Click Here to see a Short Video of Air Races

Art uses some online software to make these picture collages with music
Air Race

Arab Wedding

So Art gets invited at the last minute to a wedding of a nephew of someone from Corporate. It is for Men only. Art, Dr. Tej the CEO, Eric, and Joseph, the husband of the COO get dressed up and head off..I will let Art tell the story.

OK, sorry, no pictures...none of know the groom, and I could not figure out who he was during the 2 hour wedding..There was no actual ceremony. We entered the greeting line, shook about 30 mens hands, at the end of the line there was a large incense burner that we waved the smoke into our faces...then inside there were chairs for all in a U shape at the top were all the 'throne-like' chairs, again we shook hands and congratulated everyone, then we sat in the front row. They had servers bring us the following CONTINOUSLY..'Coffee, Sweet Tea, chocolates, juices of all varieties, dates..I noticed that they used the same cups for everyone, each server had about 4 cups w/no handles and when u gave it back, he then gave it to the next person..
Then the music started..about 20 men in a circle singing for 1/2 hour..it went like this 'ya ya ya eh ! ya ya ya eh !, eh eh he ya !. sometimes they chanted to a song leader, other times they just chanted...they had canes and rifles and some wore symbolic fake pistols on bandelors..(hey they stole this idea from Mexicans)...at the same time in the middle about 3-4 men or boys dances and did circles..it kinda reminded me of a few Grateful Dead concerts where u see people circling to the music they hear in their heads....or San Francisco Haight district where u see people dancing on the corners...anyway I digress.
Several people came up and shook hands with the guys I was with..I only knew these 3, I met several others....

Time to eat...after about an hour of this swell dancing..all of a sudden, no announcement, everyone gets up and we head through large doors to the other side of the building (all 200 to 300 hundred of us) and there are large tables and a head table and it is time to eat...

An Arab friend of the group sat with us, we shoved our plates under the middle massive mound of Rice that is topped with Goat and Camel meat. He said, don't use ur utensils and do NOT use your left hand...OK, I am a lefty..anyway we shoved the plates under the bottom and came up with Rice, then he used his hands and tore apart the Camel Meat for each of us. Um mm Umm...it was good, I had that and chicken, and other meats and some pasta and some chocolates... Then our new Arab friend called for the most tender part...some Baby Camel Hump. That's right Camel Hump.....but alas most of it was reserved for the Head table...so we only got a sliver of greasy slimey baby camel hump...boo hoo.

When we were finished, we got up and started to leave..OK I asked Dr. Tej the dumb question..where are the girls and when is the ceremony...NO girls...they have a get together on Saturday afternoon after the wife consumates the marriage. This WAS the ceremony...at the end they are considered to be married, we are all witnesses. The locals can have 4 concurrent wives, they must all be treated the same, he can divorce her, ,but he must continue to support her forever. So anyway we checked out, shook hands with another greeting line of complete strangers and headed home....Another local custom under my belt !

Red Bull Air Races and a song abour Art

The Races are this weekend and evidently a very large party, here are a few pictures and a video of the set up of the stages and they are practicing Arts Song, something about being an assasin for love !!!! Oh Boy .

This is the video...

Thses are some pictures Art took of the Practice Sessions on Wednesday

Emerates Palace

We took a walk to the Emerates Palace on Saturday. It is one of two 7 star hotels in the world. This huge complex with a concert arena, golf courses and a private beach only has 300 rooms, that start around 1500 US dollars per night up to $17,000 per night for the Royal suites. For valentines day week, they ran a special, for 1 Million Dollars US, a week at the hotel, a private jet to Oman for 1 day, Beruit for 1 day and Baharain for one day. One Russian businessman took the special.

The place is huge. It took us 1 hour to walk around the perimeter

There was another concert accross the street. Some Italian singer and a musical set. They set up an entire stage for the 3 hour concert. A member of the Royal family must have attended as they set up the above tent for them with all the golden chairs

The set up for the Triathelon this weekend

This is the stage that took a week to set up for a 3 hour concert, then the next day it was tore down for the Triathlon apparatus

This coming weekend is the Red Bull Air Plane races over the ocean/breakwater just outside our Apt. Art will go and take pictures of course ! Never a dull moment in Abu Dhabi.

Wakeboard Abu Dhabi 2010

This past weekend, in addition to us going Ballooning there was also a 3 day Wakeboard Competition just accross the street. Art took these pictures. Most of the action was out on the water, but these 2 shots were from the pool and ramps they built on the Corniche. It took 2 days to build a 200,000 gallon tank, they put up an overhead pulley system to mimic a boat.

This guy hit his butt on the ramp. Out on the water they went zoom zoom up and down the beach doing wake board stunts, flips, etc. Most of the people were from the UK. At night they set up 2 huge stages and bands played until 1 or 2 in the morning.

Then the weekend was over they took down the pool overnight, and today Wednesday there are 2 NEW HUGE stages being assembled for another concert on the Corniche Beach...Art will look it up on the paper to see who is playing. It really seems that each weekend there is some activity we can do.

It is starting to warm up a bit, not too hot, in the high 70's but the humidity is starting to go a bit higher...we are seeing the windows frost up and the sidewalks are damp in the morning. Art thinks we have about 2 to 3 weeks left of decent weather, we still don't have a car so that is becomming a priority. We have not moved yet so a new apartment is also on the agenda...Too many things to do and work is very hard...I need a vacation after 4 months.....we are thinking about a weekend in Oman or flying to Cyprus to 'just get away'...I can only dream now...off to bed

We finally got off the ground...it was a hazy morning as we got up at 3:45 am to meet our ride Kevin to the pick up point on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. At around 5 am all 15 of us were ready and we were bused about 1 hour out of town toward Al Alain, the desert oasis that was the birthplace of the Sheikh of Abu Dhabi. The founding Sheikh was born out here and we learned from our pilot that this part of the desert is kept especially cleaned up of trash so that the Royal family can come out here with their falcons and hunt...There is a short video at the bottom of our first attempt at take off and a couple of random pictures Art took from the basket

This is the engine, 2 hot burners and a 16 passenger basket, four people to a quadrant and the pilot from Russia in the middle

Too bad it was so hazy, but this picture of when we came close to the earth to search for wind direction came out pretty good, it is along the top of a dune and the wind had blown over the top here

There were 2 balloons today, our sister balloon was filled with tourists from Dubai

15 Minutes in America - By Art

So today I went to America......for 15 minutes or so. I had to have something notarized and the US Embassy will do it for a nominal fee. I had a taxi take me there, (making sure first that he did not hava a black kerchief tied to his mirror) ( a sign of a Taliban sympathizer)...anyway I was a bit aprehensive at first as this was my first time to an Embassy. Other then when Mr. Bourne goes in all 3 episodes...I could not take pictures for security purposes, but the building is Odd shaped like some geometric hexa something...kinda like a stealth fighter design with hard angles sloping back, no inside corners..I assume to thwart any type of attack. The doors, all glass were double thick and HEAVY to open and close. I had to go through 3 security stations and pat downs...I shared this with a REAL American..a biker dude with long hair and an American Flag bandana as a head scarf under his helmet, and a week old beard. He was my age and like me a dependant of a working American woman. We went through the checkpoints together as you have to go through 2 buildings to get the inside...we both said at about the same moment..."It's nice to be in America" and laughed and stopped for a few moments at a memorial dedicated to Marines who had died defending other Embassies in the world. He was an ex Marine and he saluted and shed a tear or two, then we proceeded in. It was totally empty of visitors other then the 2 of us. We had to take a number and we joked as we both wanted to have the other go first... The grounds were pleasant and shady, we did not see any Marines, although I am sure they were seeing us....I kinda delayed leaving as long as I could, talked to the Philipino Guards, picked up my Cell Phone at the first gate and caught a Taxi back. Told the biker I would buy him a beer if we ever meet up again at the Sheraton or Hilton Hotels...he was from the outskirts in a surburban housing area of Villas and his wife worked for an Oil company.

It's 2:30 pm and time for the beach....the next post will have a lot of pictures as this weekend we are going ballooning and to the Wakeboard festival...it should be fun.