Plus and minus week

So this week has been both very good and very bad. I found a house, complete with pet - pics attached, and lost it 3 days later, I got a car, and haven't had an accident in it (touch wood) but it's the most horrific colour I can imagine - photos to follow for sure! I am loving my job, but missing the Loeries at home, and missed a dinner I was looking forward to on Thursday, but managed to find a tiny little beach bar in Jazira (border of Dubai and Abu Dhabi) with new friends, one of whom is a musician and plays there Thursday nights - all in all I think it broke even.

The house - not too much to say, moved in and bought all my furniture for my room - got the bed delivered same day but too difficult (much effort?) to put together so didn't bother with that, instead settling in on the mattress as IKEA was delivering everything else today so I figured they could assemble it for me. My very cool parents shipped my stuf for me last week to be fetched today, and I was figuing on being settled and moved in and unpacked and happy by Sunday morning. Now I have 4 days and counting to find somewhere else, for various reasons that I won't go into on here... But every cloud does indeed have a silver lining, as I figured out the people I'm living with, were maybe not the best choice of housemates for me, as they wash dishes after every cup of tea and have to scour the kitchen after cooking a (vegan!!!!!! Shame) meal. And they never go out on school nights either, and frown upon anyone who does - yes, me in other words... So am house hunting again. As always, more to follow on that! The car, well there's no explaining the decision to award me with the shittest gold/green Nissan Tiida ever made, so we'll move swiftly along from that too ;-)

Loeries, well Loeries is Loeries and will be there another time I'm sure - the fact that I'm already at the beach, sitting staring at the sea from a Starbucks (ok - Air con is indeed addictive here, as I was warned, you start having panic attacks if in the sun for longer than 3 minutes and you can't see an aircon 'vehicle' anywhere, which is what the Starbucks is for me) is consolation enough for the time being. Dinner - well dinner was a catch up with a new friend (Blake - see earlier post) as he just got back from Islamabad and Beirut, but is so ill he barely managed to phone and cancel before collapsing again - so will see him later this weekend if he recovers in time! So I called Kat - again, see earlier post) and went with her and her boyfriend Jeremy, and a friend of hers, Jess to Jazira. Jazira is just across the border into Abu Dhabi (the actual Emirate, but 88km's or so from the actual city) to a watersports complex, with hotels/bungalows and apparently all the watersports you can imagine... There, in the middle of nowhere, is the tiniest beach bar you'll ever see, with miles and miles of sand and water all around, as it's technically on an island. What a chilled out, amazing night - the tunes by Jeremy were superb, and the conversation (between several SA Harley guys, the bar owner, an incredibly funny called Phil, and the girls) was scintillating. That, and the fact that I got to see Patti, and meet her fiance last week, saved the week for me. Totally.

Patti flew in from Kabul, Afghanistan last Thursday, on her way to Croatia for 2 weeks holiday, and spent some of the day with me, and the rest sleeping in my room at the B&B, before we headed to Le Meridian for dinner. Her fiance, Rich, joined us there, as he flew in on his way to Thailand on holiday. The dinner was Thai, and fabulous - I ate not only shrimp, but lobster as well - I am uber impressed with myself ;-) Patti managed to order an 850 AED bottle of wine - 200 dollars we worked out, as it on the recommended list and she forgot to check the price ;-) so we giggled all the way home about that too. I can't wait for their wedding (in Brazil - woohoo!), and may even see them again before that as they are so close to me! And having not seen Patti in 4 years or so, and not actually having spent any more than 5 hours total in her company before that, in no way stopped the mad and excited chatter that only ended when she left for the airport! And her fiance rocks, the girl done good. Laters

Some pics to catch everyone up

PS Yes, this PS is at the top, so I can explain the post, without re-writing the whole effing thing! So having posted this (pics carefully in order) I realise that pics need to be posted backwards to get the order right, as per the writing, and also, you cannot rotate images or DO ANYTHING TO THEM once they are posted. Other people with blogs, please jump in here and correct me, for once in my life I'd love to be wrong, as this just pisses me off!

So, the first group of piccies show the B&B - the garden, swimming pool, (some of the many) loungers, my room, my bathroom etc - I apologise in advance if I really haven't gotten any better at taking pictures, but having seen some of the pics my mates have taken with my camera, I am going to blame the camera ;-)
Then we have the drive on beach, the Monster Toy truck, us getting stranded and the little rescuer car with jumper leads ;-) The next lot is the Madinat SOUK where we went drinking, just the outside area, along the (fake) promenade.
So, I found a place to live - in Umm Al Sheif, between the Burj (7 star hotel thang with helipad/tennis court on top - pic included) and the Mall of the Emirates - I think the 3rd biggest mall in the world, behind only 2 other malls in Dubai. Ok, that's a made up stat, but it is the mall with the largest indoor snow slope in the world. Close to the beach, 20 mins from work (in traffic) and sharing with 3 other people (Australian/Irish/English). We all have our own en-suite rooms, and there's a huge garden, and swimming pool - pictures to follow when I move in (hopefully Sat).
In the meanwhile, I get to go to IKEA (woohoo!) and spend a large amount of cash (loaned by work thankfully) on furniture for my new and soon-to-be awesome room.
And lastly, the view from my (now apparently temporary, and shared with Vanessa) office.
Laters

A little about my new and exciting position at work

So, today I started work work. Yes, it's been 2 weeks since I landed, I told you I liked the laid back approach to starting a job here ;-)
So, I am officially the new Studio Manager at Impact BBDO. I have a staff complement of 17 at last count, although at the rate they are hiring I will soon have 30! 'My Boyz' as they are already affectionately known are... you guessed it... all men, mostly older than me and are made up of 8 Indians, 2 Egyptians, 5 Syrians and 2 Filipinos - hell of a mix, but all awesome, friendly guys. I think they are just grateful to have to have someone look after them for a change (this is a newly created position)! The office is a total shambles as we are 3 companies (250+) people over 2 floors of a rather badly designed triangular building, and still have to wait another 2 months before our 3rd floor (21st floor) becomes available for us. I was feeling rather smug about my (uber-tiny!) office, but the Operations Director arrived back from Australia today, and is now comfortably (?) ensconced on the other side of my desk, in my uber-tiny (and also now apparently temporary) office! Luckily it's Vanessa, a very cool Aussie girl that actually interviewed me before she went away ;-)
So, The Emirates Hotel. Damn, I wanna be rich when I walk into that lobby, or into the shopping mall below it - Jimmy Choo, Prada, Michael Kors (for everyone who is a fan of trash reality tv ie Project Runway) etc etc. There is a lady playing piano in the hotel lobby every afternoon, and people sitting drinking and eating and generally looking very relaxed and did I mention rich?, every day I walk through there.
More about the work after a couple more days, suffice to say the space issues here make this place absolutely chaotic, the air-con really unreliable, and the people generally not as exuberant as I think they would like to be!
Today is my last company sponsored day in the beautiful B&B - bugger it, it's getting a punt here www.fusionbandb.com so have paid until the weekend and am now searching for suitable and affordable digs with something approaching zealousy (can't think of a better way to say it grammatically - help anyone?) If anyone from the amazing villa I saw in Um Al Sheif is reading this (miraculously of course) - PICK ME PICK ME!
See you on the flip side.
Oh, pics to be added asap - once I have worked out the tricky situation involving digital camera conversion from MAC to PC - again, help anyone?

It's been a while since my last confession...

Ok, so I succumbed to the dreaded Air-con lurgy (yes, that is the medical term for it) last week Wednesday which is why news hasn’t been flying thick and fast – and to those of you who thought I was lazy or had lost interest already – hah! I managed to lie outside in the sun for Wednesday morning though, to try get out of an air-conditioned environment – almost impossible to do here, feel free to applaud – and so on Thursday when I woke up 4 shades darker, couldn’t go back to work as they would have guessed I had been tanning, and thought I wasn’t sick ;-) (I did still feel crap on Thursday everyone, I promise). So we had another braai Thursday lunchtime, and I went to bed early – as I was sick – and then went to the beach for the first time on Friday morning. It was fabulous – helped of course by the fact that Peter took us in his ‘ginormous hummer bakkie type thang’ which for ease of reference will now forever be referred to as GHBTT – love that car – and so we went to the drive-on beach (I’m sure there’s a name, or a more technical term for it, but please, you get it) , which is white and very flat and there are no waves, so you can tan in the water, floating. Because you can’t lie on the beach in 40 degrees for more than 12 minutes at a time, without getting in the water (30 degrees) so you may as well stay in it! Friday night I went to Jumeirah Madinat for dinner, with a friend of a friend who I hadn’t met yet – Blake, 39, English chap. Nice chap – bloody naughty, but loads of fun. Of course there was no dinner eaten, as the beer was far more delicious than any of the menus offered up by the 40 odd restaurants in the SOUK ;-) Anyway, 2 bars later we left to go to Barasti bar – on the beach, part of Dubai Marina, 2 separate bar areas, 3 swimming pools and about a km of white sand, couches, loungers, palm tress – blah blah blah – you get it, I’ll take pics next time if you’re not jealous yet!
So fun night, and pretty well behaved, was in bed by 2am.
Saturday we watched rugby, and that is where that conversation ends.
Saturday afternoon I went back to Barasti – this time for some live music, with Hayley and her 6 yr old daughter Tao – yes, this is my favourite place in Dubai so far ;-) The music was fab, we met some incredibly funny/interesting characters, and end result is that a group of 6 of us are going sailing on Friday, on Stuckey’s sailboat. (Stuckey is an American so I believe the ‘sailboat’ is a fuck off big yacht, but I’m not going to complain!)
Other people joining us : Bob – South African, approx 150kg’s, approx 50 yrs old, with the longest beard I’ve seen since being here – and I remind you all I am now living in the Middle East so if you weren’t chuckling at that, laugh damnit!
Kat – Australian girl, 26, stunning! Editor of Etihad in-flight magazine, her Irish boyfriend Jeremy, the lead singer of the band, and also a journalist for Time Out (talented bastard, I’m a leeeetle jealous here), Hayley, Stuckey and myself – how much fun?
Again, very well behaved, except that I hadn’t eaten by 9pm so went for the lazy option of McDonalds on the way home – the taxi drivers here will actually drive you through the drive thru and order for you, how hilarious!
So, all good, except I’m back at work on Sunday – and am never going to get used to that, no matter what anyone says.
Oh, got my Dubai temp drivers license, so get to go rent a car tonight and drive home on the wrong side of the road – groan – and then will be looking at some villa’s to stay in tonight, and tomorrow – will keep you all posted!

Bring on the weekend!

I woke up slightly earlier than yesterday - 08h30 instead of 10h30 - and made it to work at about 10h00. Love this laid back approach to starting a job! Met some people from my B&B yesterday, and this morning - Rob, the Aussie, who is living next door to me. Pete, the South African who owns the place with his wife Stacy - he's the Group Head at Proximity over here (part of BBDO for the non-advertising Philistines out there), Indy - another bloody Aussie, and an Argentinian guy whose name I will never get right. They have invited me to a fancy dress party tomorrow night, at someone's villa - I like to think they're not taking the mickey and it really is a fancy dress party, otherwise the outfit Rob the Aussie is taking me to buy tomorrow will be a waste of money ;-) Am off to Lauryn Hill (ex Fugees and amazing solo artist, for the non-music Philistines out there) & Guests at some arena on the beach tonight, which should rock! It's 'Friday' for me, tomorrow is w/end!

Getting settled (or drunk?)

So I'm sitting in my new office, with a view of the Sheiks palace (I think), the race track (camels or horses?) and the desert - on the 17th floor with a window office so I feel quite special ;-) They told me to come in at 11am today - which is good because the sushi I had for dinner last night apparently had to be eaten in the company of Mojitos and while I'm not hungover (whatever!) I certainly enjoyed the extra sleep... The B & B is awesome - I will post pics after the weekend, when we have our braai etc so I can show you everything - and the people who work there (all Filipinos, except the owners who are South African) are the sweetest, most helpful people ever! They even brought out breakfast again for me at 10h30 this morning ;-) I was able to make a sandwich for lunch (ham/cheese/mayo light) and I took an apple/cranberry/muesli breakfast drink - looks like a yogi-sip - but I'll keep you posted on that one, I'm not convinced!