Black Friday....

Thanksgiving in Dubai was reflective for me... I will say that it was a little lonely, and not very traditional (I had to explain what Thanksgiving was to my curious Middle East friends numerous times) Thursday. I will say that when I reflected upon what I had to be thankful, that it is clear that I have so much to be thankful for.
I am sure Christmas will be tougher...Bob is going home in mid December, and Richard is leaving Christmas Eve...My new church is having several special services...There are no Christmas lights or Santa Clauses. I did see that the Hallmark in Dubai Mall had Christmas cards...
I enjoyed a nice fish and chip dinner at the Social House for my Thanksgiving feast. I was excited because the Cowboys/Saints game was gonna be live on tv at 1 am here. Sooo, I got settled in, decent game, but when Roy Williams fumbled the game away at 5 am....well this Cowboy fan didn't get to sleep very fast even though I was exhausted. I was almost late for picking Richard up for church. Bob and Sandy joined us....I think this church is definitely a keeper.
We had a management retreat(picnic in the park) at work this week. I really like our management team...I have in my plan to add five sales people. The search is on. I interviewed a candidate from the Romania this week. I liked her, we'll see if I make an offer....
The weather is absolutely beautiful. Low 80's without a cloud in the sky. I hope to get time to swim tomorrow. Sandy flys back to Atlanta tomorrow night. Bob and I are going to try and go to the Dubai golf classic on Sunday.
Fred is coming in January, my parents in February...so things will get interesting as I do some of the tourist things with them....I especially can't wait to go up in the Burj Khalifa...
Sorry if I bored you to tears this time, I will try and remember the interesting things that I do this week...
Love Ya!
John

Friday is really Sunday, so how bout church..

It was suppose to be a week of holiday with the 3 day "EID" celebration, but I ended up in the office working full day's two of the three "off" days. It can be a little overwhelming at times. Sandy is here visiting Bob, and Richard is trying to settle in and I am trying not to get arrested for strangling the credit manager. Our receivables are out of wack, so the credit manager is doing his job... I could use a line from the Obama administration about inheriting a "mess" , but that would make me a little hypocritical...got to get it under control with better business practices...
I have been spending a lot of time with Richard helping him to settle into life in Dubai and at the job. He is missing being busy at home with his "honeydew" list to knock out. Maybe I will put him to work at my apartment...lol..
He has been joining me at the office as I put in the hours, I am so thankful he is here.  He has been wanting me to go to see the movie "Secretariat" at the theatre. I have absolutely no desire to see the triple crown story. He thinks it would inspire me....I was inspired to just say no...So, to make myself feel less guilty, I agreed to go to the movies on our one off day. We agreed on the movie "Unstoppable". It stars Denzel Washington and is based on a true story about a runaway train...It was the first time I had seen a movie in quite sometime. I would give it two thumbs up, I really enjoyed it. The ticket was 30 dirhams ($7), or you could spend 125 Durhams for special seating, or you could rent a suite to keep your entire Burka clan out of site. The experience was the same as in the states, theatre seating with great sound. The movie had Arabic subtitles, but you don't even notice them.
Richard is a devoted church goer, and the other thing he asked me to do was to join him at church. So this morning I picked him up(he doesn't have his papers completed yet, so he can't drive) and accompanied him to church. The service was held in a nice hotel in "Media City" (15 minutes from my apartment).  The church is Interdenominational and is called "Fellowship of the Emirates." Now, I have not been active in a home church in a while, and I don't know what exactly inspired me, but I can't remember being so moved at a service. It was just a normal contemporary service, with good music and a nice minister (service was about dying, and living life to the fullest) but at one point I actually had a tear run down my cheek. I am not sure if it was my loneliness, the absence of church(God has never left me) in my life, or just the realization that I am a Christian in a very Muslim part of the world...I was almost embarrassingly moved...I hope that I find myself back there next Friday morning. Richard has told me that he wants to continuing to minister to people
even though he is here, and is convinced that God has him here for a reason...I wonder if part of Gods plan for Richard may be me...
Big week ahead, The Abu Dhabi Food show is this week, and I have a million projects that I need to accomplish. I need to hire some more sales reps. I am offering a job to another American (from SYSCO Atlanta) next week. Have a great weekend in America....I am off to have dinner at Social House in Dubai Mall (great fish and chips)...
Keep me in your thoughts - (and prayers :-)
John

Rainy Days and Mondays.....

It rained today in Dubai...Now it didn't pour, it wasn't exactly a heavy rain...ok we had a heavy drizzle. I was on the 9th floor at work, and I stood at the window and watched the rain for the 10 minutes it lasted...still no chance of rain on the forecast....the weathermen here are as talented as the weather forecasters in the US.
Bob and my boss Hani hosted an EID party at his house on the outskirts of Dubai last night. His house is an exclusive neighborhood and the yard was plush...He had a band, and it was catered with traditional Lebanese food. I actually had a very good time. The highlight of the evening was when they wore little Fez caps (yes there is a picture of me on facebook) and we were dancing (yes the Lebanese gals drug me out in front to dance)...it was fun, clapping and kicking up a storm....
I am off tomorrow for this Eid holiday. From what I understand, it is the day the Muslim people offer a sacrifice (goat or another small critter) to Allah. If they can afford it they travel to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. I can truly say they walk the talk....
Still having a great sales month, I got permission to add to our sales force. Now the question is who to hire....we have some SYSCO guys from the states that want to come here...I need to figure it out...
I am worn out, time to go to bed, I stayed up to listen to the Cowboys game on the Internet. (it ended at 4 am)....
So farewell for now and goodnight....
John 

Sleepy Friday....

It's Friday (Muslim church day) in the UAE, and I took a big snooze today. I was up and about early, laid back down for a quick nap around 10 am, I awoke from my short nap at 4 pm...lol, who knows how I will sleep tonight.
I have been working loads of hours, I haven't felt that well, so my body just revolted. It's almost 9 pm here and I feel like I am ready to start the day!
I had dinner at Scoozi at the Dubai Mall. The mall has been packed lately, but I fought the crowd for one of my favorite UAE dinners, Shrimp pizza.
Next weeks 3 day EID celebration, has been moved to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. So, I am going to put in a few hours tomorrow, than work a normal Sunday, off for 3 days (ok, I am sure I will go in and work partial days) work on Thursday, then another weekend! I think the Muslims may be onto something during all of these holidays (of course when I am working on Thanksgiving and Christmas, I am sure I will remember why I don't like these holidays better).
Dominik is off visiting his girlfriend (the real one) in Vienna, Sandy is here visiting Bob, so I am truly batching it for a few days. Richard is settling in. The next few weeks will be difficult for him as he gets his paperwork in order and looks for a car and an apartment. I haven't had a lot of time to share with him. We went and got our photo's taken for our new official Emirates ID card this week. Had lunch afterwords, he is extremely lonely. I miss my friends and family, I can only imagine what its like to leave a wife and children behind. He seemed to be in a little better spirits later in the week after skyping with his wife Mary. I am going to pick him up in the morning take him to work for a few hours than maybe out for a buddy lunch. He is going to take a huge workload off of my shoulders, and he is such a quality man, that there is nothing but positives for me that he is here.
I have put the sales force (with Bob's blessing) on a commission plan. They are set to get there first checks at the end of this month, and one of them is going to get a check that is 6 or 7 times bigger than his old incentive checks. They have responded to this "American" style compensation well. Our first month on commissions we set a new record month of 4.5 million Durhams. This month we are headed towards 9 million. Let's keep our fingers crossed that we can keep up the torrid growth.
I am sure I'll check in sooner rather than later with all of the approaching days off, time to go watch the Survivor episode that I taped last night.
Bye for now,
John

Sunday odds and ends...

Sorry I am a tad late with an update....It was a busy busy weekend. Our new Purchasing manager arrived from the United States. His name is Richard. I worked with him in the late 90's at SYSCO Atlanta. He was Vice President of merchandising then, I remember him as a happy gentlemen that worked hard, but always had a friendly smile and a word of encouragement. Well, 12 years later, nothing seems to have changed. He is as nice as I remembered, and just a sweet man. His first at the |Gulf Tower was today....His desk faces mine...I am so excited that he is here.
The weather is awesome. High 80's - low 90's everyday and partly cloudy...Still have a zero chance of rain. I am waiting for that first time I see any chance of rain.  I saw where it snowed back in Russel County, Virginia...I am calling my parents in a little bit, and I am sure the first thing I will hear about is the snow and how much is in the driveway...
I was a little melancholy today on my drive back from Abu Dhabi. I can't wait for visitors. Fred is coming in January. My parents in February. maybe a discreet mystery guest somewhere in between...it will be great.
They have been filming Mission Impossible 4 in Dubai the last couple of weeks. There must be an exciting Burj Khalifa scene, because the people dangling from the building and the helicopters buzzing around it have been quite apparent the last 10 days or so. I snapped a few pictures and posted them on facebook. It will be great for all of you to see the movie so you can see where I am at. I wonder how long we will have to wait...next summer or holidays 2011.
Work is mixed, lots of progress in fixing the issues, and shaping the company into Bob's vision (a little bit of John in there)...actually, Bob is very hands off on how I run sales and protein decisions...as much as we bicker (like an old married couple) we are very much in tune with how to run things...It is easy to remember why I love working for Bob. He is very supportive, and he genuinely cares about me...there is no doubt that I have his back...sales are strong...we continue to have record weeks, and most of the sales people appear to be excited.
Well Sunday football just kicked off, yes my Cowboys stink, but it is still my favorite tv of the week (that and true blood)...
I enjoyed a Diwali party on Friday night. It is like Christmas for Indian Hindu's. All the Indian dwellings are adorned with Christmas lights, and candy is handed out liberally. Next week (10 days away) is EID (2)...I will blog about it next week, but in a nutshell a Muslim holiday, that is three days long...it falls perfectly this year on Tuesday, Wed, Thursday, followed by the weekend...5 day weekend, not bad...
One last thing, as most of you are aware, I am a die hard conservative Republican, my Lebanese reps have been excited for me with the big election victories...it has been fun to hear them talk about it....
Love to hear from you....I miss my friends and America.

John

Uh oh, my brush with the Dubai Police.....

Well, you may have thought it would happen, but I didn't...I had a brush with the law and the law won...Don't get panicky, it was minor but somewhat demonstrative. I was driving back to the office on the road that runs next to Dubai mall. There is an intersection in  front of the theatre entrance at the mall. Its 3 lanes across, the far left lane turns into the mall, and has a separate light that is head high on the left, while the two right lanes merge into one shortly after the light to enter the highway.  So I am the second car stopped at the red light in the middle lane. To my left, a gentlemen has rolled down his window and is trying to get me to give him directions in English that I could not grasp (and let's face it-I am not a good choice for direction asking)...So the straight away light (that is head high on the right side) turns green, while the red light on the left stays red. Unfortunately the Kuwaity gentlemen and his burka covered bride in front of me are not familiar with the traffic scheme, they start out on the green, then notice the red light to his left and think he may be running a light so slams his brakes on, I start following him on the green, admittedly (that can't be the way to spell it) distracted by the guy shouting out of his window for direction help (he is in the turn only lane- maybe he wanted mall parking tips..sigh) well to make a long blog short....bango I rear ended the car in front of me. Thankfully nobody was hurt and the impact was at less than 10 miles per hour so the damage was minor (my license plate was bent and the paint on my bumber scratched, the other cars bumper was slightly displaced.) We pulled off to the side of the road, that's when life in the Middle East reared its head....

The Kuwaiti gentlemen was a class act, he got out of his car, and assured me that he and his bride were not harmed. He also apologized and said he got confused by the lights....well the law here is that you need to immediately report any accident. Well the "911" system here is a little different, if you have a fire it is 997, an ambulance is 998, for the Poh poh its 999. So I dial 999 on my blackberry, and the communication is difficult, so my new found Kuwaiti bumper buddy had to get on my phone and speak Arabic to the dispatcher. They told us to go into the mall at the police station there and report our accident. So we had to pull our cars into the station, and enter the station. There were three officers present, we approached the counter then the keystone fun began. The officers would not speak English. My new Kuwaiti friend, asked them on more than one occasion to speak English so that I would understand and the officers refused. He spoke both languages, he would speak English, then respond in Arabic, I was deemed to be at fault (I did the rear ending, so it makes sense). Well, the officer starts writing the accident report in Arabic...
I am talking the symbols not just the language. He then starts writing me a ticket (I would have no idea if the other motorist would not be telling me what is going on). I feel very alone, and am a little nervous, so while the officer is filling out his paperwork, my new friend from Kuwait tells me that he went to grad school in Boston, and that he loves America and Americans. He apologizes in front of the officers for their lack of language courtesy (they all speak English, it is the official business language of the UAE and remember 85% of the population are from outside the country and English is every body's second language), he then was engaged in a heated conversation in Arabic with the police. I don't think they liked that he was disrespecting them with me. So they hand me the ticket (not one word of English on it) and instructed me to "sign it" awww, they can speak the language. I ask for a translation, he repeats sign, I say I can't read it, he puts his arm together like the handcuff symbol...I signed.  I fought the law, but the law won...lol...fine 400 dirhams (100 dollars) lots of drama but end the end more bloginess than anything else...

Sheik Saqr bin Mohammad Al Qasimi, the ruler of the Ras al Khaimah emirate died on Wednesday. there is a little crisis in that Emirate as there is a power struggle between two brothers to take the monarchy over. The more powerful rulers from Abu Dhabi and Dubai quickly recognized the younger brother (who is more friendly to the west) and was the crowned Prince, while the older brother has actually seized the government palace and surrounded it with troops loyal to him. The older brother (Sheikh Saqr bin Mohammed al-Qasimi) is also closely tied to Iran. The straight of Hormuz runs past the Emirate and at that point Iran is only 60 miles away. The older brother has been very involved in smuggling goods into Iran against the UN blockade. Hopefully it will be resolved in the Prince's favor and does not escalate into something ugly. Probably not on the news radar in America, but can have serious consequences for the West. The UAE is in official mourning, no music (even on the radio)
Time to hit the pool, have to work tomorrow in Abu Dhabi, so I want to seize the day (low 90's absolutely beautiful fall Dubai weather) - and frolic and rest...
Love to hear from you....
John

48 today....Whoo Hooo...sigh

48 is the new 45, lol...it has been a long week away from Dubai...
As most of you are aware, I spent the past week in Paris, a mini adventure within the big adventure.
Started my 6 and a half hour flight to Paris last Friday night...The flight was full, and I had a middle seat in coach, so I was hopeful that I would sit next to some cute petite french girl, so I could sleep or flirt or both (both wonderful things to do while flying) So I am seated next to this grandma in a burka...4'8" and very tiny...I was excited, elbow room and sleep lie ahead (no flirting with the Burkas-or talking with come to think of it)..So right before take off they decided to reunite two Pakistani business men, that's right Iranian Granny out, overweight Pakistani men in(much heavier than me-thanks for asking). So of course he had to take his shoes off, cracked ugly feet that were on my legs...then the snoring and the worse infringement, while he was deeply asleep a monster belch that I was sure was going to cause the airbags to deploy...lOOOOONGG flight...
The hotel was a nice Novatel hotel. (if I ever get back, will insist on staying in one of the traditional hotels downtown) in Bercy. Had a couple of nice dinners with hosts from McCain and Rupericht, and the convention was huge...
I have been around some large SYSCO shows, this was probably 8 to ten times larger than any of those shows...massive. I spent 75% of my time in one of the Halls (the protein one)...We found some products that might work for us...
The whole trip was overshadowed with the strikers. In a nutshell, the French Government is trying to change the retirement age from 60 to 62. The strikers (mostly unions and students) have tried to shutdown the transportation grid. By the middle of last week, all the refineries were cut of, 25% of stations were out of gas creating gas lines that were very long (waits well over an hour) and the train and subway system crippled (bout a third of normal trains.) The commutes were over two hours and we switched from  metro, to train to bus to get around the strikers...the trains were extremely crowded, but we stayed out of the fray, except when I got into a conflict with 6 strikers on the Metro, they were carrying placards that were critical of the wealthy, they didn't seem to like it that I told them that since the city's transportation grid was crippled because of strikers like them that perhaps they should get off the Metro and walk...Bob thought it was funny, Fadi was terrified, and in the end after a good natured spirited discussion (especially with a 35 year old teacher- I convinced him he would be a better teacher at 61 than he was today) they wished us well and were laughing with us as we left the train.
Flight back was interesting as we flew over the Alps and then over Iran back to Dubai (empty seat next to me :-) )
Things at work were not smooth, the conversion to a warehouse Management system did not go smoothly...Lots of fires to put out this week. I got up this morning, spent an hour at the pool, have done the laundry, I am planning on going over to the mall and have fish and Chips at the Social House for my birthday dinner. Nut roaster and gelatos at the Souk...I am alone, but it is good to be back in my apartment for my birthday...
Going to work on Saturday, got to catch up!
Happy Birthday to me,
John