Almost the end…….

………of the first working week.  Tomorrow I’m working a half day effectively so that I can get back to Abu Dhabi city for a essential form filling exercise.  I say essential because I won’t get paid until I have filled most of them out !

I also need to fill out forms for my Residency Visa, my Medical Insurance and my Bank Account – all of which are relatively essential as far as I can tell !  I need 8 photographs for my Residency Visa so Allah alone knows who will know what I look like along with my name and passport details……doesn’t bear thinking about really !

Still, the whole thing is an opportunity to pack up everything I own here and leave it in a suitcase in the office because I have to go to another hotel next week because this one is fully booked.  We discovered today that it’s nothing to do with the camel racing but another contractor has booked most of the hotel because some IT system or other is going live at the local hospital…….which was slightly less exotic than being bumped by the equivalent of Royal Ascot but then you can’t have everything !

I thought you would all rather enjoy a comparison between my last Middle Eastern gym and my current offering (I might even remember to take on of next week hotel gym for a 3 way comparison), so today’s photo opportunity is two fold, a sort of before and after if you like……

Before……..

and after…….it’s amazing what you can do with a lick of paint !

It’s quite nice to feel that the building doesn’t shake when I’m running……… a big guy like me could get quite paranoid if I’m not careful !

Today I was taken out by my Arab client to visit some of his other offices.  We jumped into his non-descript Landcruiser, him in traditional Arab dress (with headdress) and we drive through his massive compound to get to the Transportation section.  Now there are no lines on the road, we are in a white Landcruiser (which looks the same as thousands of other Landcruisers, he looks just like any other Arab driving a white Landcruiser and yet he drives in a straight line without looking left or right despite traffic as everyone else parts the waves to let him through.  I can only imagine that it’s the manner in which you approach it that stops him having an accident every time he gets in his car because there is nothing to tell anyone else who is driving – survived so I suppose that is all that counts really !

Today’s inventory:

Cigars – 2 and a half (although I can’t see the other half surviving the night !)

Alcohol: Nothing so far but the weekend is beckoning and I think I probably deserve a little drink……..

Gym: Another sanctimonious hour.  I have found someone that goes running down to the roundabout (I’ll take a picture of this roundabout at some point although apart from being an interesting sort of roundabout it will have no bearing on your understanding of where it sits in the great scheme of things), it’s about 1.5km away from the hotel so 3 k there and back (I should have been an accountant……).  It’s all up hill on the way back so she does it twice !  Anyway, she’s threatened to take me out running so I had better keep up the training cause I hate to be embarrassed !

Weather:  Cloudy today, and much more humid but lovely none the less.

Food:  Curry for dinner and hand made cream cheese, smoked salmon and salad baguette for lunch.  I know it was hand made because I made it myself and snaffled it from the dinning room at breakfast time !  I have also been told that you can buy pork in the big supermarkets so the next time I find myself in an apartment rather than a hotel (Dubai next weekend) it’s going to be bacon sarnies all weekend.

Money:  Nothing again today but I know I’m AED 28 down tomorrow cause I have to collect my laundry and pay for it.  Good job I’ve been saving up all week !  On the subject of money, I thought I would add another line to the inventory so show the level of advertising revenue you have all raised by “clicking and closing”

Advertising revenue: £11.05  (that’s 3 decent bottles of wine from Tescos – give or take the odd penny !)

Right, off to pack now so I’m all ready for the morning (and we don’t have another 4 Weddings moment like this morning where I woke up at 5.30, looked at my watch thinking it was to early to get up and lay there for what seemed like 20 minutes until I thought I might as well get up rather than lie here – only to discover it was 8 and panicked…….it didn’t make any difference in the end, I still had breakfast and got to the office long before some people……