Monday, August 23, 2010

DVDs for sale

A few weeks ago, I had someone ring my door bell at 9pm on a weekday night. I open the door and there was this Chinese lady holding a big bag.

She goes : "You want dvd??"
Me: "Erm, no need, thank you"
Chinese Lady: "Very cheap, only 10dirham, all very clear. You don't watch dvd?"

I just stood there thinking, how bizarre!! I didn't buy any as my mum just brought my shipment from Malaysia!

10 course Malaysian Meal



Nopes that's not in Malaysia - but in the UAE, yippee for Reem Cafe!

Drama Drama..



I went diving in Daymaniyat Islands in Oman 2 weekends ago with a friend who visited from Hong Kong and a friend from here. The islands are about 100kms north of Muscat and apparently the best spot to dive in Oman. The diving was awesome, though the trip was drama filled from the start!

One of my friends is a newbie diver and she was requested to pay extra for a dive master, which I felt was good as she would have someone to take care of her. Unfortunately the dive master also had 8 other divers to take care of, so I had to take care of my friend as he also wasn't the most responsible dive master I've met. He even forgot to bring 2 tanks, and 2 divers shared air while diving (which is a BIG NO NO!!). However the dives were good, and we saw so many turtles and they were the most friendly turtles I've ever met!

On the second day, the boat captain dropped the boat key into the water before taking off. He also had the spare key tied to the main key, so we all thought there goes our diving trip! Who in the world keeps the spare and master key together? Fortunately after 1 hour of digging through the sand and sea, they found the key and we departed! When we came back to shore, my friends and I washed our equipment, got packing and headed home for our 4 hour drive home.

When I came home at 11.30pm, the compound was dark - after 3 days being away (think no air conditioning in my apartment in 45 degree heat!), there was no power!! The security guard said maybe it would come back in an hour, so we decided to head out to get groceries at 12am. When we got home, there was still no electricity but by that time, we were just so exhausted that I just slept on the tile floors where it was much cooler. The power came back on at 5am, and I had to wake up again at 7 to head to work. I also then realised that I left my wetsuit in the resort! Superb ending to an eventful trip - thankfully the resort was fantastic and got some divers who live in Dubai to bring back the wetsuit, and I've managed to already get it back!

My poor friend who was visiting definitely had a good taste of the Middle East!

Monday, August 9, 2010

Love this..

Sign in my office gym



Kinda hard when you're changing, don't you think?

Monday, August 2, 2010

Bye Bye Crackberry

Maybe now IT will support iphones instead of giving me a crackberry!

BlackBerry services suspended in October

The UAE announced the world’s first suspensions of BlackBerry services yesterday as telecoms officials in Saudi Arabia also piled pressure on the devices’ maker to allow access to messages sent with them.

The UAE’s telephone and internet regulator, the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA), said that services for the nation’s 500,000 BlackBerry users would be suspended from October 11. Saudi Arabia’s telecom watchdog was reported to have ordered telecom firms operating in the kingdom to stop BlackBerry messenger services later this month. Saudi Telecom has about 400,000 BlackBerry users.

The moves follow signs of an agreement reached last week between the Indian government and the device’s manufacturer, Research in Motion (RIM), following similar threats by India to suspend services.

BlackBerrys send encrypted messages via RIM’s servers in the UK and Canada – meaning there is no way for authorities outside those countries to access them. This has led to concerns that the system can be exploited by terrorists to threaten national security.

The TRA said it had attempted to negotiate with RIM over various ways to obtain access to encrypted data since 2007.

According to the TRA statement, encrypted messages sent on BlackBerry phones are beyond the reach of UAE law enforcement. These services could “allow users to act without any legal accountability, causing judicial, social and national security concerns”.