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An Occasional Blog
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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 engaged to Tai.
If you want to know more you only need to ask! ask.
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24 July 2008 I feel like I am in a breathless rush....with too little time for Tai and I. Tai was back from London late last night - but it was almost 2.30am before we slept and my alarm went off just four hours later. Then it was work (and not a great day there) until lunch followed by a rush home and a rush to see Alex. I am on my way to London (EK5) and will see Alex tomorrow and we will have a few days in England visiting my Mum. But it seems so strange to be on holiday without Tai - her schedule would not let her take a few days off with me. So we are going to have a strange few days; and for once she is in Dubai and I am traveling. *************************** In my luggage I have power chargers for my laptop, blackberry, mobile, shaver and for two cameras. Too much? Why cant the manufacturers just agree one standard electrical connection that recharges any device? *************************** The kid behind me loves kicking my seat. I may have to turn around and strangle him. Spoiled, indulged, Indian kids. *************************** As for the lady who threw hot coffee over me in the lounge at DXB. What goes around comes around..... 22 July 2008 Tai is heading to London today. Our timing is not quite right this month! She is staying at a hotel where you call internationally and then get an answerphone with a whole menu to go through before you know you need to dial a certain number to get the operator. Very annoying. And then this really slow voice - I am connecting you to the operator - and then a minute ringing before the operator bothers to answer. So you have been charged two minutes of long distance call before you get a real person - and then you have to spell the guest's name a couple of times to get through to the room. Grrrrrrr.... 20 July 20008 How to impress your girl - at 53 !! "At 53, and looking increasingly like he should be skippering a marlin boat off the coast of Bermuda, Norman yesterday set up the least expected sporting victory ever as he ignored his lack of practice, the absence of any sort of real preparation, to continue to impress the hell out of his new bride Chrissie Evert. As showing off goes, this is now ridiculous." Norman leads after 3 rounds of the Open. It would be the golf story of the decade if he wins! 19 July 2008 A day trip to Fujairah. Lunch at the Hilton with the tide in almost at our feet. Nice. And i like the drive up the coast to Dibba. 18 July 2008 It is a quiet day in Dubai - and to brighten it up here is a helpful flight attendant video from the Netherlands - no translation is necessary. **************** Why when two airliners get too close do they call it a near miss and not a near hit? ***************** More oil woes as Qantas announces 1,500 redundancies and grounds 22 of its older airplanes. ******************** Am trying to work out why I am having to listen to building site noise at 7.15am on a Friday morning - this is the official rest day - when no one is supposed to be working - not helped by getting up at 4.15am to go to the airport. *********************** The British Open is underway in foul weather in NW England ad among the leaders is 53 year old Greg Norman - he credited his recent marriage to Chrissie Evert as a factor in an Open performance that rolled back the years. 'It has revitalised my life and that has had a rub-on on effect on the golf, no question,' said the two-time winner of the Claret Jug after a par 70 just behind the leaders. Wonder if my golf game will improve from October! ************************* More Brits behaving badly stories..... A First Choice Boeing 767 plane, with 257 passengers and 11 crew on board, flying from Gatwick to Cuba on Wednesday had to land in Bermuda after a passenger tried to open a door in the plane at an altitude of 35,000 feet. Passengers claimed the man had been drinking and become abusive before making a lunge for one of the doors. Why oh why do airlines and airports still insist on serving alcohol on planes and at airports? Air-rage incidents on British planes have more than tripled in recent years. The Civil Aviation Authority received 2,219 reports of disruptive behaviour on flights in 2006-07, compared with 1,359 the previous year. Common causes included drunkenness and lighting up or getting angry when stopped from smoking. Disputes often involved couples' rows, anger over seat allocation and irritation at people reclining seats into personal space. In 42 cases passengers were restrained. Planes were diverted in 14 incidents, and on 19 occasions take-off stopped. Passengers were ordered off planes in 235 cases and police or security attended 345 times. Scary! 17 July 2008 The joys of the English language - this was the headline in the Sun earlier this week - “Boozed-up brunette banged up for bunk-up on beach in Dubai”. *************************** More crime news from Dubai: Forty cross-dressing tourists have been
arrested in shopping malls and other public places and they will be
deported soon, police revealed on Wednesday. Why would cross dressing tourists come to Dubai? A visit to Thailand would seem less risky! ************************ And sending all these visitors home may not be a great idea:
Arabianbusiness.com confirms today what I
wrote a few days ago; that many hoteliers in Dubai are reporting lower
occupancy rates than normal this summer. It must be bad to get reported. I wonder how bad. 16 July 2008 7Days newspaper in Dubai on page 2 reported under the headline - "Hotel knifer gets life" - "an Egyptian man was sentenced to life in prison followed by deportation for stabbing another man to death." Not sure he will know much about the deportation! ******************** In another police statistic over 1.3million traffic fines were issued in Dubai in the first six months of the year - about 1.1million issued automatically by radar detectors; the other 200,000 issued by traffic police. ********************* Tai is on her way to Hong Kong today; I wish I could go - I have cabin fever and need a couple of days away. ******************** Another week without the tagboard - I miss it - and the regular updates from my Bangkok correspondent! 14 July 2008 79 people were arrested last week on Dubai beaches as part of a crackdown on indecent acts on all the open beaches. Wow! People should stick to building sand castles. 13 July 2008 The News of the World newspaper web site is actually blocked in the UAE. I did not realise that until I tried to check the newspaper's latest views on the Mosley case ! 11 July 2008 Useful advice from the Sun newspaper in the UK: "Men and women who bonk three times a week can halve their risk of suffering a major heart attack or stroke, according to a University of Bristol study." I am now planning to be very old ! |
10 July 2008 End of the week. Strange week. Tai is out to Beirut for the evening. Had a couple of rough days in the middle of the week. My neighbour's birthday coincided with Tai overnighting to Ahmedabad; a night that left us both tired and out of sorts. But we made a storming recovery. Sometimes I guess a bad day helps remind us of what really matters. ********************** We bought our wedding rings on Tuesday night - and Tai has found her make-up artist....she may surprise one or tow of the wedding guests ! She was recommended by one of Tai's crew friends. *********************** Both Time Magazine and The Economist carry articles on the battle for control of Thailand. The legal pressure on Thaksin is huge; and his puppet government led by the quite awful Samak is moving from one incompetent muddle to the next. And worst of all Thailand's faltering economy is getting no attention. 7 July 20008 Early morning and still awake as my neighbours want to party tonight. The trouble is that the building is so badly finished that i can hear their music and talking and smell their cigarettes. It is apparently my neighbour's birthday - wouldn't it be nice if she had her birthday somewhere that is not blaring into my ears. Last night I went to sleep listening to concrete being pumped at the car park being constructed next door and this morning I woke as they were hammering away on metal pipes. Noise pollution. Bad. I need to sleep. 5 July 2008 Advice from an aircrew friend: you may never be allowed to fly again but it might be fun ! : HOW TO HANDLE IRRITATING SEATMATES IN AN AIRPLANE 4 July 2008 Tai is on her way back from a not so exciting trip to Addis Adabba and Entebbe/Kampala. She will be late into DXB tonight. I worked most of the day until about 8pm; then made the mistake of trying to go to the Mall of the Emirates on a Friday night. The mall's car park was one large non moving traffic jam. Impossible to park so I gave up. On TV tonight - Sean Connery in "You Only Live Twice" - I dont know this Bond film as well as others; but I like that it is set in Hong Kong and Tokyo; and the filming of Hong Kong harbour in the 1960s is fascinating. The film was made in 1967. 3 July 2008 The dream?
The reality:
(Sewage on the streets in International City) 1 July 2008 Tai came back from Bangkok on Friday night/Saturday morning; she immediately had airport standby on Sunday morning and we have both been sleepy since - bed at 10pm the last two nights. ************************ I am feeling a bit run down and I am finding it hard to shake off.....energy and enthusiasm for everything I do has always been important for me. And it is not there at the moment. Instead there is a sense that I should be doing more....but I am not sure where to start. ************************ Lets hear it for Thailand's only female tennis star, Tamarine Tanasugarn who knocked a moaning 2nd seed Jelena Jankovic out of Wimbledon with a 6-3 6-2 fourth-round win. Tararine is now in the last eight where she meets last year's champion Venus Williams. And while on Sport - Spain beat Germany to win the Euro2008 title. Good for them. ********************** Happy Canada Day. And here is one way to wear the Canadian Flag in the Great White North!  |
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