A week of fun!

Sorry I'm late on blogging....I just knew I had so much to write about and could barely function by yesterday! Last week was a whirlwind of fun...the second I dont think I could possibly have anymore, more comes along! I'm loving it!!!

Okay....last Monday was back to work after the long weekend followed by a chill night at the gym. And then it all went downhill!

Tuesday I was supposed to be having a dinner with some of my clients audit folks from the UK but when I emailed them that morning, they had messed up the date and meant tomorrow, not last week. Since I was dressed nicely and it was my brother and sisters birthday, I figured it only made sense to go celebrate on their behalf! Oliver and I decided to meet up for dinner and I was dying for a good steak (last one I had had was day 3 in AD!). So we went to the Rodeo Grill at the Beach Rotana and had a great dinner and shared a bottle of wine. Then we decided to go for one drink at Trader Vics (also in Beach Rotana and known for their Mai Tai's). The other times I've been, I've felt like the drinks were really week. So either something was wrong with me or they decided to trick me because 3 Mai Tai's later, I was in trouble. I did meet the executive chef for Sheikh Mohammad so that was entertaining as I told him wonderful stories about my pasta and pancake making skills. Lol. Around 12 we decided we had stayed out much longer than planned and I knew I was feeling off so I headed home and passed out. Wednesday morning was awful. I woke up spinning and felt like I got run over multiple times by a truck. I got up and got ready for work and suffered through the day. The problem being, I had already made plans for Wed night not expecting Tuesday to be anything!

So by the end of Wednseday I'm starting to feel like a human being again and agree to go for a couple drinks as it was ladies night and we were gonna go 3 blocks away from my hotel. Have I ever mentioned that I'm very easily influenced? Yeah, I am. So we go to Oceans and sat out on the terrace which was really nice..had some wine, and then some vodka tonics and then a tequilla shot (STUPID!!). So then this club Sax is right down the hall and again, its ladies night so we go, end up at a table with a bottle of grey goose and I don't even want to know what time it is. I had a blast but after rolling in at 3:30, I was a little mad at myself! Thursday morning I woke up to my phone ringing and knew immediately that something was wrong. Check my phone..its 8:30...which is the time I'm supposed to BE at work. Oops. So it was my driver that had been calling...I felt bad that he waited around for nothing but also thankful that he woke me up! I got ready so fast and was at work by 9:10 so really, thats not that bad. I don't feel quite as bad as the day before, I was just completely exhausted.

So we had already bought tickets to Creamfields, which is a big DJ dance festival that they host around the world and brought to Abu Dhabi for the first time last year. Liana and I figured everyone else was going so we mine as well. By the end of the work day Thursday (that just dragged on and on and on and on), all I wanted was to sleep but again, we had tickets, so it was kind of late. So we came home and changed real quick and then Katie drove Liana and I over to Yas island where they had a hotel room (Li and I tried to get one for the whole weekend but we attempted this the day before and everything was sold out....note for next time, plan ahead!). So we meet Alice there and have champagne and vodka redbulls while everyone finsihes getting ready (and Alice finished her 2 hour conference call!). By this time I'm getting my 3rd wind and ready for more so we go to the event and had a ball. Dizzee Rascall was great, we danced, met lots of random ppl, had drinks and took a million pictures (Alice has all of them...I'll bug her to put them up when she returns from her last minute work trip to San Fran!). Anyway..ppl all started to get separated and then we found out David Guetta wasn't coming on until 3:30 (originally was 2-4). I'm thinking how on earth am I going to make it that late, I'm soooo tired! Anyway....Alice and I got chicken schwarmas (they are big here and quite delicious...big as in popular..not in size, they are actually quite small!) and then tried to re organize everyone. We find Liana and then witness a fight of which Alice tries to help, ends up getting a bottle of water thrown in her face and lost her blackberry. Kind of a downer. So she ended up heading back to hotel and we have no idea where Katie is but assumed she had called it a night. So Liana and I hang out until about 4:15 and then heard David wasn't even on the island and after our Akon experience the previous weekend, we gave up and decided we'd here him on our iPods. Lol. So we head out to get a cab and that was a complete disaster. Like the UAE is a mess on a lot of fronts and sometimes its funny and sometimes its just really annoying, particularly when you haven't slept in days and its 4:30am. Liana and I gave the taxi organizer dude a load of sh*t before finally agreeing to go wait in the queue with everyone else. Bad move. We should have stayed with the original plan to get one on that side of the road. The line ended up kind of shifting like 1/4 mile down the road and then there wasn't a steady stream anymore so ppl just kept walking and then cabs stopped stopping because we weren't in the cab queue anymore. Then ppl started to sort of lose the line and others were clearly upset by this. We watched a girl in a tutu tell this guy off, was great. So then its finally our turn and a cab finally stops so we go to jump in as some other idiot jumps in the front. We're like, we're not getting out, and he was like, neither am I. So we figure fine, we'll go drop you off and then us, it was a little out of the way but not that bad. He ended up paying for the whole thing so that was nice. Got home about 5:30am...a guy was just getting dropped off at the airport as I stroll up and I just kind of laughed.

Friday I got up around 12:30 (phew..finally some sleep!), hit the pool and then started getting ready again for night #4. Our work Xmas dinner got moved so we were able to go to the Rugby ball we originally thought we'd miss. So we get all dressed at like 5 and head back to Yas (Yas is kind of a pain to get to but there just keeps being events there! Also the reason we wanted to stay the whole weekend but again, procrastiantion doesn't get you anywhere). We had managed to get a room for Friday night since Creamfields was over so headed over there, had a snack and a bottle of champagne before heading over to the hotel where the ball was. Met up with Katie and Ben (Ben is Katie's good friend from London and also coincidentally, Liana's flatmate). So we hung out with them at the bar until people started making their way to the ball. The ball was really fun (and my first). We had loads of wine and champagane and a great Xmas dinner of turkey, potatoes, carrots, etc. We danced to typical wedding style music for a bit and then decided we had had all the fun we were going to have. Katie ended up heading home and Liana and I went to Allure, the first nightclub on Yas and operated by the Cipriana's chain so its really nice. It wasn't too busy but that was perfect. Went back to the hotel around 4 and passed out. Saturday we got up and then went to the pool for the afternoon. It was nice to be at a different pool which was more resort like than my rooftop one. Had an amazing club sandwich and just chilled. Came back to Abu Dhabi around 4, took a nap, and then hit the gym before going out to dinner. I was excited for the buff mozz/tomato appetizer all day but they ended up being OUT of buff mozz. What kind of italian rest runs out of buff mozz. Suprised they had pasta. Ha!

Yesterday at work was long (as I stayed up reading/goofing off instead of going to bed at a decent hour) and today was the same. Work has been busy as well since its the last week before the holidays and a ton to finish up so not getting enough sleep is starting to take its toll.

We were supposed to have our work xmas dinner last night and I was all excited all day cuz we had planned on going to an amazing Chinese restaurant but the boss had to cancel it around 6:30pm so that was a downer. It also meant that I had to go to the gym which I wanted nothing to do with. Lol. Liana and I pep talked each other to going and then Katie ended up wanting to do a run with me which was nice to catch up on the weekend and stuff. Its her last week here in Abu Dhabi (SAD!) so we had a nice run/chat along the corniche. It goes by so much faster with a partner and we ran a good 40 minutes without me getting bored so that was great. I did stay up late again reading cuz I'm an idiot...but at least I'm getting a decent amount of sleep.

Work went later than hoped today and one of my partners just flew in so I'm going to meet him for drinks to catch up before he comes to meet with the client in the morning. 4 more days til I head home and plans every night...I can handle 4 more days though. I pretty much can't wait to get on the plane and pass out!!!

Will have more fun stuff to come at the end of the week...and then it will either be silent for a few weeks or it will be adventures in dc/florida until the new year.