Skyscrapers and Brassieres

Kids with guns

This weekend I had the joy of heading out to one of the other Emirates, Fujairah, to be a spectator of the weekly bull butting competition that occurs.

When you hit the corniche at the end of the main street, there is a paddock where every friday, after afternoon prayer, the locals gather to pitch bull on bull.

We arrived, after a 2 hour ride through the mountains from Dubai, to no bull fighting. Surely we had the day right... only to chat to a local to find the fight today had been called off due to a death. Nooooooooooo Flanagans luck.. surely not..... so we prepped ouselves for a long and disappointing trip home... well.. at least we got to see the billboard posters of children holding guns... 

Thats one big pappa

Regardless, we grabbed something to eat and hoped for the best... to our luck, shortly after we see the first bull get carted in. Here is here.. one big pappa... and I can tell you, he was not happy.... snorting, pawing at the ground.. and that was all before they bought in the next bull.. and the next bull... and the next until there were 40 odd bull all teethered up ready to fight.

Sometime around 5.30PM, all the bulls are tied up and the locals are all gathered around to watch the main event. Big 4WDs surround the arena, men

Tie me up

selling home made packed peanuts and bottles of water start touting their wares and the commentator bellows out for the first bulls.. spark and spice.

Bull butting was apparently introduced to the region by the portuguese in the 17th and 18th centuries. Two men lead their bulls into the arena, then the bulls lock horns and pit their strengthen against each other.

Round one ends rather spectacularly... the biggest bull out of the two... looks about and then, once deciding this isn't a sport he wants any part of.. legs it into the crowd and makes a hasty escape into the car park.. I have never seen so many dish dashes scatter and run... brilliant... if this is the beginning.. I can't wait for the end.

 The goal of the fight is for one bull to have another

Lock

bull on its knees, for the other to run off or ... a tie... no one gets anywhere. Watching them trying to stop a fight is priceless. Simply blowing a whistle or calling off the bulls doesn't work. Instead... about 15 spectators run out into the field and grab an end of the rope tied around the bulls neck to try and prise them apart. It is priceless.. you can't imagine the entertainment it provides.

Every one in

One of the easiest things to do in Dubai, is to only visit the hotels and clubs and to ignore anything that evolved prior to 1980. Traveling to Fujairah and getting to be a spectator for something that has been happening for hundreds of years... much more interesting and involving than heading down to the local hotel for brunch. Not that I don't enjoy a good brunch.... sometimes its easy to forget there is more to the desert than that... if you let it.

Crouching agent

The traditional sport of bull butting helps you to appreciate the essence of the desert .. its an essence of dust.. chaos... male virality.. community... disorganisation....   

On Monday night I had an experience that had me wondering if I was still in fact in Dubai.

Ziryab

My soon to be neighbour took me to  new live music venue, The Fridge, that supports up and coming local talent.

I went along thinking I would be heading to another stuck up Dubai night, filled with ex-pats swanning about telling each other how fabulous they were whilst guzzling the free booze.

And I was wrong.

Very wrong and very pleasantly surprised.

After missioning out to Dubai's industrial area.... walking past a row of warehouses we came to The Fridge.  Very easily to be mist

aken as another tyre warehouse, The Fridge is a free live music venue that puts on shows showcasing and supporting local talent. It is, to be quite frank, an amazing

Ziryab1

idea and for a city where good local talent have very few places to ply their trade, let alone showcase their talent, it's so very fresh.

Every Monday they put on a free show, with support from local lighting and sound professionals, showcasing local talent. I was lucky enough to head along to see Ziryab (Cassiano De Sa), a versatile and talented muscian from Brazil who n

ot only took us through some of his own music, but through music that had influenced him growing up in Brazil, both traditional (including Hermeto Pascoal, an Albino muso who once used a gun to shoot out the beats to a song) to the more modern, Stevie Wonder.

The set up of The Fridge is one of support and awe. Getting to sit so up close and personal while an artist plays and talks you through their life influences is something I have been dearly missing from home. The venue had such a fringe fest feel to it, from the artist sitting in the front row sketching the band to the bean bags piled on the floor, I couldn't help but to feel like I had walked into a tiny piece of home.

For anyone who doesn't live in Dubai, the local music scene is almost non existant and hardly supported. Any given night you can find plenty of places to be packed in against a bar whilst a DJ bashes out hard house music, but trying to find a small wine bar with a live bit o

f jazz music is near impossible.

But it is changing, with more live venues like The Fridge opening up and a few big venues catering to other music tastes... other than house. Which makes me pretty happy and unable to stop telling almost everyone who will

 listen to me about how fantastic The Fridge. I would spend all my money on live music if I could... I'd spend my last

 $10 on a cheap glass of wine and ticket to a jazz club.

Check out a clip of Ziryab (Cassiano) here... and next Monday you can see Abri at The Fridge for free.

I noticed the other day that I had cut back significantly on my blogging. Could it be I have too much work on? Our internet wasn't working? I was in the process of moving house? Or... have I finally become aclimatised to Dubai?

Interesting thought.

For a place that is so different from my home, has it really only taken me a little over a year to become so ingrained in the place that I barely raise an eyebrow when my new house has a live in maid AND gardener? That it is perfectly acceptable for the guard to upgrade my ticket to the cricket so I don't have to sit in the stand filled with Pakistanis?

WTF? OMG? OID! (Only in Dubai)

I've got to nip this in the bud. Far too many outlandish things occur in my day to day desert dwelling life for me not to be raising an eyebrow.

Case and point.

"A year ago, I bet you never thought you would be in Beirut fighting political fires."

That was what my boss said to me last Thursday when I was calling him from Beirut to get his advice on a crisis I was in the midst of for one of my clients.

It's true.... who would have.

Every so often, just when I start feeling like this is my home, something always happens to remind me that I really am in a very different region, with very different rules and very different cultures.

You can get a gist of the fun I was having here.

Still.... nothing like a crisis to liven up your work day!

Dubai rain

I know I have complained about it before, but you really can't begin to imagine what a royal pain it is when it rains in Dubai. It's a city that was in no way built for the rain, hardly any drain pipes, nowhere for the water to go... it's insane. Sometimes they even have hadve to bring in huge tankers to suck up the water from the road when it gets too much.  Then there is the whole wet sand thing... you know how uncomfortable it is to walk around in shoes on wet sand.....try having to deal with that EVERYWHERE you go.

Obviously it's raining here in Dubai otherwise I wouldn't be bitching and moaning. It's like grey crappy London weather. And then this afternoon... not only did a thunderstorm kick in... but at the same time, so did a sand storm.

Fun.

I'm looking out my window at work right now and you can't see anything. It's like being inside a giant dirty vacum cleaner bag that is 20 years old and has NEVER been emptied. Smells like it too.

Apparently, there is reduced visibility on the roads to 800 metres. Awesome, I can't wait to have to drive home... that should be eventful.

Nodancing

Last week my boss was discussing with me how everyone in the meeting I was attending had probably broken some sort of law in Dubai. Whether it be living with a woman you weren't married to, having liquor in your house without a license, living in a mix-sex villa.... the list goes on. And it was true, everyone in that meeting was currently breaking some sort of law in Dubai.

Then, this morning, I learned of a whole new set of laws that have been drafted that are going to turn me into more of a criminal that I already am! Playing loud music.... dancing.... kissing..... inappropriate clothing... have all been deemed illegal and can result in a prison sentence.

Hold up.... a prison sentence for wearing a skirt above the knee.... man oh man am I in trouble!

Ok, I understand that you need to be respectful of a countries guidelines... I just think its a little over the top to throw someone in jail for dancing in a public place. And you think I'm exaggerating... I got in trouble on the weekend for pashing someone in a bar.... and even before these laws were put in place I've been told in two different bars to stop dancing before.... cause dancing is really going to get us in trouble!

I know.... I'm just having a moan today... still, you would think that with the amount of people leaving Dubai at the moment that you would want to be encouraging people to stay.....

I came across this blog post which not only discusses giving up Facebook for Lent, which right there on its own astounds me, but also plans out steps on how not to upset and possibly loose friends over this decision.

Lent4

Fair enough I understand the concept of taking a break from Facebook, of late I myself have realised just how bad my addiction to checking Facebook has become. So yeah, no worries, understand that.... but taking steps like changing your status to "Anne is considering giving up Facebook for Lent" or changing your profile pic to a logo outlining your decision so as not to offend people is ludicrous. Surely we haven't evolved into beings who can't pick up the phone for some contact for those we care about?

CRAZINESS people... Craziness....

I came across a recent change to the terms of service for Facebook that has me pretty concerned. Facebook used to say that when you closed an account, any info you had uploaded, including photos, would expire. Seems this isn't to be the case anymore, now anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever... they can even sublicense if they want!

What implications does this have for companies utilising Facebook as a means of enagement to its consumers?? Good point! 

I will be certainly thinking about what  upload from now on.

Update Facebook has changed its way....: http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/18/facebook.reversal/index.html a

7 things you don't know about me:

1. I have always, for as long as I can remember, harboured a secret desire to be an out of control, hotel room trashing rockstar.... and my subconscious still dreams of grandiose and groupies…. regardless of the facts that a) I am in the wrong profession, b) I am too old and c) I can't hold a single note
2. I have never broken a bone in my body and I haven't been to hospital since the day I was born
3. I kind of have an obsession with watching old men. I love their three piece suits, the way they carry walking sticks, how they assist their wives with carrying the shopping... I find them fascinating
4. When I decided to go to university I had to choose between studying communications and studying modern dance choreography. I ended up going for the $$ and now I'm a well paid spin doctor
5. Whenever I, or someone I am talking to, mentions the phrase 'knock on wood' I instantly and superstitiously have to knock myself on the head. Because quite clearly it is made of nothing but wood
6. I don't dream. Or at least I don't remember my dreams, ever. I go to bed, I wake up, in between... nothing
7. I am a really bad speller and I think Microsoft Office has made me even lazier. When I was a child growing up and my mother would tell me if I wanted to be a journalist (which was a dream of mine at some stage) I would have to learn grammar and how to spell. My reply to her…. “My editor will fix it for me.”

I now tag:

• My super cool boss David
• The lovely lady Lex
• Mr Happy himself Chuma
• The poetic Grace
• The fugitive furtivity
• Mr IT Chris
• Mystique

 Rules:

• Link your original tagger(s) and list these rules in your post.
• Share seven facts about yourself in the post.
• Tag seven people at the end of your post by leaving their names and the links to their blogs
• Let them know they’ve been tagged

I've been trying for a few days to lock in a new years resolution. I have been successful so far of keeping to 2008's resolution and I am fairly confident I'll keep to it for the rest of my life. Big tick to me. But I am struggling to come up with one for 2009, sure I have plenty of ideas... but picking something that I aim to stick to is proving to be a bit of a struggle.

In the meantime, I have decided to make an inventory of all the things that I feel of proud of from 2008.. so here we go.

28 things for 2008

1. Kept my 2008 new years resolution
2. Had a memorable, mad and messy leaving party
3. Finally moved to the desert all by myself
4. Rocked it out to Muse at the Desert Rock Festival
5. Had the confidence to change my job when the one I was in didn't turn out to be what I wanted
6. Survived Gitex
7. Went to Petra
8. Hosted a kick ass Christmas Day in the desert
9. Went snowboarding in Lebanon for new years
10. Widened my friendship circle - met new peeps
11. Catching up with GG Brown in Berlin with Kimmy and in Amsterdam with B-Fine
12. Found myself a fabulous house to live - private beach included
13. Cooked with a tagine
14. Made a positive impact on the accounts I work on
15. Learnt a few small Arabic words
16. Updated my blog
17. Learnt how to drive on the other side of the road
18. Completed bootcamp
19. Was spoilt enough to have loads of my mates come to visit from Aussieland - keep it up kids!
20. Finally became a resident of the UAE
21. Got used to living in the desert and called it home - crazy driving, men in dish-dashes, lack of good bread and all
22. Enjoyed my own company
23. Felt hopeful that things are going to change when Obama was elected
24. Danced my ass off with George Michael
25. Swam with dolphins
26. Kept up to date with the local Aussie music scene
27. Bought the love of digital media to my new colleagues
28. Generally all round... continued on my quest of enjoying life as a hedonist