**On the Camel Walk**

This is the best news I have heard in awhile... they are going to clean the camels:



ABU DHABI - At least 2,000 camels will fill the desert surrounding Zayed City in the Western Region of Abu Dhabi, all washed, brushed and looking their best for the first international camel beauty contest.


Organised by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) under the patronage of General Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of UAE Armed Forces, the Mazayin Dhafra Camel Festival 2008 will take place on April 2-10.


Owners of camels from both UAE and other Gulf countries are welcomed to bring their animals to the festival, in which prizes totalling Dh35 million and 100 cars, mostly four-wheels and pick-ups, will be given away.


The camel contest will be split between Asayel (pedigree) camels from this region and Majahim (dark-skinned) camels. Only pure-bred origin camels would be allowed to participate and they must be free of any contagious diseases or serious defects.
Apart from the camel shows, the festival will also showcase Bedouin traditions and folklore. “Every evening there will be poetry recitals and music,” said ADACH Director-General Mohammed Khalaf Al Mazrouei, who is also vice-chairman of the organising committee of the festival. “Also, local ladies will set up a souq featuring handicrafts and traditional clothes,” said Al Mazrouei.


“People will come to the festival for two reasons – to enjoy the shows and to enjoy camping in the desert,” Al Mazrouei pointed out.


Indeed, camping will be pretty much the only option for those wanting to enjoy the festival, apart from Liwa Hotel, which is located about 60km from Zayed City. The organisers, though, are offering all necessary facilities for overnight campers.


Hammoud Hamid Al Mansouri, Director-General of Western Region Municipality Council, added that environment protection will not be forgotten during the festival.


“We will provide garbage sacks and encourage everyone not to leave their waste in the sand, while we will also have cleaners who will make sure all rubbish will be collected,” he said.

**Burj Dubai View**

So, here is the view of the fog over Dubai from the World's Tallest Building, The Burj Dubai:

Now, I guess there is a little bit of an excuse for the car accident the other day. However, if you build up enough to create a new weather system just around your city, then there should be more preparation for living with the new situations!! My 20-story hotel should be at the bottom, right-hand corner of the picture.... to give you an idea of how tall these buildings stand.

**Holidays v 2.0**

So, I completely skipped over my Christmas holiday to Spain. My family met me in Madrid and then, we drove to Valencia. I flew through Amsterdam and did not think about the temperature difference. It was about 70 degrees when I took off and VERY COLD when we landed. I am in flipflops and a tank top. (Yeah, I am one of those snazzy business class travelers!!) When I got to Spain, it was raining. And that was the condition in Madrid most of the time we were there. I was freezing and coming from Dubai, it was a shock that no one spoke English. Everyone here speaks English. The signs are in English. Business is conducted in English. English and service oriented. Spain, especially Madrid, could have cared less that we even tried to speak Spanish. They could not have been more dis-interested with us. Apparently, they thought we were British and there to steal their land or something.

If you are interested, here are some photos and video of the days we spent in Madrid. The car we had was smaller than ANYTHING allowed in the US. The car parks were made to fit the cars with spirals of death as entrances/exits. That is what the video is supposed to be but it was dark and my camera can only do so much!!

Enjoy!!

**HATTA**

So, in December, one of my colleagues demanded that I not work the whole day of Saturday and join their trek to Hatta. While I assume that means we would be dune bashing, I was completely wrong- it is the milder, mountainous region of the UAE, near the border of Oman. So, we have a lovely early afternoon of driving through the area and seeing the local sites and then stopping for lunch.

This would be where I ran out of camera battery but the pictures are OK nonetheless. So, we set up a little camp for lunch in the Wadi. A new thing I learned is that a Wadi is is a valley and in some cases, it can refer to a dry riverbed that contains water only during times of heavy rain. Interesting.

So, we finish lunch and it seems that instantly everyone is rushing around to break camp and pack up. I asked what was going on and my coworkers informed me that they didn't like the dark clouds over Oman at that moment because if it rained too hard there, the exact place we were having lunch would be hit with a flash flood; the prior year 13 people had died in the same . I am instantly motivated to the point that they are no longer moving fast enough for me. They inquired as to my new found nagging and I simply reply, "If you knew my friends then you would understand. I moved the the Middle East and live in a desert. If I die in a flash flood, they will never let that go!!"

I heart my friends. They raise the bar.

**More Birthday Fun**

So, I had Rugby the weekend before my birthday and my actual birthday on Tuesday and the the "office party" on Thursday afternoon/night. Here are the pictures from the last event; shared with my colleague, who is in the first picture in the album with me. It is weird. We have a small office of about 25 people and there are 2 sets of people who have birthdays on the same days. Must be the water!!

Everything's Bigger in Dubai

Thank you all for the emails checking on me to make sure I wasn't involved in the 350 car pile up on the border of Abu Dhabi and Dubai. I was not. I was already safely at work! The official story was that the initial accident was caused by fog. Here, people drive with their hazard lights flashing in fog instead of these handy things, called FOG LIGHTS! So, you cannot tell if they are signaling to change lanes. (They don't normally but whatever).

So, there was an accident and cars caught on fire. I believe that is where all this "fog" started. Then, since people here are very busy and cannot be bothered, they would drive in the breakdown lane around the accident scene and hit people as they were getting out of their cars and running away from their burning vehicles. This blocked the emergency vehicles on ground and the smoke from the initial 22 cars prevented the helicopters from assisting.

What have we learned from this? Four words: FOG LIGHTS, DUMB ASSES!! I sit here more confident than ever in the driving capabilities of American citizens. Please watch these videos for further proof. First, this is a normal day in the airport tunnel; and second, they installed a new speed bump and chaos ensued!!