Annual Leave 2011 Part 1

On the 29th I returned to Abu Dhabi after over 3 weeks in the US. I had a good time and the trip was very productive for a change as I got a lot of business done as well as having some fun along the way. As always, it was great to see friends and family. It was almost like I never left as everyone looked and behaved the same. That was comforting as I need that consistency in my life. Some folks were undergoing changes because of some personal and/or financial reasons but overall things had not changed much.

The places I visited are on this link to Google Maps.

I arrived in New York, New York (the city so nice, they named it twice!) on the 9th and checked into a hotel room near the airport as it was too late to continue out West that night. I turned on the television and was shocked at the amount of advertisements! Ten minutes of content are interrupted by five minutes of commercials for medicines and food. I wondered if this was all people were interested in. One channel had what I consider one of the evils in the USA, the evangelistic, pseudo Christian "snake oil" preachers that sell false hope to people who are experiencing hard times.

Watch Your Wallet!

"Miracle" Spring Water

Wish it Was This Easy!

Anyway, this was entertaining for awhile thinking the Deity could erase my debts just by dripping some water on my noggin. May be worth a try! If it worked, I guarantee I would have a much happier expression on my face than the woman above.

New York was experiencing a record heat wave when I was there. It was 98 degrees F, the hottest since 1933. I was dripping sweat the whole time. I fared better than most as I am acclimated to the harsh UAE climate.

Ther next day I boarded a Delta Airlines flight to Salt Lake City and ultimately to St. George, Utah. The flights went uneventfully except the young lady sitting next to me slept on her tray table most of the way. When the tray tables were ordered up on descent, she slept against the seatback movie screen and I suggested to her friend that we secure a pillow in case of a rough landing so she won't bruise her rather attractive face. Must have been a long previous night!

I arrived in St. George and stayed at a friend's house. I was delighted that his two dogs remembered me and were happy to see me. For the next few days they were my constant companions.

Rayo the Boxer Dog

Bailey the Golden Retriever

Rayo and Bailey Clowning Around

Dogs have no sense of time. I could go outside for 3 minutes but when I came back in it was like I had been gone for ages and they would jump all over me like I was never coming back. I miss my furry buddies!

I flew back up to Salt Lake City to meet another friend and we went to Wendover, Nevada for some gambling and debauchery at the casinos there. Wendover is about 110 miles due west from Salt Lake City. It is where all the Mormons go to be naughty. Border towns in Nevada offer a stark contrast to the straight-laced Utah residents.

The way to Wendover is an arrow-straight interstate highway through some of the most unique lands in the world. It passes through the Bonneville Salt Flats which are well known for land speed record attempts. Every winter it rains and melts the natural salt. In the summer, the water evaporates and leaves a perfectly flat bed of bright white salt which covers hundreds of square miles.Good for racing!

Train on the Original "Gold Spike" Route

Bonneville Salt Flats

Bonneville Salt Flats

Strange Sculpture in the Desert

The ride to Wendover was fun. In addition to the above sights, I saw a weird airship hovering north of the motorway. It looked like a stationary radar blimp but no tethering lines were visible. I am not saying this craft is anything out of the ordinary but it is rumored that since Area 51 north of  Las Vegas got so much publicity, the government moved a lot of clandestine activities to the Dugway Proving Grounds in northwest Utah near where we were driving. As far as I know, the US military has not flown blimps since the 1930's. There are many restricted areas there and it is very remote.

WTF is This?

??????

Aliens?

We got to Wendover successfully without being abducted and probed by Martians. I spent three days there in the Nugget and lost 2 weeks pay. I had fun anyway playing craps and blackjack. Wendover is  home to some very strange people due to the isolation and proliferation of drugs.There is nothing there but gambling.,alcohol and crystal meth which attracts the fringe.

The Nugget

Wendover Casino

Wendover Casino

I flew back to St. George after the junket and had to take care of some business there. I had to get the laptop repaired, new tires on the car, a visit to the bank, a haircut and meeting up with friends, not necessarily in that order.

Back to St. George, Great Salt Lake Below

Snow Still on the Wasatch Mountains

Part 2 will be my journey to Las Vegas and Florida. Much to tell there.

Best Laid Plans II

It is Summer again and that means it is time for my annual leave back to the homeland. It has been over a year since I have graced (or befouled, depending on your political and/or moral leanings) my nation of birth.

The US, Something For Everyone!

I get asked all the time why I don't get back to the USA more often. Due to my vocation, I have the means and time to do so. The simple answer is that the taxman is to blame. He keeps me away from friends and family for all but a mere 30 days a year or he will make claim of a rather large percentage of the income I earn in foreign lands.


I have complained about this before. American citizens living and working overseas are penalized if they dare spend over a month back home during a year. Family emergency, screw you...you pay,  miss a flight, screw you... you pay,  break a leg and need hospital time, screw you...you pay. Get the idea? No other country treats its expatriot citizens this harshly. As a veteran of the US Navy, I am not amused. I served my country and now they hold this sword over my head.

I find this wrong on many levels. As an expat, I put no burden on the US infrastructure and I don't add to the massive debt and deficit. I feel like I am actually doing the government a favor by not living there. They don't have to feed and house me or provide me with medical care. They don't have to worry about policing me or collecting my garbage but for some reason they feel the need to stick me for taxes if I don't follow some lame random rules anyway. Even when I live 8000 miles away and have not earned a penny in the US for years. It is MY money not theirs!

Internal Revenue Service

Anyway, rant over. I am due to fly back home in a couple of days, and I am apprehensive about it. I should be happy and excited, but instead I sense a dark foreboding. I am clueless to why that is.

The first thing that happened is that a good friend/ex- coworker and I planned to meet here 4 days in advance of my departure. She was to fly from the US, we would see some sights then fly back together on my departure date back to JFK and go our own ways from there.

Simple, huh? Not quite. She was standby and got bumped off the flight from JFK to Abu Dhabi in a rare occasion where everyone actually showed up on time for the flight. Not one of the ~300 seats went unfilled.  It was an abort at the last minute. She ended up going back to her home.

I had delayed my departure to the US due to her visit and now have 4 empty days in Abu Dhabi eating into my valuable annual leave time. I could alter my plans and leave Abu Dhabi earlier but it is cost prohibitive to change my employer supplied JFK to Utah discount tickets on Delta airlines. Even if I did eat this cost and go through the gyrations of changing my itinerary (nothing is easy here!), all I would gain is 2 days because the travel center is closed today and the earliest I could possibly leave is the 6th instead of the 8th.

This is a perfect example of the "Butterfly Effect" where it is theorized that the presence or absence of a butterfly flapping its wings in a certain time or place may trigger the presence or absence of a hurricane in another time or place. In other words, series of minor, unrelated events add up to alter the lives of others. If just one passenger was delayed in NYC traffic and couldn't make the flight, my friend could have gotten a seat and my plans would have been realized and theirs would not.

Uh Oh,  Could Be Trouble!

We are not as in control of our existence as we like to think, everything is interconnected and our lives are determined by random things that happen near and far. For example, think about the circumstances surrounding the meeting your significant other. Most likely the meeting was the result of purely random choices, location and timing. Muslims have a good word for this, Inshallah. Loosely translated to, "If God is willing, it will happen". I am not sure about a deity being involved, but I think for the most part, we are just along for the ride with little personal influence in the outcome. There are just too many outside factors beyond our control.

Anyway, I will chronicle my upcoming visit back home in words and photos again as I did last year. Those posts seemed to be very popular and I will try to outdo myself this year. I plan on visits to NYC, Utah, Las Vegas, Texas, Florida, Alabama, Georgia and Chicago. Even though the start of my holiday was not auspicious with the failure of my friend's trip, I hope to have many adventures and stories to tell, Inshallah!

Songkran

I have been in kind of a mental slump lately. Maybe it is the return of the heat to this region, or maybe it is fatigue due to my brutal work schedule.All I know is that I have had a severe case of dont-give-a-shit-itis in the past couple of months. A possible cure for this condition presented itself in the form of an invitation to join a colleague and his Thai wife and 4 year old son to Thailand last month for Songkran.

Songkran is the Thai New Year' Celebration. In the old days it was held when certain astrological conditions were met that closely coincided with the vernal equinox. Elders and monks were visited and water was sprinkled on the shoulders of family and friends as gestures of good luck for the coming year. Faces of those  blessed by Buddhist monks bore a chalk marking, also a symbol of good luck.  Seems like no matter where you are there is some sort of vernal equinox celebration.It seems a universal human need to welcome the time when the Sun is aligned with the equator and daytime and nightime are equal. Christianity's Easter is an example.

In modern times Songkran has been pegged around the middle of April. Different regions of the country celebrate at different times but mostly it is observed between the 13th and the 19th. The gentle sprinkles of water have given way to water bazookas and 5 liter buckets recharged from giant bins of ice cold water. Motorists on certain streets have to run a gauntlet of revelers armed to the teeth with diabolical water dispensing devices. No one can expect to stay dry. My mobile phone was a casualty of an errant splash.

A Direct Hit on a Mobile Dreadnaught

Couple of the Valiant Troops

Waiting for the Taxis

These Guys are not to be Screwed With

Looking for Trouble

Logistics Kept us full of Beer

Thailand, Land of Smiles!

Howling at the Moon

You Fill in the Blanks! No Magnums?  Dammit!!!

This is Weird on Different Levels..What's with the Bow Tie? Formal Night?

After 3 Days of Songkran, I can Relate with these Thai Pups!

At first I was I was skeptical. How much fun can I have being squirted with ice water constantly for 3 days? Come to find out, it was a blast! I felt I was 10 years old again. It was like an aquatic Mardi Gras. What's better than the sanctioned, unlimited use of a water bazooka against others?

Everyone was in a good mood and I never saw even the hint of a conflict. I love Thailand and its people. The Land of Smiles! They know something about happiness in life that us Westerners have yet to discover.

Go to Thailand during Sangkran (or anytime), you will not regret it!

LIQUOR LICENCE-LOCATION DETAILS

My resourceful readers beat me to it, one even has GPS coordinates. Nothing is easy here when it comes to finding things.I apologize by not posting these images earlier but my internet was down for the last 4 days from dealing with a dispute with the telecommunications giant here in Abu Dhabi well known for their customer service. I think most can relate.

There are no street addresses and everyone you ask seems to have a different opinion on which direction one needs to go to get to the desired destination. It is especially frustrating when a legal requirement must be met and good intentions are thwarted due to lack of information.

IMHO, the whole Liquor Licence thing requirement is going away due to what I have seen lately, but best be legal just in case.

Below is a Google Earth view of the new office. The courtyard to the lower left is a shambles due to construction which makes it hard to find the place to park as there is no local parking and the licence renewal office is smaller than my bathroom.

Thousands of expats are trying to do the right thing and comply with the law, but this is gonna be tough!

The road at top is the Mooror Road

 

 

 

 

Good luck, you will need it!

FAI Race at Yas Island

I usually don't post twice in one day but I am in a writing mood and wanted to get this done. I went to this race two weeks ago. The venue was the the Yas Island Marina Circuit which is just a few KM's from my humble abode. When I first moved here, it was a wasteland, everything was under construction and just to get a loaf of bread was an ordeal. Now Khalifa City A as it is known has come into its own. I rarely have to venture into the city anymore.

There are world class hotels in this area now and the Yas Island complex is home to the Formula One race and many other automotive events.

This will be mostly photos...one picture is worth a thousand words!

 

Ferrari World Theme Park, I am not Kidding! Landscape Pending

Roller Coaster at Ferrari World

Yas Marina Circuit

At the Racertack

 

 

The Pits

A Dragster Built for Three, Who Would have Thunk?

One For the Kidlets!

Can we have have that in English? Damn!

Some Attention Seekers, It worked!

Looks like the good Captain is in danger of losing his First Mate!

Some Nice Ladies at the Info Booth

Twilight at the Track

A Yacht Show was running Concurrently

A Million LED's

A hell of an Engine you will not find in your everyday Kia. That would be overkill!

Where your $4/gallon is going.

 Damn, left my checkbook at home again!

Ditto!

How the Other  Half Lives

Note the cubby-hole for the Jetski.

Racecars and yachts made for a good day, I enjoy the choices I have here.

Equestrian Polo, Abu Dhabi Style

I was recently invited to a polo match. It came out of the blue and I didn't know what to think of it. I was thinking I would have to find a crested blazer and an ascot to fit in. I am not Thurston Howell III  but a simple guy who likes simple pleasures and this seemed way out of my league. I was assured otherwise and decided to go.

Thurston Howell III and his wife, Lovey

It was a beautiful Spring day and I rented a car to go to the venue halfway between Dubai and Abu Dhabi. I miss owning a car and was excited to have the freedom to go where I want, when I want if only for 48 hours. I am looking for a "beater" car to regain my independence. Taxis and public transportation have their place but there just seems something missing by not owning one's car.

Anyway, I arrived at a well groomed polo grounds. Admission was free and although there was a VIP section, we all decided to go "picnic style" as did most other spectators. Wine, cheese and bread were consumed while watching the action just yards away. Enjoy the images.

 

Pre-match procession

 

 

Ace, enjoying the action!

My Lovely Hostesses

Scoreboard, I still don't know the rules

Ae

Aerial Feats!

 

 

The guy actually missed the roof but not by much!

Even though I miss my friends and family back in the USA, I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to live and work in the UAE. I have options and experiences to be had here that I may not have had back home. After all, you only go around once.