A few days ago, we noted the coverage in The National on the plan by Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways to come up with the defining first-class experience. The one that apparently will cost $20,000 for a one-way flight to London.

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At times, it seems as if one of the primary impulses in the UAE — and the Gulf, for that matter — is discovering innovative ways to spend astonishing amounts of money. “Gold” class is not enough. It must be “platinum”. The new watch, the most expensive car, the hotels that declare themselves to be […]

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The Mackinaw peach is an invention of the sitcom Seinfeld. But I could not avoid thinking of the fake fruit when reading this story in The National about a real fruit: The Alphonso mango, also known as … the “king of fruit”.

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A Friday night, finished with work fairly early … we decided to go to the leading Mexican restaurant in the city. Let’s call it El Serape, which is not its real name, but everyone who lives in Abu Dhabi, especially the North Americans, will know what place I mean. We could not get a reservation […]

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  The Indian Premier League, the most successful cricket competition in the world, was shifted to the UAE for 15 days involving 20 matches, and I cut it a little close, before going to see a game. Tonight, one day before the last match in the UAE. Kolkata Knight Riders versus Rajasthan Royals, the eventual […]

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When we arrived in the UAE, in 2009, the concept of the Louvre Abu Dhabi had been approved, but its opening seemed remote. Distant in time. Well, not anymore. The Louvre, one of the world’s great art museums, tomorrow will open the Birth of a Museum exhibition in Paris — featuring art works that have […]

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I’m not sure where this number comes from, but I’ve heard and will now repeat it: “Expats who spend five years out of their home country begin to lose familiarity with the culture of that home country.” Or something like that. It operates on a couple of levels. One is just plain forgetting some basic […]

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Abu Dhabi, both the city and the greater emirate, is not new to hosting movie makers. But it seems fair to say that never before have two movies as prominent as these in production around Abu Dhabi at the same time. And those would be the seventh episode of the Star Wars franchise, due for […]

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This is the first month of the UAE calendar when you can assume a sane person no longer spends a lot of time in the sun. The high every day this week was 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Or more. However, if you pay attention to the meteorological data — or poke your head out the door […]

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Beno Saradzic is at it again. Three years ago, the Slovenian photographer, who lives in the UAE, gave us a spectacular time-lapse photo/video of Abu Dhabi. It seems much more recent, in my memory, but here is the blog post from 2011. The new photo project is named: Beyond: Memoirs in a Time Lapse. You […]

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