Important sites you should know.

Drinks - If you want to keep yourself legal when you imbibe in Abu Dhabi you should have a license. It is easier to get now than in the past and can be done online at www.auhsl.ae.   You can also apply through most liquor stores who will assist you, however the online site is straight forward once you collect your documentation. By the way you need that license even if you are drinking in a hotel, because as soon as you step outside to head home you become subject to the legal provisions. There is little concern here with the institution selling alcohol here - it is buyer beware!

Buses - The transport routes keep changing so you need to keep refering back to the source to get the latest routes and information. Go to dot.abudhabi.ae/en/info/Bus_Maps

Police - Just about anything can go through the 999 phone number but if you really have a none emergency traffic issue  the number to try is 02 4462462.

Parking - if you have someone blocking you in your garage or driveway then call the police with the plate number and they will contact the owner. This usually gets a pretty quick response. Other parking issues go through Mawaqif which you contact on 8003009   . their website http://mawaqif.ae/content/home?l=en lets you set up mobile parking where you can register your car with your mobile and pay for parking direct from your phone. This is convenient and also surprisingly reliable.

Power and Water problems go to 8002332 then option 2 for English. You can report outages in your area. ADDC also has a useful website at http://www.addc.ae/enindex.html

Finally for this potted round up www.abudhabi.ae is a good general site to launch you into other services.

In the land of diabetes

Recently we bought a dinner voucher at one of the hotels. It included a couple of courses and soft drinks. Well that is nice and it was a pretty good price. But the surprise was when we tried to order water instead of soda. Nope, no good, soft drinks means fizzy sugary things with unmentionable commercial affiliations. We would have to pay for water if we wanted to forgo the additives.

Strangely enough the bottle of water, when it arrived was made by one of the self same soda companies as well. And it wasn't as if they had an array of choices for us to turn down. Actually the only fizzy drink that I do bother with (besides beer) is tonic water. But of course their idea of soft drinks wasn't quite that diversified.  It is the same when you delve into the food courts and fast food joints. It is a rare institution that lets you swap their dedicated fries and soda for something less self-destructive. That coupled with lack of exercise, and the propensity to smorgasbord and you really can see why the UAE has a waist/waste problem. Please, please, please let’s put water into those meal deals.

Hot and Cold

I know summer has started. It is not that the air conditioners have become relentless. There is another tell. The hot and cold taps have reversed.  Most Abu Dhabi homes have multiple, small electric hot water heaters in each of the bathrooms instead of a central hot water system.

And on the roof there is a very large water storage tank. As we move into the warmer months this outside water storage warms up with the air temperature. Then there is the added factor that many of those roof tanks only have a rudimentary open-sided canopy over them which only provides shade for a maximum of a couple of hours a day, if at all. Therefore, there is a good dose of solar heating that goes on together with the ambient temperature now climbing into the forties. So out of the cold tap comes water at around nice 40+c. Meanwhile the hot water tank sitting inside now no longer needs to be turned on, since there is a good supply from outside. However, since the hot water tank is sitting inside, in the shade and inside an air conditioned room, its temperature drops sufficiently to become the source of cooler (not cold) water.  So while the air conditioning electricity bill soars there is some small comfort in the knowledge that at least the electric hot water bill has plummeted.