Johannesburg, South Africa

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.

a 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.

Posted at 04:00AM Nov 27, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Travels  | 

Christmas signs in Stockholm

The yearly Christmas display shop-windows at NK


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.

Posted at 03:39AM Nov 26, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in General  | 

Some hunting

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.

Posted at 04:00AM Nov 25, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in Hunting  | 

Jumeirah Beach again

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.

Posted at 04:00AM Nov 17, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in General  | 

Fredrik and Erika are visiting Dubai

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.

Posted at 04:00AM Nov 16, 2007 by Tobias Karlsson in General  | 

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  |