I'm Melting! The Plight of a Car in Dubai

It's summertime in Dubai, and that means its hot.  Really hot.  Let's put it this way, our 'low' for the week is currently 92 degrees!

There's a lot of tricks you can pull when it's this hot out - baking cookies on the dash or frying an egg on the sidewalk, that's easy!

But can you, I ask, melt your car?

Apparently the heat was more than our little TT could take yesterday.  I rolled down the window to swipe my parking pass and when I rolled it back it up the entire lining had melted and this weird slimy goo stained the windows.  Yuck!  Now I know what car guts look like.

Thankfully we can't be brought up on car abuse charges, but we'll try to keep our little TT out of the sun next time.  Apparently it does age you!

Boom, Goes the Dynamite: the Burj Park Cannon

There are a lot of human conventions to mark the passage of time. We ring bells, set alarms, check our watches, heck we might even have a coo-coo clock, marking the hour with a deafening and quite terrifying cannon shot wasn’t one that was prepared for. When I first heard it a week ago – I almost instantly hit the deck, bit my tongue and felt adrenaline pump through my veins. It sounded a lot like a bomb, and I momentarily got a little nervous (honey - grab the passports and cash from the safe…).

 

As it turns out, we weren’t too far off. It was a bomb of sorts, a cannon in fact, and seeing how it was set off just a stone’s throw from our apartment it was no wonder that the glasses were clinking in the china cabinet. Why on earth would they be firing a cannon in Burj Park?

 Some recent snaps from the balcony of the Arabian sunset.

Well apparently it is one of the most convenient ways to alert the city that the sun has set and it is time to break the Ramadan fast at iftar.

According to Major Abdullah Mubarak Bin Misbah, head of weapons in the public administration services and equipment department at Dubai Police, “Since the early 60s, the firing of the cannon was entrusted to Dubai Police to mark the end of the fast at sunset.  The first military cannons, which were made by the British, are still in our possession and are regularly maintained so that we can keep the memory of its significance and its beauty alive.”

As part of the authority’s capacity in keeping the tradition alive, Dubai Police have assigned crews consisting of five men — one sergeant, one traffic officer and three soldiers — to bring the cannons into designated areas.

The other cannons are being shot from Mussallah and Al Raas in Deira, from Bur Dubai at Mussallah in Karama, as well as at Safa Park in Jumeirah.

Thanks guys – next time you want to fire off heavy artillery in the ‘hood, maybe just a neighborly heads up?

Dubai After Dark: The Seaview Hotel

After living in Dubai for awhile you definitely come to the conclusion that every experience will be scrubbed to perfection, albeit a little inauthentic.  As an expat there is an admitted tendency to rely on the Marina side of town for your kicks.  However, I've heard many a friend sing the praises of the dive bars on the other side of town heralding everything from cheap drinks, great live music, and (ahem) interesting clientele.  A few weeks ago we decided to see what we were missing and set off to find one of the most highly recommended bars in Bur Dubai, the Marine's Club at the Seaview Hotel.  They are legendary for the all Filipino cover band, who rock out nightly with the best that 80's hair bands had to offer.

The first challenge was finding the place.  The bar is located out through the back of the lobby, through the service area and kitchens, and then up the fire escape and in through another back door.  But what's a little walk through a hotel kitchen on the way bar?  When we arrived we were informed that it would be a 50dhs cover change to enter.  Well, this threw the group for a loop.  I'm not sure any of us could remember the last time we paid a cover on the other side of town, so it seemed a pretty high price to pay, but we had come this far and our curiosity won out over our wallets.  Once inside we were told that entrance came with an included drink, which helped soften the blow.

After arriving in the venue (and removing a stray hair extension from Matt's sole - yes really...) we were ushered to a table right on the dance floor and I was disappointed to be greeted with blaring techno music, and the entertainment of shall we say, many odd "couples" on the dance floor.  With my watered down G&T and near asphyxiation from smoke inhalation I was beginning to give up hope on the live music scene when the band, coming back from break, took the stage.

And boy did they own it!  The lead singer and bassist Cherie Garcia is a talent not to be missed.  She started slapping the bass to the first few chords of Guns and Roses "Sweet Child of Mine" and screeched out a version that would have made Axl Rose jealous.  She followed by playing the bass with her teeth and behind her head during a rendition of ACDC's "Back in Black".  While most patrons were distracted by other "talent" she totally rocked the stage.

We're looking forward to our next visit to see what the new set list will be, but in the meantime I would suggest that Simon Cowell might want to stop by for a drink and the musical styling of Cherie Garcia. 

Dubai in 20,000 Pictures

Dubai is home to a face paced and ever changing environment, but it's not often someone captures the buzz of the city like Richard Bentley's 20,000 photos of Dubai. 

A British photographer whose time-lapse films have attracted thousands of hits online has released a new work that aims to capture Dubai's restless, bustling nature.

Dubai 3.0 looks at first glance as if it has been shot using a video camera. In fact, it is made up of 20,000 still photographs.  He left a gap of between three and eight seconds between each shot, and each second of the completed film consists of 25 of the photos run together.




In the opening scene, the Dubai Fountain can be seen flaring briefly at the foot of the Burj Khalifa before the view changes slightly as the same location is seen across the rippling surface of a swimming pool.

The viewpoint continues to change as different parts of the city - including the Dubai Marina, Business Bay and Atlantis, The Palm - are showcased.

Mr Bentley's says  "Dubai is a photographer's paradise if you're into architecture," he said. "That's what really captured my imagination.  The lighting in Dubai is incredible at night. In daytime it doesn't capture the imagination quite so much but, after dark, Dubai comes to life."

The visuals are accompanied by a haunting soundtrack, penned specifically for the montage by the composer Athar Saeed.

"What I'm trying to convey with the time-lapse is to represent the city in the best possible artistic way that I can and bring it to the internet. Dubai is a very fast, very bustling, 24-hour city," Mr Bentley said.

If a picture is worth a thousand words than this slideshow is worth 20 million!

Knot Standard Photo Shoot

Things have been pretty busy around here in Dubai - work, work work!  Fortunately, it's not all sitting behind a desk.  We recently got a team together for a large photo and video shoot of the new Knot Standard collection.  Starting at 7am on the weekend, it took three grinding days to get through hundreds of new products, but you can see the fruits of our labor on the new Knot Standard website at www.KnotStandard.com.

Everything starts with makeup and hair - or as Katie called it, "Making of a Ken doll".

Setup and styling is no joke either - everyone at the shoot was a knot-tying expert by the end of the shoot.  Even the tag-alongs, like the stylist's dog Becks (great mascot, fits in a garment bag!):

 

Not everything went perfectly - you can't do a shoot without breaking a few lights:

To keep the shoot on schedule, we actually made two shoot setups, side-by-side:

 For the nerds out there, yes, that's a Red Scarlett, and yes, we shot in 5K video.  The cart in the background (and guy manning it in the black t-shirt) is just to hold the hard drives to accept the data from the camera.  James Cameron, eat your heart out:

 Meet one of our models - these suits were made for them, but true to our model, they didn't even get a fitting before the shoot - just dress and shoot!

Here's a quick clip of the full shoot - enjoy:

Sri Lanka: The Pearl of the Indian Ocean

It's always nice to to have the chance to (briefly) get away from it all.  As the mercury's been rising, the iPhone's been ringing, and the business meetings have been multiplying - we were blessed to receive a small reprieve in the form of a one day holiday last Sunday, and since our wanderlust only intensifies as the summer begins to close in on Dubai, we jumped at the chance to make the most of our three day weekend.  After pulling out our compass and drawing a four hour flight radius around Dubai we had quickly narrowed in our our choice - Sri Lanka!

I did not know what to expect as we headed to the "Pearl of the Indian Ocean" but rest assured any preconceived notions were quickly exceeded as we landed and took in the beautiful and diverse scenery on the island and the wonderful spirit of the people.

We chose to forgo the well embraced beach vacation and head into the mountains of the island to a tea plantation for something a bit more off the beaten path - well off the path, if the shocks of our car had anything to say about the four hour overland journey.  But boy was it worth it!

We traveled to central Sri Lanka, to the Castlereagh Lake, in the Bogawantalawa Valley, known as the Golden Valley of Tea and home to old Ceylon.  Here at an elevation of 4000 feet above sea level, we stayed in an colonial era tea planters' bungalow built in 1890.  We spent three days on this working tea plantation and really got a chance to kick up our heels and learn quite a lot about tea!

 

Our own little English garden awaited us at the top of the hills.

Upon arriving a fresh pot of tea was the order of the day, naturally!

We even made a new friend who decided to join us for lunch, I think she likes scones as much as I do!

One of the spectacular roses in the garden, just after a light rain.

No menus, just a customized meal from the head chef made fresh daily from the onsite gardens.  This was a curry eight-ways meal.  Right up my alley!

You won't want for a kettle in this home.

Yes they look romantic, but it also means that there is a healthy mosquito population!

Rolling hills of tea.

The Resident Tea Planter showed us the age-old tea making process. We started by learning about the planters of old Ceylon, as they trekked through the dense jungle looking for the best slopes on which to plant tea, to the the tea pluckers who pick "two leaves and a bud" each by hand and finally to the factory where the all-important conversion to "made" black tea happens.  I've never had such an appreciation for a cup of tea!

The machinery used is of very traditional British design, some as old as 100 years. The process is a very artisanal one, unchanged for a century.

On a beautiful afternoon, we set off on an eight mile hike from one hill top down to the lake.  It was a fantastic day to take some full strides.

Along the way we found this little shrine where a live animal sacrifice had clearly just happened (notable blood and feathers everywhere).  Very strange.  The people living in the hills are a mix of Buddhist and Hindu religions, but a quick research run would pin this one on the Hindus.  According to Wikipedia: practices of Hindu animal sacrifice are mostly associated with Shaktism, and in currents of folk Hinduism strongly rooted in local tribal traditions^.  It is not practiced in contemporary Vedantic or Brahminical Hinduism

Most kids walk their dogs, he walks his cow.

The views from the top of the Norwood Estate were definitely worth it!

It wouldn't be a walk through a local village with out a chat with the kiddies "hello!  goodbye!  MONEY!!!"  (We only give books and writing tools, never money or sweets)

I call this one: Dare to be Different.

They make it really easy to curl up with a good book.

Taking time to enjoy the flowers.

I knew bamboo could exponentially grow - but whoa!

The Norwood Estate planter's house, est. 1890.

Looks like I'm going to have to stay awhile.  Four Square named me Mayor of Norwood Estate!

The chef's custom creations were all incredible, but this was particularly divine!

Food just tastes so much better when it's grown in the backyard.

Hmm.  On second thought, I'm not going to go for a swim.

The view overlooking the old city of Kandy.

One of the top exports of Sri Lanka is cashews.  The sell them along the road like so, yum!

The Gallery Cafe was a great choice for our last meal in Colombo.  It was pretty as a picture and we didn't want to leave.

As our driver Bandu drove us back to the airport, he asked if we could do one thing for him when we left.  Could we tell people that the civil war is over in Sri Lanka?  Could we tell them how open and friendly the people are and how beautiful the scenery is?  Could we please tell everyone we know that Sri Lanka is a great place to visit, and encourage them to come?  Well, Bandu - you have definitely made it easy for us.  

It was all that and more!

Material Girl in Abu Dhabi!

When an artist's career spans your entire lifetime there is good reason to be impressed.  In Madonna's case not only did her concert in Abu Dhabi this past week confirm that she is the reigning Queen of Pop (Gaga who?) but that is she a total force of nature.

I must admit I had my reservations about seeing Madonna in Abu Dhabi.  I've wanted to see her in concert for almost a decade now, and the dates, times, and cities of her tours always seemed to elude me.  So when I learned that she was performing in the capital of the UAE, Dubai's older and much more conservative neighbor I thought - how much are they going to censor her?

Turns out - not at all!  It was clear that she was there to take no prisoners.  So as she thrust her pelvis, tore off her shirt, and licked the microphone, it occurred to me - damn, I am watching Madonna!  It was 100 degree night and she put on a Broadway worthy stage production with the vigor (and the dance moves) of someone half her age.  She worked hard for her fans, and she was adored in return.  She was awesome!

The complex stage numbers and interludes were nothing short of incredible, for 2 hours you're in her world and you're glad to be there!  As I jumped up and down to "Vogue" and reminded myself that I am looking at a living legend who is a mother, author, actress, director, and pop star I was filled with respect for her and how hard she works.  So if you get the chance to Madge, you'd be mad to miss it!

Oh and did I mention she performed "Like a Prayer"?  Yup, my life is complete.