Matt: Some of you may have heard of a trilogy of books called "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman. A great read if you ever get a chance, in the world of Lyra, the main character from the books, everybody has a Daemon, A manifestation, if you like, of thier personality in the form of an animal companion..It's an interesting idea and one I'm sure many of us would like to be true.
Meet my Daemon...
They are making a film of the books, which I am very much looking forward to - you can find out who your Daemon is at the movies website Click Here You'll discover your Daemon by answering a series of questions about yourself.
Spooky thing is, I've always wanted a monkey companion!! Although Uruvia wouldn't have been my first choice of name.. :S
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
I got high...
Matt: It was a hot day in Dubai, with temperatures reaching 38 to 40 degrees, the humidity was right up there too and there was virtually no wind, normally no wind would have been a bad thing but today.. it's Good!!
It maybe 3 weeks late, but for my birthday treat from Cris, she let me drive north to Um Al Quwain...fun!! you might think.. but once there I donned my headset, clambered into the cockpit and took to the skies!! I flew a Utility FH9 prop, fixed wing!! Wicked!!
From entering the cockpit to climbing out at the end the pilot let me do just about everything.. I ruddered the plane during taxiing down the airfield and I even took off, as soon as we hit 80kph I pulled up on the stick and took us soaring in to the air. We climbed to around 1000 feet and cruised around the Ras Al Khaima skies. Cris was taken up in another craft shortly after I took off. We could chat to each other on the radios and we flew in tandem at one point.
The slightest movement of the control stick had a dramatic effect on these little craft, and the rudder would slew you also. Banking steeply was pretty awesome, my pilot took over at one point to perform a sharp maneuver that bought us round 180 to pull up to Cris's 6. You can really feel the Gs when pulling hard on the stick.
The noise was immense outside the headset, you really do need them that is until the pilot say things like, you're doing really well - you can attempt the landing!! What the???? I turn to look at him - he's serious! "Ok - if you're confident, I'm game!" I said, please bare in mind that I have only ever flown a plane in MS FlightSim 2004 - and i did that pretty badly. But what the hell, the dual control are right there - what can go wrong? right?...
Thankfully, nothing! My approach was a little erratic as the slightest correction sent me way off course, but as I suspected my instructor confidently had a grip on his controls just in case. Left to me - I'm sure I would have got us down on the tarmac, it just would have been a little messy and there would have been incident reports and transporting the body costs ya-de-yah-de-yahh. So thankfully he took most of 70% control and guided us in beautifully.. What a buzz...
Only had the mobile on me - but click here for the pics. :) Thanks Crissy - Next stop a boeing!!! x
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Second Phase
Matt: Off I went with my negative buoyancy to Dubai country club for the next Scuba installment. We're being taught in a small group which is great and we all get on really well. Wendy, our instructor, knows her stuff and is very friendly and helpful. Cris and JQ have joined me on this underwater discovery adventure - which currently is confined to the pool and lectures - but we'll be in open water by the end of the month! Great!!
Look out fishies, here we come...
Look out fishies, here we come...
Monday, June 11, 2007
Underwater Golf
Matt: Golf is very popular in the Gulf, lots of people seem to play golf out here - and not just 50 year old businessmen as part of their corporate flirting ritual - younger people, girls too, even some of my friends.. So I figured that it was about time I donned my chequered pants and gave it a go.
Andrea, one of the Italian crew, has been playing now for a couple of years and is getting good, He and his lovely girlfriend Ruta, from 'bent over the front of a cop car' fame, play on a regular basis and they offered to take Cris and I out for a round. So off we went to Emirates golf course, host of the internationally renowned, Desert Classic Tournament, for a hit around.
We started off on the driving range, clubbing balls (pardon the pun) with little finesse and once we were in the swing of things (oops there's another), we progressed onto the Wadi course. It was a fun way to spend a couple of hours, ok we weren't great at it but we enjoyed it and it was our first time.
The only thing that did frustrate me more that my inability to find the hole, was the dress code, no t-shirts, collared shirts only, oh but not a fully buttoned collared shirt, god forbid you have more that 3 buttons! What are they afraid of? littering the course with pinged shirt buttons? And it must be tucked in, who these days tucks a shirt in unless their at a board meeting? it's not like it's a safety hazard to have your shirt untucked, when was the last time you heard of somebody getting injured on a golf course by a loose flapping shirt? or is it a distraction for other golfers when the wind picks up? do they mistake you for the flag on the 9th? ok ok.. I'll stop now!! But come on, move with the times Golf world..
All in all we both really enjoyed it. Arhhh you're wondering what the underwater part in the title has to do with this right? Well we also went for our introduction to Scuba diving and have signed up for the PADI course.. Our first lecture is this coming Wednesday, for me it's been a long time coming. I went on a try dive with Mark Dew about 7 years ago at some random school on the outskirts of Bristol, I may have sucked the tank dry in about 5 minutes, but I wanted to get qualified from that day, but we never got round to it.
Andrea, one of the Italian crew, has been playing now for a couple of years and is getting good, He and his lovely girlfriend Ruta, from 'bent over the front of a cop car' fame, play on a regular basis and they offered to take Cris and I out for a round. So off we went to Emirates golf course, host of the internationally renowned, Desert Classic Tournament, for a hit around.
We started off on the driving range, clubbing balls (pardon the pun) with little finesse and once we were in the swing of things (oops there's another), we progressed onto the Wadi course. It was a fun way to spend a couple of hours, ok we weren't great at it but we enjoyed it and it was our first time.
The only thing that did frustrate me more that my inability to find the hole, was the dress code, no t-shirts, collared shirts only, oh but not a fully buttoned collared shirt, god forbid you have more that 3 buttons! What are they afraid of? littering the course with pinged shirt buttons? And it must be tucked in, who these days tucks a shirt in unless their at a board meeting? it's not like it's a safety hazard to have your shirt untucked, when was the last time you heard of somebody getting injured on a golf course by a loose flapping shirt? or is it a distraction for other golfers when the wind picks up? do they mistake you for the flag on the 9th? ok ok.. I'll stop now!! But come on, move with the times Golf world..
All in all we both really enjoyed it. Arhhh you're wondering what the underwater part in the title has to do with this right? Well we also went for our introduction to Scuba diving and have signed up for the PADI course.. Our first lecture is this coming Wednesday, for me it's been a long time coming. I went on a try dive with Mark Dew about 7 years ago at some random school on the outskirts of Bristol, I may have sucked the tank dry in about 5 minutes, but I wanted to get qualified from that day, but we never got round to it.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Location Mos Eisley, UAE
Matt: A long time ago in a galaxy far far away...
well, yesterday and about 20 minutes drive actually!....Having heard about a recluse outside of Dubai that is fast becoming a popular hang out for those wishing to escape the 7 stars of average Dubai, Cris and I decided to go check out the Jahzir Resort and Spa this weekend.
Having been given directions, by a fan and now member, Fiona, we arrived at the front gates of this haven some 30k outside of Dubai along the coast towards Abu Dhabi. After a rather confusing conversation with the female security guard whose English wasn't the best, but then our Sinhalease is worse, we managed to convince her we were guests of a Member and only had to pay 50aed (£7) for our 75aed entry ticket, we were met with a facade of strange 70's SciFi looking chalets, all facing the beach. If it wasn't for the palm trees and golf carts around the facilities it would have been akin to walking into Mos Eisley from Lucas' 77 Film Star wars: A new hope - minus a few moisture vaporators..
Once we were parked, we hit the beach, a half a kilometre stretch of white sand with a still bay of water defended by large sea breaks at either end. A barasti stands at one end of the beach serving drinks and snack and provisioning for the array of water sports on offer. There's a volley ball court, a small beach football area, a floating iceberg to climb (yes I got to the top), a collection of power boats and jet skis bobbing in the wake and a handful of people spread along the sand - it was very peaceful. We picked our spot and enjoyed the sun and sea. There is even a chilled pool and pool bar for when the water of the sea just won't refresh you in the summer.
We ate lunch at the pool bar, where there was the expected selection of bar meals, the food was decidedly average, but edible and not too expensive. Apparently you are free to take your own food and even a Bar-b-Que and you do feel like you are far from the bubble of Dubai and her traffic. A nice little retreat.
well, yesterday and about 20 minutes drive actually!....Having heard about a recluse outside of Dubai that is fast becoming a popular hang out for those wishing to escape the 7 stars of average Dubai, Cris and I decided to go check out the Jahzir Resort and Spa this weekend.
Having been given directions, by a fan and now member, Fiona, we arrived at the front gates of this haven some 30k outside of Dubai along the coast towards Abu Dhabi. After a rather confusing conversation with the female security guard whose English wasn't the best, but then our Sinhalease is worse, we managed to convince her we were guests of a Member and only had to pay 50aed (£7) for our 75aed entry ticket, we were met with a facade of strange 70's SciFi looking chalets, all facing the beach. If it wasn't for the palm trees and golf carts around the facilities it would have been akin to walking into Mos Eisley from Lucas' 77 Film Star wars: A new hope - minus a few moisture vaporators..
Once we were parked, we hit the beach, a half a kilometre stretch of white sand with a still bay of water defended by large sea breaks at either end. A barasti stands at one end of the beach serving drinks and snack and provisioning for the array of water sports on offer. There's a volley ball court, a small beach football area, a floating iceberg to climb (yes I got to the top), a collection of power boats and jet skis bobbing in the wake and a handful of people spread along the sand - it was very peaceful. We picked our spot and enjoyed the sun and sea. There is even a chilled pool and pool bar for when the water of the sea just won't refresh you in the summer.
We ate lunch at the pool bar, where there was the expected selection of bar meals, the food was decidedly average, but edible and not too expensive. Apparently you are free to take your own food and even a Bar-b-Que and you do feel like you are far from the bubble of Dubai and her traffic. A nice little retreat.
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
Weeding Days
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