Gustav

Hey now. A call out to all my buds in Cayman getting ready to ride out Gustav. Did they run out of names or what. How about Gary?

Thoughts and prayers are out to Paul A, Mike D, Bryan and Martene ( the stories these two will have for children) Gary and Christene (my homies away from homies), Clay and Paul G. Get to the shelter and chill. Stay safe and hopefully this G-Cane will truck on out quickly. You guys are heroes. And Gary great job on the evacuation, I am sure you had plenty of help from the gang.

Also thoughts and prayers to any other FD or CSDL and all other friends on the rock hanging through it all. All of us Abu Dhabi are thinking about you.

All the best.

Shots all Around

I had this great idea that I could take pictures of all or most of all the tower cranes that are in Abu Dhabi but like all cool little projects I dream up it turns out to be bigger than I thought. Along with the idea of taking pictures every day whilst out and about. Which in itself takes some skill when you’re on your own and driving. Do not try this at home. Actually quite normal traffic in Ad.

By the way there are cranes in the distance. Anyway I took a few random shots to share. Let me say this about the construction and cranes here, there is a lot of building going on. (stating the obvious) Even more than you can imagine. And when you think you have seen many the air clears of the haze and off in the desert there is more. I think the best way to get a feel of how enormous the building is to to helicopter and tour. I am going to look into that.

Here is a hornets of cranes at one site:

The picture above is not a great shot (check out the Pacs sleeping under the tree) but zoom into the sign and check out what they are building. It’s crazy but true. Come on USA let’s get to producing and building!

Another site, not a great shot but zoom into the sign. Another glory building:

This little digital is doing great and easy to conceal but I would like my 35 and some time to hone in on all of the photo ops. Yeah, yeah, yeah you don’t give a rat’s arse about this BS. Your tired of construction shots. Heres a few randoms.

Boat. This may seem odd but it’s not. Like cranes there are wooden boats all over the place. I like this one. . It smells like old people and soap. Dude there are friggin boats in the streets collecting dust. I have asked but no one has given me a sat answer. Whatever. After I tire of cranes its boats. And in case you don’t know the geog there is a bunch of sea near by. The boats are sort of biblical but… maybe historical.

“This way to the mall” Another drive by so the signals are in the way. Turn right for Marina Mall.

Shot of the Emirates Palace. Where the G7, or 8 depending, hang when there in for business. Went there they have a couple of great exhibits including a traveling Picasso show which for this neck of the woods (sand) is as risque as it gets. I will try and provide a link. Remember you can zoom.

here you go http://www.emiratespalace.com/en/home/index.htm

unreal… I have plenty of room but if you want to visit and stay at the best try here and let me know!

Okay thats the pics today and now something you’ll really like. What is it Rocky? The F1C project made a Fluor email news flash which unfortunately is un-forewordable or copyable. There was a cool link that will take you to Abu Dhabi F1 GP to give you a tour of the track being built and what my project is linked to. Try http://www.abudhabigp.com/english/the_circuit.aspx Now check out the whole site including touring Abu Dhabi and you may just see a picture there that shows up in earlier posts. Think ball on building. (And BTW I was mentioned in the article, good stuff)

Whew! Do you know how much work that it is for an oldster? Got a package from home this week with some goodies! More clothes but it’s like Christmas getting prizes. Oh and BTW Ramadan cranks up in September so I will keep you posted on that seen. I am going to amaze you with future building shots. This was nothing.

Cheers and keep commenting. Makes this a lot saner. (Thanks Ann)

Friday Friday, so good to me

This week has been way busy. But a lot of cool things happened.

-I sent an email to good friends in ATL haven’t conversed with lately and got a hit from JimBob and Carol. Two old cronies from back in the day. JBzhouseofweb.net has been around for years so he out blogs me by a long shot. Old school blogger. Good people.

-Got out with Chicken Man one more time for dinner and it was delish but the whole experience left me fuzzy the next day. The older you get the harder you fall.

-Abby Dhabi is back in cool school and I am absolutely positive she loves it . Johny-O should be about to pack up and get back to FU. Now we have to get T over for a visit.

-Got out for a golf today. Not near as hot but towards to final few holes it was starting to bake. Good fun as always.

-Project keeps getting hotter by the day. Kickin up some dust at the site and stirring the pot. Pictures soon come.

-Tips: You can click on the pictures posted and zoom in for a closer look.

-You can comment! Just go to comments Willis (Ann)!

Friday is over mostly. See you tomorrow……..

A View or two and a Pomfret too

I have been meaning to do this. Take a few pictures from atop. My apartment has a gym on the upper level with a pool and views out east and south. After burning some calories this morning I got my camera and shot a few. It was very muggy and hot at it took about 15 minutes for the fog to clear out of the lenses.

So…East-ish

then a little bit left and north…

and now back right an south…

This one is up a bit to show this building being constructed. Notice the tower cranes. See anything unusual? It is to me anyway and I notice another site with a similar condition with regards to the cranes. There are lots and lots of tower cranes in AD. A subject for another post down the road.

and sneaking further right and north again…

You have seen this building before looking up. To the left there is a similar looking building. I believe both are Etisalot buildings otherwise known as the phone and cable service.

Now one more….

I worked on this picture a bit to point out one image. Right of center far off is a tower being built. It’s hard to see in this shot but it has tower cranes on it. Where this tower is being built is where one of our project is located. You can probably tell it is very hazy and muggy.

oh heck one more…

A little auto correct takes the haze out. This is right of the ball building and down towards the streets. The road to the left and running away is 7th AKA Ziad the 1st and takes me to the office and back among other things.

Wow lots of buildings and just from this view!

Got a round of dehydration golf in yesterday. Lost 3 pounds and drank a ton of fluids. Chicken Man is about and out to dinner we went last night. The Fish House and man was it good. Pick all of your seafood and veggies out from the buffet and they cookem up to order. Prawns, scallops, lobster, sea bass ( not from Chile) Pomfret and Jack Xs 10. Topped it all of with lychee and ice shavings. Now that was unique! Just a pair of old construction hands diggin the seen in the middle east!

Which part of the meal was this?

Couple of questions today for our viewers. Lets see if anyone get the answers.

Too bad we didn’t have the camera with us last night especially the part where we drove through the hood with all of the boys out. As Steph would say “what a hoot”.

Cheers

MORE NEWS and its about foxing time

So last weekend more shopping was in store….And I took myself to another mall that I had not been to. Now going to the mall to me is generally not first on my list of past times but I got to admit the malls in here are pretty groovy and when you need basics they gottem. And of course mall could be without goodies such as:

Thats right no Dunkin here in the UAE. Only the good stuff! KK.

And of course the ever present:

Starbucks of course. (I turned 180 and took these pictures) Starbucks won’t be closing down here anytime soon.

Anyway got the goods after a couple of trips. The malls have groceries stores which is a bit odd but it works. This one has a LuLus which is like super Wallmarket with no products made in the USA. Well not many. Front of mall entrance coming up.

The Khalidiyah Mall. Not a great shot but where I was.

So no golf this weekend but hooking up with more players here and thanks to the Chicken Man my very own bats may be here tonight. Thanks to Tracie for packing up the goods and for the other goody box which arrived today.

Settling in is still part of the process. Spent part of my weekend with the Foreign Maintenance Committee FMC which consist of an India/Pakistani coalition that determines that the problem with your A/C is that your windows are open… but they’re not. (In a high rise mind you) Not the fact that they are dumping 100 % humidity unconditioned air into the flat which is condensing on everything and the walls are wet. “Mr. Tim we have solved the problem.” Bless them its not wet now but about 18 degrees. You can’t always get what you want but if you try sometimes you will finally get Fox News and the other cable channels you have been requesting. “We check Mr Tim and you have Pallea gold service. ” Not.  But as of today that is also fixed. TV is funky and watching the Olympics in Arabic. You don’t really need the commentators. Go USA.

Tracie and I have been Skyping. Ha! Young St Nick married now and ole Mikey kickin about… barely. Missing my Abby Dhabi. John is playin in the band and about to hit Y2 at Furman.

Another addition. Please keep in touch.

Cheers

ishtimbull

Abby wants camel pictures. I didn’t see any today locally but if you Google up camels in Abby Dhabi you can get all of the scoop including camel racing which is a big to do later starting in Octoberish. Did you know the jockeys are robots! Owners race around the track in Hummers with remotes! Can’t wait for that action. Abby I will work on this and is at the top of my to do list.

Also to get a feel about the area just Google up Abu Dhabi maps and check out the pictures. You can map around and switch to satlelite but the images are old. My apartment is a hole in the ground. I am still working on getting more pictures. My goal is to shoot a few pics a day whilst driving but driving is a chore and I do not dare turn my head too much.

So.. today i went to a training session on a web based information transfer site called Aconex. Somewhat like Projecttalk if you are keen on that. I’ll spare you, but if you are really interested email me. On the way to the forum a Turk called me and ask if he could help me with directions and offered me a lift. I had it covered so I met him and two Indians at the villa. Our trainer was from Serbia. 1 South kackalacky, 1 Turk, 2 India, 1 Serb. Vlad, the Serb did a pretty good job! Anyway I checked out after two hours while the Indians figured out how to upload movies. Weird. So worldish.

Still improving the AD home base with +- essentials. A + essential today was a measuring cup. Seems so basic but I did not have one. Found contact solution, another +.

Whilst typing I got and sent an email to Sueboo (dude). She found the blog so she is a patriot. Johnny-O Skyped me as well also a patriot. (For just getting up – pinhead). BTW get some Skype and hook up! It’s free! We can Skype if you want to!

TT AKA Chicken Man to bring sticks on the next haul also a Patriot. (this will cost me)

I found a few other web sites including alloexpats.com. Gives up some good info on a variety of subjects all over the expat world.

In conclusion if you want to know anything google-ish it. Amazing! Back in the day it was all Encyclepedia Brittaninca and National Geographic. Once a month or a life time depending on green stamps and a trip to the A&P.

It’s latte. Cheers

here fore

A bit about work. Is conception reality?

Welcome to the  Formula 1 Cafe. Located on the Corniche in Abu Dhabi. It contains a restaurant, media center, showroom of F1 Cars. Sexy yes?

The design underway. Design-Build concept. Contractor selected. Been meeting with both and pushing for mobilization.

Personally I have been working on project services and planning for Fluor and the Client. Not much action on site but will ramp up. The building is concrete and structural steel, obviously a lot of glass and the roof feature is fabric stretched on steel trusses. The roof structure is based on the front wing of a F1 race car some what inverted an also has the eagle or falcon feel to it.

There is a race track for the F1 series being built in Abu Dhabi which will host a race in 09. Hoping to see that area soon. Tickets for the race will be sold at the Cafe.

So that’s the skinny! Should keep me busy for awhile. The project is getting the proper publicity. I will post some other pictures later during construction. The reality part.

Cheers

:-0 fore!!!!!!!! :)

Okay went to play golf today Abu Dhabi style, actually in Al Ain. So let’s cut straight to the conditions. When we started at 9:20 AM it was not too bad just a bit of wind but after the turn, the hot got hotter. 44 degrees (111.0) and dehydration cometh. Even the A/C carts were not much help. But it was a good day and not that bad until about the 16th hole. Limped in to the 19th. I was the DD and not sure how my partners drank two Heinikens. I had diet and more water. Rented clubs and shot an 88. Played the day with one Titleist. Could have been better, two bad holes. Typical. Oh and it got hotter about 48 but by then we were truckin back to AD in the A/C.

So you will see: The club house, the prayer room (every club house should have one for checking in with the golf gods) The club house and stands ( links are within a horse race track) and maybe a bonus picture.

Tracie Please send my clubs/shoes/shirts. All days playing golf are good days.

Club House

Prayer room. BTW I was putting on some hole when there was a call to prayer. Missed the putt but made par.

Huge Oasis here with horse track and facilities, shooting club, golf and other stuff. Mostly under construction. You can also see at the bottom of the picture the brick paved cart paths.

David and Jack. Sweet club house and bar.

Super bonus On in two! Really!