Took a Drive with Samantha

Today I drove with Samantha over to the Bur side of Dubai and saw one of our work site locations (Marina Mall) which is under construction. It is a huge mall and a few towers. One of the towers is called Gourmet Tower, it is a building of nothing but restaurants. Each floor is like a different country.

Also I saw the office that is managing the design stage of a project called Oqyana. LINK Hill might not continue on this project because the Client is such a pain in the ass but it is one of the coolest things being built in the world right now. It is the Australia area in The World complex, but as you can see by the link, it is over the top crazy cool.

So that means that I drove down Shiekh Zayed Road. Most of the big buildings line this road on both sides. Half way down on the South side is the Burj Dubai. Traffic was not too bad, it was 9 AM. All the buildings that I have seen on the web and others that I did not know about just came at me one after the other. It made me happy to say the least. I have been waiting to take a drive down this road all week.

All cars in Dubai have an alarm that goes off anytime you go over 120 kph. So a few times Sam’s car just starts to ding like your seat belt is off, it is quit annoying, but after the first time you know what it is so you just talk over it. Sam drives a metallic aqua Mazda RX7.

Again everything and I mean everything is under construction. There are detours all over. The metro is being built from both ends and construction is on all phases as you drive by, it runs parallel to the Zayed. Huge machine that lift and lay in place pre-fab 40 foot concrete slabs.

What I have heard is that I can rent a car for like AED 2000 a month, but it will be a piece is shit. Or I can buy an Audi TT for the same price. I just need to get rid of it later. Once on the open road on that huge highway the driving is not that bad, but there are trucks and maniacs and all the directions are bilingual. Everything is in both English and Arabic. (Like this keyboard)

I made a few friends today. Chris and Rumesh. It is absolutely amazing what happens when you show people some respect. Everyone who eats out with me knows that I engage the service people to get better service. It works in every city I have ever been in. They are both waiters at Uno’s Pizza. They gave me the location of a few bars to hook up with Filipino babes. All the bars and night clubs are in hotels, that is where the booze is sold.

My cell phone is now as cool as it has ever been. Even here it is quit bad ass. I am still the only person I have met with it, I impressed an engineer with it today. I used it to take a picture of a building fire. Ya you read that right. No big deal, it is just a brand new building with burning tire black smoke billowing off the roof. Keep building!!

Also, when you push a button to make a call or check the time it flashes in the corner what zone of Dubai you are in. It does so in a place I have never seen text displaced. At work it says Port Saeed, in the mall, honestly it says City Centre Mall. It knows right where I am. I think the phone towers at that numerous. Everybody has a phone, and almost everyone has there ringer on full blast.

While at the mall the call to prayer was cranked through the PA. It was the first time I heard it. There is simply no way you could not. They were playing a Kenny Rogers Greatest hits album in Uno’s and it went quiet and then came back on.

Yesterday I found Churchill’s Grill, and English pub. I watched the Indian Premier League of Cricket: The Delhi Red Devils vs the Night Riders from some other city. The stadium was full and they were going nuts. K8T to answer your question: I sit at the bar and it was very clean and the bar tender was attentive. Good evening sir etc. I order an Absolute Blue. He said “Single or double?” So I said “double.” With tax and some other surcharge it was AED 56. That is over $15. A Stella was 28. And, to my surprise, there were a few local Emirati in their gowns having a few. I saw one of them play darts with a curvy and juicy blonde British waitress. About 95% expats. Live music at 9 PM.

I finally today realized that I am a badass for this job opportunity I have taken. I had a full discussion interview with a big time PM from Hill and after he realized I had been in the city for just about 4 days and I was deep in the swing of things he was blown away. It felt nice, but I feel it. I am doing 11 hour days. Like 8 to 7 this week and the sleep is short and not deep. Weekend starts tomorrow. That is Thursday night for all you West Coasters.

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This is a sincere request for blog comments. Please.

A big shout out to big sis, lil sis, and [fish] for being return visitors. (Joe even left a link so you can see where I am at on Google Maps.)

As for Nick’s request for photos, I am working on it little man.

I need to go to bed. I will cut and past this in tomorrow.
BrotherBill