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Text of the page (random words):
ge of it nearly enough though i love boat trips i love the sight of burj al arab i love our coffee sessions at the one in abu dhabi it s our local hangout i love our chilled nights at a friend s place playing charades i love sunsets at the end of a beautiful weekend i love the look of awe on my tourist friend s faces when they come visit i love sho cho s both abu dhabi and dubai rock shrimp salad i could live on that stuff oh and salmon sashimi too i love how close we are to europe asia south africa and the rest of the middle east of course now if only north south america and australia would come closer to us would be great i love that i get 21 days off in a year plus all the eids and national holidays i love the feeling of coming back home when i m away from the uae for a little while there s more there s definitely more but let me know what you love about the uae posted by dubai sunshine at 9 16 pm 299 comments labels abu dhabi dubai uae tuesday april 06 2010 customer service is about serving customers customer service in the uae can either be hit or miss i d say 90 of the time it s a miss but looking at the bright side this means that the 10 of the time when it s a hit one can only be blown away because the bar is set so low to begin with i ve been to a few restaurants lately where the service was simply abysmal orders were messed up the food took ages to get there dishes got served at different times dishes were cold all of the above happened to me recently in one restaurant by the way never again trust me now i understand that some restaurants can have an off day once in a while but you d expect that the staff are empowered enough to provide some sort of compensation to the customer but no usually all you get is a i m sorry mam i m sorry sir and that s it nothing to actually show us customers that they re even remotely bothered by the fact that we re basically paying money to get treated like crap language barrier is one issue but training is the bigger issue i believe when you hire staff for your restaurant you make sure they ve studied the dishes tried them been informed about what can be replaced added to the dishes been trained when it comes to keeping an eye out on the tables they are serving to make sure their customers do not require anything take the customer s order in a timely manner and bring the bill no later than 5 minutes after you ve asked for it i mean the basics really i m not expecting michelin star service here and it doesn t stop at restaurants shopping outlets also need to step up their game greet customers when they walk in keep an eye out and help them out with sizes if you think they re looking for something specific place the clothes in the changing rooms while the customer is browsing again i m not saying stalk the customer every step of the way that s a turnoff too just be there for the customer i can t even begin to remember the number of times i ve simply walked out of an outlet because i can t find anyone to help me in beauty salons for example nothing is more annoying than sitting there patiently while the technicians are chit chatting amongst themselves chit chatting while getting the service done is borderline acceptable although in all honesty i would much prefer some peace and quiet but chit chatting away while the customer is waiting for all 10 fingernails to be painted is just frustrating but then once in a while you catch that silver lining the waiter who s on the ball has answers to all your questions and even manages to crack a joke or two without being cheesy or that customer sales rep at dewa who actually knows what documents you need when you want to move to a new place or the shop assistant who suggests to call other branches to find that must have pair of shoes in a size 38 once in a while your expectations are surpassed once in a while service in the uae is a hit once in a while posted by dubai sunshine at 9 33 pm 74 comments labels customer service uae sunday march 07 2010 stung by sting so we decided to go to the sting concert the other day despite me vowing never to go to another concert ever again after the shakira fiasco but i figured what the hell shakira was 3 years ago mirage promotions is nowhere close to being involved in this concert so why not plus i mean this was sting the venue was meydan the new racecourse in dubai which replaced nad al sheba it was my first time there and it looked like we were driving to the middle of nowhere we got stuck in a bit of traffic at the meydan entrance but luckily traffic was moving fast so we got there pretty quickly the cab driver on the other hand was psycho but that s another story for another time meydan is simply humongous for lack of a better word i mean really huge once there we tried to find our way to the area where we could collect our wristbands we waited in line to get through security took 12 minutes then tried to find out way we walked for a while trying to find the wristband place we walked and walked and walked until we finally found it did i mention that the racecourse is huge ok so now we have the wristbands we wanted to secure some good spots so we walk some more grab some drinks along the way all the time trying to figure out where the stage was we eventually get to the area behind the stage and we wait and wait some more we ask a security guard what the deal was he says well can t you see that the gate is still closed umm no we didn t even know there was a gate the concert was supposed to start at 11 30 and at 11 40 they finally open the gate which was the definition of a bottleneck thousands of people trickling into a tiny space to make it towards the front of the stage finally we make it through and luckily the concert started around 15 minutes later the screen behind the stage was kickass really huge and it really made the whole concert the sound on the other hand was lacking at times we could barely hear him sting sang all the classics or most of them anyway which is great because i don t know any of his recent stuff the venue was quite impressive but maybe too impressive a little more intimacy would have been ideal we walked out as he was doing his encore in an effort to beat the masses i was worried about finding a cab again refer to the shakira fiasco but luckily this time there were plenty available i m guessing half of dubai s taxis were there there was a long queue but again it moved pretty quickly and 20 minutes later we were on our way home overall an ok experience as far as concerts go not as bad as i expected it to be i guess we are spoiled by abu dhabi concerts which are always amazingly well organized and despite the stunning setting that was provided by meydan i still prefer the emirates palace as a venue it s close to the city it s big enough yet not too big and it has the gorgeous palace as a backdrop but an ok effort for dubai as far as big concerts go dubai seems to be getting back on the concert map and an elton john and santana concert was announced for the end of the month let s see how that one goes posted by dubai sunshine at 8 07 pm 46 comments labels dubai meydan sting saturday january 30 2010 hello again still here my blog s been on my mind a lot lately and i cringe every time i think about how i ve neglected it poor little blog that i ve invested so much time in but the reason i haven t shut it down is because i always knew that i d have a need for a space where i can vent my frustrations share my thoughts and get people s opinions so this blog s staying no matter how infrequently i m going to be updating it what s been happening lately well the tail end of 2009 saw quite a bit of traveling which i tremendously enjoyed and i got to visit 3 new countries which is always a plus in my books work wise things are pretty stable 2009 was a pretty stable almost boring year for me not much of a challenge professionally but then again i didn t really push myself too hard need to shake things up a bit this year the new year has been much busier with some interesting challenges coming up i ve also been dealing with some non serious but definitely painful health issues so the beginning of 2010 has not been a great one so far we ll see what the rest of it has to offer i ve been semi active on twitter much more than on this blog but i think i m the kind of person who needs much more than 140 characters to really get my thoughts across but still the twitter phenomenon is fun and i think i ll be sticking around for a while at least those who do follow me on twitter will know my frustration at the fact that the greens bridge is still not opened what on earth are they waiting for really traffic has reached nightmarish proportions even on weekends and during non rush hours ridiculous really that was a quick roundup of the past few months will be back soon though promise posted by dubai sunshine at 7 54 pm 43 comments labels blog update saturday september 12 2009 nothing is easy everything is complicated and confused don t know about you but it seems like this kind of crap only ever happens to me although deep down i know that that s not really the case but still in today s lesson we will discuss renewing your driver s license and how to drive a person to ultimate frustration first the facts 1 i ve had a license for 10 years here 2 it was time for it to be renewed 3 it was originally issued in abu dhabi 4 i now live in dubai and my residence visa is issued there too chapter 1 abu dhabi i head to abu dhabi muroor last week this is where they inform me that they will complete the renewal procedure in abu dhabi but that i ll have to pick up my license in dubai because that s where my visa is fair enough so i do the eye test 20 dhs pay for the renewal of my license 110 dhs and get my picture taken and they give me a bunch of papers and tell me to head to the last counter i go to the last counter and show them my papers and they hand me a driver s license slightly confused but not really thinking much about it i head out of muroor and get into the car as we were about to hit the road i get a call from muroor asking me to hand the license back because i need to get my license from dubai ok fine so i go back up the 100 steps of the muroor building hand over my short lived license and get a letter confirming the file transfer to dubai chapter 2 dubai back in dubai i call rta to find out where i can pick my license up the man on the phone sounding like he knows what he s talking about tells me i need to go to deira to get it i get annoyed because the last time i went to deira was probably 3 years ago or something like that not satisfied with my answer i call tasjeel in barsha to see if i can pick it up there they say no but give me the number of the bur dubai police station which is located in barsha right next to tasjeel go figure i call them and some woman says she has no idea but to call the rta she gives me another number i call that number over and over again but no one answers i call bur dubai station again and the same woman picks up when i complain that no one s answering she says well you know it s ramadan and we have ramadan hours i ask her what the ramadan hours were and she says 9am 2pm anyone know how i can get myself a 9 2 job please mind you it was 12pm when i called anyway i finally reach someone the next day who says that i can get my license at the bur dubai police station in barsha which is a relief cause i actually know how to get there so i go the next day and go straight to the information desk the woman tells me i need a no objection letter copy of passport pictures eye test me no no you don t understand i already did all that and gave the documents to muroor in abu dhabi i just need to pick up my license her no i m sorry you need to do the whole procedure all over again me but this letter here confirms the transfer i do not have a no objection letter anymore because i gave the only copy i had to abu dhabi muroor her no i m sorry you need to do the whole procedure all over again me can i speak to a supervisor so i speak to a supervisor who confirms that there is a misunderstanding between abu dhabi muroor and dubai licensing department there is not transfer of files that actually takes place you need to do the whole procedure all over again me but this is ridiculous i already paid and did the eye test arghhhhhhhhhhh f ing hell the man was nice enough to try to help me on the spot by saying that if i got someone to email the no objection letter he would issue the license for me but i knew that was a long shot because a it was lunchtime and the odds of me finding someone from my hr department were slim to none b the letter needs to be issued by media city and needs a few days so now i have to go back in a few day s time once i have the stupid no objection letter what s with this whole no objection crap anyway why would someone object to me having a driver s license is there any other country in the world that requires a friggin no objection letter to get a license my father called abu dhabi muroor to ask them to clarify but of course no ones there could give him an answer because they were simply clueless moral of the story in order to save your sanity avoid dealing with government departments at all costs oh and i am sooooooo looking forward to renewing my car registration next month phew that was a rant and a half i feel much better now thank you for reading posted by dubai sunshine at 11 15 am 70 comments labels abu dhabi driver s license dubai muroor rta thursday august 27 2009 consistency is key i flew on etihad for the first time last year on a trip to paris the experience was impressive to say the least i had heard a lot of negative comments about etihad and their planes from many people but i was pleasantly surprised by my experience planes were new service was good and so was the food i flew etihad again recently on a trip to beirut and it felt like it was a different airline on the way there we were on one of those old planes that have the tv in the middle of the aisle no individual tvs food was ok airplane food but on the way back it was even worse there was no tv i honestly cannot remember the last time i was on a flight where there was not a single screen the flight attendants actually had to demonstrate the safety instructions manually the way they used to do it around 15 years ago but then the worst part was the baggage claim i cleared customs quickly have i mentioned that i love e gate and waited for my luggage i saw a family friend waiting for his luggage as well and he got his around 15 minutes later i was still waiting and waiting and waiting a few suitcases would drop down onto the carousel and then the belt would stop and then a few more and then stop again this went on for about an hour until i realized that the bags that started dropping down were for the next flight not mine there were still quite a few people waiting for their bags and a few of us d...