Hard to imagine an auto race could be the biggest global event in the history of Abu Dhabi, but there you are. For our first two weeks here, working at The National, there was really only one story (OK, aside from the plane crash in the emirate of Sharjah, up the coast), and it was […]

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The work week here is not the same work week followed by the Western world. And China, too, if I recall things correctly from the Beijing Olympics last year, and the four months I spent in Hong Kong, last winter. Friday is the prime day of worship in Islamic countries such as the United Arab […]

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Both of us had Wednesday off. The only day this week that will happen. So we had to do something, right? Doing something can be a little tricky here. It’s not a tourist destination, like Dubai, up the coast. Abu Dhabi is far quieter (some would say “dull”), and more family-oriented … and it’s often […]

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* – Subtitled: “Or I Would Have Severe Trouble Getting from the Hotel to the Office” I’ve written variations on this before. From Hong Kong, for sure. From Europe, Japan and Korea, probably. From El Salvador and Mexico, possibly. Thank goodness for English … because I can make myself understood to most of the people […]

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We have been quite lucky with the weather, so far. It’s been a balmy 90-something since we got here. And that isn’t sarcasm. Anything in the 90s, in October? We’re ahead of the game. Abu Dhabi may not have the most miserable climate on Earth, but it’s in the running. At the torrid end of […]

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What was it that Tolstoy wrote? “Happy cab companies are all alike; every unhappy cab company is unhappy in its own way.” Or was he talking about families there? At any rate, Abu Dhabi has an unhappy cab system. Unhappy in its own way. Paris cabs are expensive. New York cabs feature drivers who may […]

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Abu Dhabi is more than a little like Hong Kong, where I was a year ago today. It’s 1) all about business and the business of making money and 2) shopping seems to be a major social activity. Hong Kong shopping is fairly pervasive and spread out. Abu Dhabi seems to focus its shopping on a […]

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Making a big move is always easier when you know somebody — anybody — at the other end. Luckily, for us, we already know two people in Abu Dhabi, and they made our first night in town easy, fun. Entertaining.

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We are on the ground. And it took only 30 hours. OK, yes, that is nothing, compared to centuries past, when a continental passage was made by ship and took weeks or months. But for us softies of the 21st century, 30 consecutive hours in transit is a big number.  Particularly when two long plane rides are involved.

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