Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Emirates ID

Does ID stand for "Idiocy...Definitely" or "Incredibly Daft"? Because the whole process is a mess apparently.

If you have 5 minutes and would like to laugh your pants off, check out Fake Plastic Souk's hilarious post on the Emirates ID saga... Stand-up comedy material I tell ya!

I have yet to experience what many others have been experiencing around me, because my company is trying to get our IDs done all together, as a company. My fingers are crossed that this will, in fact, happen, because I cannot imagine dealing with the frustration of trying to get this done by the end of the year. Imagine the loss in productivity if each of us had to be absent from work for half a day (or a full day)to figure this out... Ridiculous!

My family in Abu Dhabi has experienced the same frustrations as everyone else, trying to fill out the application on the website, queuing in line for endless hours. There is no clear process and there are no clear answers.

I think it's safe to say that the December 31st deadline is simply not realistic. Someone, somewhere, better wake up and smell the coffee and do something about this....

PS: Just as I was finishing up this post, we got an e-mail saying that applying as a company is no longer possible as this service was cancelled. Oh GREAT!

Friday, November 14, 2008

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

....well, Christmas in the Gulf at least!

I've only ever spent the holiday season in the UAE. I've never had a white Christmas. The idea of going to the beach on Christmas day is definitely not a foreign one to me.

I love it when the weather starts cooling down, and there's a nice, almost chilly breeze in the evenings, almost requiring a little jacket or a pashmina...

I love it when you wake up in the morning, and it's a beautifully sunny day, and it's the absolutely perfect temperature for spending the day at the beach.

I love it when you can walk outside without breaking into a sweat (or without you hair frizzing up at the sight of humidity...)

The change of weather also usually means a more relaxed time for me. I tend to take a few days off in December to spend them with some family members that visit from overseas... And it's usually a less hectic time at the office anyway, so I don't mind going into work if I have to.

I love "winter" in the UAE :)