and I was called "David"

another post related to my recent work change.

There was this somehow-old couple who were inspecting their new house before moving in. They have spent nearly 19 years Oman and the guy could even speak Omani (yup, not just arabic, but the Omani accent of it).

They were very pleased with the amount of work done in the last month, and being the only guy with construction group wearing a Dishdasha , the two were very friendly and the guy spoke with me in Arabic.

I was wondering around with my camera taking several photos here and there, and they asked me politely to take couple of photos of the house and the view in general.

a month later, the wife came with a friend to inspect another house, and the 1st thing she said when she arrived was: "Oh I can see you still have your camera with you"
"Always", I replied being Formal and friendly at the same time.

During the 1st couple of minutes of inspection, she referred to me as "Camera guy".
"What do you think, camera guy?"
"beautiful view isnt it, camera guy?"

she never asked for my name, and for some reason, I never gave my name either.

I think after a while, she felt like she doesnt want to call me "camera guy" anymore, but she never asked for my name. She decided to call me "David", like the famous photographer. ;)

in the rest hour or so of the inspection, she would refer to me as "David". She asked me if I mind that and I told her I don't.

The inspection was done, and we got an "Ok, Thank you Carl, Thank you Marry, and thank you David for your time, hope to see you all soon".

"Who's David??" asked Carl, the troubleshooter with a REALLY BIG question mark over his cowboy hat that he wears 24/7. (which was soooo typical of him, he gets so busy with his work he looses touch with the surroundings. That's why he never noticed that the lady was calling me David this past hour.)

"Oh I called him David, like the famous photographer"

now every now and then Carl would call me "David", along with "Buddy", "difficult", "MTV omani" and couple of other names he has for me :P

The funny thing is, I had couple of conversations, emails, SMS's with the lady's husband regarding financing/payments issues, but I don't think he and her know that I am "David" xD

So that's how I was called David.


End of Blog Entry ...

People are so different

Throughout my job, and being around one of my friends, I got to meet many homeowners from different backgrounds, different personalities, different perspectives, etc.

It’s really interesting in so many ways. I met people who had lousy jobs but inherited lots of money. Some started from scratch and now have become millionaires and some started normally, found a connection, and then built their empire based on that connection.

People are also different in how they treat each other. We met some people who seem to be born with stand-up comedians' character, and some that are just too cold you would yawn in the middle of the day just talking to them.


I'm not being biased here, but honestly, amongst the many homeowners that i have met, the Arabs were the best (generally). I'm not saying all the non-Arabs were bad and the Arabs were great, but that's in general. Most of them were very understanding, talk politely and they were open and easy going.


I will post some good and bad examples.

Special features in the house
- Good: one guy was really upset that he ordered some extra stuff for his house but they weren’t there. He just asked the construction manager politely to check if those stuff can be added or not. A second after that he was throwing jokes about his assistant having an iPhone which is "a joke" to him.
- Bad: one guy found out that he does not have a big back-yard (even though its size is standard in that complex) and kept bitching about it for the whole hour of inspection! :S

Material used in toilets:
- Good: one guy was complaining that the material used in toilets were bad in quality, but when he was told that the same material used in all the houses, he accepted it.
- Bad: one guy replied saying: "well I don't care if all the other owners were dumb enough to accept these materials, I'm not paying till you change them all"

Treating the workers:
- Good: one guy shock hands with all the construction workers and at the end apologized to them if he have taken some of their time during the inspection.
- Bad: one guy told one of the workers: hey, stop what you are doing and leave the house, and he asked the construction manager to take all the workers to wait outside (in the sun) during his inspection (which lasted a little bit over an hour).

I can go on and on but these are just few examples of how people can be so different.

It makes me wonder, those owners must be dealing with many companies and have several properties, so how do they view us (or view me). Sometimes it's easy when you get a pat in the shoulder and a "great job" said to you, or maybe get an email that says that. However, most of the time, people don't show that.

I think giving a little bit of time and thought while doing your work (which is not a very hard thing to do), gives you some comfort that at least other people appreciate you and know that your better than most of the other people they have dealt with.


Let us all make that small extra effort to be better than "most" people ;)

(or you can follow what this poster says) xD