So he was here really...

FCSS true location after all... guess where

I know where

I hope you've packed plenty of sun cream, enjoy

Sorry, the in joke is lost on most of us?

You need to "mall" over it for a while Dave, (BIG) time

Sun cream? Huh, not at bl**dy 38C Can't even sleep at night as it's 28C ALL night

Oh, Dubai mall you mean? Are you staying somewhere without A/C? I didn’t know such places existed in UAE?

Got it Dave

No, the room in family's flat has AC switched off at night so you wake up at 0245 suffocating. If you're lucky there's a slight breeze when you open the balcony door but sometimes it's still hotter outside coupled with exhaust fumes

I gather it's somewhat better in December/January though.

Still, the impressive Expo 20 (postponed) has just started, me and Mrs Ed get in for free and there's a free bus to it every 20 mins from fairly nearby The courtesy and attitude of the innumerable staff to be found at every turn is highly commendable. As well as the 190 or so countries represented there is a Women's exhibition based on achievements past (often unattributed) and present as well as gender issues and rights. It was interesting to see the three emirati in their standard white tunics and headgear in the same room being advised of all this stuff which they may not necessarily uphold in reality...

One wonders how those countries with an oil-based economy will adapt or even survive a switch to alternative sources of power.

The service industry here in Dubai seems to have picked up now and the downtown Radisson where our lad is F+B manager is experiencing full houses (400+ rooms) again, a big change from a year ago when he was on 25% salary working 2 days a week.

2-metre distancing and compulsory mask-wearing outside is still enforced as well as the plethora of rules it's advisable to follow.

Ok OK, I usually turn off the A/C at night in hotels when I stay out there, maybe they have better insulation? I'm planning my next two business trips out there (Nov and Feb) and it would be nice to get to visit the Expo, I just read that ADNOC has given its employees 6 days paid leave to visit.

Look up the Radisson Blu at the Waterfront, Business Bay? Their Friday brunch at the Lakeside restaurant is amazing, about 495UAE for all you can eat AND drink (t'lad gets a hefty discount admittedly )

Drinks are beers, wines, prosecco, whatever - I've gone pretty much TT now but swallowed a litre of the most amazing Barakat Watermelon juice which contains 100% freshly squeezed er, watermelon, nowt else.

Agreed about the theory of turning off AC at night but you might be right about the insulation.

We're out in Silicon Oasis right now but will be around when they move house to JLT next week (Jumeirah Lakes Towers).

I've only been to Dubai a few times, I mostly visit Abu Dhabi, a little less ostentatious. And I've only ever seen one Coupe (a broomie) in AD, but that was years ago...

I'm pleased to say that I haven't been out in the Gulf since 1963-64.

Abadan, Basra, and Mena al Ahmadi to be precise. All the present crop of mega urbanisations were little more than mud hut villages then.

I think the major river, the Shatt el Arab name sums it all up.

In the 80's my stepfather used to do a lot of business with Qatar to the extent that they used to send the presidential 707 over to Heathrow to collect him for meetings.

Anus Mundi. I do not intend to go there again

I must confess I would not revisit this concrete, road-infested and relentlessly hot area - ok, I've not been Nov-Feb when it's purportedly more bearable - if it weren't for family based here for the time being at least. One has to admit though that it's still an incredibly new and still fast-growing area with cultural baggage that doesn't switch off in an instant.

My d-i-l who is Catalunyan assures me that efforts are being made to bring women into the picture more significantly (not that this is too difficult given their place traditionally) and reckons that even Saudi Arabia (yes, indeed) are likely to want to be seen to making similar moves in the next say, 5 years.

On the plus side, cleanliness is remarkable and Dubai airport makes our UK local ones look shoddy and grubby. But we don't have a person on low wages standing at every corner armed with a brush or cleaning trolley. Remember there is 'no' unemployment in DXB at least - no job, no visa. Everyone you meet is courteous, highlighting the incredible aggression one can meet back in Blighty, perhaps Europe and many other countries too....

Crime is non-existent unless you want to lose some part of your body, even Emirati being caught sloshed and unruly will be roughly dealt with by their own kind and not spared the wrath of the law for bringing their country into disrepute.

I find something rather fascinating now about the full-length all-white tunic and headgear, the latter sometimes adorned with red check and black rope rounds, a throwback of when they would tie their camel's feet together at night to stop them doing a runner. Certain shops are not beyond offering one these garments either - I've almost been tempted and Mrs Ed has not put her foot down at the thought either

In the background though there is always the barbed concept "Welcome to Dubai".. (..land of modern slavery) - my brackets - where only one group has any rights. An odd paradox of a place

Some Expo20 pics:

The Pakistan Pavilion was particularly impressive. The three themes of the 190-odd countries represented are Sustainability, Opportunity and Mobility - the UK, Switzerland, Nicaragua and Pakistan (amongst others) being under the Opportunity umbrella. It was clear who had the most lolly to throw at theirs, the poorer countries struggling a little to show off anything high-tech or expansive.

We felt obliged to visit the UK's offering and the result was a quite differing opinion between Mrs Ed and myself She liked the concept of it (based on Stephen Hawkin's thought of the future of AI) and the fact that one could contribute a couple of descriptive words when inside which would be fed into a computer and returned shrouded by a couple of poetic lines for one to cherish, as well as the words being flashed up on a large internal screen for 60 seconds.

My gripe was first that, contrary to all the other pavilions we've visited (on three days now) this was the only one that forced the visitor to follow a snaking ramp uphill while reading all the information flanking it under glass cabinets. The problem was it's outside and it's 38C!! No wonder most people simply shot straight up then straight out again - even the inside, though chilled by portable fans, was open to the air. The concept too of getting one's own two-penn'orth in light for a minute was a poor representation of what the UK could do - design, innovation, efforts (some) toward renewable energy perhaps....surely we were not so pushed for ideas?

The Swiss one was er, unexpected - after the approach where one could twirl their national-flag umbrella underneath the building's mirror underside for selfie purposes, inside we were greeted by.....fog. Yes, real fog. One could ascending a winding path through it or take an escalator, happily meeting at first floor level. When I think of many things Swiss have been renowned for, only a small corner acknowledged their famous Schindler lifts....the main thrust of their presence, according to the well-meaning rep who offered his assistance to us, was "innovation".

This drew the immediate retort from Mrs Ed, which I couldn't help being highly amused by,

"Well if you are promoting innovation how come you didn't allow women to vote until 1970-something?" The poor chap, whose English was a little stretched, was most humble and admitted the country was quite embarrassed about that! But Mrs Ed was quite right as they have just recently celebrated 50 years of female emancipation....

So it's like Epcot centre on steroids? Not!

Can you visit when it's dark and thus a little cooler?

And in the UK Pavilion you didn't type in "Fiat" and "Coupe" to see what happened?

Would not personally step foot in the place .....it's a mirage a huge glitzy monument to greed and consumerism.....behind which is endemic hypocrisy, corruption, slavery, misogyny,racism the whole shooting match.

When the oil dries up/not needed one wonders how long it will take to revert to PeteP's memories of the place once again.

You could always going sking there to cool off :-)

Love this " I think the major river, the Shatt el Arab name sums it all up" :-) :-)

The last time I was in The Mall, Phillip was still alive and we were at one of Her Maj's garden parties, but as Submariner puts it 'it's a mirage a huge glitzy monument to greed and consumerism.....behind which is endemic hypocrisy, corruption, slavery, misogyny, racism the whole shooting match'.

Yep, Croydon's exactly the same too...!