Category: Sandy D

The Top 8 Rules for Driving in the UAE in the Fog

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fog abu dhabi

Last night I drove back from the Abu Dhabi Formula One Gran Prix at Yas Marina (after marshalling for 3 days – it was awesome!) exhausted and sweaty. I just wanted to get home and sleep but as soon as I got on the Abu Dhabi – Dubai HIghway the fog enveloped all of us drivers.

The fog was so bad that it you couldn’t see a car in front of you, even if you were touching bumpers. It was so bad, you couldn’t see the lanes on the highway or any road signs even if you got close to them so there was no way to stop for a chill out moment at the services.

Of course being in the UAE that meant that people freaked out and started doing one of the following:

  1. Breaking and driving at 20kph
  2. Putting on their hazard lights
  3. Driving fast as if there was no fog
  4. Driving close to the car in front just so they could see something.

All this made a bad situation exceedingly scary. I love driving and i’m usually resilient but this fog and surrounding idiots freaked the bejeesus out of me. I had to go into the far slow lane (as it was the only lane no one else was in, except my marshal buddies).

A scary moment was seeing buses and minibuses driving their normal manner weaving through lanes, with hazard lights on and close to our bumpers. I had a coach behind me (Desert A..) weaving around me and then driving near my bumper. These bus drivers need an advanced driving test for normal and extreme weather days; they are maniacs.

Based on this frightful experience here are my top tips for the idiots who we encountered last night and the other idiots who start driving ridiculously on fog days in the Winter:

  1. Switch on your fog lights. They are usually a button, located on the left hand side next to your steering wheel.
  2. Drive slowly like 80kph but not 20kph. You might as well not drive at all if you are going to go at that speed.
  3. Keep at least 2 cars distance from the cars in front of you.
  4. DON’T PUT ON YOUR HAZARD LIGHTS AND USE THEM AS FOG LIGHTS. 
  5. Put on your hazard lights for a brief few seconds when there is a hazard in front of you. I did the quick flash twice in succession so that the numpties around me got the idea there was a hazard.
  6. Don’t freak out and suddenly swerve lanes to get off the road.
  7. If you change lanes, USE YOUR INDICATORS.
  8. Use your windscreen wipers to clean the fog/sand concoction every so often.

Luckily there were no crashes on my way home. However, there needs to be a national advertising campaign by the RTA on how to drive in fog, rain and other extreme weather scenarios. Otherwise there will be more chances of there being scary driving situations and horrific car accidents on the AD-DXB highway (such as the one below) or on other roads.

car crash

 

I have heard the Indian speaking radio stations in the UAE tell drivers to put their hazard lights on in previous years. By providing this completely incorrect and unsafe information, they are helping to create more accidents. The authorities need to explain to the media how their listeners should drive safely!

Let’s hope this post can educate a few people.

What other rules do you think we should have for driving in the extreme conditions. Let me know in the comment box.

Shelina

 

 

 

 

(All images from Google Images).

The Good, Bad and Ugly – Customer Service in Dubai

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mind blown

Customer service is a continuous rant fest for us in Dubai. It’s rarely good, but mostly appalling. The Managers don’t care, the serving staff are clueless. Supposedly we can complain to the Trading Standards here but no one I know has ever had a response from them.

However, there are moments of such amazing service that it makes you feel like you are on cloud 9.

Here are four of my recent picks and how they have treated me and my friends:

THE GOOD

1. Izel Dubai, Conrad Dubai 

My friend and I went to Izel recently. The restaurant/bar is a South American fusion restaurant with a Happy Hour on Wednesday and live music.

We hadn’t booked a table beforehand but walked in and were advised by the hostess, that they could definitely give us a table. As the restaurant hadn’t opened yet, they asked us to sit on their comfortable chairs at the bar and order from the Happy Hour Menu. When the table was ready, the friendly waiter took us to the table and passed us over to our new waiter.

The food was lovely, but it was the attention of the staff that made my day. My friend had ordered a glass of wine from the knowledgeable Sommelier. He returned during our meal to check she was happy with her drink and we were happy with our meal generally. The waiter of course was attentive during the meal but left us to chat alone. We also had the Operations Manager come and introduce himself and ask if all was fine. We were not anyone featured in Ahlan or famous, just two ladies catching up. It was a nice gesture.

When we left, the hostess asked us about our experience. We did mention that the toilets were really dark and that it would be nice if we could see the toilet paper. She agreed with us and said that she would advise the management as they were renovating the restaurant during the Summer. They might not listen to our advice, but acknowledging it was nice of them.

In the lift, the Chef held the door for us and said bye when we left. Small thing but really nice.

We missed the music (which I have heard is really loud) but we had a lovely, relaxed visit to the restaurant.

2. GQ Bar – JW Mariott Marquis

A few weeks ago a group of friends and I booked a table for drinks at the GQ Bar. I had forgotten to mention we needed a smoking table when booking. Oops.

As normal I was the first to arrive, so the hostess suggested that I sit in the bar area, and then when my friends had arrived, we could move to our table. When our party arrived, we realised that we were going to be seated in the non-smoking restaurant area. We asked if it was possible to be moved to the comfy seat area in the bar. The hostess said “no problem”, shuffled the reserved areas around and fitted us four in a corner section with no hassle. During the shuffling I had mentioned to the hostess that I was disappointed by the bar men not being so hawt as expected (I had been told they would be hawt as it’s the GQ Bar!). She laughed.

Later on, I checked us in on Foursquare. Within a short while, the Acting Manager of the bar came to our table with mini drinks and asked us how our night was. Turned out that the bar’s twitter handle is linked to the Foursquare account, so they knew instantly when I had Foursquared and thanked us with the drinks. Lovely gesture. He had also talked to the hostess and asked me about my views of the bar men (my friends were embarrassed of me by then) and asked me to return in a few weeks to check the new staff who were joining :D. When we left they both said bye to us at the door.

Two weeks later I returned to the bar for a networking event. At the door, the same hostess was there and she recognised me! Little ole me! She even asked where my friends were. That night the bar man who served me was so hawt and really good at making the drinks. I told the nice hostess to inform that Manager that I was impressed :).

It sounds stupid but in this superficial, Ahlan loving, celeb wannabe town, it’s nice to be treated like someone by staff even when we are not any of the above.

Also, to have great service is such a rarity that it makes the night even more special when it is amazing.

THE BAD

bad-customer-service

3. KFC

7pm – I ordered KFC (I’m sick today, KFC is my cure – don’t judge me). They knew my normal order. I was impressed.

8.05pm – I called and asked about my food. Was told that the operator would call me back once she found out where the food was.

8.24pm – Called again. The operator said that the KFC Motor City were not answering their calls. They couldn’t find out where my food was. Told her to cancel the order and to tell the manager to call me.

8.38pm – Driver calls and says he is near my villa (I live in an apartment – the address even says Flat…).  Told him to turn around and get the Manager to call me.

8.47pm – Manager calls me. Told him of my disappointment. His response was that their internet was down and they were taking orders by telephone. I politely told him that the operational processes in the restaurant were not my problem. I ordered food the correct way, I expected food within half an hour. He kept making excuses.

There was no offer of giving me a voucher to use for next time as an apology. No offer of anything.

No profuse apologies.

Nothing.

His view was that as his operations system was down, it was my problem and I had to accept it. He said he would take my order now. I told him that I had ordered from elsewhere as I was so hungry.

The way he talked to me was sooooo arrogant that infuriated me more.

I advised him that his behaviour was unacceptable and that I would be informing all on social media. He didn’t care. That was the end of the conversation.

I won’t be ordering from them again.

Update 19 June 2014:

A KFC Manager called to apologise profusely and also confirm that the excuse about the system was actually not true. They were very angry at what happened to me and they were sincere in their apologies. As a gesture of goodwill they delivered lunch to me (and the Manager of Motory City called to check all was fine when the delivery man arrived). I will be ordering from them again. 

UGLY

inbound-marketing-wonka-meme
4. Clinton Bakery Cafe – Downtown Dubai.

Two of my lovely friends are leaving Dubai. They are having several Tweetups. This was one tweetup they set up for breakfast on Friday.

a. 3 of us entered and asked for the 6 person booth.

b. The waitress said she would have to ask the Manager if we could have booth as we couldn’t get a table unless all of our party had arrived. (I must add at this point – I had to leave after an hour and we didn’t know when exactly the rest of the party would arrive, but it would be soon).

c. Manager came to front, ignored us. Said in a nasty tone to the waitress, that we couldn’t have a table until our party arrived. At no point did he talk to us the customers, he just spoke about us to the waitress.

d. I told the waitress to just give us a table for 3 of us as I had to go. Told the Manager as well, he turned away from me.

e. Within 10 minutes 3 more people arrived. We got a booth.

f. I left.

g. My friend Khaled Akbik and his wife turned up after me. Here is his story of what happened when he entered, in his own words:

“I went a bit late to a friend’s farewell gathering this morning at Clinton Street Baking Company, Dubai. It was my first experience there and the place looked lovely and promising. I was looking forward to having a nice cup of coffee and a delicious breakfast.

My friends had already finished their breakfast when I arrived and some were still sipping on their coffees and shakes. When I called in the waiter to give him my order I was politely told that we can’t order anymore because there are others waiting for a table!! When we argued with him he called in his manager who was somewhat rude. He said there are others waiting and implied that we had exhausted our time on the table and that it would take long now for them to make a new meal, serve it and for me to take my time eating it!!

This was the first time I witness such a behaviour from a restaurant’s staff, let alone the manager, who is supposed to be accommodating to say the least.

When a restaurant puts the interest of incoming customers more than existing ones; is practically saying, you came, we served you, you paid us, now leave….we got our money from you, off to the next one.

That is not a way to run a business and needless to say, despite the apparent popularity of this restaurant, I won’t be going there ever again.”

Now yes, it was Friday, it was busy and people were waiting for the table but we had ordered a lot and still were going to order in our group. But the main issue was the Manager. I saw how he spoke to people or didn’t speak to us. He was a nasty human being.

The food was nice, but expensive for what it was. If we had been treated like humans I would go again but after being treated so appallingly, continuously by the Manager I have no desire to return until I know he has left.

The chain might be big in New York but this is not New York and you don’t treat people like this.

Update 19 June 2016 – nothing. 

This is a small pool of good and bad customer service. I could go on but it would take days to write. Where have you been that has been amazing or appalling with regards to customer service?

The continuous downfall of customer service

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140221 Businessman Cover His Head With Bag

Customer service, what is that you might ask, if you live in the UAE? Don’t ask me, I am personally fed up of HSBC Middle East and Axa Gulf currently and their customer service.

My gripe with HSBC is for several reasons; most recently

a. they stopped me using my savings account as the internet banking department had not bothered to update their system with my new visa despite giving it to the bank weeks before.

b. This week they rejected a cheque as they said my signature was incorrect.

I was so incensed that I complained until they reversed the charges for a returned cheque. Ranting on Twitter resulted in all their customers complaining of the same issue; every time they wrote a cheque. A company I happened to chat to also said all customers issuing them with an HSBC cheque get rejected. Every time. We can’t all be incredibly stupid and incompetent to sign our cheques incorrectly every time. But HSBC thinks we are and will charge us for this supposed stupidity by us all.

I only had my issues sorted out as I ranted on Twitter. Their social media team straight away called me, listened to my rants and got it sorted out within a few hours. Calling HSBC customer service results in you talking to a robot in India who reads from a script and tells you that you are wrong and will have to go to a branch to sort out the issue.The other issue calling on the phone is that the line is alway crackly, which results in the customer service person hanging up on you and telling you to redial the number.   That means you have to redial and go through their millions of options before you get through to  a crackly voice again. And if you forget your personal banking number..well let’s not start on that nightmare.

With my internet banking issue, I went to the branch they told me to call internet banking. Internet banking did nothing. And don’t even bother contacting them online as they will never reply. Ever.

You might say why not change banks. I would love to but I can’t for now due to various reasons. The main reason is that my car loan is with them. If I change banks, I will have to provide them with cheques, which they will then reject. It’s not worth the hassle.  Also why should I  change? I have been a customer of theirs since I moved here. Should they not be providing their customers with great service being “the local bank” and also the second biggest in the world. Ok, I don’t have millions in the account, but I still put money in their bank for them to gain interest on. I never seemed to get this much crap with the bank in the UK.

I could complain to Central Bank about HSBC, but I fear that as the issue has been sorted they will not be interested.

The issue with AXA was due to two problems:

1. I was advised to obtain one medical insurance, which turned out to be completely useless. It was immediately cancelled by the lovely woman at the Wafi branch, when she realised the issue. I cancelled the incorrect policy in October.

2. A medical claim I made was rejected for a refund as they claimed it was a pre-condition which I had not disclosed. My doctor wrote to them to say it wasn’t a precondition. Still rejected.

c. They kept delivering other peoples cards to my address.

The cancelled policy should have been refunded within 6 weeks. After ranting again on Twitter, their social media manager seeing the complaint, called me (somehow finding my number despite me not providing it on twitter and also I am still wondering how they linked me to my twitter account….), apologised  and got a refund issued within 2 days. It took a Twitter rant to get the refund.

The claim issue has been talked about on the phone and by email. The customer service rep did a great job at stalling with responses for 5 months and when responding would copy and paste why my claim was rejected. I had promises of managers calling me to discuss the matter, but I had nothing. Notwithstanding the medical claim not being a previous condition; I had also been with AXA for 3 years with my previous company. They had made it very clear they had all my medical details so why do you have to disclose them when you renew if they know your history already. Additional administrative burden on the customer and excuse to not pay any claims.

I received an apology only from the social media manager. Nothing from the medical insurance department, until I sent them a sarcastic email asking if they received training on manners.

I have three policies with AXA but all three will be moved to other insurance companies when they expire. It may be easier and also cheaper in some cases to get cover via AXA here, but their behaviour has left me with a sour taste in my mouth. I had an issue with my property insurance a few months ago and it took 5 calls to get that sorted.

They only reason my issues were resolved (or nearly resolved) was because of social media. Conventional methods of trying to sort out the issues resulted in being completely ignored or messed about.

It gets tiring having to lose your temper all the time with companies here. I am at a loss of why so many of them treat us customers so badly. I have had no positive news from using the Ahlan Dubai initiative by the government. One manager in Zara once threw the Ahlan Dubai notice board at me, laughed and told me to call them. This was when Zara wouldn’t refund me for a dress I was returning within the time frame.  He knew he would get away with stealing my money. And he did win.

Customers are laughed at, ignored and treated like idiots. If we could have a meeting with the Ahlan Dubai people or faith that this system works, I believe we could finally start having good service from service providers and shops. But for now we will continue to have our blood pressure rise.

Note: The Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED) has an “Ahlan Dubai” helpline for complaints and suggestions, tel 600-545555 in the UAE. Or email consumerrights@dubaided.gov.ae, or visit one of their offices. Tell  me if it works for you.

If you want to complain about a bank in the UAE you can complete the online form and they call you within 24 hours of submission. The issue is resolved within a week by the bank; if not when Central Bank check up on your issue with you after a week you can tell them the bank are still not sorting out your issue.

Foodie Blog – High Tea at the Burj Al Arab

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A few years ago my Mum came to cheer me up and I decided to spoil her with High Tea at the Burj Al Arab.  At that time we were seated in the main lobby. Since then my Dad has complained endlessly that he has not had the privilege of going to the Burj for High tea with me. As Dad was here to visit last week, I put right to wrong.

This time when I made the booking they offered us a seat at the Skyview Bar. Of course I couldn’t decline this kind offer. I didn’t get the obligatory email with reference number, so had to call to obtain it the day before our reservation as you cannot get into the grounds of the Burj Al Arab without this number.

Once in, we weren’t offered the Majool date you used to get on entry but were advised by pretty ladies where to go to get the Skyview Bar lift.

Once up we got to the bar, we were seated by the window (I had requested for it and thankfully got it) with a view of the Palm and the World. Dubai would have been nicer but hey we got a view.

The tea menu is no longer as expansive as it used to be and had a page of wellness teas. Firstly, yuck and second who is going to pay AED495 for wellness teas when you are stuffing your face with cakes, sandwiches and stuff.  We started off with date tea (it was ok bit datey) and I had the Jasmine Pearl tea. It was ok but after a while all the Chinese tea tastes the same to me. Maybe I’ve been spoilt for too many years drinking the expensive stuff given to us as presents from Dad’s mates. You can try as many different teas as you like during the High Tea so we tried a variety but ended up liking the English Breakfast tea in the end. You can’t change us Brits.

First course was shortbread with fruit. Buttery but not too rich and with the tartness of the fruit was a nice start to the tea.

Shortbread with fruit

Shortbread with fruit

Next up was stuffed turkey from the Chef’s carvery. Being December and nearly Christmas there was a theme of Christmasy things for the tea.  The dish was lovely and would have been nice to have more but anyway.

Turkey from the Chef Carvery

Turkey from the Chef Carvery

Next up were the sandwiches plated on a metal Burj Al Arab. All very clever. The sandwiches were:

  1. Salmon with come caviar on it. – nice
  2. Chicken tikka roll – nice
  3. Tuna mayonnaise on squid ciabtta – interesting and nice
  4. Beef sandwich – my favourite
  5. Cucumber sandwich – it’s the same wherever you eat it.
Sandwiches

Sandwiches

We were able to have more helpings of the sandwiches as they brought a giant tray with them. I had a few more of the chicken tika, beef and tuna sandwiches.

The next course was scones and pastries. The scones were accompanied by  date, passion fruit (yuck) and strawberry jam along with Devonshire Cream. I’m a purist and I was very happy with the Devonshire Cream and Strawberry Jam.

Pastries

Pastries

The cakes were mostly coffee based and ok. Nothing spectacular to write about. I find pastries in Jumeirah hotels are always a disappointment.

On the bottom row of the Burj plates were muffins, chocolate chip cookie and crème brulee. The crème brulee did not have the crisp sugar topping which Dad and I found akin to blasphemy. How can you not have the sugar crisped top!? It’s wrong. The crème was lovely but it wasn’t perfect. The cookie was nice and soft and the muffin; it’s a muffin what more can I say.

Muffins, cookie and creme brulee

Muffins, cookie and creme brulee

Whilst we were getting a sugar fix we also were offered Christmas cookies, which had some bizarre non-sensical names, which could have been German. They were nice enough especially dipped in our tea (told you we were too British).

Christmas cookies

Christmas cookies

The final course was a lychee and rose sorbet. I am not a fan of lychee based products and drinks. Give me a lychee and I’m fine, anything more and I’m not amused. We also received a box of chocolates to take home. I kept that unopened to give to Mum as she wasn’t able to join us on this trip.

Chocolates and Rose and Lycee sorbet

Chocolates and Rose and Lycee sorbet

Have to say the Manager was very good (looking [sic]) at the end of the meal about trying to sort out the lack of Sirius card still from Jumeirah after all these years. Haven’t heard from Jumeirah since last week so I’m betting that after 8 years I won’t be any closer to getting rid of my temporary card. :S

All in all the food was nice and we had a good time. The staff were really friendly and patient with us and our multiple tea requests. The place was mostly full of tourists. One lady thought that wearing a see-through white top and see-through trousers was a great idea as she had a see through shawl on top. It’s never acceptable. I have no idea how she was allowed into the Burj. A family next to us decided to call Scotland and Pakistan and boast they were at the Burj for most of the tea which was piss annoying. Fine, yes you are excited but seriously?? Otherwise me and Dad had a lovely very genteel time.

Here are some photos of the Burj just to prove we were there.

Burj Al Arab interior
Burj Al Arab fountain
Burj Al Arab front

Foodie blog – Yildiz Saray – Turkish

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Bread and dips
Ayran
Iskender
Adana
Turkish tea

As a newly made entrepreneur and with an aim of saving money going out is now limited to non top brand expensive restaurants unless someone else is paying (Nobu would be nice if you’re offering). My friend is in the same boat so we decided to go to deepest darkest Deira (ok it was lit so not so dark) to go get some cheapish filling food. After reading my favourite foodie blogs in Dubai, we decided to try out Yildiz Sarayi.

The restaurant in the Concorde Hotel on the side and looks like a posh Arabic/Turkish restaurant. We sat in a booth which was nice and cosy. To call the waiter they had those call buttons on the table which was handy as you couldn’t see the waiters ever from where we were sitting.

The reviews had raved about Iskendar which i have not had in a long time and craved, so we decided to forgo any nibbles and order the mains of Iskender and Adana kebap along with some fattoush, to add a bit of healthy salad to the mix.

Whilst waiting for the mains, a basket of warm sesame seeded bread and dips were served. The bread was soft and delicious and enhanced with the tomato based dip and labneh (not bitter which i like) we had a few pieces (just a few as we knew we had big mains coming). The bread was that thick wholesome bread you would love to dip in a saucy curry.

Then came the Ayran., which is the Turkish version of laban.  At 20dhs its a bit steep, but it was lovely. Not too thick or too watery with the right amount of saltiness to not over thirst you.

Next came our mains. Iskendar, if you have never had it before,it is cubes of bread, with layers of doner kebab on top, a lovely rich tomato sauce and with yoghurt either on top or on the side (as it was for me). The yoghurt seemed generic but the rest of the plate was tender and delicious. For once I finished the plate before my friend who usually gobbles everything on site within 5 minutes. His Adana Kebap whilst looking plain was full of flavour in the soft pieces of lamb kebab. I didn’t try the rice but he had no complaints so it must have been good.

After resting our tummies, we ordered Turkish tea which was served using two teapots (one with the tea) and the other with the water to add to the glass. I have never had the tea served in this way even on my trips to Turkey but it was a nice end to our meal. We were a bit full by then to eat dessert, but they did look good.

Our meal came to 200dhs with 20% off as there was an offer at the time we went to the restaurant. Not overly cheap, but not extortionate for a filling meal in a very nice looking restaurant.

The restaurant website is http://www.yildizsaray.ae/Default.aspx

and you can find them:

Emirates Concord Hotel, Al Maktoom St. Deira, Dubai, Tel:04-252-2142

Totally Fabulous Fujairah Food Tour

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As a few of us were missing the food delights of Fujairah we organised a tweetup to join our good friends @daddybird and @kangayayaroo to eat ourselves full yesterday.

Our first pit stop was at Nepal Kitchen House where we had Peanut sandeko, chicken momos, mutton momos, thukpa (noodle soup), chicken chili, chicken tass (chicken and puffed rice), and aloo jeera fry (potato, cumin seeds, corriander). I loved the mutton tass last time and had been dreaming about it for this trip. Unfortunately the chicken tass whilst tasty, the rice was not as puffily nice as last time. :(. The chilli chicken and momos were delish though.

Mutton momos Chicken Tass 2

To give our tummies a rest we ventured up to Al Hayl Castle. The road was slightly bumpy but it was nice going through an old skool village (with beautiful doors for each residence).  The castle is the very old home of the Fujairah Royal Family (saw 100 odd years old).

View from top of fort Daddy, Kanga and Mita Al Hayl Castle 2

We then took our first tea break on one of the main streets, with the men coming to the car to give us our 1dhs karak chai.

Next stop was Salu Salo which is a Filipino restaurant in an alleyway. I couldn’t tell you which alley, but you can find it on Foursquare. Here we had: Bicol express, Bopis, Lumpia, Pinakbet, and Kare Kare were our choices. Bicol express is a stew in a coconut milk sauce. Bopis is heart and lung sauteed in tomato, chili, and onion. Lumpia is meat filled fried rolls, Pinakbet is a shrimp and vegetable dish, and Kare Kare is an oxtail stew in peanut sauce. I loved Kare Kare and Lumpia, but my mate G was a big fan of Bopis.

Filipino

After that lovely meal we had one of the best karak chai’s i have ever had at Finjan Cafe on the Corniche which was served in a clay pot! It was 4dhs but worth it.

Karak Chai

Our final meal for the day was at the very long titled Zamarod Al Afghani Rice Bukhari Restaurant. There we had mixed grill, mutton curry, lamb kofta, “special” flat bread and hummous. The hummous was freshley made and divine. Reminded me a lot of the lovely hummous we ate in Beirut. After a final cup of tea we left our lovely guests and headed back home. Full but happy.

Afghani

(Thanks to Kangayayaroo for the list of food we ate from her blog post (with the same title)  as I couldn’t recall them off the top of my head :)).

Hitting me with your bag is not a good idea

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I recently returned from a holiday and landed at my local airport. Flying through the corridors and through e-gate I was as normal superfast next to the luggage carousel; then I had to wait.

It was a busy evening due to the end of the Eid Holidays but despite there being some empty carousels, the airport thought it would be wise to unload luggage for two planes at the same carousel. So after waiting for 30 odd minutes, we were suddenly beseeched with Indian passengers from the Indigo flight whose luggage was coming at the same carousel.

As always with Indian people, they don’t understand invasion of space. This young man was a prime example of this. With his dell backpack he stood as close as possible to me, hitting and pushing me with his body and bag several times. I couldn’t move back as there was a man standing close behind me. I wasn’t going to move away from my spot as I had been here for long enough and I was sure my suitcase would come.

After a few hits, the young man’s suitcase came. When it came, I was whacked with the backpack and suitcase. As I cannot seem to control my mouth, I tapped him on his shoulder and quietly said “will you be saying sorry to me for hitting me so many times”.

The man turned around and the following was what was said to me

“I didn’t hit you”

“Yes you did”

“It was my bag that hit you”

“Will you be saying sorry”?

“No, I wont be saying sorry to you, you don’t deserve it” [starts yelling]

“So its fine to hit a woman and not apologise”

“You are not a lady. No one would go out with you as you are so ugly”

At this point another man piped up and asked me what my problem was. I responded to him telling him to mind his own business and was he ok about another man hitting a woman. He shut up.

 “So you are fine with hitting women then”.

“Yes you deserved it”.

(Under my breath I swore – slip of the tongue but very quiet admittedly even for me)

“See you are not a lady, you are a piece of shit and an idiot. I am from Dubai and you cannot talk like that”

“I’m from here as well so fine I will tell the police how you have behaved”.

“The police will do nothing, you deserved it”.

“Wonderful, so its fine to hit a woman like it is to rape women as well isn’t it” (Yeah I said that – not proud, but it shocked him enough to walk away slightly).

I finally gave up.

I didn’t move but during this time I was surrounded by other Indian men just glaring at me.  If you have seen a Bollywood movie you would have seen the mob mentality that prevails when there is an argument or fight going on. Same thing here.

I was worried, but I am too stubborn to move and to allow bad manners to prevail. He hit me. Any gentleman or normal person would have apologized immediately and moved away. He started being defensive, yelling and getting personal.  I am sure that this man and the men surrounding me thought I would shut up after being yelled at, but they didn’t realize I was a mouthy British girl. I was also concerned that no police or security came to help even though he was yelling very loudly at me.

It wasn’t just the men, an old woman decided to slam her trolley into my leg after this argument, and then push me out of the way as well. I had given up by then to say anything. The purposeful way she behaved, showed that she was not amused with me arguing with this man. The general consensus was that it was fine for this man to do what he wanted and get away with it.

No one came to defend me, but the passengers from my plane (mostly Sri Lankans) did not behave in the same manner. It sounds awful but it was all the passengers from Indigo who acted like animals pushing and shoving at the carousel.

I did have a chance to do payback. I decided that going to the police would escalate the situation too much and I didn’t want to wait around; I wanted to go home. So I went up to the customs man and kindly asked him to torture the bloke for a while with his luggage and just generally harass him. I gave him a description of the nasty boy and went on my way. I was reassured they would sort him out. Luckily there was also a CID man nearby who heard me and hope assisted with the harrassment. 🙂

Fortunately for us ladies, the local men generally deplore mistreatment of women so they were not amused by my story of what had happened.

What happened is unfortunately not an unusual occurrence with men from the sub continent. They have this desire to push and shove going into the lift, metro, anywhere. They will not hold the door for you and will be rude to you especially if you are an Indian looking woman. It is a generalization, and there are some men from the sub continent that I have met over the years who are kind, gentlemanly human beings; but the majority that I keep meeting on my travels and here in this town fall into the general category of acting disgracefully.  

I don’t know if their mothers taught them to behave like that, they have learnt it from other men or have just been allowed to behave like this, so they just keep doing it. However they have been brought up, this behaviour has to stop. They cannot get away with bullying, hitting, harassing, and dare I say it, raping, women.

I will always speak up when treated badly but we all need to make a stand against these awful imbeciles.

The trials and tribulations of driving.

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If you live in Dubai and have been on social media you would have most probably seen the uproar regarding the blog article which was published on The National website (http://blogs.thenational.ae/others/my-year-at-the-national/licensed-to-kill-child-ferrari-drivers-headed-for-a-road-near-you).  The author wrote a retracting article today, which didn’t help her cause, but it was worth a try.  I could go on about how stupid the girl is for a) writing such a terrible article and b) admitting her reckless driving to readers publicly; but to be fair she is 22 years old. She is young, she is silly.

The Editor wrote defensive comments on the Motoring Middle East FB page and a note on the original article. What they The National should have done as @mita56 eloquently says in her blog (http://mita56.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/a-harsh-lesson-at-a-very-very-young-age/) mentored the girl and proof read the article before it was published. The newspaper and the Editor threw her to the wolves, and we are horrible ravenous wolves on social media in the UAE.  The newspaper should apologise to this girl for putting her in this situation and to the public for acting so shoddily.  The likelihood of that happening especially the latter part is negligible. Accountability is not a word that is favoured with companies in this side of the world.

As bad as the article is, it has brought up the issue of driving in the UAE (again). Driving here is scary for everyone, even experienced drivers. I have been driving for nearly 20 years but I still get nervous occasionally. I have to explain to visitors that we drive defensively, always watching all mirrors and windows for drivers coming from anywhere and everywhere. People change lanes without indicating, people slow down and even stop in the middle of a busy road as they have realized they have gone the wrong way (favourite sport by Saudi’s – I wont start ranting about their driving), others like driving in the opposite direction to pass traffic. Different emirates have different kind of drivers; Abu Dhabi drivers are arrogant and like driving up to your bumper in the fast lane to push you out of the way, Sharjah drivers like braking suddenly, RAK drivers enjoy being in the fast lane in really old Nissan Sonny’s and not moving (I am generalizing but you get the jist).

The problem here is that we have (nearly) all driven badly here for so long and gotten away with it. We have had to drive badly to accommodate other people and their bad driving which makes it a vicious circle. There does need to be education on how to drive, but the police and RTA also have to stop bad drivers from driving on the road.

A prime example is an awful girl I have had the misfortune to know. She passed her driving test only a few months ago. Within one week of passing her driving test she drove to Ras Al Khamiah – she drove in the opposite direction of the traffic. She didn’t get stopped or fined. The next week she had an accident somewhere in Dubai. Another time, she damaged her hire car twice so badly in one weekend that the police had to drive her home, but they didn’t confiscate her licence. She has gained more fines and points in the few months of passing her test, than I have ever received in my lifetime. The hire car company has given her approximately 3 new cars since she started driving. She then decided she wanted a big car, so she bought a brand new Pajero. Luckily she is that silly that she paid a huge amount to get a “Limited Edition” Pajero; it means we can spot her a mile away and drive away from her.  Considering how many times, the police have been called to deal with her accidents they have not reviewed her file and thought she should lose her licence.

She is one dangerous driver but what about the rest??  Ok driving dangerously is a subjective test but if you receive a certain amount of fines and accidents shouldn’t that tell the RTA/police that they have to step in and remove the person’s right to drive?

As we are ranting about driving here are my pet peeves of driving on a daily basis here:

  1. Not wearing a seatbelt,
  2. Driving without your lights on at night,
  3. Driving with broken lights at night and never fixing them,
  4. Kids not being buckled up in the back,
  5. Kids sitting on parents laps especially drivers laps in the front of the car,
  6. Kids hanging out of the windows,
  7. Kids driving 4×4 (I once saw kids about 11 driving a massive 4×4),
  8. Driving up to the bumper of the car in front,
  9. Driving really slowly in the fast lane,
  10. Driving in all the lanes when the slow lanes are empty – all should drive in the slow lanes and then overtake to the faster ones,
  11. Mini-van drivers driving really badly with loads of people in the car,
  12. Mini-van drivers bursting their tyres every bloody day; do you know we get a heart attack when those tyres burst in front of us,
  13. Not putting your fog lights on when its foggy,
  14. Putting on hazard lights when it’s foggy or rainy. FFS!
  15. Driving slowly in the fast lane whilst talking on the phone. If you want to talk on the phone go to the side and lounge around there for a while,
  16. Not indicating when changing lanes or keeping on the indicator when you are not intending to bloody change lanes.

I could go on but I will control myself for now.

I am very bad at not indicating when I change lanes but do so nowadays cos I know I’m acting terribly by not warning others. I indicate at home so I should do it here as well.

At the end of the day we need to all start changing and hopefully others will follow our lead.

DXB part 2

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So further to my previous blog today, I thought I would write about my second home..Dubai.

After living here for 7 years I still get asked “why did you move here”. My story was one of fate and my living here as been a twisty path. I came here first in 2003 on holiday with my parents. Friends in the UK were perplexed by the decision to come here. No one had really heard of Dubai in England and they thought it was in Saudi. In 2003, the end of Sheikh Zayed was where the Mall of Emirates now stands. I stayed in Al Quasis and Bur Dubai in hotel apartments. I met my tailor at Dreamgirl who has remained our go to tailor since then.

2 years later I looked for a job outside of England, got a job quite quickly working for the airline here in Dubai as a lawyer and moved here. When I came for my interview George Clooney was filming Syriana and staying at the Fairmont. Burj Dubai (as it was then known) was at foundation level and Dubai Marina was full of cranes and not much else. I moved to a huge flat in Bur Dubai and had dramas after dramas for a year and a half. At that time there was no blogging, twitter or facebook. I wrote 2 page essay emails to about 30 friends every week telling them my stories. Some got bored, some were fascinated and some were exasperated by my tales. However all the tales were the reality of the weirdness of Dubai at the time.

I moved back to London in 2006 to study but the hold of Dubai was too much and I moved back in 2007 to work for a shite company that has now disintergrated. At the time of returning Dubai was exponetially blinging itself on a daily basis. If you left Dubai, you would return the following week to find new buildings had sprouted up on Sheikh Zayed Road.

Then there was the crash. Dubai fell hard and I fell even harder. My money was stolen by two theives who ran off to live the life of riley in the Far East and then back in the UK and I was piss poor for a few years. It was kinda good that Dubai was poor as well, we could suffer together and try not to spend too much money.

Now Dubai is rising again like a phoenix and I am now contently happy with my life here. After living in posh Jumeirah for 5 years, I decided that my kitties and I need to move and explore more of Dubai so now we are away from the beach and in the desert in Motor City.

The chavs that ran away in droves in 2008 leaving their cars at the airport are now encouraging their brethern to come here to make the most of the tax free lifestyle. The roads are blocked again, there are queues to get into bars and copious amounts of money are being spent on champagne in dives such as the Cavalli club.

We now have Twitter, et al to keep us in touch more seamlessly with the rest of the world in real time and people now know that Dubai is not in Saudi and that we don’t dress up like ninjas (unless we go to a fancy dress house party).

Life is the same as anywhere in the world, except when you go to the gym you are more likely to park next to a Ferrari than a Ford Focus and that tea shop in Satwa will be packed full of Sheikhs and Sheikhas beeping their horns for some karak chai. My friends and I discuss the merits of pest control companies and whether the gel stuff can be put in places away from our cats preying mouths (a lot of us have pets here), how many maids should you have in your pad to finish in an hour and we also stand on the slopes of Ski Dubai deciding whether we should go to Lebanon or an ex-CIS country for our Winter snowboarding trip.

This country is a transition country and people come and go. Its a melting pot of people especially fuck ups running away from their own country/people (me included). You will be with one group of people and then you will stupidly date someone in that group and boom you will be outcast if it all goes pete tong. Or a girl will have complexes which result in your being outcast for being you. Finding good friends on the same wavelength and in the same relationship status as you is hard. Once you are coupled up, you are generally coupled up and the singletons (normally me) are left stranded. Lonliness is a huge problem here but luckily there is social media to keep you company on your bad days. Also there is now a travel group – Escpae travels – based here which has brought people together who like travelling around and hanging out with other expats (<a href="https://www.facebook.com/EscapeDubai).

https://www.facebook.com/EscapeDubai).</p>

Tolerance is limited despite the various nationalities here and racism is rife.  Being an English East African Indian working in an Indian company is a minefield of issues and judgements which still arise after 3 years of working there. I am vilified by the Indian men (especially the men) for not accepting my background. Considering my grandparents never returned to India once leaving in the early 1900’s and my parents only went once for a holiday, you’d think they would get into their thick head how people can be un-Indian (thats a word for today); but nope the Indians in this country take it as an offence that we would not consider ourselves Indian foremost.

The other minefield is the varoius Arab nationalities in this melting pot. Everyone in this country are now bloody experts in Arabic politics especially since the Arab Spring. We can all sprout an opinion on what is going on in the region and can even tell the nationality of the Arab men in their kundoora depending on the colour of their headscarf. I personally have an affiliation for the Emirati; they look more regal than the Saudis (yuck), Yemeni (not bad), Omani (old skool Mombasa like), Bahraini, Kuwaitis, etc.

Food is abundant from expensive, American chains and dirt cheap indians. If you want to eat any cuisine, it will be here. Bread is always a disappointment for Europeans but the rest is generally amazing. I have been to Nobu twice here but never in the UK and I won’t go to Hakassan as i thought it was shite in London. The best Indian food is not at the chain called “Asha’s” but in Karama or in Bur Dubai. My personal favourites are Gazebo (North Indian) or Ravis (Pakistani). Khaleej Palace Hotel in Deira looks like a dive but has the best Chinese restaurant in my opinion in town, an amazing Japanese resturant and Cafe Entrecote (same as in Dubai Mall) but you can drink in this hotel branch. Dubai Mall and Dubai Festival City have food corridors rather than halls of various good restaurants. However, Dubai Mall has the most shambolic car park system in the world. All Dubaians get pissed off when entering and leaving that place.

Shopping is immense and we get a greater choice as we get all the brands from all over the world. I love Crate and Barrel for furnitues and home stuff, but we also have the stalwart Ikea (bigger than at home) and a shop called The One which is a local enterprise which has really good (slightly overpriced stuff). Clothes shops – we have it all but pay more than back in Europe so most of us will go home a few times of the year with an empty suitcase, fill it up and claim our VAT back. The only shop not here is Primark which is great so we look different from the herd when wearing Primarni in the malls, bars and clubs.

Entertainment is great here. We have bars and clubs (most of the clubs are a disappointment though). The major artists come here or to Abu Dhabi for concerts. I go to Yas Marina island just on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi  to see concerts every few months. Despite being an F1 fan I never saw a live race until it came to Abu Dhabi. I’ve now seen it every year (except the first year). David Guetta is here every week practically which is great for us (not!) and we get to see other artists who I would never have seen back home, such as Bikram Ghosh, a fusion tabla player who I saw last night. He knew how to use those fingers and the young man on the electrical stitar was bloody awesome.Plays and operas are pretty dire here but a good friend went to Muscat, Oman, last weekend to go to the Opera house and gave it a huge thumbs up review. With cheap flights and being an hour away I would be happy going to Muscat to see good opera. Comedy is not bad with an improv group here and also the top ones from the Comedy Club/Edinburgh Festival coming here every month.

I could go on with my guide of Dubai but I’ll stop for now. Our weekend is nearly over (Friday and Saturday is our weekend here) and I gotta get prepared for another long week of working. Also I really don’t want to become like those annoying bloggers who blabber on and on and on.  So for now here is an abrupt end to a new chapter in my writing (until i meet another douchebag).

 

Dxb

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I have come to the conclusion in the last few days that I must write more about Dubai and the UAE, where I have lived for the last 7 years. Things I might think are normal now are not normal in the real world and you should be alerted to the craziness that I’m surrounded by.

The blog has been mostly about men and it must be a dull subject for you now. So starting from today ill be telling you more about what goes on in my normal life here. It’s never dull if I’m honest. 🙂