Taking Stock…….

Morning all.  Today we enter the final phase of operation “bored rigid”.  We’ve survived over here for 4 weeks now on very little money, no car and Julian’s never ending good will and generosity, but early next week I get paid – hurrah !

It’s not been all bad.  I’ve made the gym and the pool my friend, I’ve honed my cooking skills (well, that’s probably stretching things a wee bit……I’ve got a new curry receipt and developed a good low fat (well, lower fat) flapjack.  I’ve lost nearly a stone in weight (probably due more to not being able to afford to eat than anything else !) and I’ve made a few decisions – entering the Abu Dhabi Triathlon being one of the most notable.

I’m off back to the desert tomorrow, to stay in the Tilal Liwa for a few nights, meet some of my potential staff (I’m supposed to be interviewing them but seeing as I have more vacancies than staff and it’s a bugger trying to get people to work out in the middle of nowhere for crap money, I may have to be nice to them whilst getting a full understanding of their training needs !) and go for the inevitable desert run with Psycho – which will almost certainly cost me dinner !  It’ll be nice to be back in the old place again, and to see some of the old faces – I’m even looking forward to the dreaded buffet in a rather perverse way (smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast anyone ?).

(Just in case you'd forgotten.....)

I’m afraid that I haven’t got much to tell you really.  I’ve got sore feet from running 10k yesterday, although doing it on the back of a 2am brandy hangover and a cooked breakfast wasn’t really very clever idea…….still, I should say that we live and learn but I’m not sure that I do really…..I think that’s for a whole different therapy session !

I’m currently looking after Julian’s son (aged 12) cause Jules has gone to play golf.  I say “looking after” but it’s almost 9.30 here and there’s no sign of him waking up yet.  We had a debate last night where I was saying “what shall I do with him tomorrow while you’re out” and Julian was convinced that he’s still be asleep when he got back……time will tell, but I’m starting to think Jules will be right.  The rest of the day is equally interesting……… I think I might wander over to the Mall for a coffee and read the paper for a couple of hours and then back here for a swim, chili and a pack ready for tomorrow.  I’ve got to iron some shirts but other than that (and put a load of washing on) I don’t even have any domestic tasks to keep me occupied.

I’ll be nice next week, to be able to fill in my days and evenings without too much effort.  I remember getting back from work, a nap on a sunbed, gym and then dinner, quick chat on Skype with the family and then bed.  There was a pleasant simplicity about it (which began to border on insane simplicity after 5 months……..!).  Suffice to say there are merits in both ways of life (that one and my current one) and I’m looking forward to finding some middle ground, which can be both frugal and entertaining (and that doesn’t make my feet hurt quite so much !)  The addition of a car next week should add a bit of sanity, never mind the ability to go to the off-license, as well as just allowing me to go and visit some of the friends I’ve got in Dubai.

Right, time for some breakfast I think, so to the inventory – the usual for cigars, alcohol and money (the cigar and alcohol consumption is falling daily, despite the brandy hangover !).  I’ve no intention of taking any alcohol to the Tilal this coming week so in that sense we could be onto a bit of a winner this week……till Wednesday night at least !

The exercise/gym session we’ve already discussed briefly.  I’m up to 26 lengths (30 is the target) and should add another 2 to tonight’s session (700m).  The Tilal pool is also 25m so I shall carry on as normal when I get down there (I have a desert run booked in with Psycho on Monday night so at very worst I need to get a bike ride in – maybe a trip to the camel track and back is on the cards !  I’m supposed to have a rest day on Sunday but I’ve been thinking about moving my rest day to Thursdays so maybe this is a good opportunity ?

The weather is just the same as always although it’s getting more pleasant in the evenings.  It occurred to me that although I’d been here a whole month I hadn’t actually been out to lay in the sun yet and that I’m as pasty white under my clothes as I ever was – time to do something about a Christmas tan I think !

Food has been pretty similar to all the other blogs I’ve written here – I have, as I mentioned, developed a very nice flapjack receipt, and last night I had a go at Lebanese chicken kebabs (with some measure of success but there’s still some way to go I feel !).

The pool match has taken a bit of a dive from my perspective.  Not very long go the score was 5 all.  I subsequently lost about 3 matches on the trot to go 8 – 5 down and it’s currently 10 – 6 I think.  We’ve started playing 9 ball instead of the full game, but making it first to 9 frames rather than best of 9 (first to 5).  This is probably better for me but we will have to see how it all pans out in the next few weeks.

Right, breakfast it is – see you all back in the sand.  COYS.

Well I never……..

This morning I signed up for the Abu Dhabi Triathlon in a fit of “oh, get on and do something”.  It’s not actually until the 3^rd March next year but it has a limited number of places and they’re sold on a first come, first served basis.  So yesterday I read an article in one of the papers about how their reporters and production staff were getting geared up now that the entry date was open, I thought “sod it, just get on with it” – so I did !

There are three distances in the AD Tri – Sprint, Short and Long, and just to add some confusion to anyone that already knows about these things, or who has been paying attention to some of my other blogs, they’re not the normal distances you would expect to find !  A normal Sprint, for instance, is 750m swim, 20km bike and a 5km run, the AD sprint has a 50km bike ride instead !  The other two are equally odd but as swimming is currently my weakest discipline, I have to be realistic, even if I have got 3-4 months to improve it I was unlikely to be able to go up to 1.5km (which is the distance for the short course – along with a 100km bike ride and a 10 km run.  The Long course is double all of that !).

Anyway – that leaves me with a number of tasks.  Firstly I have to get my swimming up to speed (well, endurance actually.)  Most Triathlons out here have open water swims so there’re added complications, and somehow I have to get to grips with that.  There is a race around an island hotel (the Burj Al Arab – the fmouse “big sail” looking one……) on the 11^th November, which is 800m but I’m not sure about a couple of things, whether I’ll be fit enough, whether I need a wetsuit (which I probably will do for the AD Tri) and whether I should be worried about the shark warnings that cleared Dubai’s beaches last week………..

I also need to buy a bike. This is a slightly more pressing problem (before the end of the year at the very latest) but my personal financial advisor (Mrs G) says I can’t have one until I’ve saved up for it and I can’t save up for it until I’ve sorted out some other stuff first……..I can see a charm offensive on the horizon !  I could get promoted at work, or win the lottery, but I’m all out of rich relatives to charm (or inherit from !).  Even a decent entry level road bike and bits (helmet, pedals, shoes, etc.) is going to cost me the thick end of a grand, and although I could probably get a cheaper entry level in the UK, by the time I’ve got it here there won’t be much in it.  Then there’s the issue of fitting, servicing, what to do if anything goes Pete Tong, and in the end I think it stacks up to get it over here…….. Darling…….

I also need some other kit and bits and pieces, but as Santa’s coming, I think I know what my Christmas list is going to look like !  Talking of Christmas for a minute, today we got an e-mail with the date of our office Christmas Party……. I don’t know why, but it hadn’t crossed my mind that we’d have one………  Christmas isn’t a public holiday, here so leave, and fitting in all the families that want to return to the UK, will be a bit of a juggling act, but we’ve been promised Christmas or New Year off if we want it, so it’s just a case of getting our leave requests in and crossing our fingers (it’s the first time I’ve had to worry about this sort of thing for about 10 years – having worked for myself, it was easy to just do what I wanted….. not anymore !)

Back to Triathlons for a minute – I’ve also got to find at least one other minor one before I go for the biggie.  I don’t want to make my cock-ups at the big one, with the worlds press on hand, following my every move……. Well, maybe not, but you know what I mean.  So that got to fit in with the bike buying as well, just to add another complication to an already complicated scenario.  Hopefully we can get it sorted out quickly because if I’m back off down to the desert and then I’ll have the perfect opportunity to get out and ride, as the roads there are smooth (generally), wide, well lit and above all, quiet – hundreds of kilometers of empty tarmac just waiting for me to whiz over it, I can’t wait.

Lastly, and just so you can’t say you haven’t been warned, I think I’ll venture into the murky world of sponsorship for this event.  I mentioned to a friend in the UK who runs a children’s charity, that I was going to do a Triathlon and she was like a rat up a drainpipe – so as I’ve never been bothered with this sort of sponsorship stuff before, and I’m getting a fairly easy ride with training etc. and because I feel a bit guilty that I’ve never done the sponsorship thing before (and because she’s very pretty and very persuasive) I’ll let you know the details shortly and then let the nagging begin !

Right, inventory time – money, cigars and alcohol are all pretty much stable (i.e. I haven’t got any so I can’t have any).  I think I’m going to make a sort of only smoke the odd cigar at weekends sort of commitment……shortly, and until the 4^th March at least so watch out for miserable grumpy buggers on bikes !

Food – finally yesterday, after much lunchtime exploring and countless expensive lunches in Costa Coffee and such like, I found a decent looking Shwarma (kebab) shop relatively near to work – AED 5 each.  I knew they had to be out there somewhere but it took me to look for them and suggest we went there to an Arabic speaking colleague (there might have been questions !).  We went, we saw and we conquered – and jolly nice it was too.  I probably didn’t need the second one but you had to have two to know you didn’t need the second one……if you see what I mean……

Gym (to become known as training) – I can’t be bothered to look and see what I posted the last time I wrote, and therefore what has gone on since, but to summarise, Sunday was my rest day, Monday I woke up with a sore throat feeling snotty but swam anyway (I’m now up to 650m in 50m intervals – in two more sessions I will have reached the target distance and will start to cut out the intervals), and then last night, because I’m still feeling snotty, I went to the gym and did a relatively sensible cross-trainer and weights session.  Tonight I’ll either run or bike, probably based on the machinery that’s available when get there.  I’m still feeling snotty so I won’t go mad, but Phyco’s in town tomorrow and wants to do something, and because I’m back in her training zone on Sunday night for a few days (which is bound to cost me dinner somehow !) I need to feel better or she’ll kill me at circuits on Monday or a desert run on Tuesday (or both……..).

The weather is a cooling 37 degs today and looks set to stay that way for a few days at least.  The night temperatures are dropping slowly (we’re about 23 degs at the moment) and they will be the bit that continues to fall, especially in the desert, so there may be a good chance I can get some sleep.

Pool tournament – I’ve had a disastrous few days and I’m now 8 – 5 down (having been 5 all).  I haven’t been all that lucky, and on occasions haven’t played all that well, but to be fair to Julian, he’s been absolute mustard and I’ve been blown away.  He even cleared up from a break the other day, I didn’t even get a shot, and there’s not much I can do about a frame like that !

I think that’s about it really, certainly for the moment, but there’s lots of things on the way – the AD GP in a about 3 weeks, the sevens and the golf (Race to Dubai) following on one weekend after another at the beginning of December, then the Camel Festival in Western Region, and the Dune buggy racing festival thingy the first week in January, horse racing, brunches and all manner of interesting things…….not least my successful training and sponsorship regimes, so TTFN and be good, and if you can’t be good then make sure you’re really filthy !

Oh Dear……..

I’ve just read my last blog, and if it teaches us nothing else then it should teach us to stay away from computers when we’ve been drinking !

The deranged ramblings of horse couldn’t have been any worse – I mean, my date was lovely, and she is very pretty, but astonishingly beautiful…….twice ?  I guess I must have hoped that she might read this somehow………. Still, it was a bloody good night out !

Right, back to reality.  Here we are, back at the weekend, doing all the things you do at the weekend.  Yesterday I took a Porsche grocery shopping (I think it’s still in a state of shock), made flapjacks (again, but perfectly this time) and chili for the freezer, and curry for dinner, so we’re sorted on the food front for at least a week – which is nice.

I went completely mad on the exercise front in between all of that domesticity though.  I went over to the gym to do a bit of cycling – I hadn’t given it a huge amount of thought other than to think that if it was quiet then I might try and do an hour on the bike as a bit of a test.  In preparation for this, and as a bit of an aside, I thought I would find my headphones and play something on my iphone whilst I was peddling away.  I wasn’t sure if I wanted to listen to music as I tend to do that at work when I’m banging away on the computer (phnah phnah…..) so I’d had a look in the app store to see if there were any free audio books and low and behold I now have Alice and Wonderland and Robinson Crusoe for company……not what you’d call sparklingly intellectual I grant you, but hey, beggars can’t be choosers, and believe me, there’s a lot more to Alice in Wonderland than anything we’ve seen at the cinema !

Right, back to the plot – I’m in the gym, on a bike, listening to Alice in Wonderland (and watching some Chinese martial arts film on the telly without any sound) and feeling quite good about my physical state so decided to see if an hour on the bike could be followed by a bit of a run to see how I’d adapted after the last time I’d jumped of a bike and onto a treadmill.  So after 30k on the bike (in an hour – that’s an average speed of 30 km/h for those of you that like to know the complicated detail of these things……..) I jumped off and straight onto a treadmill and started running.  As I hadn’t planned anything I just sort of kept running to see how far I could actually go…….. it started to get hard work at about 3k and by 4k I was hanging on……….so I set 5k as a target and gritted my teeth………..I made it, and I’m still alive although my body has put in a formal letter of complaint (I took it for a 600m swim this morning, before breakfast, as a treat, but it’s still complaining………talk about ungrateful !).  Rest day tomorrow – and I’ll definitely be resting, although I’m unsure where I’ll be resting as we’re in a bit of limbo at work for a few days, so I may have to make it up as I go along !

Other news – I’m going to have to hire a car.  I simply cannot keep scrounging lifts and borrowing Porsches to go shopping (I mean, I have some pride after all………someone eventually is going to see me in a Porsche and then before you know it news will get out and people will start pointing and whispering……..).  I’m mainly going to have to hire a car though because when I go back to the desert I don’t want to be reliant on other people – actually, that’s not the main reason, the main reason is that I want to go to the off-license in Abu Dhabi without having to plan it with someone else !  Time will tell soon enough but I managed to get the company that hires to my boss to give me the same deal (which is bloody good compared with some of the others I’ve seen), and now it’s just a question of sorting out the paperwork and the date for collection.

Nothing much to tell you on the inventory front really.  Alcohol and cigar consumption is down generally, although there have been odd moments of both.  Food remains functional rather than exceptional.  The weather is turning for the better (which means it’s getting cooler and less humid, especially at night, which leads to fog in the mornings sometimes – hence the picture on the last blog).  Exercise we’ve dealt with, which I think only leaves the pool match – Jules is back and the match continues a pace with the overall score standing at 5 – 4 to me.  It is all slightly unfair, although we’re pretty evenly matched, as we tend to play when Julian is “slightly the worse for wear” which generally works in my favour…….not that I’m complaining !

I’m off to have a cup of coffee and an afternoon reading the papers with an Arab friend of mine over in one of the local malls – a pleasant way to waste a couple of hours, and always a good source of cultural questions/answers because he’s never refused to answer anything – which means I can get answers to some of the strangest questions (I’m going to demand a full explanation of why Arab men kiss in so many different ways – noses, cheeks and rather bizarrely, shoulders……….remind me, and I’ll share the answers with you !)

TTFN

Another day in the life………

I promise that, as time goes on, this blog will be more interesting than what I had to eat and what my journey to work was like………but in the meantime you’ll just have to put up with my more mundane ramblings.

As an aside to mundane ramblings, I would like to tell you about the lovely evening I had last night.  It started in the usual way, drab drive home from work with my boss (not that he is drab, the conversation is good – we have very similar backgrounds and ideals), but the 150km drive from Abu Dhabi to Dubai isn’t all that interesting (there’s a lot of sand) and because Jules was away (in war torn Iraq – I can’t believe that wartorn isn’t actually one word !) I had the flat to myself.  So, frozen lasagna and salad for tea, and catch up on the third series of Gavin & Stacey for me !          

Then out of the blue (and much to the later suspicion on my good lady wife….) I get a text, then a call, from an old desert friend of mine, who now lives in Dubai, and who I regularly communicate with, saying that she’s in my end of Dubai and do I fancy a drink ?

Well, one thing leads to another and I find myself saying yes (I struggled, but she was too good for me….)  and I find myself laying on some kind of bed, in a bar, on a beach, with a beer, and the most astonishingly beautiful young woman (I Know, I find it hard to believe myself, and I was there !) – what’s more, and I know that this is difficult for those of you that know me, she insisted on buying the beer – I was like a pig in poo !

Before we all get carried away, I’d just like to put all this into perspective – it was only one beer………I know, I can hear you all wailing….but I had to drive.  Killing two bird with one stone I’d managed to ponce a lift from her so that I could go and retrieve Jules’s Porsche from the golf club (we need toilet roll……..).

Anyway, for someone that’s scrimping every penny for the next 9 days, the offer of a free beer and a lift was gold dust……never mind being with a beautiful, intelligent female who was buying beer….thought never crossed my mind (I managed to make my beer last 2 hours though…..but then again, it was only Heineken)……………what a life……………………….

Tonight is only brief, for a number of reasons, but mostly wine, and therefore the inventory reads thus:

Cigars – not very many at all in the last 3 days…..as long as you don’t count tonight

Alcohol: ditto

Food: Diddly squat (although I have found a rather interesting Lebanese receipt that looks interesting

Gym: Moving on at a pace (I can’t be arsed to tell you what I’ve been doing but rest assured, it’s no more interesting than the last few days !)

Weather:  It’s been foggy……..

(I hasten to add that I didn't take the picture.....)

The sharpe pointy thing in the middle is the Burg Khalifa, the worlds talst building........just thought I'd mention it...........

Sadly, and apart from that, I haven’t got a huge amount to say for now……………………….

Nothing Much Too Talk About (Again)

Life here is bumbling along as it has for the last few days, with efforts to get healthy and save money have both been relatively successfully with the only thing suffering slightly being my sanity.  The biggest victim of the newish regime has been sleep – going to be without any alcohol does seem to be a problem, but not for any alcoholism problems as you may imagine, but from the volume of replacement liquid which causes a disrupted sleep pattern and several trips to the smallest room.  Still, it can’t be doing me any harm physically !

One of the reasons I’m having to drink more (water) is because of the step up in the exercise routine.  I’ve spent a couple of weeks getting acclimatised again, and generally getting over the flight and three months lounging about at home, and have now stepped up the regime.  I’ve also spent the last couple of weeks trying to lose some weight so that when I do step up the regime I’m not trying to lug quite so much around.  This has been quite successful (even if I do say so myself) as I’m currently weighing in at 14st 3lbs (or 201lbs for our American cousins, or 91kgs for those of you determined to join the European Union !).  This is pretty much as low as I’ve been since a teenager (as far as I know) and certainly as low as I’ve been in the last 9+ years – I say 9+ because we only started weighing ourselves after my daughter was born and we went on a strict “get rid of the effects of having a second baby” diet which resulted in both myself and Tracey loosing 2 stone plus.  To put it into perspective, weighing in at 14st 3lbs means that I’ve lost just over a stone in a month, and most of that in the last 2 weeks.

It must be doing me some good because last night I did a hard 10km on the bike in just under 18 mins followed immediately by 2.5km on the treadmill.  It’s the first time I’ve ever really gone from one to another immediately and is all part of the preparation for a triathlon, where you obviously have to do that twice, first from the swim to the bike, and then from the bike to the run.  Practicing the other “transition” (T1 as it’s known) from swim to bike may be a bit more difficult in the big city but it should be easier when I get to the desert and can get out of the pool and straight onto a real bike – only time will tell.

Anyway, apart from feeling like my calves were going to lock up at any time for the first 1000m (almost to the metre…..) the only issue was the blood returning to my nether regions and we’ll leave that part of it to the imagination if you don’t mind !  So the point of all this self-congratulation was to lead you back to why I have to drink so much water – it’s because I’m sweating like a horse most of the time, and what with long car journeys at either end of the day (and therefore trying not to need to stop) I tend to have to back end load at the end of the day to get hydrated again.

Tonight’s designated activity is swimming where I’m continuing to build up my endurance to a minimum of 750m of front crawl.  I’ve been following a sort of training principle (intervals) which for those of you that are interested means that I’m swimming 50m, resting for 30 seconds and then another 50m, and so on.  I’m doing this until I can swim the full distance but with rests (30 lengths of our apartment pool) and then you either/or reduce the amount of rest time or increase the amount of metres between rests.  I’m currently up to 500m (10 x 50m) and adding 2 lengths (50m) each session.  I’m generally doing one session of swim, bike, run or gym during the week with two sessions on a Friday and Saturday and a complete rest on Sundays.  The aim is to be able to swim at least 750m, cycle at least 20km and run 5k…….one after another !  This is the Sprint Triathlon distance and is probably the best one to start with.  Next is the Olympic distance which is twice as far in all three disciplines – and a good aiming point but some distance away from my attainment at the moment…….but time and availability is on my side at the moment !

Other than all that I haven’t got a huge amount to tell you.  It looks like I’m off to the Tilal Liwa in Madinat Zayed next week for 4 days of interviewing my staff but it’s all swilling around in the atmosphere at the moment cause the hotels not confirmed and we’re not officially allowed to talk to the people who are supposedly going to work for us yet.  Still, I’m kind of excited to be going back in a lot of sad ways – I’ve decided that the big city is a very lonely place unless you have friends and money on tap and that if you haven’t got that then you might as well be enjoying some of the trappings in a quiet place !  I’m quite looking forward to running and cycling in the desert again as well, as sad as that sounds (to some of you at least).

Right, that’s enough rambling for now – as far as the inventory goes, I’ve drunk nothing, spent nothing, cut right back on cigars (I’m looking forward to my body catching up with reality on that front…..) eaten nothing of note (although we are about to go and explore the local area cause I’m bored with wasting a fiver every lunchtime in Costa Coffee !), exercise has been covered more than adequately above and the weather is what it is (foggy in the morning, which adds a little spice to the Road of Death – have to stop calling it that by the way, it’s worrying Tracey……).

The only other thing of note is the fact that today I had a haircut.  The fire alarm went off so I went for a wander up the road to see what was there and found a barbers.  Women ill not understand the concept of just wandering into a barbers and asking for a haircut (and some “men” I know come to think of it…..) but it’s fine and it cost me AED20 so it can’t be bad – well, it looks OK so that’s about all there is to be said really………

A Weekend of Not Very Much Really

After all the excitement of last weekend, with rugby, friends and parties, this weekend turned out to be exactly the opposite – bordering on boring frankly.  Money is tight this month because it just is.  I had gone 3 months without earning anything and the pressure is definitely on to get to the end of this month and get paid without adding to any financial problems.  I also have to set the financial bar somehow so I know what I can live on here and the rest can go home, so it’s an interesting exercise in self-control !

I’ve enjoyed the whole shopping, cooking, eating thing.  When you haven’t got too much money but you do have plenty of time then it’s quite interesting how far you will go to look for a cheaper option.  I have “tested” a number of supermarkets over the last 2 weeks and have settled on massive one in somewhere called Ibn Battuta Mall which is a couple of metro stops from my local station.  The metro is a bit of an issue in itself as travelling with loads of shopping isn’t the best idea, taxis are expensive and I don’t have a car – so little and often is the current mantra !  Anyway, back to boring weekends………

Thursday night I was invited out to meet a few work colleagues from other projects at a local bar (which was handy).  I wandered over at about eight, having got involved in pool match with Julian (more of that in a minute – probably in the inventory), had a couple of glasses of wine and then made my excuses and wandered back – two reasons for this, firstly, a live band had just started and you couldn’t hear yourself think, and secondly, because there was a fish and chip shop opposite the bar…….and I hadn’t had any dinner !  If you leave aside the fact that I had to pay the equivalent of about 11 quid for fish, chips and mushy peas, it was bloody marvellous !

Friday I got up and went to the gym.  Fridays are a bit of an odd day here because they are the religious day and therefore nothing much gets going until lunchtime (the Metro doesn’t open until 1pm, and the first train at my station going into town is at 1.15 – going out of town it’s not until 1.53 !).  I needed feeding and food so jumped on the Metro and went to one of the big malls where I knew I could get junk in the food court and there’d be a supermarket (Carrefore).  Suitably full of KFC and ingredients for Lasagne and chilli I went home and made a big lasagne and had it with some nice salad.  The rest has gone in the freezer along with the rest of last night’s chilli so I’m stocked for the rest of the week cooking wise.  Julian is/was supposed to be going to Basrah for the week but last night there were problems with his flight so I don’t know whether he’s around for food this week or not.

Back to the weekend – yesterday I was supposed to be going to watch the rugby with another Welsh friend but she has her mum staying with her at the moment and they all decided that a desert safari was more prudent than international rugby (turns out they were right – who’d have thought it !).  I was on the metro on the way to meet them when I go the message but it didn’t matter cause I was also taking in my favourite mall (Dubai Mall) because I needed a couple of things which I guessed I could get in Waitrose (oh yes, Waitrose !).  So I spent a very pleasant 4 hours wandering, drinking coffee, reading the paper, and I found this brilliant library……millions of books, magazines, places to sit and read, and for some strange reason, tills by the door……….I spent 2 hours in there learning all sorts of things and will definitely be going back at some point !

When I finally got home I made a chilli and then had a lovely 2 hour nap, went for a proper swim training session, reheated the chilli (it’s always better when it’s been reheated), had another leg of pool with Jules and went to bed – not a bad weekend considering I spent most of it alone without spending too much money.  It’s not something I’d want to repeat very often but needs must etc.

The inventory thing isn’t going to work very well unless I update this every day, and I don’t think any of us want that…….. so there will have to be a fair bit of generalisation so that it all makes sense over time !

A new addition to this section though will be the on-going pool competition that Julian and I have devised.  When we get the chance we are playing best of 9 frames and keeping score on a running basis – currently the score stands at 3 legs each after I won last night’s session 5-3.  Generally the sessions have been very close with at least 4 of them going to the final frame to decide the winner.  The one exception to that was a sound thrashing I was administer (5-1) a few nights ago but I’ve pulled my socks up since then.

Otherwise the tale of the tape goes something like –

Alcohol – on-days and off-days.  It seems to be all or nothing with me drinking quite a lot of hot water and lemon or red wine and brandy but very little in between.  There isn’t likely to be much change to that until I can get away from temptation !

Cigars – I have managed to wrestle back control and have cut down significantly……….

Food – Nothing of note unless you count the superb lasagne and chilli that I manufactured and the outstanding fish & chips I had on Thursday !  Certainly nothing of any cultural note…….

Weather – it’s still warm but we’re back to horrid humid on and off.  This morning it was very misty and muggy and I haven’t been out for few hours so I don’t know where we’ve moved on to.

Gym – several sessions building quite nicely.  The whole triathlon thing is quite interesting, and the science behind it is frightening if you ever get really competitive (which is unlikely from my perspective).  I’m trying to build up my swimming stamina and I’m going to have to address my running soon…..I can’t put that off any longer – as well as the fact that I’m probably going to have to do everything (run and cycle) without socks, so I’m going to have to toughen up my feet somehow !

That’s about it really I’m afraid – if I remember I’ll take a couple of local photos in the near future so you can get a view of the apartment and its surroundings.

Life In The Fast Lane

As you will have picked up from the previous entry, I’m living in Dubai and working in Abu Dhabi.  I’m reasonably sure that most of you don’t know the first thing about the physical geography of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), of which the Emirates of Dubai and Abu Dhabi are but two of Seven (generally the biggest and richest).  The other five are less relevant, and in the opposite direction, and may, or may not, be dealt with at some future date.  The public transport in the UAE is relatively diverse but short on numbers – there’s a metro in Dubai (which is brilliant if it happens to go from where you are to where you want to be…….which is not always the case), there are some reasonable buses (which rarely seems to connect without a hike between stops) and there’s the odd coach going from Dubai to Abu Dhabi……other than that it’s cars and taxis all the way.

There are all sorts of initiatives planned, and/or being developed or built but for now, if you want to go from Dubai to Abu Dhabi then you have to get a car of some sort and drive the Road of Death !  (it’s not actually called the Road of Death you understand, I just made that up for effect……).  The RofD is a 4-5 lane motorway which connects various parts of the UAE together, but particularly Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and because property is much cheaper in Dubai than in Abu Dhabi, it’s subject to a daily hour long commute (for me at least) each way…….and it’s mental !

Today, I put some factors together, and am starting to form an opinion as to why it’s mental:

-         there are no lorries on the road to slow everything down (there’s a separate truck road);

-         the locals have got more money than sense, and high testosterone levels, which generally everything they drive either weighs in at 6 tons or has AMG after the 6L;

-         the Indians are either going home after a 12 hour night shift and are falling asleep, or they’re going to work after four hours sleep and haven’t woken up yet; and

-         everyone else is on the phone.

On the upside, and this might take a little explaining (actually, hang on, I’ll see if I can find a map !)

There, that’s better isn’t it !

A picture tells a thousand words – I have added Madinat Zayed for those of you that followed me earlier in the year, and so that you will have a mental reference point when I continue rambling over the next few days/ weeks/ months/ years (we’re back to “Delete as applicable” !).

My journey is essentially from the bottom edge of the Dubai circle into the centre of Abu Dhabi.  This isn’t as bad as it could be because I’m at the right end of Dubai and not having to go to the wrong end of Abu Dhabi (which is an island where one end is connected to the mainland by three bridges and then there is a new interconnecting island highway which connects a number of islands to the mainland, including Yas Island – where the Grand Prix circuit is).  I should explain – Dubai is built along the coast of the Persian Gulf and is therefore about 5km wide and 50km long.  For most things I’m at the right end (fortunately) and for everything else you just leave plenty of time !

Personally, I can’t wait until I get back to the desert (Madinat Zayed) for a bit of piece and quiet, and a few camels……and some sand that doesn’t smell of petrol fumes.  But hey, I’m just happy to be here doing something useful.

I think today would be a good day to start the inventory again (mostly because I haven’t had a cigar yet……)  The usual rules apply I think.

Alcohol – nothing yesterday and nothing so far today (I have to confess that I’m on the way to the pub to meet some of my new work colleagues and to be introduced to others)

Cigars – nothing so far today.  I am making a conscious effort to cut down severely – this is generally due to the significant increase in consumption since I got here, so getting back to normal is the first aim !

Exercise – As some of you will know I trained like mad last time I was here, with little purpose other than to stay out of trouble and generally be healthier – this was enhanced by adding a training partner who does ultra marathons and is generally as mad as a box of frogs……..but because she’s a girl I can’t just stand there and let her beat me……….well, not without trying to catch up anyway.  We talked about doing Triathlons last time, and now she’s gone and done one it means that I’ve got to do one as well.  The long and short of it is, I’m working up the three disciplines so that I can at least achieve some respectability the first time I go out………although we do have a slight problem in that I don’t have a bike out here yet (or any money, which might prove to be a bit of a problem…….) but I’ve been making up for it by trying to develop some kind of endurance in the pool – because I had zero front crawl before and open water competitive breaststroke isn’t going to cut it !  I’m up to 400m now (I’ll need to be consistent for about 750m to start with) and tonight I did half an hour on the bike in the gym and then 200m in the pool.  It’s generally going to be mix and match until I can get a bike sorted out.  I have a training plan but it’s only half worked up but generally it’s 9 sessions a week with a rest day…….we shall have to see !

Food – nothing of any note I’m afraid, although I did cook myself a lovely steak the other night ! (no more hotel buffets for me for a while)

Weather – 38deg yesterday afternoon, with rain and dust storms……that made the journey home easier I can tell you !

Right, I’m off to do something useful – I’m sure I shall have something to tell you over the weekend although the job kicks off in earnest on Sunday so we will have to see when I can find a bit of time.  TTFN and COYS.