Archive for November 2007
Feels like the wild west when they ask if you carry a gun before a meeting...
Barbwire or electric fencing on every house
So, after being back in Dubai for 12 hours it was time to take the taxi to the airport to go to Johannesburg, South Africa. After a eight hour flight and some problems with the hotel booking I was able to go to sleep fairly late. The next day was filled with customer presentations so not much time to do anything (you wouldn’t go out anyway…).
When I arrived back at the hotel the next day the door to the room next to mine was broken up with a crowbar… Not the best feeling of security.
As usual there was no time to see anything besides the usual trip between the hotel and the office, but having traveled a lot the last weeks I was happily surprised when I was able to get a earlier flight home so that I landed Thursday night rather than Friday morning. There has been a lot of 6 day workweeks the over the last year.
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Passing by the shop-windows at NK on my way down to the central station to take Arlanda expressen to Arlanda to go back to Dubai, I got reminded that Christmas is closing in. The yearly redressing had been unveiled and December was just around the corner.
The yearly Christmas display in shop-windows at NK
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Beautiful winter landscape with perfect weather
This morning I took the train down to Norrköping to meet up with my brother for continuing to our place to do some hunting. It was a beautiful winter day with sunshine and a nice winter landscape and we had some good hunting.
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Going to Sweden, more plane trouble
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Today it was time to go to Sweden again for a workshop. Thankfully the trip to Sweden was over Munich and not Frankfurt which is a pain to fly over. So, when I finally got on board the flight from Munich to Stockholm I fell asleep immediately and woke up about 2 hours later when the pilot announced that we where going in for landing. Looking out of the window I didn’t recognize the areas around Stockholm which worried me a bit. It became even more worrying when I saw a “Munich Airport sign” going down for landing. The reason was that halfway to Sweden there was a engine problem and they decided to turn around…
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Goggles makes you look ugly(ier)
Charlotte and I
Dragon fish
Moree eel
Nice sunset looking in over Oman on the way back
Fredrik and Erika
We started early this morning and the purpose of our trip was to go to Khor Fakkahn to do some diving. It’s located on the Indian Ocean side of the Arabic peninsula so it was a 2.5 hour drive to get there. Once we arrived and had tested out all equipment it was time to go out and do two dives. Not the best dive waters, the sight was quite bad. We did however manage to see some sharks and we had beautiful weather so it was a good day.
Fredrik is enjoying the pool
Everyone gathered around the pool bar
Fredrik and Erika in front of Burj Al Arab
Sunset with Burj Al Arab in the foreground
Today it was time for a relaxing day by the pool at Jumeirah Beach Hotel. Charlotte was out with Fredrik and Erika yesterday and I arrived late from Egypt so we decided to have a relaxing day today. Eating brunch and hanging on the beach is one of the few things you can do in Dubai to spend your weekends so it’s not uncommon that you end up on the beach when you have friends visiting.
Also, it was a good time to try out the new underwater house I bought for my Panasonic LUMIX camera a couple of weeks ago. It will be further put to the test when we go diving next week.
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To my extreme surprise and happiness the people from Jumbo Electronics called today and said that the TV was ready and that they should deliver it during the day. I guess the time of wonders aren’t over after all. The TV was delivered and everything seems to be working.
Today Fredrik and Erika are coming down to Dubai for a weeks vacation. It will be fun to have some friends over from Sweden even though this week is a bit crazy with the move from the apartment in Dubai Marina to a house in Arabian Ranches, also I have to go to Egypt for a presentation and the day after they leave I will go to Sweden for a workshop and once I’m back in Dubai from that I will go to South Africa once again for customer meetings and to hold a training. It will be a couple of hectic weeks.
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It’s been a long time since there where any updates on this blog. I’ll try to better myself…let’s see how that works out…
We have friends that arrive this night from Sweden which is going to be really fun. Unfortunately there had been a miscommunication in the days and I have a business trip that was planed on the 14th turned out to actually be on the 15th. This means that I have to fly to Sharm El Sheik in Egypt to hold a 45 min presentation at the same time that Fredrik and Erika arrives.
So, get on the flight which gets delayed by one hour and I only have 1,5 hours for my connection i Cairo… Arrive in Cairo, have to run to the Visa counter to pay USD 15 for a visa. Don’t ask me why, there are no checks, they basically just place a sticker in the passport without checking anything. I get instructed by the guy in the transfer counter to go to hall 2 which is 100m away. He asks me to wait for some German guy that’s going to Hurughada (because both our flights should leave at the same time). Anyway, make the walk to hall 2 (he also maid it really clear that people will say that I should go to hall 4 but that I should tell them that I have been instructed by a Egypt air representative to hall 2). It’s impossible to convince the security that I’m supposed to go to hall 2, so after wasting 5 precious minutes I end up having to get to hall 4 which is located 5km away… Get a taxi and after arriving in hall 4 exactly 22.30 I get informed that the flight has closed. Luckily I know that the flight is delayed and I ask them to double check. The terminal is about 15m wide and he goes away and asks someone and finds out that the flight hasn’t left yet. A quick check in and I join the queue 15m away to go on the bus to the plane. The bus drives us all the way up to hall 2 which is back where I started…
Thankfully the pre-booked pickup is in place and I can go to bed at 0100 and get a nights sleep before having my presentation and going back to Dubai.
After holding my presentation it’s time to go to the airport to return to Dubai. After checking in and getting my first real coffee (double espresso) in 24 hours I get a positive surprise when I realize that Sharm El Sheik’s airport offer free WLAN in the departure hall. When I arrive in Cairo and have to check in on my international trip (of course it’s impossible to be checked in all the way). As usual you end in a queue with 10 people having a wild discussion with the guy in the check in counter and of course everyone has at least 5-10 pieces of luggage and don’t want to pay for the extra weight…
There are no signs for anything so I break through the crowd to ask where I should check in and thankfully I can go to the next counter. There is a good reason for traveling light on business trips in the middle east… I always just take a carry on, don’t want to be standing waiting for missed luggage and lengthy check-ins. Now, the interesting thing is that Turkish and Egypt airlines has been expected into Star Alliance (there is a slight difference in quality compared to the usual airlines in the group), so I manage to convince the check in guy that I should get lounge access and he also credits the points to my Lufthansa card.
So, less that 24h since I left Dubai I’m sitting on the flight back and can start writing some texts for the blog.
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