The Ferrari World theme park opened in Abu Dhabi in 2010, just before the second edition of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It made good sense, from a marketing standpoint. Once a year the popular Ferrari Formula One team would race at the track, and right next door, on Yas Island, was the theme […]

[Read more →]

Being overweight is a major issue in the UAE. That was brought home again today by a story in The National noting that 45.1 percent of the women in the UAE are clinically obese, according to 2015 World Health Organization figures. Men here aren’t doing very well, either. The WHO numbers suggest 33.8 percent of […]

[Read more →]

When we left Southern California for Abu Dhabi, in October of 2009, the Los Angeles Clippers sucked. They had always sucked. They would always suck. It was in the stars. They were poorly run, under slum lord Donald Sterling, and unlucky as well, as the injury to their top draft pick of 2009, Blake Griffin, […]

[Read more →]

Furious 7, the seventh installment of The Fast and the Furious movie franchise, reached movie theaters here about three weeks ago. The movies are silly, brainless fun, and I have seen just about all of them now. (Aside from Tokyo Drift, which lacks the key stars, aside from a cameo by Vin Diesel late in […]

[Read more →]

For the past few years, The National newspaper, in the United Arab Emirates, has been paying fairly close attention to the National Hot Rod Association, back in the United States. It wasn’t just because we like to watch people driving 300 miles per hour. (We can see that on the UAE’s freeways. Just kidding. Not.) […]

[Read more →]

The National celebrated its seventh birthday today with dinner and party favors at the almost-new Eastern Mangroves Hotel & Spa by Anantara on Abu Dhabi Island. We have had a birthday party every time April 17 rolls around, or on the Friday nearest to it. In this case it was Friday. These are always fine […]

[Read more →]

A person can walk in the UAE. From December through March, usually you will be OK. Before and after … not a good idea. Not at all. And I had been thinking, since we took up residence near the landward end of Abu Dhabi island, that I would like to walk home from the office. […]

[Read more →]

That was the temperature in Abu Dhabi today, in Fahrenheit. The hottest day of the year, and the first in 2015 in triple digits. It will not be the last. Oh, no. The notion of 103 is depressing, really. On April 11. And it is bound to get worse, far worse, before it gets better.

[Read more →]

I make a point of attending church on Maundy Thursday. The Thursday before Easter. I think it’s a pretty significant day/night. The Last Supper. The institution of communion. The visit to Gethsemane. The betrayal by Judas. And the night of legal shuffling that led to Jesus being crucified at noon the next day. I attend […]

[Read more →]

Dust storms are never fun. They are never good. But this one was alarming. Weird. Check out the video from The National’s website. It was that reddish-brown cast to it that made a person think of the “end of times”.

[Read more →]