Comments on: December – February http://www.joshheald.me.uk/2009/02/december-february/ Life in Yorkshire, with silly days out, thought and politics, and a wedding to plan! It doesn't seem grim to me... Fri, 07 May 2010 19:15:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Josh http://www.joshheald.me.uk/2009/02/december-february/comment-page-1/#comment-123 Josh Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:13:06 +0000 http://www.joshheald.me.uk/?p=32#comment-123 It's definitely an interesting place to visit... I'm glad I don't live there at the moment - it's very American in style, and I hate the whole driving set up they have there. It's all massive cars, 12-lane motorways criss-crossing the city, having to get in the car and drive 10 mins just to cross the road, etc etc. It doesn't really have much culture of its own, beyond a few preserved/restored buildings from when it was a tiny pearl trading town. There's an interesting museum with loads of photos of its early development from about '53, pictures of the small town with its first skyscraper, and so on, but that's about all. They go in for the "bigger and better" approach with everything, which gets a bit wearing, but it is good to see and there's a good amount to do, in a fairly narrow band of activities, if you see what I mean. I did indeed see the Burj Dubai - hard not too - it's nearly finished, and looked cool with all the scaffolding and half-built ness up the top. At about 750m, it's about 3 times the height of the next tallest tower they have, and there are plans (on hold for now) for another one over 1km high... just because! Here's a few photos for scale - hard to capture the height in the city, so these were taken from the car coming back from Aidan's school - not the best quality! There are some flamingos for the spotting in one of them, I think! <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshheald/3293568836/" title="The Strip by Josh Heald, on Flickr" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3364/3293568836_bef4978e5e_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="The Strip" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshheald/3292743511/" title="Burj Dubai by Josh Heald, on Flickr" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3628/3292743511_6b663849a2_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="Burj Dubai" /></a> It’s definitely an interesting place to visit… I’m glad I don’t live there at the moment – it’s very American in style, and I hate the whole driving set up they have there. It’s all massive cars, 12-lane motorways criss-crossing the city, having to get in the car and drive 10 mins just to cross the road, etc etc.
It doesn’t really have much culture of its own, beyond a few preserved/restored buildings from when it was a tiny pearl trading town. There’s an interesting museum with loads of photos of its early development from about ’53, pictures of the small town with its first skyscraper, and so on, but that’s about all. They go in for the “bigger and better” approach with everything, which gets a bit wearing, but it is good to see and there’s a good amount to do, in a fairly narrow band of activities, if you see what I mean.
I did indeed see the Burj Dubai – hard not too – it’s nearly finished, and looked cool with all the scaffolding and half-built ness up the top. At about 750m, it’s about 3 times the height of the next tallest tower they have, and there are plans (on hold for now) for another one over 1km high… just because! Here’s a few photos for scale – hard to capture the height in the city, so these were taken from the car coming back from Aidan’s school – not the best quality! There are some flamingos for the spotting in one of them, I think!

The Strip

Burj Dubai

]]> By: Matt http://www.joshheald.me.uk/2009/02/december-february/comment-page-1/#comment-122 Matt Thu, 19 Feb 2009 17:34:05 +0000 http://www.joshheald.me.uk/?p=32#comment-122 Nice photos :-). Is Dubai an interesting place to visit, or just somewhere with lots of money for really nice modern buildings? Did you see the Dubai Tower (world's tallest structure)? Ant roundabout: I'll have to show you my book "Roundabouts of Great Britain" (it's not a great read). Ants are way better than the giant traffic cones that one in Leicester has though. Sculpture on a wire: Presumably the weight is quite high density. So long as the centre of gravity is below the wire, it should stay there with no problem! Nice photos :-) . Is Dubai an interesting place to visit, or just somewhere with lots of money for really nice modern buildings? Did you see the Dubai Tower (world’s tallest structure)?

Ant roundabout: I’ll have to show you my book “Roundabouts of Great Britain” (it’s not a great read). Ants are way better than the giant traffic cones that one in Leicester has though.
Sculpture on a wire: Presumably the weight is quite high density. So long as the centre of gravity is below the wire, it should stay there with no problem!

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