Etisalat

Recently, Etisalat, the company that runs the internet, phone service, and cable television in the UAE has merged these into one service called e-life. Someone came to our door before summer and asked if we would like to switch to a faster connection which includes phone for cheaper than we were paying. I said that sounded fine and signed up.

Little did I know the trouble that I was in for. I'd like to be clear about this. Apart from the connection sometimes being slow and causing my phone calls to break up. I don't really have any problems with the service. My issue is instead with the phone emails and calls I keep getting from Etisalat asking me if I would like to switch to elife. I've been called about five or six times now and have had a number of phone messages sent to me. Each time I get a call, I tell them that I already have elife and that they should put that in my file so they can stop calling me. It has gotten to the point that if there were another option for the internet, I would cancel my Etisalat service.

Today, they called me at a particularly bad time while I was at my desk and I really let the woman on the phone have it. When I hung up, All of the people in the teachers' work area began clapping. This brought to my attention that not only is everyone else dealing with the same problem, but just how loud I speak when talking on the phone.

Gold

While living in Japan, I found some amazing things available in vending machines. Without going into things in too much detail, I would have to say that Japanese vending machine manufacturers have come as close as possible to perfecting vending machine technology while at the same time fulfilling the human need to have anything a person wants at any time in an instant. However, no matter what Japanese put into a vending machine, they will still have a difficult time beating the world's only gold vending machine. That's right, this is a vending machine that dispenses pure 24-karat gold.

What better souvenir of your stay at the opulent Emirates Palace Hotel than a gold bar. Sure you could buy a certified 4th century BC urn or a limestone engraving dating back to ancient Egyptian times, but who has that kind of money? The gold vending machine has prices to suit your budget with items ranging from gold Canadian or Australian coins to a plain old gold bar. Show you loved ones at home the kind of vacation they missed. As far as I could tell, there is no engraving service that would enable you to get, "My Mom went to Abu Dhabi and all I got is this lousy gold bar," engraved, but I'm sure if you asked nicely, the hotel staff could have it done for you.

Speed Limit

In recent news, Abu Dhabi has decided to raise the speed limits in order "to make roads safer." (To read a more detailed article about it, click here.) While this may seem to be a contradiction in terms, I actually understand the logic. To follow, you have to have a little background information on the driving situation in Abu Dhabi.

To begin, almost every road in Abu Dhabi has a speed limit of 60 kilometers per hour (37.5 miles per hour). Some are pretty wide and it is silly to expect people to drive that slowly on main thoroughfares. Don't worry. No one actually drives that speed, because it has become common knowledge that the speed cameras that monitor speeding are set to snap a picture of your license plate and give you a fine at 20 kph over the speed limit. That means that people all drive 80 kph (50 mph). I go as far as to set the cruise control on my car at 79 kph just to be safe.

All would be fine if that was everything to it. You see, there are also people who just don't care if they get tickets. They know that their cousin or childhood friend or whoever works in the police department will take care of their ticket for them. The rest of us have to wait until we go in to register our cars each year to find out how many tickets we have and pay them before registering our vehicles. The cost is 800 dirhams ($220) per ticket but in most cases, they halve the fines.

Furthermore, the locations of the cameras are also common knowledge. If there are no cameras around, some people tend to go as fast as traffic will allow. They zig-zag through the lanes, riding on the bumpers of cars who can't go any faster due to the other cars directly in front of them.

Due to the differential between people who don't want fines and the others who are in a special hurry, the government will raise the speed limit. For example, this photo taken on the road I drive down on my way to and from work each day (30th Street, Al Khaleej Al Arabi St, or Old Airport Road; all the same road, but three of the names this thoroughfare goes by ) shows the new about-to-be-revealed signs covered in blue plastic. You can't really see from the photo, but the new speed limit will be 80 kph. With the 20 kph added to allow for speed cameras, that means the new speed limit will in essence be 100 kph (62.5 kph). Let's see if this a) gets me to work any faster or b) keeps me safer.

SAD Party

We got in contact with some friends who we haven't talked to since before the summer vacation and they invited us to come along to an event for the Strays of Abu Dhabi (SAD). Even though "SAD Dog Day" was meant for dog owners or for people who are looking to adopt a dog, their son just loves dogs and they thought that going to this would be a good opportunity for him to see people with dogs that he could pet. We went to catch up with our friends and thought our kids would like to see the doggies, too.

SAD is an organization that cares for and finds home for stray dogs in Abu Dhabi. The numbers of dogs that they help each year is growing. In order to help these dogs, they are looking for donations to pay for the expenses and for volunteers to help walk the dogs or to provide foster homes for dogs until they can be placed in permanent homes. If you would like information on how to volunteer, click here or to donate money, click here. In addition you can view profiles of the dogs that are available for adoption here.

It pretty much delivered what we were looking for. The kids got to see the dogs and enjoyed the fun activities like the bouncy castle and face painting. In addition, the money we paid for admission, food, and fun went to support SAD. Of course, we had to explain to our crying daughter why she couldn't have a dog. In that sense it truly was a sad party.

Cancellation

Last year a friend of mine planned trick or treating and a Halloween party in the building. He left Abu Dhabi earlier this year and around mid-October, I realized that the Halloween festivities weren't going to plan themselves. I was able to contact him, get a hold of his old email list, and arrange the trick or treating and Halloween party for tonight.

Unfortunately with the recent death of the Sheikh of Ras Al Khaima, we decided to postpone the trick or treating and party until next week. While some may think it is being over-cautious, it would only take one person to get upset and cause problems. While it causes some inconveniences with re-organizing it, rescheduling Halloween out of respect for the late Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi is the right thing to do.

Mourning Again

Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, the ruler of Ras al Khaima died this morning. He was ninety years old and one of the original rulers of the Emirates when the UAE was first formed. Although I had never heard much about him until today, by all accounts, he was a forward-thinking man who was loved by his people. To read a nice tribute about him, click here.

There will also be varying lengths of mourning, depending on the Emirate. (For the list, see here.) In Ras Al Khaima (RAK as it's gernerally known) where he was the ruler for the past 61 years, will fly flags at half mast for the next 40 days. In addition, government offices will be closed for the next week. It's unclear if the RAK Men's College and RAK Women's College are included in that considering that they are government agencies.

In addition, a number of events including tonight's grand opening of Ferrari World have been postponed until November 4th as a sign of respect. While I think that it is a show of a high level of respect that the highly anticipated opening of a world class amusement park is postponed, I would probably be a bit annoyed were I here in Abu Dhabi specifically for the opening.

Ferrari World Opening

After three years in the making, Ferrari World will be opening this coming week (Click here to read more about it in this article). I know that I've had a few posts about this, but I figure that this is big enough news to warrant a few entries.

Originally, the owners were hoping to open the park before last year's Grand Prix, but realized they were going to fall short of that. Instead, the opening was set for this year and it looks like everything is on schedule.

Some friends of ours went to an invite-only soft opening on Thursday night and had good things to say about the place. Apart from the anticipated long lines, the rides look like they are well thought out and were pretty exciting. One guy who said that roller coasters don't usually scare him said one of the simulation rides really got his heart pumping. The Formula Rossa, the world's fastest roller coaster was said to feel really short and not all that spectacular.

My main point of concern was: is it worth it to bring two young children and the answer was, "no." The cost is 225 dirhams ($61) for people above 150 cm (5 feet) and 165 dirhams ($35) for people below. That's a bit pricey seeing as how not only won't they be able to get on most of the rides, but someone will have to stay back with them.

Another point of concern is my weekly bicycle ride on Fridays. We usually ride around on Yas Island and take a few laps of Ferrari World. It's nice not having to worry about a lot of traffic. With the opening of the park, that might mean more cars. Hopefully, my ride will be early enough that I won't have to deal with that.

To add to the excitement in Wednesday's grand opening, Ferarri World promoters are planning a gala celebration in which they give out the costumes traditionally worn by the fans of Ferrari who follow the races around the world. That's right folks, line up at 6p.m. for the grand opening and you, too can get the red and yellow t-shirts, wigs and flags worn by true fans.

While I won't be fighting the crowds at the grand opening, I'm looking forward to going to the park in the next few months. I have friends from Milwaukee coming to visit in January and know that they will want to ride on the World's fastest roller coaster. It's funny how it usually takes someone coming to visit me to get me to do sightseeing.