Walahi habibi, yalla, yallah!

So after a solid break it seems an appropriate time to pick-up blogging again.

Yes, I am still here in Dubai where the sun always shines, soldiering on in the City of Life. The above constituting approximately half of my Arabic vocabulary meaning Something like “Right, Darling, let’s go, come on”. So I will make an effort to get on with it, see if once again I can make blog become a kind of diary, a way to sort-out my thoughts and get my writing skills brushed-off. It’s so easy not to use them properly on an everyday basis in this country. There are so many other things to do, loads of distractions and hundreds of procrastinations that at times seem to lure me into neglecting writing. Distractions, like the idiot on the street outside the barrier to our covered parking area beeping away to make the security guard come out and open it. Too lazy to get out of his car and walk into reception to get the guard’s attention. Instead he is using the horn, which must be annoying everybody in the nearby buildings. But this is normal here. It’s all about me-me-me – the rest of the lot can go elf themselves. I want what I want and I want it now! It pisses me off all the time, but what to do about it, yani? It is definitely part of culture here. Even the taxi drivers are constantly beeping away when they pass you on the street to make you aware of their presence convinced that a middle-aged European male walking the limited pavements slash sand pits in Tecom must be in desperate need for a lift. “Hunk if you’re horny, habibi!” Not!

We have moved to Tecom, a very nice area near The Greens and opposite Internet City and Knowledge Village with one of the true landmarks of Dubai, the Al Kazim twin towers just across Sheikh Zayed Road, build to resemble the Crysler Building in New York City (only there are two of them). Location-wise it is perfect; everywhere we would want to go can be easily reached by car or even Metro. Tecom is really an up-and-coming neighbourhood in what is normally referred to as “New Dubai”. The whole area is but a few years old. We have lived in our beloved apartment for over a year now. It is a well-maintained building, a good landlord and a fair deal regarding rent. They even lowered the rent slightly at renewal even though rents in our area seem to have stabilised following the last two-years of decreasing rents in the wake of the credit crunch. We have a great two-bed apartment with a nice balcony. Needless to say there is a pool and sunbathing area on the rooftop and two gyms (gents' and ladies’) with all sorts of torture equipment in the building, full-time janitors keeping everything immaculately clean – and offering their services washing the residents’ cars 12 times a month for 100 Dirhams. 24hr security. And a covered parking space per flat downstairs where the above-mentioned idiot has just been let in after a good few minutes’ worth of being horny.

Still, it really is a good life here in Tecom, in our little apartment in the city where the sun always shines. City of Life.



6 comments:

Deborah said...

Well that was about *bib* time :-) I've had you in my reader for absolute AGES without luck. Today I got lucky. Very apropiately I want to the races and we actually had a horse called Jalla Jalla :-)

Nice to hear from you again. I hope you keep it up this time, and will welcome you over at mine as well (as I remember, you did come over there before once in a blue moon?).

Admin said...

Nice to hear from you too. Yeah, it's safe to say it's been a while, I know. Really want to keep it up. Guess it's sometimes a matter of priorities. Will pop over and have look at urs as well :-)

arushi kapoor said...

hi, nice post, thanks sharing about the Dubai city.

Jean-Paul said...

The situation with the car horns is quite similar here in Shanghai. The other annoying thing is that mopeds are quite popular here and drivers often drive them on the sidewalks. A friend of mine was hit by one a few months back and was on crutches for 4 weeks. Is this a problem in Dubai as well?

Rajasthan tour said...

Dubai is very beautiful location but its very hot. It is difficult to manage over there.

Unknown said...

Haløjsa! Kan du hjælpe mig med at få et job in Dubai? Jeg vil så gerne flytte..