Couple's desert road to wedded bliss is blocked

Dubai: US President George W. Bush almost destroyed Eisa Omar's marriage plans.

What started as a creative effort to propose to Jennifer Gills, turned into a desert disaster when Omar chose January 14 as the big day. Little did he know that "the road" to eternal bliss would be blocked due to US President George W. Bush's visit to Dubai.

When he finally got to the heart of the Nad Al Sheba desert after spending three hours 40 minutes in traffic and formulating a zillion excuses to hide the surprise, Omar realised that things were just not meant to be.

"I felt like an idiot. There I was, in the middle of the desert, with rain pouring all over us both, bone cold, when out of the blue Jennifer started sneezing."

At first, he thought Jennifer may have caught a cold. However, the truth was a more frightening reality.

Omar said: "To my horror, after about 20 minutes we realised she was actually allergic to the sand!"

The couple met in the UAE, in 2005. Two years later Omar, a Yemeni graphic designer and Jennifer, a fashion-designing student from Switzerland, decided to take their friendship to a more serious level.

Omar knew Jennifer liked nature. It took him three months to get everything planned only to be ruined, he said.

"I don't understand why they had to block the roads all day. If they had just told the public at least a week in advance, things wouldn't have been so bad."

Jennifer, however, loved the way the events unfolded.

"Omar was out to surprise me, but I think I surprised him instead. If not for the proposal, I'll remember this day for everything else. It's been quite adventurous."

Stuck in traffic: Friendship blossoms

For Sulaiman Shafi, Monday's traffic jams cost him a day's earnings. "The rent-a-car company I work for pays us on a daily earnings basis. I was to pick a client at 12.45pm from the airport. I was on Emirates Road for three hours.

"So here I am, eating oranges with my friend, in the middle of nowhere."

Shafi's friend is construction site manager, Baldev Singh. The two had met recently, three hours before to be exact, when hunger and boredom in the traffic jam drove them out of their cars.

- N.J.K.