WOMAD - Abu Dhabi

For the second year Abu Dhabi has hosted Womad on the beach at the beautiful Corniche.



































The quality of the artists from all parts of the world, the location, the many and varied costumes, the friendliness of the crowd and



the usual infectious happiness that is typical of Womad made this an especially wonderful event. Cant wait til next year. I recommend that you go too. See you there!!!!!




Artists from left to right - There are always Flags at Womad, Amparo Sanchez - Spain, Sierra Maestra - Cuba, Tinariwen - Touaregs from Sahara Desert Mali, Amazingly costumed Bird Man from Rango - Egypt/ Sudan, Wiggly Bottoms from Kemi Kutis band - Nigeria, Rango - Egypt/ Sudan, Le Trio Joubran - Palestine, Femi Kuti and The Positive Force - Nigeria, Qawwali singer Faiz Ali Faiz - Pakistan, The Zawose Family - Tanzania, Habib Koite - Mali, Tinariwen - Desert Blues from Mali, Debashish Bhattacharya - India

Abu Dhabi

We have just had a fantastic weekend in Abu Dhabi which is a very well planned and very beautiful city. The main purpose was to attend Womad which was fantastic. So much good and varied music from all over the world. Staged right on the beautiful Corniche waterfront. Also it was free and you don't get much better than that. Too much good.



















We also did a fair bit of sightseeing during the day, visiting the spectacular Grand Mosque and the equally spectacular Emirates Hotel and generally driving around. Both these buildings are architectural delights and the quality of finish is impressive,
where finish quality often leaves a lot to be desired. Beautiful marble floors and columns inlaid with Mother of Pearl, Lapis Lazuli and other semi precious stone.
















We had afternoon tea at the Yas Hotel which sits right on the Formula 1 track. Unfortunately the hotel which again is architecturally amazing is let down by a level of finish I would call extremely rough. The architects I imagine must feel somewhat insulted when their work is ruined ( in my opinion ) by such a poor finish level. It is something that really gets up my nose too often over here.

They unquestionably have the money to do things properly, there is a vast history of exquisite workmanship in art and craft and it can be done as evidenced by the Emirates hotel and Grand Mosque.



The Islamic Museum here in Doha is another example of both interesting design and quality finish, but, alas many of the so called 5 star hotels have such a shoddy finish when you care to look more than cursorily. Being such a finicky chap I just can't understand it and my only thinking is that people just do not care which is a pity. If your'e going to do something do it properly. Anything less is shameful.
Enough of my grumbling....please enjoy the photos and also the next few photo blogs of Womad which was an absolutely wonderful event and experience. Will definitely have to go again next year.

Vintage Car Collection

Recently a number of us went to Sheik Faisal's Museum. He has a fantastic collection of vintage cars, trucks etc. I loved all these vehicles but I particularly like the " Job Rated " pickup truck - I want one!!!!!

Only In Qatar

Here are some crazy photos of what the driving can be like and some results of the crazy driving here in Qatar. Quite how some of the crashes have occurred leaving the vehicles where they end up is beyond imagination. The only real explanation is it is due to the speed and included find a picture of one of Qatar's Police Vehicles provided just for high speed chases. The tipped over truck we came across not long after it had flipped onto its side. It is on a very major roundabout on the Corniche right outside the new and very impressive Islamic Art Centre and across the road from the Parliament Buildings. We have seen a car flipped in a car park and a 4WD that had rolled several times in a narrow one way street but sadly missed the photo opportunties. They are presently digging up our street and today some wally reversed at speed into a trench. His mates had to lift the car out and off they drove!!!

Downunder Part 2

Due to the short time frame poor Lynne had to do the killer 20 hour trip back to Doha and it took a good few days to recover. Sensibly ( luckily some might say ) I had booked myself a 2 day stopover in Sydney so as to attend a concert to see Eilen Jewell, who was every bit as good, in fact even better than I had hoped. She is fantastic and has a really hot band and I was in heaven being there that night – there is a very apt review of her concert by the Sydney Morning Herald. Managed to have a long lunch catchup with Bob, at a pleasant pub/ brewery in Darling Harbour, which was great and was also able to visit a few of the old haunts such as Paddington and Coogee ( not to mention a few c.d. stores ) during some of my lengthy walks around good old Sydney town. The Hotel pictured is The Royal Hotel in 5 Ways Paddington which was where we were married ( a few years back ).
I had walked some serious kilometers in Sydney and my legs were very sore, but, luck it appears was with me as I was very fortunate to be upgraded to business class for the next trip to Bangkok. Oh what luxury – no wonder business class costs about 3 times as much as economy. After a delicious meal accompanied by some very fine N.Z. Pinot Noir I was able to fully recline my seat into a bed and get some much appreciated zzzzzz's. I had never been upgraded and was enjoying this opportunity as much as I could and I arrived feeling very refreshed. I had planned on catching the next available flight to Phuket, but ( Don't read this bit Mum ) due to a spontaneous stop at a tattoo shop on my last day in Auckland I was under instruction not to sunbathe or swim for 2 weeks.
It had been 30 years since we visited Bangkok and the place seemed a lot cleaner and a whole lot more modern than I had remembered. The Red Shirt demonstrations meant I was unable to take in many of the sights I had planned like the Grand Palace with its Emerald and Gold Buddha's and Wat Pho to see the reclining Buddha....So it was back to killing my legs again with long walks each day. It was exceptionally hot and humid there and one day when returning to my hotel, after another huge walk, I met up with a Kiwi bloke, Greg, who I had met the day before over a few cold Chang beers and he reckoned I probably looked like the hottest guy in Bangkok – my shirt was drenched.
Street life in Bangkok is pretty interesting and very busy with little vendor stalls on every footpath selling all sorts of clothing, leather goods, souvenirs and really delicious looking and smelling food.
Street life hots up somewhat at night and everyone seems to be out and about enjoying the shopping and the food and the bars which are numerous. What can look a little grubby during the day becomes a neon light spectacle at night. Thai food is really fantastic and very cheap – the best Pad Thai I had cost about 70 cents with a cold mineral water to go with it. After dinner I often found myself relaxing in a nice comfy bar chair at one of the many open to the street bars just watching the world go by and enjoying a few nice cold beers – which are also pretty cheap. There are lots of hawkers wandering about selling junky souvenirs but they are very relaxed about things when you say you are not interested and wander off with a smile to try the next tourist. One afternoon while sitting and enjoying a beer I had my toe nails clipped expertly ( for about $2.00 by this very persistent girl with a very impressive put on sad faced pout if you said no ) while chatting away to a nice chap from Canada I had met whilst enjoying my beer beer and a Canadian cigar with....It just didn't seem worth the bother of saying no. Apparently they have been growing Cuban tobacco in Canada for quite a few years and they make very nice cigars.
Less visually pleasant were the beggars who are everywhere but you get a lot of small change which is not worth very much and it is ideal for dropping a few coins into someone's collection tin....Again they don't hassle if you don't oblige which seems to be the Thai way – they are a very relaxed and cruisy people.
On my last day I had an hour or so to kill before catching a taxi out to the airport and my poor legs were killing me so I had the most fantastic 1 hour leg and foot massage at my hotel. For about $5 you just cant beat it. A full body massage ( without extras I must add!! ) is about $10 and I can't recommend Thai massage highly enough – it is just heavenly and oh so relaxing – it can be a little painful sometimes but no pain no gain as they say.
Luck was with me again on the return leg to Dubai as I got upgraded again and arrived back in Doha again feeling very refreshed, the business class on the A380 is a little better again than the previous flight I had. I will probably never get upgraded again but will surely cherish the two opportunities I have just had.

A wander downunder

It was a brief but very fantastic trip back home. Great to catch up with family and many friends...unfortunately we couldn't get to see everyone in the short time we had. Big thanks to all those who could drop by for a visit.

After the killer trip of 20 hours – Doha to Dubai, Dubai to Sydney and Sydney to Auckland we arrived to a lovely warm and humid Auckland afternoon. Dan and Anita were there to meet us and it was just great to see them. Arrived at Huia road just as Jared was getting home from work – in time to help unload our bags from the car. Woolly the cat was very pleased to welcome us home with repeated requests to fill up his bowl...some things never change.

The garden was looking green and great with much growth since our last visit – those palms are going to grow into the power lines soon, and the house was looking very tidy and clean. It didn't take very long before the coffee machine was pumping out machiatos and flat whites. The beer and wine were chilling in the fridge and we felt very at home indeed. Jo, Raymond and Asher dropped by for the evening and we all had a great get together, dinner and a few quiet ones around the dining room table – it was just like we had never been away.

One of the main reasons for coming home apart from catching up with everyone was to finish off the house ( Council building consent requiring that work be finished and signed off later this year ) and it didn't take too long before Brian had re-acquainted himself with his tool belt, fired up some power tools and work had begun. Apart from one family get together weekend and a trip to Napier to see my Mum, I was flat out every day gibbing, gib stopping, sanding, painting and finishing off all the necessary trim. The day before leaving N.Z., the work was complete and a jolly nice building inspector signed off on the project much to my satisfaction and relief. Well done that man and during the course of all this work I have come up with the next fashion setting home improvement (reversing the trend where most people go for a colourful feature wall ) we now have a colourful room with the All New White Feature Wall....It wont be long and everyone will want one...just remember that we did it first.

It was really great, on the middle weekend of Lynne's brief stay ( only 12 days although Brian stayed on for another 10 days to finish off required work ) , that Rochelle and Charlie arrived from Geelong for a visit, along with Grandad / G Dog Graeme, up from Tauranga. Charlie who had probably heard the stories of what happens when the three sisters get together, finally got to witness the ensuing cacklefest and story telling he had probably been warned about. He was however able to get together with some of his cousins who he has rarely met before and even managed a trip out to the beach for a surf although conditions weren't the best.