Wrangeld

Congrats Nivin

Congrats

OK. I am properly shocked by this, delighted, giddy with excitement but shocked and grateful and humbled and ... I hope you get the message. What a fantastic way to start a new week. Your support @Gaurav @Frederic @Rahimdad @Srikumar @Emmanuel has been immense. Thank you, thank you. (Hope there is not someone else in the seniors I missed). See you soon in the sand ...

@Frederic has us hooked on Speedex. We tried the others, but the quality and price just made it no longer worthwhile.

Friday’s Fun in the Sand I think it’s fair to say, after the winter rains, the sand is getting drier. The ‘hero’ drives, after the rain, when 4x4 was easy are well and truly over. Quite a few of us spent much of Friday knee (and in some cases, thigh) deep in sand digging out our friends who just a short few weeks ago had thought – what’s all the fuss about? Well … this! Friday was a mammoth day. 34 drivers in three Newbie convoys in the morning and 12 on an afternoon Fewbie drive. Before any details, I’m gonna get something off my chest. The pre-drive briefing is not optional. It’s not OK to arrive late. Or deflate while it’s going on. Or make it look obvious you ‘heard-it-all-before’. A safety briefing is given every time you fly, and they don’t let you ignore it for some of the same reasons these briefings are not optional. When the *&it hits the fan, you might just remember enough to help you follow those instructions to save your life. @Xaf (back me up here?). In your 4x4 it’s no different. The stuff you hear in the briefing might just sink in enough so that when you are being calmly instructed to turn or reverse or do nothing, that you follow the instruction instead of turning ‘the other left’ or digging yourself into an axle deep hole in the sand. Oh. And it’s simply polite. If 30 odd people can get up early and get to the meeting point on time … OK. Rant over. I imagine that while we are tucked up in bed on Thursday nights dreaming about the dunes (or whatever else you may be dreaming about [please, this is not a request to share]), @Srikumar, @Gaurav @Emmanueland @Frederic are looking at the list of probable attendees at the drives and trying to work out who goes in which convoy and where. Why? Because, by the time we all turn up its organized and all we have to do is take our place in line and off we go. [Perhaps, sometimes it does not feel quite as immediate as that, but convoy placement is not just a case of sticking a line of cars in the sand.] And off we go, we did. The three radio channels no longer interfere with each other, the convoys are not too long and with (in my case) @Frederic in the lead we know that the challenges will be, well, challenging while staying in the bounds of the capabilities of the drivers. Having been on a few newbie drives, I am pleased to say this one was quite ‘standard’. We had our share of refusals, and challenges and found ourselves digging from time to time, and pretty much, in our convoy everyone acquitted themselves extremely well. @Colin Jordan 'allowed' Cara to take the wheel of her car in the same way that @Jeepie allows me to drive from time to time As ever, the Wranglers in the crew motored on almost without incident @bunty_and_pops @Febin Frederic well done. You keep up the reputation beautifully. As ever we learned a thing or two about the sand and about recoveries. Thank you to everyone who conveniently got stuck. Without these opportunities to try recovery techniques they stay theoretical. As ever, we also had our fair share of laughs. Highlight of the day of course was the battle of the Pajeros. Actually, before I do that, the true highlight of the day was @Vanessa8580. The original plan for this drive was that she would take the wheel of the Pajero and Frederic would be her passenger. For other reasons, Frederic ended up leading so Vanessa could not drive. However, having cleared the stuck you’ll read about below, @Vanessa8580 took the wheel of the car and with a gleeful smile as wide as the horizon launched little Pajero flying over the same dune that had defeated @md sarfaraz . I am sure I heard a scream of ‘Yeehaa’ through the window and over the considerable engine noise, but cannot be 100% sure. Back to the battle of the Pajeros. To set the scene, big Pajero (crested on a dune) would not succumb to the best efforts of our spades and shovels so it was decided Frederic would recover with the kinetic ropes. So far so good. Everything was set up perfectly. Soft shackles attached, everyone out of the way, drivers in their seats, radio communications correctly made. Like David vs. Goliath the battle line was drawn as the tiny Pajero took up its stance to pull back its big brother. All checks had been made: 4 low, reverse, parking brake off. One, two, three and … nothing. Undeterred our brave champion set up for another go. One, two, three. Give it some gas. Again nothing. Approaching the stuck vehicle I decided to make sure all the instructions were understood. Reverse, handbrake off, 4 low, straighten the wheels … hmmmm your engine sounds rather quiet, are you sure you turned on the ignition and the engine is actually running? The rest, as they say is history (and will probably go down in Carnity history, as apparently this has not been an issue before). After that, the newbie drive was quite uneventful. The fewbie drive could be called plain sailing. Sailing into sand that is. Acting as second lead to @Emmanuel was a fantastic opportunity to exercise restraint and care for those coming behind. These technical dunes are an excellent playgound for the Jeep of myself and Jeepie. It has to be said, however, the technical dunes of Solar Park were quite a challenge for the long wheel bases of many of the following pack just about everyone had a challenging moment (my own, cresting a dune as Emannuel asked me to take a different line while I was already commited to a dune!). Notwithstanding the whole crew @Jeffrey Osito Pilgreen @Lucky sAm @Joe Biju Joseph @Mahmoud Hamzawy @bony raphi @Rizwanm2 had their moment(s). I think it’s best to leave it that @Brette had a chance to not only test but to perfect his recovery skills with the rope, while the rest of us had enough time to prepare all the Instagram images (@Michael sammy @Joe Biju Joseph), we might want of our vehicles in the desert. I was truly delighted that we took advantage of every last moment of the light before sunset before exiting, re-inflating and driving back to the city. Apologies if I missed out any names. Thanks one and all. Special call out to @Joe Biju Joseph whi is back off to Australia now the summer vacation is over. We are going to miss your green Hummer on the dunes mate. See you soon in the sand

Friday’s Fun in the Sand I think it’s fair to say, after the winter rains, the sand is getting drier. The ‘hero’ drives, after the rain, when 4x4 was easy are well and truly over. Quite a few of us spent much of Friday knee (and in some cases, thigh) deep in sand digging out our friends who just a short few weeks ago had thought – what’s all the fuss about? Well … this! Friday was a mammoth day. 34 drivers in three Newbie convoys in the morning and 12 on an afternoon Fewbie drive. Before any details, I’m gonna get something off my chest. The pre-drive briefing is not optional. It’s not OK to arrive late. Or deflate while it’s going on. Or make it look obvious you ‘heard-it-all-before’. A safety briefing is given every time you fly, and they don’t let you ignore it for some of the same reasons these briefings are not optional. When the *&it hits the fan, you might just remember enough to help you follow those instructions to save your life. @Xaf (back me up here?). In your 4x4 it’s no different. The stuff you hear in the briefing might just sink in enough so that when you are being calmly instructed to turn or reverse or do nothing, that you follow the instruction instead of turning ‘the other left’ or digging yourself into an axle deep hole in the sand. Oh. And it’s simply polite. If 30 odd people can get up early and get to the meeting point on time … OK. Rant over. I imagine that while we are tucked up in bed on Thursday nights dreaming about the dunes (or whatever else you may be dreaming about [please, this is not a request to share]), @Srikumar, @Gaurav @Emmanueland @Frederic are looking at the list of probable attendees at the drives and trying to work out who goes in which convoy and where. Why? Because, by the time we all turn up its organized and all we have to do is take our place in line and off we go. [Perhaps, sometimes it does not feel quite as immediate as that, but convoy placement is not just a case of sticking a line of cars in the sand.] And off we go, we did. The three radio channels no longer interfere with each other, the convoys are not too long and with (in my case) @Frederic in the lead we know that the challenges will be, well, challenging while staying in the bounds of the capabilities of the drivers. Having been on a few newbie drives, I am pleased to say this one was quite ‘standard’. We had our share of refusals, and challenges and found ourselves digging from time to time, and pretty much, in our convoy everyone acquitted themselves extremely well. @Colin Jordan 'allowed' Cara to take the wheel of her car in the same way that @Jeepie allows me to drive from time to time As ever, the Wranglers in the crew motored on almost without incident @bunty_and_pops @Febin Frederic well done. You keep up the reputation beautifully. As ever we learned a thing or two about the sand and about recoveries. Thank you to everyone who conveniently got stuck. Without these opportunities to try recovery techniques they stay theoretical. As ever, we also had our fair share of laughs. Highlight of the day of course was the battle of the Pajeros. Actually, before I do that, the true highlight of the day was @Vanessa8580. The original plan for this drive was that she would take the wheel of the Pajero and Frederic would be her passenger. For other reasons, Frederic ended up leading so Vanessa could not drive. However, having cleared the stuck you’ll read about below, @Vanessa8580 took the wheel of the car and with a gleeful smile as wide as the horizon launched little Pajero flying over the same dune that had defeated @md sarfaraz . I am sure I heard a scream of ‘Yeehaa’ through the window and over the considerable engine noise, but cannot be 100% sure. Back to the battle of the Pajeros. To set the scene, big Pajero (crested on a dune) would not succumb to the best efforts of our spades and shovels so it was decided Frederic would recover with the kinetic ropes. So far so good. Everything was set up perfectly. Soft shackles attached, everyone out of the way, drivers in their seats, radio communications correctly made. Like David vs. Goliath the battle line was drawn as the tiny Pajero took up its stance to pull back its big brother. All checks had been made: 4 low, reverse, parking brake off. One, two, three and … nothing. Undeterred our brave champion set up for another go. One, two, three. Give it some gas. Again nothing. Approaching the stuck vehicle I decided to make sure all the instructions were understood. Reverse, handbrake off, 4 low, straighten the wheels … hmmmm your engine sounds rather quiet, are you sure you turned on the ignition and the engine is actually running? The rest, as they say is history (and will probably go down in Carnity history, as apparently this has not been an issue before). After that, the newbie drive was quite uneventful. The fewbie drive could be called plain sailing. Sailing into sand that is. Acting as second lead to @Emmanuel was a fantastic opportunity to exercise restraint and care for those coming behind. These technical dunes are an excellent playgound for the Jeep of myself and Jeepie. It has to be said, however, the technical dunes of Solar Park were quite a challenge for the long wheel bases of many of the following pack just about everyone had a challenging moment (my own, cresting a dune as Emannuel asked me to take a different line while I was already commited to a dune!). Notwithstanding the whole crew @Jeffrey Osito Pilgreen @Lucky sAm @Joe Biju Joseph @Mahmoud Hamzawy @bony raphi @Rizwanm2 had their moment(s). I think it’s best to leave it that @Brette had a chance to not only test but to perfect his recovery skills with the rope, while the rest of us had enough time to prepare all the Instagram images (@Michael sammy @Joe Biju Joseph), we might want of our vehicles in the desert. I was truly delighted that we took advantage of every last moment of the light before sunset before exiting, re-inflating and driving back to the city. Apologies if I missed out any names. Thanks one and all. Special call out to @Joe Biju Joseph whi is back off to Australia now the summer vacation is over. We are going to miss your green Hummer on the dunes mate. See you soon in the sand

Congratulations @Joe Biju Joseph TJ's of the world unite!

Congratulations @Rizwanm2 Great news.

You're always welcome in our TJ

Envious does not even begin to explain it ... @Frederic I am laying down my writing materials, never to be used again! Your lyrical waxing of this drive has me salivating at the thought that some day I may ride the magnificent Liwa if I am fortunate enough to reach the elevated heights if intermediatoryness (yes, a made up word, but you get the gist). Hopefully you'll be sufficiently down from the bubble to tell us more on Friday. Thanks for sharing. See you soon in the sand.

Not been a member long enough to have gone out in the Summer, but I am told by all the seniors that yes, there are drives everyweek, including the during the summer - so the season is 52 weeks of the year.

Hi Emmanuel, Just a quick clarification - is the start point for this drive next to the finsih point of the Newbie drive? Question is if we can do both a Newbie and a Fewbie on the same day or not. Thanks in advance.

If only it was possible to get hold of Geolander AT/S at the moment 😂

Hi Chirag, As I think our our experts will tell you (so aologies for offering an answer as you did request 'expert' advice only!), the secret in the sand is not the width of the trye, but the length of the track when deflated (so it's actually more to do with the height of the tyre than the width). Being wider will of course give a wider footprint, but that is along a perpendicular line to the vehicle, and what you really want to achieve is more parallel coverage on the sand. Issues such as economy/tyre life/noise are driven just as much by the tyre thread pattern and quality of the tyre as the width. What I learned (as I needed two tires recently so have a tiny bit of understanding from that experience) is that the quality of tire is more important than just about anything else. I was tempted to buy some really great looking big tyres for my car - because they would look great - until one of our real experts brought me back to earth. The tires are the only thing in the car between you, the road and crashing. They have a really small footprint when you think about the job that they are supposed to do - which is keep you safely where you need to be on the road while the car tries to rip them apart with it's 00's of horsepower. A hgher quality 265 might be quieter, last longer, give better road holding and improved performance than aless expensive but really good looking set of 275s.

Anyone trying to work out the key words a great trick that I learned is to take the job post and put the whole advert into word cloud. The word cloud will tell you which are the most important terms for the prospective employer. Fill your CV, blank page and covering letter with these words and it may just get you past the computer screening.

Hi TJ - how's Bali! Would love to join you, but like Frederic, the chances of getting time out from work during this period are slim to nothing. Everyone tells me that Oman is spectacular, so it's on the wish list. We have a great book of trails and routes. Let us know if you make it there.

So you're sitting on the fence about that one then?

4L Wrangler insured in November with RSA. Roadside and Oman AED 876.75 Was offered by three other companies, all above AED 1,100. BTW compared to EU insurance either is a massive decrease. I was paying the equivalent of AED 3170 per year third party for a 15 year old C200 in the Netherlands.

Until I met Carnity (and the sand became my early morning mistress) Friday was gym, swim and anything but look at more screens. The great thing about Dubai is that there is always something on if you look for it. There's a festival, a concert, an opening. My bank has been great at inviting me to launches at Porsche and Ferrari and I thought, why not? Otherwise, the same as everyone else no? IKEA 😂

Oh boy, time to get back on the wagon (so I can enjoy more time in the wagon).

I have been at both ends of this I can concur on a few of the points aready raised. Here some insights that you do need to take into account with Linkedin. Recruiters use it to identify people who are unhappy in their job. When a job is posted and people apply, the poor agents go running to the company where the recruits come from = not a genuine job. Many jobs posted are already filled internally, but they go hunting for potential alternatives just in case. 99 times out of 100 the internal candidate gets the job because they are the internal candidate = not a 100% genuine job. Many jobs are posted speculatively by multiple agents someof whom have the instriction, some of whom hope that by brining in a candidate they might be able to get the instruction = potentially a genuine job, but not one that that agent has in its books Many agencies apply computer scanning to filter the CVs. If you CV does not have the key words they are loking for, even if you are the best possible candidate in the world, you will be excluded by the automatic system = genuine job, computer searches. People tend to employ people they know like and trust. Don't reply to the job application, network your way to teh job poster and get in touch direct. An internal referral is always better than being one of the many = genuine job, but network to get there. Is it possibly your CV that is not working? Are you preparing a new CV for EVERY SINGLE position. I kid you not, I drafted a new CV for every application. Small changes maybe, but someone opening the mail and seeing a xxxx CV, vs CV prepared for xxx company has much more impact = genuine job, make sure you do your homework before you apply. You are not right for every job, even if you think you are. All companies have a culture and some principles by which they operate. I have been excluded for being too old, too experienced, too qualified, too whatever ... in the end, tehy know what they are looking for = genuine job, but they are just not looking for you. There are sadly soem cruel, manupulative SOBs out there looking to earn a big amount of money from you. They post jobs, but what they really want to do is sell their CV writing services or some make it rich quick scheme. You don't know until you are too far down the line = no job, just misery and manipulation. LinkedIn is brilliant if used effectively. I pay for a premium account (especially when unemployed) because that investment means I get more information and can make my searches targeted and am assured that the poster is real. Applying through the normal portal is regrettably hopeless. Because of the situation just about every job gets 1000 applicants. You need to narrow your chances from 1/1000 to better odds. Never ever rely just on LinkedIn and boards for your job search. LinkedIn is about networking, so use it for that as well. Post interesting content that gets you noticed. Link with people that can advise you. And your question about favorite site ... anywhere but online. Get out into the world and make sure you network with people, at the gym, in the park, walking the dog, with your friends, old jobs. This network already knows you and can recommend you. Even on LinkedIn you're really just a stranger.

@Rahimdad Rahimbhai Once more beautifully written and giving reminiscences of a drive I did not enjoy with you ... until now! Reading all the weekend's reports has been a massive pleasure as you add colour from your perspective as lead to the enthusiasm of the people in your convoy. See you soon in the sand

Not sure I agree with you @Xaf about your writing skills, you brought an energy and sense of movement to every word. Sounds like some real seat of the pants excitement before the Liwa drive ... where your cooling fan will likely get some real exercise! See you soon in the sand

Congrats @Ale Vallecchi. No question, it's well deserved. See you soon in the sand

Love the look of the Patrol like this @Lucky sAm and such a shame we could not all celebrate your Fewbieness on Friday. See you soon in the sand ...