Chris Saul's Blog

Wednesday August 29, 2007

Passport confusion

I was a bit confused by an article in today's Gulf News. It mentions people who have absconded from their job and sponsor as having 'managed to keep their passports'. The article makes it sound like they did something wrong by keeping hold of their documents - this contrasts with numerous previous articles in the paper saying it is illegal for a sponsor or employer to keep hold of an employee's passport against his or her will.

I'm sure a future article will shed some light on the matter.

Karachi for the day

Karachi for the day today - 0800 from Dubai, arriving at 1100 and landing back in Dubai at 2330. Plenty of time for two or three customer meetings. WiFi is broken in the lounge, as it appears to have been for more than a year now, but the connection on the three PCs they have here is pretty speedy.

The crazy driving standards have not improved since my visit last October, but at least I got to feel rather important standing in the passport queue for 'Diplomats and Foreign Businessmen'.

Despite the chaotic approach to road safety in some of the places I go to, driving can be more relaxing than in Europe - in Europe I often hire a car and drive myself, but elsewhere the partner usually has one of their drivers shuttle me around. I might have to close my eyes for significant parts of the journey, but at least I don't waste time getting lost.

Tuesday August 28, 2007

How to treat your customers well

As I've mentioned before, one of my main bugbears regarding our new apartment has been the property company's inability to say if we would be allowed to buy a second car parking space or not. Yes we could, no we couldn't, we were on a list, there was no list, we could lease, etc, etc, etc.

Hooray - it now turns out we can buy a second space. After two and a half years of never getting a straight answer, finally we have been allocated a space.

During this entire two and half year period, we had always been told to expect to pay around 85,000 to 95,000 Dhs. In the adjoining development, spaces were recently being sold for 95,000 Dhs.

How much are we being expected to pay now? 190,000 Dhs. At the last minute the price has doubled.

I am not pleased.

Sunday August 26, 2007

Even the blast walls are nice

A friend of mine has just come back from Baghdad, where he was visiting a customer. He's Iraqi/British and his colleague South African.

Some choice comments (slightly paraphrased, sorry Mo!) -

'Everything's worse that it was the last time I went - I was shocked'.

'My security guards nearly got into a gun battle with the guards manning a checkpoint'.

'I didn't visit anyone in Baghdad. Everyone I knew has left or been killed.'

'We went to the Kurdish area, which was really nice. Even the blast walls were nice, with nice pictures of penguins painted on them.'

Thursday August 23, 2007

Close your doors

We went to the cinema yesterday in one of Dubai's megamalls. I found myself feeling pretty hot and sweaty while walking around - the AC didn't seem to be coping with the heat very well.

To be fair, it was pretty hot yesterday, but not unusually so for this time of year. Despite the fact I am not an air conditioning engineer however, I have some great tips for generally keeping the building cool in future:

Close the doors.

For some strange reason, lots of the doors on the top floor from the car park to this mall don't close automatically. People leave them wide open of course, so 50C humid air blows like a gale into the mall, whilst ice cool air flows outside. Similarly, people hang around the automatic doors on the lower floors, keeping them open while waiting for people, apparently to enjoy the cool breeze flowing through.

This seems incredibly wasteful and very impractical. You don't even need automatic doors on the top levels - a mechanical method of closing them would be fine and would make a massive difference. Lower down at least a simple sign to ask people to use some common sense and let the door shut would be a start.

Somebody in management needs their pay package to include an energy saving incentive.

Close your blinds

We went to see the Bourne Ultimatum last night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Not the best of the three - my preference is for number two, The Bourne Supremacy - but still very good. It's rare to get to see bits of Europe in a US film, but this had some great 'real' locations. The scenes in Tangiers and around Waterloo station in particular were great fun to watch.

Bourne seems to develop almost ghostlike power of evasion in this installment. One word of warning to the CIA though - if you're trying to protect your offices, even from someone of Jason's abilities, you really should put some blinds on your office windows, make sure the next door building isn't empty and post some security guards on your fire escape and backdoor entrance.

Wednesday August 22, 2007

Dawdling

Most of the stretch of the Sheikh Zayed Rd that I use regularly has had its speed limit reduced from 120Km to 100Km. Signs have also gone up advertising the new minimum speed limit of 60Km.

The reason for the reduction given in the newspaper was that 'speeding causes the majority of accidents'. I think something was mistranslated here. Speeding, to me, means driving above the speed limit, as opposed to simply driving at speed.

Personally I wish that the signs included instructions telling drivers to keep to the right. As I keep on moaning, we now have lovely 6 and 7 lane motorways that are blocked by drivers wobbling along too slowly in the wrong lanes.

I expect minor chaos for a while as the slowsters drive more slowly, people who don't look at the signs carry on at 120, the nutters continue to speed unabated and boring people like me who obey the rules try to muddle through.

Whilst I'd prefer to keep the 120 limit, force drivers to keep to the right and to have people who drive badly pulled over and fined, I suspect that the intention is to move towards a more American model. Thanks to people simply not knowing how to drive and wanting to learn, we'll all have to bumble along extremely slowly, albeit in any lane we choose.

I'll get used to it and it's probably safer according to the consultants who've recommended this model, but I think it's going to grate for a while to come.

Tuesday August 21, 2007

First visit to new flat

We went to see our flat in the Old Town for the first time yesterday.

A little bit smaller than I imagined, but nevertheless I'm very pleased. The property company rep even hinted we'd finally be able to buy the second car parking space we've been asking for for over two years now. Great progress...

The place isn't quite finished - keys are due to be handed over on Sept 30, but we wanted to look at it now so that we can decide if we definitely want to move in. Even though things are still being finished off I was impressed with the quality. We went there with a lady from Dubairentalservices.com, who might possibly be interested in renting the place out for us and who will do the snagging later in September. Trudy was also impressed, which was a good sign.

Everything here is within easy reach - unlike most places in Dubai, you don't need to get into your car to go to the shops, cafe, restaurant or bar. There are two pools and a gym nearby, everything is pedestrianised and a new mall and metro station are also within walking distance. The gym was orignially supposed to be free, but now there are wafflings coming from the developer that we'll have to pay for it, which I'm less than pleased about.

Enough grumpiness though - I'm amazed at the place. Mrs Saul has chosen very well. It'll be more expensive to live there than where we are now, if we do move in, but it'll be lovely.

The view to the left out of the balcony is of the Burj Dubai, currently the world's tallest building.

General pedestrian area.

One of the pools, seen from the balcony. Mrs Saul can check if I'm actually doing lengths and not just mucking around in the shallow end.

Fittings look good. So far.

Courtyard area.

The Burj is starting to get its nice silver clothing put on. As seen from the Al Manzil Hotel.

Sunday August 19, 2007

Madame is coming

My quiet state of temporary bachelorhood comes to an end tomorrow as Mrs Saul touches down in Dubai at 0810 after her annual mammoth school holiday. She's been away since early July, although we did spend three weeks together at the end of July and early August.

Her return won't only brighten my life up, but also apparently those of our security guards, the staff at the restaurants I go to and the lady who runs the Sun office cleaning team. No longer will I have to be faced with a disappointed look when someone asks 'where is madame?' and I tell them that she is away for a few weeks. My presence doesn't really seem to make up for Mrs Saul's absence. Now they can once again experience madame in full force, as she bustles in with me, beaming away, dispensing advice, top tips and locations of shopping bargains to all and sundry.

Thursday August 16, 2007

A Memory of Partition

This short video interview on the BBC, giving one lady's experience of Partition is fascinating.

I have heard some of the stories of what Mrs Saul's grandparents went through during this time, but my frivolous blog isn't the place to talk about their personal experiences. Unfortunately I don't speak Punjabi or Urdu and my remaining grandparents-in-law don't speak enough English to tell me what happened in their own words. Maybe they wouldn't want to, like many British war veterans who don't want to relive old memories?

Origins of 'Pakistan'

Reading about the 60th anniversary of Pakistan this week, I found myself wondering where the name Pakistan came from. I knew there were Afghans in Afghanistan, Uzbeks in Uzbekistan and so on, but where did the Paki- prefix come from?

15 years ago I'd have had to trek down to the library, but today Google gave me the answer, straight from my armchair.

"The name "Pakistan" (IPA: [paːkɪst̪aːn]) means "Land of the Pure" in Urdu, Sindhi, and Persian. It was coined in 1934 as "Pakstan" by Choudhary Rahmat Ali, who published it in the pamphlet Now or Never. The name represented, according to Ali, the "thirty million Muslims of PAKSTAN, who live in the five Northern Units of (British) India—*P*unjab, N.W.F.P. (*A*fghania), *K*ashmir, *S*indh, and Baluchi*stan*." The nation was founded officially as the Dominion of Pakistan in 1947, and was renamed the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in 1956."

Apparently the English "stand," "stay," "steady," and other words have their roots in proto-Indo-European, from which the word stan, meaning "place where one stays" originates.

An interesting combination of English and Urdu, Sindhi and Persian to define a new country, independent from Britain, yet with ancient linguistic and other links that continue to this day.

I need to renew my multiple visa, as I will be off the the Land of the Pure a few times this coming financial year.

I wish all my Pakistani colleagues and friends all the best on their National Day.

Wednesday August 15, 2007

Speaking at VMworld

I've just had confirmation that I'll have a speaking slot at VMworld, VMware's annual conference, being held this year in San Francisco.

I'm sure my talk will be the highlight of the week, so make sure you're there to hear a 40 minute technical talk on two of Sun's recent VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure wins in Sun's Southern and Eastern EMEA region.

Can't wait..!

Lagos trip

Today's the last day I need to take Malarone, having returned from Lagos last week - a timely reminder to write up my visit.

I was a little apprehensive at going to Lagos, having heard lots of stories of stories of robberies, traffic jams and other disasters - fortunately my trip passed without any major events. The Sun people I was there with, both based in Johannesburg, gave me plenty of information on what to expect, made sure I was met at the airport and was well looked after. Emirates fly direct and the flight there was fine, even if checking in at both ends was a little chaotic. Nigerians tend to be larger than Europeans, so the seats and aisles were quite full.

My hotel was the Protea Victoria Island - a little scruffy, but all I really want is a comfy chair and desk, a bed, internet access and a hot shower. The Protea had all of those, even if the shower only seemed to have a boiling hot or freezing cold setting. AC in the room worked fine - the weather was sticky, but its most useful function is keeping out the mozzies.

Power outages are a regular occurrence in Lagos. I counted about 20 during the three days I was there, both in the hotel and at the customer. Regulars don't even blink as the lights go out, the generator rumbles and the lights flicker back on again. I showed myself to be a complete Lagos newbie, staring around in surprise everytime we were plunged into momentary darkness. Apparently one of the Sun partners has a meeting room with no windows. When the power goes out, meetings continue as normal in complete darkness, as if nothing had happened, as everyone knows (or hopes) that the generator will kick in after a bit.

I drove a little bit around town, rather than just straight to the hotel, customer and back to the airport. What struck me was the number of people walking around, the thick traffic with ocadas (motorbike taxis) whizzing around and the general pollution. We were always in a car supplied by the partner, with a local driver, although apparently it's not unknown for the Sun guys to get stuck in a traffic jam and hop on the back of an ocada to get to meetings on time.

Public transport, as with other African countries I have visited, consists of lots of mini-busses. Whilst Ghana had old Mercedes vans, the VW Caravelle seemed to be the Lagos standard. I can understand why Japanese models are popular in right-hand drive East Africa, but what makes one make takeover in other areas? Needless to say, all the vans were pretty old and in rather advanced states of disrepair.

Some companies have armed guards move them around when visiting. The Sun guys I was with felt this isn't really necessary. Apart from attracting unnecessary attention to yourself, the armed guards often get stuck in traffic and you find yourself arriving on your own with your driver at the airport with your 'protectors' running late, twenty minutes behind you. I can imagine people get pretty fed up with guards driving inches behind them in large Toyota Land Cruisers bristling with machine guns, shoving them out of the way.

Everywhere we went I saw people being 'enterprising' - selling on the street, running a barber's shop under a bare bulb hooked on the wall by the side of the street, hawking vegetables on a corner. The local people I met at the hotel, customer and partner were all very welcoming, pleasant people, who seemed to know their stuff well. Service in the bars and restaurants I went to was a little odd - you tend to need to ask for things one at a time, as orders with more than two 'items' tend to get lost in translation.

During my last Africa trips I took doxycycline based anti-malarial drugs without any side effects. This time I was in the UK before coming back to Dubai and almost straight on to Lagos, which meant I was able to get hold of Malarone in London. Unvailable in the UAE, Malarone is more effective and only needs to be taken for another seven days after you arrive home, compared with twenty eight days for the others. It made me feel a little odd after taking it, but I found that I could avoid the few minutes of unpleasantness by taking it just before going to bed, missing the side-effects after falling asleep pretty much instantly.

In summary, if you need to go to Lagos for work, make that sure someone in the know guides you through what to expect, that you stay at proper hotels, don't drink the water and only eat in restaurants that others know are unlikely to serve food that might disagree with a whimpy English stomach. Be as careful as you would in New York or in London and I'm told you'll be fine, these days.

I expect to be back sometime soon - we have an excellent customer there and an excellent partner, both working on a big desktop project.

Can't get to YouTube right now to post my traffic videos here, but here are some photos for now. should show you the videos.

Informative sign. Missing railing on the right of it - be careful, pedestrians!

Roadside barber.

Purported sons of Sonny Abacha beware.

Nearly new, one European lady owner, only 20,000 on the clock, Guvnor.

Informative roadsigns.

This is a rescue truck, still in active service and in a better state than others I saw. What state is the car in that this guy calls if he breaks down?

( Aug 15 2007, 10:42:23 PM GST ) Permalink Comments [2]

Tuesday August 14, 2007

Kiev - the good bits

Our lads' trip to Kiev over the weekend was excellent fun.

AeroSvit flew us there directly from Dubai on a decent Boeing, albeit without any inflight entertainment. Immigration was no problem at all and we were driven in a minibus to our flats, courtesy of the letting agent and a small fee. We hired two apartments, three guys in each, with one person in each place using a sofa bed in the living room. The flat I was in was pretty nice with AC in the bedrooms and everything clean and tidy when we got there - the others weren't so lucky as theirs hadn't been cleaned, there was no AC and the shower didn't work. Ha ha!

Kiev seemed to be generally slightly wealthier than Moscow, judging by the cars on the roads - many more Western models. The city centre's clean, with wide streets, attractive buildings and nice squares. We did plenty of wandering around during the day and had some good food and drinks in the evening. I highly recommend the Arena complex for drinks and food, Chocolate for food and Decadance and Shooters nightclubs for evening activities. The Hydropark is a nice place on the river to kick a ball around and have a freshly cooked kebab.

The national evening passtime seems to be sitting around drinking beer bought from the numerous kiosks dotted all over the place. In the UK people doing that are usually annoying yobbish teenagers, but everyone from all walks of life seems to do it in Kiev. I suppose that when the weather's nice and the average monthly wage is $105, it makes for a good evening when the weather's nice. We certainly enjoyed sitting in one of the squares, chatting and listening to some buskers.

Kiev doesn't really seem to want to share its charms with foreign tourists. The street signs are in Cyrillic only, with no Latin renderings. Most of the restaurants we went to had their menu in English as well, but that said, one of the trendier places had its menu in Russian/Ukranian only, which really surprised me. Few of the people who served us spoke more than minimal English and some none at all, but we got by without any major problems.

One of Kiev's major attractions, a beautiful Church with various buildings in its 'campus' had no signs using the Latin alphabet and no information in English, or any other language, which I thought was rather odd. This meant that we queued for about 40 minutes to see what we thought would be some famous mummified monks - it turned out it was a small museum for, erm, very small things such as hairs with 'Peace and Freedom' engraved on them, tiny balaliakas and other fascinating exhibits of a small nature, all viewed through microscopes. Fascinating stuff, but a bit of a let down when you're expecting dead monks.

Although all the food we ate was generally excellent, the service was generally incredibly slow. Getting a meal took about an hour on average, with 15 minutes minimum to get drinks brought to our table.

Make the place a bit more amenable to non-readers of Cyrillic and spruce up those English skills and Kiev should see a real influx of tourists in the summer months.

I won't be upset at all if I have to go back for work...

You are going to Keeeeeve?

Interesting experience checking in for our flight to Kiev on Thursday.

Check-in Chap (CC) at Dubai's AeroSvit counter: Good morning, you are flying to Keeve?

Me: Er, I'm flying to *Kiev*. May I have an aisle seat?

CC: (Takes my passport, looks at computer, starts thumbing through my passport.)

Me: What are you looking for? I can help you find it if you let me know.

CC: I am looking for your documents.

Me: What documents are you looking for?

CC: Any British going to Keeve, Russia, need a visa.

Me: I have a multiple visa for Russia, but...

CC: I must give to document man to check. (Document man is called over to look at my passport).

Me: ...but Kiev is not in Russia, it's in the Ukraine, I'm flying there on their national airline and you're at their check-in desk!

Document Man says something to CC.

CC: Er, yes. Would you like an aisle or window seat?

Our trip to 'Keeve' was great fun. More to follow.