Where to begin.......Let's see...
Last week was fairly uneventful. I didn't feel great Sunday/Monday so stayed worked and layed low the first half of the week. Wednesday was the weeks Friday (we had Thursday off..and tomorrow too...woot!)and we had a client/work dinner which was nice. Went to Finz...a great seafood restaurant at the Beach Rotana and sat out on the water. Got to bed fairly early to get ready for the weekend.
Thursday I got up and hit the gym and then packed up and waited for my fabulous chauffer Liana to arrive. We drove up to Dubai and went straight to the mall as I needed a complete outfit for the Rugby 7's on Friday. Katie and Alice had gone up earlier that day and we ran into them at Top Shop, trying on the skirt I found at the front of the store. Ha! Great minds think alike. Liana already had most of her outfit but the rest of us were basically starting from scratch. I was able to get a skirt, shirt, suspenders (or braces as they call them here), fishnets, boots, a shoulder cover up (what are those called?!) and some jewelery. Liana got some knee highs, shoes and accessories to finish hers off. Katie and Alice had to run to get formal dresses for the Rugby Ball they were attending that night but their costumes turned out fab as well (see facebook for photos!). Maybe I should back up.....I guess there is a day out of every Rugby tournament where people dress up. The theme this year was movies. We were originally going to be the Pink Ladies from Grease but couldn't find any pink jackets. Then we were gonna do some sort of school girl theme since that would be pretty easy but then Liana mentioned the Craft. It was funny cuz I had thought of it the night before but wasn't sure anyone else had seen it. It turned out perfectly cuz there were 4 of us and the outfits were easy, sexy and fun. Okay....so we also got mani/pedis at the mall. The girl who did my toes must have been her first day or something. It took 2 hours for me to get a mani/pedi...Liana started 30 minutes later, had a mani/pedi/threading and leg wax and we finished at the same time. The girl literally took the paint off my toes 10 times. I was about to lose it. Thankfully it turned out okay so in the end I guess it was fine. Then we went to grab food (Chinese, yum!) and then went to the greatest place ever.....Candylicious. It is an enourmous candy store and I haven't had any since arriving in the ME so I was in heaven! Even got some Xmas shopping done! At this point it was like 10pm so we got our butts to the hotel and checked in. The client has great rates with a few hotels in the area and this was one. We had a sweet room, complete with camel cookies as it was UAE National Day (which is why we were off work). We got ready and then got picked up by some of Liana's friends from Qatar who were in town (and all were very excited about winning the 2022 World Cup bid). We went to Barasti which is a great beach club and had a fabulous night. Katie and Alice were staying at the hotel where this was but never made it after the ball. It was funny cuz we were meeting them back at their hotel the next morning to go to Rugby together so it would have made more sense if we just stayed at same hotel since we spent a good amount of time taking cabs around the city. Anyhow....we got to bed around 4am (we tried to make it an early night, oops) and got up at 10ish to start getting ready.
The outfits were looking good and we were mostly ready and then I had a slight incident. The ring I bought didn't go on all the way to my ring finger at store but it had tags on it so I figured once I took them off it would be fine. Well I go to slide it on and its not a great fit so I give it a little push and bam..its on. And omg....it needs to come off. So I try and nothing and start freaking out. I literally thought I was going to end up in the hospital with a possible finger removal cuz it immediatly swelled up and started turning blue. Liana was joking at first when I was like..what do I do? And then she looked at it and goes..oh god. So I'm trying to stay calm but of course, thats difficult. After some soap adn cold water (my dumba** was using hot which makes you swell!), it came off. My finger hurt for the rest of the day and I was shaking for a good 30 minutes but at least I still have a finger! So then we got a car to the rest of the Craft crew and got some funny looks although most ppl asked if we were going to Rugby so thankfully they got it and didn't think we were hookers! Well until we got to their hotel. We went to get on elevator and some hotel workers were like..are you staying here. No, we're just meeting friends. What room are they in? 413. What are there names? Katie/Alice. Okay we have to call them. Great. We're not hooking at 11am...we're meeting friends and when they come down they will look the same so simmer down. Ha. We had some mimosas..put the finishing touches on our outfits and set off. We thought Rugby was closer to Katie/Alice hotel (which was like 20 minutes from ours) but it turns out it was way past ours so they should have come to us but oh well. The stadium was pretty far away...a 100 durham cab ride anywhere in the region means its pretty freakin far.
So we finally get there and get out and no one else seems to be dressed up and we're like....is this some sort of joke?! Nah...just a lot of losers who didn't. We got our tickets and went in. The Craft was a hit. A lot more ppl than I expected knew what we were and everyone wanted to take photos. We got some great standing spots right along the side of the field and watched a bunch of teams warm up...watched the US beat Argentina and then did a lot of walking around. It was soooo hot until the sun started to go behind the stadium at 3:30 and I was hoping I wasn't going to end up with a fishnet sunburn but thankfully all was okay. We had a really great day, met lots of crazy people dressed up as Hooters, table tennis players, penguins, etc. We kept asking what movie they all were and a lot of ppl didn't get the movie memo..just the dress up memo. Oh and over here its called Fancy Dress. I assumed ball gowns...and then was informed Fancy dress is Costume dress! Good thing I have ppl to steer me in the right direction. Liana was a hoot watching the teams warm up....you could tell which ones were used to it and which ones were newbies cuz those ones she could distract and make blush. She had us all cracking up. I got proposed to, and had some scones/jam that Liana essentially stole from and old guy. No really he gave it up quite easily but I hadn't eaten anything all day (except for the candy necklace I had...we found black ones with skulls the day prior and had to have them) so it was a life saver to eat something. We left around 6 as Liana and I had Akon to attend..I wish it had been two different days cuz it was a lot for one day...I was jealous Katie and Alice got to take naps! So we get to hotel and I need to check in to my own room which was a bit of a pain. 1. I looked like a hooker 2. I had no luggage cuz it was all in Liana's room and 3. I forgot my passport (since thats not a normal thing to need in the US) So yeah....he's like I don't know what to tell you and I'm like..so what you want me to sleep on the street? Thankfully with all the secondment stuff, I had it scanned to myself in an email so I sent that to them. Then I had to jump on a call at 7 so it was a lot of rushing around.
I scarfed down a pizza, showered and go ready for the 2nd time, this time for the concert. Liana's friend from Kuwait came to town and we met 3 others in the hotel to head to the concert. It was supposed to start at 9 and there were no scheduled opening acts, just DJ's...so we figured getting there around 10 would be fine. When we got in, the DJ was great. Playing hip hop and the place was massive so it was like being in a big club. Well then around 10:30 they switched DJ's to these two idiot girls who thought they were the coolest things ever. Well they started playing techno. Um.....hi ladies...we are here for a HIP HOP concert. Why on earth would any of us want to listen to tecnho? Ppl were also starting to get ancy for Akon. So the longer we waited, the more annoyed we got, etc etc. Ppl started booing the girls, then everyone sat down at one point. One of the DJ's (we'll call her blondie) clearly realizes everyone hates them but doesn't know what to do. Her friend (we'll call her oblivious) keeps dancing and singing like everything is just peachy. So they have them up on the screens and you can see blondie telling oblivious to take off her headphone things and listen to the booing. I guess oblivious's bright idea was to pretend like we all loved them still and move on like nothing was amiss. Meanwhile blondie looks like shes going to cry. Ha, I really wanted her too. It would have made my night. Another thing to note...there were sooooo many weirdos at this concert. At the end of the night we all agreed it had been surreal. Like did any of that actually happen? Too many things to write....but use your imagination and it probably occurred. So anyone want to take a guess when Akon came on? He was supposed to come on at 9. He came on at 12:30. Yep....3.5 hours late. And he was only on for 55 minutes. My guess is because the venue was closing down and he had to rush through the show. I was not amused. It was great to see him, we were super close, but after being out in heels all day, rushing to get there, and then waiting for hours. My mood was not the best. So yeah..disappointing evening but was still good to see him live. We were supposed to go out after to meet all the folks from Rugby but it would have ben like 2 am and we gave up.
Today I got up and went to breakfast with Liana and Jermaine and then we hit the pool for an hour or so and then I hopped in a cab to go meet Katie/Alice who gave me a lift back to Abu Dhabi since Liana was staying another night. It was great to hear about their night since they actually got to go out! Fun was had by all but it was good to get home and unpack and relax some. I took a 3 hour nap and then hit the gym. Every part of me wanted to keep sleeping or just eat but I knew I needed a good workout. Thankfully it turned out to be a great one! Then I got some room service, went and found an adapter since my computer was completely dead and the 3 prong plug I have doesn't fit in the adapter I have at the hotel. Thankfully the front had one so I could upload pics and fill you all in on my crazy few days.
We have tomorrow off as well since its Islamic New Year on Tuesday but having a day off in the middle of the week is stupid so they gave us today Sunday off instead. Brilliant!!! I am gonna head to the Beach Club for the day for some relaxation and then will get some laundry done.
I think thats the highlights. This was quite the lengthy entry already! I have less than two weeks until I head home and its going to go pretty fast with one short work week, some events planned for next weekend and then one last full week with a ton of week night events for holidays, partners in town, etc etc. Excited to see everyone but not looking forward to doing so in the COLD!
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