13 hours of sunlight

The days are getting longer over here. The sun rises around 5:45am and sets around 6:45pm. That's 13 hours of hot sun (which is no longer 'sunny' to our standard). A walk across the street from the office to the next building will surely leave you with stinging burning sensations on your exposed neck. The the hassle of getting back to your side of the street on this sprawling 4 lane inner city throughfare. There are not that many 'shady' trees around to lessen the latent heat reflecting up from the fine sandy ground.

Raising cattle on your own place by Charles Sanders Issue #85

Raising cattle on your own place by Charles Sanders Issue #85
With the Eidul Adha at the end of the year, this is the right time to raise a few stocks ourselves. My kid sister has since returned from the Land of Rising Sun with a year worth of practical Japanese agricultural knowledge, me guess she should employ whatever she have learned into working reality.

Skype Journal

Skype Journal
My Daily Dose of Skype info since I am now a regular Skype'r'.

Thursday vs Saturday

It has been quite some time since my last entry. I am having hectic weeks since late March with assignments. Fortunately I am on the roll that kept me busier for long periods and soaking in the new environment. The days has become more regular and funnily looking forwards to every Thursday evenings of the week. I've never felt the same thing with Saturdays before. Knowing full well that the next day (Friday) is to be a rest day. Back home Sundays are actually 'visiting' days instead of rest days. Here, I look forward to a day of body pampering and lounging not forgetting that much needed afternoon sleep. I still have not fixed my Picasa/Hello/Blog glitches. Oh ya, I almost forgot to inform that I bought an A400 Canon DigiCam. I am ready for trigger and shoot session whenever I feel like it. On ly if I managed to fix that glitch

Dubai Financial Center Skyline 

The Skype Bug

We were hit by Skype bug the last few days. And I was kept busy attending to those 'lost souls' longing to get hitch by the latest wave of VIOP technology. The actual fact is that I was introduced to Skype by the collegue here. Noticing how she keep chatting away at any given breaks oblivious to the deppressive surrounding, I enquired about this latest fad. Having registered and familiarised myself with the concept on the spare pc, I went an extra step by boldly 'investing' in the 10EURO credit to avail myself for the VOIP to copperlines experience. Despite the 3 seconds delay (which seemed like laughingly forever) a small price for a piece of virgin technology, I demonstrated the possibility to a few others. Before I knew it I am now 'the Skype guy' around here. Now the rate of Skype credit acquisition by my fellow comrades should put any entry level Zhulian wannabes to shame, the office has transformed into a full pledge ATCs (Air Traffic Control Station) with everybody donning the latest stereo headmic gear chatting away to the loves ones back home far far away. As for me, stuck with a 'loaned' dinosaur P3 Win98 Compaq, I can't help but wish for my time to don the ATC gears whenever an extra pc is available. Mind you I still have 8.47EURO to left to spend.

Another 'weekend' passes by

As usual, I woke up later than usual, nearly 6am. Was thinking of doing a Nasi Lemak breakfast but to my dismay, we ran out of rice. So instead we chowed in ground beef in thick soup. We still had the loaf leftovers. Then we hit the beach, which is about 300 meters. Actually it is a lagoon with a patch of wavebreaker at the mouth that makes the water calm.
The rest of the regular football buddies came trickling down, and 'Errold Flint' were seen dsahing back from his short jogs along the lagoon with a small plastic chair washed ashore. At least now we have a 'sin bin' at the backof the goalmouth. This time around the Newcomers matched the Oldtimers. What with a 'retired' Maradona 'lookalike' ran rampage, the match was nearly a 'Frenc Puskas' massacre.
The rest of the day were dull, but surprises came late in the evening with a rare drizzle. How I miss the 'uncertain' weather back home.

I can't see em too

Dang..... it is a hassle to download and reinstall every single program details on a new (slower machine, unfortunately!!). I thought I had everything covered, and even Bloggerbot acknowledged the connection has succeeded but somewhere in the cyberland, the intended photo failed to appear. I guess Hello has translation argument with BLoggerbot and I got in the middle of their argument. Or maybe the real cause is the old machine I am currently 'borrowing'. Either way, the Burj can't even be seen in the photo if I didn't point it out to you guys. Better luck next time.

ps

to "eddie", hows the armpit back home?

Can you all see The Burj Al Arab in the background? 

What Weekend?

I am in semi confused state of differentiating what and when is the weekend here really mean. Because for the last two 'weekends' here I am having a horrific time management crisis. Really due to the traveling arrangement we are facing where the only real 'time off' we are having are from 9pm to 5am. Therefore we have to complete the 'after hours' daily chores within that time frame and it includes the much needed sleeping. 3 hours daily were spent on the road (who says we are having such a good time here!) and to get by during the day will cost us dearly. However we are lucky to have Carrefour and IKEA technically at our doorsteps. But then again what can you do in such a big shopping mall when only given 30 minutes to spent?

Am I griping already? Well, the living arrangement are shaping up nicely due to our incessant nagging (but a relatively mild one and rightly so). I am volunteering to help out with the new arrivals living arrangement an logistics in order for them not having to endure what we were facing.

We had our first taste of Dubai outdoor activities (besides shopping obviously) in the morning Friday. By 8:30, beach football in the desert sun has become unbearable for most of us by the seaside, nobody dared to test the water yet and by my last count the Newcomers were beaten by the Oldtimers 2 to 4. (Well to be fair, we were still having jetlags).

That was our weekend for now.

ps

Need to spruce up my haggling in Arabic at the wet market. We were virtually slaughtered for that piece of fish.