Benefits

Approximately 2 months ago now, I changed jobs with my company. At that time, with apparently no one that knew what they were doing, I was terminated. I didn't ever know about it until today.

You see, I was still getting a paycheck, I was still coming to work, deductions were being made from my check for health insurance, retirement, tax etc.

Today though, when I checked to see why I haven't gotten my new insurance cards yet, I found out that I do not have health insurance. I do not have any retirement benefits. Other than a paycheck, I don't technically work for the company.

When I called benefits to figure it out they said they couldn't do anything about it. When I called HR to find out what was going on, they said they would get back to me. Sounds to me like some one screwed up royally and apparently I was the recipient of the screw.

Great effort for a company that is going through a reorganization and is losing more than just the people they are laying off. You see people don't like being messed with and will change companies to avoid it.

End of Days

I am down to two days and change on my time in the Middle East, and while I am certainly not forgetting it, other people seem to be counting down the days as well. My current boss sends me an email each morning with the total time left until I get to Houston for instance.

I have now closed every account and returned everything that I need to return. The truck was the last thing on the list and I parted ways with it this afternoon.

I have had some things on my mind about moving to Houston and one of them is buying a house. I have decided that it is too much to ask of myself to find a house within 30 days of arriving, so I will look at houses with intent, but I will also scope out some apartments for the short term as well. I was also thinking about phone service. I return my company phone tomorrow afternoon and will be without phone service (for work) for about a week, more if I can't figure out who to talk to about getting a new phone set up. So I asked my new boss to look into it for me since he is in Houston and I am not.

Things I will miss about Dubai:
No real speed limit between Dubai and Abu Dhabi
High Speed Limits in most areas of town

Things I will not miss about Dubai:
Speed Bumps in the road (who thought that one up?)
Liquor Licenses

I will add to those lists as I settle in Houston.

5 Days and Counting

I am down to 4 days and some change until I move back to the States. Today I finished cleaning out the apartment and moved to a Hotel/Apartment. This place is better than the apartment I lived in and for roughly the same money. I should have just lived here. Nice place with breakfast in the morning and a bar, room service with a few items. They clean once a week. There are two televisions a bed, a couch, several televisions, dining table, a great kitchen.

Enough about the room itself though, I booked it for a 5 nights and I got the cheapest thing they had, a studio with a full sized bed. When I arrived the guy upgraded me and put me in a one bedroom with a king bed. I luck into a lot of great situations, including getting upgraded on flights and upgraded hotel rooms.

I am down to just needing to return my truck at the moment. Everything has sold and everything has been canceled. 5 nights, 3 days of work, 2 lunch outings, and a day of flying. Looking forward to getting home.

Pretty soon I will post a full write up of Dubai and then I will probably follow that up with posts about each country that I visited while I was traveling over here. Its been a good 16 months, but I am certainly ready to come home if for nothing else than that I don't have to have a license to buy alcohol (well, not a liquor license anyway).

Unbelievable

I think we all knew that when the oil price dropped business was going to slow down.

I think we all knew that when the organizational changes were announced work was going to slow down.

I think when the layoffs started we knew people were going to work slower.

I don't think anyone ever realized how lazy everyone could really be when all of these things happened at the same time.

Emails are not as frequent. Complaints are not as frequent. Very little has to be done to get what we need when we need it.

Let this be a lesson that you can almost completely stop working and your work will continue getting done.

Re-Organizing

In January we started some jokes around the office here in Dubai because we had heard that there were some changes coming to the company. None of us were totally sure what that meant. As time passed more and more we were joking about it.

In late March they changes were announced and they were pretty big. Quickly it was known that if you were a manager with the company your job was going to change significantly. The first round of announcements came out very soon after the first "change" announcement. But as time passed the announcements became more scarce and for people with the word "manager" in their title, time started to drag.

Work started to slow down, to the point now where I am only receiving 5 emails each night while I sleep compared to the 30 - 40 that I was getting prior to the announcements. Then the number of emails I was getting during the day slowed down. On top of that we aren't really making any decisions as a company until the whole re-organization is put together and as the new organization we start working, May 4th.

So far I have no place in the new company, but I was told by one person not to worry a few weeks ago. Turns out he couldn't have known anything as the structure for my current role hadn't been worked out yet. But that may have been a good thing, because now they are working out that structure and there are some vacant positions in other places. The most important of these to me is the US. What I know right now is that my name has been thrown to the people that are making those decisions, but I still don't know if anyone that is making the decisions has picked me for anything.

Overseas I would say my chances at maintaining my job are slim as there are a lot of other Inventory/Logistics Managers here that are far less expensive than I am, and I would assume the company is looking for the cheaper options for most of these jobs.

Within the next week or so I should know what I am going to be doing and where I am going to be living. I am hoping at this point that I am moved back to the States for a job, but will likely consider any job they throw at me.

Beginning to Travel

Tomorrow I start my first trip of 2009. I leave here on Saturday and fly to Bahrain and then head on into Saudi. I will spent 3 days in Saudi. Tuesday afternoon I head back to Dubai, but just for a layover. After about 2 or 3 hours in the airport I will head to Mumbai for a little less than 48 hours. I get in at about 3 am Wednesday morning and have 2 days of training. Thursday afternoon I will head back to the airport and come back to Dubai.

Kicking it off with a bit of a bang, flying about 3 thousand miles in 5 days. Hope I don't get sick again.

A couple days after I get back to Dubai, my parents arrive in to town.

Perth/Singapore/Jakarta

First off, I have a few additions to make to the Worldwide Driving Rules.

Perth:
1. Actually, I don't have much to say. Everyone there drives pretty normally and doesn't get too upset about anything. Except for the fact that they drive on the wrong side of the rode, everything is normal.

Singapore:
1. Again, a country that drives on the wrong side of the road.

2. It seems to me that better directions are needed, but that is probably because I do not live or drive there.

Jakarta:
1. Basically follow the same rules as India.

2. When there is no longer any forward movement, get as far over onto the soft shoulder as you can and continue forward movement until you must force your way back in due to an obstruction.

Now on to the trip. I flew from Dubai to Perth late on Saturday night/early Sunday morning. As I have recently become a gold member with Emirates, they can't deny me space on the plane. As long as I have purchased a ticket, they must give me a seat on the plane. There were no seats available in coach when I arrived, so they gave me a business class seat. That was great. The seat lays completely flat.

I arrived in Perth around dinner time. I checked in to the hotel and then went for a walk to find something to eat. Interestingly, nothing was open. I found out later that everything closes around 5 or 6 pm every night. There are a few places that remain open, but for the most part, everything is closed.

I didn't sleep well, waking up around 2 AM and then falling back to sleep around 5 am both nights.

The office was nice there, everyone is great. On Tuesday after lunch, I made my way to the airport to fly to Singapore.

I arrived in Singapore around 9 PM and proceeded immediately got on the phone with work in the States. We had run into a few problems and we needed to get them resolved. I was up until about 2 AM and not everything was resolved, so I woke up at 5 AM to get back on the phone.

Then, it was in to the office. This is my second time there and all seemed well there. We went over a few methods for checking on inventory and spend most of the afternoon just talking about what was going on there.

I went to sleep that night about Midnight and woke up at 4 AM to shower and get to the airport for my flight to Jakarta.

The arrival in Jakarta was pretty smooth. I was questioned a bit about why I was there at immigration, but ultimately they let me through. I caught a taxi to the hotel which took about an hour.

Once I had checked in, I took a taxi to the office and found out that a buddy of mine from Dubai was also in the office there this week. We talked and all went well that afternoon. I had some interviews to get done and I got through the first one on Thursday afternoon. Thursday night I went to dinner with some guys and had some drinks. I probably stayed out a bit late considering I wasn't feeling great and hadn't slept a whole lot the whole week.

The second day in the office, I completed the second interview and then had a couple of meetings. For the most part it was a good trip to the office finding out exactly what is happening in my new area.

I flew home late Friday night/early Saturday morning. I arrived in Dubai at about 6 AM. Not a whole lot to do today, so I took a nap and ate lunch. I am now just trying to recover from this cold that I somehow got while not sleeping and traveling 24 hours on planes and flying a total of 13000 miles or so.

Frequent Flyer

Year to Date Miles Flown on Emirates Airlines: 48,800
Miles Needed for Gold Class Membership: 50,000
Miles to Fly before the end of the year: 15,000 (plus 3,000 if I go to Egypt)

Plus everything I fly between now and the end of the year is doubled for usable miles because of a promotion.

Some Things Just Don't Translate

On my way to the office this week in Damman, Saudi Arabia, I kept noticing a TGI Fridays. I kept thinking that it was odd to see that, but I guess food is food. Then it occurred to me that there was something that didn't make sense. The weekend here is Thursday and Friday. Why would anyone celebrate the end of the weekend?

Then today on the way home from the office, I said something something about the region VP driving a yellow Corvette and that you could see him coming from a mile away. Then I revised it to a kilometer away, but that isn't really that far. SO then I updated it to 5 kilometers away, but by that point it had lost its easy meaning.

Travel

A week from tomorrow I am making my way to Buenos Aires by way of Paris. I have a pretty long layover in Paris, but not really enough to get out and check it out, on the way there and the way back. I get back to Dubai on Sunday the 28th, then I work the 29th and 30th, and head back to the airport. I will then endure 17 hours to Houston and another hour to Midland. I will spend almost 18 full days in the States.

I am super excited to come home for a little while.

Six Months

I have hit the 6 month mark. 3 more just like it and I will be on my way home.

This month I didn't do a whole lot of anything interesting. I went back to Bahrain and to Saudi Arabia and it was a much different experience this time. On the way in I was stopped versus the first time I went where I was stopped on the way out.

I have been to India, which is something that I don't think I will ever forget. Depending on who you talk to, it is either the best time to go or the worst. The best according to the airlines who charge a ridiculous amount to fly there because this is when everyone takes their vacation to go home. The worst time because it is the rainy season there and it is a little depressing.

It did rain most of the time that I was there, but that wasn't the depressing part about it. The traffic is ridiculous and would make me go mad and just find a job next to my home. One day it took me an Hour and Half to go about 10 miles. Totally frustrating. Traffic is bumper to bumper and door to door. You can see my post on driving rules to see what the craziest parts were.

On top of that there are shanty towns built in people's front yards, in front of businesses, and in from of apartment buildings. Cows roam the streets, and there are stray dogs everywhere.

All that being said, it was a good trip and I am happy to have gone there and look forward to getting there again.

Inspirational Cards

My sister is really great. Ever now and then she sends me mail, even though she knows it takes a month for things to get here. She sent me a Darth Vader notepad and pens and some pictures of my nieces, my favorite is from their trip to Disney World where they met Darth Vader and one of my nieces looks putrefied or completely in shock to be standing next to him. She also sends these great cards that are meant to look like those inspirational posters, you know the ones that have an Iceberg on them and say stuff like "Substance in 90 Percent below the Surface", or a picture of a building being blown up that says "Even the most structurally
sound argument can be blown up with enough explosives".

I really like the two that she has sent me, but I just found this one and thought it was worth sharing since there is a region meeting going on here this week

Five Months

Today is July 9th. As of today I have had my new position for 5 months. I have been living in Dubai for that time and I can say whole heatedly that I am enjoying it a little bit. I am missing a lot of the comforts of home, but for the most part, this is a great experience. I am enjoying my job, but it has kind of become mundane. I pretty much know what is going to happen and what is expected on a day to day basis, so it has become sort of not interesting. Hopefully some new things will happen that will get me out of that.

In the past 5 months, I have gotten the opportunity to do quite a bit of traveling. I have been to a lot of different countries and will hopefully be able to go to at least a few more before my time is up. I am planning on taking some vacation in the States near the end of the year to do some hunting. Other than that it would be nice to plan a trip to somewhere in Europe, South Africa, Australia, while I am on this side of the world.

I have been in my current apartment for about 2 months now and it is pretty nice. Definitely better now that I have an internet connection, but even before that it was ok. I like that it is a short walk to the grocery and a lot of restaurants. It will be great when the new mall opens down the street and I can just walk down there to see movies and such. I have a gas stove, and love it, and my washer/dryer works much better here than in my previous apartment or the one that I had in Aberdeen.

Some interesting things have happened in the past few months. For one, a building caught fire across the highway from me. That thing must have been burning for an hour or two, but the following day, they were back to work as if nothing had happened. While it was burning, people sat on the balconies and watched it, so I wasn't the only one.

Some movies are released later here, so sometimes they are for rent in iTunes before they are in theaters here. The most current example is Semi-Pro, which just came out in theaters here two weeks ago. It went up on iTunes about 2 weeks prior to that. The delay must come from money saved by the theaters by not getting a copy for months past the release date. That makes ok sense since movies are so cheap here. The big movies come out either a day before they are released in the US or about a week after. I typically spend about 40 Dirham total, which equates to about 10 dollars, for the ticket, a big bucket of popcorn (the only size they have), and a soda.

I eat out quite a bit and I like to say its because eating at home with one person, or at least cooking, is not practical. I think it has more to due with the fact that I am lazy and just don't want to cook. On the other hand, when you go to fast food restaurants here, they don't serve the enormous portions that we serve in the US, and in some places there are warnings that read, "Caution, American Portions." Typically you get a 12 or 16 ounce soda and something like a small french fry that I am used to. Even the sandwiches seem a little smaller.

Anyway, things are going well, but I am excited for what the next step is, which at the moment is 19 months or less from now.

Air Conditioning Badness

There are two situations that I will describe. With it being around 115 degrees outside lately, this is an important subject for me.

First, Air Conditioning at Home:
When I set the A/C to what I think is an acceptable temperature. An acceptable temperature never keeps the apartment cool enough during the day. So I set it to a temperature below where I think it should be. So now it is really nice during the daylight hours, but if I forget to turn it down before I go to bed, then I wake up freezing and have to endure getting out of the shower and it being cold too. The other way this is bad is that if I turn it up and forget to turn it down before I leave for work, the I get home and it is not comfortable.

Second, Air Conditioning at the Office:
The first thing to know is that they only turn the A/C on at work when people are there. I wake up really early and go to the office. When I get there, they have typically just turned on the A/C and my office is really hot from not having it on overnight. But by the time other people start rolling into the office, it is comfortable. The problem is that they turn it so far down to get it cool in the morning that by the the middle of the morning it gets really cold, especially in the offices. At this point I typically role down my sleeves and start drinking coffee to keep warm, because they don't turn it up to compensate. By the end of the day it evens out because of the windows in the building, but when I leave at four, it doesn't help.

I think what I am finding out is that it is not easy to get just the right amount of Air Conditioning. You are always going to be too hot or too cold.

I Slept Poorly

It wasn't so much that I didn't sleep, it is that I didn't sleep in a good way. I must have cocked my head the wrong way or something as my neck is really in some pain. On top of that, the taxi driver that was told to come at 5.30 came at 5 and incessantly rang my phone until I came down at the specified time, 5.30.

The Weekend that Wasn't

I was in class every day last week and that was really bad timing because July Plan is coming up and I was asked to put together information for MEAP. I spent some time during the week trying to get things done, but I didn't get everything done. On top of that, I asked my counterpart in the Eastern part of the region to put together numbers for his countries. He did it, but not in the right place and not really correctly. So I had to spend yesterday and today making sure that they were in the right place and done in a way that makes it easy to figure out.

I went to the office at noon yesterday and stayed until 5 and today I took lunch to a few guys at noon and came home around 3:30. So I didn't really get to do a lot this weekend, but at least I am done, or relatively close to done on this and don't have to think about it again until January.

I think in January I will try to put it all together myself so I don't have to rely on someone else to do something and then get it at the last minute not done properly.

United States Visit

I have almost all the arrangements made for my trip to the States in May.

Dubai to Houston
Houston to Midland
Midland to Houston
Houston to Denver
Denver to Houston
Houston to Dubai

All in 17 days.

More Singapore News

The conference is over and I am spending Friday afternoon working on a couple of things in the office here. While the information given was rather useful in theory, I don't know that any of it will be used practically by me.

After I am done here in the office, one of the guys that works here is taking me out to see some interesting things here. Sadly, I left my camera in the hotel, so you can look forward to grainy cell phone camera pictures if I take any this afternoon and evening. After a short sight seeing trip, we are going to have dinner at some sort of authentic Singaporean restaurant. I am looking forward to that.

Pictures will definitely follow when I get home and can use my computer.

Singapore Day 1

I got to the airport in Dubai at 6.30 this morning and got on my flight to Singapore. The flight was delayed by about an hour, but still arrived on time here. Got off the plane, cleared immigration and collected my bags in about 20 minutes, then took a taxi to the hotel. Checked in and then went to eat dinner. It is not 11.47 at night and I am not the slightest bit tired. I am watching a movie and realizing that I forgot a power chord for my computer.

Pictures probably won't be up until after I get home.

Update

I now have my residence visa.