Following on from the Twitter theme of my previous posts, Sheikh Mohammed's feed tells us that he met with Gordon Brown today, as well as the Queen.

I wonder which meeting was more productive and enjoyable?

I can imagine Gordon waffling and fawning inappropriately, whilst the Queen enjoyed meeting an old acquaintance.

My last post mentioned that I had just learnt, via Twitter, that Sheikh Mohammed met recently with David Miliband, Britain's Foreign Secretary.

I would love to be a fly on the wall in these kinds of meetings. Britain has a long and close association with the UAE, something that I clearly have a personal interest in. Let's hope Mr Miliband did a good job. British foreign policy clearly needs to have close relations with Gulf states as a high priority. Seeing Sarkozy marching around promising co-operation on nuclear power and muscling in on military relations should be a motivating factor here :)

I would like to see Gulf nationals studying in the UK as a preference over the US, for example. The US seems easier, as well as culturally more attractive a place to go. We need to address that as best we can.

I would love to hear Sheikh Mo's feelings when it comes to the British statesmen he has spoken to over the years. They have come and gone over the years and he will have met many leading figures.

What would he think? Are the current bunch better than previous incumbents of power? Does he see a general decline? Where things better way back when, or better now? Or are things very much the same, with a fair sprinkling of outstanding candidates amongst the general dross?

I don't know if it's because I am simply getting older or because more transparency in government reveals the foibles and farces that used to stay hidden, but the current bunch of British 'leaders' do very little for me.

I would also love to hear Sheikh Mo's feelings on the various Brits he has known who have played a role in the development of the UAE - those who have helped build the armed forces and police, for example. He should be able to provide some fascinating insight on the calibre of individuals who have come to work in the UAE and Dubai in various capacities over the years.

I'm really starting to enjoy using Twitter. After a year and a half of being 'on it', its appeal and possibilities are starting to shine through.

It's been interesting to see its effect on my blogging. A great deal of the appeal of blogging, for me at least, is getting things off my chest. Expressing things quickly and easily that annoy me, interest me, or that I think might interest others, all written for noone in particular. A vast Letter to the Editor, that always gets printed.

Twitter lets me get things off my chest very efficiently. If I've twittered about the nincompoop crashing headlong into another car after he jumped the light, by the time I get to my laptop the desire to blog at length about the incident has faded. Coupled with less travel, which is when I blog the most, Twittering has definitely affected my blogging mojo. I'm hoping that blogging frequency will improve over the coming weeks - I know I have some regular readers and I know I enjoy a good blog post, so I will be trying to up my game a bit.

The immediacy and intimacy of Twitter is also great fun. I subscribed to Paris Hilton's feed for a while whilst I wrote my article on her visit to the UAE. It was bizarre knowing when Paris was going to bed, whilst not really knowing what lots of my friends back home were up to - something I would be much more interested in.

On the other hand, it's great fun seeing what my twittering friends are up to, both those I know well and those I never met but would like to meet one day. Sometimes it'll be a laugh out loud moment, as someone tweets about a Cairo cab journey, for example. Other times it's just nice to know what people are up to - people I would like to see more of, but simply aren't able to.

I've particularly enjoyed seeing Sheikh Mohammed embrace Twitter. Just now I learnt that he has just been chatting to David Miliband about relations between the UK and the UAE, as well as other weightier matters. I hope Mr Miliband did a good job impressing Sheikh Mo. I also hope Sheikh Mo enjoyed the art exhibition he visited last night.

There's an art to a good tweet, just as there is to writing a good novel, essay, email, blog entry or other written missive. I am not interested in 'I've just eaten a croissant for breakfast', but I can skip past that sort of thing when viewing my 'feed' of people I follow. A good tweet should, in my opinion, contain something mildly interesting or entertaining. Rather than 'I've just eaten a croissant for breakfast', 'Emirates' limp, soggy croissants don't do French cuisine justice' might be more fun. But who cares? I don't have to read what other people write, just as they don't have to read what I write.

The whole thing is fascinating - a brand new way of communicating, with an immense following, but noone can quite put a finger on what its appeal really is. Equally fascinating will be whether anyone can make money out of millions of people burbling their nonsense to all and sundry. I would miss Twitter if it went away, but I wouldn't pay for the service.

If you are interested in following my rantings and burblings in 140 characters or less, you can do so here.

There's been a lot of fuss about a recent edition of Oprah that featured an Emirati lady speaking about her life. You can watch is here.

Here are a couple of articles covering people's reactions.

I don't really see what the issue is. A very eloquent lady gave a very positive picture about Dubai. Great PR. I do feel she should have made more of an emphasis on the fact that a lot of the benefits she mentioned were for Emiratis and that expats make up 85% or so of Dubai's residents. She also got her facts a little wrong - I believe local Emiratis get subsidised utilities, rather than getting them for free.*

As usual, the topic of women's clothing came up and that is what seems to have annoyed people the most. It's probably dangerous for me to dip my toe into the water here, but she mentioned that her style of dressing was cultural rather than specifically mandated by her religion. I think this point is well illustrated by the fact that we see her mother-in-law wearing the metal burka, something that you do not see younger Emirati ladies wearing. Does that not prove her point?

I like Dr Lamees' husband's comments on his clothing. He has a simple, comfy way of dressing that fits every occasion. Noone's complained about what he said.

* If I understand correctly, everyone's utilities are subsidised, just to different levels depending on whether you are a local or an expat.

One of our customers used a great phrase the other day - 'small big bosses'.

The context was that the Big Boss would decide something, but then the Small Big Bosses would try to delay or avoid implementing the decision in their own sub-fiefdoms.

The customer is not a native English speaker and, I for example, would never use the phrase 'small big bosses'. In this case however, a phrase which might not be perfect idiomatic English summed up the situation absolutely perfectly. I immediately imagined an office full of people rushing around inefficiently spending their time fighting each other and ignoring the more important tasks at hand.

I will be using 'Small Big Bosses' in future!

We're all on the road again. After four months with some restrictions, business travel in my region is hotting up again for those of us covering SEE (Southern and Eastern EMEA).

I enjoy my job and I enjoy the travel I do, in general. I always say that I enjoy being in the places I go to, but getting there is not something I typically enjoy.

Having four months with no work-related trips has been fantastic, at least on a personal level. Chatting with colleagues who've been in a similar situation, we all had the same comments -

- Losing weight and getting fitter.

- Enjoying time at home with family.

- A healthy rhythm of being in one place, seeing friends, doing the same stuff on a regular basis and enjoying it.

I've been going to circuit training two to three times a week and am the fittest I've been for years. I also fit nicely into all my clothes and feel great. Actually, that's not strictly true - the Levi 501s I still have from when I was 21 are still too tight round the waist, but there you go.

I've really started to appreciate living where I do. Yes, the soundproofing issue is raising its head again now that we're all leaving our AC off during the day, but I am absolutely loving the Old Town and its ever improving environs.

Mrs Saul and I have spent more time together over the last four months than we ever have since we got married in 2005 - and we enjoyed it! Mrs Saul has always been completely supportive of my needing to go away for work- fortunately she enjoys having me home as well.

Not travelling has been interesting in terms of my own personal finance. You start to notice having to pay for your weekly existence yourself. Car mileage and wear and tear goes up and precious airmiles balances go down or stay static, supermarket bills increase, that sort of thing.

The travel pause and my getting back on the economy class whirlwind has made me think about how much things have changed over the last five years - yes, five! - of whizzing around my region, with occasional US and European trips.

One obvious sign is smoking bans creeping across the world. Even Turkey and Athens now have a smoking ban, with most of the airports I go through restricting smoking more and more. A good thing and a real indication of social change.

Lots of regional airports have gone through some serious improvements. Dubai's new Terminal 3 is superb. Amman airport, from where I type this, has a fantastic new lounge and more and more cafes and restaurants, sadly most of the junk food variety. Algiers and Ankara have new terminals, as do a fair number of other places. Emirates' dedicated lounges are often situated right next to the gate.

Even Riyadh airport has a new Costa Coffee - an island of mauve modernity in the middle of a sea of beige.

Technology is improving life.

E-tickets are now standard, it seems. No more worrying about a stupid piece of paper to prove that all the information already in the airlines' computers is correct.

Every airport I've been to recently has a choice of ATMs. No more worrying whether I'd be able to get cash for a cab, or stocking up with wads of $5 bills, just in case.

How did I survive the long hours of idleness when I started out? During my early trips I didn't even have an iPod - no music and certainly no TV to watch. I had to rely on books and the inflight entertainment. My first trip to San Francisco? Seven hours on Lufthansa to Frankfurt, layover and 10 hours or so to San Fran without even a TV screen in the seat in front of me. I didn't even have a blog at the time, so couldn't even pass the time by formulating a rant about the rude way the staff treated those of us in cattle class.

Wifi is now ubiquitous - almost - meaning I can work and be entertained during layovers in the airport. My BlackBerry also keeps me efficient and make better use of my time. In the old days, I'd have to wait till I got to my hotel before I could (hopefully) get to email - and that meant being forced to sit at an uncomfy hotel desk. Now, more often than not, I've cleared most of my work email in the taxi on the way to the hotel, thanks to my good old Bold. When I do get to my room I can relax on the bed to finish things off, before watching TV on the laptop or generally surfing whilst safely tucked up in bed.

Spotify, when connected in the hotel, gives me instant access to all sorts of great music that I don't already own - much as I love the stuff I have on iTunes, Spotify keeps me entertained with any kind of music I might fancy listening to, for free, legally. It's like having a great radio station always to hand.

All of this makes for travel time being easier, much more productive and a lot less lonely. Just five years' advances have made life for the business traveller a lot less wearisome. I wonder how my father managed, particularly in the 90s, when he was going to former Soviet and Eastern bloc countries? I remember he used to carry a small can of insect repellent with him. That would have been handy during a flight on a certain North African airline I took last year, but isn't something I've needed on any other occasion.

Let's see what the future brings. Whilst there are still lots of places that I would like to visit, both for personal and business reasons, a slightly more static existence wouldn't be too upsetting. Given what I do - and what I need to do to keep being able to do what I do - I think airports will continue to play the same role the 65 bus stop used to when I was younger. I'd also rather be doing this than, say, driving around the UK all week.

Time to get to the gate for my connection...

I wonder if future generations will be spared the tedious topic of women's clothing?

The Middle East, the UK, Brazil recently, the world over - what women wear is endlessly talked about, ruled upon, judged and ordained.

I find it all very boring.

When I was at school, endless form meetings were occupied by discussions on whether the girls could wear hooped earrings as well as studs. And what length their socks could be. And their skirts. And whether they could wear makeup (which falls under 'decoration', rather than clothing, but still fits with the theme). What a waste of time - we could have been talking about how the tuck shop kept running out of Dairy Milk.

Out in the real world, the discussion continues, at length, endlessly.

My happiest clothing years were when I wore school uniform, or Scout uniform, or Air Cadet uniform, depending on the time of day and how old I was. We all wore the same stuff and your personality shone through by means other than what your parents could afford or what was supposedly cool or uncool. I quite like wearing a suit for the same reasons, especially now that living in Dubai there are numerous tailors who can provide formal wear that actually fits. The average Brit is forced to put up with clothing designed for the average Brit, who doesn't exist, which means your shop bought suit won't fit you. Unless your dimensions are truly average, which - on average - they aren't.

I'm not proposing that we all wear a uniform all day long, as if we lived in a neo-fascist wonderland - the girls wouldn't like that and it would take up even more time and newspaper columns. I would also look a bit silly wearing a red blazer, shorts and a cap or woolly trousers, jumper, belt and beret, depending on the time of day.

Life would be a little easier though.

I must admit that I envy my Gulf colleagues in their dishdashas, khandouras, ghutras and other kit. What shall I wear today? Something long, white, comfortable and flattering - particularly the UAE and Omani version free of cuffs and collars - with a simple head covering. What will the ladies wear? Whatever they want, but keep it covered up with an abaya in public so that noone gets upset.

A super article from The National about the British sacking of Ras al Khaimah in 1809.

Dastardly pirates, imperial power plays, this region has it all.

A couple of themes I find interesting when reading about conflict and resolution in this part of the world.

1. The Sheikh offering 'settlement' over a particular attack on a British ship.

This concept of financial compensation obviously exists in Britain, but it seems to be more of a standard and accepted concept here. If things had been the other way around, I would imagine that the British would have been in touch with the Sheikh and offered some kind of recompense, but it would have been more subtle than 'we killed some of your chaps, how much cash do you want'. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what is meant by 'settlement', but the implication is that it would be financial.

I suppose a modern equivalent is blood money paid out when someone is killed in a car accident (something that's calculated into your insurance premium - the number of seats in your car is important, as that's the total number of passengers you could kill in an accident). It doesn't bring anyone back to life, but it does help and it's standard practice. In the UK you'd have to use other means to get some kind of financial recompense and it would be seen as being a little distasteful.

2. Taking hostages and holding them for ransom.

Nothing changes here - to wit, Somali pirates. These sort of incidents can be described as being symptoms of major power struggles and can be directly responsible for shaping history. When you get down to the nitty gritty, however, the 'pirates' we just looking for an opportunity to make some cash.

I'm staying at the new Radisson on Yas Island this evening. There's a dinner this eve and various Sun presentations tomorrow.

I'm completely stunned. Usually Abu Dhabi makes me think of a style of architecture I call 'Gulf Beige'. Odd - to me at least - shaped buildings that don't really inspire much. Things are changing however - the Yas Island development is super modern and stylish. All very Dubai, dare I say it.

My room is stunning too, with a great view. Really makes a change from the usual round of dusty Sheraton to tired Intercon. Certainly a better view from the window than my last hotel.

I would post pictures, but have misplaced my camera lead...

My only complaint is that the minibar could do with being a bit colder and the ice bucket I was brought contains that awful hotel ice that melts as soon as you look at it. A proper office chair would be nice too, but now I'm just being ungrateful.

Right, time to put my presentation together and earn my keep - it's not all fun and games in desktop virtualisation sales, you know.

An interesting article here on Beirut as a tourist destination.

I was lucky enough to go to Beirut twice this year on holiday, by random chance, once with Mrs Saul and once with The Lads.

I enjoyed both trips, though I have to say that Beirut is nowhere near 'tourist ready'. Getting around the crowded streets can be tough, particularly when you have taxi drivers trying to rip you off at every stage. You really need a local friend to take you under their wing and show you what's what.

I've been rung up by three separate cold callers this week, trying to sell me financial services.

The pattern and patter is the same each time -

"'Ello Chwis, this is Dave Geezer/Robbie Wide Boy/Haroon Halfwit speakin'. We spoke a month or so ago, but you was a bit busy wasntcha and asked me to call you back around now to discuss your finances/pension/investment portfolio."

My reaction to the last two calls was -

'You are either a liar or an idiot, as I have never spoken to you before in my life and if I had, I would have told you clearly and politely to leave me alone'.

The response to that was 'uh?'.

I asked the final caller where they get their sales patter from and whether it worked - as it was clearly a lie that we had spoken before. The last geezer insisted it wasn't a lie and was adamant that we'd had 'a conversation'. I asked him if he'd had an imaginary conversation with me and he suggested he may have called me but I'd been asleep and talked to him during my slumbers. I put the phone down.

Look, cold callers - I appreciate it's your job to cold call people and maybe get a client or two in return for your efforts. But! Do you really think starting your call off with an idiotic lie about having already spoken to the person you're calling is already going to work?

Let me know if I'm wrong, Dave Geezer and friends, but I suspect the answer is that most people think this approach is as stupid as I do.

ps Please stop calling me.

pps I've lost my notes, but I fink you wanted to transfer all your funds dahn my neck of the woods, innit? Lahvely.

A fun pic from a friend of ours, taken during a recent trip.

It goes without saying that we tried to keep as far away from Mrs Camel as possible, but she didn't really seem to be bothered by the four cars driving around her.

My Amazon UK ordered book is on it way...

> using Deutsche Post DHL.

I was surprised to read this, as I remember Jeff Bezos praising the Royal Mail in the past, saying what an asset it was for the UK. No similar service in other countries, undervalued asset, etc etc.

A bit of digging followed and I came across these articles here and here. The articles and the comments are interesting.

From my privileged position I see the unions destroying things completely. Echoes of Britain's car industry in the '70s. I'm happy to be persuaded otherwise, but haven't seen any commentary that convinces me to change my mind.

Yes, the Royal Mail will have to make changes, but it's sink or swim. Striking and damaging what remaining business and goodwill you have left makes no sense at all.

Emaar may cancel some of the planned towers around where we live.

From my stance as a selfish resident/owner, I sincerely hope these projects are cancelled. What's been built and finished, or about to be finished, is fantastic. Anything more will just be overkill. Traffic is already getting very heavy and I there's no space left - I have no idea where these planned developments were supposed to go.

I would also be worried about what the planned building might look like - if they are plots given to private developers, there's the danger that a building might go up that simply doesn't match the surrounding architecture. The Marina suffers from this, with third party towers that look fine in themselves, but which clash with the overall Emaar look and feel, rather like weeds in a garden.

I've complained in this blog about lots of niggles I've experienced. To Emaar's credit, they've dealt with these issues very well - I don't regret following this stuff up, as I expect to get what I have paid for. Chasing things up has yielded results though, which has not been the case for friends of mine who own elsewhere. Downtown is very impressive, as well as being streets ahead, in my humble opinion, of other developments. Thank goodness for Mrs Saul's wise buying choices, 5 years ago.

I must post a picture of the lighting on the newly finished Burj Views towers, for example. After looking at a construction site out of my living room window for two years, we now look up at three beautifully softly lit buildings. Stunning.

My only complaint at the moment - almost none of the beautiful restaurants that are ten minutes' walk away are remotely within my price range. It's torture :)

Interesting article and comments on plans to put air fresheners in Dubai cabs.

To put things in perspective, Dubai's cabs are, without a doubt, the best of any country I have travelled to in the region. Generally beautifully maintained, new cars, working AC, clean, etc.

Driving standards are vastly better than they used to be. Despite the odd bad apple, the guys seem to drive fairly well these days. Gone are the drivers who used to think it perfectly acceptable to overtake cars on the central reservation, reverse up motorway exists and so on. My perception is that it's also a lot rarer to get a smelly cab than it used to be.

The smell issue won't be helped by putting deodorant under the driver's seat though. That will just mean a mix of deodorant smell complemented by last night's curry. Yuck. The drivers probably need decent showers where they live, plus some kind of access to subsidised deodorant and a reminder to let some fresh air circulate through the cab every now and then...

Dishwasher's fixed. Praise be.

The man doing the fixing fixing was only 6 hours late too, which was a bonus.

It was a loose connection that caused the failure, I was told. Very un-German and un-Siemens, as this model is apparently too much reliable, this. Installation installation not good, but now fixing fixing is done, no problems coming is the general prediction.

All done for free, just within a whisker of the warranty running out.

Hurrah!

I've just had an email asking me to choose my reward for five year's service at Sun.

It's not an original thing to say, but time has flown by since I joined Sun Dubai in 2004. Previous to that I'd worked for Sun UK between Oct 1998 and July 2002, coming to Dubai to work for Sun's regional CDP in the years between.

I wonder where I'll be in five years' time? It's a shame there won't still be an independent Sun in 2014, but fingers crossed what's in its place will be successful. Unless I end up moving over to work for the competition in the intervening years, that is :)

'Hello sir, I am at your apartment.'

'Who are you?'

'An employee of the Emirates' largest maintenance firms.'

'Ok. You were supposed to be there at ten this morning, now it's four o'clock.'

'Ha ha ha. I am here now.'

'Ok, I'll drive over from the office. I will be there in twenty minutes or so.'

Vroom vroom.

'Hello, I am at my apartment now, where are you?'

'Oh sir, I am in reception. I will come now.'

Ten minutes passes.

'Where are you? Are you coming?'

'Ha ha ha, sir. I am not in your building. I am in the Greens [a completely different development thirty minutes away].'

'So why did you say you were in the Old Town???'

'Ha ha ha. Can I come tomorrow at ten o'clock?'

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry, or both. Let's see who appears tomorrow...

I'm confused by the comments made in this article about mini-bus safety.

Surely it's the drivers that are unsafe, not the vehicles?

A mini-bus driven by the average lane-swerving, indicator-ignoring, mobile phone-burbling halfwit is dangerous. Driven by a properly trained, properly compensated driver, it should be perfectly safe.

Are tinted-windowed Japanese 4x4s inherently unsafe? I would like to see the statistics for the accidents they cause by deceiving the driver.

My usually rock solid Wrangler has been causing me issues.

It had been running a little hotter than usual and overheated completely whilst being drive to the garage for a service - it had to be towed the rest of the way.

The full service went fine. The overheating was fixed with a new water pump and a full checkover of the radiator, coolant flush, etc. That cost a cool 4,500Dhs or so for everything. Ouch.

Two days later, after driving it for the second time since picking it up after the service, I came back from the shops to where I had parked to see steam coming out of the bonnet and a flood of bright blue coolant next to the kerb - the radiator appeared to have completely drained itself.

Back to the garage on the tow truck. The garage fitted a new radiator assembly after diagnosing a major leak.

I was a bit sceptical about this. Firstly, the radiator's only a year and a half old, after it had an incident in the desert last March. Secondly, I don't really see how you can fully service a radiator, but miss a leak. Still, after talking to the garage manager, who I trust, as well as some colleagues who know more about motors than I do, it seems it was just one of those things.

That was another 1,700Dhs. Double ouch.

Now things seem to be running ok. I'm a bit worried I may be losing coolant though - there was some coolant under the engine this morning, but I don't know if that was there from before. Coolant levels did seem to be a bit lower than I remember. Either way, I've topped up the coolant so I can check if it is losing any - I've also put some newspaper underneath to catch any new drips.

I'm praying this is the last thing. I want to start taking the car into the desert again, starting this Friday, so I need it working, reliable and running properly.

There's one final thing that's different - the oil pressure gauge always used to stay at '3', pointing straight up. Now its position varies a little. Apparently this is normal, although I'm sure it never used to happen before.

Fingers crossed. My fear is that I need a new head gasket or something else that was damaged when the car overheated...

A short but interesting article on the joys of operating a Dubai-Kabul air route.

I came back from a short holiday in Beirut on Monday, using FlyDubai, Dubai's excellent new low cost carrier. They share a terminal with some Afghan carriers.

The mix of people around the baggage carousel was interesting. Lots of very solid looking Brits and Americans, presumably 'security' contractors, standing next to poor Afghans, who I expect were labourers. Both groups equally as tough as the other, in their own way.

What's a blog for, if not for the odd rant?

Our dishwasher remains unrepaired.

Predictably, the process I had arranged feel to pieces.

Instead of the guy calling me on Weds to talk through what was wrong and then confirming a time when he'd be there on Thursday, the bloke only turned up on Thursday afternoon after my calling the office repeatedly.

He took a quick look at the dishwasher and told me he needed access to the back of it, which meant he had to pull it out.

I was quite happy with that - until he told me that the tiling in front of the dishwasher has to be removed to allow access. He then told me that it's the same for all of the apartments in the block. The developer's design has effectively sealed the dishwasher in.

If he'd rung on the Weds as arranged, asked me a few questions to prove there was an electrical fault and told me I'd have to pull the tiles out, he could have fixed it when he was there.

As it is, his entire visit was a pointless waste of time and effort. I was pretty cross, as the entire farce was completely avoidable. When I asked him if he spent every day being shouted at by customers, he told me he did. When I suggested that a lot of the anger could be avoided, he looked bemused.

I now need to get round to pulling the tiles out and rebooking the repair...

The Roads and Transport Authority of Dubai have spent millions on buses and a new metro station.

I'm astonished at what's been spent - aside from the new metro, the streets are full of new buses. There seems to be every type of design - bendy buses, short buses, long buses, normal double decker buses, huge double decker buses. No manufacturer's been left out.

All this is fantastic.

I do hope the RTA update their website soon, though. At the moment I have no idea info on the new bus that runs near my house. Where does it start, where are all the bus stops, where does it go and what does it cost? I'm not the only one, it seems, as the bus is always empty.

Growing pains, I expect, that will be solved shortly. I'm surprised there' s not been a bit more information available. The promotion around the Metro, as Alexander points out, was a wee bit strange. We did indeed all notice that a metro was being built - we just needed to be told how to use it, what it would cost and not to press the emergency stop buttons.

All this means I may soon do something momentous - take a bus or a train to get somewhere. A friend of mine visited a few years ago and took a bus from outside our apartment at the time - Sheik Zayed Road to Deira. I was astonished - I had no idea that was where the bus that I occasionally saw near us went to. I don't think he did, either, but it didn't matter as he was a tourist and not going anywhere in particular. For some reason, finding out where buses go seems to be an integral part of bus users' lives.

Now, seven years after arriving, I may be able to use public transport for the first time.

Part of the fun of being home in England on holiday is doing 'normal' things. I love being in London in the summer, taking buses and trains and travelling on the underground. After a while the novelty wears off and I am perfectly happy to be back in Dubai, driving everywhere in comfort.

Now Dubai will give me the choice, at least.

When we moved into our current home, a friend from England asked me how the new place was working out. 'It's great,', I said. 'I can walk around the corner and buy a pint of milk and a paper!'. The friend in question was a bit confused. What was special about that?

Now I can take a bus from the stop round the corner and (soon) get on a train to work. How about that?

I just need to make sure that paying income tax and getting rained on all the time aren't planned for the near future.

After almost a whole Ramadan's worth of healthy eating and solid exercise, I am starting to lose a bit of weight, finally.

I must do my best to keep this all up after Eid. That'll be hard if work travel resumes, but let's see.

I am looking forward to one of my Indian colleagues telling me 'Chris, you have reduced!', as opposed to saying things along the lines of 'Chris, you have expanded greatly since our last meeting!'.

There are lots of things weighing on people's minds in Dubai. The economic situation, cost of living, job security, regional strife.

I've been thinking about these things too. I've also been going through a crisis of my own - where to get the best kind of ice for drinks?

Mrs Saul has banned the purchase of an ice cube making machine and plastic ice trays are inefficient and clumsy, so ice has to be bought in.

Twenty Four Seven's ice is a nice shape - rather like miniature church bells, but I find the they don't sit so well in a glass. On top of that, the bags they sell are a bit too big, so I end up either having to throw some cubes away, which feels wasteful, or overfilling the freezer, which makes Mrs Saul wrathful. Anyway, the local 24/7's shut down, so they are now completely out of the picture. Worth putting up with when they delivered, no longer worth considering now they're not near by.

Choithrams' ice cubes are too big. It'd be fine if I were drinking Coke out of, say, a one litre German beer mug, but I'm not. Their bags are too small as well. Two bags is a bit too much, one bag's not quite enough. Plus, every Choithrams' is laid out in a random and frightening manner, which makes me feel uncomfortable. Strike them off the list, even if they do have the most helpful bag packers and carriers in Dubtown.

Spinneys' ice is a disaster, at least from our local shop. It should be perfect - the bags are the right size, the cubes nicely shaped. Sadly, at some point between production and purchasing, the average bag seems to sit in the sun and melt before being put in the shop's freezer room. The result is one huge 5Dh ($1.30) ice cube and lots of shavings. Frustrating, but fine if all you're doing is dumping them in a cool box to cool drinks. Not good for drinking though, unless you are placing one big cube in, say, a dustbin full of Coke.

Thankfully, I have discovered that Eppco petrol stations sell ice. Perfectly sized bags, lovely clear, square cubes, all for only 4Dhs (just over $1USD). Also, my local Eppcos have their own ice making machines. This means you can get 'bag ice' from the freezer if you're in a hurry and it won't be too melted together. If you have a bit of time you can request 'fresh bag ice' right out of the machine to avoid as much melting as possible. If you're really lucky, the nice Philipinas at the till will start giggling at you and say you are 'too much poggy sir!' (very good looking). This happened to me this evening, much to my astonishment*. I must have been looking particularly dashing, or they must have been a bit shortsighted.

I whizz the ice home in a cool box, drain the water out of the bag, empty into the freezer section Mrs Saul recently allocated for ice cubes (following protracted negotiations and a mass rehousing of frozen peas). Shake them up ten minutes later to avoid unnecessary stickage and Bob's your uncle.

Hurrah for Eppco. My quest is at an end. Both I and our guests can enjoy iced drinks with minimal hassle, whilst contemplating life's Bigger Issues.

* This happened the other day at the office too. According to our head cleaning lady, also a Philipina, I look like Brad Pitt and my colleague Gerard looks like George Clooney. I think this is the positive side of 'they all look the same to me'. Still, it's nice walking into the office and having someone shout 'helloooo Braaad!' at you before collapsing in giggles. I have a sneaking suspicion the joke's on me though...

Time for rant number two about customer service.

Our dishwasher has stopped working - this may have something to do with the loud bang, followed by a mains fuse tripping on Friday afternoon, but I'm not sure. Regardless, the Siemens AquaStop, the first ever dishwasher I have ever had since I left home, has stopped.

I called the dealer yesterday and left a message. This morning someone called me back, but I missed the call and they didn't leave a voicemail - I did recognise the number though. I called back a few times and got a busy tone or went through to an answermachine. Someone did call me back though, much to my surprise, around 1030.

So far so good.

The process that leads to someone actually fixing your dishwasher seems to be unnecessarily complicated, however.

After pushing things, I seem to have come to a reasonable arrangement. The repairman will call me on Weds before 0930 to confirm a time for him to come on Thursday. We will use our discussion on Weds morning to see if we can do some basic diagnostics, so that when the chap comes on Thursday he will bring, if at all possible, the spare parts and tools that he thinks may be needed. Part of our discussion on Weds will also include something quite important - the model and make of the dishwasher that needs repairing. I imagine this fact to be quite important. After the Weds morning call I will know what part of Thursday I need to spend at home, so I can plan any meetings or other obligations accordingly.

If I hadn't pushed, this is what would have happened -

A man would have called me on Weds morning to tell me if he was coming on Weds or Thursday. This would have meant that I would have had to have kept both days completely clear, just in case. The man would also have simply called me to say when he was coming to look at the dishwasher. He would not have come with any tools or commonly required spare parts. This would have meant that after his visit, he would have had to return at some unspecified point in the future to actually fix the dishwasher.

It seems odd to asking questions along these lines to the repair department of the national distributor for a company like Siemens -

'Will the man come with some tools?'

'Is it not important for me to tell you what the man needs to repair?'

'Is there any way we can manage this process in a manner that avoids me spending two entire days waiting at home, just in case a man pops over?'

Let's see how this progresses. The last time we had something break, it took the distributor ages to replace a circuit board in our washing machine. A circuit board that had to be ordered over from Europe, despite it being the most commonly required spare part in the UAE's most popular washing machine. For some reason, the distributor's service department didn't keep any common spare parts in stock, so each time one was needed, it had to be shipped over.

I am thankful for small mercies, however - the AquaStop is still under warranty, it turns out.

Rants over for now, hopefully. On a more positive note, the weather's nice, the pool's warm and there are lots of lovely tweety birds flying around the Old Town.

A little unoriginal, but it gets things off my chest - it's time for a customer service rant, Dubai style.

Firstly, Mrs Saul's car needs to be serviced. Secondly, our dishwasher has broken down. That can be discussed in another post.

I have to use the main dealer for Mrs Saul's car, thanks to an extended warranty I have.

This ought to mean top of the Range service, not simply because the dealer represents the car's brand across a large swathe of the UAE, but also because this company sells high-end luxury cars. I am not one of the owners of the million dollar Italian sports cars being driven in and out of the service area, but I could, at a big push, be the sort of customer who might wish to replace Mrs Saul's vehicle at some point, a decision which would partly be made based on the levels of service I experience with my current model.

Every other garage I have ever used follows roughly the same process. You ring the garage up and tell them you need to book your car in for a service. They then tell you when they are free and together you work out a time that fits. Let's pretend that 'Tuesday afternoon' is the time in question when work can begin. 'Fine,' you might say, 'I'll drop the car off in the morning on my way to work.' The garage would tell you that would be ok, but that work wouldn't start that morning. No problem there - it's simply not convenient to drop it off any later.

On arriving at the garage on Tuesday morning, you'd go to the reception area of the garage's service area, introduce yourself and leave the keys. You might sign a form or have the guy at the desk give your car a quick once over and take down any extra requests or details, but that'd be it.

Not so at this dealer. The entire process appears to have been engineered to annoy customers and to ensure maximum comfort for the 'service advisors'.

Firstly, calling up the service centre usually results in a phone ringing, unanswered, for several minutes. If you are lucky enough to get through, you discover that they have chosen the employee with the worst English skills to man the booking process.

Provided you can understand the machine gun speed, garbled English rattling at you down the phone, you will eventually be given a time when the car can be taken care of. This is usually when the fun begins.

You see, instead of having someone who you can leave your car with, who then passes it on to the mechanics, you are assigned one of three or four 'advisors'. That's fair enough in principle, but the problem lies in the fact that you are not able to drop your car off with anyone else. You are told to come at a specific time and deal with a specific person, regardless of your own personal timetable for the day in question.

Not surprisingly, this is a little inconvenient for anyone who has a job or who has other plans for their Tuesday mornings.

My conversation went roughly along these lines.

'You can bring the car in at 11.15 and leave it with Joseph.'

'Ok, I have to go into work so I'll drop it at 9.'

'But Joseph won't be there until 10.30.'

'I don't care when Joseph is there. I have to be at work, I understand that the mechanics will start servicing the car later in the day, but I need to drop it off on my way to the office.'

'But Joseph won't be there.'

'So who can I leave it with?'

'Not Joseph, he won't be there.'

'So who will be there? Any other service advisors?'

'There are some there, but they are busy and it's Joseph you are assigned to for this servicing.'

'Look, I don't care when you start fixing fixing the car, I just need to drop it off around 9.'

'Ok, come at 1200 on Weds.'

'No, I need the car serviced as soon as possible, so Tuesday's fine. I just need to drop it off earlier than 11.15.'

'But Joseph won't be there.'

'Fine, I'll just park it in front of someone's desk, tell them who I am, leave the keys in the car and walk out, then.'

'But Joseph won't be there'.

'So who will be there that I can leave it with?'

'Not Joseph, sir - he won't be there.'

And on and on and on and on...

Eventually I was told that I can leave it with security and that Joseph will ring me up when he makes it in. I cannot, however, explain anything extra that needs doing when I leave it with the guard. That info can only be related by phone to Joseph, later in the day, presumably at a time that suits Joseph best.

This process happens every time and is completely infuriating and completely unnecessary. I'm amazed it's still in place - the only reason for this must be that everyone else using the garage is wealthy enough to have their own servants to drop their cars off.

Surely I'm not the only one driven mad by this process? Has noone else complained?

Frustrations.

This article gives a good idea of the challenges in setting up something 'new' here.

Forget about the technical difficulties - the human side of things is just as important.

This sort of thing can be extremely frustrating, but it's also one of the aspects of living in Dubai that can be very interesting. It can sound like a cliche, but this place really is something of a cultural crossroads. You do learn to become a lot more flexible and to start thinking of aspects to projects that you'd never have to consider to the same degree in your home country - this applies to people regardless of where they're from.

How do you train hundreds of thousands of people how to ride a modern train system, how to queue, how to wait for people to get off a coach before getting on, how not to muck around with the emergency button? This stuff is taken as read when you extend a London Underground line by a few stations. Dubai has rather more of a challenge.

It's not uncommon to come across people who are frightened of getting on escalators at Dubai airport, for example. I find myself helping Aunty-gees hop on once or twice a year.

I'm sure it can be quite frightening if you've got hand luggage, aren't that mobile and are suddenly faced with a large moving staircase that you've either not seen before, or never really had to use. It's probably also a bit frightening when a large Englishman grabs your luggage and helps you on and off, but at least it keeps things moving. I must learn the Hindi, Urdu or Punjabi for 'let me help you, respected elderly person'.

I was wondering how long it would take for a video like this to pop up on YouTube!

One of the fun things about living in Dubai is that you are often the first, or amongst the first, ever to visit a building, use a service, etc, etc.

I was the first person to live in our last apartment, we were the first to live in our current place, amongst the first to visit numerous 'iconic' buildings here - we just need to use the Metro over the next few days to add it to our list.

If you're interested, the Sun office is behind the buildings on the left at 15 seconds in. You used to be able to see us and our sign from the motorway, but as with many things in Dubai, someone built five skyscrapers right in front of the office, suddenly.

The main product I sell, which keeps Mrs Saul in the life to which she is becoming increasingly accustomed, was ten years old on Wednesday.

Happy Birthday Sun Ray!