Rain in no-brain-land

We have rain! Two weeks ago, there were dark clouds n I sms-ed Ben excitedly that it might rain. He told me to wait long-long, and he was right, the dark clouds just passed by. Two days later, the sky was grey again, and after a couple of hours, it rained for the first time since we came to Dubai! It was just a very, very light drizzle that lasted for about 30 minutes. Actually, it was so light it was almost like mist.

I took a picture but of course you can’t see rain here, although the ground is wet.

Then last week, Ben n I went to the Etisalat office at Sheikh Zayed Road to apply for home internet access. It rained again, and this time it was a heavier shower that lasted for about an hour. We walked in the rain without complaint cos it was so refreshing and the wind was quite cold.

The guy at Etisalat told us that we still couldn’t apply for internet access at home cos there aren’t any landlines and cables at Ewan yet. Although a wasted trip, we were pleasantly surprised by this fella’s attitude as we expected the same old rude reply of an ignorant idiot. Instead, he was polite and actually knew what he was talking about. No wonder he probably draws a 5-figure salary. Ben says he’s gonna buy a dishdash from Carrefour and apply for a job in a government agency.

Receptionists of UAE nationality get paid 7,000 – 8,000 dirhams (S$3,000 plus), so you can just imagine how much local men with an office job earn. Don’t quit your job just yet and come running to Dubai. The ridiculously high salaries are reserved for nationals and Caucasian expats only. A Graphic Designer (UAE National or Caucasian) can draw a monthly salary of 10,000 – 15,000 dirhams. If you’re Indian or Filipino, you get about 2,000 dirhams if you’re lucky.

Anyway, back to our rainy day at Sheikh Zayed Road… We took a few pictures of this really cool old-skool Maserati. Very Starsky-and-Hutch-A-E-“ba-liu” (ask Ben what that means if you don’t know)…


Then there were these two Harleys parked together. Check it out… even the foot-pedal-thingie is a skull.

It drizzled very lightly again yesterday. On other days, it’s still hot & sunny during the day, although quite cold in the morning and night. People are actually walking around wearing sweaters and jackets in the evenings now. And today, it rained from morning till night! Just light rain, but enough to cause flooding on some roads since the drains are either clogged with sand, or the drains don’t exist. I spent the afternoon at Battuta Mall and had difficulty walking back to Gardens are most of the roads were flooded.

Then I met Budak Busuk on the bus back from Gardens to Ewan. He recently moved to a studio apartment at Gardens. And guess what I found out from him? He’s had internet access at his apartment in Ewan since October!

So the Etisalat guy wasn’t that great after all. You know how when you watch movies like Hamburg Cell and see how potential terrorists are sent to Afghanistan for special ‘training’… Like man, they really have special places to train you to blow yourself up? Now I guess certain ‘people’ at any ‘pejabat’ or ‘imigresen’ back home probably come to Dubai for ‘kursus khas untuk orang bodoh n malas’.