Chris Saul's Blog

Wednesday July 30, 2008

Dubai no 1 for expats...

Seabee has some interesting comments on a recent survey about expat hotspots.

I love living in Dubai and so does Mrs Saul. Being here has given us both excellent job opportunities. We had good friends at home, but we actually get to see the good friends we've made here as we all live close to eachother and going camping, offroad driving, etc, is easy to.

When I arrived I expected to work hard, learn a lot, move upwards more quickly in my career and be able to save some money. I was amazed to discover, on arriving, that I could afford to have my clothes laundered, supermarket shopping delivered to my door, have my car cleaned, etc, etc. I remember my astonishment when I first encountered the tea boy at my last company. I didn't have to make my own tea!? Incredible. (Sun don't have a tea boy, I hasten to add). None of this was expected.

As things get more expensive, the core reasons for being here will (hopefully) remain. We'll simply stop doing the things we couldn't afford to do back home anyway - partly because we won't be able to afford them, partly because whilst we may have the money, they're simply not value for money any more. We'll miss that side of life, obviously, but whilst life returns to what I would consider to be 'normal' by UK standards, I'm banking on the fact that the other good points will remain and we will too.

Anti-social hifi engineers

Hi-fi engineers have beavered away for years, lowering costs and improving sound quality.

The result? The apartment two floors down can listen to music with crystal clear tones and a thumping bass. Sadly I can hear their bass too, at the other end of the building.

I love my Bose speakers, but I'm paranoid about playing them too loudly so as not to annoy the neighbours.

I will have to persuade Mrs Saul to move to a large villa in the country so Motorhead can play at top volume and next door's Mariah Carey will never darken our sound cladding.

Reverse Stranded

I can't find my GPS anywhere. It seems to be lost.

How ironic.

Off to India

Providing the courier company gets me my passport on Saturday with my visa inside, I will be off to Mumbai on Sunday for three days.

This will be my first ever trip to India, so I'm pretty excited. I'll be meeting members of the local Sun team and going to see a customer. Can't wait - it'll probably be my usual airport-hotel-meeting-Sun office-hotel-airport schedule, but I'm sure I'll get to see some interesting stuff along the way. I don't mind not seeing any sights on these trips - it's meeting my local Sun colleages, visiting customers that I enjoy most.

I spent a long time at the Indian Consulate in Dubai going through the process of applying for a business visa. I can't recommend the experience - it's not very clear what you're meant to do and signs are posted on A4 paper in very small letters, which means you tend to miss them. The website said I needed two photos and the visa application form said three. Or maybe I misread the website. You also need not only an invitation letter, but a letter from your local employer too, which confused me as well. I must learn to pay more attention.

Various doors were left open all the time, defeating the air conditioning. Waiting to hand my passport over to a cashier took nearly two hours in a crowded, sweaty room. Not much fun. Hopefully next time I visit someone will have fitted something to the doors to make them swing shut automatically, after seeing an irate sweaty Englishman jump up for the tenth time to push it shut.

Unfortunately you don't have the option of picking your passport up yourself. That would have been my preferred choice, as I don't have a very good track record with courier companies here. I really didn't want to go through the usual ritual of someone burbling 'what is your location' at me down the phone before driving off to Abu Dhabi all day leaving me hanging around waiting for a delivery that never arrives when it's supposed to.

Sadly you're not given the option to collect yourself and things have already gone wrong - I got a call today asking 'what is your location' and telling me to expect someone at my residence at around midday. I called at five thirty to be told that actually my passport would be delivered on Saturday. Apparently the person calling me today was simply calling to tell me that the passport had arrived with them. I was obviously imagining things when he was giving me the delivery time and telling me it'd be here today, but never mind.

If it can't be delivered today, why not tomorrow, you may ask? Thursday is a working day, is it not? Well, tomorrow is a government holiday, announced just a week ago. I don't know why a courier company that doesn't work on official holidays is being employed to deliver visas. These kinds of things tend to be time sensitive. I should have had it today, now I'm getting it on Saturday? What if I were travelling on Friday or Saturday morning? I applied in plenty of time. If Starbucks is open tomorrow, I don't see why visa couriers can't work as well. Give 'em a day off in lieu, same as me.

Using the usual approach here of pretending to get angry if you don't like the first option you're given, I was told that the couriers would try to rush my passport to me by eight this evening. Let's see what happens next...

State the obvious

It's that time of year in Dubai when everyone feels compelled to state the obvious.

You get out of your car, walk three minutes to the office and stand in reception. Dripping with sweat, you just have to say 'it's hot!' to anyone who happens to be standing around.

The heat's unpleasant, but it does unite everyone. People who'd never talk to each other in the lift might raise an eyebrow at each other, joined in common sweaty suffering.

In case I hadn't mentioned, it's hot!

Monday July 28, 2008

Gruesome, but does it work?

Driving round the UK in July I noticed lots of roads had new signs up asking drivers to be careful, along with a tally of the deaths and injuries that had occurred on that particular road or roundabout over the past years.

Pretty gruesome I thought. I wonder if they make a difference to the way people drive? As I wasn't driving I found it hard to judge. I can see this being useful at junctions - an extra warning to pay attention. Or just an obvious reason why the junction should be redesigned?

I remember that parents at my school campaigned for ages to have a proper pedestrian crossing put in opposite the school gates. If I remember correctly, local regulations meant that nothing could change until an accident had occurred.

What not to do after brunch

Dubai, or rather British expats in Dubai, was in the news for all the wrong reasons while I was away.

One thing that's annoyed me about lots of the coverage in the British press is the implication in many articles that this sort of thing wasn't tolerated in Dubai for various religious and cultural reasons.

Dubai certainly has stricter rules than Britain, what these two did would be just as unacceptable in the UK. I suspect it would be illegal too.

I believe the pair are going to be sentenced soon. I hope, for their sake, that they are treated leniently and are sent home quickly.

With all the publicity the case has generated, I expect that even the most drunken couples will manage to resist the lure of Dubai's beaches for many years to come.

Buy us, we're the most expensive

After having back in England for three weeks, I'm finding some of the ads and slogans in Dubai particularly jarring.

I usually use a laundry near where we used to live - it's pretty inexpensive, even if it's almost impossible to park near it these days. Their slogan is 'only X have the hygienic laundry concept'. Pretty innocent - possibly a classic of laundry related self-promotion.

I was in a hurry the other day, so was forced to use the laundry that's five minutes' walk away from where I live. Their advert and slogan is all about being as good as hotel room service. That instantly struck me as meaning that it was incredibly expensive and that you had to use them as there was no other choice. I crossed my fingers and hoped they wouldn't be too pricey.

Sadly this was true. My laundry was more than twice the price of my usual place and I'm locked into using them as traffic near my hygienic friends means it's becoming increasingly impractical to go there. Sadly this coincides with a whole year without them burning my shirt collars.

Why would you choose to advertise yourself in a way that suggested you cost a fortune for what's a fairly simple service? And how can they get away with being so pricey?

Thursday July 24, 2008

Too much bachelor

I am a summer bachelor again, while Mrs Saul stays in the UK, coming back shortly before the school term begins at the end of August.

This generally means a few days enjoying not tidying up, being messy and sleeping in a little too much at weekends after visiting places Mrs Saul doesn't enjoy, a few days feeling lonely, a few days feeling used to feeling lonely and then Mrs Saul's dramatic and welcome return. After the dramatic and welcome return I typically have to relearn general house rules and skills and our normal routine resumes.

It's a scenario that's a bit less common in Dubai than it used to be, but there are still a fair few husbands who spend a week or two in Dubai whilst wives and kids go home.

(The title is taken from a comment a security guard in our old building made to me a couple of years ago, accompanied by a wink and a quiver of the moustache. 'Oh Sir, you are too much bachelor now!'.)

Wednesday July 23, 2008

The UK Apprentice - perfect TV

I've just finished watching series 4 of the UK Apprentice. (Yes, that's series, not season. We have series in the UK and stick with seasons when describing the time of year, not our TV programmes).

Like the other three series, I love it. Definitely one of the better things to come out of the world of reality TV. I've only watched season 1 of the US Apprentice, so can't comment on what the others are like, but infinitely prefer the UK version to the US episodes I've seen. Some of that's clearly to do with the fact that I have more in common with the people and setting, but most of it's due to other factors. The BBC don't need to edit things around ad breaks, the production is simply superb and Alan Sugar's far more my kind of guy than Trump.

Much of the US version I've seen appears to be all about how amazing Trump is. Siralan's hardly a shrinking violet, but at least he doesn't feel the need to boast all of the time. His treats are far better too - I nearly fell of my chair laughing when one of Trump's treats was the chance to look around his glitzy apartment. Appalling.

Some observations on this series...

- Far less swearing. The effing and blinding in past series was over the top.

- Siralan's Emailer phones have gone. I presume he's given up on that particularly product.

- Gelled hair. If I were 8 years younger, would I be covering my head in splodge every morning to look cool? I hope not.

- Empty suitcases. I love the fact they all bring their cases to the boardroom and that the cases are clearly empty. You can't fit all your stuff in those tiny bags, or lift a full case so easily with one hand. Nice theatrical prop though.

- Lot of kissing hello and goodbye and constant screaming and hugging. Not very British, you know. Or am I just stuffy and out of touch?

Roll on the next series....

I would love to see a UAE version of The Apprentice, preferably a UAE Nationals only version (with subtitles of course). That would be great to watch.

Reaching out

Despite their fondness for throwing tea into the sea, America remains Britain's closest ally. I work for an American company and have the pleasure of visiting regularly. We also share a common language. This is an excellent state of affairs, as far as I am concerned.

I have no doubt that my US colleagues have a chuckle every time I say 'jolly good', 'crumbs!' and describe the United States as America.

I allow myself a little chuckle when my US colleagues ask me to 'reach out' to someone or for someone to 'reach out' to me.

'X will reach out to you' is a common phrase. I always have this vision of someone about to fall off a cliff reaching for me in desperation, arms waving, with a look of terror on his or her face.

All the person in question is usually going to do is drop me a mail checking on the number of servers we need to run a hundred Sun Rays.

Twitter twitter

I've been on Twitter for the past couple of months, after ThinGuy encouraged me to sign up.

Twitter's one of those things that's impossible to explain to people who aren't already Twittering. It just sounds rubbish. But it's fun. Basically, you have 150 letters or so to post whatever you want to.. Call it mini-blogging, if you will.

Me - You post a few words about what you're feeling, what you're doing, whatever. Friends subscribe to your 'tweets' and keep up to date with what you're up to.

Mrs Saul - Sounds strange. What do you write about?

Mr - Well, work things or whatever I'm up to or about to do. 'Just about to head off to the pool', for example.

Mrs Saul - Who on earth wants to hear about that? Who do you listen to and who listens to you?

Me - Well, I subscribe to a few work people's 'feeds' and they subscribe to mine.

Mrs Saul - Why do they care what you're up to?

Me = Well, I don't think they do particularly. It's just fun to keep in touch, so to speak.

Mrs Saul - Have you met these people?

Me - Well, I've met some of them once or twice and got on well with them. Others I've never met. I've 'known' them all for a few years via email.

Mrs Saul - Hmmmm.

Thus far, I love it. The fact I know that people I don't really know are off to church every Sunday, going to the gym or munching on a cookie is a bit odd, considering I have no idea what my best friends back home are doing for months on end. That said, when we do finally all meet, we'll probably feel like old friends. Let's see how long this particular Web 2.0 thing lasts...

Give us a language choice, Google

Come on Google. You do a great job in localising your web pages. Having had some limited experience of the cost and complexity and costs of localising products, I appreciate the fact that you go to the extents you do.

That saidm don't forget that not everyone that lives in a country speaks the language of that country, so give us a choice on your web pages. Yes, I'm a Brit in Dubai who doesn't speak Arabic (an interesting topic of its own), but I'm sure this applies to French people in Finland, Arabic speakers in Australia, Nigerians in Nicaragua and lots of other linguistic permutations.

Give us a button, a drop down list or something else so that we can understand what google.com, blogger or your other services are trying to tell us.

Monday July 21, 2008

Back

I'm back in Dubai after one of the best holidays I've had back home for a long time.

This summer break wasn't filled with the usual rush of visiting everyone. Mrs Saul and I took it easy and didn't plan too much - we saw plenty of people, but without the usual running around. We split our time nicely between Mrs Saul's family in Milton Keynes and my parents in Richmond. Perfect.

There was plenty of strolling into Richmond, walking around London and generally enjoying ourselves. For the first time in ages, I almost completely stopped looking at the time, just falling asleep when I was tired and getting up when I woke up. I also stayed almost completely away from work emails and cut back on internet time too, which made a big difference to my general levels of relaxation.

I'm very busy at work, but I really enjoy it and don't usually feel particularly stressed as such. This means I have a tendency to look at work stuff when I'm supposed to be on holiday. Whilst I don't really notice it, Mrs Saul can instantly tell when I've been looking at work things. She encouraged me to steer clear where possible and I feel much better for having done so.

Things usually quieten down during the summer, which gives me plenty of time to update all the sales material and promos I have going, sort out visas, do some hands on training and get ready for another financial year.

I'm looking forward to it.

Wednesday July 09, 2008

UK 2002 vs UK 2008

Wifi in the Milton Keynes' library, provided across the city by BT.

Community Support Police officers.

Ladies at the House of Fraser makeup counter wearing hijab.

Polish people everywhere - no more Aussies, Kiwis and Saffers serving you in London's pubs!

Smoking ban. Nice inside, but fag butts all over the streets, congregations of smokers outside building.

Driving standards dropped?

Petrol 1.20 a litre.

New signs everywhere - non-drinking zones, no loitering, low emmission, congestion charge.

CC TV all over the place.

Interactive TV with Freeview, the standard four channels still all you want to watch.