Some crazy weather here. The high temperature in Abu Dhabi today was 77 Fahrenheit, making it the lowest daily high since April. A real bundle-up day. But here is the shocker. Rain. Quite a bit of it. The most in a day since 2006, some people said.

[Read more →]

We bring you two regional updates in the world of monkeys. One involving the bizarre murder case of the man in Dubai who was out walking his monkey … and the other a band of marauding monkeys who trashed the backyard of a co-worker.

[Read more →]

I spent an hour chatting today with a retired English soccer player. He had a long career as a professional in England and Scotland, and then went into television and dabbled in print, too. He has recently moved to Dubai. Where he intends to reinvent himself. “I spent 20 years in Glasgow,” he told me. […]

[Read more →]

If you believe the forecasts of a group named the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and many do, the world is headed back into recession next year. The triggers for more bad economic times, the OECD suggests, will be the U.S. fiscal cliff and shrinkage in the Euro Zone. Some regions are exceptions, however. […]

[Read more →]

I prefer to think I was never strident about this. Or did it capriciously. Fire the bum! However often I might have thought about it or written it, years ago, I find I am increasingly loathe to write it now. I believe it is a function of age. For a sports fan (a sports writer) […]

[Read more →]

More than most of the populated parts of the planet, the UAE sports season is quite condensed. Some of the indigenous sports — well, soccer, anyway, sometimes at barely a walking pace — compete for most of the year. But the heat is too brutal about seven months out of 12 for most anything else, […]

[Read more →]

Notre Dame was the team I most disliked, in my youth. They won too often, their fans were smug, their sense of entitlement was off the charts. The Knute Rockne stuff, and the “win one for the Gipper” fiction, and their being good every year … all of it bugged me, especially as a SoCal […]

[Read more →]

  This has happened before. It’s tricky to celebrate a Thursday holiday, outside the U.S. — mainly, because it’s a work day outside the U.S. So, these five consecutive Thanksgiving Days overseas … well, actually, we’ve had a nice Thanksgiving meal before the actual day (2009), and three now (2010-12) after the actual day. This […]

[Read more →]

Our fifth consecutive Thanksgiving out of the U.S.  A tricky holiday, when you are overseas. As great as turkey is (low fat, lots of meat at a low price) and as great as the holiday is (a meal with family/friends with football) … it just doesn’t translate well anywhere that isn’t Canada. How have we […]

[Read more →]

When making a move, it’s prudent to study the outside of the new place as well as the inside. What shops are nearby? Where will the sun strike the windows? Is it easy to find a cab? How far is it to the nearest major grocery store? Two aspects of the new place, here in […]

[Read more →]