An awesome ride

I took this picture while visiting a friend over the weekend. We were having a lazy afternoon in the balcony when we spotted these two gentlemen passing by. They took turns in treating each other to an absolutely super ride in the wheel barrow.

Need for Speed

If you've got a tiny Jenson Button hiding inside you, you should probably make your way to Dubai Autodrome. Located off Emirates Road and in the vicinity of Arabian Ranches, the 5.39 km track boasts of the best of modern day technology and is probably as modern as it an get.

A few of us boys made it down to Dubai Autodrome a few days back to check out the place. We had already tried

out the karting facilities at the complex and went back to check out the main autodrome complex. While we were there, the SR3's were testing for the big race day and we had the pleasure of meeting with Usmaan Mughal, who is currently racing for AUH Motor Sports. These are much smaller cars as compared to the huge Formula 1 one but nonetheless it is still a super experience watching the machines burn rubber.

The UAE National race day is coming up on 16th October and we will be back at the venue at the weekend. Besides the UAE Touring championship, It will involve the UAE GT championship, a new format introduced on the lines of the international GT series. So head down to Dubai Autodrome next week for a super adrenaline pumping race day

Do you see a sign?

Cityscape Dubai is in town. The euphoria is certainly missing. The punters were nowhere to be seen. The media has reported that the total floor space at the exhibition has in fact dropped by a whopping 30% this year.

It is now almost a year since the property market nosedived and let loose fear and chaos right across every section of the city. Redundancies piled on while Dubai shot into the lime light for all the wrong reasons.

A year later, a lot of the dust seems to have settled down. Cityscape appeared to be a lot quieter this year and a sense of reality seems to have set in.

If you have been following the local press, you'd have observed that property prices appear to be bottoming out though some surveys forecast that rentals will continue to drop over the next quarter. Having said that most of the current buyers will have lost 30% to 50% of the value of their property. With the buyer confidence at such low levels and banks still unwilling to reduce the interest rates (despite the significant drop in EIBOR), it is unlikely we will see a recovery anytime soon. Add to this the supply that is expected to come into the market over the next 12 months thus tilting the balance towards oversupply.

It will probably be several years until we see a sign of recovery.