(Take 1 was posted in 2010).
Dusk at the Dubai World Trade Centre, during the Big 5 Exhibition 2013, an annual construction exhibition, with the Emirates Towers and Burj Khalifa in the background
A brief update. Just completed some major tender works. A couple more due in 2 weeks’ time. That’s life. Tenders, tenders, tenders. Do the paperwork, get the job and pass it onto others. What a drag! I’d rather be in the team executing the works. At least I get to see the result of my hard work. But, …that’s not for me to decide. So I just sit quietly in my little corner, do my work, and …do what I’m doing now (ahem, in my free time, that is).
Dubai is a nice city. It is also a boring city. After all, what’s new to see after 4.5 years?! There’re still a lot of tower cranes all over the place, but not as many as in 2008 when we first arrived. Many of the old tower cranes are gone. Some old ones are still standing proudly gathering dust (the building developer must’ve decided to make this a permanent feature). Some new tower cranes are springing up (which is a good sign for people like me). Construction is still happening all over the place (luckily – definitely a good thing for me!)
Dubai is especially nice when it rains, …like once in a year. …Now if I can bloody figure out how to get to the car without getting my shoes wet… – International City, Russia Cluster, Dubai
Dubai’s defining feature (apart from the malls, and the fantastic architecture, and the miles and miles of man-made shoreline), i.e. the endless amount of fabulous desert sand, is still all over the place. It’s still nicely decorated with lovely (read, ugly) electrical pylons (how can we live without them). There’re no new fantastic parks yet (they’re under construction …excited!) We’re expanding the roads even wider (…even more excited). 6 or 8 lanes are for small fries, we need 12 lanes at least on our roads (heck, 18 lanes would be even better). The car and truck population is still increasing (that’s why we need 18 lanes), never mind that most of these cars travel to and from neighbouring Sharjah and the roads there have miraculously remained the same (almost). Traffic jams are a daily affair (probably due to unchanging Sharjah), so that we have time to catch up on some daily news on radio when driving, and on important topics such as which coffee is the best for health, what pet to keep at home, what benefits an olden time vinyl record has over a CD or an MP3, who bloody won the Rugbies 7, etc. (No, I have no idea what Rugbies 7 is?)
Here’re some sand and pylons to brighten up your day
And some sand on the highway, …I mean road (there’re no highways or expressways in the UAE, all of them are called roads, or streets. I guess it’ll only qualify to be a highway if it’s 24 lanes and above?)
More sand – seen from my office building, during and after a sandstorm. Taken on the same day
Some fabulous desert sand. Oh, this is not Dubai, by the way. This should be somewhere in Umm Al Quwain, near to the road leading to the Barracuda Beach Resort
The nicest thing about now, is spending time with the missus and the 2 kids. Yeah, nothing better than being a family man. No more working inside jungles, or high in the mountains. No more drinking nights out with the boys, ...or the girls?! No more non-PG rated movies or fine dining with the missus. No more sleeping till noon on your off-days, unless you’re trained in sleeping on a trampoline (yeah, the little ones can really jump).
Now it’s Justin’s homework and shopping for groceries. It’s about where to bring them kids on the weekend. It’s about how to save money from the miserable amount of salary I get versus the exorbitant costs of living here, especially to send the kids to school. On the plus side, now I don’t need excuses to play with Lego or plasticine, And I can watch whole cartoons without the missus nagging (if I’m lucky). I get free arm and back workouts for carrying little Jayden (that little fellow’s a parasite when I’m around).
All these fun family activities should keep me young and fit. And it is, to some extent. My weight’s maintaining at 69+kg, the waistline is still at 32”, and my body shape is as it was before, …if I remember to suck in my belly, that is. People say I’m looking thinner, on the face and on the upper body. Well, what can you expect when you have to sit in the office for 9 friggin hours every day in front of a friggin computer? Gravity naturally causes things to go downwards, right? …towards the belly?
My eyes are still good, …for seeing things far away. The problem starts when I wanna read things on the laptop (darn it, it’s the computer again), or the bloody text on my smartphone. My blasted hands are just too bloody short to hold the phone far enough for me to read. Darn hands! But these eyes do help me get some exercise when I’m eating. The reason why I’m standing up more frequently now while I’m eating is because I wanna see clearer what I eat.
Back to my face, besides being less chubby, I have two stubborn sun-burn spots, one on each cheek, that doesn’t seem to go away. My wife calls them brown spots. (And my mom calls them freckles! …How on earth does a Chinaman get freckles?!? Beats me!) The loving wife’s spent hundreds of bucks (maybe thousands now) on dark spot correctors, serums, scrubs, you-name-it, for me. I think it’s working. It’s now changed from brown to khaki.
Enough of me. Think I’ll stop here for now, it’s getting too long. To be continued…
Meanwhile, here’re some more photos of life in Dubai.
My office, in DIP (Dubai Investment Park) …after everyone has gone home
Inside the Pyramid Centre Building, where niece Karishma works
Trying out some Lebanese Food, …didn’t impress much, …friggin dunno how to order
And some Mexican food, …don’t really remember the food, only the sombreros, and that Anu can make an Asian version of the guacamole with more kick (i.e. chillies) than the one we had at the restaurant
Justin, with Bumblebee of the Transformers, at the Gitex Fair, an annual IT exhibition in Dubai
Another pic at the Gitex Fair, 2013
Dusk at the Dubai World Trade Centre, during the Big 5 Exhibition 2013, an annual construction exhibition, with the Emirates Towers and Burj Khalifa in the background
A brief update. Just completed some major tender works. A couple more due in 2 weeks’ time. That’s life. Tenders, tenders, tenders. Do the paperwork, get the job and pass it onto others. What a drag! I’d rather be in the team executing the works. At least I get to see the result of my hard work. But, …that’s not for me to decide. So I just sit quietly in my little corner, do my work, and …do what I’m doing now (ahem, in my free time, that is).
Dubai is a nice city. It is also a boring city. After all, what’s new to see after 4.5 years?! There’re still a lot of tower cranes all over the place, but not as many as in 2008 when we first arrived. Many of the old tower cranes are gone. Some old ones are still standing proudly gathering dust (the building developer must’ve decided to make this a permanent feature). Some new tower cranes are springing up (which is a good sign for people like me). Construction is still happening all over the place (luckily – definitely a good thing for me!)
Dubai is especially nice when it rains, …like once in a year. …Now if I can bloody figure out how to get to the car without getting my shoes wet… – International City, Russia Cluster, Dubai
Dubai’s defining feature (apart from the malls, and the fantastic architecture, and the miles and miles of man-made shoreline), i.e. the endless amount of fabulous desert sand, is still all over the place. It’s still nicely decorated with lovely (read, ugly) electrical pylons (how can we live without them). There’re no new fantastic parks yet (they’re under construction …excited!) We’re expanding the roads even wider (…even more excited). 6 or 8 lanes are for small fries, we need 12 lanes at least on our roads (heck, 18 lanes would be even better). The car and truck population is still increasing (that’s why we need 18 lanes), never mind that most of these cars travel to and from neighbouring Sharjah and the roads there have miraculously remained the same (almost). Traffic jams are a daily affair (probably due to unchanging Sharjah), so that we have time to catch up on some daily news on radio when driving, and on important topics such as which coffee is the best for health, what pet to keep at home, what benefits an olden time vinyl record has over a CD or an MP3, who bloody won the Rugbies 7, etc. (No, I have no idea what Rugbies 7 is?)
Here’re some sand and pylons to brighten up your day
And some sand on the highway, …I mean road (there’re no highways or expressways in the UAE, all of them are called roads, or streets. I guess it’ll only qualify to be a highway if it’s 24 lanes and above?)
More sand – seen from my office building, during and after a sandstorm. Taken on the same day
Some fabulous desert sand. Oh, this is not Dubai, by the way. This should be somewhere in Umm Al Quwain, near to the road leading to the Barracuda Beach Resort
The nicest thing about now, is spending time with the missus and the 2 kids. Yeah, nothing better than being a family man. No more working inside jungles, or high in the mountains. No more drinking nights out with the boys, ...or the girls?! No more non-PG rated movies or fine dining with the missus. No more sleeping till noon on your off-days, unless you’re trained in sleeping on a trampoline (yeah, the little ones can really jump).
Now it’s Justin’s homework and shopping for groceries. It’s about where to bring them kids on the weekend. It’s about how to save money from the miserable amount of salary I get versus the exorbitant costs of living here, especially to send the kids to school. On the plus side, now I don’t need excuses to play with Lego or plasticine, And I can watch whole cartoons without the missus nagging (if I’m lucky). I get free arm and back workouts for carrying little Jayden (that little fellow’s a parasite when I’m around).
All these fun family activities should keep me young and fit. And it is, to some extent. My weight’s maintaining at 69+kg, the waistline is still at 32”, and my body shape is as it was before, …if I remember to suck in my belly, that is. People say I’m looking thinner, on the face and on the upper body. Well, what can you expect when you have to sit in the office for 9 friggin hours every day in front of a friggin computer? Gravity naturally causes things to go downwards, right? …towards the belly?
My eyes are still good, …for seeing things far away. The problem starts when I wanna read things on the laptop (darn it, it’s the computer again), or the bloody text on my smartphone. My blasted hands are just too bloody short to hold the phone far enough for me to read. Darn hands! But these eyes do help me get some exercise when I’m eating. The reason why I’m standing up more frequently now while I’m eating is because I wanna see clearer what I eat.
Back to my face, besides being less chubby, I have two stubborn sun-burn spots, one on each cheek, that doesn’t seem to go away. My wife calls them brown spots. (And my mom calls them freckles! …How on earth does a Chinaman get freckles?!? Beats me!) The loving wife’s spent hundreds of bucks (maybe thousands now) on dark spot correctors, serums, scrubs, you-name-it, for me. I think it’s working. It’s now changed from brown to khaki.
Enough of me. Think I’ll stop here for now, it’s getting too long. To be continued…
Meanwhile, here’re some more photos of life in Dubai.
My office, in DIP (Dubai Investment Park) …after everyone has gone home
Inside the Pyramid Centre Building, where niece Karishma works
Trying out some Lebanese Food, …didn’t impress much, …friggin dunno how to order
And some Mexican food, …don’t really remember the food, only the sombreros, and that Anu can make an Asian version of the guacamole with more kick (i.e. chillies) than the one we had at the restaurant
Justin, with Bumblebee of the Transformers, at the Gitex Fair, an annual IT exhibition in Dubai
Another pic at the Gitex Fair, 2013
2 comments:
Hahaha.. glad you still look the same to my eyes. And yes, I the brown spot is called pigmentation. I had a few on my face too. Had to use a concealer to make my photo looks good during my recent trip. I went to see skin specialist about it. She gave me some darn expensive creams and warned that the brown spot shall return. It did (I mean return) very much sooner than I expected. I regret having to spend thousand bucks at her clinic.
Aswana, you pun adakah? I ingat I aje yg ada. Tapi I tak boleh pakai concealer...
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