What a Holiday!

Christmas carolling at Dubai Festival City Mall

What a holiday! Parents and little sis Hazel came here for Christmas. I took 2 days off, one on 18th Dec (school celebration at Justin’s school) and another on Christmas Day (nope, Christmas isn’t a holiday here). But I’ve been sick the whole time thru, and the work is shit, with big tenders due after the New Year, and bosses getting jumpy (over the lack of …progress, they want them completed by the 31st …but submission’s only on the 7th and 8th, so we technically still have time!)

If only the bosses can understand what a procrastinator can do in the last minutes before a deadline. But I’m not the boss, so here’s a short end-of-the-year post before I get back to slogging on the tenders.

Hope the planned New Year’s Eve record-breaking fireworks in Dubai can bring back some festive mood to the season. Looking forward to 2014!

Here’s a little bit of the Christmas flavour from Dubai before I sign off. Happy New Year!


Light, Sound and Water Show, Dubai Festival City Mall (…why do people give grand sounding names to a friggin makeshift musical fountain) …peanuts compared to the grand Dubai Fountain at the Burj Khalifa




Church play at our local Friday church (New Covenant Church, Dubai)


Family pic at Justin’s school on Grandparents Day (yeah, there’s such a thing, first time I ever come across such a day!)


Justin with his grandma and aunt, with a gingerbread man picture he made at school


Another family photo, Burj Al Arab, Dubai

Bravo Dubai!

A cane swirling Arabian dance, at the Mirdif City Centre, Dubai

Dubai’s won the World Expo 2020! We were looking forward to this to boost the economy. Now hopefully, there’d be some new projects. Hopefully, that’ll bring better job prospects, …and salary increases (of course, that’s what jobs are for!) Hopefully, the landlords and the business owners don’t start jacking up the prices so soon. Shit! They’ve already started! Bloody opportunists! One colleague’s already shifted house and another one’s searching for a new place. And the news keep going on about rent increases all over the UAE.

Let’s see what comes out of this now… Some recent pictures of Dubai for the time being. Nothing much’s changed since the last we left here in 2010. But the people and the cars on the road have certainly multiplied in the last few months!




A funny looking metal sculpture at the Gold Souk of the Dubai Mall






A Fashion Show at Souk Madinat Jumeirah

Dubai hosts a string of exhibitions, trade fairs and international events. It’s like there’s an event or two every week in Dubai, especially at the Dubai World Trade Centre. We hear it every day on the radio. This week alone (or was it last week?), I’ve heard that the China Homelife Show, some International Jewellery Exhibition, a Gulf Traffic Exhibition and an exhibition on Education are on. And then the Dubai Film Festival will be here maybe next week. So far we’ve visited the Gitex fair (an IT and electronic fair) and I’ve visited the Big 5 fair (the largest construction fair in the Middle East). And we’ve sort of crashed into a few events like the Dubai Grand Motor Parade, a Bollywood promotion of a new movie Krrish 3, with the cast and producers present, causing a normally quiet shopping mall to be filled to the brim with people…


The Dubai Grand Parade in Downtown Dubai in conjunction with the Dubai International Motor Show – picture taken from the car while stuck in traffic full of super cars. Ever seen a Ferrari Police Car? The Dubai Police have it, or more like have some.


A Break-Dance Competition in Dubai Festival City




Here’re some pictures of Justin’s school in Dubai, Uptown School


Anu & Kim at the Ibn Battuta Mall


Our home in Dubai on Justin’s 4th birthday

Justin 4 Ers Old

Happy Birthday Justin! With Amy, daughter of our friends, Dong Weihong and Li Lei

Justin’s turned 4! And for a change, I’ve decided to upload something recent, instead of past old events. …OK, it happens that I actually have the camera in my work bag, so... that explains, hehe.

This year has been a year of high adventures. We’ve visited 7 countries, flew umpteen times, stayed in a host of different hotels, visited I dunno how many places, travelled thousands of kilometres on road… and snapped a gazillion photos with the trusty ol camera, and the phones, and the tab, whatever we could get our hands on basically. So here’re some photos of Justin’s adventures this year. Just a very random selection. Luckily he doesn’t like to keep still for photos or we’d have a gazillion more photos of him.

Just a quick update. Justin’s started schooling now. No pictures of him at school, yet. (Pretty impossible to make him stay still for a photo, as usual). He spent the first week at school in Kindergarten 1st year (KG1), drove the teachers’ crazy within that one week, changed his class to Pre-K (the year before KG1), and that’s where he is now. He loves school, coz there’re lots of play stuff and friends, and nobody forces him to eat at school. He has daily battles with his mom at home about eating.

He still loves cars and all types of vehicles. His favourite toy of the week now is a garbage truck. He can name most of the cars we see on the road – Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Peugeot, Renault, Honda, Mazda, Hyundai, Kia, Land Rover, BMW (his favourite), Audi, Volkswagen, Chevrolet, Ford, Mercedes…

He talks a lot now, but only on topics that he likes, …like cars, and drives us crazy. His own language has more or less died out in favour of Standard English now. He no longer calls himself Duntin, and will correct me if I call him that (which I still do sometimes, purposely, hehehe). Here’re some of the last traces of Justin’s language before it’s completely forgotten – Engain, Blathy, Plato, Thurken, Chicken, Dedi, Heva, Endader, Pepe, Ers Old, Compinter, Kiwi, Konhe, Dra-dra, Masala, Moodles (again, battery, petrol, curtain, kitchen, already, have to, another, paper, years old, computer, his wee-wee, his bump (because when he was young, every time he passes gas, his mom will ask him ‘kaun hai?’ meaning ‘who’s that?’ in Hindi), rumble strips on the road and anything rough, noodles, also noodles…) Also, previously, for any word starting with an S followed by another consonant, the S would be silent. For example Step, Stand, Stone, School and Spit will be Tep, Tand, Tone, Cool and Pit respectively.

OK, I’m leaving it at that for the time being. No time (and no more imagination) to come up with good writing ideas nowadays.


Justin, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India, on New Year’s Eve, Dec 2012


Mihintale, Sri Lanka, Jan 2013


Dambulla, Sri Lanka, Jan 2013


Ayutthaya, Thailand, Mar 2013


Wat Arun, Bangkok, Thailand, Mar 2013


Ferry across to Penang, Malaysia, Mar 2013


Khoo Kongsi, Penang, Mar 2013


A waterfall at Lake Kenyir, Terengganu, Malaysia, Mar 2013


Feeding the deer, Lake Kenyir Resort, Terengganu


Perhentian Islands, Terengganu, Mar 2013


MacRitchie Reservoir, Singapore, Apr 2013


A small temple at Lalpani, between Fulertal and Jiribam, Assam, India, May 2013


Justin and mommy, Dubai, Sep 2013


A boat ride to a sea arch, Qantab, Muscat, Oman, Oct 2013


Bimmah Sinkhole, Oman, Oct 2013

Pictures of a Project Past

A road cutting through the rock, KM68 - 69, Pune-Solapur Highway - Picture compliments of Alex Wong Chark Yee. He presented this picture to most of us as a souvenir. Thanks a lot mate!

Have been stuck in the head office for the last 6 months now, doing mostly tenders and project support. Have visited I dunno how many project sites, but not being involved directly with one particular project is a big change from my previous stints. I’m not complaining as I get the weekends off, hehehe, but after being connected to project sites for so long, this just feels different. Kinda miss the times that I can play king, and make things happen at my command hahaha...

Here’re some pictures of my past project in India, in various stages of completion, pictures I’ve collected during the course of my work. There’re hundreds, maybe thousands of pictures, but I’ve saved just a few in a special folder for remembrance and posting, just in case I run out of things to post. And so here it is.

This should keep my blog going until I get time to sift thru the hundreds of pictures taken this year! Yeah, this year so far has been a really interesting year, in terms of holidays that is… especially during the transition time in between employments.


More pictures of the KM68 - 69 stretch, at different times. This one is from the early stages, Mar 2011, rock excavation in progress.


Same view as the above (ok, almost the same view), for comparison, with road works completed – Nov 2012


KM68 - 69, one service road through, the main carriageway and another service road to go – Oct 2011


KM68 - 69, rock breaking of the carriageway in progress – Nov 2011


Culvert construction KM70, in the vicinity of the large Cipla pharmaceutical factory, Kurkumbh Maharashtra Industrial Development Corp (MIDC) area – Dec 2011


Ups and downs, what a design? KM70 completed, Dec 2012 – Another picture from Alex Wong


Half-completed Patas Toll Plaza KM65 – Dec 2012


KM62 bridge concreting, Jun 2011 – the crappy old boom pump in the picture will prove to be one of the most important machines in our Project, with everyone fighting over it until at least near the end of the project. There’s a crew of full-time mechanics, operators and helpers dedicated specially for this machine, to make sure that it doesn’t break down.


Road construction inside Yawat town (KM43), the most congested part in the Project – Nov 2011


The Deep Canal under construction, KM79 – Mar 2012. See previous post ‘Back to Reality’ posted 25/July/2012 for views of how deep this is. The far end of the road is where the KM80 Railway Bridge is.


Launching girders over the railway at the KM80 Railway Bridge (or more commonly known as an ROB in India, short for Railway Overhead Bridge) – Dec 2012


Road paving works at the approach to the Railway Bridge, during the monsoon season – Jul 2012


Indian Independence Day Celebration 2012 at our Project Office

The Festivals Continue...

Kids, dressed up for a celebration, at the Firangai Mata Temple in Kurkumbh, Daund, Maharashtra – The little girl in front is the daughter of Ambadas Bhagat, our local office boy (cum office priest, o yes, we have an office priest, don’t mess with us!) (Picture – compliments of Thangaraju, my Malaysian colleague)

Last weekend was Deepavali (or Diwali for short in many parts of India). Here in the UAE, we got a 3-day weekend (Fri-Sun), thanks not to Diwali, but to the Islamic New Year (aka Awal Muharram in Malaysia). Nope, didn’t do anything ambitious. Went to church (it’s on Fridays here in Dubai), and had lunch at the pastor’s house (again, in conjunction with celebrating a church member’s birthday). On Saturday evening (or more like night) we had a barbecue in a park with the church group celebrating the pastor’s birthday. Not much photos as it was at night, and whatever photos we have are still in the camera (as usual). Creek Park was surprisingly crowded at night, with loads of people picnicking, barbecuing, and just plain having fun. There’re kids running all over the place till at least 11pm at night.

In another place (I’m thinking Malaysia), the only people you’d find at a public park that late at night would be young lovers, gang members, drug addicts or suicidal citizens looking to be robbed or stung by a hundred mosquitoes. The beauty with Dubai is that is has NO mosquitoes, none so far anyway. Wonderful huh?

I’m putting some photos of some of the festivals that used to grace our boring routine lives while we’re in Maharashtra, India. That’s the beauty of staying in a country with so many gods. Luckily for these festivals, if not I can’t imagine how tensed up we’d be (especially the missus) when yours truly used to work six & a half days weeks, topped up with unending telephone calls coming at anytime from the horde of heroes and villains of the Project.




Procession at the Firangai Mata (or Devi) Temple, Kurkumbh 2011 in conjunction with… I have no idea, there’re temple-related functions and celebrations every other week! Every temple has its own special day, there’re about a hundred and one temples, or more in our stretch. Now, do the math. (Pictures – compliments of Thanga)


The annual Tukaram Phalki procession / pilgrimage – June 2011. Every June, we have to shut down our road construction works for 3 to 4 days to allow the procession to pass through. About 25 km out of our 54 km stretch of road are affected. Tens of thousands of pilgrims (I don’t know how many, but there’re a lot) embark on a month-long procession from Dehu, near Pune to Pandhapur, a journey of about 250 km, on foot, sleeping in makeshift tents along the way set up by the organizers and villagers. (Don’t ask me how they deal with their daily toilet needs coz I have absolutely no idea.) The centrepiece of this procession is a palanquin (phalki) carrying the things of the Hindu saint, Tukaram.


Tukaram Phalki 2011, at Chaufulla


IJM Trucks cleaned up and garlanded with flowers in conjunction with Vishwakarma Puja, the worship day of the Hindu God of Engineers, Architects, Craftsmen and the like. This day, by the way, is the only day in the year that you’d see machines, trucks and tools in India cleaned up and properly arranged.


Having a feast on Vishwakarma Puja, IJM Girim Camp, Maharashtra


Anu and a neighbour, at our apartment grounds in Daund, on Ganesh Chaturthi 2012 – a festival dedicated to Lord Ganesha, the Hindu elephant-headed god. This is one of the biggest festivals in Maharashtra, and you’ll see countless temporary Ganesha shrines (mandaps or pandals in the local language) set up all over the place.


Anu with a another friend, parking lot below our apartment, Daund


Anu & Justin, Deepavali 2012, Daund