Catch up on the early days

This is the first of some personal reflections on my early days in Dubai...I had a baptism of fire. I arrived here on 18 March from Australia and expected to have (as I had planned) 5 days to acclimatise, see a little a bit of the city and get used to the time difference.

Little did I know that I was expected to do what so many unsuspecting newly arrived ex-pats are required to do - start work within (literally) hours of getting off the plane. So, I arrived at approx. 7am and by 10.30am I was in the office finding out just what it was like to work in the UAE.

Quite frankly, I had no idea of what I was supposedly doing...I was tired, somewhat out of sorts and struggling with my first serious business meeting with a finance company and my new boss (CEO) and not having any idea about how business is done in the UAE. Welcome to Dubai!

Later the same day, I was driven to our administration office (and also one of our factories) in Sharjah, approx. 35 kms from our Dubai office, where I am based for 3-4 days of my working week. Even allowing for the fact that I was tired (and perhaps somewhat emotional), I was nonetheless a little shocked with the location of my new office - in an industrial area (known locally as Industrial Area No.5) which is hard to describe - you have to see it to believe it...so I will let the photos do the talking...

This is one of the roads in the industrial area near my office. Looks quite innocuous, but looks are deceiving.

As you can see, all the cars parked on the side of the roads are covered in dust/sand. They have been there for weeks or months awaiting repair, or possibly are being scrapped for parts. There are probably hundreds, maybe thousands of them in the surrounding industrial areas. Every day I drive to work there are different vehicles parked along the back roads of the Industrial areas. And some of them are quite recent models.

These are some of the better roads. A lot of the minor adjoinging roads are dirt, very uneven, strewn with loose debris, and quite often flooded with overflowing sewers and/or stormwater when it rains during winter as there is no stormwater drainage system. It is not pleasant to drive through water and/or sewerage up to the door sills of your car. Next time it rains, I will post some photos. Surprisingly, for a desert country renown for its high temperatures, desert conditions and little rain by comparison to my expectations, it has rained a number of times during the autumn and winter months.