Sinterklaas part 1

The following article was in The National newspaper yesterday.  More pictures of the day to follow!

Famke's arabic homework

'Would love to help with the arabic homework but.....eh....not so sure about the instructions.....'

Expensive trip....

Dhs42,000 road fines in minutes

A motorist speeding down Dubai’s Sheikh Zayed Road clocked up dhs42,000 worth of fines in just five minutes.

The Emirati driver was caught by 12 different cameras, as he bombed down the highway, averaging 180kph, Arabic newspaper Emarat Alyoum reported.  After driving so recklessly, the man will be forced to pay up and his car will be impounded for ten months.  Director of Dubai Traffic Police, Major General Mohammed Seif Al Zafeen, told the newspaper that the man went to the traffic police department on Tuesday.  He claimed he was innocent and that his friend from another GCC country had been driving the car when the incident occurred last month. He asked for the one-year confiscation of his car and hefty fines to be reduced.

Major Al Zafeen said: “In his case, the car has to be impounded for one year because driving at this speed is very dangerous and messy… to encourage him to respect traffic rules, we agreed to reduce the impounding to 300 days.”

The man was from another emirate, and works in a government department.

The incident was reported one day after traffic police toughened up on dangerous driving, announcing any vehicle caught speeding more than 60km over the speed limit would be impounded on the spot.

PLEP 2010

Last Monday Thijs and his team gave the final presentation in Houston for a demanding audience to finish a year of PLEP. The presentation was well received and they got good feedback.  Thijs is happy to have finished a demanding year of juggling a job, PLEP and the family and sad to finish working with his teammates.  The girls and I  are very proud, but happy to have him at home a bit more often! :)  Below an article from the Halliburton CEO.

From the President
Versatility, originality typify 2010 PLEP graduates
By Dave Lesar, chairman, president and CEO

Where the Company is headed can be seen in the men and women of the President’s Leadership Excellence Program. As this year’s class made their final project presentations on Monday, I could only think, if these people have their way, there will be a lot of success and probably a few surprises in our future.

The Class of 2010 wrapped up in Houston with the four teams making thoughtful and carefully prepared presentations to a receptive but demanding audience of Halliburton management and Executive Committee members. The diverse group of women and men in the class represents Halliburton offices around the globe.

The teams started on their projects the day after their introduction at last year’s graduation event. The year’s work included studying the topics, digging out hidden issues and challenges, and developing solutions, and it culminated in Monday’s high-energy presentations. Each group introduced its topic, summarized the qualitative and quantitative research it conducted, and reviewed its analysis of the issues that had emerged. The climax of each presentation was the proposal of a plan of action, laid out in specific terms.

Each group’s formal presentation was followed by a question-and-answer session. The questions raised by the listeners, including mine, raised points about potential resistance to the changes proposed, research methodologies and differing perspectives on some of the issues. Everyone in the audience had a keen interest in the proposed solutions, and I was impressed with how skillfully the participants were able to clarify and expand upon their presentations.Of course, the presentations are the end product of the PLEP experience. But it’s also about extraordinary networking with colleagues and having opportunities for significant conversations with members of the management and executive teams.

It’s been a tradition for several years for the PLEP members to include community service projects as part of their regularly scheduled meetings. For example, class members helped sort medical supplies at PROJECT C.U.R.E. in Houston, and teamed up with Helping Hands of Kilgore in Kilgore, Texas, to clean the food pantry, restock shelves and put together bags of food for families in need. Late last year, the class went to the
Senior Citizens Center in Duncan, Oklahoma, planning to visit with the residents while a live band provided background music. Instead, they found themselves getting lessons in dancing the two-step and joining in a vigorous line-dancing session. Clearly, volunteer projects helped the PLEP members develop the versatility that leaders need.

The 2010 groups and their topics were:

• Performance Improvement Initiative (Marc Edwards, sponsor) – Nick Braley, Jim Longbottom, Michael Segura, Jim Vagher, Jamey Webster, Kelly Youngblood
• Planning (Jeff Miller, sponsor) – Rich Barclay, Stephanie Bragg,
  Odd Jespersen, Joshua Malbrough, Harold Mesa, Thijs Rademaker
• Alternative energy (Jonathan Lewis, sponsor) – Isidore Akpakpan, Desmond Kong, Henk Kool, Tim Moeller, Grant Roscoe, Susanna Sabbagh
• Business Development (Mark Richard, sponsor) – Daniel Dorffer, Scot Evans, Ron Hyden, Jonathan Ortiz, Sanjeev Verma, Lori Von Heyking.

I congratulate this year’s graduates and thank them for taking on their subjects with such passion and determination. The incoming class has much to live up to. My special thanks are due to Cathy Mann, 2008 graduate of the PLEP, for her outstanding leadership and dedication to continually improve the PLEP experience, and to Charles Muchmore as he completed his involvement with the program this year and was recognized for his many years of service to the program. We wish him well in all his future endeavors.  

A little advice to the Class of 2011: Work hard, listen to each other, be bold and don’t be afraid to laugh once in a while. Good luck!

Amazing picture of Dubai

An aerial picture of a cloud-shrouded Dubai has won first prize in a National Geographic photography contest ahead of 20,000 other entries.

The photo by Wijnand Van Till, a Dutch citizen who lives in the emirate, won the landscape category of the competition in the magazine's Netherlands edition. It was taken in April of last year.

Halloween!

Last sunday we celebrated Halloween in Meadows 8 with Casper, Marjolein and Lisa.  After Suzanne's pancakes we headed out onto the streets!  Great fun with scary costumes and of course loads of sweets.