Mom's Visit

Following the DDC, mom came to visit. For one week, we bumped around the city, going out for meals I’d never get to enjoy on my own.

One of the days mom was here, we headed to Abu Dhabi to visit some friends. The ride there proved interesting as the bus filled up before we could board. An enterprising kid a couple years younger than I approached us and proposed we share a taxi. The idea wasn’t as crazy as it first sounded, the far being reasonable despite Abu Dhabi being more than an hour away. The fourth passenger was Jeniffer, a designer working in Dubai. The four of us set out and within a couple hours, mom and I had arrived at the Gordon’s home. Mrs. Gordon is an artist. However, this is the same way Tolstoy was a writer. You don’t get the full effect of the statement until you see it/experience it for yourself and I’ll leave it at that.

The Gordon’s were kind enough to take us on a full tour of the city. The highlight of the day was the Al-Ghazel Golf Club. As members, the Gordons invited us into the clubhouse for lunch. It was about as far removed from snobby golf as it gets. Think Caddyshack as opposed to Gentleman’s Game. When members weren’t buying each other rounds at the bar (it was midday, mind you) they were razzing each other relentlessly, then bursting into laughter and hoisting their glasses in unison. It was an Irish drinking song incarnate, in the backwaters of the Arabian Peninsula. Adding to the strangeness of it all was the course itself, which was sand. There was not a blade of grass in sight. It works like this: golfers tee off from the box, carefully watch for the puff of sand downrange where their ball has landed, walk towards it, slide a piece of Astroturf underneath it and continue playing. The informality of this kind of play is partly responsible for the informality of the larger club and I loved it.

The rest of the day consisted of visits to the Abu Dhabi Golf Club with its signature falcon-shaped clubhouse (see the picture in my album). Apparently, the design of the building was much contested. The location of the bird’s tail was argued: should it be crapping on the patrons as they arrived at the entrance or when they approached the clubhouse after finishing their round. In the end (pun intended) it was decided to situate it near the parking lot, allowing for a much more majestic view from the front. See the picture in my Facebook album.

The Gordon’s were as hospitable as anyone could be and took us as far as the Emirates Palace. The place is immense, and lavish to boot. Total cost for construction was somewhere north of $3 billion, or the GDP of Fiji. Last year, it was home to the world’s most expensive Christmas tree, valued at $11 million. Rooms are tiled with marble and decorated with gold. The UAE government paid for the whole thing. Mom and I wandered around the place for a while, taking it all in before having dinner in one of the restaurants. Having barbecue on the private waterfront makes you feel like royalty which is the whole idea behind Emirates Palace.

The day concluded with a long taxi ride to Yas Island where I parted ways from mom. I was meeting up with some friends for the Tiësto concert (see review at usdradio.org) and she was headed back to Dubai. We’d meet up the following day for the Train concert at Media City (interview here).