Shisha & Wine @ Dubai Marine

Dubai Marine is located on Jumeirah Beach Road. Dubai Marine is a resort and spa with a private beach. There are about 14 restaurants within the resort and it is conveniently located right by Ra's apartment! We went to Al Khayma Cafe to celebrate Mobeen's big day at work and had wine and smoked shisha with a beautiful view of the beach at night.......the shisha was OK......lookie here, im being a shisha snob already and im not even a good smoker!!! despite my snobbery, it still was a really great place to hang outside with friends so very worth the visit and a return:)

Marathon Mania!

The reason I'm here is because I am working on the Dubai Marathon. The marathon is on January 22, 2010 in Media City, Dubai. We are less than one month away so there's a lot of work to do - communications, branding, and contests galore! It's definitely been a great experience in terms of working in a totally different environment and facing unique challenges like merchandise ordering issues, route changes because of construction, different fundraising guidelines, and large-scale media campaigns. Since I usually work in the Americas where branding is on a smaller scale, its a great learning experience seeing ads roll out in branches, bus stations, and we even have a radio ad campaign that's finally kick started.

Here are some snapshots of marathon branding that hit the branches today. more snapshots to come!

Also, if you are in Dubai....visit www.dubaimarathon.org and register today!

A Kiwi Christmas =)

For Christmas, I was kindly invited to a holiday celebration near Jumeirah beach. It was an all day Christmas party thrown by several New Zealanders & South Africans who have moved to Dubai over the years. They had an outdoor party and had a bunch of people over who were also away from their families for Christmas.

It was a delicious meal since one of the party hosts' mother had been a professional chef for 15+ years and she put together a big feast for everyone. There was ALOT of food: goulashes, beef stews, chicken and pineapple curry, paella, and Linsensuppe of course! Our chef lived in Germany for many years so we were treated with alot of yummy German cuisine as well.

It was a great day which ended with movies in the rain and present swapping. My lovely friend Ra got herself a new roomie, a blue japanese fighter fish. Welcome to the fam Toshi! I scored a bottle of New Zealand wine - a huge deal since I dont have a liquor license to go out and stock up! woo.

I hope everyone had a very happy Christmas. thanks for all the holiday messages, i really appreciated them! As you can see, I was super lucky to get adopted into these holiday festivities so i was well taken care of! hugs to everyone:)

Christmas Eve in Dubai

My team and I went to the Cascades @ the Fairmont for a Christmas Feast. It was a delicious meal with turkey, duck, chicken, beef, sushi, and a big dessert spread with fondue! I introduced the game "Yankee Swap" to the team or some may know it as "White Elephant." It was alot of fun and i stole a little penguin computer speaker home:) Omar got stuck with a self-help book. haha.

Then, after lunch/dinner, we went to meet up with Nadya for her Standard Chartered farewell drinks. We started off at Souk Al Bahar. Souk Al Bahar is located in Downtown Burj Dubai near the Dubai Fountain. It is an Arabian themed marketplace with several restaurants, cafes, and bars. We started off at Left Bank for cocktails and christmas music. Then, we spent the rest of the night having mojitos at the Address Hotel's Calibar. Calibar has an outside patio with great views of the fountain and surrounding souks. It was a lovely Christmas Eve:)

The Dubai Fountain, Downtown Burj Dubai

The Dubai Fountain is one of the largest in the world. Its set right in front of the Burj Dubai, which is the tallest man-made tower ever built. The tower is actually set to open in January 2010. The Dubai fountain is about the length of two football fields. For those of you who have seen the Fountains of Bellagio at Las Vegas, the Dubai Fountain is of similar grand scale, but apparently 25 % larger. The Dubai fountain can be seen from over 200 miles away up in space!

There are a total of 14 performances every day. It starts at 6:00pm and goes every half hour until 8:00pm. Then, after 8:00pm, the shows are every 20 minutes until 11:00pm. Here is a video of the fountain performance to "Time to Say Goodbye" by Andrea Bocelli & Sarah Brightman. Other performances are to some Hindi and Arabic songs. Tons of people gather all around the fountains every night - it really is exciting everytime you see it! My video was taking forever to download, but check out the one above, its even better!

Clubbing in Dubai @ the Lodge!

This weekend we went clubbing at the Lodge. Its located near the Movenpick hotel in Bur Dubai. The Lodge is large inside and the DJ plays really fun dance music from the 80s, 90s, and current hits. There are three bars inside and the outside has a gigantic dance area underneath a huge dome and egg-like disco ball. Its pretty cool to be dancing outside since the weather is actually very cool at night at this time of the year. The outside is all about the house music, which seems to be the big trend here as well.

Outside there are 8 bars and fun loungey seating. as we learned though, best to reserve because people are crazy about reserving tables here! The Lodge is definitely one of the bigger hot spots to visit. Needless to say, we had fun, drank many drinks, and danced danced danced!!!!!

A night at the JBR Walk & Levantine @ the Atlantis

Thursday was the Islamic new year. The government declared it a "Dry Day" so no alcohol could be served and there could be no entertainment in hotels, restaurants, clubs, or any public area. So, we decided to spend our Thursday night at the JBR Walk. The Jumeirah Beach Residences (JBR) is a waterfront community that has a gorgeous view of the Arabian Sea along with a mile long strip of restaurants, cafes and shopping. The area is FANTASTIC for people watching and apparently, car watching too! Hundreds of people drive their luxury cars along the strip to show off their sweet rides. There is so much traffic on this street that cars inch slowly by and it probably takes about an hour to finish driving the walk! We had dinner at a yummy Mexican restaurant sans margs and then took a short walk along the beach.

Next stop: the Atlantis! We wanted to smoke Shisha or hookah and headed off to the Atlantis since they have an outdoor terrace. Driving up to the Atlantis is always exciting. At night it's just this lone beacon of sparkly-ness on Palm Island.

It was a lovely night outside. We had strawberry, grape and rose mint shisha. Next time you find yourself smoking shisha, order the grape, its for those in the know =)

a trip on the Dubai Metro

The other day I went downtown on the new metro! The stations are immaculate, the train ride was really comfortable, and you get a great elevated view of Dubai city. There are seat sections like standard class seating and a cabin for women and children section as well as an exclusive first class section. The Dubai metro is the first one of its kind in the UAE. It started running three months ago in September with 10 of the 29 stations open and gradually more stops are being completed in main hubs of Dubai every couple of weeks. It only took 4 years to complete which is very fast for a project of this scale.

The Metro is part of Sheikh Mo's vision to develop a transportation system including the Metro, a bus network, marine transport and an advanced road infrastructure. Road congestion is a major problem in Dubai since it has always been a very car-centric city. It will be interesting to see how long it will take for train use to really catch on. Cars are a major part of everyone's lifestyle here - luxury cars are relatively cheap, there's also a lack of taxation, and gas costs are not an issue since its government subsidized. Its approximately $1.70 a gallon!

A day at the DIFC

The Dubai International Finance Center (DIFC) is a 110 acre free zone. Standard Chartered's main office in Dubai is @ DIFC. Companies in the DIFC are eligible for benefits such as a zero tax rate on profits, 100 per cent foreign ownership, no restrictions on foreign exchange, operational support and business continuity facilities. The DIFC was opened in 2004 to create more of an environment for growth and jobs in the UAE. The SCB office is really nice! I included a picture of the lobby.

At the end of the day I took the SCB shuttle back to the Al Fardaan office and then walked home. Isn't the shuttle cute?!

Winter Wonderland @ the Jumeirah Beach Hotel

Tonight I went to my company's Winter Wonderland holiday party at the Jumeirah Beach hotel. This hotel is located on Jumeirah Beach road and has an amazing view of the Burj Al Arab. Visitors to Dubai usually stay in this area since it is so close to the beaches, the water parks, clubs, and Palm island. The Jumeirah beach hotel has the perfect location and is in the shape of a huge tidal wave. Then, in the front of the tidal wave, there is a building in the shape of a ship. Inside there is a huge ballroom called the Safinah. "Safinah" in arabic means "large ship!"

Everyone looked beautiful in their black and white attire - it was a strict dress code for the black and white ball. As we walked in, fake snow fluttered around us. We spent cocktail hour outside of the hotel and then inside was a perfectly branded ballroom with blue and green silk walls and lighting. The holiday party had approximately 800 staff. There was alot of dancing and unfortunately it is all captured on the professional cameras that zoomed above us on crane...

My home

so...today i survived my first mini-sand storm. i walked outside the office and there literally was tons of sand whirling around in the air. Good thing is, you always have your sunglasses here because its so bright during the day so you just pop on your shades and it blocks out all the sand from your eyes. however, i did learn, when walking in a sandstorm, tuck your shirt in or you may end up flashing everyone around you!

here are some pics of my studio. love it! i have storage space, a desk and vanity table, a kitchenette, bar, and washer/dryer. i also have a pool upstairs on the roof. yay for pool access all the time! aaanndd there's a pull-out couch....come on visitors!!!

bear, doraemon and chicken like it too.

Work work work

Its Sunday...so that means its the start of the work week.

Today was really busy, catching up on alot of emails that built up over the National Day long weekend. I thought i'd take a picture of my building. Its the Standard Chartered office located on Al Mankhool Road. Its exciting for me because of all the branding! I never get to see this in the states! We even have a little recycling area in the back by the ATMs. go blue and green =)

Dubai Rugby Sevens - Part II

another day @ the Dubai Rugby Sevens...daytime drinking at its best. We watched the Wales team warm up so close in front of us that we could inappropriately touch them. but we didn't.

again, the day was filled with fun rugby games, awesome people watching and ridiculous costumes. did i mention that we also represented by wearing red, white, and blue? we also represented france i guess....but whatever.