no//free//exits

So I got myself a security pass for Dubai Airport. It gave me access to the arrivals and departures area. I just couldn’t go through passport control. Which isn’t a big deal anyway. I learnt quite a few things in my 24 hours there. Like DNATA is synonymous with incompetency.

Here are some facts you should know about Dubai airport:

• The air filters in the smoking rooms don’t work. Some of the smoking rooms don’t even have air filters.
• The ‘24/7 tourist information desk’ was unmanned for 9 hours.
• It is fairly easy for someone to move between the departures and arrivals areas without being stopped.
• The staff at the immigration desk are extremely unprofessional, rude, and have a less than passable knowledge of visa procedures. Their English language skill is also severely lacking.
• There are plasma screens in the departure are that are supposed to play movies. Instead, they flash a “NO SIGNAL” sign.

These and a few other problems really put DNATA to shame. Although most of the other issues aren’t as serious or annoying, they can pretty much get on your nerves if you’re on a long transit. Like unclean bathrooms. But an unmanned 24/7 tourist desk? One wonders how much tourism revenue is lost to these ‘minor’ management issues.

It’s about time DNATA wakes up. They’re sleeping on the fine line between slacking and professionalism.

written by theplasticpoet \\ tags: dubai airport, incompetence, travel

Not.

HP tried REALLY hard to fuck up what could have been such a nice show. HP should stick to making shitty printers. The event was mismanaged. Nothing quite as bad as I am making it out to be, but it certainly could have been better.

I got there around 6:30 and met up with a friend. They let us in without much hassle and the generous Trendcrusher Pete accidentally gave us four tickets instead of two. Sadly, we had to return these out of decency.

So we went around the place checking things out, meeting people, breaking HP computers and stuff, waiting for the show to start. They had this really nice painting kiosk thingy for little children, who weren’t even allowed in. They had four crappy HP computers running Need for Speed Carbon on them. Good game, but shitty computers.

I don’t know what happened during the time I was getting some B/W film from Salaam stores, but when I got back, they had some lame comedian clown on stage. “Irra rwerre ougam firrim Scotland” was all I could hear. Seriously. Scottish pub sideshow comedians can not make a sober audience laugh. On top of that, he was filled with random borrowed clichéd material. What a sorry sod.

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written by theplasticpoet \\ tags: food, gig, indiephone, pictures, sunking