OSHA? Apparently they don't rule over Dubai....

The blog is a tad early this week, I will explain why before I finish this sitting. I am splitting my attention between writing and watching the American Idol finale. My favorite contestant (Jessica) is in the final 2, against a Georgia native (Phillip Phillips)...Now before we delve too far, Phillips dad's name is also Phillip Phillips. Somehow it doesn't seem right that they couldn't think of at least one different name to pair with Phillips....Now one of my past gal pal loves was named Tiffany Phillips (she is now married....sigh) BTW, she checked in as one of the "fifty" - I had no idea....but I like it! So, back to my American Idol clatter, I got home this evening planning on watching the contest on dvr and then the results show live (starts in 45 minutes)...sadly, when I signed on...saw the headline ...I spoiled it for me...Now I am blogging knowing who won,,,,it sucks! Last week was the Survivor finale, I enjoyed this season, and can't wait for next season this fall. Finishing with "John's TV life in Dubai" saga, I have been taping "Game of Thrones" and will watch season two when I return. Return you ask???? That's right! Since there are no shows to watch, I might as well find something else to do.
The reason I am a little early (Muzzy/Tonto will be excited) with the blog, is that I catch a flight to New York at three in the morning! Yes, I have decided to take my vacation earlier. Twenty day's in the land that I love starts Friday. I am visiting St. Louis, Chicago, Knoxville and of course seeing the parents in Virginia. I am so psyched! The highlight in advance is Fred and I going to Cincinnati on Sunday and watching a Reds baseball game, and then after the game driving to Chicago and on Memorial day Fred and I will be at Wrigley Field watching the Cubs play...what a great time I know we will have. I was planning on leaving Dubai in August to return home...but I needed a break now! The Senior management was worried I was pulling a "Nick" and sneaking out never to return, and I met with Steve for an over a hour last night and Hani today for almost an hour sharing with them what I think my future career path holds (curiously we weren't all in agreement)...it was interesting and I will leave that story until I return to work on June 14th.
I did work on a project this week that has needed to be done for over a year. I spent three days at the warehouse checking every item out and better identifying what we have for our chains that we can sell to our street accounts. So I spent three days on a forklift in the freezer and cooler checking each and every item. I tried to write good notes, but my fingers got so numb that I couldn't feel the pen. My feet and hands are still numb three days later...I was cold!!!!

Now my Indian friends in the warehouse got a kick out of having me 4 levels high, on a forklift that was not secured with no safety harness, and driving fast through the aisles. I was more than nervous...A couple of the funnier moments occurred when I found out that the guys zooming around the warehouse in the fork lift did not have a drivers license...Another memorable moment occurred when Arshad and I were four levels up checking a pallet of miscellaneous things, and we tried to get lowered only to find that the forklift operator had fallen asleep....It all ended happily, as I got Arshad nominated for employee of the month for his efforts and the project was successfully completed. Steve and I took Arshad and his best friend in the warehouse Shereef out to lunch for a treat (you remember Shereef from his date of the century with Hayley...lol, Hayley can get a same day truck approved with a phone call...Shereef is smitten...it's too funny.

They do make a cute couple...lol
Well, there is a massive sand storm blowing outside, Airports all over the Middle East are closed, hopefully my flight will take off on time at 2:55 AM...sigh let's hope I can sleep...Enjoy your weekend, I will check in from the States...Idol is finishing, yes I am disappointed and it's not over ...darn Internet spoiling my fun...lol, and I need to pack and shower,,,,then a short 14 hour flight that I can only hope the sand storm here or the tropical storm in the Atlantic doesn't delay me too much. My vacation time is precious! Emirates Airline #203 awaits!

Eat your Veggies and Say your Prayers

I need a vacation. It is so hot so early here in the UAE. This past week the  temperatures hovered around 110 each day and as previously advertised the lows near 90 (On Tuesday the overnight low was 94. Man it is hot. Muzzy (now affectionately known as "Tonto") and his cousin Kumail have both taken vacations with their families to travel to Mecca in Saudi Arabia. I am sure that they are both praying for me (such good men), as they have left me behind here in the oven of the Middle East in what I am sure is purgatory. Well , let's hope it is purgatory and not a permanent resting place. Pay your taxes, eat your veggies and say your prayers and maybe God will be good to you...
I was missing some of my old buddies especially much this past week. According to the blog stats about 50 people read this each week. Now I know some of them, Mom, Fred, and Muzzy Tonto never miss a Friday morning.
Danny Messimer sends me an email allmost weekly asking for more sex and violence in my ramblings (I am wishing for the same thing to report about...lol). Danny wrote me recently saying he was getting married (sure sign of the Appocolypse) again, and I want to meet his bride.
This time 27 years ago, I along with Fred, Janie and some of my other life long friends (followed a year later by Danny, Nancy and Lee) donned the cap and gown and graduated from King College. My decision to attend King was the best and most fortuitous of my life. Those 4 years were the glory days of my life, and I made awesome friends that I love like family to this day. This core of friends (and Dan Scott whom I met in Law School - That was my first time in Purgatory lol) have stood by each other as other friends have come and gone from my life. I made some close friendships in my my years in St. Louis (Todd, Rez, Chad, Amy, Nate and Stacy) and I am sure that they will always be close to me - But, being over here in this isolationism I have found myself clinging to people for friendship and support. I have been influenced by men like Richard Ashlock, who have passed through my life, and hopefully some of the goodness that he exuded in his daily life has rubbed off on me. Bob and Nick and I hunkered down over here in some respect, clinging to each other in an almost needy way fighting to keep our santity and endure the trials that life has presented to us. All of the people I have mentioned above will always be friends of mine. I truly hold each of them close to my heart, and get a little misty eyed when I think of them and how special they all are to me. Now I am sure I missed one of those exceptional people that have passed through my life, but that's the point of the above....these people have not passed through my life, but have joined me on a journey through a life. Each and everyone a better person than me and I have been blessed to know them and to share that loving friendship. Well an unexpected blessing has been bestowed to me here in Dubai, I have suddenly been surrounded by some very special people who I cling to, and I don't want them to pass through my life. I want them to share my journey. Kelly, Tonto, Juan, Hayley and others need to meet my other "life mates, because they are joining the fold and it's very nice. I guess I will serve my time (as tough as it sometimes) with my new friends, I can only vacation in America, I have a journey to complete here for now.

I do need to teach my house keeper how to make my bed before this "Adventure" returns to the States. Every Thursday, he comes and spends three hours scrubbing my apartment and removing the sand from my balcony. He puts my freshly laundered sheets on my bed, and makes it inside out. somehow he feels that the blanket goes under the sheets, so every Thursday when I get home from work, the first thing that I must do is remake my bed. I know, a boring little tale, but I have been telling it to Fred every week, and he has grown tired of this trivial never ending house keeper saga...so as a favor to him, I have now "blogged" about it, maybe that will serve as my need to bore others with this trivialness, and relieve Fred of the obligation to pretend to listen "about my housekeeper" challenges...lol...
There is big suprising news to come....This time next week, the suprise begins....Enjoy your week....Thank you for being one of the fifty...

Just over 105, My weight or the temperature?

I forgot how the heat just starts here in May, and now I am trying to remember when it starts to cool down (October seems so far away). Yesterday it was almost unbearable here in Dubai. We hit 109 again (hit that a couple of times this year now) yesterday, but this time the humidity was with it. It is draining, and what is truly scary, we aren't even close to the extremes of July and August when it will routinely be 10 degrees hotter....10 doesn't seem so perfect. I will be returning home to good ole America in early August, and I will be visiting St. Louis, where the temps can scorch you at 101 or even a couple of degrees higher for a couple hours in the afternoon, it can be extremely humid there also, making the heat index soar into the 115 degree range, the difference here is remarkable in as much as 115 is a routine non index high in the summer here in the Middle Eastern desert, and the heat indexes that are published don't measure high enough (the ones I have seen stop at 140 degrees, and the charts just don't go high enough). The other thing is the length of the heat during the day, it will be 100 by 10 am and not dip down below 100 until well after sunset at around 9 pm. Most nights during the peak of summer the overnight lows are in the low 90's....Thank God for Air conditioning and underground parking. I guess my body is being prepped for my retirement years in the desert of Arizona...lol.
I had my regular Doctor's visit yesterday, and those of you that are worried that my blog will disappear because of my untimely expiration will be relieved to know that I have lost 2 kg's so that I now weigh just over 105 KG's. (sounds so much better than 231 lbs),(for those of you who want to play the lb to kg game at home 1 kg = 2.2 lbs) Good news; my bad cholesterol (HDL/LDL?)lol is very low, bad news; so is my good cholesterol...they just try and make this confusing, my blood pressure is higher than it historically has been, but with the stress that makes up my daily life here, I would be shocked with other results....I need to exercise....enough on this, it is depressing.
We have a visitor from New York in town, yes Hayley's brother Jerry is here on an internship for a couple of short months...

We enjoyed dinner together at Urbano's in the Souk Al Bahar this week. Hayley is so happy to have him here, and I actually enjoyed interacting with him also. He will be spending a lot of his time in Abu Dhabi while he is here, but I know Hayley is enjoying the diversion, I of course enjoy any excuse to dine out with friends, we will have to go visit our Thai friends at the Royal Buddha this week and see my favorite server (of course I torment her) E E.

I know, too many pictures (I will now make a rule, no more than 2 photo's per blog).
My social life is progressing slowly, a weekly dinner date is all there is to report, but I really like her company....we will see what it evolves into.
Speaking of dinner companions, Juvy came in for 1 final interview for the customer service position, her interview went very well and I am confident we will make an offer for her to start with us this summer. I had dinner with her after her interview and she is really excited about getting an opportunity to start a new career. I am glad that I can help her out, while at the same time help our company, because Juvy is going to do great.
Reem and Tonto (formally known to the world as Muzzy) landed a big chicken contract with a huge caterer this week. It is worth millions and runs through December. Our sales plan will be easily made (add to the fact that Cheesecake Factory will be opening this fall and IHOP this summer-both under contract with us) should push us to close to over 180 million this year (in just over two years to go from the over 40 million Bob and I inherited to the 180 million we will finish this year with)...you think someone would be happy...
Time to get out and head to Subway for my Sesame egg and cheese sub...yes, it's all about the food,,,,have a great weekend, and Happy Mother's Day Mom, I will call shortly...

Beefing things up in Dubai

Things are heating up here in the good ole UAE. The weather is one thing (109 degrees on Wednesday - and no its not "dry heat") the sabre rattling is another. Iran is picking a fight with my host country. There are three small islands between Iran and the UAE (along the straight of Hormuz in the Arabian Sea) and both countries claim ownership. America is selling new fighter jets to the UAE (the Monarchy is a close ally of America) and the 6 Gulf Coast Nations have formed a tough alliance (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman , Kuwait, and the UAE) and have agreed to act as one militarily
to deter Iran from aggressive action. The US Navy has a huge base in Bahrain and things are tense between the Governments. Throw in the high probability of Israel taking action against Iran's nuclear ambitions....well things are heating up. If something flares up, I will try and update the home front through this blog.
We are beefing up things at work also. Muzzy and I are finally going to order some Australian beef this week as Management has asked me to devote my attentions to beef, lamb and chicken. Karim has returned to the company after a year away to a regional sales management position as we attempt to replicate our food service success around the Middle East. One of my favorite managers from our much larger retail division (Anis - from Lebanon) is also joining our team as of July 1st. I may finally get to hire Juvy, as we are beefing up our customer service department to handle the growing business (Juvy is on the right - with Rodz on the left). She was approved for hiring last fall, but a visa issue kept us from adding her.

 The team just keeps on growing, we are adding another young Lebanese salesman fresh out of school and a couple of Retail route salesmen are transferring in to the department. We have added to our procurement team also, as our internal team now numbers 30. I was the number two guy in the Food Service Organization, but now Anis will be second to Steve and his planned successor. It is very apparent to me that I have a limited shelf life here. My contract is through December 31st, 2013...somehow, my inkling is that I will be like my other American friends that were here, and are now back in the states and not make it to my own expiry date...lol.

It is just past 4 am here in Dubai, I am typing away late as I watch a Washington Nationals/Arizona Diamondback baseball game and I try and appease Muzzy. Every week he gripes because he says he can't read my blog til lunchtime on Friday. So this is for you Muzzy, a breakfast treat...lol.

BTW, Muzzy has a new nickname,,,,"Tonto" ...yes, it fits  him.

So it's time for the "Lone Ranger" to hit the hay....Hope your weekend will be as relaxing as mine.



Australia? Not so fast Bucko!

Let's start our day with sports (trying to shake up the blog a bit). The American Football Draft began on Thursday evening in the States. I will watch it this afternoon. Now the hardest trick that us American Ex-pats try and learn is how to avoid the news from our limited entertainment. I am curious as to who my beloved Dallas Cowboys picked, and I can't wait to find the online recap and the criticism of what Jerry Jones did (odds are he traded up or down-no way he could just draft...lol)....So for now, I hunker down and avoid the football news. The same of course is true (even more so) for American Idol and Survivor. American Idol is on here Thursday night with the results show Friday night. So from when I get off of work on Thursday, until I get to watch the show (I usually record it) I have to be careful on the Internet and with American emailers and phone calls. Of course all my carefulness goes out the window if my DVR *(TIVO) screws up...last week I failed to record Survivor. Then I spent lots of time online trying to figure out what I missed...lol. I now am double taping the shows that I really care about - just to be sure. One more sports note, Albert Pujols as of Wednesday night still no homers, in fact he was in the midst of a long hitless streak since my last blog. Nick wrote me to say he "was overjoyed". LOL, NIck, Albert may never get another hit...but, he got all the money and Karma can't change that!
I am watching an old American WWII movie (The Bridge at Remagen) on my MGM channel as I blog. It is funny watching English shows with Arabic subtitles, and sad when the Germans speak on screen, and the English subtitles are overlaid with Arabic ones and you can't read any of it...lol....these poor souls...
As you can gather from my posting, I am not (nor is my buddy Muzzy) traveling to Australia for business this weekend. All that's left is to send multiple apologies to the people that we were planning on visiting. I probably should do the prudent thing and not say anything else (for now). I am going to began to keep a notebook of all the things I wanted to blog about here that I could not because of self censorship to protect friends or myself. The Government of the UAE has deported and or jailed more than one blogger....And I can imagine losing this gig if I posted some things. So, maybe someday I can tell the tale of almost going to Australia on business.

Speaking of Australian Beef Ranches, we are very nervous about the case of "Mad Cow" that has been discovered in the US. The government here is very quick to ban beef from countries that have disease outbreaks. American beef was banned for almost 5 years after the Mad Cow outbreak in dairy cattle just after the turn of the century. South African Beef is currently banned (Hoof and Mouth) as is British Beef (BSE). Since about 25% of our sales is American beef products, we are nervously watching the news.
I have began to live a very routine life over here. Now that Bob and Nick have left, pretty much outside of work events are limited to dinner or lunch with Hayley or a date (not sharing yet, but it is looking up). If I am not doing either of those, Friday (my Sunday) now consist of breakfast at the Subway shop(egg and cheese on Sesame bread-yummy!), back to the apartment to blog, watch my taped shows and/or lounge at the pool. Then back to work on Saturday. It's boring, but it is a temporary routine, as the calendar continues to turn its pages as the months go by. I was really looking forward to my trip to Australia to break that routine. I now probably won't leave the UAE until late July to travel to Lebanon for Elie's wedding.
Today's excitement is going to be going to the barber, lol...it may be thinning out, but still needs an occasional shaping (I wonder how my comb over will look)...I apologize for the typo's, my browser no longer lets me go back into a posting to correct typo's. Life is just plain tough. lol...I look forward to seeing you soon, and I appreciate that you take time to check up on me. I would love to hear from you...

All my best....

(I figured out how to post pictures..above Shams and I)
This could lead to big blog improvements...lol!

Solitary life....Resort? or Isolationism?

Fred and I shared an interesting conversation while he visited last month. Am I an extrovert or an introvert? Am I social or anti-social? Not as clear cut as one would think. With loads of self reflecting time available to me...the answer is elusive. I am not afraid of public speaking, and I enjoy starting a conversation with a stranger (the victims of my tireless prattling on the elevators at work...well, I make it interesting -or annoying, once again all about perspective)... You may not know, that I don't enjoy parties or large gatherings. I am at my happiest in small intimate groups, a date or 3 or 4 maximum. More than that, oye Vay...I have started my post Rodz life, actually have started socializing again (Relax -I will detail more if it gets serious) It's funny how time passes so much better when you have distracting pursuits outside of work...lol.
I was thinking about my buddy Nick this morning. I was watching ESPN (God bless ESPN America) and saw that Albert Pujols has not yet hit a homer for the California Angels yet. When big Albert left St. Louis for California as a free agent this past winter (remember Nick is a huge St. Louis Cardinal fan) you would have thought that Albert had beat one of Nicks children with his bat. He was totally pissed, and hate flared from his perception of betrayal. Never mind, the reasons Pujols took the money and ran, he had pissed in Nick's Wheaties. Now, I know Nick, when he sees Albert Struggling- it's all about the Karma...enjoy it now Nick, might not last much longer.lol,
Muzzy and I have planned our "business trip" to Australia for the end on the month. We would leave here on next Saturday (the 28th) and after our 14 hour flight we would spend a couple of days in the Brisbane area followed by a couple days near Melbourne. Muzzy has lined up four different ranch's for us to visit. The trip has been blessed and suggested for a long time, but tickets still have not been purchased....Our visa's are purchased , but we will see...
We had a hard rain (still a rarity) on Wednesday evening. I was driving in it. Lasted about 15 minutes, the sky's are clean and the weather continues to heat up. Last year it didn't rain between March and January. It has rained 5 or 6 times this year....but the end has probably arrived. I don't expect it to rain again in Dubai til late December or early January.
My apartment complex has started to fill up with residents - you may recall that I moved in just before New Years and was the first, when my mom and brother visited in January there were probably a half dozen residents. Now I would say there are probably 40 residents. (third full).It is nicely furnished, and the pool is now busy...I really like it at my apartment...It is the equivalent of a post property in Atlanta ( or a $1200 a month apartment)...Really nice and cozy. I even bought a live tree/plant for my living room...I wonder who will be alive and living here in Dubai longer....me or my plant...lol.
I pretty much am down to three close friends at work (I love my team - but I am talking about the ones that I share outside of work quality time). Muzzy, Kelly and Hayley. I am looking forward to spending a week in Australia with Muzzy. Kelly and I try and have lunch a couple of times a week and I couldn't imagine continuing my job here if either one of them left. Outside of normal business it's my New York buddy Hayley. We both spent loads of time together since our break ups with our Significant others (her Arab my Philipina). Well she has just started seeing a French lad (I have not met him yet - so no approval yet...lol) and my burgeoning social calendar, means my off time will probably change dramatically. In that vane, Hayley and I are meeting at Fuddruckers in Festival City for lunch, and I need to scoot now, or be late.
Next week, I will give you my definite travel plans (Australia) or fill you in on what went wrong with the planning....have a great week!

Bananarama in Dubai?....yes, I typed it correctly...

Friday morning in Dubai, I am writing as I watch American Idol that I "DVR'd" last night (how did TV work before tivo?). Summer has broken out as temperatures have now started getting to 100 during the day. It's tax day weekend back in the good ole USA (yes, Fred sent my stuff to my $600 an hour international Tax attorney back in Atlanta -it costs plenty to not pay). Baseball is on almost every night (Lot's of day games in the states, 8 hour time difference and your 1 o'clock game becomes my 9 pm game - God Bless ESPN America)...life is good.
In just two weeks I am suppose to be leaving to tour Australia's beef Ranches with Muzzy, but the tickets haven't been purchased yet...hmmm, it's a long flight (16 hours?) but I will say if I never thought I would be in the Middle East, I can equally say I never thought I would go to Australia. I always have dreamed about going to Brazil...hmmm.
As I have been watching American Idol (wasn't a huge fan while living stateside- but things change here in the desert) it is interesting to me that things I would never think of are happening all over the world. I mentioned to one of my Filipino pals that I watched American Idol, and she immediately asked me if "I knew who Jessica Sanchez was?" She is the 16 year old singer from the Philippines (actually from San Diego- she is a Philippine) with a voice that reminds me of Christinia Agulaira. It seems that the Philippine servers that share a room in their company housing  go on the Internet each week and download her latest performance and root for her to stay alive in the competition (down to the final 7 now). As I cling to American baseball and football in living in my nice apartment with my two big screen tv's with money to see and do whatever I want, it's touching that there is a bunch of flatmates, homesick and proud. They don't have cable, in fact 1 bathroom for six friends, and the highlight of their week is watching and rooting for Jessica to win this years American Idol. They are living their dreams though Jessica....I am rooting with them.
Speaking of singing, this week the "Hard Rock Cafe" Dubai had their official grand opening. We sell them a few things (not nearly what we should!) and were invited as guests. So I attended with Reem (Kelly came with a friend also), but the grand opening musical act was Bananarama - This British pop group was actually pretty good (biggest hit? Cruel Summer) you know "it was a cruel, cruel summer" seemed appropriate for Dubai...it's been in some ways two years of Cruel summers here...number 3 right around the corner...
Speaking of Kelly, I will share a cute story about my lil blond buddy. She dated a guy for a while last year named Steve that I also know. Now one of my favorite pastimes is to tease Kelly (she is the prototypical girl next door) about whatever love life she is enjoying or has enjoyed. She traveled to Italy last week on business, and she returned Monday morning at 4 am. I asked her when she got to work that morning if she had seen her boyfriend (current man is Sam (Jordanian) for those of you keeping score at home) - you know 5 days in Italy without your boyfriend - well she proceeds to tell me he was flying out of Dubai as she was flying in, and they had met at the airport to share coffee - how romantic...(stick with me it gets better-lol) Well, then she says how weird it was as she walked to see her beau she got a text from Steve at 4:30 in the morning asking if she was back and when he would see her...well she thought it was bizarre that he would ask at that time of the morning and she politely blew him off on her blackberry before meeting Sam her current boyfriend. Now, what Kelly didn't know, is that morning as I spoke to Steve (Our boss) he mentioned that he had sent Kelly a message earlier in the week, and she sent it back before 5 am this morning that she was back, (her blackberry doesn't work outside of the UAE) but he said it was sorta cryptic. I thought at the time - that's odd....now Kelly shares me her story and I realize, that Kelly had gotten her "Steve's" confused and she still didn't get it...lol, as soon as I said Kelly, that was our boss Steve - not her ex boyfriend Steve- her eyes got huge, she frantically checked out the message/conversation she had had...lol...Lucky for Kelly nothing tawdry - and she has now changed his name on her Blackberry...lesson to be learned...Kelly and I have laughed all week about it.
Time to run...have a great week!