Parents arrive to Dubai for the first time

This week my parents arrives in Dubai for the first visit. It's going to be nice to have them here even though I'm a bit worried that we can't enough things to do...

Posted at 04:00AM Jan 06, 2008 by Tobias Karlsson in Living  | 

Christmas party 2007

Charlotte is in charge of the kitchen...




...and I'm in charge of the grill




Enjoying Christmas in 30 degrees




No snow yet


Christmas is coming up quickly and today it was time for the yearly Christmas party (although a bit early) since a lot of people are traveling back home for the holidays. You however miss some of the Christmas spirit when it's 30 degrees outside. Nevertheless we managed to cook some turkey and ducks and had a nice day out.

Posted at 04:00AM Dec 19, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Living  | 

Diving in Oman

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.

Posted at 04:00AM Nov 19, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Living  | 

Moving to a house

View of the villa from the back yard


Today the move to the house took place. Unfortunately it happened the same day that I had to go to Egypt so after finding a mover (went with a local company from the Deira area) and negotiating the price I thought that everything would be fine and just for Charlotte to supervise the move. Unfortunately it wasn't that easy...

To start with there had been a misunderstanding regarding the size of the sofa so the movers came with a small van. So, of course they had to go back and get a bigger van and the price was increased. Fair enough, let's go with this anyway. Well, it took them a long time to get the van and fill it up but everything was running smoothly I thought until I got a call when boarding started. Apparently the movers had lowered the sofa to avoid hitting a lamp outside the elevator and one of the legs made a scratch in the marble.

So, of course one of the facilities people tried to make some money out of this by demanding 1000 AED for the damage. Charlotte went by the apartment to see the damage and apparently it was almost impossible to see this scratch which the facilities people referred to as a cracked and totally damaged tile. Having been back there later on I can also confirm that this "crack" is nowhere to be found. Anyway, this didn't help me at the time since I couldn't go there to inspect.

Trying to mediate between the movers and the facilities people was a almost impossible task especially since it was time to take off so I said that I will guarantee that if there actually is a problem I will pay when I get back and hung up the phone.......

The actual ending of this story was that the movers got tired of the facilities people and ended up calling the police to solve the difference. Once the police arrived they basically told the facility guy to never bother them with such obvious ridiculous claims ever again and the move to the hose could finally continue late in the evening.

Posted at 04:00AM Nov 14, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Living  | 

Getting a second TV

SONY KDL-40W300


Since they still haven't fixed the old TV yet and we're moving to a house I decided to go and get a second TV. This is anyway needed to have a bedroom TV. The choice this time fell on SONY KDL-40W300. It's a nice looking TV with really good picture and connectivity.

Posted at 04:00AM Nov 09, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Living  | 

Some shopping back in Sweden

Since the hunting at my parents place was over for this time and yesterday was the day we hunt on our place in Östergötland, Friday was a day off before the moose hunt at Husa in Stockholm on Saturday. Managed to get some shopping done and luckily found a iPod Touch 16GB. Also got a new hunting radio since the old one always died on me and it was getting really irritating.



iPod Touch




Lafayette Micro 4

Posted at 04:00AM Oct 12, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Living  | 

Fixing the TV

So, the new SONY TV had a faulty TFT panel it seems. A whole line (from top to bottom) of pixels are broken. To get it fixed has however proved to be much harder than it should.

Called Jumbo who manages the repairs for SONY in the region. They sent a guy who wanted to take the TV with him. After a while I managed to convince him to order the spare part and get the TV when the part arrived. They took some photos and went away. Six weeks pass without anything happening so I call back to Jumbo and now it seems that it's impossible to find out what has happened so they send a new guy.

Same procedure, take some photos and convince him to get the TV when they have the spare part. Another four weeks pass, still no feedback so I call up. This time I have made sure that I have the reference number. Guess what, they couldn't order the part without the serial number of the panel...

- Good work! Wouldn't it have been easy calling me and say that you need this?
- Mr Kris, eeerrrhhh
- No, it's Karlsson!
- Mr Kris?
- No, KARLSSON
- Mr Kris?
- Yes....
- They will come tomorrow to get the serial.

The day after a technician calls
- You home?
- No, I'm working
- You home, we come now?
- NO, I'M AT WORK!
- Is this Mr Kris?
- NO, KARLSSON
- Mr Kris?
- Yes
- Ok, can we come tomorrow?
- Yes, early
- First thing
- When?
- 11am
- I'M WORKING! You have to come Saturday.
- Ok

So, 3 months after the initial complaint. Not even the spare part has been ordered... The story continues...

Posted at 04:00AM Aug 29, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Living  | 

Ras Al Khaima

We went up to Ras Al Khaima to have the weekend of and just get out of the apartment. So, first step was to leave the dogs at a daycare center and then head upwards RAK. The hotel looked ok on in the brochures but reality turned out to be something different. It was good standard but the general tourist feeling of the whole place with worthless live bands at dinner and so on just got us thinking of "Sällskapsresan"...

We quickly decided after one night to cut the stay short and go back to Dubai to get out of the misery...

Posted at 04:00AM Aug 04, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Living  | 

New ways to use the vacuum cleaner

Went and bought a vacuum cleaner on Saturday. You take things like how to use a vacuum cleaner for granted somehow. So, judge from my surprise when I came into the apartment today and found the maid with the dust bag from the vacuum cleaner in one hand and the other pushed through the hole in the dust bag, trying to get all dust and dog hair out from it and empty into the trash bin... Anyway I managed to explain to her that when it's full, you throw that away. Interesting solutions to different problems is something you always see here.

Posted at 04:00AM Jul 17, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Living  | 

Liquor license

Liquor license


In Dubai you need to have a liquor license to be allowed to purchase, transport and drink alcohol once you have your work visa. As long as you are here as a tourist, you're allowed to purchase alcohol in restaurants and bars but not in the shops selling alcohol. The amount you're allowed to purchase is related to your income and it's specified in Dirhams rather than amount of alcohol so going for Vodka rather than fine wine will make it possible for you to purchase more alcohol...

Posted at 09:06PM Jun 12, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Living  |