The crappy UK weather and the 4 hour time difference are making communications very difficult at the moment, what with Mrs G working her thick woolly socks off and the little Gs doing all manner of extra-curricular activity, and the fact that I’m going to bed earlier and earlier for any number of reasons (we’ll gloss over last Friday I think !) and the blog is fast becoming the only way to actually tell anyone what I’m doing with all my spare time !
I think I left off last time having told you about my next adventure (on Friday) which is a swimming race around the Burj Al Arab –
It’s 800m (apparently) all the way around, which shouldn’t pose too much of a problem for a racing snake like me (I’m pretty confident that I’ll make it all the way around without too much difficulty, it’s just how quickly is the question.
One of the reasons I’m doing it is because it’s pretty close to the open water Triathlon swim that I’ll have to do in sprint races, and as I’ve never raced in open water before it’s a good opportunity to find out what it’s like, and to get a handle on the sort of time I can expect.
I’ve got a pretty good idea about 20k on a bike and a 5k run but this is a bit of an oddity because although I can replicate the distance in a pool (in the same way I can replicate the other two in a gym) it’s completely different swimming in open water (as I discovered earlier this week – and thank you Psycho for insisting that I had a go before the actual race, and then challenging me to have another go while she was up a mountain somewhere). It’s also completely different swimming 800m straight off because in a pool you at least get a break every 25m as you turn – so all in all it’ll be an interesting experience !
I’ve even given up smoking for the week to see if it makes a difference on Friday (I’ve done really well and not killed anyone so far !). I think I must have been ready because apart from a couple of bad hours it’s all been relatively easy. I’ve also generally given up drinking as well, but that’s more of a practical thing as there’s nothing but hard liquor in the apartment and I haven’t had a car to get to the off-licence. However………
That’s all changed (or is about to anyway). Today I finally got my hire car and tomorrow I’m driving to the office in Abu Dhabi and then to the off-licence, and then, if I’ve got time, to Ikea (which is sort of on the way back). I need a rug for the floor in my bedroom, a medium sized saucepan and a casserole dish……. I can all here you shouting “why do you need a casserole dish Ian” – well, I’m glad you asked me that, because now that winter has set in here with a vengeance (the temperature during the day has plummeted to a staggering 28 degs….. and I dare not tell you that I had to put long trousers on a couple of nights ago to go to the local beach bar……) I feel like some comfort food. That, coupled with the fact that Psycho said that her favourite dish of all time was lamb shanks, mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables, has given me a burning desire to eat something other than curries, chilli and steak (not forgetting the ever present flapjacks). So it’s off to Ikea to get a casserole dish…… as you do !
On a slightly different, but strangely related note (Ikea is bang next door to Yas Marina Circuit – the venue for this weekend’s F1 race), I haven’t, so far at least, managed to blag any tickets for the qualifying on Saturday (I’ve got a very busy day at work on Sunday so I’ve written off any chance of going to the actual race) but we live in hope. I was, however, handed my tickets for the Dubai Sevens today – Hurrah. Apparently it’s a company treat and they give all of their staff a ticket for both days (I’m also taking my landlord and his boss because there’s a possible JV opportunity between our two companies…….and I owe him a few favours…… So there’s that to look forward to. And as if that wasn’t enough, the week afterwards “The Race Too Dubai” arrives in town. It’s the culmination to the European Golf Tour where the top 60 shoot it out for some obscene amount of money, and I get to watch (I discovered yesterday) for free ! As with a lot of things over here, they let the riffraff in for nothing – which is nice……. Of course, there is the usual opportunity to spend 400 quid and drink yourself in a blind stupor……but I think, just for a change, I might just take the free option and go and watch the golf !
And on that happy note I’m off to see why my phone is making so many funny noises and quite possibly go to bed early….. just for a change you see…….
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