Chris Saul's Blog

Tuesday April 01, 2008

World Cup

Didn't really enjoy the Dubai World Cup last week.

Traffic was awful, with people pushing in dangerously along the route to the venue - including, bizarrely, a VIP carrying Range Rover, emblazoned with Land Rover and World Cup branding. Great way to create brand awareness. The cherry on the top of the driving cake was the taxi chasing the ambulance down the middle of the two lane access road, driving about two feet behind it at 50 Kmph.

We had to park miles away and get a bus to the entrance. The bus seemed to be filled with the kind of English people English people leave England and come to Dubai to get away from. Cries of 'Ahm gonna p*** mahself m*********** if you dahnt stop da bus nah' and 'I've got a bomb!' livened up our trip.

We waited for about 45 minutes in the huge queue, watching people push in all around us. I think we actually pushed in ourselves, which made me feel awful, but by the time I realised what was going on there was no way I was walking to the back of the queue, so I suppose I made us as guilty as the rest.

Once in, I went off to get some drinks from the bar, where a drunk Russian guy tried to start a fight with me for allegedly 'pushing his woman'. His woman had actually bumped into me whilst shoving her way into the bar queue, but never mind.

We left well before the crush, taking a bus that was supposed to take us back to where we were picked up - which then dropped us nowhere near where we were picked up. Fortunately the random location was actually near to our car, so it wasn't a complete disaster.

Hopefully next year they will have ironed out some of the logistical problems.

Not that Scandinavian country

Whenever something's run out in Dubai, you tend to get told that the item in question is 'finish'.

As in -

'Do you have any soda water left?'

'No sir, it's finish.'

Or -

'Can we have the mutton seekh kebabs please?'

'No sir, it's finish.'

I'm currently having to fight with myself not to say -

'I thought it was Swedish?'

...every time I hear this.

An appalling, condescending joke, but one that I feel obliged to say every time.