Berts, Uncle Albert.

ALBERT KRATZER (published on January 29, 2011)

ALBERT KRATZER After a lengthy battle with Parkinson's, it is with great sadness we announce the peaceful passing on January 25, 2011 of Mr. Albert Kratzer, with his family at his side. Born November 26, 1931 in Marktl, Germany, he immigrated to Canada in March of 1956 and in 1965 he moved to Stonewall. With hard work and dedication he worked for Silverline Trailers and C.P. Railway Black Smith Department. In 1977 he started up his own family welding business called K-Indu Ltd. He was predeceased by his first wife Claudia, grandson Daniel, siblings Anni, Michael, Tony, Franz, Joseph and Hans. He leaves to mourn his wife Helga; his three sons Peter (Alana), Gunnar (Lynn), Bernie (Lorrie); his stepchildren Frank, Chris (Patricia), Gaby (Mark); grandchildren Dawn Marie, Neena, Tony, Kevin, Matthew, Tyler, Katja and Matteo; sisters Maria and Rosie; and nieces and nephews. He loved the outdoors, nature and travelling. The family would like the thank the Home Care workers of Stonewall and the staff of Middlechurch Home B1 for their wonderful care. Donations may be made to Middlechurch Home, 280 Balderstone Rd., West St. Paul, MB R4A 4A6 or Parkinson's Society of Manitoba, 7 -414 Westmount Dr., Winnipeg, MB R2J 1P2. Cremation has taken place. A celebration of his life will be held at a later date. MacKenzie Funeral Home, Stonewall in care of arrangements.

It HOT

I was sent this before we left to come to the UAE but someone has posted it on a local forum this morning because this week the weather really has moved up a few notches in the hotter than hell scale.  I turned the AC on yesterday, and if I have my way, it will stay on until about October.


April 30th:



Just got transferred to work and live in beautiful Dubai, UAE! WOW!!! Now this is a city that knows how to


live!!! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. It’s like New York City minus all the crocks, murderers, and drunks. What a place!

 Iwatched the sunset from a deck chair on my beautiful bedroom verandah. It was beautiful. I’ve finally found my home. I love it here.


May 13th:

Really heating up. Got to 95 degrees today. Not a problem. Live in an air- conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car, and everything is fully air-conditioned. What a pleasure to see the sun everyday like this. I’m turning into a sun worshiper.

May 30th:


Had the backyard landscaped with tropical plants today around our lovely pool. Lots of palms and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing lawn for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here. Heat is no problem at all.


June 10th:


The temperature hasn’t been below 95 all week even during the night. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least today it’s kind of windy though. But getting used to the heat is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th:


Fell asleep by the pool. Got 3rd degree burns over 90% of my body. Missed 5 days of work. What a dumb thing to do in this lovely city. I learned my lesson though. Got to respect the ol’ sun in a climate like this.

July 20th:


Kitty (our cat) sneaked into the car when I left for the office. By the time I got to the hot car for my lunch break,

Kitty had died and swollen up to the size of a shopping bag and stank up the $60,000 Audi. I told the kids that she ran away. The car now smells like Wiskettes and cat shit. I learned my lesson though. No more pets in

this heat.



July 25th:


The wind sucks. It feels like a giant bloody hair dryer in here!!! And it’s hot as hell. The home air-conditioner

died. The bloody  AC repairman charged 500 Dirhams just to drive over and tell me it was broken in Hindu English or some language that I couldn’t understand.


July 30th:


Air conditioner still broken. Been sleeping outside by the pool for 3 nights now because it is 7000 degrees

inside. Bloody 2,000,000 Dirhams house and we can’t even go inside. Why did I ever come here? The sun, the wind, the freakin’ocean. And locals walk around dressed in white tablecloths followed by little black female ninjas.  crazy town.


August 4th:


It’s 114 "Naughty Word" degrees today. Finally got the ol’ air-conditioner fixed. It cost 2,000 Dirhams and got the temperature down to 25, but the  humidity makes the house feel 30 Dubai degrees. Stupid terrorist repairman. I hate this stupid  place.

August 8th:


If another local wiseass cracks, ‘Hot enough for you today?’ I’m going to whack him all the way back to his bloody desert.  Dubai; by the time I get to work with all that traffic and heat, the car’s radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like a baked cat!!!



August 9th:


Tried to run some errands today because it is  Friday. Wore shorts and sat on the black leather seats in my
Audi. The seat was so  hot I thought my  was on fire. I lost 2 layers of flesh and all the hair on the back of my legs and my ass. Now my car smells like burnt hair, fried ass, and a baked cat.


August 10th:


The weather report might as well be a recording. Hot, humid and  sunny. Hot, humid and  sunny.


Hot, humid and  sunny. It’s been too hot to do anything for 2 damn months and the weatherman dude wearing the  white tablecloth on TV says it might really warm up next week. Does it ever rain in this damn place?




August 14th:


WELCOME TO HELL!!! Temperature got to 120 today.


Now the air-conditioner’s gone in my  Audi. The Audi serviceman said, ‘Hot enough for you today?’  My wife had to spend the 7,000 Dirham to bail my ass out of jail for assaulting that stupid Indian bastard wiseass. What kind of a sick demented bloody idiot would want to live in this shit hole?



August 15th:
 I’m off back to New York.

gulfnews : Major car pile-up in Abu Dhabi: report

gulfnews : Major car pile-up in Abu Dhabi: report When they do things here, they over do them! This is the road that Bert drove twice a day at least 5 days a week last year. I drive to Dubai at least once a week now and Bert still goes at least once a week too.

India vs Pakistan or Justin Bieber?

The community we live in has a very active facebook group, last night someone asked this question

Quick question.....I'm on street 5 and all I can hear this evening is what sounds like groups of girls screaming? Is Justin Bieber in town? Starting to get a bit annoying now!


answer?
 
Nope its the labour camp and apparently Indian has been playing Pakistan in the cricket and won! Great to hear them have some fun as their lives must be very lonely and not too many laughs or fun

Ooops

Sorry friends and family, Ive been AWOL.  Actually I've been to Australia and back and as I write this Bert is on his way to Winnipeg Canada for his Uncle Alberts memorial service. 

But the biggest reason I have not updated my blog is this العربية فارسی हिन्दी اردو

For some strange reason google keeps changing to Arabic and its very hard to log in and navigate my way around in Arabic.

We had a great time in Australia, I was there for three weeks, Bert two.  Unfortunately it was too short as we ran out of time to visit everyone we hoped to catch up with. We stayed with my sister Jan and her husband Allan and really enjoyed their hospitality.  It has been a long time since Ive had time to just sit and chat with my sister, so that was a huge bonus.

While we were home Paul entered the Melbourne Metropolitan Fire Brigade.  He has been in their application process for just on two years and his was considered a very fast tracked application.  He loves it and we are incredibly proud of him. 

Other than that, there really is not much news. It felt strange to come "home" to Abu Dhabi and feel like we were heading home rather than Melbourne.

Unfortunately we were not able to get to Perth to see Jenni and Phil and the grandgirls but here is a new photo of them.  Ella, Heidi, Philipp and Amelie.

Grocery shopping

Today the thing we all fear at the checkout happened.  My card didn't work. I have a spare, that didn't work either.  The network was done. 

The checkout guy said "you don't have cash M'am?" No I don't have cash, why don't you have a machine that works? "So you don't have cash?"

The security guard had packed my groceries for me and he said do you live here M'am?  I was at Choithrams in Green Community Dubai where I used to live.  I said no, we used to live here but now we live in Abu Dhabi.  Oh he said looking sad, I was going to suggest you take the groceries home and come back later to pay.  Where else on earth would a supermarket suggest that.

I went to the bank next door and withdrew cash with the assistance of the bank guy who stands in the foyer, they have no idea of privacy with banking here,  he was wanting to push the buttons on the ATM for me. 

So I got my money, paid for my groceries and lived to tell the tale.

Bert had a similar experience one day he got fuel.  The guy pumps the fuel into your car and Bert thought he could pay in the shop with a card, as he had no cash.  He couldn't.  They said oh its ok, just bring the cash in tomorrow on your way past.  

It's things like this that make the frustrating days more tolerable.

Sand storms

We have been hit by two very bad sand storms in the past few days. They are impossible to photograph, as it just looks like fog. This however is the aftermath of one. This coffee table sits on our patio and was cleaned about 7 hours before this photo was taken.