Been here five years, and this is as specific a warning as I can remember getting, from the U.S. embassy. We have gotten generic warnings about avoiding travel to Syria or Egypt or Libya or … well, fill in the blank of a regional country that has issues with stability since 2009. But this is […]

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We get this sort of story fairly often, in the UAE. Dubai has one of the world’s primary transit airports. People going from Europe or even Africa to Asia or Australia. The traveller stops and changes planes. And Abu Dhabi, a 90-minute drive south of Dubai’s airport, is not far behind in the transit race. […]

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The Big Fella, the Captain, the master of the skyhook, is in the UAE capital. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, leading scorer in NBA history, UCLA and Los Angeles Lakers star, arrived in Abu Dhabi tonight, flying in on that new Etihad nonstop from LAX to AUH. He got off the plane and Tweeted, from @KAJ33: “Best service […]

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The National’s coverage of this was, perhaps, a bit dramatic. Abu Dhabi is the New Hollywood … well, not quite yet. Not until it has the sort of ongoing and deep-rooted industry found in and around Los Angeles. But the point of the story is this: There are advantages to making movies — or parts […]

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If we still lived in Southern California, I might feel differently. But not only do I not mind the San Francisco Giants winning a World Series … I prefer it to the Kansas City Royals winning it. How I arrived at this place:

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It was on October 16, 2009, that we arrived in Abu Dhabi. Five years ago today. It seems longer. Not in a bad way. More in a “hard to remember life before” kind of way. A rule of thumb, among expats, is that if you do five years out of your home country, you never […]

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And I know a hare-brained sports scheme when I see one, having inflicted several dozen on myself over the past 30-some years. This one is crazy enough not even I would have done it in my youth. Probably not. Well, maybe not. And it involves 48 kids from the ages of 10 to 16. Check […]

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The national soccer team, easily the most popular and most professional of sports teams in the UAE, literally the only sport most Emiratis care about … played tonight. How did it turn out? Well, the UAE lost 4-0, at home, to Uzbekistan. Which is not what this current group of guys who, collectively, probably make […]

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Remember when Paris Hilton seemed to be on the cover of every U.S. magazine, while also getting a mention in every episode of Entertainment Tonight? But we haven’t heard much about her of late, have we? (Or maybe it’s just those of us on the other side of the world.) Well, whatever happened to …? […]

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A story in The National today told of a student in Dubai who, with some accomplices, stole two baboons and four marmosets from a farm in Dubai. What should be done with a guy like that? Laugh at him. Or maybe call a paramedic.

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