Documention?

What is documention? That's right nothing, except what I thought this blog was instead of a documentation. I'm not really sure that a "documentation" is the even the word for this either... Maybe is more like an "account" or "chronicle" or "fairy-tale" of my life as is revolves around training for triathlons. There really hasn't been much training to speak of, but that's all changing. I figure if I blog it, I mean chronicle enough and tell people about it, that I will actually start doing it. I did swim today! Baby steps.

Back to my fairy-tale, I mean account, of me in the UAE. Jen arrives Thursday night, I've so been looking forward to this for the past 11 weeks since I left PDX, its killing me. The final bits to my Thule rack cleared customs today, so it looks like i will be able to install before I pick up Jen. That way the Thule bike box can be strapped to the rack perfectly. And the rest of her luggage can fit inside.

I finally fixed the Disco's flat tyre and moved it off the parking pad at the villa. I think Mark return from South Africa soon so I can return it to him shortly.

There is a private sector Holiday Thursday which will give me a chance to clean up the place. The housekeeper came on the wrong day last week, so it's my turn since she only comes every two weeks.

Really Hard Not Driving Fast...

Here's a few more photos... notice the "objects in mirror are closer than they appear" written in arabic, awesome!

I found a spot next to the water, minature jetty, to get some more photos, but there was a car parked there already. Next time.

The power and air conditioning went off three times last night...needless to say, no ride this morning. It went off again this morning before I went to the mall.

I saw Wanted, not that great, but better than Hancock. Tried to buy a GPS, but nobody seemed to want to help me, oh well.

Goodbye Disco!

It's going to be a long 800kms until I can really put my foot into the R. I reeled off 200k today driving in circles (lost) trying to get back to the freeway after picking up the car. I have waited years for this car. Stupid to want a car like I have, but whatever. It's not like a Ferrari, Porsche, Lambo or even a BMW or Mercedes. I have had 5 different Volkswagens and I just like them. This one being the fastest, er, was the fastest produced by VW. They just released the R36 Passat. Pretty much the same styling, wicked seats and 3.6 300hp engine. I took a camera phone photo of the silver one at the dealer today. There was also a black one. It was listed at about $47k...bit much, almost a $15k premium over the R32.

Here's a few photos...sorry they are in the dark...and not so good. More to come!

I need to go to sleep, I plan on riding in the morning @ 530am.

Keys to a Brand New Sparkling Australia...

Or something to that effect. I watched three 15min made for web spots with Neil Patrick Harris, yes Doogie Howser MD, the very one He's been pretty funny in Harold & Kumar series. Friend of mine Patrick blogged about these the other day... Dr Horrible. Check it out.

I was hoping to post once my car arrived so I could post some photos and first impressions, but it will have to wait. I’m car less again…see photo. The nightwatch men came up last night to fix my sink and washer/dryer leak and told me my tire was flat. No shit? It’s been the right rear where the shaking is occurring around 80kph, so the tire might have been the culprit. And the reason it’s now flat. No problem, I waited until dark when it wasn’t 115F anymore to change it. Put on my headlamp and went out to inspect the situation. Got out the book, since it wasn’t obvious where the jack and tools were. Got the jack out of the engine compartment, but the lug wrench is nowhere to be found. I search around some more, but nothing. Shit. So it sits where it died. The owner is on holiday, so he can’t help me. So, whatever, I wait a couple more days and my car will be here. Tomorrow or the next day.

My Thule stuff arrived yesterday – fairing, bars and two mounts. The towers and fit kit should ship out on Wednesday. Hopefully, they arrive by next Thursday when I pick up Jen in Dubai. With two large suitcases, some carry ons and a bike box, it’s be nice to strap the bike box to the roof. She’s bringing some straps with her as well. Nothing can outweigh my excitement for her to arrive, but my new car and Apple TV are exciting. Again, no where near her arrival, but nonetheless exciting. A week from Thursday she arrives!

I haven’t yet planned much as I will still be working while she is here, but I do plan to take a few days the week before she has to report to work in Dubai to take her somewhere. I want to go to Sahalah, Oman, but it’s the Arab tourist season and things are more expensive and crowded in August. Maybe after Ramadan in October for those holidays. It’s very cool (and cooler in temperature than AD) and green in the Sahalah area. It’s like a 4 hour trip to Muscat and then another 4 hours south from there. It’s a two day trip, I want to stop and cruise around Muscat a bit on the way down and maybe back. The Frankincense trade from this area is the modern equivalent of the “Incense Road” from 3rd and 2nd century BC.

Abu Dhabi needs one of those high speed catamaran ferries to go between AD and Dubai and Doha, Qatar. You can get to Qatar in 3 hours or Dubai in just over one hour. Going to Dubai is easy by car, but getting to Qatar that way would be pretty sweet.

Workout wise, I’m getting a little better. I rode last weekend. It was 87F and 87% humidity making it feel like over 100F. Once of the island, it was better, but as the sun burned the moisture out of the air, I could feel it getting hotter and by the time I got home it was 99F and “feeling like” 119F! That’s a little warm. The ride was good, meet up with about 30 riders. They rode past my place, so I just meet them instead of riding into town. I really didn’t need to make it a longer day that it was already going to be. Only five of us went on the long rout, 100k, and the three girls were riding away from me… so out of shape. They were going over 32kph for an easy ride, nearly 20mph. That speed and heat, it was hard to even draft. I need to get my ass in gear!

I’m going to build up the TT bike this week and give that a go. There is a weird creaking going with the Veloforma. I lubed the seatpost with more carbon lube and I think that may have solved it. But there is also some sort of rub or grind in my PT wheel when out of the saddle, so I want to put it on the Kuota to see what happens when sprinting. Is it break rub or does the PT hub need servicing…

I thought inflation here (double digits) and maybe back home (~5%) was starting to get on the high side…whatever, check out Zimbabwe!

Harare: Zimbabwe is introducing a $100 billion banknote as rampant inflation shows no signs of slowing down. But the note may soon be worthless in a country where the official inflation rate is 2.2 million per cent. The new bills will officially come into circulation Monday, although they were available in the market on Saturday. The new $100 billion banknote is not enough to buy a loaf of bread. It can only buy four oranges. The new note is equal to one dollar.Several new notes have been introduced in 2008 as a response to Zimbabwe's inflation problem. A $10 million banknote came into circulation in January but has now become almost worthless.

Here's my villa in case i havent posted it before... kinda hazy today...

So What About Me?

I'm doing well, I read a lot of shit everyday in several papers as well as BusinessWeek and Economist about the GCC region. It's all very interesting and exciting.

I'm hoping that the iPhones get here soon, stores are saying by the end of the month. It's not legally sold here, but there are stores that have the old ones, which are legal either. Apparently Switzerland and France are selling them (it's rolled out to 50+ countires this time) unlocked and that's where the majority of the backmarket phones come from. We'll see, they will be at least 2200 dirham ($600) and that would be fine with me, since that's what it would cost to buy unlocked in the States.

The Disco I'm borrowing is starting to shake like somethings misaligned. Maybe going over curbs everyday to park in dirt lots has something to do with it. I thinking this time next week I will be rolling in the new ride! It's offically in the country, in Dubai port on it's way to the dealer there.

It's a rest day for the Tour, so I'm bloggin' away. I should put more in before the next rest day. It's been a good Tour so far. American riders and teams are representing well. I'm really hoping Vandevelde on Garmin-Chipotle stays on the podium between now and Paris.

My new big thing is going to the Tour next year. I think if Jen and I plan it right we can do Ironman France, hang out and take our time getting to the first stage or prologue, plus a stage or two, three before we bolt for the States at which point I will race the Cascade Classic stage race in Bend! That's not too much is it? Just a run-on sentence.

That's about it. I might have some training news next time. I plan to ride Friday morning with some folks instead of doing another Summer Sizzler in Dubai - same day - I need to ride rather than run and swim as fast as I can. Plus I will be in Dubai Sunday or Mondat to get my car anyway.

There's Some Money Here...

The National is the newest local English paper. They are supposed to be "more" critical and objective about their reporting. They do and they don't. Anyway, they have an article on the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and its government spin-offs. Good piece.

Adia was started as an emergency government fund. With oil prices prising since 2005 to today price over $140 a barrel, there is somewhat of a surplus on hand. AD government balance sheet at the end of 2006 was 100 billion dirhams (~28 billion USD). Even after AD boosted gov't spending in 2006 by 50% from levels in 2002. Oil was below $100/barrel then...do the math for 2007 and 1H08. Four fifths, according to IMF, of AD's revenues come from Abi Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) and its 14 subsideraries. Which at todays prices add up to $128billion/year.

Here are some government entities and their assest under management (AuMs):

Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD): Oldest fund with only 4 billion dirhams and most recently have looked into investing in Sudan to begin growing food to shore up food reserves and combat dougle digit inflation.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA): No one on the outside knows what the AuM really is, but when pushed the Sheikh Ahmed bin Zayed said $800 billion was too high... The consensous is just below that. Ten years ago, it was between $100-200 billion. Early investments were 9% in Rueters and 5% in French oil company - Total. Recent investment was a $2billion stake in CitiBank. Other relevations recently annouced, figured out, are that 45% of their investments are in North America (that includes Canada for those US-centric thinkers). They also have a 60% stake in the bank I work for...in cash we get short on cash...dont think there will be a problem finding some help!

Abu Dhabi Petroluem Investment Company (IPIC): Does exactly what is sounds like, investing $13 billion portfolio in oil and energy projects, up and downstream. Recent news is the 370km pipline that will bybass the Straight of Hormez incase Iraq decides to be mean to George W.

Abu Dhabi Retirement Pensions and Benefits Fund: One of the newest additions (2001) it recieves monies from Emirati employers for Emirati's. Recieves close to $2billion a year, far more than they should based on the % of pay they recieve.

Mubadala Development Corp: AuM of $10 billion and created in 2002 it has a 5% stake in Ferrari, 8.2% in AMD and 7.5% staek in Caryle Group. It also had a hand in luaching of the newspaper this article was in.

Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa): Latest acquistion was $5billion for Canadian oil and gas producer, Primewest Energy Trust. That was just part of a $10billion investment spree in the last couple years.

Abu Dhabi Invest Council: Simpley known as the "Council." These guys are the ones that just bought the 80% stake in The Chrysler Building.

So what? Well, for starters, the governemnt here has made a conserted effort to diversify and relieve itself from oil and gas. This is good because it means that AD has a very good portfolio going for the longterm live-ability of this Emirate. So yeah, there is a bit of money here in case you didn't know...

Better Late Then Never...

I ran for the fifth time since arriving in Abu Dhabi. Yes, Scott, that is what I said, 5th time... I'll need another week of low volume, "get-in-the-flow" workouts. It was 8pm when I left, the sun had set and it was only 33 (97 F) 63% humidity and "feels like" 40 (111F). I ran for 35 mins. My HR was fine for about 5mins, ~150bpm then it slowly crept up to where I was slowing down and still was ~165 at times over 170 as I ran across the street or almost tripped while running in the grass. Not pretty. Im going to buy a scale tomorrow and log water loss and various other metrics. Should be interesting as the summer gets worse before September.

Finally paid my membership to the Officers club. Very nice place. Very clean. Swam there today too, ~2500m. I tested out my new toy, H2Oaudio "Natalie Caughlin" iPod shuffle waterproof headphone setup. I had high hopes, but then I used them. I couldn't even get a good fit on dry land, so getting them to work in the water wasnt going to be easy. I was able to hear the music, but not very well. It wasn't muffled, just couldn't get a good seal. The earbuds provided are too big for my little ear canal. I'm thinking of ways to fix this...It's really nice to have music while swimming.

What else? I hope to have my Thule rack soon. My dad will ship it over next week after he finishes STP. He says he's out of shape...he's been putting in more miles than I have in the past several months, I have no doubt he will do fine.

Work is finally picking up as things begin to pile up...rather I keep asking for things and sticking my nose in all kinds of places. Sometimes I feel like a consultant...that might be my exit strategy...

I tried to sign up for Frankfurt today...no go, all full. So, now what to do? China will not close for a bit, so I can wait for that one. I'm thinking Switzerland now. It's the following week after Frankfurt. Still a nice course. And a great country. It's on my list and a place I have always loved since grade school. Might have to retire there.

Speaking of retire, Billy is on sabbatical now, lucky bastard. And nice race in Lake Stevens Bill. Looks like the bike course was longer this year. I was hoping you were going to crush my bike split, and you probably did if it was the same as last year.

Oh shit, I did my first "race" here last weekend in Dubai! It was swim/run/swim/run. Swim 1 was two loops around the bouy (~700m) followed by a 1.6k run, one more lap of the swim and another 1.6k loop. About 29mins later I finished, ran down and finished 4th. The run hurt, it was hot, even at 7:30am and the water, holy shit was the water warm. Like a bathtub, which made it not easy to push the swim. There was no cooling off in the ocean afterwards. But I did meet some cool people and had a good breakfast at Limelight Cafe. From what I saw of this area of Dubai, it was nice. A fabricated "beach town" feel...they tried. The beach was close to the Burj al Arab, the sail looking hotel. Apparently there is surfing by the hotel, but when there is surf, its super packed.

I've watched the first season of Burn Notice and Flight of the Conchords, up next, season one of The Wire. If you any suggestions for show I should watch I may have missed and they are on iTunes, let me know! My cable/satellite situation isn't solved yet, and I dont care. I get TdF on either Italian Rai or German ZDF, so I am good. Peace.

Flat Photos

As you may have seen previously, my flat was empty, it now has furniture and here are some photos...

Well, I'm going to watch more episodes of Flight of The Conchords, until next time!