Golfing Sunday

Taking advantage of A’s presence in Dubai, we also decided to take advantage of the cooler weather (and, killing two birds with one stone, also ticked off today’s 30 minutes of exercise) with a round of golf at Meydan’s The Track.

In a city that is well served by golf courses, this is probably the closest to where I live and so when planning a round, this is usually the most attractive option. It also has the advantage of being floodlit so an evening round is also possible (today we started at 5:30pm and so had around 45 minutes of daylight before enjoying views back towards the Burg Khalifa as the sun set).

Night golf is all very well unless, like me, you are a little wayward when it comes to ball direction. Sadly, I very much lived up to my somewhat erratic approach to the game today, and managed to lose around 5 or 6 balls. On one occasion, my ball ended up stuck in some particularly malodorous mud (think the bog of eternal stench in  Labyrinth). Having (very) carefully extracted it from that hazard, I then managed to slice it miles off course into some dense undergrowth where no amount of thrashing about was able to reveal its location.

In any event, I am always a little wary about scrabbling around too much in the dark undergrowth (the floodlights only really cover the fairways) given the number of snakes and spiders reputed to reside therein. We were, however, accompanied by more visible examples of the local wildlife during the round in the form of oryx (in various shapes and sizes) and a desert fox.

All in all, a very enjoyable round and will try to post some of the wildlife photos in later instalments.

BBQ Saturday

 Lovely day to today weather-wise and food-wise.The recent slightly cooler temperatures continued and we were able to have BBQ in the back garden for the first time for many months. 

Our Landlord had recently decided to give up on maintaining the grass in the lawn and had gone full artificial - it looked like someone had laid a vivid green carpet outside our back window and so we had the ideal opportunity to test it out.

To be honest, I suspect that it will take me a while to get used to the change - it certainly looks neat and tidy but I think that I preferred the more natural look even if it was mostly moss!

It did not however, detract from our enjoyment of the BBQ. We started with lobster tail - an old favourite from our days at 10B Street - and some giant prawns which we marinated in a combination of paprika, garlic powder, lemon juice, pepper and olive oil. We then had a huge ribeye steak with some garlic butter sauce with buratta and onion washed down with some Chapel Down sparkling wine.

A great culinary start to the weekend but a high bar has been set!

Mixing business with pleasure

The week has ended with a combination of exercise (a cycle ride early this morning that fulfils today’s 30 minutes of exercise for the Dubai Fitness Challenge), half a day of pouring over documents for work and then an afternoon of schmoozing with colleagues, client and contacts at a construction industry charity event.

I attended last year’s edition in “smart casual” only to find that everyone else was in business attire. Since Covid times, I have gone out of my way to avoid having to wear my suit unless I am meeting clients or in formal proceedings but given last year’s experience, I carefully donned my suit only to find that this year’s dress code was smart casual….. .

Fortunately among the 300 + guests, I was not the only be-suited attendee but nevertheless, I felt very over-dressed particularly given the fact that the a/c was not strikingly efficient.

Despite my sartorial mis-step, it was an enjoyable afternoon - the venue is famous for its roasted pork (almost unique in Dubai where a special licence is required to sell it) and there was plenty available. Pretty much the whole of my work team came along and it was a great opportunity to catch up with colleagues old and new in a relaxed environment.

In the meantime, A attended the medical examination for his Golden Visa so his visit is off to a good start.

Return of the Prodigal

As foreshadowed in yesterday’s post, A has made the trip from UK for a Winter Sun holiday. Despite various bomb alerts (all hoaxes fortunately) on some European flights over the last few days (and the somewhat delicate ME situation I also mentioned yesterday), the flight was incident-free and he arrived earlier this evening.

It is always good to see him and his main plan for the trip seems to be to continue his applications for jobs but with better weather! Job-hunting is particularly tricky for Graduates in the UK at the moment so hopefully the change of scenery will also bring with it a change in fortune. 

We are also going to take advantage of his presence to get a Golden Visa for him so he has the medical for this tomorrow and there are various plans being made for a Pub Quiz, BBQ’s and visits to his Dubai based friends over the next couple of weeks.

My participation in the the Dubai fitness challenge continued this lunchtime with another 30 minute walk around the Trade Centre although it was a a little slower (and therefore less sweaty) than last time as, rather annoyingly, I managed - shortly before embarking on my walk - to jar my heel while getting out of the chair in one of our Quiet rooms (these are enclosed areas we can use for phone calls away from the desk to avoid disturbing nearby colleagues and are very constrained in space but given the fact that I have been using the Quiet rooms for over 6 years now, there really was no excuse for my clumsiness).

One advantage of the slower pace was that it made is slightly easier to navigate the hordes of people who were attending what I think must be the last day of the GulfFood event as I tried to stay in the air-conditioned areas  - although there was still a fair amount of weaving and ducking to avoid the delegates as they queued for the free food samples.

Predicting the future

 The last few visits by friends and family to the Sandpit have usually been preceded my a marked increase in regional tensions. I am sure that this is just a coincidence but it does seem quite unfortunate that a slight question-mark has hung over whether or not my recent visitors would actually be able to travel.

Last time this happened, it coincided with the visit of E and  my cousin K and his wife A earlier this year after Christmas. In the weeks leading up to their flight, I was inundated by enquiries as to whether it was safe to come out. Having lived here for over 16 years, a certain degree of geo-political uncertainty has always been present and for the most part, given absolutely no cause for alarm and this was the message that I conveyed. 

As I will explore in later posts, this time my confident response to their enquiries was perhaps somewhat misplaced although in the event they had a very pleasant and successful visit, and had safely returned to UK by the time things kicked off in earnest out here in February  - much to my (and certainly E’s) relief.

However, my son A’s imminent arrival for a holiday has also coincided with an escalation of rhetoric from the various warring parties. I am hoping that the results of the recent mid-term elections will have sent a sufficiently salutary message to the President that his escapades in the region have not been completely successful so I am keeping everything crossed that there he will be dissuaded from further action for the time being and that there will be no last minute hitches.

Meanwhile, in other news I have not only managed to keep up with publishing a post a day (recognising we are only 4 days in to the 30 day writing challenge) but also with undertaking 30 minutes of daily exercise although yesterday’s lunchtime walk around the Trade Centre certainly brought home to me how hot and humid it still is at Noon despite the recent cooling of the weather. My bike ride this morning in the (relative) cool of the morning was definitely the better option.

Channeling my inner Nigella

In an ill-judged moment, I recently agreed to be a judge at our recent annual Office Bake Off competition. As a hopeless baker but keen taster of baked products, I thought that this would be a good way to avoid having to produce my own entry but supporting the cause of inter-office bonding. 

In years gone by, I had also been an enthusiastic viewer of the Great British Bake Off (although not recently but I might take a look at how the addition of Nigella Lawson to the judging panel has affected standards). How hard could it be thought I?

As it turns out, quite hard. There were 10 entries ranging from biscuits of various hues and flavours to some show-stopping cakes and desserts that would not have looked out of place in a restaurant cold cabinet.

I had taken the opportunity to do a little research on what I should be looking out for - my usual approach of going for the creamiest and most chocolatey looking item on the dessert menu discarded in favour of a more scientific (and hopefully, even-handed) approach given that it was the creations of my work colleagues that was being judged.

The internet provided some surprisingly detailed notes on texture, cohesiveness and structural integrity in a baking context which left me slightly concerned about how I was actually going to be able to form any kind of authoritative view on the contestants efforts. Fortunately, another colleague had also volunteered to do some judging and she seemed to actually know what she was doing.

There were four attributes that we were marking; taste, appearance, creativity and a slightly more ambiguous category of Bake-offishness which we took to be how well the three other elements had been combined together.

Due to work related issues, I had not been able to eat my lunch until quite late so by the time it came to starting the judging I was not feeling particularly hungry. There were also a large number of colleagues milling around the table where the bakes had been assembled - some no doubt competitors (the competition was done “blind” so we did not know the identity of the individual bakers) anxious to see how their creations were being received and so trying to cut slices off that were small enough to avoid completely crashing the diet but sufficiently wide in scope to capture all the various layers/textures/ingredients used was quite challenging - as was trying to discuss with my fellow judge our reactions to each of the entries.

In the end, we had to go to a separate room (on something of a sugar-high) to compare notes and reach a conclusion on the top three as the rest of the office descended on the bakes to test them for themselves. 

In the end, it was a relatively easy decision on the top 3 and we were able to announce the results without too much controversy. However, I am still not feeling very hungry and am unlikely to be eating cake any time soon!

Abu Dhabi trip

 As previously mentioned, 2026 has proved to be an interesting year so I will spend a bit of time updating on our activities in later posts but having just made the trip up to Abu Dhabi and back for our annual reception at the annual Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Conference (ADIPEC),  I thought that I would start off with a news on this.

This is very much the beginning of the conference season in the  Middle East as the weather gets cooler and  - notwithstanding the somewhat delicate political situation - there was a decent turnout at our annual reception in Abu Dhabi this evening at the ADIPEC conference. I started the day with a cycle ride to get my 30 minutes of exercise for the Dubai 30 day fitness challenge (as foreshadowed in my previous post) although my previous experience of ADIPEC and the relentless journey through the huge halls at the ADNEC Centre was that getting my steps in was unlikely to be an issue. 

As matters transpired, I was able to catch up with most of the people I wanted to see in a relatively confined area and our evening event was blessed with a cooling breeze in the outdoor area at the Aloft Hotel next door to the conference hall.Even so, by the end of the evening, I think the heat and humidity were starting to take a bit of a toll but it was very good fun and looking forward to next year!