weasel central

your wife reads this forum I take it

norsk

happens all the time in saudi, although to be honest i would rather have the gum than the crappy 50 halala coins that i can't use anywhere..

Brains1983

she does on occasion, but I was being honest .

We both spent 3 nights here in September 2009 when I came out for a look/interview , including a trip to a couple of bars in Bur Dubai, and didn't notice anything dodgy. I was shocked when the penny dropped after I moved here, as had presumed this place was all clean living and heavily policed. Was probably a bit naive of me, but I hadn't expected to see so much in the way of corruption and prostitution!

weasel central

Far too much explanation my friend, methinks

Norm_uk

• You feel disappointed when you are having your car refuelled and the man doesn’t clean your windscreen glass.
• You have to clean your car at least twice a week to stop it having the surface texture of a sugar donut.
• It is almost a universal constant that your car will have small dents and marks on it after three months of purchase no matter how careful you are.
• You have probably never cleaned your own car…
• Apparently it’s acceptable to sit on people’s cars when chatting with friends on the street in some areas.
• You are cold called at least one a week by hotels you have never been to, credit card companies you have no dealings with and different people at the same two or three ‘financial advisory’ firms.
• No matter how liberal and nice you are, after a year you will hold many stereotypical views of other nationalities – and around 50% of them will be quite accurate.
• Love them or hate them you will have been to at least one brunch.
• Shorts and flip flops are apparently an acceptable form of attire for many five star hotel bars and clubs.
• You deliberately eat far more pork than you do back home.
• The number of people you know who are divorced and/or married to other nationalities will double within six months of you landing here.
• In many instances you will work more hours than you did back home – and probably not have as much free time as well.

Hello.Kitty

- you don't hesitate to give out your mobile phone number to all and sundry, whereas in the UK is was the closest guarded secret.
- people will call you, say hello and then be silent until you ask them who they are and what they want
- Punctuality never set foot in the UAE - if you're waiting for someone/ something, then book your whole day off, regardless of them setting a time.

Boomhauer

When you are waiting in line at a government building, post office etc..waiting to get your chore done, when a local cuts in and feels wronged if you object.

Bahtatboy

Filipinocupid.com [shouldn't that be filipinacupid?] appears as a banner on my BE page but I daren't click on it when using my company's VPN and I can't click on it (successfully) when using Etisalat.

Probably just as well.

The Dean

Standard line (always works for me):

"I'm sorry - this is the expats queue - you're supposed to queue up over there in the priority queue" (point vaguely in the direction of another desk).

The Dean

In response to the many responses.............

"Go ahead and plagiarise/steal it all you want".

DustyBits

* You drive up to the Automatic Carwash....and 6 Banglis 'automatically' jump out and start washing your car (Kuwait, it happened to me)
* A local lady driver cuts you up while on her phone and you are in the wrong for honking, thereby interrupting her call.
* Every song on an Arabic radio station appears to be entitled 'Habibi'
* During meetings with persons of a certain nationality you also find yourself wobbling your head in agreement
* 9 out of 10 taxi drivers have to be told to slow down before they kill you (is this just AD?)
* When dining at certain themed restaurants, you threaten your family with a walk-out if they have told the staff it's your birthday

auzdafluff

You see two fire engines doing laps of the road out the back of JBR because they can't find the address of where the fire is, all because there's no proper road names or addresses.

The Dean

......... yes - and every resident in every block that notices them immediately evacuates because the fire might be somewhere in their building and the fire alarms aren't working......

Boomhauer

...when most every apartment building has a 'watchman'.

Bahtatboy

And actually, what are they watching for?