Crash: an Abu Dhabi Photo Story

the other day a guy opened his door into my car and made minor scratch on the rear door and wheel hub. he was a being a dick about it so I followed procedure and had the traffic police come decide whether or not he had to pay. cop comes and automatically tells the guy that he was at fault, and that it was his responsibility to pay. I found out from accident report that he is one wealthy motherfucker (son of AD mercedes dealership owner). take the accident report to my insurance to open a claim. have all the correct documents so all's good.. take the claim/referral to mussafah - the 'industrial zone' of abu dhabi, located about 35 km south, deep in the desert. finally found the garage I was destined for and parked. this is when things began to get weird. I found the guy that was handling referrals, surrounded by a group of other guys. he knew I was coming so he quickly grabbed my claim and went to survey the (minor) damage to my car. I understood that he was assessing the damage, but what were all these other guys doing? I decided to document this strange situation and they very quickly caught on to the fact that I was shooting away.. by now I'm beginning to realize that the extended group, all with clipboards of their own are delegates from different body shops in the area, taking relevant details so that they can then provide quotes to the insurance company. they thought the 'foreigner taking pictures' was kinda funny so I kept shooting. they were done with my car in about 2 minutes. I was handed back my insurance referral and told that I would be contacted about how and when the damage to my car would be fixed. by this stage a couple of them were encouraging me to follow and shoot some more so.. I did! driving in AD, especially in a smaller car, you are regularly subject to aggressive 'vehicular' bullying, and sometimes it doesn't always end well. it was a total spin to spend 15 mins in a place where there was so much road carnage, but the last couple of pics.. really sent it home. tl;dr: if you scratch someone's car don't be a dick, and drive safe..

Random Street Shots #2..

Central AD, street stylee..

Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Your Grievances..

As the sun goes down behind the numerous towers near my apartment after another 47C+ day, Emirati Nationals are able to 'break their fast'. Apparently the Prophet Mohammad did this with milk and dates, though I doubt there are many people munching down on those right now.

According to Time Out Abu Dhabi, through fasting, Muslim people hope to hope to understand their faith more. During the month the aim is to facilitate a change from a focus on the body, to a focus on the soul, which (apparently) wants to worship God. This is why they deny the physical body from sunrise to sunset, and that includes no food, drinks, or indulgences of any kind. There is a sense of the whole community doing it together, and in that there is support and encouragement.

All in all it's an interesting time to be transitioning into a new city, many stores and businesses are closed from 2-7pm, and there's an aura of relaxedness (yes I made that word up) about the place. Even as a non-Muslim, it's totally out of order to be seen eating or drinking in public, and given that every day this week has been in the high 40s, it's safe to say that there are challenges for us NMs too.

Props to the one and only Daniel Johnston for the post-title, have loved that song ever since I was introduced to it through my Teh Shirts compadres, and I must admit that it's really spoken to me over the last few months.

Happy sunset everyone..

Not in Kansas anymore..

From 'Wow' to 'Holy Cow' in a matter of hours: that's how I'd describe my transition into the Middle East, despite the obvious geographical (and religion-related) inappropriateness of (the latter) reaction.

Setting up in a new city isn't easy by any means, but throw the start of Ramadan into the mix, then crank the heat up to 47C, and you've pretty much set the scene for (at least) an interesting couple of days. There was a moment though, a moment of realization, when I looked around at this stark and alien city scape that I'd found myself in, and for the first time in many months, I became inspired to take out my camera and shoot the shit out of this new and strange place that I've decided to invest a couple of years of my life in.

So here is the first bunch, random images taken whilst walking around my neighborhood, and slightly beyond..

A grainy way to start, but the first dawn on a new city is always interesting..




A room with a view..










Jumeira Tower..








A quick walk around the hood..


























The cutest, most scrawny little meow muppet I've ever had the pleasure of being chased up the street by. A 'yet to be named' neighbor..





Bicycles: is it me or do they seem unloved?














People..


















(He did smile after I took the shot, scout's honor..)

The cityscape: this road in particular reminds me of 246, though that may have more to do with the complete mission that it is to cross rather than anything else. That and cars I suppose..