we are there!

At 11:55 this morning! Ouch.

stop whining or something

Being a South African I am very aware of the fact that we complain a lot, about everything. This is true whether we are still in SA, or living somewhere else. I know this because I personally spent many hours complaining about the SA banks, amongst other things, when living in Johannesburg. Essentially there are 4 main banks that operate in the country, and sometimes it feels a bit like Hobson's choice when deciding between them. However, since moving to Dubai, I have realised the banks back home are FANTASTIC, not to mention rather technologically advanced, when compared with the choices here.

whilst the Stu's away

[Dubai Fountain, taken with my phone]

This weekend was nice but also rather tiring, or maybe I am just getting old (any comments agreeing with that statement will be deleted, you have been warned). On Thursday evening we started with dinner at the Rivington Grill (Souk al Bahar). I decided on this restaurant purely because of it's location, it has a good view of the new Dubai Fountain. And, as it seemed to get a good review overall on Timeout, it seemed like a safe choice. We were taking a visiting friend there with us as well as two of Stu's American colleagues who were in town. As we walked into the Souk we could already see (and hear) the water display through the large window at the end of the passage. It looked amazing!

make your selection..

The Tree of Life, Mesquite tree or Shajarat al-Hayah is one of the unofficial nominees for the "New 7 Wonders of nature" vote.

This tree has apparently survived for 400 years in Bahrain without any known water supply! The story is here and you can vote here. Please do..

All I can say is "Wow!"

image: courtesy of the New7wonders website

to tax or not to tax?

If people are honest, and by people I mean myself as I cannot speak for anyone else, they would admit that the main draw card for living in this region is the fact that it's tax-free. Now of course there are those that will tell you that whilst it may be tax-free there are so many hidden costs, and fees for EVERYTHING, that when living here it can sometimes feel like you ARE paying a kind of tax. I am not sure that I agree with that, well not entirely anyway. Perhaps if you are coming from Europe or the US it may seem this way, but for me, coming from Africa, that part (the paying a fee for everything part) is normal. In South Africa, not only is there a fee for everything, and double it if you want something quickly, but you also pay hefty amounts in tax; both personal and VAT, as well as capital gains tax, estate duty, transfer duty, etc, etc, ad nauseum. For us, then, the fact that the UAE is still a tax-free place was a big plus when making our decision to come here.

different strokes

In my day-to-day life here I do sometimes "forget" that I am living in the Middle East. OK, granted, it's not the easiest thing in the world to get right, what with the dust and heat, especially at this time of year, but when you are busy with living your life there are things you begin to take for granted and you stop noticing them. And this week (weekend at least) I have once again been reminded that the things I may once have taken for granted at home, are neither normal or commonplace in certain parts of the region. I wanted to share with you two (unrelated) stories about Saudi Arabia today.

seriously hot, really, seriously

We attended South Africa Day here in Dubai on Friday last week, the 1st of May, which was to celebrate Freedom Day in South Africa, which was on the 27th April. Last year the location of this was the Mina Seyahi Yacht Club which must have been lovely. In fact it was a very popular event last year, we even read about it in the local paper in Johannesburg at the time. The food and drink were also fully sponsored last year I believe which may account for the crowds, a great deal of whom, I have subsequently learned, were not even South African. But I digress.

[drumming at SA Day]