Standard Dubai Photo of the Day

Yes, yes, yes the city is growing quickly, something new every day, blah, blah, blah.

But sometimes, all the chatterers have a point.

Sydney Bridge Climb

I climbed to the very top of the Sydney Harbour Bridge yesterday morning. One can only do this through an arranged tour (a rule enacted for safety and mercantile reasons). Very cool.

(click for a larger image)

note: the photo isn't of my group, but we were in the same spot as part of the same tour.

People are Idiots.

At least many of them. I still hold out hope for a few.

This is even dumber than the cashmere sweater knitted to feel like a cotton sweatshirt. At least Franck Muller's crazy hours watch does actually tell you the accurate time, if in a somewhat jumpy fashion. A

The $300,000 Watch That Doesn’t Tell Time

A $300,000 watch? Luxury. A $300,000 watch that doesn’t tell time — and that sells out? Pure genius.

According to several news reports flagged by my friends at Luxist, Swiss watchmaker Romain Jerome just launched the “Day&Night” watch. The watch won’t tell you what time it is. That’s so yesterday. But it does tell you whether it’s day or night — helpful, I guess, for billionaire types who can’t afford windows.

The Day&Night watch (Romain Jerome)

As the company’s Web site boasts: “With no display for the hours, minutes or seconds, the Day&Night offers a new way of measuring time, splitting the universe of time into two fundamentally opposing sections: day versus night.”

What’s most impressive about the Day&Night is its complexity, given its absolute uselessness. The watch features two tourbillons — devices that overcome the ill effects of earth’s gravity on a watch’s accuracy — connected by a differential mechanism. Instead of hands, the watch has a “contemplative tourbillon operation whereby the ‘Day’ tourbillon operates for 12 hours to symbolize working life, while the ‘Night’ tourbillon takes over afterward to represent an individual’s private time.”

Like other Romain Jerome watches, the watch is made in part with steel salvaged from the sunken Titanic, along with material from the shipyard where it was built. That sounds creepy to me, but maybe today’s buyers prefer morbid metals.

The company’s chief executive, Yvan Arpa, cited statistical studies to explain how the watch better reflects the time-philosophy of today’s wealthy.

“When you ask people what is the ultimate luxury, 80 percent answer ‘time’. Then when you look at other studies, 67 percent don’t look at their watch to tell what time it is,” he told Reuters.

He added that anyone can buy a watch that tells time — only a truly discerning customer can buy one that doesn’t.

And here’s the best part: The watch sold out within 48 hours of its launch.

Dubai as Metropolis

Everyone likes to compare Dubai to SimCity (plant some residences here, throw down a few business areas there, all close to instantly), and hail the creation of a shining city from the desert in a relatively short time. I see their point. I write this in just such a shining tower in an area that was empty air and hot sand less than 10 years ago. But I still maintain that the more apt comparison is Metropolis in Fritz Lang's classic film of the same name. I enjoy the views, the ocean, the nice cars, (almost) tax-free income and generally not having to lift a finger for anything, knowing that someone, somewhere is taking care of it. But I also know that there is another side, and life for the underclass is very different. The work camps might as well be in a different country as my Marina-based existence. They aren't a secret, as in Metropolis, but they are invisible (at least one sprawling workers' area doesn't appear on any maps), and they definitely live different lives.

My view while eating dinner tonight
(click for larger version)

Work area outside of Dubai taken the same day
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Perhaps not only in Dubai

but not in very many other places.

I am flying on four trips between New York, Sydney and Dubai over the next few weeks. Business class is full in three of them, but economy is mostly empty. This is not the first time that business class sold out before economy, which is very aggravating as I am not always able to plan my exact travel dates way in advance. But still interesting, as there are not many places where business class sells out before economy.

A Tip for Flying Emirates (and avoiding lazy service)

On more than one occasion, Emirates has messed up my seat. I like to wait to the last minute (or rather, my schedule and lifestyle is such that I'm always trying to buy tickets at the last minute), and use miles to upgrade a lot, which means ever so often there aren't any seats in business class and I get stuck in economy. This is fine when flying from Dubai to Bahrain, or even Yemen - then I'd rather save the money than pay to fly business. When flying to Sydney or New York however, both a little over fifteen hour flights, that extra leg room becomes a real issue and a full business class is a painful thing for my long-legged self.

I am a gold member at Emirates, which basically means that I fly a lot. I get preferential requests for bulkhead and emergency seats through this, which is nice. However, on three I have been given the seat behind the bulkhead, which is actually the worst, as the space underneath the seat in front of one (the actual bulkhead seat), is full and one can't even put one's feet there. One time I was traveling with a friend (who turned out to be a rather nasty person, but that is a whole other story and unrelated to our seating requests), who was rather injured falling off an elephant, and they messed up out seating, causing her significant additional pain on the Sri Lanka Dubai route and her return to the states Dubai to New York flight. When we complained, the stewardess said "it is easier for them to lie and tell you what you want to hear, because when you get on the plan it isn't their problem."

The last time I got stuck in economy was in March, but they were able to give me the bulkhead, which was good. However, there was a rather irate (and tall) Englishman in the aisle who had the same problem. He booked the bulkhead and got the seat behind. In his case, the stweardess was telling him that the reservation staff generally know which seats are the bulkheads, but they tend to vary by one number for different aircraft, but that said staff doesn't always check before reserving the seats. So apparently this whole "we reserve you a seat" thing is a bit of lie. Its more like "we promise you we'll get kind of close, but we also promise we won't make the full effort."

Which is why I have now started using the online seat reservation tool. One accesses this through a link on the confirmation email, and it shows a map of each plane, as well as your seat. I did manage to upgrade three of the four legs on my upcoming marathon trip (almost fifty hours of flying total), so I did that online, and then I went on to check that I did indeed have the bulkhead (and the window for the business class segments) I reserved. Which was good, as I also checked that the vegetarian meal I requested was confirmed, and it was not. This also happens quite a bit on Emirates.