I can all hear you saying that I should have saved up and paid for it myself, and I agree – it was all in hand and then the shop I was going to get it from (and am now getting it from) decided to have a sale and if you bought anything in the sale then you had to pay 100% before the end of the sale (which is the end of January). So I had intended to hire a bike from them for the Triathlon at the beginning of February, having ordered my bike the week before, paid the deposit in January and then picked it up later in February, paying the rest then……… are you still with me ? Anyway, the upshot is that I’ve ordered a new bike which looks something like this (only in Black):
And my wonderful over-worked and fully appreciated wife is making the cash flow problem go away until I can get the money back to her a few days later – on the upside, I won’t have to hire a bike for the February Triathlon, I can ride my own ! It’s called a Planet X Stealth if you’re desperately keen to know more about it before I can get it back and take a better picture. I think that’s enough for this blog, but I can tell you that I’m jolly excited !
I should explain that this took place on Friday – this meant that I drove from my desert home to Dubai, then from Dubai to the bottom of Abu Dhabi Island (more of this in a minute) and then back to the desert. In total a round trip of approximately 598.4km. When I filled up the following day (having done total of 630km the total bill was AED 65, just shy of 11 pounds - Not bad me thinks !
Back to the story though, I went from Dubai to AD via IKEA to get a couple of things for the apartment and then on to the Volvo Ocean Village. This is the quay where the Volvo Ocean Round the World Yachts have been staying since they docked around New Years Eve and Friday was the last night before they took off for China on the next leg.
All very interesting, and once again it has to be said, an opportunity to see something that not many others around the world would get to. All topped off with loads to look at and do, and then a free concert by The Straits (to those of us old enough to remember, they used to be Dire Straits but only have two of the original members so have changed their name accordingly…… or maybe they’re just not Dire anymore ?).
Generally, life here is as it always has been, with little hiccups to keep you on your toes. I’m looking forward to getting my bike because I can then start to train properly for the bike bit of the Triathlon instead of either on a gym bike or not at all. My next priority is to sort out a pool for the swimming bit. I thought I only had one option (paying through the nose for access to the only decent hotel pool – actually, there is another option, which is to drive for about an hour to the beach and then use the sea !) but through work last week another option presented itself.
I was with one of my staff visiting a school and then he said that we were going to visit another school on the way home to look at a job that had come in overnight on the Help Desk. Turned out a window had shattered (which is quite common here, I think the heat has something to do with it, as probably does poor manufacturing), and it turned out to be in a primary school, in a building housing a perfect 25m swimming pool………. I’ve given my senior staff member the task of approaching the Principle and seeing if he can get access for an International Triathlete (that’s me by the way……. Well, I’m not a local and I am competing in the AD International Triathlon in March……..) for 3 – 4 hours a week, out of hours of course. The schools have 24hr security so it shouldn’t be a problem access wise, but we will see how the attitude holds up………. I’m not holding my breath but it would be a bit of coup if we could pull it off !
I did my first entertaining in the new apartment last night. Psycho came round for dinner (to be fair, she supplied the lamb shanks and brought the wine !). It was supposed to be dinner after circuit training but when we got to the park it turned out to be Ladies Night and I wasn’t allowed in. For reason I won’t trouble you with, she went for a run in the park and I went back to the apartment and cooked dinner. In case you’re concerned about my fitness levels, be assured that we are going back tonight for circuits and then will be running Yas tomorrow – probably our last outing together for some time L The plan is to do an Ironman Triathlon somewhere in the world around July 2013 (although we are struggling to find one as it’s hot countries off-season and neither of us, for some strange reason, want to go to Bolton in the UK. We’re looking further afield towards South Africa or California now……. Well, a man’s got to have a dream ! We did identify a Half-Ironman in Sri Lanka the day before my 50th birthday and 4 days after her 35th in Feb 14 – now if that doesn’t look like a good family holiday then I really don’t know what does !
That’s about it from me for this weekend. I’ll try and find something to tell you before the end of the week, just for the sake of keeping you interested you understand………
No comments:
Post a Comment