Puppy Love

The handset of the landline phone has been missing for a week. It's not that we use the phone much; nobody ever calls us. But it's still annoying to see an empty base and charger and the one time I need to use the phone I have to search the entire apartment. It finally had to come down to a family meeting for us to solve the mystery of the missing handset. Aric usually misplaces keys, glasses, mobile phone, wallet...nothing out of the ordinary "lost man things", but this was different! To misplace a handset for a week is not normal. Even the "pager button" on the base did not reveal the location with a beeping sound. I was beginning to think that Slim had chewed it up or it accidentally fell 19 stories to its phone death.

A red-faced and embarrassed Hunter confessed at last that the phone was in his room, swallowed up by the duvet in his bed. For a week!!?? Turns out he has had late night conversations with his girlfriend - for hours and hours. What on earth can they possibly talk about for hours, late at night, when they see eachother for 8 hours in school? I've been trying to turn back time (about twenty some years or so ;-) to when I was 15 and "in love" and I do not remember being on the phone for hours. In fact I don't even think we had a phone with a separate handset in 1980, which means that I would have had to sit in our living room, next to the phone with a spiral cord - only about 50cm long and that would have been so uncool in front of my mom.

6 months ago Hunter didn't recognize the female race and now he cannot separate himself from the phone and Chelsea, who is from Korea and stunning! He told me he is saving up every Dirham of his weekly allowance in order to take Chelsea out for Valentine's Day - they have plans to dress up and go to an Italian restaurant. Sounds like serious puppy love to me. And potentially expensive phone bills.

Zuma Sake

We met Samara in what we thought was a furniture store but turned out to be an art gallery, which on this day was the launch place of Samara's new fashion company. Unable to find a bed and coffee table, I came home with a designer dress!

Weeks later, Samara invited us to her After New Years Soiree with champagne and canappes, a fancy word for appetizers. That night, we talked to guy about what to do in Dubai with kids, for 45 minutes before figuring out who he is - I could tell Aric was wrecking his brain where he had seen him (even thinking he was a customer of his!) and after using up his 3 life lines, realized it was Gary Lineker. For UK blog followers - you know who he is; for US readers with limited world sports knowledge (except for Mark Parker the sport encyclopedia) - Gary is a famous retired football (soccer) striker and former England Team Captain, now doing what would be "Monday night NFL Football" broadcast commentary....the Harry Carey of UK.

I was ofcourse oblivious to who the heck he was; if he isn't in People magazine on a regular basis, he doesn't appear on my star gazer radar. Where am I going with all this? Gary told us he had just been at Zuma's for dinner. Apparently a world class Japanese cuisine and fusion experience. They opened their flagship place in London 7 years ago and leave it to Aric and I to live there for 5 years without ever having heard about it! Well, better late than never, so I made reservations for Aric's birthday and we headed to Zuma for dinner last night.

We had to agree with Gary, it was not only fantastic food but the service was over the moon (for a change here). We had not one sommelier but two! One for wine and one for sake. I didn't know you could be a sommelier for sake. My experience with sake has been less than pleasant, more like swallowing warm distilled moonshine and waking up with jack hammers in my head. Turns out I may never have had the actual pleasure of being served REAL sake, which is fermented rice wine, but rather sake's sister-poison Scochu, also rice wine but has been distilled.

The sake sommelier spent a lot of time with us. I think she believed she could turn us into customers for life by keeping the glasses in front of us filled with varieties of the clear elixir. We came away with a much better understanding of sake, a light buzz and no jack hammers woke me up this morning. For starters, it was not served warm. We could also clearly taste the different nuances in the sake, with hints of nuts, fruit and liquorice (so I was told). I think she outdid the South African wine sommelier, though he did produce a superb Sauvignon Blanc which brought out the taste of my scallop! I'm sure without that glass of wine I would not have tasted the fresh seawater it came from!

For future sake connoisseurs there are three types of "special designation sake". Don't try the "non-designated" - not sure why but the sheer label sounds like the non-important, waste of time, table wine version of sake. Go with Honjōzō-shu, Junmai-shu and Ginjō-shu and you are sure to have a fantastic sake experience like we did.

A Pirate Looks at 45

_________________________

Time on the Water

We sailed from the port of indecision

Young and wild with oh so much to learn

The days turned into years

as we tried to fool our fears

but to the port of indecision I returned.

A true Parrot head, I find myself quoting Jimmy Buffett again, as Aric approaches his mid-life stage [with no crisis in sight]. Like a true Jimmy Buffett journey, I am reminded of how far Aric and I have come in our marriage and life together.

“I broke out of the grip of Catholicism and made it through adolescence without killing myself in a car. I flunked out of college. I learned to play the guitar, lived on the beach, lived in the French Quarter, finally got laid, and didn't go to Vietnam. I got back into school, started a band, got a job on Bourbon Street, graduated from college, flunked my draft physical, broke up my band, and went out on the road solo. I signed a record deal, got married, moved to Nashville, had my guitars stolen, bought a Mercedes, worked at Billboard magazine, put out my first album, went broke…. wrecked the Mercedes, got divorced, and moved to Key West. I sang and worked on a fishing boat, went totally crazy, did a lot of dope, met the right girl, made another record, had a hit, bought a boat, and sailed away to the Caribbean.

~ Jimmy Buffett, “A Pirate Looks at Fifty”.

So starts the adventure of Aric’s next stage of manhood – not with getting divorced (thank God) or breaking any more bones (yet) - but with the arrival of his new and long awaited “mid-life celebration”. No, it’s not a red Viper, but rather a Viper red Mastercraft X80 ski boat. 28.5 foot - twin inboard 750 HP engines (insert loud pirate roar here).

It missed the scheduled cargo ship departure in Los Angeles port with an ETA of today, so unfortunately he won’t have it for his birthday. The boat is now scheduled to arrive February 2. That works out well because we need the extra time to get through the whole Dubai document shuffle.

This takes the record for approvals. It’s one thing to get a good deal on a boat in California – and another altogether to get the darn thing in to Dubai and registered properly. Every official state and municipal government agency on this and the other side of the world has been involved. The sheer number of documents has wiped out another acre of the rain forest.

Then of course there are the stamps. One from the UAE Chamber of Commerce in Los Angeles on the invoice and title; one from the Dubai Free Zone on the “no-objection” letter Aric had to have (by the way, the Sheikh does not object to us bringing a boat in – most likely because it is no competition to his 100 foot yacht already parked in the Marina); then approval of the Chamber of Commerce stamp, by the US consulate in Dubai, followed by a stamp to approve that stamp, from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. For good measure, let’s throw in a stamp from the Dubai Embassy in Washington DC.

Once those stamps are secured, we can take all the documents to the Coast Guard here and get another stamp to get the boat officially registered; along with a small unknown sum (?) in import duty. We figure we will be ready to set sail and wakeboard sometime in March! A pirate without his vessel is like a fish out of water and I watch Aric grow more and more restless the more red tape we encounter. We all look forward to weekends on the new toy, which comes equipped with wakeboards, vests, skis and assorted accessories which the dealer could hide onboard.

Happy Birthday Aric!!

AC Milan match pics - delayed

Open wide - and rinse, please!

Medical science and technology is getting more and more advanced. It's hard to keep up with progress. In my obsessive-compulsive planning and organization of our move from England to Dubai, even with all the fancy Excel spreadsheets I made to remember all the "must do before...." - somehow the "must have teeth cleaned before moving" slipped off the radar.

Enduring the high pitched whine of the cleaning drill and the poking around with a sharp steel instrument is not the kind of adventure I seek often. Mind you, I do my 6 month visits dilligently so I can avoid dentures at 50, but in the moving nightmare, finding a dentist and making an appointment was not a priority, yet.

Last week I did make an appointment and got Kate- the best hygenist, so I had been told by the Danish receptionist (she pointed out that she too was Danish, after reading my registration records) quite nosy if you ask me! The dentist office is a regular UN with international staff!

Tuesday afternoon I settled into the chair - the kind that always makes you feel like you slide down backwards and all the blood collects in your head! All seemed normal up to that point. Kate yapped away in her Polish accent, behind her facemask, and stuffed mirrors and sucking tubes into my mouth. When she got to the polishing part, I got alarmed because the sound was not that of a dull, slow-moving drillbit, nor was the taste of the toothpaste minty! More like Vanilla-Honeysuckle !! She put safety glasses on my face - that was when my heart started beating faster. Why would I need safety glasses? What could possibly fly out of my mouth that would end up in my eyes? Kate patiently explained that they now use a super high powered water jet to cleanse and polish the teeth and get stains off. "It tends to get water everywhere", she said. Images of something resembling Aric's industrial power washer and a jack hammer entered my mind but I faithfully closed my eyes since Kate assured there would be no pain: "It will just feel a bit cold".

10 seconds later she peeled me off the ceiling! A bit cold!!?? Biting into tin-foil would have given me pleasure in comparison! Thank God this ordeal only happens every 6 months. I can do without new technologically advanced dental equioment in the future. After paying the equivalent to $100 (gas may be cheap here but doctors aren't!) I drove home with teeth shining like something out of a Colgate commercial. All said and done I suppose it isn't worse than childbirth.

Crisis! What Crisis??

Interest rates at record lows. Personal bankrupcies at all time high. Unemployment, job losses, "no business" means "out-of-business". Home foreclosures. Consumer spending halted.
I'm not sure what the problem is!? In this country, Arab women are coming out of the malls with several bags in each hand and more in their maid's hand! It's all smiles and cheer and if you didn't know better, you would think that somehow overnight, Dubai turned into Shangri La. Maybe the real issue is that many citizens here are burying their heads in the sandbox, hoping reality will bypass them.

With Dubai Shopping Festival on just around the corner, I look forward to see how many people actually show up to take advantage of the 25-70 % discount deals. This event started in 1996 by the Sheikh and is normally a month-long shopping celebration, aimed at attracting tourists with tax free buying. This year the retailers have been asked to pony up several thousand Dirhams to participate in the festival and they aren't happy - as we all know tourism is down. Hotels are advertising half-off room rates and visitors just aren't flying in like they did in previous years.

The newspapers are writing articles about young Emiratis are buying cars, jewelry, clothes and electronics more than ever. Somehow it doesn't add up. Perhaps the papers are lying (no surprise there). Perhaps the youth is unaware that their very existence and economy is based on oil which is running out - and tourism which is dwindling - or perhaps their parents forgot to tell them the allowance has been turned down slightly due to Global Financial Meltdown? Whatever the case - you aren't seeing expats out jazzing around the malls buying bling-bling. They are busy packing what few items they can bring with them, now that many jobs have been cut and contracts are ending. When people here lose their job, the residence visa is cancelled and they have 30 days to vacate the country. Many are walking away from a home and debt. I would expect headlines to reflect doom and gloom but in fact, here is how Dubai deals with the crisis: The planned project to build the world's tallest building (one kilometer tall) has been stalled (and may end up a few stories shorter, who knows?). The planned 74 km long Arabian Creek with properties along it, has been reduced to 7.4 km "Let's just move the comma and change the decimals...surely no-one will notice".

We feel very fortunate to have our jobs and it looks as if that will continue to be a sure thing for some time. But we cannot help but feel the despair when we chase things for our home at garage sales. The families who have items for sale typically aren't leaving of their own free will. They share the bad news with us and we haul their unwanted belongings such as plants away to the car. I'm not sure this financial crisis has hit home yet among many of the local Emirates residents. This author found some fun time away in UK last weekend. Took a break from the despair, with horsing around - despite the minus 3 degrees and enjoyed a Thai dinner with the stable girls, plus got the chance to see lots of good friends (Donna: I know you are reading this! - Tell Alyson it was an Oscar winning spread of a lunch!!) We have to keep our good sense of humor and remember to smell the roses (and horse manure)!

Stay between the lines!

I'm delighted to be allowed out of the sandbox yet again! Back in England for a few days on business. It's such a treat to drive on the left side of the road again, I only went up a street on the wrong side once, so far, but fortunately there was nobody coming against me. You can't get too complacent, it's nice to be jerked to attention when driving. How I also enjoy the fact that people are driving in between the lines here and not on them! And the British are so polite and know excactly how and where to place themselves going in to a round-about, plus they indicate and signal where they intend to get off. I think Aric and I are starting to drive like the Pakistani and Indian taxi drivers in Dubai - when in Rome.... so it is good for me to come back to civilization and a set of good traffic rules!

Before leaving on my trip, Aric and I were given free tickets from a friend to see AC Milan (and David Beckham) vs. Hamburg play in Dubai at the new "Rugby Sevens" stadium, well more like Scaffoldium! The entire stadium is still scaffold and temporary! 20 minutes into first half, the food ran out - people were fighting over chips! I think Dubai could learn a thing or two from UK and US in terms of big sports events. I felt I was back at Hunter's Sunday mini-league soccer game where we sat on makeshift camping chairs drinking hot chocolate to keep warm. The game - and Beckham - was not too exciting, so people found more fun in doing the wave...about 23 times around the entire stadium. It was the funniest thing I have seen. Even the VIP seating with the Sheikhs got up with raised arms. I have lots of photos but have to wait until I get back to Dubai to load them. None of Posh Spice/Victoria Beckham - I think she was busy mingling with the footballer wives from Italy.

My feet have been in flip-flops for 8 months, so trying to squeeze them into winter boots, let alone socks, was a disaster and they really protested. Since landing in the UK, I have been shivering due to the 20 degree C difference in temps. But somehow it feels good to be back in the cold and I get plenty of it this weekend when I go horse riding with my girlfriends.

104.10 WDIE FM

At first, I wanted to strangle the boys for changing my radio station settings - again! I hit every button only managing to get classical funeral muzak from all the radion stations in Dubai. Aric and I were in the car with our morning coffee, on our way to a garage sale - now that many expats are blowing Dodge because of layoffs or contract terminations we are finding treasures for the apartment at bargain prices - but the usual upbeat pop music was missing. Darn kids pulling a prank on me!!
We didn't put two and two together from the news the night before that one of the Sheikhs had died. But listening to hours and hours, days upon days of "Prelude to Death" was not what we expected. Despite the high caffeine octane we were dozing off from these drab tunes!

Turns out the ruler of Umm al-Quwain, the smallest of the seven emirates, died on Friday in London. No further explanation. It was all a bit mysterious and the government is always very private and short on elaboration here. So we speculated what he might have died of, as you do when you are left with no info and too much imagination, (like maybe he was with his mistress and had a heart attack?) It doesn't really matter I suppose. I'm sure it was old age - he looked like a droopy old bulldog (no offense to our newly acquired Slim).
The result was that the Sheikh of Dubai and the other rulers of UAE decided to highjack the airwaves, stick endless loops of classical suicidal music on 24/7 and declare a 4-day mourning period where all government institutions closed. It took another 24 hours, countless of emails to friends and colleagues and more speculation, before we knew whether our school was closed. Turns out (via email at 12.01am which I checked at 6.20am) that the kids were indeed off and that we could have slept in on Sunday.

Oh how I love the efficiency and organized, straight forward "let's keep our citizens informed" mentality here. Flags are still flying at half mast and the government is now 4 days behind in their business....what further setbacks and spoiled parties will we experience because the Sheikh is in a foul mood from investments and fortunes dwindling? Nothing better stop us from going to the AC Milan match tomorrow evening to see David Beckham and the boys play! More on that in the next blog.

Waking up on the wrong side of the bed!

It feels like any other [Western] democracy with free speech, high tolerance and somewhat laxed rules. Until Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the ruler of Dubai, wakes up on the wrong side of his bed and decides to cancel all New Year celebrations! 8 am and we're enjoying a nice breakfast when Radio 2 announces that all public events and fireworks are off, in solidarity and sympathy of Palestine, just bombed by Israel. That's sort of when you realize that we live in the Arab world of dictatorship, however benign it may appear.

By 11 am the ban was extended to all hotels and night clubs. Every major hotel and spa had arranged New Year dinner packages for minimum 500 dirhams per person - so we were happy that we didn't buy into one of those but instead had plans to go to the Maartensen Palm Jumeirah home for dinner and drinks. Poor Tomkat and Beckhams, who were all in for the giant Atlantis hotel bash....sticking Victoria's parents in his Palm home on frond K, villa number...well I better not publish which number in case the paparazzi show up; while he and the Mrs frolicked around with Tom and Katie in the quiet and foggy night! Must have been sheer disappointment! We did invite them to the party on frond O, but they must have gotten lost in the palm tree layout.

All hotel management had emergency meetings by 4pm and there were talks of court petitions - but I'm pretty sure the Sheikh rules the courts too so there was no rescue in sight. When the clock struck twelve midnight I think it was only the Maartensens and their guests who could be heard through Dubai, singing Irish, Swedish, Scottish and Australian bar songs. It was quite an international gathering and we had a blast (and a tad too much champagne)!

Arriving back at the penthouse around 2.30am we discovered that we had new neighbors, if just for one night. A couple of guys had rented the penthouse next door for 2 days to host a cocktail party and it was in full swing when we decided to introduce ourselves. Should have said stop after the champagne...but nooo! 4 am we literally rolled into our penthouse and I didn't get out of bed until this morning (where did January 1st go??) after hugging a certain porcelain unit for several hours. Brutal but fun New Years celebration topped only by the relaxing today at the roof top pool. We are still enjoying 85 F and sunny days.

Many people here feel terrible about the raids in Palestine but somehow I doubt the somber and rather impromptu decision by the Sheikh had any effect among the expatriate community, which out-number the local Emiraties by three at least. We just made our own private parties and tried for a few hours to forget we live in a restricted climate which normally is not that irrational.

From Russia with love

Weighing in at whopping 14 lbs 10 oz; 52 cm long, he is a very healthy and hairy boy with a bark where his mouth is! He sleeps through the night already at 6 months. He was born in Russia but is of French heritage and now lives with us in Dubai. There was no labor involved. He did not arrive with the stork. Santa brought him. Slim is his name and naughty is his game! My furry Christmas present is a cuddly French bulldog with big spotty bat ears. The Christmas dinner was delayed a few hours while we went to pick him up from the pet shop and man was he happy to get the heck out of that place with all the yapping going on!

We were not going to get another dog after Blaze died in 2006 – especially since we now live in a penthouse. But Slim is a perfect apartment dog and the roof terrace is a perfect hangout spot for us and him. Luckily he is top heavy and can’t jump very high so no danger of him going over the 7 foot walls. We were told bulldogs aren’t good swimmers. All of the Ault pets have been water animals – Slim is no exception as we discovered after throwing him in the deep end of the pool. He managed to swim to the stairs with no effort! As with any new baby come all the accessories. We bought him a nice lime green dog bed which he promptly proceeded to pee on. He is teething and would rather chew on shoe laces than his rawhide bones. Raising and potty training two boys several years ago, I forgot how patient and motivating you have to be; it took Aidan and Hunter nearly 3 years so expecting the dog to know where to go and not go, in a week, is probably too optimistic but we are getting there.

Can’t say that this Christmas was a big event with lots of presents. It has been a busy time just getting settled in our apartment and we didn’t really decorate or make a big deal out of the season. However, we had the spirit and were determent to make it “home where the heart is”. We threw a few steaks on the grill, made double baked potatoes, said cheers with some good wine we got in a undercover booze run to Al Sharja and settled on the couch with Slim and watched Mamma Mia.

Aidan got his skate board and Hunter his snow board so all was OK in that camp. Aric wanted and got new binoculars so he can spy on the neighbors. He says it’s for looking at all the boats going in an out of the marina – yeah right! I find it amazing to see how other people furnish their apartments. The “I-Spy” game took it all out of Aric…he ended up passing out with the dog! What a super Christmas, wouldn’t have wanted it any other way here in the sandbox!