Old Abu Dhabi

All the recent talk about the old Dubai made me reminisce about the old Abu-Dhabi. When I do visit I usually see new buildings and flats everywhere in place of my old hangouts. It used to be piles of sand, rubble and dirt; perfect for barefooted football. The hours I spent playing footy from 7arah to 7arah(7arah=block).

Ofcourse when compared to Dubai it seems that nothing has changed but believe me it has, I remember instead of Abu Dhabi Mall there was Adma-Opco (the company, now on the corniche) which had loads of sporting facilities at the time. My Thursdays (weekends) would be something like:

Swim & Windsurf at 2pm
Tennis 4-6pm
Football 6:30-8pm
Swim and relax till 9pm

Somewhere in between I’ll grab something to eat. I used to get home and be in bed by 10pm all tired. Now instead of all those sport facilities we have Abu-Dhabi mall where you have kids as young as 11 smoking and chasing after girls, who go out all dressed to kill but apparently through no fault of their own get harassed by these guys. Ahh how things have changed, I think now they call it a more civilized way of living.

The only place you can go for free public swimming on an island now is in Ras-al akhathr and even that place probably won’t last before they do something with it (shame because its lovely place). The corniche also is different; I actually like what they’ve done. I dug some pics that I had. If you into the background you can see the difference.

I suppose in a way its good for Abu Dhabi that things are progressing but maybe they could learn from Dubai and not end up turning it in to another Ibiza kind of place. I think kids and teenagers could do with a few affordable sport/leisure centers (apart from walking around the malls).

Wrong bus....whats the worst that could happen?

This story happened during my first year in the UK. Only a few of my friends and close family know. I've never mentioned it as it would’ve scared the shit out of my parents.

It was summer 2000 the European Cup (footy) was on and I was in a rush to get to my grandads house in Birmingham. Not fully knowing the bus routes then me and my friend got on the wrong bus (heading into one of the most notorious areas).

I was sitting somewhere in the middle and there were two 19/20 year old afro-British (who am I kidding they were black Caribbean’s aight) not too far away. They were sitting in two different seats facing each other with their legs raised on the opposing seats so no other person can sit down next to them.

The bus was crowded. A young mum, who just got on, and her 4/5 year old kid had no where to sit. So she politely asked one of the lads to put their feet down so that she can sit down with her kid on her lap. He refused. She asked him again and he said F**K OFF. So she pushed his feet down and sat down anyway, the two guys got up and started hitting her infront of her kid who was crying.

Everyone on the bus was facing the other way like nothing was happening (I couldn’t believe it). My friend was telling me not to watch and to ignore it but I couldn’t. How could you ignore a woman being kicked in the ribs because she wanted a seat for herself and kid on the bus, How? So I got up, pushed both of them off her and started fighting, yelling and swearing at them. They didn’t even fight back the bus driver stopped the bus and they ran off like the cowards they were. I sat back down and everyone was still facing away like STILL nothing happened. I didn’t know wether to start punching every single person on that bus starting with my so-called friend (who I’m not close friends with anymore now) I despise these kind of people, wimps!

Then the most amazing thing happened the bus driver came towards me and asked me to get off the bus for fighting. I told him what had happened and he said he knows and saw it all but I still had to get off. So I get thrown of the bus with my wimpy friend in an area known for its notorious muggings, robberies and shootings. I don’t know where I am because I got on the wrong F**in bus and I was pissed off because I was missing the England vs Portugal game (England lost 3-2 by the way).

Me and my wimpy friend (who doesn’t know his way around then) were walking down the road and came across two bus stops heading in opposite directions. Not knowing which the correct one was, we split so that we can ask the bus driver for the right one (No one was waiting at the bus stops). Ten minutes or so later 4 black kids (around 18/19 yrs olds) started walking towards me. Two pulled out knives (My so-called friend ran off), I took out my mobile phone and told the person who spoke to come and get it. As he approached me I punched him so hard with the phone (his blood was all over my clothes at this time), got him in a headlock (all this happened so fast). His other friends came to the rescue and started hitting me, dragging him away while I kept chasing that one person. Ok I was stupid they had knives (which thankfully they didn’t use) but I was pissed off and it was just a sudden reaction (not a good one, I should’ve just run away). Soon after the Police sirens were coming from round the corner with my so-called friend running ahead of them, they were fast I thought. The kids ran off before the coppers had arrived.

The copper turned to my wimpy friend and says don’t lie to us again. I found out later that when he rang them he said there was a white kid bullied by 4 blacks. (Explains the reason how quick they got here lol although I’d like to think it wouldn’t change anything).
I was taken down to the station, they took down some statements and that’s it I was told you can go home. Errr Mr. Copper you do know that I am lost I just mentioned it to you when you wrote my statement. Can you call me a taxi or give us a lift please? No.

I didn’t end up going to my granddads and I totally missed the game. It was a bad day for me and England (they lost did I mention that already oops). Seriously though I am not sticking my neck out for anyone again, getting kicked off the bus like that. I am not going to befriend wimps and cowards and I also learned all my bus routes from then on lol.

Moral of the story: Get the right bus otherwise suffer the consequences

Segregation

The Yemeni Community in the UK can be traced as far back as 1885, but up till now they still mostly live in segregation to the rest of the English community. Why? I mean if you go to area’s such as Birmingham you wouldn’t even feel like your in England (Ethnic communities in Birmingham mostly consists of Pakistani’s and Indians but its also one of the biggest Yemeni communities in UK).

I am no expert on the subject but some of the things I can think of and dig out are:

-A lot of the English moved out of areas where they slowly became the minority. Preferring to stay within their own.

-A lot of Yemeni’s immigrated to specific areas within the UK where there are known Yemeni communities.

-Yemeni’s have bigger families, contributing to the increasing size of the community.

-Yemeni’s suffered a lot early on racially in which the government then decided that the best way to keep communities safe is segregation. http://www.bbc.co.uk/nationonfilm/topics/family-and-community/south-shields-yemeni-riots.shtml

Obviously its not going to be one reason but a combination of all the above.

Is there anyone out there who has anything further to add? As I’d be interested to know any further opinions or facts.

Yemeni-Khaliji-Kalb-Britani-Paki

There is a large Yemeni community in UK (mainly Birmingham, Sheffield, London and Liverpool). It’s amazing. I’ve learned more about my Yemeni traditions living in the UK more than when living in UAE (we’re talking about 17 years here). Actually I feel that in the UAE they are more westernised than many of the people born and bred in the UK.

What I find funny is here among my peers they call me ‘Khaleeji’ (meaning from the Gulf), in UAE its ‘Yemeni’ (if not Yemeni-Kalb) and in Yemen I’m ‘Briatani’ (British). To the yobs in UK I am a ‘Paki’ (any brown color person is a paki to them). Now that’s multiculturalism for you.

Why are we so fixated on affiliating people to a country, a community, a culture and/or a political movement?
Me I prefer just saying I am Arab or Arabi.

Moving Homes

Since I’ve been in the UK I’ve moved and relocated quite a few times (I am not sure but I think it’s around 7 times). It’s a nice feeling at times, moving away, starting from scratch (not entirely but it does feel like that). I’d pack my belongings in a suitcase and off I go. (simple as that).

Not anymore I am married now, I mean I still have my one suitcase but the other half had 7 suitcases and 30 odd boxes (including 2 whole boxes of shoes and 1 for handbags). Living on a 2nd floor flat with no elevator doesn’t help. I got the Pro’s to do the furniture.

Why does she (and women in general for that matter) hold onto so much clothes and possessions baffles me, I have failed in convincing her to get rid of the ones she never wears/worn as they will come useful in their own time.

Well we’re in the new flat now, its nicer, bigger and in a better area. Still loads of boxes laying around though....

Disappearance act

I've been away longer than I though.

It has been a very busy couple of months what with a new project at work which required me to work in other departments, Wife's pregnancy, my dad visiting and how can I forget about moving houses. We'll try posting more soon...