Hail to Victors!

Hello All
Today is the third day of my five day break and it is hard to handle. Decisions, Golf, sailing, fishing, shopping, do not know what to do! Weather is perfect. Played and won our second round of a match play yesterday, I parred the last hole to win.

My partner Len, ( with the red hat) from Wales managed to defeat Kevin, an American ( in the blue shirt and his son) we were up 4 holes at one point but the lead narrowed to one till the last hole. A lot of fun. As you can see the skies are clearing up and you are able to see the nearby mountains easily.

Woke up early this morning and had breakfast then went back to bed and slept till noon. Tring to decide what to do today, perhaps go to Dubai.

In the photo posted you can see some of the construction workers here, it is no wonder building here continues at a hectic pace. they pay these workers $250 a month! The mall they are building across the street is quite large and should be quite nice. I am thinking of putting a store in there. I will need someone to run it and I will pay more than $250 a month! What I am thinking is a store selling exclusively American goods. From everyone I have talked to it should work nicely. I have by far too much time on my hands and need to expand my horizons.

What I need to know what do we still make in America? Give me some ideas.Another idea is bringing big SUVs here., they love them! For myself I would like to bring an Element here for my own personal use, can't find them here! The Element would be ideal here, if that isn't possible I will probably buy a Exterra. The off-road scene here is really big and I would like to partake.

My circle of friends is growing larger and we are all in the same boat. The Arabs stick pretty much to themselves and the expats the same. Right now I am stuck with the dellema of which golf club to join, right now I belong to Tower Links, located in town and Al Hambra which is here where I live. The social life at Tower is much better and I have most of my friends there. But if I party there I need to take a taxi home. Then take a taxi back to pick up my car in the morning. The courses are both quite nice and the greeen at Al Hambra are much faster becauce they irrigate with purer water (less salt). Both courses have nine holes that are illuminated so play during the hot months is possible.

If you look at the photo that I am standing alone you can appreciate the size of the sand traps that are here, although the sand behind me is a waste area, you can ground your club. My sand game is getting quite good! The hole behind me is a long par 5 and has mangroves on the right and trees on the left. You need three good shots to make the green. And let me tell you EVERY green is well defended with traps. All the traps are as deep as you are tall.

Hope some of you visit and play.

Take Care
Mike

Long Weekend

Hello Everyone

Been awhile since reported. Happy to say I will be coming home to Toledo for the holidays. Has been quite cool lately 70's. Rained again last night, quite a thunderstorm, streets flooded again because they have no sewers. They pump all the sewage into tanks and then a truck pumps it out, nice.

Right now I am on a five day holiday Friday-Tuesday, nice! Practiced at the club this morning and am getting quite good at the short game. I will probably do the same tomorrow.

This place is so interesting, looking forward to the opening of the mall across the street. They say it shoud open up by the end of the month. I walked thru it today to see the progress and they still have alot of work to do. There must be 300 workers on the project, when I walked through the mall they were all on break, about two hours I imagine and they were all laying down taking a nap.

This place is so different, but nice.

Mike

Happy Thankgiving!

Hello All and a Happy Thanksgiving

The weekend has begun here with a torrential rainstorm. I am at home now and from what I hear this the place to be. The Arabs have no idea how to drive in the rain, not to mention the blowing sand and slippery roads. It hasn't rained seriously in months and the area is prone to flash floods and the roads become very slippery. Right now we are experiencing some severe lighting and the sattilite TV just went out. I am sending this blog out by modem so that is not a problem. I can just imagie what the roads are like.

I am hoping you all are or have had a good Thanksgiving, I usually have to work anyway so it is not a big deal. However I miss going to Chuck and Belma's place after work for Turkey day dinner. It has been raining heavy for over an hour and it will be interesting to see the aftermath. The street is flooded and fortunately I live on the third floor. We could get some serious flooding.



Looks like I get my check ride on the 11th of this month. They are in no hurry and neither am I, no pay raise and nothing changes except I have to work the boring afternoon and night shifts. They finally nabbed me at the beach today and I was informed I must buy a membership for close to $3000 a year, from now on if I want to go to the beach here I must now pay about $30 a day. Should have slipped the guy a 20.

Enjoy the attachments

Take Care
Mike

Hello All

Just some more photos that I have uploaded. Things are going well and I have a big tournament today. The annual Serco Open, sponsored by my employer. I am playing with a Canadian and two Britts., should be fun. really didn't do too much today, went fishing, took a walk to the beach, made lunch and took a 4 hour nap.

this is really a nocturnal society. Took a taxi into town and went to a couple of clubs and had dinner. Came home and am back at the computer.

As far as the job,; it is going well and hope to be checked out this week. The hardet part for me is to say feet when issuing an altitude. I have never said feet for over 30 years and old habits are hard to break, you see the Russians use meters and that is the reason feet must be used. Go figure!

Last night I was invited to visit the home of one of the pilots I talk to every day. Alan and his wife Shandra are very nice people and he a captain that flies a B757 for RAK Airways. Their villa is walking distance from my apartment and we had a great time.

Living here is very interesting and fun. There is so much to do but you need to be respect the culture. Living here you come in contact with so many different cultures. Chinese, Russian, Arabic, German, British, Itialian, African, Etc. I can count on one hand the number of Americans I have met. Not a bad thing!

Take Care
Mike

Hello All

It is Friday afternoon and I am getting ready to go to the beach. The winds are nice and steady I may rent a small sailboat at the hotel beach club, and watch the sunset. Clear skies and a nice breeze. 88 degrees and it feels cool in the shade. 30% humidity, the next few months are going to be nice. Woke up this morning and decided to work on my short game, the practice facility at the club is 1st class. Driving range, chipping green, putting green, and sand traps. All this is included in my membership. Finally figured what I am doing and feel more confident after hitting over 300 shots. I plan to play Sunday afternoon, two tournaments, one Wednesday and one Saturday.


Friday is the holy day here and mostly everything is closed. Everything at the resort and the big grocery and big stores are open however. I live about one half mile from the beach and it is quite nice, you are supposed to pay an entrance fee but I just walk in. Nobody questions me.

Got a new rental car, Mazda 6, bigger and better than my previous, cost me 60 dirhams to fill it up. About $16 dollars, They are turning the mountains here into islands, a lot of stone dust in the air and because of that you need to have your car washed every other day. The drivers here a crazy! They all think they are Formula one racers.

I have three days off this weekend and on Sunday I have to get a National identity card. New rule...without one you can do nothing here, buy a car, open a bank account, nothing. I am living in an apartment with several RAK Airline pilots and found out yesterday that a controller from America that works at Dubai lives down the hall from me. Small world!

Saturday I delivered a resume for a friend and then went to the the club to practice my short game. After practicing for a couple of hours I went home and went to the beach for a couple of hours. A bit breezy but nice and warm. Watched TV, over 800 channels! This place isn't bad!

Today I went to get my National identity card. Something we should think about in the States. The real estate market is starting to show weakness, people who bought earlier in the year are realizing losses in their investment. There seems to mirror what happened in the States two years ago. People were flipping homes here making enormous profits. That is not the case now. I played golf in a outing that was sponsored by a real estate company. www.alfaraaproperties.com The real estate market here is going south. The problem here is they keep changing the rules. In the past if you bought a property you automatically received a resident visa, no longer the case, hypothetically you could own property and be unable to reside there. Go figure. Getting ready to watch NFL live Bengals vs Eagles.


I will toss some photos on the post. Enjoy!

Take Care
Mike

Sharjah a nice suprise!

Hello all
Today was very interesting and fun day. Yesterday I called a friend that I had met in the USA through Chuck Boss and informed him I ready to visit. He had given me a open invitation to visit and I called Mohammed. We meet at a local shopping mall in Sharjah. I realise that many of have never heard of this city but you are in for a shock. Quite a place this city is almost crime free. Totally dry, they bulldosed the bars and nightclubs when the Saudis bailed them out financially 10 years ago.

Sharjah is quite close to Dubai in terms of mega-structure, take a look at the photos. The Place is beautiful and of course nice and warm!

My friend put out a very nice spread and the meal was chicken, rice, eggplant ground up like hummas, tomato and cuke salad, very nice! Then we had tea, chocolates, and some really good coffee.

What an experience! I am blessed to know such good people here, We Americans need to wake up. It is the governments that screw things up and not the people. Ours especially under Bush.We all have families that we love and and we are more alike than different.

Mohamed's daughters remind me of mine when they were growing up. They were mischievous and full of energy. Reminded me of mine at that age of 4 and 5. Beautiful family I am honored they invited me into their home.

The last photo is the view from my friend's apartment. 22nd floor and I am had idea Sharjah was so nice. This is 35 minutes from my apartment!

Coming here was the best decision I have ever made except asking Karen to marry me. I just had the guest bedroom furnished. Come over over and visit!

I may take a short weekend trip to Jordan soon . Based on what Mohammed says, Jordan may be a very nice place to visit it is only 3 hours away and looks like fun. I plan to see this part of the world and hope to introduce you to my new home. Very, very, different but nice.


Talking ATC is really different. I really started to have fun working traffic the other day. I felt good because when your trainer comes over to ask you whats going on after an hour of busy traffic, it feels good because it tells me I am almost ready for checkout. They want me to work a couple on evening shifts for familiarization but that's no big deal. What can I tell you this place is awesome!

O yeah, played golf 4 rounds last week!

Take Care
Mike

Typical Day

Hello All

Today was quite typical, woke up at 5:30, made breakfast, eggs, bacon, hash browns, juice, and coffee. Quite tasty! Showed up at work at 7:30, started training at 7:45-9:45, took a half hour break, back to training for another two hours, called it a day. Drove straight to Tower Links for a round of golf. Today it was 97 degrees with 50% humidity. Towerlinks.com Zipped through the course in about 2 1/2 hours. My sand game is getting better! I am beginning to read the greens better and learning how to manage the course. from the tips the course measures 7200 yards. I play the whites, enough for me. The course was built on a mangrove swamp and the mangrove comes into play on nearly every hole. Enough said. I talked to the manager today and he said he would give me a deal if I can get a foursome together for a week of golf. Let me know if you are interested by e-mail.

Finished my round and took a shower in the locker, mandatory here! While driving back to the apartment stopped at the local grocery store and picked up a few things. I had quite a few thing to bring up to the apartment so I asked one of the Indian boys that work here to help me with my things. I had spoken to this young man earlier about cleaning my apartment on a weekly basis and we sealed the deal. He will thouroughly clean my apartment for $13.62 a week! Because of the sand and dust your car gets dirty very quickly. I have another boy that washes my car every other day for$32 a month. he washes the car in the morning before I go towork. Saves me time and is worth it. Everybody calls you sir and makes you feel like a VIP. My cleaning boy just arrived! This is so cool!

A little insight to the culture, the Arab men are quite friendly, but the women are theirs and theirs alone. Women are held in high regard and protected. Threre are separate waiting rooms for women in all public facilities and they go to the front of the line. Muslim men can marry outside the religion but women cannot, go figure. I met a guy called Saddam and asked him some probing questions, interesting to say the least!

You would not believe how the upcoming election is so big here! Everybody I meet, once finding out I am American asks me who is going to win. I have not one person who favors McKain. Neither do I. I am here because of the Republicans. They screwed the air-traffic controllers and I decided to leave my job and family because of Bush and the Republicans. Albeit it was probally the best decision I have ever made. They do not care about the working man and never will. Big business, Big banks and recent history has told us where that has taken us. After all the bail outs has your interest rates gone down? McCain is Bush reincarnated. Vote Obama!

I will along with the rest of the world will await the results of the election.

To my NATCA brothers and sisters, ATC here is very different. All of you have spoken to pilots that have a hard time with English. Here everybody has! From fire trucks to all kinds of vechiles it is really bad! The Arab are bad, The Russian pilots are especially bad and they have to have interperters! The facility is non-radar right now. The FPLs routinely refuse traffic and holding is the norm. We own SFC-6500. MAP climbs to 6000. We can accept arrival at 7000 but thats it. Helicopters climb to the nearby mountains on resupply missions, effectively cutting off out airspace evert 10 minutes. Stripmarking is totally different. Frequencys cannot be combined but GC and LC, and APCH are, do not ask me why. Constantly jumping from one position to the other.

I have typing too long but I am sad to say I looked at the watch schedule and it looks like I will be here for the holidays. I kinda figured that. They have me for coverage which is a good indication how things are going.

Take Care
Mike

Settling In

Hello All

I am finally moved into my new apartment and it is exceeded all my expectations. Two bedroom, new, and furnished. I have been picking up a few things here and there and made a pot of chili today. The ingredients here are not the same but it is edible. I didn't let the beans soak long enough.

About a half of a mile from my place is a 5 star hotel called Al Hammra Fort, wow what a place! So farI have counted three pools 8 resrtuants 8 bars and nice beach. Enjoy the photos! Although the beach is for guests only I just walk out there and nobody hassles me, people from all over the world come here for a vacation. Alot of Russians, Itialians, English, Europeans, Irish, you name it they are here. Language can be a problem but a couple of beers takes care of that.

Seriously this place is the finest resort I haver ever seen. Perfectly manicured gardens, service unheard of and not that expensive especially if you do not need a room. I have that covered.Two nice golf course,one here and one in RAK, my club Tower Links, and one here. Tgey will be completeing a new mall here by the end of the year. I heard the new Dubai Mall will be opening soon with over 1000 stores!

Temps have dipped to the low 90's, Turned the air off. It takes me a half an hour to get to work, easy drive. We have a grocery store with walking distance that has everything except Tony Paco's sweet hots. It is a long way here but worth the trip if you can make it. it will be the trip of your life, you will gain a totally new perspective of ything, Americans live a sheltered life I have learned. There are Indiian labours here making $350 a month and they are happy to do so, they live 4 to a room and work 12 hours a day and are happy as clams.

The job is going well I am about halfway thru my training an am on track. Stripmarking (for you ATC folks) makes no sense, Phraseology is a little different but not a problem. 1000ft between everybody. VFR and IFR. Right now we are non-radar. One in one out. Airspace is small 20X30 miles SFC-6500.. Way too much coordination! You coordinate with locals whose command of English is sometimes not good.

Friday I might go to Dubai. Haven't played golf in over a week but will play more soon, been to busy getting moved in and settled.

I would love to hear from you mdtol@bex.net, comment on the blog, or call me at +971 050 1934435

Today is my Friday and it is nearly 10PM. Think I will go out for a cold one

Take Care
Mike

Al Hamra Rocks!

Today I am spending the day at my apartment after picking up a few things waiting for my furniture to be delivered. Just received a call from the store and they say they will be here in a half hour. In Shallah (God willing). My employer is picking up the tab for all the furniture and paying the rent for this fantastic apartment. Brand new everything! I have a budget of $8200 to make the place livable. Not a problem. I needed to furnish the guest bedroom and decided to have the furniture made locally. Quite an experience to say the least. They said they would make a double dresser and mirror, two beds, and two night stands for me. All at the outrageous price of $381!

Went out today and purchased a TV, cable, and DVD player to enjoy. I went ahead and went for the premium package, NCAA, NFL, Showtime, etc. One year subscription, satellite box, 21 inch tv, DVD player...$1100.

After they deliver my bedroom set, recliner, and dining room set I think I will head out to the beach for the afternoon. It has cooled down a bit, 95 and of course sunny! I am becoming acclimated to the heat, It was rough at first but I guess your blood thins out. I will probably be shocked when I go home for the Holidays.

They said a half hour but it has been an hour. These people have no concept of time. You learn to be patient or else you would go nuts. One exception is driving, they drive crazy here, yesterday I guess I pissed off an Arab because I was in the fast lane and did not change lanes quick enough. He wizzed by me at 50kph faster than I one inch off my RIGHT side in a Lexus.

The speed limit is 120 on the highway and some cars go 200, there are no traffic police just cameras. The threshold for DUI is 0.0, zip, nada, nothing. Take a taxi, they are cheap and they are everywhere. There is no crime here you can go anywhere without any misgivings. The people here are very accommodating, they will go out of their way to help you. If any of the readers of this blog would like to visit let me know, As Judy Garland (Dorthy) said in the "Wizard of Oz" I am not in Kansas anymore!

More Photos

More Photos

These photos are some that I have taken of my new apartment and local scenes, enjoy!

More Photos

More Photos

Friday October 24 2008

Hello All

Hope some of you are reading my posts because I have not heard much feedback.Please communicate with me. mdtol@bex.net Seems like the financial world is going down the crapper. I was listening to one of the English speaking stations driving to Dubai today. They discussed the implications of zero down home buying and how it messed up the banking in the USA. Here you must put up a considerable amount of money to buy a property. Used to be that way in the USA till the mortgage companies messed it up.

Looks like I will be moving into my apartment Tuesday. The hotel room is closing in on me! My furniture and appliances will be delivered Sunday, Window treatments Monday. The apartment is 30km from work and the drive is easy except for the Arab drivers, they have no concept of courtesy is. They drive really fast and will climb right your ass and flash their lights. Thats when you are going 20 over the limit!

Today I took a a lot of things over to my new apartment and decided to go to Dubai (45 minute drive). Setting my sites on IKEA went to Festival City. IKEA is not my type of place. Went to a place called Plug In, makes Circuit City look like Radio Shack! Purchased a microwave, loaded it up and took off. Drove about a mile and went to the mall. Very nice, every store you could imagine, walked,walked and walked, the place is huge!

I did not realise outside the mall was the creek, more like a river but there was a boat show going on. Looked at all the boats and went back to the mall, got lost! The place is that big! I must have walked 10 miles to finally find my car. My dogs are hurting! I like to go to Dubai on Fridays because the traffic is not bad. Traffic during the week is terrible. You can be stuck in traffic for hours!

Again send be an email or comment on the blog. Weather report... Haven't seen a cloud in a week, temp HI 98 LO 80