Links
(blogs that are not updated have been deleted)

Dubai based Airine bloggers

TampaxTowers
Style High Club
The Trolley Dolly
Life,as I know it (now Edmonton!)
Bjorn Moerman
James Nixon
TheEKSource
Jens Krüger
 

Egypt

Sandmonkey
Hammonda.net
 

Thailand Blogs

Bangkok Noir

Bangkok Pundit - politics

Thai-blogs.com - rather serious

2bangkok.com - not really a blog but always up to date on Bangkok news
BKKOK.com
Thailand Voice promoting blogs from Thailand
Thailand Golf
Thai-blogs -Thailand life and culture
trythaifood - thai recipes
CityLife Chiang Mai
Thailand Crisis not updated but important in understanding 2006-2009.
Absolutely Bangkok
Bangkok Bugle

Thai Girl The exotic adventures of a literary sexagenarian.
Thailand Jumped the Shark

Thai Films
Siam Report
Thai ENews - In Thai
Photo-journ - news blog plus pics
Prachatai - Thai news in English
New Mandala - new perspectives on SE Asia
NewsInBangkok - another news blog
Thailand Intelligent News - interesting opinion and  links
Political Prisoners in Thailand
GregToDiffer
Hua Hin Golf
Philip Golingai (mainly Malaysia)
ThailandVoice
Musings from Thailand
Women learning Thai
Vaitor
Ricefield Radio
Reporter in Exile
Robert Amsterdam - Thailand
Somtow's world
Dirtii laundry
Thai Cables
Siam Voices
ThaiWomanTalks
Tasty Thailand
Siam Intelligence Unit
Mouth of the Mekong
Carabao in english
NickoBongiorno

Asia Blogs

Banyan - The Economist

Asia Unbound - CFR
Zen Journalist
The Marmot's Hole - Korea
The writings of MD Nalapat
Democratic Voice of Burma
Ideas for India

Dubai Blogs
Mainly Photos; mainly from Dubai - Gerald Donovan at work!

dxbae - picture blog - also Gerald Donovan
UAE Community Blog - uniting all UAE bloggers
Dubai informer - news and events.
The Grapeshisha Blog - commentary  on a changing Dubai
One Big Construction Site - a long term expat on life in Dubai
Secret Dubai Diary - rather disillusioned expat commentary - sadly seems to have died - but again worth keeping for some interesting recent history.
Dubai As It Used To be - self explanatory - fascinating!
Kippreport - news and commentary
Life In Dubai - moved to Oz
Fake Plastic Souks
Dubai Astronomy Group
Gulf Photo Plus
Dubai Media Observer

The Gulf Blog
Dubai Construction Update
Dubai Race Night
Burj Khalifa

Grumpy Goat
Ever changing lanes
Spontaneous Euphoria
Christopher Saul - Dubai Blog
MattJDuffy
Sport360
The Hedonista
Dubai as it used to be
DubaiDevelopmentsGuide
Al Serkel Avenue
 

Arabic affairs blogs

The Arabist
Felix Arabia
MidEastPosts
The Culturist
Pan Arabian Enquirer
Doha News
Al Monitor
The Gulf Blog
Al-Bab

Hong Kong Blogs
Digital Life - A Hong Kong picture blog - interesting pics
A Big White Guy in Hong Kong - self explanatory
Ordinary Gweilo
Hemlock's Diary. And people think I am opinionated - try this!
BigLychee
EastSouthWestNorth - commentary
Glutter.org - Greater China democracy news and many great links
Hong Kong Hustle
Hong Kong Paintings

Hong Kong Outdoors
Hong Kong and Macau Stuff
Hong Wrong
Hong Kong Free Press
 

In China:

Danwei - media and advertising news from China

Shanghaiist.com
The China Beat - how the east is read.

Hong Kong Cinemagic
Shanghai Scrap
The Paper Tiger
Peking Duck
China Law Blog
China Rises
China Media Project
China in Africa: The Real Story
LivinginChina.com
Sinocism

Chinageeks
Beijing Cream
China Daily Show
Ministry of Tofu

In Macau:

In Singapore:
The Singapore Daily

Xiaxue - self-confessed mean, bitchy, sex goddess who says "wah" a lot!

Mr Brown - colourful commentary from Singapore
Singapore Democrats
The Online Citizen
Icarus flew too high
Bonjour Singapore

In Burma:

National League for Democracy

In Canada:

BlogTO
Now Toronto

Media:
On the Ground ND Kristof

Tabloid Watch (UK)
The Diplomat - Asia Pacific
CJ Purcell
Foreign Policy
Vanity Fair
Watchdog reporting
Fleet Street Blues
BellingCat
 

Aviation:

Amadeus (airline schedules)

Airline meals - see it b4 you eat it!

Airliners - aviation forum, trip reports and pix archive
A Captain's Blog - the routine of a California based 767 captain
FA Uniforms - interesting collection of the old and new

Planenation - commercial aviation news

Airchive - a web museum of commercial aviation.

CrankyFlier - mainly US commentary
AvHerald - daily log of airliner incidents
RandPeck's blog
Rand Peck - writing and photography from a US based 757 captain
PlaneBuzz - airline financials
SmartCockpit

Sharjah - 1937
Boarding Area business travel
World Airports
Flight Wisdom
ATC - Toronto (YYZ)
Today in the sky
Ask the pilot
The Flying Scotsman - A BA pilot blog
Key Magazines - UK
Crossing the Sky
Blogging at FL250
Flight Level 390
The wings stayed on
PilotOutlook
Birmingham Airport
Aviation Queen
LiveATC.net
AirplaneFood
Flight to Success
Routehappy

KPAE - Paine Field Blog
UxMilk (mainly Qantas)
World Stewardess Crews
Airways magazine blog
DubaiAirportsConnect
APEX Editor's Blog
In a Foreign Sky
Better on a Camel
Simon Blakesley Photography
Jethead
Holding Pattern
Learmount


Travel:

Johnny Jet
Paris photo blog
Business Traveller - Asia
Camels and Chocolate
GranTourismo
Legal Nomads
Circle of Asia
Tales of Asia
Smart Travel Asia
Untraveller
The World and his TukTuk
QuiteAlone - Matthew Teller
Around the World in 80 Elephants
Mouth of the Mekong
GranTourismo Travels
Seat 61

 

News:

The Guardian - UK

BBC World News

CNN Asia

Bangkok Post
Gulf News

Arabian Business
CNNfan.com scary fan site!
Twitmericks
vox - Research-based policy analysis and commentary from leading economists
Next Media - news animation

 

Bangkok info sites:

thailand.com

learningthai.com

sawadee.com

thailandstories

bangkok a-z
stickboyBangkok
 

Worthy Sites:

Niall Ferguson

Rconversation - from Rebecca MacKinnon, ex-TV reporter-turned-blogger.
RGE Monitor - macro-economic analysis
Migrant Rights
Cricket Archive
Good experience
Heresy Corner

What Matters - McKinsey
Freedom House
 

Golf Sites:
wei under par

The Christina Kim

Cricket sites:

Alternative Cricket Almanac
99.94
Cricket with Balls
The Old Batsman
StumpedForADuck
The NightWatchman
Lords.org
The Full Toss

Other Sports
Sulia.com - football
Richard Keys - football

Fun Sites:

Fun signs
Urban Dictionary
Earth TV

Useful Sites:

World Time Clock

Cooking
Cooking Light
 

Technology Ideas:
Loose wire

Stuff - gadgets
TechCrunch
Boing Boing
The Next Web

TNooz - Travel Tech
The Immedium Blog

ViralBlog
The Next Web
Now and Next
The Sports Scientists
FacebookStories
LiesDamnedLiesstatistics
Mixed Topics

Photography
unchartedphotography
Glen Calvin Photography
GulfPhotoPlus

The Rest:

Black Flamingo - recipes and life (no golf!)
Mixed Topics
Watford Mad (WFC)
BHappy - a Watford Blog
Watford Legends
All About Cricket
Brain Pickings
Ballpark-it.com - recipes
Bored Panda

TV:
Northern Exposure

Place from my past:
Bournville Village
Redbourn - the Geoff Webb collection
 

Author

Robert Scott lives and works in Dubai; born in England I have since lived in Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and Bangkok.

I am very happily married to Tai.

If you want to know more you only need to ask! ask.

29 June 2015

Mick Twister @twitmericks

A CNN journalist spied
A pro-ISIS flag at gay pride,
But oh what a cock-up -
The flag was a mock-up,
With dildoes for script on the side!

28 June 2015

Back in Newton Ferrers for a few days.

Alex has graduated from school - a school that has helped shape him as a genuinely likeable, engaging, intelligent, generous young man.

All of his extended family can be very proud of him as he starts out on a whole new adventure.

And after visiting Divonne and Rolle three or four times a year for the last few years I am going to miss the place...

27 June 2015

There are times when President Obama is brilliant - his pastor as president - or president as pastor speech in Charleston last night was brilliant - a call for action and an expression of the need for real change.

No other President would have had the balls to sing/lead Amazing Grace in front of a congregation and a massive TV audience - talk about capturing/embracing the moment.

23 June 2015

The Bangkok Post reports this morning that The Transport Ministry has given the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) until Thursday to improve safety certification for Thai-registered airlines — one of the aviation concerns raised by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

Amazing Thailand - they had 90 days notice from the ICAO - did nothing - and now think they can fix the probem in two days.

Here is one comment from PPRUNE relating to the ICAO red-flag:

"It is common knowledge amongst expat pilots working in Thailand that a lot of weak oversight takes place and there is high degree of suspicion that both nepotism and possibly corruption is at work behind the scenes.How can this be tackled to improve safety? A very difficult issue to tackle.

The very young age and thus most likely lack of experience at work in the PIC seat of many low cost outfits coupled with dodgy practices like getting paid based upon ontime performance certainly encourages crews to attempt unsafe landings in thunderstorms and this is borne out by the regular runway over runs and other various excursions into the grassy/non paved areas. STUPID.UNSAFE.DANGEROUS.I WISH THIS WOULD STOP."

Says it all.

*******************************
Meanwhile over at EK - " 90 hours plus a month of the type of flying EK does is simply dangerous. It is not sustainable. Most pilots can see that and feel it. A few newer captains have said to me that they seem to be handling it but they have been flying those hours only for a year. Give it a few more and we will see!

They are pushing EVERY department to the breaking point and I fear that it will soon break and we are in a business that when it does break that people may well die."

The worry is the disconnect that appears to exist between EK's owners, its managers, and its front line crew.

As for the cabin crew - six years ago 80 flying hours would be a standard month. Now 110 hours is a standard month. The crew shortages also continue meaning that crew - especially in economy are inexperienced and ill-prepared for any event outside the normal routine.

22 June 2015

 Ian Poulter took to social media to offer a lengthy criticism of Chambers Bay. The Englishman had promised to keep his counsel over the venue until the conclusion of his fourth round and kept to that vow.

Poulter admitted he “didn’t play well enough to be remotely close” but added: “It is disgraceful that the USGA hasn’t apologised about the greens they simply have said ‘we are thrilled the course condition this week.’

“It wasn’t a bad golf course, in fact it played well and was playable. What wasn’t playable were the green surfaces. If this was a regular PGA Tour event lots of players would have withdrawn and gone home on Wednesday but players won’t do that for a major. They were simply the worst most disgraceful surfaces I have ever seen on any tour in all the years I have played.

“The US Open deserves better than that.”

The fescue greens have been invaded by poa annua. As the day progresses, the poa grows and the fescue lays down, creating bumpy surfaces.

“It’s an unfortunate subplot that very well could become a major plot,” Chamblee said. “You come down to the last hole, you got a four-footer on one side, I got a four-footer on one side. Skill should determine the outcome. Say I’ve got 50 pieces of poa annua between me and the hole and you don’t. They’re not the same for everybody…Luck has become introduced in a far greater factor than it should.

20 June 2015

The Guardian on the US Open which is being played on a  course like no other close to Tacoma in NW USA:

"There’s been a wee bit of grumbling regarding Chambers Bay. The bounce can be unkind. The rough is a jungle. Approaches are unorthodox. Some pin positions are awkward. The greens are a state.

Well, it’s the US Open, bub, suck it up. It’s supposed to be hell on earth. And Chambers Bay looks pretty damn fine from this vantage point. It’s a venue of rare beauty. The Puget Sound glistening. Rolling green hills. Sand grabbing handfuls of the fairways. Dramatic plunges into dappled, three-tone, camouflage greens. The railway clattering through, its constant rumble an evocation of an industrial past.

Completing the picture, the world’s best golfers wandering hither and yon. Some confused, others energised. All being tested to the very limits of their knowledge and ability. It’s fascinating to see the pros slowly working the place out, visualising shots they’d never usually play on the Tour’s weekly grind. It’s the unique craftsmanship of links golf, with an added twist of trademark USGA sadism. Dismiss it as crazy golf if you like, but to do so would be to miss the point. It’s just a different sort of test, that’s all, and what’s so wrong with that? It’s magnificent entertainment."

*****************************
Qatar Airways CEO, Al Baker : 

19 June 2015

"Donald Trump announced that he's running for president. During his speech he told the crowd that if elected he would be 'the greatest jobs president that God ever created.' Then God said, 'Hey, don't drag me into this publicity stunt.'" –Jimmy Fallon

************************
Jon Stewart on the Charleston shootings:

I honestly have nothing, other than sadness once again that we have to peer into the abyss of the depraved violence that we do to each other and the nexus of a just gaping racial wound that will not heal yet we pretend doesn’t exist

What blows my mind is the disparity of response between when we think people that are foreign are going to kill us and us killing ourselves. If this had been what we thought was Islamic terrorism… we invaded two countries, and spent trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives and now fly unmanned death machines over five or six different countries, all to keep Americans safe.

We’ve got to do whatever we can - we’ll torture people - we’ve got to do whatever we can to keep Americans safe. Nine people shot in a church, what about that? That’s the part that I cannot for the life of me wrap my head around.

The full clip is here - and Stewart says what no politician or self-righteous media outlet dares to say.

17 June 2015

Just by way of follow up to an earlier story - 

16 June 2015

Message from cabin crew manager to an inflight supervisor who had reprimanded a cabin crew member who got upset and complained to her manager - "You can do that to Asian crew but not to Arabic crew....."

One rule for some and one rule for the rest.....not a surprise. Just an example of life in the sandpit...

15 June 2015

It would be hard to say this better or more clearly:

"Human Rights Watch opposes capital punishment in all countries and under all circumstances. Capital punishment is unique in its cruelty and finality, and it is inevitably and universally plagued with arbitrariness, prejudice, and error."

14 June 2015

I have started my ground school for my PPL - slow going!

****************************
A thought on 4 June from the outstanding Peking Duck blog:

"This is an incident that must not be forgotten, that it in many ways has helped define the CCP and its obsession with total control of its people — an obsession that has reached its pinnacle under Xi Jinping. I look at China now, with its crackdown on NGOs and repression of all dissent and the inexcusable prison sentences handed down to many who have dared speak out... In some ways, the spirit of the massacre lives on, especially in the minds of government leaders who dread the thought of anything like it happening again. They will never forget how the swelling masses of students challenged their authority; and neither will we."

Indeed.

There is a new(ish) book on Tiananmen - Louisa Lim's "The People's Republic of Amnesia: Tiananmen Revisited

"Astonishingly Beijing has managed to obliterate the collective memory of Tiananmen Square, but a quarter-century later Louisa Lim deftly excavates long-buried memories of the 1989 massacre. With a journalist's eye to history, she tracks down key witnesses, everyone from a military photographer at the square to a top official sentenced to seven years in solitary confinement to a mother whose teenaged son was shot to death that night. This book is essential reading for understanding the impact of mass amnesia on China's quest to become the world's next economic superpower." - Jan Wong, author of Red China Blues and A Comrade Lost and Found

8 June 2015

The MERS crisis worsens in South Korea and Hong Kong's Department of Health has told people to avoid Hong Kong if possible.

6 June 2015

Another EK A330-200 registration number A6-EAE has left the fleet.

New destination MUX, 4 weekly flights 777-300, two class from 1st August. MUX is Multan in Pakistan.

************************************
Notes from Seoul:

June is a lovely time to visit - not too hot in the day and still shirtsleeve sit aside weather at night.

Tables on the street outside 7-11s.

Shopping malls that open until 5am.

Baseball - but with better food ad as much entertainment in the crowd as on the playing field. Let's go Twins.

You can take food, drinks, your neighbour's cat, anything you like into the baseball - no silly rules. You can even order food and drinks from your seat.

Too many steps in the subway system - not enough escalators.

Big subway trains - none of the UK claustrophobia.

Everyone (at least 80%) are using some sort of mobile device on the subway.

Super clean streets. People who clear up after themselves. After the baseball everyone puts their garbage in super-sized bins at the exits.

Very safe to walk around.

North v South.

North has the history, street markets, street food and the universities.

South of the river is corporate Seoul - new, prosperous and wealthy Seoul - and Gangnam!

Coffee shops/cafes everywhere - foreign and local brands. Good strong coffee. Local brands include Paris Baquette, Paris Croissant, Holly's and Twosome Cafe.

31 May 2015

Finishing the month back in Samut Songkhram. And it is hot!

*************************
Leicester City's footie team have been here as well and three of their players have made the club look very foolish in front of their Thai sponsors.

Now 20 somethings having sex while they are in Thailand is not exactly a surprise. That they filmed it (3 players; 3 girls; same room and some more than colourful commentary) and sent the video to their chums was idiocy of the highest order.

One of their chums sells the tape to the Daily Mirror who gleefully publish tales of a depraved sex orgy - since when is an orgy depraved. The twitter social media police are out in force. One of the players involved was the manager's son. Not a wise boy.

Their Thai sponsors and hosts cannot be happy.

28 May 2015

Well that was a non-event....and I don't have as many left as I have already had....

Just goes to show that if you do not advertise your birthday on facebook no one will ever remember it!

27 May 2015

James Lynch from Amnesty International tweeted today "Just got back from UAE; I was refused entry. Was going to speak at a Dubai construction conference, about business & migrant workers rights."

He added: "I was given no reason for being denied entry to the UAE but the deportation document I saw referred to "reasons of security"."

A bit of an own goal I suspect.

*********************
Emirates has announced a daily service to Bologna in Italy from 3 November 2015 - with a 777-300...lots of crew getting out Italy maps!

Odd route to start in mid-winter.

*********************
In other airline news beleaguered Malaysia Airlines is set to terminate the contracts of all 20,000 of its staff and then re-hire just two-thirds of them under new conditions, Malaysia’s The Star reported.

According to the newspaper, only new CEO Christoph Mueller who took over operations on May 1 will be spared the axe.

At least 6,000 of the employees are expected to be handed a three-month final notice on June 1. The number of staff fired could rise to 8,000 in the coming year.

Malaysia Airlines will effectively shut down and be taken over by a new company MAS BHD on September 1.

The airline would then focus more on regional short-haul operations.

26 May 2015

This is the reason that you fly around bad weather: Singapore Airlines Airbus A330-300 flight #‎SQ836 on May 23 lost power on both engines south-east of Hong Kong and started to descend. The flight lost about 13,000 feet before crew managed to restore power on both engines. Between 12.46 and 13.11 UTC no ADS-B data was picked up from flight #SQ836.

**********************
From 24 May - Withdrawn Emirates A330-200 A6-EAD positioned Dubai – Newquay in all-white livery as EK3001 today for part out and scrap

I could have flown there to see my Mum!

***********************
Finished the first series of Gotham (on Emirates). Enjoyable and well made.

************************
Sorry - a week away and neither the time or the opportunity to update this page.

Sydney was good. A bit cold at this time of year. And one quite unpleasant day on arrival in Sydney.

One excellent meal at The Sardine Room in Potts Point - how a restaurant should be run.

19 May 2015

PR disasters that will be hard to recover from:

Thomas Cook - In 2006 Christianne and Robert Shepherd, two young children, died of carbon monoxide poisoning in a hotel in Greece while on a Thomas Cook holiday.

Last week a court in Wakefield gave a conclusion of unlawful killing and deemed that the Thos Cook health and safety audit of the hotel was inadequate. The court did accept that Thos Cook had been misled by the hotel about its gas supply.

Thos Cook went to the high court to apply for compensation from the owner of the Louis Hotels bungalow. The compay applied for costs of media advisers to help limit any daage to its reputation, refunds and compensation paid to other guests and for loss of profits.


In 2013 and 2014 Thos Cook received gbp3.5 million in a settlement from the owners of the hotel.

Meanwhile Thos Cook had only paid 1/10 of that amount in compensation to the Shepherd family.

Thos Cook, under massive pressure has in the last couple of days donated gbp1.5million to the UNICEF charity. This the company says is the remaining balance after their legal costs. Though bizarrely they did this without any consultation with the Shepherd family.

Thomas Cook say that they received about one half of the total compensation with the other half going to the company's insurers.

Thomas Cook mislaid its moral compass - if it had one at all. The company failed to apologise for the deaths and company executives refused to answer questions at the Wakefield inquest.

Many people will now mislay their Thos Cook bookings - there is already a Boycott Thomas Cook page well supported on facebook.

Sometimes doing what the heart and brain tells you is the right thing to do will do you a far greater service than doing as your lawyers tell you to do.

******************
Qatar World Cup - detaining BBC journalists because they dont report exactly what you want them to report is not going to win Qatar any friends in the media community.

That a UK pr consultancy was involved shows just how far people will go to put money before principle.

Qatar's press release to justify their action was shameful, arrogant and it would appear largely false. There will be more such incidents before 2022.

I have in the past given cautious support to the Qatar 2022 world cup. I like the idea of a single city tournament - if must be better than criss crossing Russia's eleven time zones in 2018. I also like the idea of a major sporting event in the middle east.

But if Qatar wants to act like North Korea in its attempts to manage the media than my cautious support is no longer on their side.

The media needs to do its job without threat, interference and the jailing of journalists. If you cannot guarantee this then should renounce the tournament now.

**********************************
On my way to BKK and SYD with Tai.

Our niece is also on the flight to BKK returning home after an eight day stay with us - now who will do the washing up in the morning - she has been a very good guest!

15 May 2015

On Yingluck getting possible imprisonment or other punishment from her government's rice policy: Jake Needham: "When the people you rule are docile and compliant in the face of every provocation, there is no end to the outrages you can perpetrate...."

12 May 2015

So Kevin Peitersen is told he will not play for England this summer by the new head boy - Andrew Strauss - the director of English cricket: One comment online said everything:

"God this is ridiculous. So Pietersen is told that if he wants to be considered for selection he has to forego the IPL and score runs in county cricket.

He throws in his IPL contract and plays for Surrey (for nothing) and scores 355 not out! Then he is told that this isn't good enough and that he can't play because of 'trust issues'. He's offered a one-day advisory role as a sop which obviously he doesn't take (how could you take a role for people who have 'trust issues' with you). A return in future isn't ruled out though.

So basically the plan is to keep KP dangling on a string and if he goes off to play in the IPL or whatever he will be deemed to have disqualified himself from selection. Strauss is absolutely pathetic. He is a perfect Director for the ECB."

Incidentally it would appear that Strauss was at least third choice behind Vaughan and Stewart who had no interest in the job when they realised that there are significant constraints on the role and responsibility.

11 May 2015

Why is Singapore rated 158th in the Press (lack of) Freedom Index - here is just one example:

"Notice: The Real Singapore has been ordered to disable access to all our online services by the Media Development Authority (MDA) of Singapore"

9 May 2015

Malaysia Airlines is said to be offloading its entire fleet of A380s to concentrate on a short-haul strategy instead, CNN reported.

According to the report, the airline, which suffered the loss of two planes in 2014, is putting up its six A380s, two B747-400Fs and four B777-200ERs for sale or lease.

The airline has recorded financial losses for the past three years.

****************************
Hong Kong is a great city but it is harder to love than ever. It is so crowded. It always was. It is worse. The subway is overrun. The people are ruder. The service, such as it is, gets worse. People walk and play on their mobiles - meaning that walking in crowds is impossible. When it rains the mobile is in one hand and the umbrella in the other....designed to poke out the eyes of any one withut a umbrella who may be in range.

Still a great city!

******************************
Person of Interest series 4 is over - and it was a dark finale....it could even be the end - though a season 5 is due. It may now be my favorite show on tv.

8 May 2015

Anyone have any idea what they are talking about?

"Recently, a critical 0-day vulnerability was discovered in the Genericons package, which comes with the popular Jetpack plugin and the TwentyFifteen theme of WordPress...The vulnerability represents a DOM-based XSS (cross-site scripting), and it allows attackers to modify the execution of scripts in the user/visitor browser.

5 May 2015

Hardly a week goes by without the mention or announcement of a new architectural design or development being slated for the city of Dubai, which continues to grow upwards at a frenetic pace, so why should this week be any different? New real estate plans for four new developments have received the green light from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE's Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The projects will be overseen by Wasl Asset Management Group and will include at least two mixed-use developments. One – Creek Heights Residences, is set to be a development of two towers incorporating a five-star Hyatt Regency hotel and luxury furnished apartments. Another, Zabeel Park 1, will comprise hotels, residential and office buildings, cafes and restaurants, recreational facilities and shops.

Stand out features will be a building that is shaped like the number one. Symbolising Dubai's plight to be the number one city in the world. A year-round snow fountain (set to be the world's first) and a water fountain, which will be fitted with the latest lighting technologies, also feature.

4 May 2015

Coming to the end of the tv season:

One episode of Person of Interest to go.

Two episodes of Mad Men - and that will be the last of Mad Men for ever

And one episode of The Good Wife.

***************************
Effective 1st January, 2016, Qatar Airways will commence daily flights to Los Angeles; using a Boeing777.

QR739 Doha to Los Angeles departs 7:45AM arriving 1:10PM
QR740 Los Angeles to Doha departs 3:10PM arriving 6:10PM (+1 day)

From 16th March, 2016, the airline will launch daily flights to Boston with an A350 XWB in a two-class configuration.

QR743 Doha to Boston departs 8:20AM arriving 2:30PM
QR744 Boston to Doha departs 10:55PM arriving 6:10PM (+1 day)

Qatar will then start flying to Atlanta, Georgia, with daily flights starting on 1st July 2016. The route will be operated by Boeing 777 aircraft.

The schedule for this flight has not yet been announced.

Finally in this assault on the USA Qatar Airways will add a second daily service to the city from 1st March 2016.

The second daily service to New York’s JFK will be operated by the Airbus A350 XWB.

QR701 Doha to New York departs 8:15AM arriving 3:15PM
QR702 New York to Doha departs 10:00PM arriving 5:35PM (+1 day)

3 May 2015

So Watford will be playing in the Premiership next season. After a remarkable season that started with four managers in quick succession Watford hit their best form from March and were within a minute of being promoted as Champions. Amazing season.

There will be a book - there should be a movie!

1 May 2015

Thoroughly enjoyed a visit from Mr. Dennis for a couple of days transiting through Dubai on his way, with Pat, to London.

Always fun to be a tourist for a couple of days.

My visits to BKK will never quite be the same...no one to pick up the phone and grumble to....and no one around for a quick evening out or a bad game of pool!