Down here around Abu Dhabi and Dubai, approaching the outer edge of the Empty Quarter, nature is boring. What we have is hard-baked sand and miles and miles of flatlands. On some of that, buildings have been constructed. The whole country is not like that, however. The northern emirates, especially, have hills and mountains and […]

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The search continues. We’ve done three of the big developments. Multiple tall buildings in a small area. Today, we tried one big building in what is a fairly normal/regular neighborhood here on Abu Dhabi Island. Maybe this is where we should have been looking all along.

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The Euros winning the Ryder Cup was very big over here. “Massive!”, as the Brits like to say. Seems as if half the sports department (the British half) stayed up into the wee hours of Sunday night/Monday morning to watch the big comeback by Europe against the U.S.  “I couldn’t turn it off!” one said. […]

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The search for a new place to live continues, and today took us over to one of the nearby islands. Abu Dhabi, city of, is a collection of several islands, with the eponymous island being where nearly everyone lives. However, with the city continuing to grow, construction and people are beginning to spill over to […]

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When we arrived in the UAE, in October of 2009, I can tell you exactly how long we thought we would stay: Eighteen months. Two notions led us to come up with that number.

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I believe we did a good bit of sports journalism earlier this week when we reported on the practice of UAE soccer clubs paying fans to attend their games. It seems fantastical, at first blush, but if a person has a sense of how things work here, and traditions and history, it is less bizarre. […]

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The UAE has some of the world’s tallest buildings (including the tallest, the Burj Khalifa) but also some of the world’s oddest-shaped tall buildings. Few of us think much about how the thousands of windows in those skyscrapers are cleaned, but a member of The National’s business staff explained the process in a piece today. […]

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I was watching the end of the Monday Night Football game. Actually, it was Tuesday morning, here in Abu Dhabi, which is 11 hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Time. I saw the final play, the controversial touchdown pass from Russell Wilson to Golden Tate … which won the game for Seattle, 14-12. And I was […]

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Trying to put into context a shocking result involving a sports superpower. Al Ahli 6, Al Ain 3 … in the UAE domestic soccer league. The Crimson Tide of Bear Bryant or Nick Saban being routed by, say, South Carolina. The Man United of Alex Ferguson going down heavily to Stoke. That is like Al […]

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“One of us” has decided another year in the aging apartment here in the Hadbat Al Zafranah neighborhood … is “a non-starter.” Thus, we are in house-hunting mode. Half-hearted house-hunting mode, in the case of the other of us, but actually looking around. How is it going?

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