Blogger Slow

Is it just me or is everything about Blogger insanely slow the last two days?

End of Roundabouts

With the post about the Globe Roundabout, I have now finished all my planned roundabout posts. Thanks so much to everyone who has let me know that they enjoyed these posts and for sharing comments.

Starting next week I will be taking Mohammed's idea to post some of the beautiful mosques of Al Ain.

Here is a list of all the roundabouts covered:

Sheikh Zayed Roundabout

"Greenhouse" Roundabout

Al Ain Hospital Roundabout

Jabal Roundabout

Murabbaa Roundabout

Deer Roundabout

Tawam Hospital Roundabout

Sheikha Salama Mosque Roundabout

Zoo Roundabout

Diwan Roundabout

Baladiya Roundabout

Sheikh Mubarak Roundabout

Al Qala Roundabout

Other Jabal Roundabout

Other Coffee Pot (or Al Foah) Roundabout

My Favorite Roundabout

Mandoos Roundabout

Planning Roundabout

"Pizza Hut" Roundabout

Globe Roundabout

Roundabouts of Al Ain #20

Globe Roundabout

This is probably the most distinctive roundabout because it is so tall.



You can't see it from these photos, but the redish panels display weather information.

Roundabouts of Al Ain #19

Pizza Hut Roundabout

OK, this isn't the official name, and probably isn't even the official name, but it is what I call it, since one of the Pizza Huts in town is on one of the corner. It has a slightly elaborate water fountain and palm trees.



The base of the fountain is rather prettily decorated, I think.



The birds really seem to enjoy the water too.

Roundabouts of Al Ain #18

Planning Roundabout

I have no idea what planning this roundabout is honoring - I would guess that it is city planning, but that is only a guess. It has a simple water fountain surrounded by flowers.

Roundabouts of Al Ain #17

Mandoos Roundabout

A mandoos is a traditional chest that was used to store valuables. This roundabout has a very large replica, with pearls (harking back to the pearl diving industry that was so important in the Emirates).





I had never really noticed the tile replica of the carpet under the mandoos (again, the decay evident in so many of the roundabouts is here too).



Also decaying are the "pearls".

Even more Al Ain Blogs

As elle pointed out in the comments, there is now yet another Al Ain blogger, chai4me at dustydayz.

I also added Writer's Block to the Al Ain blogroll earlier but didn't announce it, so check them out too.

Camels of UAE University

In response to the overwhelming demand, here are a couple of photos of the camel statues that the university has scattered around the town:






[Updated Friday night]

Thanks to keeie for the links to the sites that cover the camel, horse, and falcon artwork in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. The kids loved the Spidey Camel, even changing the words to the Spiderman song to be more appropriate (mostly by including a line about how "he'll spit on you").

Two more Al Ain Blogs

Two Al Ain bloggers that I missed:

flic at Balloon: American Center for Surreal and Paranoid Life. I have to admit, flic's blog isn't my cup of tea; I just don't get a lot of the stuff there. But check it out for yourself, your mileage may vary.

Mohammed UK, at Condensed Milk Sandwiches and the Crucial Trucial States. The doesn't mention Al Ain a lot, but has a lot of interesting stuff.

Searches

It can be really interesting to see how people come across this blog. This are some of the searches that have led people here the past few days:

"al ain gay"

Other than the fact that I have not been hit on by any gay cab drivers, I have no information on this subject (I swear! - not that there is anything wrong with that), but I'm still the #4 result

"way to Al AIN from dubai"

I don't think that I have ever said, but just head north on E66 and you will get there.

"al ain buraimi border fence"

Google thinks that this blog is the best source of info on this subject. Who am I to disagree?

"Accident in Al Ain"

Despite the fact that I haven't had one of these here (yet), Google also thinks that this blog is the best source of info on this subject.

"desalinization plants dubai"

I'm number one for this one too, but apparently I'm using the wrong word and it should be "desalination", not "desalinization".

"Al Ain"

Obviously this is no surprise, but Google UK does not think that I'm number one on this list, instead it is some upstart new kid on the block (just kidding AAT).

"alain population"

I'm number one here too, even when the search is in the Arabic interface. I also discovered that you can view Google's Arabic translation of my blog here.

"al ain border"

My Web Search clearly doesn't know how to rank things, I'm only number 4 here.

"amazing roundabouts"

OK, I take back everything bad I thought about Google UK a minute ago. The clearly are a discerning and wise search engine, ranking this blog #1 for this search.

""what did the cartoon that made all the muslims mad look like?""

Altavista thinks this is the best place to get this question answered. I don't have the cartoons posted here, so I would say that that is wrong.

"BORDERS WITH BURAIMI"

I'm only #10 here. Also, the info in the first link is now wrong. There is now very strict border control between Al Ain and Buraimi.

"al ain hospital"

Fittingly, R/A of Al Ain post #7 is the #7 search result with Google.

Al Ain Blogs

As far as I know, when I got here last year I was the only blogger here in Al Ain in English (if I'm wrong, please let me know - I know that Just a Mom was blogging before me, but I came to Al Ain first). But now there are at least five others, including a couple who have just started fairly recently. So I have changed my UAE Blogs links into Al Ain blogs and those not lucky enough to live in Al Ain. Check out the newest links:

The Desert Mirage - Ahmed has been blogging here since April 2006, but I just found it recently. His post on the changes at the Al Ain-Buraimi border crossing has the best information on this important local subject.

C'est la Vie - Elle has been posting in August 2006.

Your Man in Al Ain - He has been posting since August as well.

Also check out the continuing blogs Al Ain Taxi and Am I really this crazy? too.

If you are an Al Ain blogger that I have missed, please let me know so that I can add your blog.

Roundabouts of Al Ain #16

My Favorite Roundabout

It certainly isn't as spectacular as some of the others in town. I first saw this roundabout when I was driving around looking for a parking place so that I could take a picture of the Sheikh Mubarak R/A. It is just north of that roundabout (well, due north is probably more accurate, as it is a fair distance from it). It was love at first sight.



Admittedly it needs a new coat of paint very badly, but something about the design of this castle on a rocky mountaintop with water tumbling around it is just very striking to me.



I also think that some of it is the fact that it is so well hidden. The size and proportions also just seems right.

Al Ain Times Online

The Al Ain Times is finally publishing its English portion online in PDF format. Its third edition is available here.

Roundabouts of Al Ain #15

The "Other" Coffee Pot Roundabout

This is the first roundabout you encounter if you are coming from Dubai (or any of the northern emirates) or the last one before you hit the highway.





Unlike the Murabbaa Roundabout, It actually has more than just a coffee pot, though being in the middle and the biggest, that is what stands out the most.



There is also an incense burner



and (if I understood correctly when this was explained to me - please, correct any of my misunderstandings) a perfume dispenser. Apparently when these were used, they had a few small holes in the top and then perfume or rose water would be shaken out, especially at weddings and other important events.



While it is pretty much impossible to see while driving around it, the brickwork around the statuary has the familar eight pointed stars.



The landscaping is very beautiful too, with the only cactuses (cacti?) that I have seen outdoors here,



and the more common colorful flowers and lush grass.

Roundabouts of Al Ain #14

So far as I know, this roundabout doesn't have a name, but it is on Baladiya Street in the southern part of town. I believe that this is one of the more beautiful roundabouts in town. The grass is lush, the landscaping very well done.



There are waterfalls on both the east and west sides. The one on the east side falls into a pool, and there is a walk way that runs right in front of it, complete with a small wooden bridge. I can't imagine that anyone every goes up there except for the maintainence people. This is really a shame, since when I went up there to take these photos, it was amazingly peaceful and quiet.





The waterfall on the west side is if anything even better. The mist that rises from the falls is an especially nice touch.

15,000th Visit

IP Address		194.170.32.# (Higher Colleges of Technology)
ISP		Emirates Telecommunications Corporation
Location		Country : United Arab Emirates City : Abu Dhabi
Language		English (United States) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Time of Visit		Sep 17 2006 7:34:50 am
Last Page View		Sep 17 2006 7:34:50 am
Page Views		1
Referring URL		http://secretdubai.b...de-to-uae-blogs.html
Visit Entry Page		http://bssandbrninalain.blogspot.com/
Visit Exit Page		http://bssandbrninalain.blogspot.com/
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC+3:00
Visitor's Time		Sep 17 2006 3:34:50 pm
Visit Number		15,000

Roundabouts of Al Ain #13

(Sorry if you thought that the series was over. I still have about 10 more to go.)

Al Qala Roundabout

This is the roundabout that is nearest to my house, the one that inspired me to begin this series. Fortunately, a friend of mine did take a picture of the castle/fortress before its destruction, and said friend has graciously allowed me to use this photo here (thanks!). It was taken from a moving car, but you can get an good idea of how it used to look:



This is what it looks like now:



It is a big disappointment. OK, so the fountain is still there (you can't see it in the picture from before, but the fountain went up to the edge of the wall of the castle), and it is pretty nice.





But in the middle are just some palm trees and these huge A/C units (actually, I'm just guessing that they are A/C units, maybe they do something with the fountain). Maybe when whatever is using the irrigation system here grows it will be nicer.



One other thing about roundabouts here in general: it always amazes me to see people stop in the outside line, as here, and have conversation. It happens day and night, and almost group of people seem to do it.

Traffic Accidents in Al Ain

As Al Ain Taxi reported, the Al Ain Times has begun weekly publication (sorry, but there are no stories online at this time - I don't know if they plan on doing that at some future time).

The first week article contained had a front page story and a two page feature on traffic accidents in Al Ain that was very interesting, if a little difficult to figure out at times, as the stories frequently contradicted each other. For example, on the front page it says that a group of scholars from the UAE University "studied all 541 accidents reported to Al Ain Traffic Police during 2005", the feature's first paragraph makes the same claim, then one paragraph later says that "[t]he study ... used samples consisted of 541 roadway crashes reported by Al Ain Traffic Police which represent 90% the total number of traumatic roadway crashes that took place in Al-Ain district during the entire period of 2005" [all errors in grammar and punctuation in the original, ellipses are mine - Al Ain Times, can you please hire a copy editor?]. So there were either 541 accidents or about 601.

The most surprising figure to me was that 97% of drivers involved in accidents were male. Actually, this isn't surprising, it is nearly unbelievable. If this is right, then it means that at most 18 female drivers were involved in accidents for the entire year. So stay away from male drivers in Al Ain.

The breakdown by nationality is also given. UAE citizens were drivers in 40% of the accidents (their percentage of the Al Ain population is 32.4% [Al Ain Times 9-15 September 2006, v. 1 issue 2]), followed by Asians (Pakistanis and Indians mostly) at 35% (about 28% of the population), Arabs of other (i.e. non-GCC) nationalities at 11.4% (about the same proportion for population), and 6% for GCC citizens (about 1% of the population). No accident figures were given for Western expats, but "Europeans" (I'm guessing that this includes Americans, Canadians, Aussies, etc) are about 0.6% of the population.

The good news is that the police report that fatalities are down 13.6% in the first six months of this year, in part due to the police "awareness campaign [that] is targeting nationalities that are rated high in traffic accidents".

Moved

So, this weekend turned out to be just as bad as I was afraid that it would be.

First, Bss and the kids' flight from the US to Gatwick was delayed by two hours, which means that they missed their connecting flight to Dubai.  This means that instead of arriving at 8:00 pm and getting back to Al Ain before midnight, we didn't get back until almost 5:00 am.   As bad as that is, it is even worse when you are moving at 7:30 am.

Then we had a big disagreement with the movers that we hired (they thought we were paying them per trip, we thought that we were paying them a flat rate to move the stuff) that ended up costing us a fair bit of money.  We finally got everything moved by the end of the weekend though., Yesterday I got the power company to close the statement on our old house and transfer everything over to the new one and arranged with Etisalat to move all their stuff as well.

So, you want to see what you get if you make a child travel for 24 hours, then move his house too? 

A really, really tired kid: