The End of the Adventure

Now you’ve at least heard some of the nightmare of the month Bob had, I would like to conclude our Dubai journal from a more positive side. While Safi Airways was working on imploding, we kept having visitors, which was great for me. I’ve gotten to be a pretty good tour guide by now.

After RD left, we had a visit from Bob’s brother and his friend R, who was a delightful houseguest and a very good sport in our 1-star accommodations. Among the highlights of their visit was our trip to the souk in Sharjah to purchase rugs. When we got to my favorite rug vendor, the 18-year-old son was the only one there. He quickly realized this was a major shopping expedition and called in the manager from another store, who also brought more rugs with him. Eventually they called the father/owner, Abdullah, to come in and bring more rugs with him. After about three hours and several cups of tea, we all finally agreed on our rugs and haggled over their cost.

As we were about to leave, Abdullah, who speaks little English, invited us to lunch. Of course, we didn’t know if we were going to his home, to the quickie café at the souk, or where. We ended up at a very local Lebanese restaurant. What an experience! It’s men only downstairs, families upstairs. Well, when Abdullah walked in with three Americans, two being female, all eyes were on us and the jaws were dropping. When we went upstairs, people were sitting on the floor eating with their fingers, as is their custom. We did get to sit at the one solitary table. Abdullah had obviously called ahead that he was bringing guests, and our lunch started with soup, then a salad, and then a fish and rice course. Our only implement was the soup spoon, which I kept a firm hold on. When the main course came, we had the ENTIRE fish, which they eat with their fingers. It was hamour, which is a very good local fish. Our group consisted of the three of us, Abdullah, his son, and the Indian manager, who has at least some English skills. In the course of conversation/sign language, we learned Abdullah is from Yemen and has three wives and 15 children.

Abdullah had good reason to take us to lunch after our numerous rug purchases. We purchased a couple of Iranian kilim rugs and a number of the Kashmiri silk rugs. I can’t speak for the others, but I love my rugs, and our lunch adventure was an experience of a lifetime. It was such a fun day, and poor Bob was spending his time having to deal with a lot of Safi unpleasantness.

I took G and R on the desert 4-wheel excursion, and again we had another fun adventure. G was chosen to be the “partner” of the belly dancer. He was a very good sport and turns out to have some talent we never knew about! Poor Bob didn’t get to do that either because of all the Safi issues that week. He did at least get to go with us to the Burj al Arab for one more very nice dinner on the beach. It is a very cool place but soooo expensive.

After G and R left, PW’s friend EE, who is an exchange helicopter pilot with the French navy, had a port call in Abu Dhabi. As we had never seen Abu Dhabi, which is beautiful, we drove down and picked E up to come stay with us. She was in serious need of “girl” time after being on a ship with a squadron full of guys, so I was happy to oblige. We went to the Aviation Club and worked out, went to the pool, and paid the spa a visit for a couple days. We also did the usual touring and made our way to the Indian textile area, where we both had some rather unique outfits made. It was fun!

Bob was able to go on the desert tour this time, and E gave the entire group a good lesson in sandboarding. RD, she put you to shame! We also had the opportunity to go with E to the Souk Madinot Jumeirah, which is a huge complex of souks, theaters, restaurants, and hotels built around canals. It’s obviously built for tourists, but it’s a very neat place.

Of course, we made another trip back to the souk for carpets. E bought an exquisite silk Afghan rug. I had not seen those before, and this one is just beautiful.

After E left, I came back to Atlanta to bring home some rugs, etc., and get some emergency dental work taken care of. I was only supposed to be here three days, but Safi more or less imploded, and Bob told me not to return as there was so much turmoil in the company, as he has just discussed in his entry. It will take a good bottle of wine to go through the entire saga, but the situation became quite ugly, and I was glad when he arrived safely back in Atlanta.

All in all, we are very glad we had the experience this last year in Dubai. We did and saw things we never thought we would experience and learned a lot about some very different cultures. There were good times and bad times, but we met some great people along the way, and we agree we would do it again in a heartbeat. That said, it’s nice to be home with our family and friends in the greatest country on earth.

The Beginning of the End of Safi

I believe it was in the end of March Safi Airways obtained four charter flights to Iran. As there had been no advance warning of this new routing, I had to explain to the Chairman that the US and Canadian pilots would not be able to fly into an Iranian Military base for charter operations. He just assumed we would be “happy to go!” After a few “heated discussions” we compromised with the Bolivians flying the Iranian flights and picking up the funds. You must understand that the banking system, especially among nations over there is very primitive. This means that our pilots had to be paid in CASH which arrived in a briefcase, just like in the movies. What you don’t see in the movies is the person actually counting the money…one, two, three. At least it is always in $100 bills. Another item over here is all the money is always crisp and new, not like the US.

After the Iranian discussions, normal flying from Dubai to Kabul resumed. However a new glitch soon popped up. That was when the Chairman decided to start layovers in Kabul proper. I felt like I was beginning to be an ALPA negotiator and had to explain that we were told when hired that we would only lay over there in irregular operations. We did not want a scheduled operation where everyone in Kabul knew when we arrived, when we would depart, and where we would be staying. All the pilots were leery of this new development for numerous reasons. Safi Airways maintained the new schedule would commence on the 30th of March.

About four days before the scheduled start date, with emotions running high, our scheduled crew left for the normal Kabul turnaround. They departed Dubai with the normal two flight plans, two General Customs Declarations, and fuel onboard to return to Dubai. The Safi Station Manager in Kabul informed the crew when they arrived that they were spending the night in Kabul and if the crew tried to return at that point they would be charged with stealing the aircraft and arrested. The crew was given the choice of paying their own way to Dubai (no flights available till the next day), or staying in Kabul and flying themselves back to Kabul.

The crew wisely decided to stay at the Safi Landmark Hotel and return the next day. Needless to say, many discussions followed. There were three days of down time on their return and a compromise was worked out for a short term basis in Kabul, even though this amounted to a kidnapping. Talk is cheap but money was the trump card.

What made all these events that much more interesting was that we had guests in our small apartment the entire time. G, R, E, and RWD all went through these events with us as they unfolded. They had to listen to numerous cell phone calls during dinner and touring. ASD worked out to be a great tour guide as she had been in Dubai for many months and had been most places.

Early in April Safi Airways had received a grant/loan from either the IMF or World Bank for a good deal of money. Almost at the same time a new face appeared in the office, a Jordanian, who claimed to know everything about everyone and an “expert” on the airline industry. The word “shyster” came to mind immediately. He immediately wanted to buy six MD80s. Of course he was looking for a large commission, and those of us in the office were able to convince the Chairman not to buy the aircraft. There was not an MD80 within fifteen hundred miles of the Middle East, much less maintenance support! What a joke! The Jordanian didn’t like losing and had the Chairman release a number of us from our contracts with pay. No problem there, I made my Board meeting in Pensacola well rested and Preakness Weekend is now history.

A couple items that should be said of the layovers in Kabul. Obviously security was paramount. We always had two armed guards as well as a follow up vehicle. Once again Safi’s political power came through loud and clear as roadblocks always just “melted” in front of us. The only one we seemed to had to wait for was the President and even then we were always number one in line to proceed.

Another item in Kabul is the rug trade. For Westerners, rugs in Dubai are about a third of the price you would pay in the States. However, once you get to Kabul and the further cities out, the price drops dramatically from there. The only trick is getting to Afghanistan safely in the first place.

The last item I would like to mention has to do with security. If we took one step out of the hotel, there was immediately an armed guard behind us. How did they know?

Prior to departing the UAE, there was a very nice party at L’s. The evening ended up in the pool as we all could see the Burj Dubai lit up in front of us. It was really great to be able to exchange regular email addresses with everyone and to see the enthusiasm of all the young people. They were all great and learned so much in a year! L did a great job.

Since this is the last blog about Dubai/Kabul I thought I should put a very good travel tip out for those that may someday arrive in Dubai. The world’s only seven star hotel is in Dubai, the Burj al Arab. This is where one of the most expensive restaurants, the Al Maharah is located. The average price there is between $500 to $800 per meal for two. If you call ahead, or better yet, e-mail their reservations department and make reservations for the beach restaurant, the Majlis al Bahar, you can still get a tour of the hotel and save $300-$400 for the meal for two! Yes, you read that correctly, it is still going to cost you $300-400 for the meal. Do not go to the Brandy Bar in the lobby for an after dinner liquor, unless you want to spend $500 per drink! Bon Appetite!

3/17/08 VOICE FROM THE OTHER SIDE

I decided maybe it’s time to chime in again after laying low for two months. I ended up being back in the States for a month doing some extra PT for my shoulder and having a good time visiting friends and family. We do appreciate and miss everyone when we’re on the other side of the world, and we thank you all for your fun and kind comments to the blog.

As Bob said, our friend RD came back with me, and we had a great time showing him the sights and sounds of Dubai. I seem to be official tour guide during the day, since Bob is quite busy trying to keep Safi Airways straight. His job can be challenging and sometimes quite frustrating, but he has overall enjoyed the opportunity.

I took RD on the usual tours and tried to take him shopping in the souks, but he is a real loser when it comes to shopping! KD would have been much more fun in the souks. We did try out the indoor skiing at Emirates Mall, which was a very fun experience, although certainly not Colorado. We also tried sand boarding in the desert one evening, which was also lots of fun. RD also wanted to experience the Burj al Arab while he was here, so we had another lovely dining experience at this very over-the-top hotel, this time at their restaurant on the beach. We were sorry to see RD leave, but we heard KD needed him to shovel snow from the last blizzard they had in Indiana.

For the moment life is pretty quiet again until the next visitors, but at least we are enjoying going to the Aviation Club to work out and swim. The weather is very nice right now. Unfortunately, it can be very difficult to get a cab to go down there, so often I stay in the apartment when Bob is flying, which can be very confining. Today I took the big plunge and drove myself into Dubai to the club. It was very stressful, but I survived the first plunge. This was a big step for me!

Wednesday is our 42nd anniversary, and we’ve decided to call it the “sand anniversary.” We’re going to a very upscale Arabian resort in the desert, where we will have, among other things, a one-hour camel ride and an Arabian feast under the stars. Hopefully we’re not too old to be able to enjoy the romance.

We hope all is well for each of you, and for our Atlanta family and friends, I hope the recent storms haven‘t done too much damage. I know for many of our Atlanta friends tennis season started, and we hope week one was a good one. I also know for some of you the important part of the NCAA season has started, and we wish your teams well, particularly UNC. And, of course, for GHD we wish you a happy outcome for the ice hockey season at Cornell.

And wherever the venerable Clifford is between Annapolis and D.C., please give him a hug from us.

ASD

Springtime

A and I went back to Atlanta at the end of January to keep our normal lives in order. We were able to see many of our friends and family. The highlight of the return was Clifford’s (our 16 year old Golden) birthday party. This can be seen on theturbevilles.com web site. I’d also like to thank everyone for the Blog comments. The Blog seems to be a very easy way to communicate with all of you rather than independent emails.

Another reason for going back was to complete my six month simulator check in Miami. I also interviewed pilots and gave simulator checks to the two that we wanted. Obviously this means we are in the hiring mode. While in Miami we announced that the airline had purchased two 737s for intra-country flights to feed the 767 out of Kabul. The 737s needed more maintenance than originally thought, so that has been put on hold. I have been pushing for 757s for the dual qualification. It now appears our next plane with be a 767-300. I will try to attach a recent announcement of the company’s plans.

Spring has arrived in Kabul. The temperature is starting to rise to about 20 degrees Celsius and the snow in the mountains is receding. It is like Kabul is coming out of a deep freeze. People are moving faster and traveling more. One flight last week we had over 213 people aboard. Speaking of coming out of the deep freeze, the true story about the generator and the ILS system has now come to light. It appears that “someone” had stolen gas out of the tank that was feeding the generator. So no one would notice the loss, the quantity in the tank was replaced by water. So when enough water is added to the gas, two things happen. The first is the pipes freeze. The second is that no one knew this till they unfroze and the generator couldn’t work because it needs gas. I will say that no one has heard from the people that “used” to work in that area. There is now an Afghanistan Military Guard around the ILS shack!

We have now moved into our new Offices in the Dubai Free Zone of the Airport. They have leased about 3500 square meters and they are looking for more office space. The offices have been very well fitted with first class materials and furnishings. At times, price seems to be no object.

Politics can be amazing over here. Sharjah now doesn’t like the thought that we service Dubai to Kabul rather than Sharjah to Kabul and has said we can only park the aircraft in Sharjah when we have a non-stop---which happens to be Thursdays. So, this has caused the aircraft to be moved from Sharjah, to Fujairah, to Ras Al Khaimah, to Al Ain. All this movement is chewing up the crews, but stability always returns.

We did go to Emirates Mall with our visitor RWD. The reason for the trip was to ski in Dubai. The indoor skiing is actually pretty good. They keep the interior at 25 degrees Fahrenheit at all times, so the snow never turns to ice. The runs themselves are I would say green slopes with one steeper than the other. Shadows do seem to create problems. I’m pleased to report no one wiped out.
As I mentioned earlier, we have joined the Aviation Club. This club controls all the tennis in the UAE, with about eight courts and the tennis stadium included. The current Barclay’s Tennis Tournament is ongoing with all the professional athletes more than happy to have their pictures taken with members. Everything revolves around this event and security is very heavy. Definitely nice to have a member’s card and parking space to be there. I’m flying with RWD to Kabul on Saturday, while A is trying to get tickets to the finals.
Returning from Kabul, A informed RWD and myself that the tickets for the finals were a done deal. So, after a three hour nap, we headed down to see Andy Roddick defeat Feleciano Lopez last night. It was quite a day for all. We ended with a nice French dinner at the stadium and a long night’s sleep.

I will end this Blog up with a little commercial. P&W gave J&M a “Slingbox” for Christmas. Yes, I know, what in the world is a “Slingbox?” This “little box” is now connected to J&M’s spare bedroom cable TV converter. “Slingbox” actually has its own web site and allows me, as a favored individual, to use J&M’s converter to access any channel they subscribe to. It in no way interferes with their other TVs. The only competition I will have is when someone stays in their guest bedroom. Once I have connected for about two minutes the voice streaming is almost perfect. If you leave the picture on the small mode, it is very usable. This was very handy as our own cable TV went out for about two days recently.

Rain & Winter

I thought I would follow up the last blog with a note on the annual rainfall in the UAE, and Dubai/Sharjah in particular. My first taste of rain was early January when I took a friend, AMM, to the airport. Traffic was just backed up everywhere and I would have only called the rain light.

However, it did rain when President Bush arrived. As I mentioned earlier, all the bridges, overpasses, and tunnels were closed. The night he left, it started pouring and continued for approximately thirty-six hours straight. In an area that only gets about eleven days of rain a year, they received a record rainfall causing flooding everywhere. I’m sure the prevailing thought is “who needs drainage?” What President Bush was not able to close, the rain did. The only way to equate this event would be to compare it to a “snow day” or “hurricane” party day in the States. We ended up with eighteen inches of water just standing in front of our apartment for two to three days. This area came to a stand still. In the states when you mix sand and water you get a beach, here you get a sticky mud!

As the good drivers of the UAE found out, when you hit deep standing water at thirty klicks or better your car doesn’t work anymore. Cars were everywhere. Many cars were covered just where they were parked. It is very difficult for camel drivers to understand mechanics!


During the last four trips to Kabul, the temperature hasn’t gone above 0 degrees Celsius and is usually about -20 at night. Only a light dusting of snow has hit the valley but extremely heavy snow in the mountains. I keep thinking it is only a matter of time till winter hits but I’m beginning to think if we can make it through the first week of February, we may have bypassed winter in the valley.

I have inserted a recently taken picture of the RWY 29 in Kabul take off position.. You will be able to blow it up to see the mountains right off the departure end. The other interesting thing about this picture is when you blow up the L1011 on the upper left part of the picture; it is an old Delta L1011 which I flew years ago. The L1011 stayed on that taxiway for about a week due to a mechanical.

The problem in Kabul, at least at the airport is electricity. When it is -20 at night with no power, the building gets cold soaked and it really can’t warm up during the day. Adding to that is the fact that some of the doors don’t close and the windows leak air it is hard to file a flight plan. ISAF supplies the computer for flight planning so it is always up during the daylight hours. But I can tell you, one computer doesn’t heat a room! Still, the only approach available is the VOR/DME.

Now it is time for another commercial. For those of you that keep asking about the “kids” and what is going on in their lives, there is now a new web site that connects them all. http://www.theturbevilles.com/ should answer all your questions. There are also connections available to their videos made on cruise. The videos show that there is far too much time available on cruise for junior officers.

While you’re there, be sure to vote for Captain Bob as your pilot of choice. You’ll see what I mean when you get to the web site. Actually, just enjoy the great job they have done getting this site put together. I think this is a preamble for the blogs from Tilbisi, Georgia. A definite site for “old woodpeckers, blackhawks, and executioners!”

As A has said before, we joined the Aviation Club in Dubai. It has all the athletic amenities we could wish for plus about eight tennis courts. At the center of all this is the Dubai Tennis Stadium where the Dubai Open takes place later this month. I’m sure you will see some of the results on TV during the two weeks it runs. Additionally, it has about twelve upscale restaurants on the property of which we’ve only hit four so far. The best news of all is the owner…Dubai Duty Free Shops. We can all guess what is sold in Duty Free Shops at the airports and at the club they are sold for the same cost. This is the only place, other than hotels in the UAE, that can sell booze
by the drink. Dubai is looking up!

Bush Visit

I took the flight to Kabul on Saturday December 16, which really is only a Sharjah turnaround. Two hours twenty up and two hours thirty back. It is all daylight VFR so with the mountains now covered with snow, it is very pretty. Although we fly at twenty eight thousand feet, at times we are only ten thousand feet above the ground (mountains). The schedule on Saturday calls for a two and a half hour layover on the ground.

The ramp in Kabul is very congested and won’t expand until the new Japanese Terminal is completed late next year. Being the airline we are, we always have priority ramp space in front of the old terminal. The ramp will only hold three wide body aircraft at one time. Yesterday I was given the number one spot and taxied there with two aircraft to my left.

I realized I couldn’t taxi out in either direction due to closeness of aircraft, terminal, and buses stored on the ramp. So I set up with our tug driver to tow me out when we were ready. Since I’m mentioning it, you must have already guessed, the tug driver took too big a turn and smashed the right white strobe on the terminal wall. Of course there were only a hundred people on the ramp as the Prime Minister of the UAE had just arrived in Kabul for a dedication. Anyway, the wing was not damaged and we could go as the MEL says the other red strobes must also work. All things are possible in Afghanistan, but not everything happens as planned.

A and I have planned a “Progressive Christmas Dinner” with the other pilots in the building, our Flight Attendant Manager, and our mechanics. There will be appetizers in one unit, dinner in ours, and then dessert in the third. As far as the food is concerned, we were able to get a “Butterball” over here --- just not as cheaply as the States. They don’t have stuffing over here, but A brought some with her.

A found a Christian Church in Dubai so we made a test run the other day. Good that we did, as it is very difficult to find as there are no crosses allowed in this land of religious freedom. The church is actually just behind a high school and to get there one must go down a small alley type entrance. We ended up there last night for Christmas carols, and I am using that term loosely. There are approximately twenty seven Christian churches in the UAE all using a different base language. Bottom line is that we heard at least seventeen different languages sing Christmas carols. J&M would have loved it!

I’m continuing this about two and a half weeks after the previous part was written due to numerous personnel, plane, and weather related incidents have taken up so much time. These are only stories for late night or at the lake and certainly cannot be printed here!

It is now the second week in January and winter is starting to affect the flights into Kabul. The mountains around Kabul are at the 16,500 foot range with Kabul being at 5800 feet. It is really quite a sight to see the snow encroaching into the valley as the mountains have been covered with snow for about six weeks. There is very little, both physically and in amount, of deicing available so the weather has to be watched very carefully as to not get stranded up there. We would have to use ISAF facilities for deicing and it is very expensive.

There is a very delicate balance in Afghanistan between the government, ISAF Forces, and the local population. Kabul only has one precision approach which is the ILS RWY 29. I believe it was the US who just donated a new generator to Afghanistan specifically for maintaining the ILS. When the offer also came with installation, the Afghanis balked and said they had their own engineers and they should install it. They completed the installation and only “forgot” one step, calibrating the volts and freqs. So, the bottom line is that Kabul now has a solid metal box at the end of the runway that formally was an ILS. In the middle of winter in the mountains with wind, snow, and ice, we are now limited to a VOR/DME approach for the next two months or more.

Expansion is right around the corner as we have exercised Fifth Right Freedoms in two different countries that will allow us to now go to the sub continent of India (three cities) as well as getting into Europe from Dubai. Of course the hold up is hiring new pilots. It is hard to pin everyone down, but new aircraft (for us) are in the pipeline.

Our kids gave us a dinner for our birthdays at the Burj Al Arab and we decided to exercise it on Monday. It was full for dinner for all of the nights we wanted to go, so we opted for lunch. This restaurant is inside the world’s only seven star hotel. The only way you can see the restaurant is to have a reservation for either a room or one of the restaurants. Our limo driver was very pleased we had our invitation with us, otherwise we would have had to pay 250 DHRs each or $135.00 just to get in the door! Just because we didn’t have to pay it doesn’t mean the hotel get their take it in other ways!

The food and service was just superb! Tuna Carpaccio, fresh salmon, vichyssoise, sea bass; and every serving was better than the prior. I’m not a big seafood connoisseur, but if I could have seafood cooked like that, I would have it all the time. I must tell RD that I had their Crème Brule for dessert and also refused to share. It was as good as Paris.

If you have been watching the news, President Bush was here the day after our trip to the Burj. We kind of guessed where he would be when the night he was here the Burj was “closed for a private party.” I can’t even imagine what it would cost to “close the Burj!” Alice had to have her pocketbook scanned when we arrived at the Burj, but I must say it was extremely discrete. On questioning the security people they would only tell us a VIP was arriving.

The next day upon waking, there was a note under our door that today was “just declared a “national holiday” with all bridges, tunnels, and major roads closed. We actually were able to leave because that was the only way you could drive, away! We made great time back since there was no other traffic.

Christmas-NewYear

Now that the holidays have come to a close, we will try to describe Christmas in Dubai. It was different certainly. One of our first challenges was to find a church, not an easy task in a Muslim country. We did find one in Dubai, a complex which serves almost every Christian denomination except Catholic, tucked back from the street so it couldn’t be seen, I guess. Anyhow, due to Bob’s flying schedule, we decided the best we would be able to do was go to Christmas carols under the stars in the church square on the 23rd. There were choirs from each denomination that functions out of the church, most of them being Indian, Asian, African, or from the Pacific Islands and many being quite evangelical. It was a very interesting and unique evening. I’m glad we went.

Christmas day we had a sit-down dinner for 12 Safi people in our little apartment. It was a bit of a challenge, but everyone seemed to enjoy it. We even found a 24-pound Butterball. We did miss our family, but we tried to make the most of it, and Santa did manage to find us over here. He seems to think we should do some rug shopping, so I’ve been trying to learn about different Oriental carpets online. The Iranian silk carpets are exquisite, far superior to anything else, but the prices are also exquisite.

Unfortunately for Bob, all through the holidays he has had to deal with some personal issues that came up with one of the pilots. It got to be very stressful for everyone here, but at least the issue is resolved now. I don’t think Bob knew he was going to be housemother for this group too.
We actually had a wonderful New Year’s Eve. We’ve found this place called the Irish Village, pictured above, which is part of a complex also containing the Dubai Tennis Center, a variety of other restaurants, and the Aviation Club, which consists of a nice clubhouse, pool, spa, restaurant, and numerous other amenities. It looks like they accept short-term members, so we plan to pursue that this week.

Anyhow, back to New Year’s Eve, the Irish Village had an outdoor party “limited” to about 2,000 people, all outside, as the weather is just fabulous this time of year. They served a wonderful buffet and had about four bands, one of which was a good ABBA- imitation group. We had a great time dancing to all the best of ABBA. Most of the people on the dance floor were younger than our kids, but we had fun. I really think if this Aviation Club works out, Dubai is going to look a whole lot nicer, even from our dumpy apartment.

We are very excited about having a special dinner at the Burj al Arab, the hotel that looks like a sail that’s in all the pictures of Dubai. Our kids have given us a special night out, and all we’re waiting for is Bob to have his schedule set so we can go in the next week or two. This is the restaurant that you get to by “submarine,” and hopefully now the holidays are over, we’ll be able to get a reservation.

As this blog has not gone to final edition yet, we are now new members of the Aviation Club, and hopefully that will give us an avenue to the activities we enjoy and people with the same interests.

This week the Italian VP of maintenance for Safi has had his wife here, so at least I’ve had someone to pal around with. We’ve hit the souks and a couple of the shopping centers looking for good deals, etc. The best buys are in the Sharjah souk, and she’s a great negotiator. I’ll be sorry to see her go. She’s been a lot of fun.

I will have Bob do the next blog to give a little different perspective on life in Dubai. In the meantime, we do hope the new year is starting well for everyone.

ASD