House in Progress

Got some pictures off Jeremy today of my new house. It's still quite messy in the garden, but the inside is not too bad though extremely messed up at the moment. Makes me wanna go home!!!
Here are the pics...

Front of the house...

Main Entry???

Deck

Living Room

National Day Dinner

Dubai had a belated Singapore 42 year old National Day celebration @ the Movenpick Hotel.

The program started off with the national anthem Majulah Singapura and the pledge! I haven't said that in such a long long time! Since primary, secondary school days! Brings back memories. Took some video shot off my camera. Here it is...





Listened to Prime Minister's speech on video on Singapore's progress. (not that i was all that excited, but it's good to know how your country is doing). I'm proud to be Singaporean.

Met some other new Singaporean friends along the way... I felt... at home. Haha.

i am fat and unhealthy

The first thing I heard when I stepped into office this morning was... "Hey did you put on weight... a lot of weight"

Great way to start the day. Anyway, yes i did. and so what? who's going to care?

Anyway, i've read about this really good chocolate place on Sheikh Zayed Road called Chocolat-Thé. It's a willy wonka sort of place (as I imagine it to be). Biting off door handles made of chocolate, walking on chocolate. ok that's just my imagination. Will update when i actually hunt this joint down!

Over the last few weeks, I developed asthma. Just felt like dying. Literally. Gasping for air like a fish out of water. I should stay healthy. Yet procrasination has been my friend over the last 3 months. My hospital bill cost me a fortune. - No it is not that serious. But I walked into the hospital just for a doctor consult - didn't want to go to some dodgy quack.

Uncle BoonHuat and Aunty Gina just air flown some bok choy, and Uncle Danny just brought back some Otah and beef rendang. We had such a good Singapore meal. Yum.
I just got myself some pork belly... in an attempt to cook siew yok (roast pork).

Life goes on on on... whether you're fat or unhealthy. It's good to eat pork fat, chocolates etc. It will prevent you from growing old......

and that's because you die young.

Boredom strikes again

Didn't feel like working, didn't feel like shopping, didn't feel like studying, didn't feel like reading, didn't feel like watching tv, didn't feel like sleeping, didn't feel like gym-ing...

I was down at the mall... and I've eaten dinner and feeling full and flabby. Didn't fancy the idea of shopping. I should have gone skiing.

What else can i do???? I'm so so bored!!!

Desert Team Building?!?

We had a MEP team building outing at the Desert. Dune bashing, camel rides, quad biking (for those who wanted), and an arabian dinner with a belly dancer.
A pretty fun outing with the team I would say.

We all had too much laughs. I'll let the pictures tell the story!

Sand Boarding - Guess how many fell over?

That was the mountain of food. Mostly for Liby because he's going back to India to get married!

Liby in the middle - the almost married man.

His indian tradition, they had to place an ad and go for interviews to find a bride. That's just a totally different culture. Interesting i would say.

Another day in Dubai

Fel, Sean and I decided to take a long afternoon break after lunch. Drove around Festival City

This place is suppose to be the largest private development currently. But as of course, everyone is trying to outbeat someone. You'll never be at the top for long.

Anyway, it's quite a nice little community with a really pretty golf course.

Took David and Sean down to Jumeirah open beach to take some stupid pictures after work. I only have a stupid picture of myself- but i made both of them do the same thing... haha.

Went to Ibn Battuta for a feed. Being in the MEP building services line... David was just hunting around for all his airconditioning stuff... it was so well hidden, I thought it was part of the facade. This is a picture IN the mall... feels like you're outdoors...

Happy National Day Singapore!

Marikita ra yat singapoura sa masa ma mernuju bahagiya, cita cita kita ya mu lia, berjaya singapura. (Haha, obviously that is my limited malay knowledge).

and Happy Birthday Dad!

Oman +++

Haven't been blogging in a while. Mum and Dad just left, so I've been really busy with just settling in by myself.

Yup... busy with work and buzzing around... Was just up in Musandem, Oman with some of the diving enthusiast. The boat brought us out to Limau rock.
Yes I have sea phobia... rather, diving phobia. It was certainly not a good day for diving. One nearly died - he ran out of oxygen, and another sat on a sea urchin. They shall remain anonymous. (that's why i'm not showing the face! - but it's pretty easy to guess the spiked butt)


Decided on a safer sport - snorkelling. Did see quite a few fishes closer to the rocks. Nice and pretty. I'm sure it must have been prettier further down. Plus kayaking - which was really fun too.

Baby sat Faith and Jedi whilst their mom and dad went diving. Ah... it was a great weekend.

Crap!

Mum put a Ecard.exe virus into my lap top. It died. Plus I didn't have the recovery disc!! It's all back in Melbourne. Anyway... on the bright side, I got a new Sony Vaio Laptop. Windows vista is crap. so slow! Manage to save part of my documents... sigh.

Anyway... Mum and Dad has just left Dubai... and for the first time, I'm in Dubai by myself. Before that, I was crashing in with Danny, David and Mona. Now, I've moved in to my apartment. Ahh... feels so different.

home... finally!

Finally, after almost 2 months in Dubai, I've moved into my new home. It's a small little 1 bedroom apartment @ the marina. After getting all my furniture (some of which are second hand), I had to figure a way to arrange them. I have this small tiny space, and in my excitement, I bought too many furniture. Sometimes I couldn't let a good deal slip by, so I had to get it (even though I didn't quite need it.

That's the living room. I like the coffee table. It's this 2 blobs - one red and one black. Can't explain, so here's the picture.

Couldn't really fit my 3+2+1 Sofa. So i put 3+2 in a row. Looks ugly, but it's the best I could do to squeeze it in! I like my carpet! Big red "E"!

Got a huge King Size bed. Still have not bought some sheets and pillows yet... Shopping for all the smaller items can be quite a headache. You don't realise what you need until you want to use it!

And my Kitchen... Nothing fancy. Still quite empty at the moment! All I needed was the basic essentials of a microwave, oven and stove! Food comes later!

The only mismatching colour to the whole house - the toilet. Everything else is red cream and brown. With a strong clash of Blue and purple. Who cares. It's my bathroom!

Anyone is of course most welcome to crash over!! No worries... I have sufficient sleeping area.

Happy Birthday Lawrence!

Wishing you a Happy Birthday!! When are you leaving for London? Catch you around hopefully, and whenever and wherever - Dubai, Singapore, Melbourne!

Best Wishes to my 2 friends...

Congrats to my 2 friends - Jeff & Shirlin - on your wedding day. Sorry I couldn't make it.

It's a good 07.07.07 day. Once in a century! God Bless... and may you 2 have little ones running around soon! Catch up soon!

Highly Stressful Week

This week has been a nightmare. Been goin to meeting at work, with clients threatening to fire you. Not like some small client, but one of our larger ones. Never in my life has anyone said something like that to me! It is so hard picking up from someone. Urgh..

My shifting in date has been postponed from the 6th July to the 9th. Had to ring all the places to get my furniture deliver dates changed. Missed a couple, and had people screaming at me. What's wrong with this place!!!

This is just the beginning... life in a developed place with underdeveloped people.

I'm glad Mum and Dad are here. They just got in last night... At least I get some help with all the moving.

And yes... to you know who... happy birthday if you're reading this.

Celebrations

Was invited to Boon Huat's birthday dinner last weekend @ Prime Ribs at the Le Meridian in Dubai Marina. Boon Huat is Danny & Mona's schoolmate from younger days - so he's having his big 50th bash.

We were scratching our heads thinking of what to get him for his birthday. This guy has everything. So we thought a funny gift would suffice. Went to a little mall near Stephanie's place at the Meadows. Got him a mug that read "Brain Dead from Mon to Fri 9am - 5pm", and a big huge bean bag with a big "MACHO" word across. Good gift for a 50 year old.

Check the presents out!

Shooting

I fired a real gun with live rounds. Yeah yeah, I know it's cheap thrill for those who has been in the army... but yes I was really excited.

All started because I was stressed and needed to shoot to relief stress. Haha. Not really. I was about an hour early for my meeting at the shooting club - working on the infrastructure and building expansion... So I went to the range with Felipe. I shot with a .22!

Pretty pleased.... Check this out! - Not too bad for a first timer! *pat on the head*

Frustration

Dubai's first toll has been introduced and it kicked in today.
The hot topic on the radio, papers and in the office was the traffic diversion and chaos caused by the infamous SALIK tolls.

Being kiasu, and wanting to avoid the tolls, I became one of the suckers that added to the jam. It wasn't too bad in the morning. (of course - I left home at 6:15am). But it still took me a little longer. 45 mins, instead of 30 mins.

This afternoon, traffic was crazy. Maktoum bridge was so congested. Took me over an hour and a half to get home! This was at 3pm, not peak hour at 5pm. Can't imagine what it would have been like otherwise.

I attempted getting the SALIK card, but it was all sold out!!! So even if I wanted to pay and drive through, I couldn't!!! Stupid system. They are so unprepared. Introduce some stupid tolls without proper planning.

It's bad traffic for the next few weeks!

Skiing Season?!!?!?

Went Skiing today with Brendan & Paul - both from work.

Well, it's pretty cool going skiing during a 45 degree day.

This was the 3 of us before the skis, hoping that we wouldn't have to use any bit of company's insurance policy we had

It was freezing inside. Temperatures we hovering about -4 to -5 degrees. Well, we just had a thin layer inside, and a ski jacket on the outside. Normally, we'd survive that. But the 3 of us didn't have gloves - no we were not too cheap to get them, but we just forgot all about them till we got inside the slope.

3 runs in total. Surprisingly the black run was steeper than I expected it to be. Well, it's not all that steep as compared to the runs in Melbourne. But the snow was quite hard. It was not the soft fluffy type of snow you get at the ski mountains. (duh... it's man made).

We had a 2 hour pass for 150Dhs (about 50AUD) each - which was pretty good - included ski hires, lift pass, and clothing.

By the end of skiing we had frozen hands (and I had frozen feet too). Took a picture of my white numbed toes, but don't think i should post that picture up.

But of course, in the 45 degree day, we got ourselves thawed pretty quickly. Headed off to the Ibn Battuta to do some light shopping, before heading to the Madinat for a drink.

Had some dinner at some road side type stall - Karama (Indian) Style.

It was a fantastic day.

My new RAV4!!

Finally, I got my new RAV4!! White with tinted windows!

Sweet!! Words can't describe how excited I am! Here are some pictures!!

JT goes to Abu Dhabi to eat Roti Prata

Roti Prata was the highlight of the trip. It was probably the one factor that urge me to say "yes i'll take that 1.5 hour trip to AD". Took a drive with some other group of Singaporeans who've just arrived not too long ago too.

First stop at Abu Dhabi was the Emirates Palace Hotel. Really nice and majestic place. Unlike the Burj Al Arab, anyone can walk into the Emirates Palace Hotel. There was this grand feeling about the whole place.



There was this lady playing the harp at the lobby. It was my first time seeing someone play a harp live. She should have worn white wings and a halo.


Some private developers (maybe govt?) are planning to create a museum city. There was a museum of models in the hotel. It is planned for construction on the coast of Sadiyat (don't know if i spelt right) island - apparently AD has about 20+ islands, and Sadiyat is one of the largest island. A planned development of about 4/5 museum - one of which would be modelled after the Guggenheim Museum.
All the buildings looked really futuristic, all designed by reknown architects. Just can't explain what they look like. It's just amazing - almost like a final year not-feasable-to-build and go-crazy architectural student project.





The AD Marina Mall was the next destination. Hung around there for just an hour and a bit to kill time before we headed off for dinner at Naluketta - the Roti Prata House. (It's at the Yatch Club next to the Abu Dhabi Mall - for those who need directions there, use your GPS!).

That's my ROTI PRATA

The Roti Prata was sooo good. I'm not quite a fan of indian food. But i really enjoyed this meal. It was just fantabulous! The Sambal Sotong (Squid) was soooo good.

3 weeks and not counting

I've been here in the hot desert for 3 weeks. Over this period of time, I've met so many faces, and I'm having so much problem matching names to face. Plus all the middle eastern faces look the same to me, and they have similiar names too... Fadi or Farhad. Haha. I am finding it hard to differentiate indian people too (no- this is not a racial comment).

This week, I lost my accommodation at Lamcy Plaza. I was looking forward to moving there end of July. The current tenants decided not to move. Too bad for them, I paid my deposit, and gave them a cheque for 1 years payment! But they rang me and pleaded with me. I felt so sorry for them... so I'm homeless.

Good news, I'm moving in with Huilin now!! So i'll be living now in Al Barsha (5 mins walk to mall of emirates - that's where the ski slopes are). Woo hoo!!! I'm paying much less (so i can go for more frequent holidays), and I get company.

Yesterday I had the worst traffic in my 7 years of driving histroy. We were stuck on Sheikh Zayed Road for more than 2.5 hours (when it would normally take me only less than 30 mins). 30km of start-stop drove me nuts. They say, you'll get used to it... but how can anyone get used to it! Thank goodness I'm always against the flow of traffic (except for yesterday when I had to go on site for a meeting).

Car hunting continues this weekend. - It's Friday. sigh