Bye bye taxi

According to Emirates Today, private taxis in Abu Dhabi will soon be phased out, to be replaced by more "upscale" taxis that are better maintained, and that will also charge around 3 times the fare of the private taxis, if not more.

Call me sentimental, but I feel like this will be the beginning of the end of the old Abu Dhabi I know, the Abu Dhabi of my youth, the Abu Dhabi of my adolescent years. Although I admit that A-D is in dire need of cleaner, less smelly taxis, I cannot help but think that the city will not be the same again without the gold and white cars roaming its streets.

See, for me, taxis meant freedom (back in the days when I lived here and did not have my own car). My father did not allow us to take taxis until we were well into our teenage years. When I was in high school, we looked up to people who were the same age as us, and who were allowed to ride in taxis alone. My first ever parentless taxi-ride was with some high school girlfriends. We would often have fun during those rides, we were excited and somewhat rowdy. I remember one funny occasion when we hailed a taxi, my friend opened the door, and closed it right back. We asked her why she had done that, she said that once she opened the door, she got a whiff of a rather unpleasant smell and decided she did not want to go through that. So we hailed another one.

We could go from one end of the city to the other for less than 5 dhs. We could get a cab practically anywhere and anytime. We could bargain with the taxi driver to let 5 of us squeeze into his car...All this to say, A-D taxis play an integral part of my memories while growing up here.

I am gonna miss seeing those darn taxis.

Eid Mubarak

Today is the first day of Eid al Adha. I vaguely know the story behind Eid Al Adha, but I forgot some of the details, so I decided to read up on it. Here's a brief recap of what I have learned. Although most people here probably know what Eid al Adha is all about, I am sure some of my Canadian friends might be interested in learning more about it as well:

Eid al Adha (which basically means "Celebration of Sacrifice") is celebrated on the 10th day of the last month of the Islamic calendar (Dhul Hijjaj), roughly 70 days after Ramadan. It also marks the end of Hajj, the yearly pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia.

Hajj is the fifth pillar of Islam. All physically fit Muslims who can afford it should conduct Hajj in Mecca at least once in their lives. Almost 2 million people visit Mecca every year for Hajj.

Why is this Eid called a "Celebration of Sacrifice"? It's because it celebrates the occasion when Allah appeared to Ibrahim in a dream, asking him to sacrifice his son Ismail. Ibrahim obeyed, and as he was about to kill his son, Allah appeared again asking him to sacrifice a lamb instead. Which explains why, on the occasion of Eid al Adha, it is customary for Muslims to kill a lamb and share the meat with family, friends, as well as those less fortunate.

Eid Mubarak everyone!

Banking woes

It seems a lot of people did not get their salaries this month because the banks have been closed for about a week or so, between New Year's, Sheikh Maktoum's passing, and the Eid al Adha holidays.

What upset me the most was this quote in 6Days today:

One bank official said last night that there was nothing stopping people withdrawing cash from ATM machines, but said that people whose salaries had not yet been paid into their accounts “should always plan for emergencies.”

Too bad they did not publish that idiot's name. Who is he to tell people to plan for emergencies? Has he ever thought about how the security guard who works in his building, who makes 800 dhs a month, who sends 600 of those dirhams to sustain his family back home, and who lives off 200 dhs for everything from food, to transportation, to clothing, to housing is supposed to plan for emergencies? Or how the poor laborers who are barely able to make ends meet are supposed to plan for emergencies?

Here's another thing that upset me: it seems some banks hold some payrolls for a day or two, invest them into some funds, and make a couple of days' worth of interest before depositing them in the accounts of the employees. So, say my salary gets transferred to the bank on the 1st of December for example, the bank holds it for 2 days, and only deposits my salary into my account on the 3rd of December. Meanwhile, the bank has profited by generating interest in those two days.

I don't know how prevalent this illegal practice is, but something should be done about this. The 2 days delay don't really affect me, but why should banks profit from something that's not really theirs?

Brrr...

Winter had finally landed in the UAE. This morning it was a rather cool 15 degrees as I drove to work. The office was downright frozen because people insist on keeping the damn air conditioning on. Right now, I am sitting in my living room with the balcony window open, and there is a small breeze coming in that's making me feel kind of chilly.

Granted, it's not the bone-chilling minus 20 degrees celsius temperatures we used to get in Montreal, but by UAE standards, this is cold. It's weird when I think that this is what we consider summertime weather in other countries. I wish it could stay this way year-round.

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My pet peeves

• People who are not punctual
• People who spit on the street
• People who do not let me through when I am trying to change lanes or merge into a lane
• People who enter and elevator before you get the chance to get out of it
• People who don't hold the door when you're behind them
• People who do not say "thank you"
• People who are just plain rude
• Body odour
• Going to a restaurant and asking what a dish is made of, and getting "I don't know" as an answer
• Bad customer service
• Stupidity
• Laziness
• Constant complaining and whining
• Spelling mistakes in ads/newspapers/restaurants/brochures
• People who have an attitude without an excuse for having one
• People who hold a grudge
• People who jump ahead rather than wait for their turn in line
• People who like use the word "like" like 3 times in like one sentence

I am sure there are many more but I can't think of any right now. I'll update the list if I think of any more. What are your pet peeves?

Updates:

• People who eat while on the phone
• People who eat with their mouthes open
• People who chew gum with their mouthes open
• People who talk too much and don't give you the chance to get a word across
• People who interrupt you when you're talking
• People who are inconsiderate

Weekends and working hours

When will the UAE finally decide to implement one common weekend for everyone? And common working hours for everyone?

For example:
My weekends are on Friday-Saturday.
My sister's weekends are on Thursday-Friday.
My brother's weekends are a half day on Thursday and all of Friday.
My father's weekends are on Friday only.

It would definitely make sense for everyone to have the same weekend. I once called someone for a work-related matter on a Thursday afternoon, and nearly got my head bitten off because the guy was so upset I called him during his weekend. How was I supposed to know?

And it would also definitely make sense for everyone to have a 2-day weekend! I still don't understand why some companies give their employees just one day off. It's not normal. People need two days off to rest,to go out and to relax.

And how come everybody's working hours are different? I work 9-6 officially (9-extremely late unofficially). My dad works 2 shift days, i.e 9-1 and 4:30-7:30. Some companies start at 8:30 and finish at 5:30. Oil and gas companies start at 7 and finish at 3. I am sure there are other companies with odd timings out there. Can't we all agree on one schedule to make things easier for everyone?

Sheikh Maktoum

This morning we found out about the death of Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai, and brother of Sheikh Mohammad, the man behind the growth and expansion of Dubai. I don't know much about Sheikh Maktoum but it seems he was a very good man who was loved by many. May his soul rest in peace.

He apparently died in Australia, he was 62 years old, and suffered from a heart condition, although it is not clear whether this is the cause of his death. An official mourning period of 40 days has been set, all public sector businesses are closed for 7 days, and all private sector businesses are closed for 3 days. All events that were to take place in Dubai today and in the next week or so have been cancelled or postponed, including the Dubai Shopping Festival, which was supposed to kick off today with some huge firework displays, the Fatboy Slim concert which was taking place tomorrow, and the Dubai Marathon. Global Village has been closed, and all public school examinations have been postponed. Local radio and television stations have interrupted their regular broadcast and have replaced it with readings from the holy Koran. Most of our clients have postponed their campaigns until after Eid, and some have even cancelled events that were set to take place a couple of weeks from now.

Our office was closed today as soon as we heard the news (but most of us stayed till the end of the day anyway) and it is also closed tomorrow. We resume work on Sunday and Monday, then we have our Eid holiday again on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I should have just stayed on vacation!!!

Sheikh Maktoum's funeral is to take place tomorrow (Thursday). For more info about the Sheikh, check the Gulf News website.

I just passed by the Choitram supermarket next to my house and it is as if people are afraid Dubai will be running out of food! The supermarket is so packed! I guess people are stocking up on food because they know they will be stuck at home for the next few days. All shops will be closed, most restaurants as well, no clubs, no music, nothing.

Again, may his soul rest in peace.

Back to work

My holiday is over. Today it was back to the hustle and bustle of Dubai and the long working hours. I still feel like I'm on vacation however, I barely got any work done today. The office is still half-empty anyway, with many people taking extended vacations because of Eid coming up next week.

Speaking of which, we still do not know how many days off we are getting next week. Emirates Today does mention that the public sector is getting six days off in one of its headlines today, but then the article goes on to mention that "all ministries and public institutions will be closed for five days, from Monday, January 9 to Wednesday, January 13 inclusive". Hmm....So is it 6 days or 5 days off? And January 13th is a Friday, not a Wednesday. And if in fact, Friday the 13th is the last day of the Eid holiday, then it means that the public sector is getting either 3 or 4 days off only (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and maybe Thursday if they actually do work on Thursdays, which is not always the case). So which is it? And what I want to know really is how many days is the private sector getting? I just hope that we won't get the 3 days right in the middle of week (i.e. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday), and then have to come back to work on Thursday! That would be just horrible!

Happy New Year!

I promised I'd tell you about our alernative new year's eve plans so here goes:
We ended up on a farm in Sweihan! How did that happen? Well, our friend's mom knows the guy who owns the farm, and knowing he was out of town, she asked if it was OK if we spent our New Year's there. The guy said OK, so we hit the road at around 5PM yesterday.

Sweihan is around 111 km away from Abu Dhabi, and we were excited at the prospect of discovering a new part of the UAE. We arrived at the farm at around 6:30, and my first thought was: "hmm...interesting". The house on the farm was rather old, with a couple of rooms with minimal (old) furniture, another room with a hole in the ground (the bathroom), and I think there might have been some sort of a kitchen, but I did not wish to venture any further. The house did have a nice, outdoor tent (Arabic-style, with cushions on the sand), so we set up some tables right next to the tent.

I believe that you can have fun anywhere, as long as you are with friends, and that was in fact the case yesterday. We were 14 people, we had some good music, some booze, enough food to feed a small army, and an amazing starry sky.

As soon as we rang in the new year, some people started falling asleep in sleeping bags inside the tent (I guess it's a sign that we're getting old when we can't stay awake past midnight!). I managed to stay up till around 3:30AM, then decided to hit the sack even though I was not extremely sleepy. It was very cold, and we were all bundled up in sweaters, windbreakers, socks, and covered up to our noses (my nose was the one thing I could not keep warm last night!).

At 5:30 AM my brother wakes me up (I had managed to doze on and off) telling me that my sister was not feeling too great, she could not stop shivering. So we decide to head home, leaving the others sleeping (a couple of friends were still awake). The thermometer in my brother's car indicated 11 degrees celcius. No wonder we were freezing! We got home at around 6:30 AM, took warm showers and went to bed. I definitely did not get enough sleep, I was up by 12PM!

Overall, it was a nice, different experience. It also made me want to discover more areas in the UAE...I have lived here for almost 15 years now, and I used to come back at least twice a year during my 10 year absence, and we have never really ventured anywhere other than Abu Dhabi and Dubai (I did visit Khor Fakan and Al Ain a long long time ago, I must have been around 8 or 9, but it doesn't count). So hopefully, this year, we'll try to be more adventurous in our travels around the UAE.