She’ll pay our bills?
Poor old Lamees Hamdan. She goes on Oprah, she makes some outlandish statements about free electricity for Emiratis and lands herself in one big PR sandstorm. The topic divides Emiratis – between the cares and the who-cares. And then there are those who have decided to make fashion out of it. You too can pick up a ‘Leave Lamees Alone’ T-shirt to go with membership of the so-titled Facebook group. We particularly like the strapline: ‘She’ll pay our bills’. Buy your very own piece of glam at www.houseofglamo.com.
Snap happy
The annual Abu Dhabi Through Your Eyes photo competition appears to be going from strength to strength. Reports this month suggest that as many as 4,000 entries have arrived, spanning 77 different nationalities. That’s a heck of a lot more than we used to receive for our Snapshot column, but we suspect that prize money has something to do with it. While we were offering the simple pleasure of seeing your art in print, our competitor (run by the Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority) is offering Dhs30,000 for first prize, and not much less for runners up. Not that we’re cheap or anything, but how could we compete with that?
Be a good sport
March sees the inaugural Abu Dhabi Triathlon, in which people that may or may not be actual human beings perform body punishing feats in the name of spectator sport (no, Time Out Abu Dhabi won’t be sending a team – we can barely get from the sofa to the bedroom). Couple that with another golf tournament, and you start to suspect that Abu Dhabi likes its sport. The Saadiyat Beach Classic opens its doors for the first time on January 27, hoping to attract celebrities and pros from the golfing world in a charity event supporting five major charities from across the region.
