We Americans living in the UAE often are asked, by friends and relatives back home: “Isn’t it dangerous?”

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This has been an ongoing story for the past two weeks, here in the UAE, and it has gotten lots of attention. The 11-year-old English boy whose fear of flying is so intense that he cannot or will not fly. And how will he get home to Somerset?

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We continue to think of travel as difficult, but it really is not, in the abstract, compared to 10 years ago, never mind 50 or 100. Multiple flights, multiple varieties of ground transport … So, in Coventry, England. Going back to Abu Dhabi, UAE. How to?

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This was the final day in the London 2012 Games for the UAE football team, and my 25th consecutive day writing about them, for The National, from Austria, Manchester, London and Coventry. They didn’t quite cover themselves with glory, but they managed a 1-1 draw against Senegal, and they leave the Summer Games with one […]

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Three-plus decades in this business, and I still can be surprised by what can happen when you call someone. I was working on a piece about the future of Mahdi Ali, the capable and popular UAE Olympic soccer coach who led his team to the London Olympics, and I decided to check in with the […]

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This is a bizarre story, now that I review it again. Because I could not get credentialed for the Summer Olympics in the way I have for 14 Olympiads before this one — with an actual “E” (press) credential — I became worried about getting into events at London 2012. Specifically, into UAE soccer events […]

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From 1982 until 1992, I visited London quite often. At least four extended stays in the city and the surrounding countryside. Twice, to cover Wimbledon, from start to finish, in 1985 and 1986. However, before today, the last time I was in London was 1993, and that was soccer-related, too. I was on my way […]

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The city of Manchester bid for the 2000 Olympics, which was a bit crazy, given that Sydney and Beijing also were in the running. Sydney won the bid, and put on a great 2000 Games — still the best Summer Olympics I have seen. And I’ve seen them all since 1984. Beijing finished second in […]

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It took four days, but we apparently found the restaurant district of Manchester — a little to the west of Market Street, in an area of short streets and small hotels. And we ate at a pub that might even be semi-famous — Sam’s Chop House, established 1872. You’ve heard about the preferences of the […]

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The UAE Olympic soccer team’s Summer 2012 European Tour continues, jumping from Austria, via Munich, to the English city of Manchester where, I am happy to report, it is not raining. (Turns out that Manchester actually has fewer rainy days, and gets less rain than is typical in England. But last I had heard, rain […]

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