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.