Having myself a merry little Christmas!

Anyone who knows me, and I mean ANYONE, knows I am addicted to Christmas. It combines all my favourite things into one big and exciting palooza - shopping slash spending, Baby Jesus, eating, present opening, retail hype - need I go on? This year was always going to be a very different year for me, namely being the only the third time (and first in 6 years) that I had been away from family on the big day. Well anyone who knows me, and I mean ANYONE, knows I was cavorting around the centre of the modern universe - NEW YORK!

Lucky that going to New York ranked very high on my all-time 'must do' list, otherwise there is NO way I would repeat the flight. 14 hours of non-stop service to a completely packed economy section left me shagged and not in the good way. I could get a job at Starbucks tomorrow after the amount of tea and coffee I dished out. There were a few grateful souls, but by and large the flight was full of people NOT celebrating Christmas, which put a slight downer on the whole affair.

NYC itself was a completely different story however. It lived up to the hype inside my head and THEN SOME. Two of my sisters have been to New York in the past year and now it was my turn to experience what I now believe to be the greatest city in the world. I spent most of the day with the Heiner family - good family friends for many years - and they made the day special for me. Just walking around with Fiona and the three kids (Isabel, Claudia and Nick) and absorbing the atmosphere and sights was simply a perfect day and a much better Christmas than I had anticipated.

I am now a few hours away from my annual leave flight to Brisbane where I will be until the 5th of January, so no blog til then.

Enjoy my New York pictures (most of them taken in the rain, a wonder my camera still functions) and I look forward to continuing the Jube Eye into 2007.


The crew hotel in Long Island - oh so suburban America!

My credit card should be very grateful Macy's was closed!

Where else can you feel the true warmth of family and home-cooked food on Christmas with three lovely children? MACCAS!

Inside, and outside, said fine-dining establishment

The set of Good Morning America (think Sunrise) and News Corporation HQ - one day Daniel, one day!

The famous Christmas tree at Rockefeller Centre

Me by the tree.... and cruising down Fifth Avenue!

The outskirts of Central Park - ducks on the water, horse-and-carriages, the bridge over the lake, the driving sleet in my eyes.... oh and yeah, the massive store in Times Square dedicated to M&Ms - MAGIC!

TIMES SQUARE!

Merry Christmas!

I have just recieved my January roster!

I'll be in Brisbane from December 31 to January 5 on leave.

Would love to catch up with all and/or sundry.

Off to New York in a few hours though, and can't wait to tell you all about it!

So far, so great!

Next Friday marks my one year anniversary as an employee of Emirates, and to be precise, 10 months and 13 days since the very first entry of The Jube Eye (known then as The Adventures of Daniel in DXB.) My first foray into blogdom was entitled "My first blog entry! Let's see if there'll be a second..." - well we are now up to 92 posts and counting! In May I installed the SiteMetre on to the blog to track progress (these figures are skewed by randoms stumbling on to the site and when I work on the blog myself) but they give a general idea of how many of my esteemed peoples are checking it out. See graph below:

We are now close to 1500 readers and 3000 page views in 8 months and even if the real figure is half that, it is very gratifying indeed.

I have BIG plans for a best of 2006 post in the next couple of days, a New York wrap-up from my Christmas Day trip, and then I'm home for a few days over New Year.

A very Merry Christmas whether you're with family or friends in Australia, alone in Dubai trying to get through a bottle or two of red, or on a layover with a less-than-impressive crew - and every best wish for success, happiness, and good health in 2007.

Daniel, on behalf of The Jube Eye

Black, Odd and 11

Welcome to the best hotel in the Emirates layover network - the Kilimanjaro Kempinski Hotel in the Tanzanian capital, Dar Es Salaam. As there is very little to do in the town itself, I thought the in-house casino might be a good idea - a good idea to the tune of 76,000 Tanzanian Schillings. If you feel adventurous you can look that up to see how many Australian dollars that works out to be, over a two hour period. Oh well, it was alot of fun, especially as it was Emirates cash I was throwing down on Black, Odd and 11.

These are pictures of my room which was simply LUSH, and a few of me balanced precariously on the roof of the lobby.



Room 237 - noice!

Getting all churchy again!

I have told very few of you back home but about six weeks ago I finally found a church in Dubai - Emirates Baptist Church. Last night was the annual choir production, so I thought I'd throw up a few pictures for good measure.

Every year people from the church particpate in what is called 'Shoebox Ministry' whereby we fill empty shoeboxes with a set list of items (cologne, toothbrush/paste, soap, hand towel, phone card, chocolate bar) and we Christmas wrap them and give them to the poor labourers who are basically paid nothing to build all of Dubai's amazing landmarks.

I managed to put together 5 boxes with the help of Nicole, Carly (Nicole's housemate) and Jason (my housemate) and today they get sent to the labour camps. I was all set to help distribute them (the Mother Teresa that I am and all...) but Emirates is sending me to Damascus in Syria this morning. JOY!

Marge, the rains are STILL here!

A couple of weeks ago it rained in Dubai and such was the excitement I rushed out, took photos, and posted them to The Jube Eye poste haste.

Well it seems I jumped the gun a little.

It has more or less rained EVERY DAY since then, making this the wettest year in a very long time. The newspaper from two days ago says the most in 11 years, it is now the most ever. Not to mention the temperature which has plummeted to a balmy 17 degrees as at midday!

Just so you know, I have just finished my 3 days of reserve of the month, and in keeping with my crapola roster, I was sent to Kuwait and then Islamabad in Pakistan the night after.

NOT what I signed up for!

COMMENCING CPR! SFS START THE DEFIB!

As promised, here are some photos taken during my Safety and Emergency two-day refresher on the 5th and 6th. I wasn't able to pull my camera out for everything, but I tried where I could. Apart from the written exam, we did a CPR course, fire fighting, door operation amongst other things and I took pictures where I could.

Hopefully you'll feel a little safer flying Emirates in the future :)

Oh Tannenbaum!

It took three hours, a Westlife dvd (no, I NEVER get sick of them!) and a shot or two of Mauritian rum, but I finally have a Dubai Christmas tree of my very own! The boys (Franck and Jason) won't be home for a few days so this should be a pleasant/festive surprise. At this point I'm stuck in Rome with people I don't know for Christmas, but I am trying my best to make it to Australia.

Also, the Jube Eye wishes Tania a very happy birthday for the 8th :) xox

A Jolly Holiday!

I know it was a few days since I dragged Nicole kicking and screaming for her birthday extravaganza in London, but as they say exclusively in blogging circles' better late than never.'

Day one was the 7 hour flight to London on British Airways (good, but not as good as us!) and settling into our room (2 beds for our parents who may be reading this!) at the Hilton London Metropole near the shopping mecca that is Oxford St. Nicole was sick as a dog but we battled through the near zero conditions and managed to spend a couple months of salary before heading for dinner at a funky bar in Soho.

Day two was Project Battlestations: Nicole's birthday! The morning was spent eating a small African nation's monthly food rations at the breakfast buffet, followed by a 'flight' on the London Eye - the world's tallest observation wheel. Next stop was Selfridges department store where Nicole scored a Giorgio Armani makeover and proceeded to buy half the counter. She was kind enough to pose for before-and-after photos for the Jube Eye community as a great advertisement for Armani more than anything! And the reason for all this trouble? Top seats at Mary Poppins in the West End! It was so amazing, more than I can describe or imagine. I obviously couldn't get too many pictures inside but I've added a few from the web to give you an idea. If you happen to be stopping by the English capital in the next year or so, I highly recommend it. I'm also planning on marrying Bert the chimney-sweep if that's cool with everybody...

Day three was the long flight back home crammed in the middle of the middle at the back of economy - joy! Arriving back home at 2am on Saturday, I had abour 2 hours sleep before I had to be back at work for an 11-hour flight to Perth! Oh the joys of international flight attending!

Dubai airport one minute, black English cab the next!







Just a couple of foxy twenty-somethings minding their own business on an oversized ferris wheel!
Selfridges' funky shop windows


Before Armani, and after Armani - VOILA!
We snuck in a few photos at intermission...
...and again during an ATM run for an extra box of Maltesers!
Weary and exhausted, we reluctantly head home.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICOLE!