How's this for Democracy?

Let's have an election! Would the supreme ruler of each Emirate please select in advance the voters we want in the electoral body?

As our devoted readers (all 6 of you) know - I try to keep the blog light hearted, non-religious and non-political ... after all, I'm just an average mom! - but I have to comment on the latest special report in our 7Days news paper!

So the UAE will have elections coming up, Sept 24 this year. The Federal National Council (FNC) wants to "open up the relationship between state and man" in response to the region going through monumental changes. Who knew??

With the Middle East and North Africa burning in violence around us (as close as Yemen and Bahrain), there are at least a few people in the UAE who have gotten smart and who wish to make sure that the people are part of the process of change. Those few people are now in jail for voicing their opinion...but hey, change is a process!

FNC is a group of Emirati politicians. It was set up in 1972, to "ensure the citizens' interests are fully protected". It was totally unelected until 2006. 40 members make up the FNC; to stand as candidate, you have to be permanent Emirati, 25 years+ and have a clean record. You must also be fit and have adequate knowledge of reading and writing (no primitive symbols in the sand please!!)

The UAE has a population of 948,000 Emiratis. The people who vote for the FNC candidates (70,000 emiratis - up from 6595 in 2006) are chosen by each Emirates' ruler. Wow, I think that's so cool - so Sheikh Mo chooses the 70,000 citizens in advance, who can then vote for FNC candidates, but they can only vote for 50% of the FNC body. The other 50% is chosen by the ruler too! There is no nepotism or bias here at all!

And you know what? Women can vote too! The FNC has yet to announce how big the proportion is...last election in 2006 about 1 in six were women...YIPIEE!

Let's make one more thing clear: The FNC does not make the UAE laws. They 'discuss' laws and then the RULER decides and officially signs them off. Wow, I want to be a ruler! He gets to decide everything! He is the boss, the big kahuna!

Let's summarize: 7% of the total Emirati population, chosen in advance by the ruler (with no insight as to how), will elect 20 of the 40 FNC candidates. Of those 40, 4 or 5 will be women. The elected FNC body will then discuss rules and laws, which will then be passed or rejected by the aforementioned ruler. I think we are witnessing some major progress here and I for one, am proud to be a by-stander as the UAE edges towards greater inclusion of the public in the political progress! Go Mo!!

Homecoming King

People NEVER come through Emirates Terminal 3 in less than 45 minutes. It's a sheer impossibility because the planes have to park 4 miles away in Sharja and then the luggage takes 20 min to load and come down on the belt!

So when Aidan was due to land at 5.25am, we left home at 6.05am to pick him up. Beautiful sunrise and no traffic....at 6.15 we were greeted with a missed call and a voicemail saying: "Hey mom, I'm here and waiting for you at Costa's in the arrival hall" - WHAT????

We ran in and there he was, tall, handsome, grinning from ear to ear - with hair on his head :)

....and very smelly !

Slim pee'ed all over the drive way, all over the floor and all over the bed spread in the guest room, he was so excited to see Aidan again. Guess he hasn't outgrown his "happy pee".

After chatting up a storm, Aric has left for work, Hunter is at school and Aidan and I spent the morning going through his 2 boxes of clothes and stuff. We were able to get rid of so much and consolidated 2 into one box. This will now go via sea freight to the US. No sadness - just realization that he is starting his grown-up life. He skateboarded to Dubai International Academy to pick up Courtney from her exam.

The Ault family is whole again :)

Another Security Risk in the Family

The apple doesn't fall far....in fact it has fallen on my first born. In good old 'Pia style', Aidan has managed to be detained by the Australian Federal Security Police, prior to boarding his flight in Sydney.

Calling me from the plane in Brisbane (and here you ask "didn't she just say Sydney?") - yes but since his original plans were to spend time in New Zealand, until he changed his mind because he was told by Aussies that Kiwis are strange; he still had to follow the ticket and flight plan as issued. So to get home he had to board in Sydney, fly to Auckland, layover, then board flight to Brisbane and from there onto Dubai. He is in route and will land in 12 hours, Tuesday 5.25am.

So, calling me from Brisbane, he told me that he had picked up some used ammunition shells from his shooting lessons on Hamilton Island. Thinking they would be a great souvenir, he stuffed them into his backpack (carry-on). For good measure, the security man also found his Leatherman "a gazillion knives and gadgets in one handy tool" - which Aidan actually thought he had lost, but which showed up nice and clear on the X-ray screen! After a long and serious lecture about the shells, Australia's National Security and upon signing a statement indicating he did not belong to Al Qaeda, they confiscated his shells and the tool and let him board. He then got security checked again in Auckland and in Brisbane....he puts it down to the Adidas hoodie we bought him in Sydney! Yes, that is totally gangsta!!

I'm so proud of that homie! To think that I would be the only Ault to be detained and have her golf shoes disinfected for dangerous sand! One must ensure that the skills, genes and legend are passed on to the next generation! Word it to yo motha!

Miss Ginger has wasted no time. No sooner had she finished her Econ exam today and wupti -a stack of little gifts are neatly placed on top of the guest bed for Aidan to find tomorrow. She is arranging a family brunch, a family evening out to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4 and a family dinner at P.F. Changs - for both the Parrs and the Aults :) Hmmmnnn....I'm being buttered up for something!

I shall worry about this later - for now, nothing can rain on my parade as Aidan comes home after 10 months away!

Animal Update

Minnie is at the Vet; she just didn't handle the afterbirth (or placenta) as a mom should (do they eat it?? who knows?), so needed some help. But little Blackie is being bottle fed and is already jumping around like bambi. He doesn't seem to miss his mom...he probably thinks all the goats there are his mom....it takes a village....

Big Red (or Caramel) has a cute little baby girl, who is soft as silk. I've named her Butterscotch.

I was at my early morning lesson with Lola, horsing around and spent some extra time sitting in the goat pen (amongst sand and funny looking pepples ;-) and I must admit that I could easily become a goat herder! That must be the most stress-free occupation. Not sure it pays the bills though.

George was cheeky this morning...he is practicing his growling, which actually sounds more like a long burp! I could tell he wanted to show me who is boss and it looked like he was trying to run and kick his hind leg, except he hasn't learnt to coordinate all 4 legs at the same time. So it looked more like a side two-step and a skip! As for the other camels....very odd rest positions this morning. We do have bad sand storms at the moment, so perhaps one of them thought that in order to keep the other from blowing away, she'd lay on top!!

As always, a delight to be at the ranch. Tuesday morning Aidan arrives home, so I will have my own herd to attend to. I have a feeling a certain ginger lady will become part of the family this summer! I hope she knows how to cook.

it must be something in the water

Babies, babies and more babies.... I couldn't help chuckle when our operations manager / riding instructor at the Ranch, Mark, burst out: "how can there all of a sudden be two new goats? We knew one was pregnant, but Minnie too???" Minnie is only 1.5 year old and she has been a baaaaad goat! I reminded Mark that we might have missed a billy goat in the castration process...he was so certain we got them all. Well apparently either Minnie got out, roamed miles through the desert to coppulate, or we missed a billy!

Thursday, Caramel (a very mature, flaming red - long haired mama goat) had the most beautiful little kid, all beige and dark grey and soft with long ears. Hard to see on the picture, but the baby is laying inside a V-shaped log. Then yesterday, Minnie was found walking around with after-birth (sorry for the gore) hanging all over her behind, and sure enough, a little black and tan boy kid was stumbling around looking for milk. Minnie has been hand reared herself and she is not fit to be a mom - she's still a kid herself-- I tell you, teenage moms are just such a problem in the desert!! So, Mark and I grabbed her today, held her gently while we put the kid to the tit. Man did he drink! 10 minutes later he laid down in a corner, full belly and very satisfied. Minnie just walked away, no concern for him. We may have to milk her and bottle feed him, because we can't be there 24 hours to make sure he gets to Minnie.

George the camel baby meanwhile is doing great. He is getting out and around more and is sure on his legs. If it sounds like I'm in heaven when I'm at the ranch, it's because it is my sanctuary. Free from all the stress and issues we face at work. Cisco just announced major re-org a week ago and immediately our Emerging Markets theatre has been scrapped. The in-country people are safe but the overlays are not. Then today, it was ll over page 3 in the business section of Gulf News: "Cisco braces for its biggest bout of layoffs in fight for revival"... 4000 people have to go. Many in the US and Canada will be offered early retirement, while the rest of the world will look forward to redundancy packages.

I decided to pre-empt all that and file a case against several people, (to remain un-named like Voldemort). So, Monday I have a chat with Employee Relations about 'he who cannot be named' and we will see where that leads. Headed for the perfect storm, I intend to go down fighting hard! If they cannot find me a meaningful role, maybe they can provide me a meaningful satisfaction! It's not like I have a lot to lose since I will probably be in the jobless line with 3999 other Cisco people soon.

Aidan is coming home on Tuesday - we are all so excited to see him and he will spend the entire summer here before going to Arizona August 1. Since I am now occupying his room with my home office and shoes, I am busy making space in the guest room for our first born.

Things that make you go: Hmmnn

Now that Bin Laden is dead, perhaps Homeland Security could ease up and throttle back their immigration procedures, so I do not get detained for hours every time I visit the US!

On my daily doggie walk around the lake this morning, I met a new worker. He was cleaning the path for paper and was smiling and seemed content as he greeted Slim and I. Usually the workers are silent, in their own world, as they pick up other people's garbage, but this guy was as happy go lucky as they come. He told me it was his first day in Dubai and his first day on the job! WOW! My first day in Dubai was spent with medical lab tests, document certification and trying to find housing. He is from Bangladesh and I suppose picking up a few littered pieces of paper in the Lakes area, beats picking up garbage in Dhaka, with a population of 12 Mill - the 9th largest city in the world. Here, he has a whole lake to himself, aside from the odd dog walker or baby stroller.

Further on the path I ran into Rashi, a Sri Lankan house boy in the next cul de sac over. He usually walks Ollie, a giant Rottweiler with a mouth that can swallow Slim in one piece. Ollie is 8 yrs old and usually shy, until Slim stands on his hindlegs and wraps his front legs around Ollie's head. Then the playing begins. Ollie's one paw can fit Slim's 4 paws in it. Slim is not intimidated though. This morning, Rashi was alone on his way to his employer's home. Ollie had drank a bucket of water last night and his stomach was swollen to 3 times its size - off to the vet they went at midnite. He has now been cut open and diagnosed with an intestinal mess (Paralytic Ileus to be precise). Poor Ollie!

Warning: Contents may be hot! On my way to the Ranch Saturday, I had an urge for a large cappuchino. Headed into the gas station on the way and got myself a steaming hot cup. Put in on the center console and buckled up - drove out onto the exit lane and veered into traffic...only to veer right out of traffic and nearly ended up in the desert, as the entire cup slammed into my hip, down behind my back and all content spilled down around my bum. Trying to drive and raise my a** out of the seat while screaming bloody murder, I accidentally pushed my foot down on the accellerator and not the brake. I finally came to a pretty decent stop on the shoulder 100 metres down and pulled my pants down so quick you would think someone offered me a 1000 bucks! Holy S*** it burned...no, it SCOLDED actually. There I was, with coffee soaked pants down around my knees and a scolded bum in a hot leather seat, with 5 miles to go for a commitment to lead 12 Geckos on a desert ride! To make a long and painful story short - I drove on to the Ranch, got Carrie, the manager, to bring sweat pants and underwear for me and I dove into the first aid kit to get the burn gel, so I could ease the searing pain. Large blisters have formed in the most inconvenient places! All the Geckos (kids 6-9 yrs) thought it was hilarious that Miss Pia couldn't sit on a horse! Despite exhaustive cleaning and several odor relief procucts sprayed and applied, my car still smells like an Italian Cafe. Ciao Bella!

N_K_D Pizza is too raunchy to spell out their name! They launched the first Naked Pizza in the Dubai Marina a few months ago - but it was apparently too obscene for the general Emirati population (no, the pizza makers are not naked - the pizza is so natural and organic that it is naked...) so the only legal name was NKD. Hunter applied for a job and he got it! He works Tuesdays and Thursdays taking phone orders and will likely move up to deputy dough mixer soon...He says the job is easy and he's the only one who speaks decent English. Should be a piece of cak...uhm pizza!

Lola only has one gear! I've signed a one-year lease (with right to own) on a horse named LOLA. The Ranch has about 16 gifted horses - not speaking about their IQ - they can't speak and do circus tricks - they were gifted to the ranch from people who rescued them from poor environments; ex Polo or Endurance sports; general abuse by local owners who thinks a horse doesn't need feeding or care ("can't it just take care of itself like a cow or a goat??") - and most of them were in very deteriorated condition when they reached the Ranch. With great care and daily exercise and training, most of them are thriving and are now ready for livery or lease. I can't commit every day so owning is not possible at this point, but I get 2 days a week with Lola and we take a desert hike for 40 min in the early morning, plus some school work in the arena when she needs her dressage honed. She's a grey 10-year old Anglo-Arabian, and a right brain extrovert! This morning she only had one gear and that was "GO", from walking to gallop in 1.5 seconds. I think I was more sweaty than her after the ride. At 34 C in the desert (30 C with the windchill factor :) we did have a great hack and I'm sure as she learns that I'm the boss, she will calm down and become a dream!

Time Out Dubai

I know, I know...it's been two long months since we posted our sandbox updates.

I could tell all you loyal readers (all 7 of you) that Slim ate my laptop, or I that I've been working on a serious project in Lagos. Truth is, I was unexpectedly removed me from my role as Strategy & Business Development Director for Africa, because the new vice president (aka General A**hole) wants a high profile consultant from one of the big name firms (McKinsey, Bain, Booz or what have you) and I don't have that particular background. So, instead of acting responsibly, professionally, tactful, adult, mature, with dignity, pragmatically or even decent, they just took me out and stuck their heads in the sand, hoping I would applaud their actions. Am I bitter? Not at all!

I've punched the bag in the gym a little harder, imagining it was a certain VP; I've been angry and yelled and scratched my head in confusion - now through the entire spectrum of emotions I realize, it remains a situation outside of my control and after 12 weeks, at full salary, I calmly work on perfecting my golf swing.

HR tells me that my managers must find me a suitable position equal to or better than the one I had. Great, the burden is on their shoulders but that's not an easy task, when Cisco has frozen all internal headcount requisitions and stopped moving people around. They also just announced they are exiting various businesses, doing away with 550 people and there is probably more to come. It could be next quarter or even next fiscal year (August) before a suitable role surfaces. Always the proactive super woman, I've looked for several jobs already and have found a few that I would be very passionate about. Question is whether Cisco would be passionate about me, in those roles! So until something is finalized, I continue to work on my swing, which by now puts the ball a wicked 190 yards out!

Just as well we went to Australia - I should have stayed there and surfed with Aidan. We had such a fantastic trip. As for the money? We let it flow - nothing else you can do when the economy is so strong and the US dollar is divebombed daily against the Aus dollar. So we tasted a lot of wine, some more wine and then some wine. We walked about Sydney for 4 days, then headed north to Hunter Valley for golf and wine tours; after 3 days we were ready for the beach. Off to Nelson Bay, yet further north. A few weeks prior to our trip I read in the news that a local woman had been attacked by a shark while wakeboarding. It made us eager to go diving in the same bay! The dive crew knew the woman - she worked in the Marina. It was a freak thing, wakeboarding sounds and looks to a shark like a seal splashing along on the surface. She unfortunately fell at the wrong moment and in the wrong spot - into a school of bait fish. The shark came from beneath her and took her nearly four meters out of the water. She was extremely lucky - it let her go and she suffered injuries to her neck and shoulder, barely missing the jugular vein.

Of course this was all told to us while we were on the dive boat, fighting 10 foot swells and wondering just how bad we really wanted to dive in Australia! During our dive orientation, which always happens right before you jump overboard, our dive master told us we would be going down the anchor line, along the wall and then holding steady on the outside of the school of baitfish which swim around the reef. Let me emphasize - OUTSIDE the school of baitfish....

We descend slowly. I'm struggling with my buyancy and the strong current and manage to just miss putting my bum on a sea urchin because Aidan pushed me away in time. Chaos - Hunter is floating around IN THE SCHOOL of baitfish wondering when he will see the sharks, when suddenly...there is a huge dark shadow, the outline of a Great White though it was "just" a Grey Nurse Shark (also called ragged tooth shark!! You see why!!) slowly gliding, slightly above us and inside the school of fish, glaring uninterestingly at us. We pulled Hunter in closer and managed to keep still in the crevasse while another two sharks glided by. What a moment! I totally forgot to be scared. Here was a giant 10 foot shark, which could easily ravage me in an instant and yet it just paraded by, like I was part of the reef. The dive was over before we knew it - 40 minutes of airsucking exercise with the family.

Aidan and Hunter did not do the 2nd dive, both suffered from sinus congestion and I think Hunter was cold. But Aric and I joined the small group for another unigue experience. This time a bit shallower, we saw hundreds of fish including a Cuddle Fish, which came out of its cave and wrapped itself around our dive master's gauges. Unreal to see this up close. Once it started following me and wanting to wrap itself around I don't know what, I was less amused. The pictures are not from us but Google; however you get the gist of the beasts we encountered.

It was one of the most fantastic dives I've ever done, and we have done quite a few! After a few days in Nelson Bay, we headed back down to the Blue Mountains. We hiked the long trail around and enjoyed nature in its rawest form. Waterfalls spilled over the rocks down hundreds of feet. Rainforest like trees shaded and cooled us. A gazillion different birds greeted us with their squeeks and songs. At night, we had great dinners at the artsy restaurants with BYO (bring your own) wine and jazz/swing singers for entertainment. Alas we started our return to Sydney and had a great walk around the market place and harbor, before taking Aidan to Bondi Beach. He wanted to look for a job there for the last 6 weeks before returning to Dubai. We sat down for a drink at a small bar next to his hostel. We met some super people, whom Aidan still sees on his way to the waves. As for the job, I think that has lower priority than his surfing. We cannot wait to see him May 17th. He is enjoying his last few weeks. Thursday is his 19th birthday and we will celebrate with a good Australian wine on his behalf until he comes home!