Caracal Shooting Range

At the Officers Club here in Abu Dhabi (A pretty cool place for fans of cool buildings and old guns) there is a shooting club open to the public where you can plink off a few rounds for a fairly poultry sum (about $100 AUD for a 9mm and 50 rounds).
Naturally being a bloke, I dragged Mrs pOWENed in for a few shots.










Mrs pOWENed looks very fetching in some safety goggles and earmuffs. Anybody see "Sexy Girls With Sexy Guns"?










She certainly took out the crowd. All of them hit the target though, and the last 5 were all around the 8 mark... not bad...










I did ok too. First the practice target











And the final 10... So close!










When's the next visit?

Crackers for AberDabers - Car Spotting

Ahhh Dear Readers, how long it's been...

Well The not so fun news is that I left the Canon G10 camera in the back of a taxi so the photos are not going to be as much fun from now on... sorry about that.

I am happy to report to you all that the rumours of the cars here are mostly true. In the first week in Dubai I can claim an excellent tally:

Lamborghinis: 5
Police Cars: 2













I cant show you all the mildly interesting cars as that would be every second one on the street. Let me just say that BMW X5 and Porsche Cayenne's are as common as dirt and only just behind them are BMW 740's. As you recall, this is the view from my window here. At any time down there you will find BMW's (there are 2 Z3's on the next corner), a resident Nissan GTR, any number of different Merc's and CLS AMGs are an special favourite here. All gets a little ho hum.









Ho hum, just another car park.

So we resort to the unusual, starting with the FJ Cruiser. I had never seen one of these before but they are common as dirt here and I think a little ugly.



















The always amusing left hand drive commodore










And the jags... the XF and the XK... hmmmm XK



















BTW we didnt see any abandoned ferraris at the airport in Dubai although there was a BMW X5 that was sitting on the street for the 2 weeks we were there.

The good news is that Jebel Hafeet is this weekend! A BMW 530 will have to do the job for us... Stay Tuned!

Crackers for AberDabers - The Doha chronicles

Back in Dubai again after a long weekend in Doha in Qatar, or as I like to call it, the land of a thousand hangovers (thanks to Spiro the mad Greek Pom for that...). By the way Qatar is pronounced like Cutter, I constantly said it wrong.

Doha is the capital/only city in Qatar and is growing faster than the average American's waistline. In a previous blog I bagged the amount of money going into greening Abu Dhabi... after seeing Doha, thank God they do. First thing you'll notice is sand, and the second too probably.

The Mrs pOWENed's sister and hubby (Spiro) picked us up at the airport and introduced us to the next thing you'll notice, the drivers in AberDabers and Doobi might be bad, the average traffic in doha would be called a vehicular riot in Australia.
I would describe the road system as a succession of roundabouts of doom interspersed with drivers driving as fast as possible. Not a positive environment to be in when you were up late with a bro in law, a bottle of vodka and Kung Fu Hustle (A great movie by the way).

Notes for the Qatari Government...

1. Put in Jetways! Taking a bus to the terminal is just the pits
2. Traffic lights are your friend
3. Isnt there some foliage that grows there? If not, paint the rocks green

There was good times in Doha but they're all family related and I know you dont really care so just chuckle on buddy.

Crackers for errrr... Dubai

So the last few days we've been in Dubai for Mrs pOWENed to do some work. So while on the way driving along the freeway at 160kph, we see this building. I have no idea what it is or why its shaped like this, I wouldnt be surprised if this was just another apartment building. I choose to call it the Panadol building.


















Dubai is an interesting place, really just a giant construction zone of huge inventive buildings. We're staying at the Dusit Thani, a Thai themed 5 star hotel. In Sydney this building would be amazing, a talking point. Here it's just another fancy building.
In the background is the Burj Dubai... more about that later. We are situated right in the arch and it might be sort of interesting for a few minutes, but there's really no view to be had. There is free WiFi , "weefee" as Mrs pOWENed calls it, a cafe and bars around the hotel which makes it ok.




























In walking distance there is the Dubai Mall, this is the largest fully indoor mall in the world, and they love to tell you that whenever possible, but in the meantime you have to walk past the Burj Dubai, the most retardedly large structure in the history of mankind, more retarded than anything even the Americans can dream up.













Bear in mind that those buildings in front are 30 odd floors as well and you'll know what we're dealing with. Apparently the Apartments at the top are worth the equivalent of the average income of whole countries... my question is...
Do you really need a view of that much sand?

Anyhoo, on to Dubai Mall. Bring your walking shoes because walk from one side to the other and you'll need a packed lunch.








































Look at that front entrance, bigger than a lot of city streets in Sydney.

























Interior, well lets just say spacious.




























In Australia there are Hyundai's, in Dubai, Bentleys.












Also in the Mall is the largest indoor waterfall in the world... 150ft tall. With added extraordinarily tacky speedo clad divers. Money well spent.














Apparently according to Mrs pOWENed, the most important part of these are the butts... so much so that she felt the need to take a photo for her private collection












And all that walking makes you hungry... and for that is an Australian/South African staple, the favourite haunt of Basketball teams everywhere...

HAAAAALLELUJAH

Ribs And Rumps











On the menu at RnR UAE is an awesome development, the foot long Boerewors hot dog. So naturally I faced the challenge head on... without tomato and with grilled capsicum instead naturally.













I need a coffee and some web surfing now.

Farewell for now

pOWENed

Crackers for AberDabers - They just dont get it...

Sometimes you see things here that make you laugh, which in turn makes you look like a giant crazy white boy. Below are a couple of examples found in a kid's store.

We Join Us! Sounds like a drunken threat.












I didnt think the movie was that bad.