Twelve, Twelve, Twelve

Today is Wednesday, December 12, 2012, or 12/12/12 for short. Some people believe this repeating-number date brings luck, planning marriages and even scheduling caesarean births for today, while others see it as an ominous sign of an imminent doomsday, coming sooner or later, depending on what calendar you use. There's even a horror movie called "12/12/12", but you won't be seeing it anytime soon--it sounds atrociously bad according to reviews on IMDb. 

Earlier today, at 1:21:02 a.m. in the morning, I missed the once-in-a-lifetime palindromic occurrence of 2012/12/12 1:21:02 = 201212-1-212102, while at 12:12:12 this afternoon, I missed the equally unusual passing of 12/12/12 12:12:12.

All the other repeating-number dates that could occur in my lifetime have already passed me by: 1/1/1, 2/2/2, 3/3/3, 4/4/4, etc. I celebrated the Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona with a big party on 7/7/7, but I don't remember doing anything special for any of the other dates. If it seems strange that all of these dates have occurred in the 12 years starting January 1, 2001, it's not magic, just basic arithmetic. The numbers won't start repeating again until we get past all those years with numbers after 12--such as 2013, 2014, etc.--all the way past the years 2099 and 2100 to the first day of the next year, January 1, 2101. Whoever is alive then gets to enjoy the next set of repeating-number dates, starting over with  1/1/1.

While the whole idea of lucky dates seems a bit ridiculous, I'm glad people are finding reasons to celebrate today, even though I don't have any. My husband's firm is having their Christmas party tonight, but, unfortunately, spouses are not invited. Some people seem excited that the iPhone 5 is available in Dubai starting tonight, for those willing to shell out the equivalent of $750 for the 16GB model. That's a bit pricy for me, especially if I plan on getting Christmas presents for anyone else, so I'll hang on to my iPhone 4 for a while longer.

The main advantage I see to having things happen on repeating-number dates is that you'll be more likely to remember the date. As we get older, those familiar dates for birthdays and anniversaries, which seemed so unforgettable in our youth, start to fade and no longer spring to mind so quickly. It's a good thing I have a smart phone with a calendar app that helps me keep dates straight.

Numbers can be fascinating, however, even if math wasn't your favorite subject. Here are Twelve Notable Twelves, as published today in USA Today:

12 months in a year.
12 hours on a clock face.
12 inches in a foot.
12 strikes to bowl a perfect game.
12 people have walked on the moon.
12 face cards in a deck.
12 days of Christmas.
12 apostles of Jesus.
12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous.
12 jurors in felony trials.
12 signs of the Zodiac.
12 pairs of ribs in most humans.

Source: The Cincinnati Enquirer

Hey USA Today! You missed a few. What about the 12 Olympian gods? 12 labors of Hercules? 12 sons of Jacob? 12 tribes of Israel? 12 Imans? The Big 12? The G12? 12 members of OPEC? The 12-tone technique? 12 grades of high school? 12 Angry Men?

Better stop there, since it's getting late, and I need to get this posted before the big date passes. After which, it will promptly be forgotten (like the bad movie version), since I have nothing to celebrate. Cut!

41% Off, Today Only

Kids waving flags on UAE's 41st National Day, December 2, 2012

Our fourth National Day in Dubai was pretty much the same as the others. With the December 2 holiday falling on a Sunday this year, however, Neal enjoyed his first real two-day weekend in a while. (Friday and Saturday are the weekend days in the UAE, but Friday doesn't work as a weekend day for him since it's a workday in the USA.) We have yet to attend the parades downtown, and some of the planned festivities had to be rescheduled due to the recent storms.

The theme for celebrating the UAE's 41st year was "Spirit of the Union." All seven emirates join in the celebrations, which involve a massive display of flags in all different sizes and forms, as well as pictures of the ruling sheikhs everywhere. One of them, I noticed, bears a striking resemblance to Ringo Starr with a beard. Emiratis show their patriotism by draping huge flags on their houses. One is never enough, and they seem to be engaging in friendly competition for largest, longest, highest and most flags. The black, white, red, and green colors of the flag are everywhere, with many skyscrapers adopting that color scheme for the holiday.

The emirates also seem to join in the competition, with Ajman trying to set a Guinness world record by launching 40,000 Chinese lanterns, and Sharjah building an enormous flagpole to anchor a new Flag Island display. Sharjah must be paying deference to big brother Abu Dhabi since the 123-metre height of the new pole equals but does not exceed the height of Abu Dhabi's highest flag pole.

Many Emiratis decorate their cars in the national colors and then drive like crazy to show off, but there was a lot less of that this year, as the Dubai police issued a big crackdown on unauthorized car parades. There was an official car parade downtown for those in the right kind of spirit. The parks and beaches were full of families having picnics and parties, and today looking down as I walked the beach I noticed strange colored wads of string, which I immediately recognized as "silly string." Remember when that was big in the USA? It must be a craze here now. Another new thing I saw this year was the electricity dress, which includes strings of light in the colors of the flag. An interesting way to get lit up in a country where it's illegal for Muslims to drink alcohol.

Since shopping is the national sport and main attraction, many stores offered special sales, some going as high as 41% off for the holiday. If the stores in the malls ever offer that kind of discount, maybe I'll go shopping.

The highlight for me was getting a text message from HHSHKMOHD, who, of course, is Sheikh Mohammed, the ruler of Dubai. He congratulated the citizens and residents of the UAE, and his brother, Sheikh Khalifa, the President of the UAE, in celebrating the UAE's 41st anniversary and looking ahead towards "a bright future of endless possibilities." Nicely done, Sheikh Mo!

Men decked out in "electricity dress."

Small Change

I'm back in Dubai again after a long hiatus. Except for a week in August, I haven't been here since mid-May. I had to go back to the states in May to pick my son up from school and ended up spending most of the summer with him in Pittsburgh. The two of us came for a visit in August--my son's first trip here--and made the usual tourist rounds before leaving Neal again to his own devices. He seems to handle it well, working very long hours. In his free time he has a routine of going horseback riding and shooting. I'm not sure he really needs me here, but I feel like I should be here for him anyway. It's hard living together again after spending so much time apart, especially when our sleep schedules do not yet coincide.

I can't believe it's our fourth fall here. Most Americans don't last more than two years in Dubai, three at the most. Neal's deal is open-ended and he doesn't want to call it quits yet, hoping to put a pipeline in place for the future. But it's been a slow process, since the office opened with just two lawyers and no clients right when the Dubai economy went into a tailspin at the end of 2009.  Since this was the firm's first de novo office, we were pretty much on our own to find housing and get settled, no small feat in a foreign country. Fortunately, since Dubai is very safe, largely English speaking, and loaded with friendly expatriates, we have not had any major difficulties.

I probably shouldn't complain, but Dubai is getting a bit repetitive. It's the Dubai Rugby Sevens tournament weekend, and I have little desire to go for the fourth year in a row. It's a fun party-zone atmosphere, but those of us who are beyond that do not seem to have as much fun as the partiers. The first day opened with a thunderous downpour, which provided the perfect excuse for me to beg off. I don't even have an umbrella or raincoat here. My husband had a more exciting day, serving as judicial officer for the international matches. He upheld sanctions against the captain of the English team, who had to sit out three games, but as far as I can tell the English fans didn't notice.

I ventured out to the Sevens Stadium when the weather cleared for the final day of the tournament. My husband had more hearings, and I stood at the rail to get a good view of the games and avoid the drunken fans in the stands. I was happy to see Samoa win the international men's final with a decisive upset of New Zealand. The women of New Zealand dispatched South Africa earlier in a lopsided shutout, so Kiwi fans also had reason to cheer.

What has changed? Not much it seems...just a few small things I have noticed so far. The recent storms were a lot more intense and severe than before. The driving seems a tad less dangerous, at least when it's not raining. There are new dressing huts on the beach and buoys to keep boats off shore. On a much smaller level, drink cans now have a push-in tab, instead of the dangerous old-style pull-off can tabs. There's progress!

Our apartment building is the one in the center. You can see the Burj Khalifa behind the building to the right.

Here's the view looking the other way down the beach, with the Burj Al Arab to the right.

Keep moving

I returned to Dubai in April facing the not fun task of finding a new apartment and moving, all to be done before our lease expired in early May. We did not want to move--we had settled into our place at Tiara on the Palm, installed window treatments, hung pictures, bought three bedrooms worth of furniture and gotten all the kinks out of the plumbing. But our landlord, a Russian investor, would not renew our lease so we had no choice. Meeting with other Americans living on the Palm, I discovered that quite a few were in the same predicament. Being tenants, many of us have found that the owner/landlords do not want to renew the leases. So moving seems to be a built-in part of the Dubai expat experience.

It did not take long to find a new place. But this time we made sure not to rent from an individual owner who might not renew. We couldn't have asked for a better landlord or location--the sister of Sheikh Mohammed, who owns a set of beautiful low rise apartments right on the beach off Jumeirah Beach Road. Moving was also easily arranged, after getting bids from several companies who were all anxious to undercut the others. The hassle of moving and connecting utilities, along with the expense of having to sacrifice the furniture and curtains we couldn't use from the old place while needing to buy curtains for the new place, were the primary aggravations. The Dubizzle website is a great way to buy and sell things but the buyers are looking for extreme bargains so it's hard to do well as a seller. When moving day came, I was happy to find someone who would take the stuff off my hands so I didn't have to move it.

That should be it for us, we hope, unless we get ambitious and decide to try villa life. Since we are away so much, it didn't make sense for now, and we could scarcely fathom all the work needed to make a villa and garden look presentable. And we love the amenities of our new apartment--walkway to the beach, gym, pool, and sauna. There's even a shopping mall next door with cafes and stores, which we can walk to from the parking garage without going outside, especially nice during the summer.

Y'all come now, y'here!

Winging It

Dubai can get boring at times so we sprang for some quick thrills by going on a seaplane ride. We spent 40 minutes in the air, plenty of time to see the main sights of the city from Jebel Ali, sight of another undeveloped palm-shaped island, all the way to the airport and back. Seeing the Palm Jumeirah where we live and the crazy-quilt patterns of the other developments in between, as well as the spooky deserted islands of the World, was worth the trip. The sandy man-made islands must make great soft landing spots for the crews of parachutists that are often seen floating to earth.

The takeoff and landing were remarkably smooth. Paying the bill was the only tough part--no cheap thrill!