Dubai Metro

The long awaited Dubai Metro will be ready by Sept 09. With most of the metro stations being built along the Sheikh Zayed Road, it is easy to spot the station platforms while driving along the freeway.


There will be metro stations in Burjuman (office) and Marina (my home), as well as other strategic locations like World Trade, the Green Community and the Dubai Airport. I wonder what will happen when the train is in operation. Will anyone in Dubai give up driving and take the train instead? And what will happen to the Road Toll? Will RTA increase the Salik charges to encourage the public to take the train?

We shall wait and let the truth unfold.

Anyone At All

Probably the most underrated song in the history of songs. It is such a beautiful song, right down to the lyrics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hs55ehTx9ow

Funny how I feel more myself with you
Than anybody else that I ever knew
I hear it in your voice, see it in your face
You've become the memory I can't erase

You could have been anyone at all
A stranger falling out of the blue
I'm so glad it was you

Wasn't in the plan not that I could see
Suddenly a miracle came to me
Safe within your arms I can say what's true
Nothing in the world I would keep from you

You could have been anyone at all
An old friend calling out of the blue
I'm so glad it was you

Words can hurt you if you let them
People say them and forget them
Words can promise words can lie
But your words make me feel like I can fly

You could have been anyone at all
And let that catches me when I fall
I'm so glad it was you

I ♥ Scotland

As mentioned in the previous post, I attended the Arup Design School in Glasgow, Scotland, last week.

Before we were held hostage for the design school and got locked up in Dunblane, we visited the Glasgow office and the City Hall in city centre. I was lucky enough to be able to sit through a live musical performance and experience the acoustics of the concert hall. The hall was beautiful with a warm finish and, of course, excellent acoustics.

The City Hall
The Concert Hall

For the next 3 days, the 36 delegates stayed in the majestic Dunblane Hydro Hotel, attending courses, making models and musical instruments out of seriously amazing range of materials collected by the very dedicated organisers.

The Dunblane Hydro Hotel

I had a great time and has fallen in love with Scotland. It is such a beautiful country. The people are very friendly and nice. Too bad I had a hard time understanding the Scottish accents but I would definitely visit this amazing place again.

London Office

One thing good about Dubai is its proximity to all EU countries.

I needed to attend the Europe Design School in Glasgow last week and The Boss thought it would be good for me to stopover in London and meet the people there. London is where the Head office of my company located.

And who am I to argue, right? So I worked in the London office for 3 days and travelled around town on Sunday.

The reception

No. 12 Fitzroy Street

Colleague who cycles to work everyday


Went to Camden Market and bought some silly things. And walked to the London zoo to spend the afternoon there.

Camden Market

The man who sold me bird-sound-mimicking mouthpiece

London Zoo


The Penguin Pool-Arup's first job

Heathrow Terminal 5

Cityscape 2008

Cityscape is an exhibition for everyone in the construction industry: Developers, contractors, architects, consultants, real estate agents and investors. Basically, it means every one in Dubai.

If you can look beyond the huge traffic gridlock the show creates near the World Trade Centre where the exhibition is held, anyone in the industry should attend this show. It is like the mother ship of all the strange, weird and expensive projects. After spending 1 hour in traffic, 30 minutes looking for a carpark lot and another 30 minutes walking from the carpark to the Exhibition Hall, I reached the World Trade 2 hours late from my schedule.

Here are some photos taken in the show.
The huge booth set up by exhibitors

Another booth

Weird Buildings

Weirder Buildings

Front View of the Weirdest Buildings

Side View of the Same Buildings

Dubai Waterfront Project

The new shoreline of Dubai- eventually there will be nothing left if they keep building all these reclaimed islands at this rate.

The Burj Dubai and the new Business Bay area

Interesting architectural model

The Tallest Model in the show

The Ferrari Building and the Warner Bros project

The Dubai Mall

And some familiar projects- The Singapore booth!

Respectful Clothing

Chanced upon this poster at the entrance of the Mall of the Emirates. I was so taken aback I had to take a picture of it.

I understand we have to wear properly if we are dinning in a fancy restaurant, or attending an opera, or going to a church. But shopping in a mall? According to the poster, I have to cover my shoulders and my knees, meaning no shorts, no skirts, no tube tops, no sleeveless tops nor spaghetti straps.

And this is a desert after all!

Luckily, it seems to me no one takes this poster seriously. I see people wearing all sorts of things here in the mall that are deemed to be "improper".

Close up on the poster

Chicken Rice

With too much time on hand because of the recent Eid holiday and a huge chicken rice craving, I decided to make, well, chicken rice.

Armed with a party pack of chicken rice pre-mix for 20 people, I had to use it all within 3 days of opening. I tried desperately to half the portion for everything so I won't die of chicken rice overload, and yet I had to cook 1kg of rice using the chicken stock.

The party pack chicken rice pre-mix
The chicken Stock

1kg of rice

The recipe was easy to follow but it was tedious. In the end, the chicken and the rice tasted a bit sub-standard. It was the packed chili sauce, ginger sauce and chicken rice soya sauce that saved the day.

Let's just say I appreciate the 2 dollar hawker centre chicken rice a lot more now.

Aquaventure

The new Aquaventure, a water park in Atlantis Hotel in the Palm Island, has recently opened. With a 5 days long Eid holiday, some colleagues and I decided to check it out yesterday.

And of course, great minds think alike. Everyone wanted to check out the new theme park over the long weekend. Look at the huge crowd!

But once we got our tickets, we couldn't wait to try all the rides and slides!

The Adventure Park's Map

There were lots of water slides and bubble rides. It reminded me very much of Wild Wadi. We tried everything except the Shark tank ride, which was a bubble ride with Sharks swimming in aquarium along the ride. It was unique but we had to give it a miss because the queue was simply ridiculously long.

The playground

The "beach"

The almost vertical slide with an appropriate name- "The leap of Faith"

We had a good time. And I took a peek at the Lost Chamber, the new water tank filled with rays, sharks, eels, piranhas and thousands of other fish species. I guess i will come again with my parents during their visit in Oct/Nov.

The Lost Chamber

More info can be found at www.atlantisthepalm.com