Outstanding !

There’s nothing quite like listening to French rugby commentators get quieter and quieter…………there’s something quite special about it really.

I guess I should explain for anyone that doesn’t support the Saints – we gave the Frenchies a damn good thrashing and now we're into the final of the Heineken Cup in Cardiff against Leinster later in May……but we’ll worry about that nearer the time.

I should explain about the French commentator bit – in amongst the 75 TV channels in the hotel, there are English, French, German and many other channels in foreign language.  Last night I was channel hopping looking for anything interesting to pass the time, and I came across the other semi-final between Leinster and Toulouse and I just figured that if the French were going to show one then they were bound to show the other one the following day – and I was right !

It was probably on in Dubai and Abu Dhabi but that’s a bit far for a television programme so I’m over the moon to be able to watch it at all in the comfort of my own little cell – Outstanding !

Fingers crossed for the final now…..shame I won’t be able to go.  The last time they were in this particular cup final (which they won) I couldn’t go to that either because of the small (well, not that small as his mother will testify) matter of a three week old baby on my lap whilst his mother tried to get her breath back under trying circumstances.  I can tell you he was bounced about that day !

Right, back to reality – I’ve had a good day at work and a good day back at the hotel (now watch some git foul it all up for me !).  Work wise I’ve completed the process design stage today and am moving smoothly into the training phase, all on programme.  This is obviously good but it means that I have caught up with all the people who aren’t on programme and there is going to be a log-jam for translators and Arabic trainers…….we will just have to see what we can do (my Arabic is expanding by about 2 words a weeks so it may be some time before I can do the work myself, but you never know.

If I do the inventory (which I forgot last night, apologies for that) then that will fill you in on the rest of the day:

Gym – I ran for an hour on the treadmill tonight (in my new trainers, which are currently getting the big thumbs up).  I covered just over 9km and I don’t think I have ever sweated as much doing anything, even Psycho can’t make me swear that much !  My calves are a bit sore now though so I may circuit train tomorrow night and then go out with her on a bike whilst she runs about like a maniac on Tuesday – I’ll see how I feel (and how hot it is.  It was 41 degrees when we drove back from work tonight, which was what took me off the road and onto the treadmill !).

Food – nothing new really, just loads of chicken and veg, salad and fruit.  It’s starting to sound boring, and believe me I’m starting to find it boring, but it is starting to have the desired effect on my body so I suppose it’s worth it.  I think the Gods are against me anyway – I watched them bring out a new tub of ice cream this evening (chocolate……..) and I figured an hours running go me at least a scoop…….but when I got there the bloody lid was frozen on and even when I went back 5 minutes later it was still frozen (It’s in a stainless steel container) so I gave up and just had some melon (I did think it was all slightly unfair though !)

Money – after my financial madness on Friday I have settled back into my old AED 3 a day routine (although I did have to part with AED 25 for my laundry today but I’ve known that was coming since last week so it hardly counts as an extravagance……….)

Cigars – Today’s big news is that I’ve finished the last tin of duty frees that Tracey brought me a few weeks ago and I’ve decided that as I’ve already got the metaphorical rope around my neck, I might as well jump off the metaphorical horse.  I’m going to see how long I can go without buying any to start with, and if that proves easier than I expect we can think about giving up for a few days, and so on and so on.  I can’t be much fun to live with having given up or cut down on so many things that I like, so this may yet prove to be one step to far…………we shall see !

And on that bombshell I will leave you with another picture of a camel……but this time a very special one.  Painted from a photograph that I put up on here some time ago and then e-mailed to me – I think it’s outstanding.

Here’s the original just so you’ll agree with me !

Night night.