The Mayor of Sandoval Gardens Reelected in a Landslide!

We are in the middle of a brutal winter chill in Dubai, highs most days not even reaching 80 degrees...Blah, blah, blah...Honestly it would be nice to see something other than sand blowing around in the air here. It appears that I will get to travel before the end of the month, and experience a little weather diversity. Murali (our Fish Monger) and I have planned to take a customer to Vietnam in late January. We are scheduled to fly into Ho Chi Minh City and then travel to a couple of seafood processing plants that produce "Basa" and a Black Tiger Shrimp aqua farm. I can remember joking back in the states that Basa (White fish that is a cousin to the American Catfish, that is also called Creme Dorie) was "porch raised Vietnamese Catfish". Who would have ever guessed that I might get to travel to Vietnam someday and see a Basa Farm. I am totally psyched! I have also already purchased my ticket for a vacation at home for the end of March. Eleven weeks from today, I will be trying to get over severe jet lag at my parents home in Lebanon, Virginia. I am looking forward to being back in the States.

Just over a year ago, I moved into my nice little Sandoval Garden apartment in Al Barsha, a neighborhood in Dubai. It was eerily quiet living in this 4 story apartment complex as the only resident. People slowly trickled in as my new neighbors, the parking garage filled. A year later there are no vacancy's in the complex, and I am happy with my nice apartment. It is 4 thousand dollars a year less than the building Bob and I first lived in here in Dubai, and it is closer to my office and much closer to our new facility being built in Dubai Industrial City. The roads were in disarray, but now a year later there are no longer any construction roundabouts on Al Khail highway, and I can drive from my apartment to Dubai Mall in 10 minutes. In a couple places there are 18 lanes of wide open highway, and none of the radar camera's yet. I cruise to work in the mornings at speeds approaching 150 Kmh (95 MPH). If I had a convertible and a full head of hair...well I don't have either, so let's stop the dreaming...

The latest news that may or my not be filtering back to America. Last week, the UAE security forces arrested 11 Egyptian Nationals, that were here in Dubai trying to organize a "Muslim Brotherhood Political Party". The Egyption Government is demanding their release and so far the official Emirate response is a resounding no. It will be interesting to see if these eleven Egyptians just disappear or are tried for their crimes or The Obama Administration steps in to put pressure on the UAE Government to release the prisoners...Somehow, I fear the latter of the three choices. I guess with old age come cynicism.

Speaking of Americana, I am enjoying the new Cable sports channel here that is featuring American sports. I got extra NFL games every week on the HD channel, and now they are showing all the PGA golf tournaments (all 4 rounds!). This is outstanding for me. I can't wait to see if they cover baseball this spring (fingers crossed). I forgot to tell you that my watching of the X-Factor was "spoiled" by my beloved Fox news. The show is on an 18 hour delay here, and Fox news blurted out before I could could close my ears that the Country singer (Tate) had won. It certainly made the final two shows less enjoyable. I taped the whole season of Survivor, rooting hard for Angie Layton. Man, or should I say Woman...(That's my Brent Musberger creepy old man moment)..lol.

Sadly, Angie was the third one voted out...
Season two of Homeland has just started, and of course I am just happy to get to watch some of my favorite American shows over here....speaking of fashion....
I did go shopping for ties last night. I was thinking that I should be able to get a couple of nice ties for under a $100. I was shocked to see the prices for ties at Dubai Mall...they were 1100 AED to 650AED ($300 to $170). Are they insane? Do ties cost that much in America now? I am going to stop in at KMTrading (Indian shopping at it's finest) this week and see what kind of deals are available...
Wasn't it nice of Al Gore to sell his TV cable network to Al Jezeera. Now you can come to the Middle East from your living room...lucky you...lol.

Enough of my dribbling (and drooling) this week, Thanks for stopping in, God Willing, I will see you next week.