operation sheik's highway

arived in Dubai via Singapore yesterday morning. Exit from the plane was acompanied by the emrging sunrise. The orange disk straining to be seen through the desert haze.... hopefuly dust not polution.

The city is still undergoing heavy construction, with a tentative completion date being set in 2028. Roads are all diveded highways, but pedestrians fare a little worse. ped crossings are few in number, our walking excursions have been limited by the boundary of the major roads. We met with some gruesome road kill on the way in from the Airport. Hopefully it was not human, but it was naked and fleshy. Life is cheap here, epesialy if you are a itenerant worker. Pay is meager, and to strike is against the law. Although there was a strike that lasted a week just recently. The locals are all in fear of the undertorent of migrant workers. they make a serious underclass, and are only inches away from a good riot..... on the other hand they all look like very politely behaved indians, and pakistanis to me.

Have located a rowing club..

will attempt get on the water durring the week. They call themselves "Dubai rowing and sculling club". Not sure why they make sculling sound unusual. they row on the "Dubai Creek".

have strated training. Went running across the desret this morning. Still adjusting to the time shift, and was up and away by 5:30am... ermm thats about midday in melbourne. Got many a startled look from the locals. the temperature rarely gets below 30, even during the night, and reaches a peak of about 38 - 40 degrees later in the day. The air is humid, and our coctail glasses rune with condesation....

oh its a hard life.