Not Another Cyclone!

I was just checking my mail right now when this message caught my eye:

The email came from www.tropicalstormrisk.com and I've been subscribing to their cyclone warnings for this region ever since Gonu struck in 2007. It says that Nizwa has a 25% chance of being hit by a Category 1 storm (named "Phet") within 72 hours! I've just checked their website and the projected path at the moment looks like this.

Which is good news for Oman, I suppose. But I remember well when Gonu first appeared over the Indian Ocean back in 2007. It was first projected to hit India, but then it made a 180 degree turn and headed for Oman (Masirah and Sur, at first). And then finally, it followed the Omani coastline northwards and made landfall over Muscat! So, even if Phet is expected to veer off to the right and head for Pakistan, you never know with these cyclones!

I've also checked the US Navy Typhoon warning site: http://www.usno.navy.mil/JTWC. This is their info.

They are expecting gusts of up to 105 knots. We're in for some bad weather here in Fujairah as well, I'm sure, with that kind of storm over the Indian Ocean.

The Chillout

I've heard about this ice cafe in Dubai so yesterday I decided to check it out.

It was fabulous, that's all I can say. Everything in there was made of ice, except for the table tops, which were made of glass. I suppose they don't want the tables to melt when they serve up piping hot soup, kept warm by a mini fire.

And talking about everything. Even the glasses were made of ice - though only for cold drinks.  Here's my mango juice.

Before you walk into the cafe, they give you a jacket, a winter hat, mittens and winter boots. Next, you walk through this walk-in freezer door, I'm not kidding. And that is exactly what they cafe is, a walk-in freezer, kept at -8 C. Though it's the cosiest, coolest walk-in freezer I've ever seen.

The ticket to get in is AED 60 (USD 16), and that includes hot chocolate. They've also got a menu with things like hot sandwiches, soup and different desserts - like ice cream.  I must try that next time.

It was really hot yesterday, and for some stupid reason I decided to try to walk to the Times Square Mall (which is where The Chillout is). The Times Square Mall is on Sheikh Zayed Road, about four kilometres from the Mall of the Emirates, towards the centre of Dubai. Well, I looked at the map and I figured it would be about 1.5 kilometres so when I was told there were no buses going that way, I simply started walking. Which was a bit silly, because it was nearly 40 C. However, stubborn as I am I refused all taxis that stopped and offered to take there.   Consequently, when I arrived I was very hot and soaking wet and I had to wait a couple of hours before I felt ready for the big freeze (I figured it wouldn't be too smart walking into the cafe at that state, pneumonia and all that). No problem! They had a Caribou Coffee at the mall and I had some good books with me.

It was not crowded. When asking, the girl at the front desk told me they don't get many guests during the last week of the month, when everybody is waiting to get paid.

The people working at The Chillout told me that the cafe was originally set up by Canadians. However, at this stage, they've trained up a number of Filipinos to do the ice sculpturing.

The cafe is very well managed, and the air inside the cafe was crisp and dry - I never had problems with mist on the camera lens or anything.

Many of my colleagues don't like Dubai, especially because it's so over-the-top. But I love Dubai - particularly because it's so way, way over-the-top. It's got attitude. I mean, where else where summer temperatures reach nearly 50 C would people get the idea of having an ice cafe?

All in all, I loved The Chillout. It is definitely a very cool place to hang out.

More pictures here.

I'm Flying!

One of my students told me about iFly Dubai a couple of weeks ago and it sounded like good fun, so last weekend I decided to try it out. It's this windtunnel where you do simulated freefall. Here's a video of my first ever attempt at flying.

I went with a colleague and friend of mine, Andrew, and we joined this beginners' class (ten of us in the group) where we first watched a video lesson and then we got two individual 1-minute flights each with an instructor. It was great being part of a group because people were cheering and clapping as each of us tried to fly for the first time. Because the flying equipment included ear plugs and helmets, we had to learn some basic hand signs to help us understand what the instructor wanted us to do when were were in the windtunnel. This hand sign here is quite easy to understand, I guess.

We were told to relax, and I figured it would be a bit like swimming - just to let go and trust that the wind would carry you. And I was right. Already at my second flight, I started floating upwards. Look at the video - I'm almost hovering above the door at one point!

I want to try it again! iFly Dubai is at the Mirdif CityCentre Mall - at the junction between Emirates Road (311) and Road 83. The beginners' class costs AED195 (USD53), and it's worth every cent!

I'm Now a Movie Maker!

If you play the video above, you will see my first ever educational movie (a vocabulary dictation on shops and shopping). I hope you enjoy it.  I'll be using it with my boys on Sunday.

Happy Easter!

Here are some pictures from the Great Pascha (Easter) service at the Greek Orthodox in Jebel Ali last night. I used my mobile so the quality is not that great.

These pictures were taken just a few moments after the priest had lit a single candle at the front of the church and the light was then passed on from person to person.

Just like the night before, the church was absolutely packed. Me and a couple of friends were there more than an hour before the start of the service so we had good seats near the front.

There were people standing in the central aisle throughout the whole service. Well, actually there seemed to be groups of people coming and going. Maybe someone in the back was arranging for people without seats to have some kind of rotating scheme.  I don't know.

As this has been the first full week this brand-new church has been in use, everybody is new to the church building - even if they have been part of the Orthodox community in Dubai for a long time. As a result, all week I've heard comments from people about how pleased they are with the church, and it's obvious just looking around that people are very happy being able to celebrate Easter in a real Orthodox church building.

One thing I've enjoyed in particular are the fabulous acoustics in the church. The choir sings wonderfully well, and with these acoustics this creates a great sense of festivity and beauty.

Good Friday

The evening service on Good Friday (Great and Holy Friday) at the newly-opened Greek Orthodox Church in Jebel Ali bordered on chaos. I was there 15 minutes before the service started, but the church was pretty much full already then. I stood in one of the aisles, but as more and more people wanted to get in, it became very crowded after a while – even for those of us standing in the aisles.

A young boy standing next to me kept looking at my English print-out of the service. I guess he couldn't work out why on earth the text on my pages weren't in Arabic.

I don't think I realised how many people had turned up until the start of the Procession with the Epitaphion (for epitaphion, click here).

The idea is that the entire congregation joins the priest and walks in procession outside the church.

However, only half of the congregation left the church, and very quickly their seats were taken by others who had been standing or waiting outside. When the procession came back into the church, all seats were already taken. I wonder what the faithful parishioners who had joined the priest in the procession felt about that!

The area around church door was completely grid-locked, with lots of people trying to get in and out at the same time. I felt the situation was a bit too chaotic for my ordered Swedish mind so I joined those who were leaving.

I wasn't until I was outside that I realised there were at least a hundred people outside the church who couldn't get in. I heard a lot of Greek spoken, so I guess a large part of the Greek community in Dubai had showed up (quite a few sections of the service was said in Greek) as well as a large part of the Arab Orthodox community.

Judging by the turnout, I guess you can say the first full week of the brand-new Greek Orthodox Church in Jebel Ali has been a success – it’s the first church ever built in a genuine Byzantine style in the Gulf so it's obviously attracting quite a lot of interest. However, I'm a bit concerned about what will happen this evening at the Easter (Pascha) service. I can't imagine the turnout being any less than last night and one thing that worries me is the fact that they had locked the two fire doors at the front of the church yesterday. I guess they did that as some form of crowd control, but I sincerely hope nothing happens this evening when everyone in the congregation will hold a lit candle during part of the service.

Anyway, for tonight I'll just have to put aside my preference for order predictability and join in with the Easter celebrations.  Having said that, one thing I can do is arrive at least an hour before it starts to get a good seat. And I guess I shouldn't join in the Rush procession if I want to keep that seat. 

Palm Sunday

I took these pictures just a few minutes ago. Very fitting for Palm Sunday.

 The sun rises at around 6.30 now.

Last night I drove to the Greek Orthodox Church in Jebel Ali for the Palm Sunday celebrations. It was absolutely packed.

All the children were carrying candles.

The procession became slightly chaotic with so many people, and at one point no-one seemed to know whether were were still walking outside or coming back into the church.

A couple of more pictures on Facebook here. 

Birthday Dinner in Muscat

I think I was a bit over-optimistic when I booked a table for 20 in Muscat.  Anyway, here's the crowd that joined me for my birthday dinner in Muscat.

In fact, they were all true heroes, as I arrived one hour late and they were still all smiles as I showed up! The traffic down from Fujairah was crazy after sunset and it took me five hours to drive down - not the usual three and a half hours. Anyway, the food was very good and the company was great.

I'm already back in Fujairah. I've got a lot to do at work, so I'm actually going in today for a few hours, even though it's the weekend.  Also, after all these sandstorms, my yard has looked a complete mess with lots of leaves and sand for quite a while and I just had to get that cleaned up before Holy Week. It took me hours last night, but now it's done.

This evening, I'm going to the Palm Sunday celebrations at the Antiochian Greek Orthodox Church in Jebel Ali.

 My Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, and I think it was my first fully developed Facebook-based birthday. I received over fifty (five zero!) birthday greetings on my Facebook wall and I felt pretty overwhelmed by it all. For many years, I've felt that electronic messages are not the same as proper snail-mail cards sent through the mail in a physical form (whether Christmas cards or birthday card). However, I'm not so sure anymore. It felt pretty good seeing all these birthday greetings on my Facebook wall, I tell you!

As my birthday was a normal working day, there were limits as to how much fun I could have.  But one highlight was when I went down to the beach after work, about one hour before sunset. There was a lot of sand blowing in the air and the sun had this pale yellow appearance. However, it was nice and warm - around 32C - and the sea was absolutely gorgeous.

Later in the evening, some friends treated me to dinner at Hilton. Fabulous and fun! Here's the birthday boy at Hilton Fujairah.

I've decided to do an Omani version of my birthday as well, so I've booked a table for twenty at SAS Radisson Blu in Muscat on Thursday evening. I'll jump straight into my car after the last lesson on Thursday afternoon and I'll drive directly to Muscat. I hope some of my friends in Oman can make it!

 My Name is Khan

I saw the movie My Name is Khan as it was released i Dubai yesterday. I cried seven times. I don't think I've cried in a cinema before.

The main character Rizvan Khan, an Indian Muslim with Asperger's Syndrome, is taken for being a terrorist. It was cathartic in a way, to watch this movie now more than eight years after 9/11. It deals with the fallout of 9/11 from so many different angles and it was very clever to have a character like Khan - who takes all statements literally - to try to grapple with how 9/11 has affected different faith communities and how these communities relate to each other.

Click here for the official movie site.