Now here’s a dining experience I never thought I’d have in my entire life: dinner … while strapped in a leather seat … suspended in the air … by a wire rope … at more than 160 feet!
Really? Yes, and that is winning (to borrow from the great Charlie Sheen).
It was completely unplanned and that’s what’s so cool about it. A couple of days ago I went to the Dinner in the Sky’s location to meet the franchisee and check out the venue and the feasibility of hosting events, or recommending some sort of a loyalty scheme program to clients, and the Dinner in the Sky guys, Dreamdays, invited us for a test drive. I happily obliged.
You get strapped to your chair on a safe platform with a roundtable on it, while a crane slowly pulls it up, reaching heights more than 160 feet . Obviously, the Dinner in the Sky is for those hungry for the adrenaline rush more than the food itself. I must say the platform is completely safe and is very stable. While you’re up in the sky, the platform rotates so everyone on board gets a cool view.
The Dinner in the Sky concept is not new, but this time around they chose the Dubai Marina area as a location, where the view of JBR Towers and the Dubai Marina Yacht Club is (perhaps this is not the best use of words here, but it is) drop-dead gorgeous!
Oh and fyi, there are no toilets up in the sky, so you know, do whatever you have to do before you get up there.
I was one of the lucky few to get a brief preview of the upcoming Kathakbox performances that will be taking place in the UAE this week. Kathakbox (pronounced Katak) is a mixture of Kathak, an Indian classical dance, and beatboxing. Put the two together and you’ve got Kathakbox!
Here is more info on the production, but in brief, it’s an awesome modern artistic production, by Sonia Sabri and Company, that combines “movement, gesture, expression, music and the spoken word”.
I managed to take the following video during their kick-off press conference at the Abu Dhabi Women’s College two days ago, where some members of the band gave a sneak preview of what they will be offering audiences in both cities. Very cool stuff if you ask me and much more than what I had expected. The first segment of the video shows Sonia Sabri, followed by Shan Bansil, the awesome beatboxer (who surprisingly majored in Mechanical Engineering!), and finally a Shan Basil and Marcina Arnold duet.
The production will be showing in Abu Dhabi on the 26th of Feb at the Abu Dhabi Theater and in Dubai on the 28th of Feb at the Dubai Community Theatre and Arts Centre. The show will also be traveling to Jordan in March, and you can follow them on twitter.
Why do we blog? What do we blog about? Who do we blog for? Where do we blog? When do we blog? What blogging platform do we choose? Is it worth it? How do we do it? How did it change our lives? What are we looking to achieve? Did it effect us or those around us? Positively? negatively? …? ….? ….?
Lots and LOTS of questions relating to blogs and blogging me and a bunch of awesome bloggers from the region will be trying to answer on Dubai Eye‘s Techno Tuesdays! Yes, that’s tomorrow morning, from 10 am to 12 pm Dubai time (+4 GMT).
Ubiquitous social media celebrity, blogger, tweep, GeekFest Dubai “unorganizer” and Dubai Eye’s Tech Tuesdays’ co-host, Alexander McNabb, thankfully, invited me to take part in the conversation and give my two cents worth.
So if you’re in Dubai, tune in to 103.8 FM, and if you’re not, listen to Dubai Eye’s radio stream on http://dubaieye1038.com and you can be part of the conversation by calling in or tweeting the #DubaiEye hashtag. Alternatively, you can listen live from your iPhone by downloading Dubai Eye’s app.
I recently read, and ranted, about a ridiculous article that appeared in the first edition of Elle Arab World. I was surprised, to say the least.
As you can see below, the provoking piece encourages misconduct by highlighting where people can have public sex in Dubai. See if it were a blog, it would have been less of an issue, but this is a magazine, in its first issue, mind you, that is printed and published regionally and one which targets readers in the Middle East in general and the UAE in specific.
I suppose the only element the story lacked is the jail terms for each of these misconducts. Perhaps something along these lines:
In their next issue, however, the magazine apologized to the UAE authorities and the readers “a 1001 times” and even went as far as to announce that it has subsequently sacked the author of the above-mentioned piece.
Now I don’t think blaming it all on the scapegoat, i.e. the ignorant reporter, is fair. I mean for sure a magazine such as Elle, especially in its first issue, would have assigned stories to each of its staff members.
Even if they didn’t do that and gave their writers absolute freedom to choose which topics they want to cover, does that mean their stories get filed and printed without going through some sort of an approval process?
Surely, someone else agreed on the idea and context of the story, then reviewed it, and then edited it, then proofread it, then approved it, then laid it out, and then finally granted permission for it to go to press. So clearly it’s not just the sole mistake of the reporter here, yet he was the only one to be blamed and fired.
I’m sure in his mind, the writer thought well. Perhaps he thought he was doing Dubai residents a favor by spicing up their lives, but alas, you can’t always get what you want.
Having said all that, and for the sake of boosting my testosterone, that has dramatically decreased in my attempts to write this post, back to its normal levels, I feel a pressing need to highlight that I don’t really read Elle and the entire issue was pointed out to me by one of my colleagues.
Yesterday, I got pulled over by a Dubai Police officer for taking a wrong turn, and for … well … not wearing a seat belt (I know, I know, it’s not good for your health).
What was strange though, is that as the officer was handing me the ticket, he apologized for “ruining my day”!
WHAT?!
YES! He actually smiled and said: “سامحنا عالمخالفة عكرنا مزاجك”. (Sorry about the ticket, it must’ve ruined mood).
He wasn’t being sarcastic, mind you. He actually meant it!
I mean, this is not the first time I get ticket, but it was certainly the first time a police officer apologizes to me. Because did he really have to? No! Do they teach them to be apologize to traffic violators at the Police Academy? I seriously doubt it!
I’m sure he did not apologize for giving me a ticket, that’s his job after all, but surely something occurred to him; perhaps he thought: “here I am, giving this man in a suite, who’s obviously doing something related to his work, a ticket, which definitely screwed up his entire day!”
I took the ticket, thanked him and drove off, wearing both my seat built and a big smile on my face.
In my mind, I thanked him for the effort he took to not ruin my mood. Although in his situation, and his authority, standing under the sun for hours every day, I can imagine it’s not difficult to act obnoxiously.
