art. Off he went.

Next morning at 7 a.m. I was at the front desk talking to the manager. I insisted he come and look. He did. “Yes, yes very bad, I will talk to my manager”. I left it an hour or so and went to find out what was going on. He had gone home. I kept cool, invited the next manager to come and see, and half an hour later, we were on the move! New suite, much better.

We then had two bathrooms (one not really able to be used owing to the same sort of issues), but good hot water, a non leaking shower, 2 floors higher and were much happier. We even had people over for dinner.

The whole issue did prompt a move in the direction getting a home. Part of the problem is that the law says that if you do not have a residence visa you can not get a lease. This is enforced in a rather uneven manner, but for the places we wanted to go, it was an issue.

Why we (and many other staff) don’t have a Visa is a subject of some rancourous debate as it can be costly and frustrating. Finally we got a pink slip, which is an almost Visa, and we could get a lease.

We settled on Al Hamra which is and “exclave” in the northernmost Emirate, Raz Al Khaimah. We have a large two bedroom apartment on the first floor of a 7 storey apartment block. It looks over a spacious Kikuyu lawn with trees, gardens, a play ground and a 25 metre kidney shaped pool with attendant kids’ pool. The Pool was, until today, beautiful refreshingly cooled. Today it is at least 30 degrees. I asked one of the army of gardeners, lawn and pool guys and he told me that it was now the cool season (Max 35 degrees) and there had been complaints about the pool temp! They turned the heaters on.

Our apartment has an uninterrupted views past a moored sailing vessel over the estuary to a golf course and the flagship Waldorf Astoria Hotel where we breakfasted on Saturday for Emma’s birthday (having earlier sent a MacDonald’s voucher to William, who shares the same date!). The breakfast was great. Sumptuous. We wandered around and planned our next visit where we will sneak into the pool and hang out. Their pool is brilliant. It has theses tent like structures around it which you can call your own. We were just standing there and a guy tried to give us bottles of Evian.

Also near our apartment, there is a pub and a golf club,  and several restaurants. We have not really been to them apart from a South African night (the things you end up doing!). It is truly a lovely place to live. Our apartment has large balconies (one of which I am sitting on now). The weather is pretty good now. Still hot but bearable. At night it is quite nice outdoors. Indoors we have the ubiquitous air con which we try to be sparing about (well I do) owing to the cost.

We have furnished it with a mixture of new and old. It is very comfortable. We have gone from 80 works of art to three. Life is a lot more pared down, but none the worse for it.

I had been trying harder to get a job. I have had a meeting in Raz Al Khaima with a lawyer there who was very helpful. I have been to Dubai and met with a Judge at the DIFC Courts. I have a friend who is a partner of a large law firm who has been of some assistance and I have my CV with a couple of other good firms. My friend Rita Englebrecht, who works at the Court, is really helping to open doors. I might start a course here as there is a course on the local rules which I can join and will help meet people and look serious. I am confident, and people are saying the right things. Its just that every week dozens of burnt out lawyers who have completely stuffed things up in their own country turn up here, and its really hard to get them to see that I am the gold that will take their moribund practices to the next level. Plus the fact that a background in criminal law is not that relevant in a place where Sharia Law is practiced and anyone arrested goes straight to jail – regardless. Reading the Court notes in the paper is hilarious, not so much for the defendants, I am sure.

The DIFC Courts are a new initiative to bring English Common Law to the Middle East and inject some legal certainty to the contractual world and therefore increase business confidence. They are the place to be, but are only dong 40 cases a year at the present. I sat in on a case and I must say the proceedings might have made poor old Judge Harvey in Whangarei burst a blood vessel. Quite a bit of arguing with the witness, two Counsel talking at once, evidence from the bar, Parol evidence, Counsel walking about – I’ll fit right in. I asked the Judge about it and he said he had one lawyer trained in Common Law and another in the Civil system so he just lets them run a bit, rather than embarking  on the spot training, and tries to work out the justice of the case from there. Very practical.

I feel things will work out. The pay rates are good and in the meantime we are living fine on Emma’s salary.

Actually, its better than that. After two months I can see that a lot of things that happened in NZ, both professionally and personally, made me deeply unhappy. I knew I needed to get away from the place, move on from an unrelenting diet of cases about crappy people and their miserable lives, reflect on the farm and family situation, do something different, meet people and make friends on an unbiased basis. I have always slept well until the last few years. Now I sleep fine.

I previously wrote about the shocking driving here. I worked out the issue with the no indicating on the roads. Apparently, if you indicate, that tells the other guy what you are planning to do. He will stop you. Far better to surprise him! I’m driving more like a local. Pretty interesting when everyone is doing 140 kmh and some are doing 160 kmh using the entire width of the highway to weave through the traffic. I heard the favoured method of getting your licence here is to get someone else to sit it!

This society has come so far, so fast that there are many inconsistencies. A gold plated tap won’t necessarily have water in it. The social stratification is pretty awful really. The Emirati are the top of the heap, followed by that sort of moneyed Eurotrash that are found everywhere, then the Expats, other Arabs,  the Phillipino’s then the Indians, the Pakistanis and other low wage workers, all of whom regard their existence here as a big improvement. There are of course wealthy Indians and there are the Russians – heaps of them.

We went on a holiday for EID (we don’t have a Visa so we are stuck with driving around in the UAE which is about 3 hours drive from end to end – (Say Auckland north with 9 million people). we went to our friends Jenny and Alex Brown who live with their beautiful daughters in Al Ain. On the way I purchased the most expensive fruit ever brought in the UAE. We went up the local mountain which is a drive to 1200 metres. One of the ten best Mountain roads in the World. Al Ain is beautiful. Very wealthy oasis town. There they have Wadi World but the pump had broken on the Wave machine. we are going back.

On our way back we detoured to Fujairah and the Indian Ocean Coast. Part of the reason, I am sure, is that I wanted to get my money back by going to the source of the fruit. Again I purchased the most expensive fruit – breaking all records. The fruit I brought at source was not even fit for sauce. These guys were outrageous, fleeced me.

Whilst Al Hamra, where we live, is large and intensively developed with its own Mall (all shops indoor aka Albany Mall), the next village is Al Jezerah. It is dusty street full of Indian shops. Prices are much better, it also has a supermarket, it is almost entirely made up of Indians. The Emirati do shop there. They drive up in there F300, Lexus 450, Range Rover, or Landcruiser and sit on the horn. The Indian guy runs out from the shop, takes  the order, runs in to the shop, comes back out, gets some money, runs back to the shop, gets change and runs back out and gives it to the Arab (they don’t call them that for nothing) and he or she drives off. An entire line of traffic, even on a busy road, can sit there whilst this transaction takes place. This standard practice all through the UAE.

The good news is the weather. it is lovely – yes every day!

Natural surroundings at the Indian Ocean Coast. Ava is quite right to wonder what it is.

Artificial White Water rafting in the desert. I still managed to fall out!

New Road through the mountains to the Indian Ocean Coast. They just moved the Mountains. 6 lanes, 140 kmh speed limit!

The surf today is…Flat, because our Wave machine broke.

Our balcony of an evening. I let the Shaik tie up there because I’m usually off over at the bar of the Waldorf Astoria you can see in the background!

Our apartment. those two balconies on the first floor.

In the background is the E311 motorway. last I saw the 5 of them were heading up the embankment. Camels can be worth $NZ 3 Mill. An accident WILL be your fault!

Our pool. Yes they are hot!

Our ballerina

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

Here’s Ava in her uniform, she is loving school. It is a bit hard to get her to go to bed early, she starts at 7.50am!

Ava had her 3rd birthday celebrations with some new friends at the Dubai Mall. The new thing to do is go to the mall! We went to the Aquarium and looked around at the fish, we even saw Nemo’s tank! Note the design on Ava’s wrapping paper!

Here’s Roger getting a bottle of wine in Ajman.

Normally an easy and straight forward task at home.

Here, you have to drive to an unmarked building, go up to the window and ask for what you want– wine, beer, spirits.. and if it’s wine you get sent around the back to another room to select a bottle.

It feels really strange and I stayed in the car with Ava. It is something men do, not women.

Yesterday was Friday and there were a lot of Indians out buying liquor, it’s really popular but not spoken about.