Saturday, March 07, 2009

Anything happen?

Did I miss anything important while we were away?

The ID card idea been scrapped? The RTA has decided that private cars are an acceptable form of transportation? Public and private sectors will be treated equally?

No?

I guessed not. I assumed nothing much would have changed, although I must say it seems to be much quieter around town.

We arrived back on Thursday evening, it took several hours to walk from the aircraft to the exit, we came through the 'nothing to declare' channel and as always were picked out to have our bags scanned.

I must practice not looking furtive.

The Singapore Airlines flight was the emptiest plane I've ever been on. No-one in First Class, five in Business and perhaps thirty or forty in Economy. On a 777-300 designed to hold 332 passengers - or 'customers' as they irritatingly insist on calling us.

The airport was all-but empty, the taxi driver said business is not good, Mall of the Emirates at lunchtime Friday was very quiet, the restaurants were doing minimal trade, even the checkout queues at Carrefour were only one or two deep. The roads today have very light traffic...I think I might like this slowdown.

In spite of the lack of traffic I was welcomed back by typical Dubai driving. Doing eighty in the Al Sufouh Road eighty zone I had a blonde bimbo in a big 4x4 tailgating me while waving her hands about. Then from Madinat Jumeirah to MoE a taxi driver screaming up behind me flashing his lights. My body clock is still on Sydney time, I'm tired, I'm irritable and it's not easy to sit in the car ignoring them when the alternative of confrontation is so much more appealing.

The holiday was a few nights in Singapore, a couple of weeks in Oz from which I have several hundred photos to be uploaded and sorted through. When that's done I'll post a few, so I'd better get on with it...

10 comments:

Dubai Photo Story said...

Welcome back!!!!

Yes... Dubai is turning to be a little quieter... much to my liking!!

Em said...

ah - yes the lovely lights of beamers and sweet sounds of horns and screeching brakes - welcome back!

Dave said...

Welcome Back - I guess it feels like you never left....

hemlock said...

glad to have you back.

dunno about recession man, i was at the boat show this weekend, took me an hour getting out of JBR. it was like... hello? people? recession?

Anonymous said...

Hi seabee, a warm welcome back! I have been monitoring your blog daily for several days now, and was beginning to get alarmed at the prospect of 'someday when we get tired of it all, we will go back'!
No, not much has changed in Dubai. Apart from the facts you mentioned, (erratic driving, traffic etc.) you missed out one more: the papers still keep telling you that everything is hunky dory, and that businesses are actually booming etc.

Mupersan said...

Welcome back Seabee. Hope you had a wonderfully relaxing holiday in this beautiful land of Oz!

It'll be great to have you back in my readingsphere (yes, I made that up & like the word - think I'll use it some!).

Cheers,
Mrs Mupersan

Anonymous said...

Hi seabee and welcome back! Yes, I second the fact that the airport is eerily quiet: we returned from Scotland on Friday early morning at Terminal 3. Our plane was full, but then in the terminal about 85% of our fellow passengers walked into "transit" to Oz and South Africa. Only about 35 people from our flight actually joined us at the baggage claim... and the whole airport was so empty. But I must be imagining things, seeing that we've been told that "thousands of people are still flocking to Dubai every day." How silly of me.

Unknown said...

yey you're back!

Seabee said...

Thanks for the welcome back messages y'all.

Anonymous said...

Glad you're back