First off, big apology for the delay in blogging this week. My schedule has been super crazy and work has been soooo busy since Liana left so there just hasn’t been time or energy (plus there has been no one to harass me about doing it!!!!). Anyway, better late than never!
By Wednesday night I was exhausted so decided to skip the gym and take a nap before my guests arrived (I knew this would be my last chance for a nap until at least after they left!). The girls showed up at about 10:30pm and we all decided to just stay in for the night, drink wine, order room service and catch up. I was planning on an early night as I wanted to go to the morning BC session since it was the last of the month. Well early ended up being about 1:30 before I got in “bed” (it was the living room couch which is not comfortable nor long enough for me but I didn’t want to disturb the girls in the morning so took a hit for the team. My mind was racing when I finally laid down so sleep wasn’t coming easily. At about 2:30, right when I was starting to relax and doze off, my neighbors started having sex, ha. As it turns out, the walls at my new place are very thin (or she was that loud) so that kept me up for another hour or so. By 3:30 I was thinking there was absolutely no way I was getting up at 5:30am for BC as I needed all the extra time I could get.
Work Thursday was rough as I was exhausted and I knew I had a long day/night ahead. The girls went and did the Hop On/Off tour so have now seen more of Abu Dhabi than I have! It was a bittersweet day at work as it was Liana’s last day. I am so happy for her to be moving on but definitely sad to see her go. We went to Jones after work for a glass of wine (she didn’t want to do anything big as she was leaving for Africa early the next morning). I picked up Alice’s dry cleaning on the way over (since she lives in my building now it was much easier for me to grab it and bring it to her). I had it next to me right up until the end when a few others joined and they moved it for me. Bad idea. I get home and am starting to get ready waiting for the girls to get back when Alice bbm’s me to see if I had time to get it. I was like oh crap..where is it?! So I’m like, yep, I got it, and then I left it at Jones! Thankfully Liana was still there so she brought it over when she came to pick us up. The girls came back from the tour and we all started getting ready while they told me about their first day in Abu Dhabi. I think they had a fun day, but you could start to see that they weren’t getting along very well (hint: foreshadowing!). So Liana picked the 3 of us up and we all went to dinner at Hoi An at the Shang Palace. Alice had to work so couldn’t join early. Had a great dinner outside which went a little late but that’s the usual around here for dinner, no one else is ever in a hurry! Liana had to say goodbye after dinner as her flight was leaving from Dubai at 7am and she hadn’t been home yet or packed! The rest of us went to Pearls for drinks and to meet up with the rest of the crew. The view from Pearls is amazing as you can see the Mosque lit up at night and its right on the water. Some of my friends here had a friend in town as well, we’ll call her zipper girl (her dress completely zipped up the front, very hot!), and we all went to Allure on Yas around 1am. Allure is always a good time and this time didn’t disappoint. Helena had a blast and I think Martha had fun but is a bit shy so kind of stayed out of the action all night. They served up their usual pizza slices at about 3am and you just can’t go wrong with that. We had loads of shots…they just kept coming and they were serving them in big trays of ice like you would get raw oysters! So towards the end of the night they start playing hip hop and that song, 2+2 I’m gonna undress you comes on….so being funny I unzipped her zipper a little bit and then immediately zipped it back up. I apparently did this with a lot of strength cuz I “broke” her zipper. I’m actually not entirely sure it was me, I think she might have done it herself when she was making sure I had zipped it back up but whatever, it happened. So about 2 inches from the top is unzipped at this point and the zipper pull thing has come off so we immediately go to the bathroom to try to fix it but 1. She was still wearing it and 2. We had all had a bit to drink so trying to fix it was impossible. She freaked out because she didn’t want it to pull apart anymore since we all knew if that happened, there was no fixing it.
Thankfully it was like 3:45am so we only had 15 minutes left anyway but the music was really good and we were bummed to leave. The next day she was able to fix it no problem so I was glad it wasn’t actually broken. She was a very cool chick and a good time was had by all. It was close to 5am when we got in bed and Alice, being awesome, had called the hotel to have them put a roll away bed in my room so I didn’t have to deal with the couch again, brilliant plan! I was so happy to climb into it and pass out. Oh the other thing about the night…..we had such cab issues. We left Pearls first…got to Allure last….we left Allure first, got back to Abu Dhabi last. And not by a few minutes..but a good 15 minutes each trip. Apparently we were riding with the “follow the speed limit” drivers who I hate!
We were heading up to Dubai on Friday and were supposed to get there fairly early to meet Oliver and his two guests from the US at a waterpark but I knew at 5am there was no chance that was going to happen. We all got up and had breakfast and then got on the road at like 2. Oh, so the night before when we got home from Allure, Martha had gone down to check room rates and told me she was thinking about getting her own room to remove herself from the situation. They weren’t really talking much at this point and you could just tell there was a ton of tension between the two (everyone else that met them noticed this as well). I was happy for her to do whatever made her feel more comfortable and told her if she didn’t want to come to Dubai with us, she could have my room to herself for the night. Well she decided to come with us and I’m glad she did as I know she wanted to see Dubai as well. Her and I sat in the back of the cab and Helena in the front so the ride up wasn’t too weird. It also turned out that the driver we randomly got on the street was the one they had the day before when they were touring Abu Dhabi. Random! He was great though, played Bob Marley the whole way and I was a happy camper. So we get to hotel and get checked in and at this point they just both don’t want anything to do with each other which as you can imagine, was very awkward for me. I hate drama and having to be in the middle of it the whole trip was exhausting and annoying (if you girls are reading this, I’m not being mean, just honest!). Since it was later in the afternoon we decided to just go walk around. We walked to the Marine, through a good portion of it, went over to the beach and sat there for quite a while talking (and by talking I mean me talking to Martha and me talking to Helena but not the two of them to each other!). Watched the sun go down and just chilled out for a bit and then when we all started getting hungry we walked down the JBR to the Hilton (so we could have a drink with dinner!). Dinner was nice and surprisingly the least awkward part of the day I think! Then we walked back to the hotel and started the process of 3 chicks getting ready with one bathroom. First we went to meet up with Oliver and the girls from NY (they work for the firm..so all 6 of us were XYZers!). They were heading off to Oman the next morning so didn’t stay late and when they left, we decided to walk back to our hotel to go to the rooftop pool bar and have an easy night. And then it all went downhill. I guess they both decided not to bit their tongues anymore and started having it out on the street as we walked back. Then we got back and headed up to the bar only to make it as far as the bathroom where they went at it for a good 2 hours and ruined my night (and their own!). Why come to Dubai and waste time arguing about bs in a bathroom?!?!?! So stupid. I think they both have a ton of pent up resentment from the past few months, nor are they fit to really be friends. (Brief history: they booked the trip over here after not knowing each other very long..then worked together for 3 months during a very stressful busy season and then jumped on a plane before anyone had a chance to unwind or deal with issues). They went to Paris first…but had two other girls with them so I think that provided a good buffer. I just wanted to go to the bar and let them waste their own time but I could tell that neither wanted me to leave so I played referee, tried to shed light to the situation and listen to a lot of nonsense. After 2 hours the one thing they did agree on was that wasting any more time wasn’t going to get them anywhere. Too bad at this point the bar was closed! Martha went back to the room and I went downstairs and sat on the deck with Helena for a good hour or 2 playing counselor so we ended up in bed pretty late again. The resolution of the night was that they were no longer going to even try to do things together, and certainly weren’t going to speak to each other anymore.
We all went to breakfast together the next morning (awkward) and then Helena and I stayed in the Marine to do a boat tour while Martha headed off to explore Dubai. The boat ride was really fun…it was cool to see the Atlantis and the Burj Al Arab from the water (the one that is shaped like a sailboat). The weather was perfect and we had a great time. After that we went over to the Dubai mall so she could see the Aquarium (largest indoor plexi one in the world –something like that) and the Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world). Clearly Dubai likes to be bigger and better than everyone else. I’m sure they are pissed that Egypt (I think) just unveiled plans to build something even taller! Martha came and met up with us here and we did dinner together (awkward). Then we went back to hotel, grabbed our stuff and cabbed back to Abu Dhabi. I wasn’t sure we were going to make it, our driver kept veering into other lines and I could tell he was tired. The girls both passed out but like a good responsible person I stayed awake to make sure we all stayed alive. Martha took over the roll away bed and I moved into the bedroom with Helena. I was so thankful I had moved to the Beach Rotana because if this had all happened in my old place with less space and no balcony, it would have been really bad and one of them probably would have gotten their own room!
By Sunday I was actually quite excited to go to work to get away from the drama for a bit even though I was completely exhausted. I think that might be the first time I can say that about going to work on a Sunday morning! They were both scheduled to do the ½ day desert tour and while they really didn’t want to go together, it was the only day they could do it since it goes til 10pm and they would need to be at airport at that time on Monday. So they both spent the mornings apart…Helena went to Ferarri world and Martha went to some markets and then they both got on the bus for the tour although I’m pretty sure other than physically being there together, they mine as well not have known each other. I went to boot camp for Day 1 of Month 2 and was excited to be back to working out since I had slacked for 4 days and was starting to feel really badly. The first month we did the fitness assessment portion on the Thursday but they decided to do them on Sunday (makes more sense anyway!). It was nice to get an idea of how much I had improved in a month and I def kicked some a**! Shaved about 90 seconds off my 1 mile run time, did more push ups, situps, squats and help the plank for an additional 30 seconds. There were a ton of new people in the class and I think most of the regulars took the day off for Easter. Oh right..it was Easter. It certainly didn’t feel like Easter (and I have now had to work Thanksgiving and Easter since coming here!). The one thing that made it seem that way was that Helena had brought me my favorite Robin Eggs and I ate plenty of those to make up for not having a traditional Easter. I know I’m 28, but I love candy (particularly the stuff you can get around Easter) and not having an Easter basket was kind of sad for the first time in well…..a long time. Helena had also brought me mac n cheese and I had a box of that for dinner for the first time in 54 days. That’s like a record for me!!! They had eaten on their tour so this was quick and easy and delicious. They came home around 10pm and we stayed up chatting for a bit (me asking Helena bout trip while Martha was in shower, and vice versa….have I mentioned how annoying this was?!).
Monday was back to work at which I’ve been pretty busy since Liana left. It has made the days fly by though so I’m really happy about that. They used to drag and now they are cruising!!! I went home after work and then Helena and I went to Finz for our last dinner. Martha bowed out of this one and I can see how she didn’t want to do another awkward meal. Dinner was delicious and I was sad to see Helena go. I had spent the last 4 years working every day with her in DC so it was really nice to see her again and catch up. Also was validation to the fact that I do not want to go back to DC after hearing about what’s been going on. They were headed to Amsterdam and had a 7 hour layover so we’re supposed to go tour together…at that point I can imagine they both just wanted to be very very very far away from each other!
Tuesday was another busy day at work and then boot camp. We normally do legs on Sunday and arms Tuesday but since Sunday was assessments, Tuesday was more of an all over workout and we did a lot of long sets of the moves he uses on a regular basis. We did so many pushups that at one point I could barely lift my arms! I love it though and if you haven’t noticed, am completely addicted to it. I find myself on the off days wishing we had class and feeling kind of ancy. I love getting my a** kicked cuz I know its helping and I can see changes. I was originally only going to do one month…then two..but now I’m pretty sure I’ll be there for a third as well.
Last night was my first night with no plans in about 10 days so I took full advantage…well not really….I had to write my self assessment. It’s our year end review process time of year and this was the last piece for my file. I did it with wine in hand though and while watching the Perfect Storm (sooooo sad!) so it wasn’t too bad and I got it done and then got in bed early. Was nice to finally get 8 hours of sleep!
2 more hours to get through today and then it’s the weekend..yay!!!! I have BC tonight and then not sure if I’m gonna stay in or go out. I kind of want to lay around and do nothing and catch up on sleep but we’ll see. Tomorrow is going to be the Shakira concert with Oliver so that should be fun. Other than that, I plan to spend 2 solid days by the pool since I got no sun last weekend and am therefore having withdrawals at this point. Need to have my nails done and since I now live connected to the mall, have no excuse not to go do some shopping. I’ve been saying I need new clothes for about 4 months but hate shopping so it hasn’t happened yet. Liana comes back from Africa on Sunday so we have a date and then Alice comes back from Doha/London/Doha on Wednesday so we also have a date. Then Thursday its off to London!
Oh..and today would have been my last day at work here had I not extended. I can’t believe how fast 6 months went by and am grateful I have another 2 months to goof off in the UAE. Helena said I looked so much younger, happier and relaxed here…..I often question why I’m going back, but I know it’s best for my career to do so. And hey, if I hate it back at home, I can always come back here!!! Although on that note I do really miss my family and friends. Maybe it was the holiday that got me kind of sad, or the fact that I’ve been gone for a pretty good chunk of time…or seeing faces from home, but I’m definitely looking forward to going back to see everyone again. I have a week in Maine with my family as soon as I get back and am very much looking forward to that!
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
A full week in AD!
Tuesday night was BC arms and we stayed on the grass again which was nice. Sometimes the grass isn’t the best but its easier to clean off than the sand!!!
Wednesday was a super busy work day between client here, clients at home ramping up, year end stuff at home, etc etc. I left work to go home and do some more work and then called it a night. I haven’t been doing a good job working out between BC days but also don’t feel like I need to since they are kicking my a** pretty good the days I’m there! I got in bed early as I was planning on hitting Thursday am BC and actually fell asleep nicely which was great!
Thursday was quite a full day. I woke up feeling ready to take over the world at 5am and hit morning BC. Last time I did this I was yawning and exhausted all day as I didn’t sleep well the night before but this day was great! I had so much energy and at lunch started thinking I should hit the gym after work to realize I had already been…love that! Alice and I met for lunch at Jones as she has been away on work/holiday and we both needed updates on the past two weeks. We tried to sit outside but they are doing construction right next door and jack hammering cement is not the most relaxing noise (and we couldn’t hear a thing!) After work I hit Glow for a much needed, long overdue hair cut. The last time I had it cut was in October, prior to coming to the UAE. Yes, that means its been a minimum of 6 months and while I didn’t mind the length, it was just looking like sh*t. I’ve been meaning to get it cut for ages but something more fun always came along and I didn’t go. I also had no idea where to go so even less motivation! The guy did a great job and I met a pretty cool chick that wants to do Ski Dubai with me sometime. My hair felt so much better when he was done and I cabbed over to the AD Mall to get a mani/pedi. The mall was a zoo…worse than I’ve ever seen it and I was thinking there was no way I would get in (they don’t take appts) and the cab line outside was atrocious so I hoped they could. It turns out it was the grand opening of some electronics store so Nails was actually pretty empty and I got right in….oh and hit the candy stand before so had some of my favorite Jordan almonds to munch on before she took control of my hands! When I left at 9 I figured it would be fine outside…wrong…it was worse. The cab line was just as long and there were no cabs pulling up as traffic wasn’t moving. So I’m standing in the line thinking hmm….how long is it going to take to get in a cab and even if I do, its not going to go anywhere so getting home is going to take ages. I had some work I had to deal with and then get ready to go out so decided to walk home. I was in a dress but thankfully had flip flops with me so that made it tolerable. I could have done without my heavy a** laptop bag over my shoulder but I survived. It was warm but not as hot as its been so I was thankful for that. Managed to find my way home pretty easily….rushed to get my work done and get ready and back out. When I got into a cab at my hotel the guy was like where to…I said the Souk (which is off island)…he was like good cuz if you had said anywhere on island I would have pulled over and stopped the car! So the group I was meeting were still at dinner when I got over that way so I went to meet them and just had a drink while they all finished. Turns out, 4 of them had been in a cab accident leaving work….I asked if they were the reason for the traffic (they weren’t!) When they finished we went to Left Bank for a few drinks (and shots). Turns out that every hour on the hour for 10 minutes shots are 20 dirhams. Liana’s comment, they’re practically paying you to take them! After this went to Eight where my drinking came to a halt but did some dancing and enjoyed the rest of the night. Got home at about 4ish which was def. not the plan! I had offers from two others but both would have put me out late at clubs for sure so I opted for the low key night which turned into 4am anyway. Oh well.
Friday I woke up with a pretty good headache even though I felt fine when I went to bed. Ordered breakfast, did some work and then went up to the pool. I haven’t had two solid pool days in a row in quite a while and my skin needed it! Liana’s dad was in town with a friend so she asked if I wanted to do indoor skydiving with them. We were gonna do this prior to my actual sky dive so I could get a feel for it but never had time. I really wanted to take a nap but figured I should do something productive so left pool, showered and went with them. It was really fun, although not much like the real thing! We each did 2, 2 minute fly sessions and I was thankful there were 2 cuz I sucked it up on the first one. I went first and was just awful at following the directions, getting into flying position and holding it, etc. I spent most of the time at or near the ground and was getting frustrated. Liana and her dad were both awesome and I give him and his friend props for doing this! His friend was a bit more like me. So round two was much better! I spent most of the 2 minutes in the air, spinning around, going up, dropping down and getting myself back up again without any help. It was kind of weird to be in the enclosed space and have walls to deal with (vs real sky diving where you have all the space you want!!!). She dropped me and I finally got my nap and then got up and went to meet them for dinner at Trader Vics. Had some delicious soup and chicken chow mein….I def. ate way too much too late but it was too good to stop! I told stories of my crazy family and Liana was going “see Dad, see how luck you are with me!”. Lol. Alice had gone to Dubai for brunch but was coming back to meet us as we all had a housewarming/birthday party to attend. When we met up with her she was in rough shape and inhaling a thing of McDonalds fries! They smelled sooooo good!!!! So good that Liana goes “Who smells so good?” I was like..thats Alice’s fries you moron!!! New perfume idea?!!
Anwar and his roommate have a sweet pad over near Emirates Palace and we were all very impressed at their decorating ability and party set up. They had soooo much food and I just didn’t even look at it cuz I was so full. Started drinking and mingling with people we knew, and were “lucky” to meet some new people. Stripey shirt in particular. This guy went from semi normal obnoxious to drunk over the top obnoxious very quickly and then wouldn’t leave Alice alone. Ha. He was saying some pretty vulgar stuff to her and both Liana and I had to save her. Liana actually took him out to the “dance floor” for a bit and was yelling to us outside going “TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM HERE” with hand signals and great facial expressions. She does not remember this or much of the night but it was quite funny. He had done the moon walk earlier in the night and was terrible (Liana is great at it) so we kept trying to get them to do a moon off but he wouldn’t go for it. I think he knew we were just all laughing at him (I realize how mean this sounds, but if you had been there to experience him for even part of the time we had to endure him for, you would understand). So somewhere along the way Liana got wasted and it happened early…..when she came out saying “Everything’s Funny” (that is the, I’m drunk cue), I was like wow, how did that happen so fast?! Apparently she didn’t eat much at dinner while I was stuffing my face and got roped into some African shots or something that I managed to avoid. Alice was a trooper for a bit but decided to head home around 1:30 since she had been drinking all day. We left about an hour later when Liana started telling random people off for random things! We got in the cab and she immediately laid in my lap and was like there is no way I’m making it home sitting up. Got her home and then got myself home and in bed before 4am, woohooo!
Saturday I woke up to all these BBM’s from Liana’s asking what had happened. Ha. I knew she was gonne be fuzzy!!! So I went over to the Beach Rotana to meet Alice at the pool (well at her place where she was still in her PJ’s so I made her get ready to go!). Liana was there with her dad and friend so she came over at one point and was struggling. Poor girl. She was glad her dad was happy being lazy for the day cuz she was in no shape to entertain. Had a yummy pina colada at pool and then just relaxed for a couple hours until Alice left. Then I hit the gym for the first time since I started boot camp! It was def a bit different to have to make myself do things again….thats my favorite thing about BC..they just tell me what to do and I do it, no thinking involved. Got a fab club sandwich at the pool bar and then went home to clean up my room, get laundry done, dry cleaning sorted, etc.
Sunday was our last leg day of the first month of BC and he kicked our a**es. It was nice to not have a pulled groin this time so I could do the lunges properly. Funny the next day (and still today) my left butt is sore, making up for last week when it was my right. Hit Spinneys to pick up dinner and then home to the pool to eat. The creepy gym guy then goes to me….you know from behind and afar, you are starting to look like you have a professional swimmers body. Hmmm….I’m not sure how to take this other than that I have wide shoulders…awesome. Lol . I guess the fact that my body has changed is good, just not sure professional swimmer is what I was going for!
Monday was Liana’s birthday, Happy Birthday again Triple L!!! She is very anti birthday celebration (for her, she was fine with my 10 day bash!) so didn’t want to make a big deal about it. I respected her wishes and refrained from messing up her desk or making a big deal about it…I didn’t even post on facebook! I did convince her that me, her and Alice should at least go to dinner and she obliged. We did lunch at Jones with Matt (the other in our team) and then hit Spacanoppoli for dinner. I was quite excited as the last time I was not eating cheese and their gnocchi is phenomenal so of course I got the buff mozz/tomato to start and more cheesy goodness for dinner. Before this, however, I went home and packed up my room which actually wasn’t as bad as I thought but I have managed to accumulate a lot of stuff in 5.5 months! The kitchen stuff was the hardest as I’ve bought pots/pans, Tupperware, etc plus the food in my cupboard, wine, etc. Alice was gonna take a couple suitcases back with her so we didn’t have to move it all the next day but after leaving dinner (which included a few glasses of wine) I was in no mood to deal with moving!
Got up early Tuesday so I could pack up all the last minute stuff and make sure my room was in good shape to leave. Went down to check out and then just said can you go up and get it all and store it for me for the day….I gave the guy who went up a nice tip which was smart, as when I went back to pick up my stuff he had added my favorite picture of my nephew that I had forgotten since it was on the mirror. Went to work, then did bootcamp (was hoping for a non sandy day since I had to move after but no luck!). Oh also….turns out two girls who work for my firm here in Abu Dhabi have been doing it with me the whole month and we just didn’t know each other. Tried to get all the sand off and then cabbed back to the Al Maha where Alice met me to load up her car. It was sad to say goodbye to the front desk folks at the Al Maha cuz they have been awesome for the last 5.5 months but understood why I was leaving. Alice assures me that the folks at her place are just as awesome so we will see! It has started out well! So we get all my stuff to Beach Rotana and got checked in pretty easily. My room is fab and had a big basket of goodies waiting (well if you consider eggs, bread, pasta, ketchup, and other staples goodies!).
I moved for a number of reasons. I would have stayed here from the start but it was crazy expensive (like double where I was) and there was no way my firm was going to pay for it. I had never seen the suites so had no reason to push for it until I first went to Alice’s! This was way back in January but I was jealous immediately. I didn’t think I cared so much about having one big room vs having a separate bedroom/living area but now that I have it, it’s so much better. Anyhow…so I have friends coming into town tonight and another in June and was planning on them spending a day or two at the Beach Rotana anyway for the beach club and then just on a whim emailed to see what the rates were. Same as I had been quoted before. Way too high. Well they came back and said they’d drop the rate for the smaller room, plus upgrade me to the bigger room, plus free internet and breakfast buffet. Considering the amount of time/money I spend going to the Beach Rotana on weekends and cabbing to the Abu Dhabi mall (which is connected), it isn’t all that much more expensive to stay..so I did it! It’s so worth it. I have a balcony which I love….I used to go up to the pool at my old place to eat and make phone calls cuz I hate being indoors with no fresh air, but that was sometimes a mission, it closed at 10 and I was forced to deal with creepy gym guy. Now I can just open my door and go outside. I sat out there last night with wine and it was soooooo peaceful! There is also a grocery store right below so also very convenient, not to mention that the best restaurants are at the Beach Rotana and now I can order room service from all of them! Last night I was dancing around the place I was so excited about it and had a very hard time figuring out what to order! I’m so sick of the menu from the old place at this point!!! I got everything unpacked and organized (was kind of nice to be forced to do it since company is coming tonight!), did laundry and then got in bed. I ended up going to sleep way later than I had hoped but oh well….at least its ready! I was gonna say I’ll catch up on sleep this weekend but I don’t see a whole lot of that in the future!
So Helena and Martha have been in Paris the last 4 days and are flying in tonight. Unfortunately tomorrow is my last day of this session of BC so I don’t want to skip it and I know we’ll have plans tomorrow night so am gonna have to take it easy tonight and go in the AM. I’m sure I’ll sleep none but if I can stay sober, that will be a start! I think we’ll go to Trader Vic’s in the BR since its easy and they can stay out if they want and just walk home. Tomorrow is Liana’s last day at work so we’ll prob do drinks for that, then out to Yas Island for a big night on the town with everyone. Headed to Dubai for the weekend although not sure what we’re doing yet since the girls won’t tell me what they want to do! I guess we’ll figure it out tonight!
Oh also this week I booked a trip to London!!!! Since Liana is off work as of tomorrow, she is headed to Sierra Leone for a week and then going to London early and I’ll join her on the 5th. I land at like 7am on the 5th so will have all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday (flying back sat night). Just booked a really nice hotel with my Marriot points which was fab cuz the hotel was gonna be almost $700 and now it’s free. Plus it turns out the night of the 5th is their grand opening (was completely refurbished) so we get free tickets to that event. Then we’re doing dinner at a place Alice suggested which is supposed to be fab. Alice flies in on the 6th for her sisters bachelorette party weekend so we’re gonna do breakfast before she heads out of the city for her weekend. Liana and I will train up to Derby in the countryside for Bob’s fight and then come back to London Saturday morning. We will likely just do a lot of walking around, sight seeing, etc. I’ve never been to London so very excited just to go and do whatever. The major bummer is that Katie is headed back to the US on the night of the 5th so we might be able to meet for coffee but that’s it. Funny all 4 of us will sort of cross paths in London yet none of us are going or returning together!
Wednesday was a super busy work day between client here, clients at home ramping up, year end stuff at home, etc etc. I left work to go home and do some more work and then called it a night. I haven’t been doing a good job working out between BC days but also don’t feel like I need to since they are kicking my a** pretty good the days I’m there! I got in bed early as I was planning on hitting Thursday am BC and actually fell asleep nicely which was great!
Thursday was quite a full day. I woke up feeling ready to take over the world at 5am and hit morning BC. Last time I did this I was yawning and exhausted all day as I didn’t sleep well the night before but this day was great! I had so much energy and at lunch started thinking I should hit the gym after work to realize I had already been…love that! Alice and I met for lunch at Jones as she has been away on work/holiday and we both needed updates on the past two weeks. We tried to sit outside but they are doing construction right next door and jack hammering cement is not the most relaxing noise (and we couldn’t hear a thing!) After work I hit Glow for a much needed, long overdue hair cut. The last time I had it cut was in October, prior to coming to the UAE. Yes, that means its been a minimum of 6 months and while I didn’t mind the length, it was just looking like sh*t. I’ve been meaning to get it cut for ages but something more fun always came along and I didn’t go. I also had no idea where to go so even less motivation! The guy did a great job and I met a pretty cool chick that wants to do Ski Dubai with me sometime. My hair felt so much better when he was done and I cabbed over to the AD Mall to get a mani/pedi. The mall was a zoo…worse than I’ve ever seen it and I was thinking there was no way I would get in (they don’t take appts) and the cab line outside was atrocious so I hoped they could. It turns out it was the grand opening of some electronics store so Nails was actually pretty empty and I got right in….oh and hit the candy stand before so had some of my favorite Jordan almonds to munch on before she took control of my hands! When I left at 9 I figured it would be fine outside…wrong…it was worse. The cab line was just as long and there were no cabs pulling up as traffic wasn’t moving. So I’m standing in the line thinking hmm….how long is it going to take to get in a cab and even if I do, its not going to go anywhere so getting home is going to take ages. I had some work I had to deal with and then get ready to go out so decided to walk home. I was in a dress but thankfully had flip flops with me so that made it tolerable. I could have done without my heavy a** laptop bag over my shoulder but I survived. It was warm but not as hot as its been so I was thankful for that. Managed to find my way home pretty easily….rushed to get my work done and get ready and back out. When I got into a cab at my hotel the guy was like where to…I said the Souk (which is off island)…he was like good cuz if you had said anywhere on island I would have pulled over and stopped the car! So the group I was meeting were still at dinner when I got over that way so I went to meet them and just had a drink while they all finished. Turns out, 4 of them had been in a cab accident leaving work….I asked if they were the reason for the traffic (they weren’t!) When they finished we went to Left Bank for a few drinks (and shots). Turns out that every hour on the hour for 10 minutes shots are 20 dirhams. Liana’s comment, they’re practically paying you to take them! After this went to Eight where my drinking came to a halt but did some dancing and enjoyed the rest of the night. Got home at about 4ish which was def. not the plan! I had offers from two others but both would have put me out late at clubs for sure so I opted for the low key night which turned into 4am anyway. Oh well.
Friday I woke up with a pretty good headache even though I felt fine when I went to bed. Ordered breakfast, did some work and then went up to the pool. I haven’t had two solid pool days in a row in quite a while and my skin needed it! Liana’s dad was in town with a friend so she asked if I wanted to do indoor skydiving with them. We were gonna do this prior to my actual sky dive so I could get a feel for it but never had time. I really wanted to take a nap but figured I should do something productive so left pool, showered and went with them. It was really fun, although not much like the real thing! We each did 2, 2 minute fly sessions and I was thankful there were 2 cuz I sucked it up on the first one. I went first and was just awful at following the directions, getting into flying position and holding it, etc. I spent most of the time at or near the ground and was getting frustrated. Liana and her dad were both awesome and I give him and his friend props for doing this! His friend was a bit more like me. So round two was much better! I spent most of the 2 minutes in the air, spinning around, going up, dropping down and getting myself back up again without any help. It was kind of weird to be in the enclosed space and have walls to deal with (vs real sky diving where you have all the space you want!!!). She dropped me and I finally got my nap and then got up and went to meet them for dinner at Trader Vics. Had some delicious soup and chicken chow mein….I def. ate way too much too late but it was too good to stop! I told stories of my crazy family and Liana was going “see Dad, see how luck you are with me!”. Lol. Alice had gone to Dubai for brunch but was coming back to meet us as we all had a housewarming/birthday party to attend. When we met up with her she was in rough shape and inhaling a thing of McDonalds fries! They smelled sooooo good!!!! So good that Liana goes “Who smells so good?” I was like..thats Alice’s fries you moron!!! New perfume idea?!!
Anwar and his roommate have a sweet pad over near Emirates Palace and we were all very impressed at their decorating ability and party set up. They had soooo much food and I just didn’t even look at it cuz I was so full. Started drinking and mingling with people we knew, and were “lucky” to meet some new people. Stripey shirt in particular. This guy went from semi normal obnoxious to drunk over the top obnoxious very quickly and then wouldn’t leave Alice alone. Ha. He was saying some pretty vulgar stuff to her and both Liana and I had to save her. Liana actually took him out to the “dance floor” for a bit and was yelling to us outside going “TAKING ONE FOR THE TEAM HERE” with hand signals and great facial expressions. She does not remember this or much of the night but it was quite funny. He had done the moon walk earlier in the night and was terrible (Liana is great at it) so we kept trying to get them to do a moon off but he wouldn’t go for it. I think he knew we were just all laughing at him (I realize how mean this sounds, but if you had been there to experience him for even part of the time we had to endure him for, you would understand). So somewhere along the way Liana got wasted and it happened early…..when she came out saying “Everything’s Funny” (that is the, I’m drunk cue), I was like wow, how did that happen so fast?! Apparently she didn’t eat much at dinner while I was stuffing my face and got roped into some African shots or something that I managed to avoid. Alice was a trooper for a bit but decided to head home around 1:30 since she had been drinking all day. We left about an hour later when Liana started telling random people off for random things! We got in the cab and she immediately laid in my lap and was like there is no way I’m making it home sitting up. Got her home and then got myself home and in bed before 4am, woohooo!
Saturday I woke up to all these BBM’s from Liana’s asking what had happened. Ha. I knew she was gonne be fuzzy!!! So I went over to the Beach Rotana to meet Alice at the pool (well at her place where she was still in her PJ’s so I made her get ready to go!). Liana was there with her dad and friend so she came over at one point and was struggling. Poor girl. She was glad her dad was happy being lazy for the day cuz she was in no shape to entertain. Had a yummy pina colada at pool and then just relaxed for a couple hours until Alice left. Then I hit the gym for the first time since I started boot camp! It was def a bit different to have to make myself do things again….thats my favorite thing about BC..they just tell me what to do and I do it, no thinking involved. Got a fab club sandwich at the pool bar and then went home to clean up my room, get laundry done, dry cleaning sorted, etc.
Sunday was our last leg day of the first month of BC and he kicked our a**es. It was nice to not have a pulled groin this time so I could do the lunges properly. Funny the next day (and still today) my left butt is sore, making up for last week when it was my right. Hit Spinneys to pick up dinner and then home to the pool to eat. The creepy gym guy then goes to me….you know from behind and afar, you are starting to look like you have a professional swimmers body. Hmmm….I’m not sure how to take this other than that I have wide shoulders…awesome. Lol . I guess the fact that my body has changed is good, just not sure professional swimmer is what I was going for!
Monday was Liana’s birthday, Happy Birthday again Triple L!!! She is very anti birthday celebration (for her, she was fine with my 10 day bash!) so didn’t want to make a big deal about it. I respected her wishes and refrained from messing up her desk or making a big deal about it…I didn’t even post on facebook! I did convince her that me, her and Alice should at least go to dinner and she obliged. We did lunch at Jones with Matt (the other in our team) and then hit Spacanoppoli for dinner. I was quite excited as the last time I was not eating cheese and their gnocchi is phenomenal so of course I got the buff mozz/tomato to start and more cheesy goodness for dinner. Before this, however, I went home and packed up my room which actually wasn’t as bad as I thought but I have managed to accumulate a lot of stuff in 5.5 months! The kitchen stuff was the hardest as I’ve bought pots/pans, Tupperware, etc plus the food in my cupboard, wine, etc. Alice was gonna take a couple suitcases back with her so we didn’t have to move it all the next day but after leaving dinner (which included a few glasses of wine) I was in no mood to deal with moving!
Got up early Tuesday so I could pack up all the last minute stuff and make sure my room was in good shape to leave. Went down to check out and then just said can you go up and get it all and store it for me for the day….I gave the guy who went up a nice tip which was smart, as when I went back to pick up my stuff he had added my favorite picture of my nephew that I had forgotten since it was on the mirror. Went to work, then did bootcamp (was hoping for a non sandy day since I had to move after but no luck!). Oh also….turns out two girls who work for my firm here in Abu Dhabi have been doing it with me the whole month and we just didn’t know each other. Tried to get all the sand off and then cabbed back to the Al Maha where Alice met me to load up her car. It was sad to say goodbye to the front desk folks at the Al Maha cuz they have been awesome for the last 5.5 months but understood why I was leaving. Alice assures me that the folks at her place are just as awesome so we will see! It has started out well! So we get all my stuff to Beach Rotana and got checked in pretty easily. My room is fab and had a big basket of goodies waiting (well if you consider eggs, bread, pasta, ketchup, and other staples goodies!).
I moved for a number of reasons. I would have stayed here from the start but it was crazy expensive (like double where I was) and there was no way my firm was going to pay for it. I had never seen the suites so had no reason to push for it until I first went to Alice’s! This was way back in January but I was jealous immediately. I didn’t think I cared so much about having one big room vs having a separate bedroom/living area but now that I have it, it’s so much better. Anyhow…so I have friends coming into town tonight and another in June and was planning on them spending a day or two at the Beach Rotana anyway for the beach club and then just on a whim emailed to see what the rates were. Same as I had been quoted before. Way too high. Well they came back and said they’d drop the rate for the smaller room, plus upgrade me to the bigger room, plus free internet and breakfast buffet. Considering the amount of time/money I spend going to the Beach Rotana on weekends and cabbing to the Abu Dhabi mall (which is connected), it isn’t all that much more expensive to stay..so I did it! It’s so worth it. I have a balcony which I love….I used to go up to the pool at my old place to eat and make phone calls cuz I hate being indoors with no fresh air, but that was sometimes a mission, it closed at 10 and I was forced to deal with creepy gym guy. Now I can just open my door and go outside. I sat out there last night with wine and it was soooooo peaceful! There is also a grocery store right below so also very convenient, not to mention that the best restaurants are at the Beach Rotana and now I can order room service from all of them! Last night I was dancing around the place I was so excited about it and had a very hard time figuring out what to order! I’m so sick of the menu from the old place at this point!!! I got everything unpacked and organized (was kind of nice to be forced to do it since company is coming tonight!), did laundry and then got in bed. I ended up going to sleep way later than I had hoped but oh well….at least its ready! I was gonna say I’ll catch up on sleep this weekend but I don’t see a whole lot of that in the future!
So Helena and Martha have been in Paris the last 4 days and are flying in tonight. Unfortunately tomorrow is my last day of this session of BC so I don’t want to skip it and I know we’ll have plans tomorrow night so am gonna have to take it easy tonight and go in the AM. I’m sure I’ll sleep none but if I can stay sober, that will be a start! I think we’ll go to Trader Vic’s in the BR since its easy and they can stay out if they want and just walk home. Tomorrow is Liana’s last day at work so we’ll prob do drinks for that, then out to Yas Island for a big night on the town with everyone. Headed to Dubai for the weekend although not sure what we’re doing yet since the girls won’t tell me what they want to do! I guess we’ll figure it out tonight!
Oh also this week I booked a trip to London!!!! Since Liana is off work as of tomorrow, she is headed to Sierra Leone for a week and then going to London early and I’ll join her on the 5th. I land at like 7am on the 5th so will have all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday (flying back sat night). Just booked a really nice hotel with my Marriot points which was fab cuz the hotel was gonna be almost $700 and now it’s free. Plus it turns out the night of the 5th is their grand opening (was completely refurbished) so we get free tickets to that event. Then we’re doing dinner at a place Alice suggested which is supposed to be fab. Alice flies in on the 6th for her sisters bachelorette party weekend so we’re gonna do breakfast before she heads out of the city for her weekend. Liana and I will train up to Derby in the countryside for Bob’s fight and then come back to London Saturday morning. We will likely just do a lot of walking around, sight seeing, etc. I’ve never been to London so very excited just to go and do whatever. The major bummer is that Katie is headed back to the US on the night of the 5th so we might be able to meet for coffee but that’s it. Funny all 4 of us will sort of cross paths in London yet none of us are going or returning together!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
BC, Brunch, Boxing and Boston
Another week comes to an end (and the time is going by so fast I don’t like it!!!!!). Last week was mostly filled with Boot Camp (BC) and trying to figure out what to do with my life, which will be a continuing saga this week as well. Ha. A rundown:
Monday I hit the pool for 30 minutes of laps as I didn’t want to do a full work out between boot camp days so that was nice. I was tired and felt like doing absolutely nothing but forced myself into not being lazy. It helps that I order food to be delivered at the pool and the evenings have been amazing weather wise so it’s a great way to get out of my room and get some fresh air. Speaking of the weather…I don’t know what happened last week but d*mn did it get hot. It went from being very comfortable to feeling you have been smacked in the face with heat when you walk outside. Thankfully being down by the water for BC at 7:30 is still quite nice. I’m not sure how I’m going to survive through June, but ideally my body will start to adjust. I don’t mind at all when I’m by the pool or in comfy clothes, but in a suit it’s not too much fun.
Tuesday was more BC although this time we didn’t hit the beach, stayed in the grass and did a lot of MMA style work (there is an MMA class right before mine) so we I guess instead of clean up that class, we just used their stuff! So on Sunday he made us grab dumbbells to take down to the beach which we never used. I asked why at the end and he said we weren’t going to, he just wanted us to lug them over. So when he told us to grab them this time, I grabbed heavier ones thinking we’d be doing the same. Wrong. We used them…a lot. OUCH!!! We also did a gazillion pushups and burpies. At one point he split us up into groups and stacked our group with the really fit ppl since he wanted us to compete against each other. So we had 5 minutes to do as many sets of 5 pushups/5 burpies as possible. He gave us a heads up when we were 1 minute in….I wanted to die already!!!! Anyway..at least I wasn’t full of sand at the end although being in the itchy grass is not the best either. My knees are always a mess when I finish. Went to Spinneys for some more fresh pineapple and turkey (my new go to dinner!) and went home.
Wednesday I had a call with a partner in Boston to discuss options for me. Last week I had a call with a partner in DC as well as my overall partner right now for this UAE gig so I’m getting called out. One the one hand its nice to have options and nothing tying me down to any one area, however now that’s opened up almost too many options and its hard to sift through. DC wants me back in DC, I don’t really want to go back for lots of reasons both personally and professionally. At this point I’m quite excited about making a change to Boston but timing wise is not great professionally. But at any rate had a good chat and my UAE boss is in town from NY this week so we’re going to meet to discuss all my options (of which today some new ones materialized which could put me in NY and then Boston……we shall see!). Went and had dinner and a few drinks at Oceans and then called it an early night even though it was Ladies night….just can’t do the late weeknights anymore!
Thursday went by pretty quick at work and the place that has the soup I love FINALLY had what I loved again. I love the chicken/corn and the chicken /vegetable and for awhile was getting it quite often but for the last 3 weeks they NEVER had either when I went to check which was a min of 3 days a week. So Thursday we usually go to Jones for lunch and sit outside but we had a fire drill and went to Jones for coffee at like 10 instead so didn’t really want to go back for lunch (plus it was sooooo dusty out and I felt dirty after sitting there for 30 minutes). So we went by the salad bar and sure enough, the soup was there….I was very excited. Thursday nights BC was awful (although I imagine every session is awful in its own right!) We did cross fits which I hadn’t heard of before, they are the devil. So its 50 pushups, 50 squats, 20 burpies and an 800m run. We did this 4 times. I was hurting after 1. HA! Plus that was my first Thursday night session on the Corniche and there were SO many ppl down there….there was a music festival, an autism walk, kids galore, ppl taking pictures, being obnoxious. It did not make for the most fun workout. So we all survived and then I decided, hey, I’ve got nowhere to be or anything better to do, let me jog home. I did not think it was as far as it was. It was far. Ha. I ran for about 15 minutes but at this point my legs were shot from squats/burpies and the running we already did so 15 was as far as I was gonna make it. Plus my ovaries were on fire (sorry guys….TMI and you wouldn’t understand but running like this is miserable). So I power walked the rest of the way..in total it took 45 minutes. The only bonus was that I picked up some KFC (its literally right across the street from my hotel but I never go there). Got some chicken breasts and dragged myself the last block home and up to the pool.
Got to bed nice and early Thursday night and then up at a respectable hour on Friday (9:30ish!) as we were heading to Dubai for my first ever UAE Brunch! Brunch is a huge thing here in the UAE and almost every big hotel has one on Friday afternoons but for whatever reason, I have not dragged myself to one yet. Liana had some friends in Dubai who invited her to this one and I’m really glad we went. Apparently the Yalumba brunch is known for being a bit out of control and I was told if I was going to do one, it mine as well be this one! Had an easy drive up to Dubai and dropped the car and our stuff off at Oliver’s. He has been in his new place since February and I just got around to going to see it. He was kind enough to let Liana and I crash here so we didn’t have to pay for a hotel room, score! We didn’t have much time so literally dropped and jumped in a cab. Got to brunch and most of the other ppl at the table were already there although we wren’t too late, I was proud of us. The bubbly started as soon as we walked in the restaurant and did not stop for another 6 or so hours. The actual brunch was only 3 hours and included unlimited champagne, buffet and a la carte menus. So many choices! The champagne folks were never far away and I literally never dropped below a half glass before mine was refilled which made counting the # of glasses impossible. Oh well! I had some amazing fruit, a made to order omelette and then lots and lots of candy. Liana gave me so much sh*t for essentially paying 500dhs to eat candy but I was happy so it was worth it (plus lets get real, I drank my moneys worth, I never planned to eat it!) I had a number of suitors at brunch…the first being an older British guy who found me at the candy to tell me that I had an amazing figure and that his whole table had their jaws on the floor (as I’m loading my plate with junk!), ha. I was polite and took his card but that’s about as far as that went. Next up was #3. Oh #3, how stupid you are. So when Liana and I first walked in, there was a very good looking guy at the table behind us but we ended up with our backs to the table. He eventually came and found me at the buffet (I may or may not have been back at the candy!). So he starts chatting with me and then I go sit back down…..he came and hung at our table for a little bit and then the whole brunch essentially ended up outdoors for happy hour once they turned the champagne off. At this point he decided it would be a good idea to buy a ginormous bottle of champagne..I don’t think Magnum is the word..it was bigger than that. I’m thinking holy sh*t..I don’t think I can drink much more! Anyway…we did lots of dancing, general goofing around and sweating our a**es off. It was soooooooo hot until the sun went down (plus all the dancing around didn’t help!) So at this point #3 is starting to just become annoying cuz I wasn’t really interested and he was feeding me loads of bs and then started asking if I was with him. Umm…no. So at one point I go sit down cuz my feet were killing me and I can see #3 and Liana and he’s clearly all over her. It turns out he started feeding her the same load of bs he told me. HA. What an idiot. We swapped stories later on and were crackin up at what he told us both (clearly he assumed we were dumb and would not talk to each other!). She had given him her number but didn’t remember and he texted the next day to say he was sorry for being an idiot and wanted to make it up to her. And then proceeded to ask her for my number so he could take me out to apologize. Lol. Nice effort #3 but you are out of your d*mn mind!
So we had this kickboxing thing we were going to at 7ish so left happy hour around 6:30. At this point I had stopped drinking and was fairly sober but Liana was quite drunk and didn’t even remember leaving or the cab ride to the hotel that was hosting the fight. Ha. We had a friend fighting so were excited to check out the action. Got great seats in the front and then scarfed down some schwarmas (we realized by this point we were starving!!). And then Liana started heckling people. Fighters, the ring girls, guy sitting next to us. Whoever. She is hysterical when she gets in moods like this! The ring girls (there were 2) came out between each round to hold up the # and just alternated. Well after the first girl came back for the second time, Liana starts yelling out “Change your dress, we’ve already seen that one…or tell us where you got it”. Lol. It did get kind of boring with same chicks in same outfits but I guess they weren’t trying to advertise clothing. When the chicks fought she started yelling “get some hot guys out there”. You probably had to be there. (If Katie or Alice are reading this…think Dubai Rugby and you’ll get the idea!). So we watched two short ones before our friend was up. You could tell he was so pumped up to fight and we were to watch. Well, the other guy ruined all that. First he came out with his shirt on…no one fights with a shirt on right?! Then the fight starts and about 4 seconds in, he just falls down and we’re all going what the h*ll just happened. It looked like he was having a seizure so then I was worried he was really hurt (although this didn’t come from getting hit…he literally just fell back on his own). Turns out he dislocated his shoulder throwing a punch. What a loser!!!! So that was it….ha. We got VIP tickets and watched the next fight from some pretty sweet seat and then called it a night. At this point I was already having a hangover from earlier and my head was throbbing, I felt disgusting from dancing around sweating all day and couldn’t wait to get in bed.
We slept in a bit on Saturday although I always end up getting woken up by Liana as she gets up crazy early and then gets bored! She had a pretty bad hangover when she woke up but I felt great since got mine out of the way the night before. We went to breakfast at the Marina with Oliver and talked places for Liana to move. She resigned on Sunday and took a job in Dubai so will be moving in about a month. She is very excited to live in Dubai and I’m so happy for her although just wish it wasn’t happening til I left! I have a new place to crash in Dubai though so that works. Oliver went through the whole apartment shopping thing fairly recently so gave her some good advice as we walked around the Marina. After brunch we packed up, said goodbye to our host and then headed to the Palm for a poolside afternoon at Liana’s old boss’s place. His complex is pretty sweet so we just lounged at the pool until 4ish and then continued down to the Atlantis at the end of the palm for Chill Out Fest. It was a 2 day thing on Nasimi beach but we only went Saturday. Got there right when it opened so got a great spot, got some schwarma and drinks and plopped down in the bean bags and began chilling out like we were supposed to! The music was not great….they had a bunch of acts performing and we ended up leaving before what were the main 3 (I hadn’t heard of 2, but the last was Eryka Badu). It was a very chill place and we had some friends come around 6:30 who had a table with bottles of vodka but at this point we were both tired, not drinking anymore, and not wanting to wait around for the good music to start knowing we had to drive back to Abu Dhabi. We left around 7:30 and I was very glad to be home and in bed early. Of course we got word that the end of the night was amazing, great music, Erykah was awesome, etc but oh well…..I was happy with a really great night of sleep!
Sunday was back to work and since boss was back in town I “brought” my BC stuff so I could just go from work since going home first leaves very little time and just results in an extra cab ride. I didn’t want to leave right at 6:30 since I’d be to BC way too early so I started writing this blog and then around 6:50 left. Well I get to bathroom to change and what do you know, I only brought my socks and sneakers. Oops. So now I’m like sh*t…I have to get myself home, changed and back to BC by 7:30. This should have been my first sign that it was going to be a rough night. So I get in cab and of course he is in NO hurry to go anywhere and was one of those nervous drivers. Great. So finally we get to near my building and I just pay him and jump out and run across street to my place. My groin was hurting at this point (it was sore from Thursdays BC) and I was thinking great its leg day, should be fun if I’m already sore. So I get in elevator and of course, so did 10 other ppl who were going to every d*mn floor. This never happens to me. So I finally get to 10, run to room and start changing with a quickness. My clothes were piled nicely on my table, just forgot to put them in bag that morning. I had considered asking cabbie to stay since I knew getting another one at that time of night was going to be rough but I figured I’d take my chances and get someone who could actually drive. Took forever of course and I’m watching the clock tick. Finally get close and got stuck behind line of cars turning so again just tossed him my money and jump out. I rolled up with about 60 seconds to spare, sweet. Well then we start our warm up run and as I go to fix my hair, bam, my heart tie breaks. Now with as much hair as I have, there is no way I could ever work out without a hair tie! So I’m tying my hair tie back together, trying to do the warm up run and feeling every step in my groin. Great. So then he tells us that its hell week and its going to be the hardest leg session we do the whole month…..could it get any worse?! So we head to the beach and its sooooo windy so sand is flying everywhere and made doing any running very difficult. We did 150 squat jumps to start and my groin felt okay for those so I was feeling better about the workout. Well then we did suicides. My groin was done on the first leg of the first one. Ugh. Sucks. I managed the rest of the workout and did a pretty good job except for the left leg lunges since that killed my right groin. I was half crying, struggling through the pain but refused to stop (why do I insist on being so tough sometimes?!). It ended up being a great class and I burned 659 calories in an hour!!! Hit Spinneys for some more pineapple and turkey and also picked up an ice pack (icing my groin was not so much fun!). Took a cab home this time, had some dinner and got in bed.
Yesterday was interesting because my right butt muscles were sooooo sore from the right leg lunges and my right groin hurt so I was walking around all lopsided. My left butt off course didn’t get quite the workout cuz of the modified lunges..hopefully I don’t end up with uneven butt muscles! Had a pretty busy day at work and then we left early to meet my boss and some others who are in town to have a Real Job/Current Job happy hour. A bunch of ppl couldn’t stay for dinner for various reasons so it ended up being Dean, Oliver, Liana and myself which worked out cuz I was gonna have to do dinner with Dean tonight to talk Boston and that would screw up my BC schedule, etc. Only bad thing was we didn’t end up eating until 10 and I ate WAY TOO MUCH but it was sooooooooooooo good. French onion soup, lobster tail, ribeye…yum yum yum! I could barely move when we left and immediately regretted my decision to stuff my face cuz I felt so bad all night and still pretty full this morning.
Headed to BC tonight and actually brought my stuff to work so I’m doing better than Sunday. Also it’s arm day and he assured us no leg work (although there will prob be running and that’s what really kills the groin) so we’ll see how it goes.
I did a ton of planning for friends upcoming visits this morning so I feel much more organized! Helena and Martha will be here next Wednesday, yay! Maria is not til June but its still nice to have a good idea of what we’re going to do (especially since that’s my last week here so anything I want to do and haven’t yet, needs to be done then!). I also am considering moving to the Beach Rotana. I go there to the pool on weekends a lot anyway, they have a much better gym than mine with classes, its connected to the mall and has a hypermarket below it so all in all, would be much better for me. Plus bigger room so for guests would be great. I got them to negotiate an amazing rate (wishing I had done this months ago!) so I think I may pay the difference from where I’m at now and go for it. Alice is there so that would be nice as well. Don’t really want to deal with the actual moving part but I think its gonna be worth it. Oh and the kitchens have stoves…so if I decided to not be lazy I could actually cook something other than pasta! With Liana leaving it makes sense too as I liked where I was cuz it was walking distance to her place and I went to her gym with her all the time so had really stopped going to my own..but now I have no reason to stay where I’m at so think I’ll prob go with it.
Oh and had a good chat with Dean about whats next for me. Its still up in the air but might have a more clear path now which would put me in New York for a short time and then to Boston. Not sure if this means moving to Boston and then commuting to NY during week or what…so much left to be figured out but ideally in the next few weeks will know. I was very against flat out moving to NYC but I think it would work out well for a short term stint since all my friends are there, etc. And I could start getting acquainted with Boston and settle in somewhere (ie: move my stuff somewhere) but split time between the two. As much as I love to travel, I think it will suit me just fine for the short term!
I’m excited for a fairly chill weekend. Liana’s dad is coming to town and we’re taking him to Anwar’s birthday/house warming party so that should be fun! Other than that I plan to spend two full days pool side, and do some major pampering. My nails are a mess, my hair is in desperate need of a cut and I could use a massage.
Monday I hit the pool for 30 minutes of laps as I didn’t want to do a full work out between boot camp days so that was nice. I was tired and felt like doing absolutely nothing but forced myself into not being lazy. It helps that I order food to be delivered at the pool and the evenings have been amazing weather wise so it’s a great way to get out of my room and get some fresh air. Speaking of the weather…I don’t know what happened last week but d*mn did it get hot. It went from being very comfortable to feeling you have been smacked in the face with heat when you walk outside. Thankfully being down by the water for BC at 7:30 is still quite nice. I’m not sure how I’m going to survive through June, but ideally my body will start to adjust. I don’t mind at all when I’m by the pool or in comfy clothes, but in a suit it’s not too much fun.
Tuesday was more BC although this time we didn’t hit the beach, stayed in the grass and did a lot of MMA style work (there is an MMA class right before mine) so we I guess instead of clean up that class, we just used their stuff! So on Sunday he made us grab dumbbells to take down to the beach which we never used. I asked why at the end and he said we weren’t going to, he just wanted us to lug them over. So when he told us to grab them this time, I grabbed heavier ones thinking we’d be doing the same. Wrong. We used them…a lot. OUCH!!! We also did a gazillion pushups and burpies. At one point he split us up into groups and stacked our group with the really fit ppl since he wanted us to compete against each other. So we had 5 minutes to do as many sets of 5 pushups/5 burpies as possible. He gave us a heads up when we were 1 minute in….I wanted to die already!!!! Anyway..at least I wasn’t full of sand at the end although being in the itchy grass is not the best either. My knees are always a mess when I finish. Went to Spinneys for some more fresh pineapple and turkey (my new go to dinner!) and went home.
Wednesday I had a call with a partner in Boston to discuss options for me. Last week I had a call with a partner in DC as well as my overall partner right now for this UAE gig so I’m getting called out. One the one hand its nice to have options and nothing tying me down to any one area, however now that’s opened up almost too many options and its hard to sift through. DC wants me back in DC, I don’t really want to go back for lots of reasons both personally and professionally. At this point I’m quite excited about making a change to Boston but timing wise is not great professionally. But at any rate had a good chat and my UAE boss is in town from NY this week so we’re going to meet to discuss all my options (of which today some new ones materialized which could put me in NY and then Boston……we shall see!). Went and had dinner and a few drinks at Oceans and then called it an early night even though it was Ladies night….just can’t do the late weeknights anymore!
Thursday went by pretty quick at work and the place that has the soup I love FINALLY had what I loved again. I love the chicken/corn and the chicken /vegetable and for awhile was getting it quite often but for the last 3 weeks they NEVER had either when I went to check which was a min of 3 days a week. So Thursday we usually go to Jones for lunch and sit outside but we had a fire drill and went to Jones for coffee at like 10 instead so didn’t really want to go back for lunch (plus it was sooooo dusty out and I felt dirty after sitting there for 30 minutes). So we went by the salad bar and sure enough, the soup was there….I was very excited. Thursday nights BC was awful (although I imagine every session is awful in its own right!) We did cross fits which I hadn’t heard of before, they are the devil. So its 50 pushups, 50 squats, 20 burpies and an 800m run. We did this 4 times. I was hurting after 1. HA! Plus that was my first Thursday night session on the Corniche and there were SO many ppl down there….there was a music festival, an autism walk, kids galore, ppl taking pictures, being obnoxious. It did not make for the most fun workout. So we all survived and then I decided, hey, I’ve got nowhere to be or anything better to do, let me jog home. I did not think it was as far as it was. It was far. Ha. I ran for about 15 minutes but at this point my legs were shot from squats/burpies and the running we already did so 15 was as far as I was gonna make it. Plus my ovaries were on fire (sorry guys….TMI and you wouldn’t understand but running like this is miserable). So I power walked the rest of the way..in total it took 45 minutes. The only bonus was that I picked up some KFC (its literally right across the street from my hotel but I never go there). Got some chicken breasts and dragged myself the last block home and up to the pool.
Got to bed nice and early Thursday night and then up at a respectable hour on Friday (9:30ish!) as we were heading to Dubai for my first ever UAE Brunch! Brunch is a huge thing here in the UAE and almost every big hotel has one on Friday afternoons but for whatever reason, I have not dragged myself to one yet. Liana had some friends in Dubai who invited her to this one and I’m really glad we went. Apparently the Yalumba brunch is known for being a bit out of control and I was told if I was going to do one, it mine as well be this one! Had an easy drive up to Dubai and dropped the car and our stuff off at Oliver’s. He has been in his new place since February and I just got around to going to see it. He was kind enough to let Liana and I crash here so we didn’t have to pay for a hotel room, score! We didn’t have much time so literally dropped and jumped in a cab. Got to brunch and most of the other ppl at the table were already there although we wren’t too late, I was proud of us. The bubbly started as soon as we walked in the restaurant and did not stop for another 6 or so hours. The actual brunch was only 3 hours and included unlimited champagne, buffet and a la carte menus. So many choices! The champagne folks were never far away and I literally never dropped below a half glass before mine was refilled which made counting the # of glasses impossible. Oh well! I had some amazing fruit, a made to order omelette and then lots and lots of candy. Liana gave me so much sh*t for essentially paying 500dhs to eat candy but I was happy so it was worth it (plus lets get real, I drank my moneys worth, I never planned to eat it!) I had a number of suitors at brunch…the first being an older British guy who found me at the candy to tell me that I had an amazing figure and that his whole table had their jaws on the floor (as I’m loading my plate with junk!), ha. I was polite and took his card but that’s about as far as that went. Next up was #3. Oh #3, how stupid you are. So when Liana and I first walked in, there was a very good looking guy at the table behind us but we ended up with our backs to the table. He eventually came and found me at the buffet (I may or may not have been back at the candy!). So he starts chatting with me and then I go sit back down…..he came and hung at our table for a little bit and then the whole brunch essentially ended up outdoors for happy hour once they turned the champagne off. At this point he decided it would be a good idea to buy a ginormous bottle of champagne..I don’t think Magnum is the word..it was bigger than that. I’m thinking holy sh*t..I don’t think I can drink much more! Anyway…we did lots of dancing, general goofing around and sweating our a**es off. It was soooooooo hot until the sun went down (plus all the dancing around didn’t help!) So at this point #3 is starting to just become annoying cuz I wasn’t really interested and he was feeding me loads of bs and then started asking if I was with him. Umm…no. So at one point I go sit down cuz my feet were killing me and I can see #3 and Liana and he’s clearly all over her. It turns out he started feeding her the same load of bs he told me. HA. What an idiot. We swapped stories later on and were crackin up at what he told us both (clearly he assumed we were dumb and would not talk to each other!). She had given him her number but didn’t remember and he texted the next day to say he was sorry for being an idiot and wanted to make it up to her. And then proceeded to ask her for my number so he could take me out to apologize. Lol. Nice effort #3 but you are out of your d*mn mind!
So we had this kickboxing thing we were going to at 7ish so left happy hour around 6:30. At this point I had stopped drinking and was fairly sober but Liana was quite drunk and didn’t even remember leaving or the cab ride to the hotel that was hosting the fight. Ha. We had a friend fighting so were excited to check out the action. Got great seats in the front and then scarfed down some schwarmas (we realized by this point we were starving!!). And then Liana started heckling people. Fighters, the ring girls, guy sitting next to us. Whoever. She is hysterical when she gets in moods like this! The ring girls (there were 2) came out between each round to hold up the # and just alternated. Well after the first girl came back for the second time, Liana starts yelling out “Change your dress, we’ve already seen that one…or tell us where you got it”. Lol. It did get kind of boring with same chicks in same outfits but I guess they weren’t trying to advertise clothing. When the chicks fought she started yelling “get some hot guys out there”. You probably had to be there. (If Katie or Alice are reading this…think Dubai Rugby and you’ll get the idea!). So we watched two short ones before our friend was up. You could tell he was so pumped up to fight and we were to watch. Well, the other guy ruined all that. First he came out with his shirt on…no one fights with a shirt on right?! Then the fight starts and about 4 seconds in, he just falls down and we’re all going what the h*ll just happened. It looked like he was having a seizure so then I was worried he was really hurt (although this didn’t come from getting hit…he literally just fell back on his own). Turns out he dislocated his shoulder throwing a punch. What a loser!!!! So that was it….ha. We got VIP tickets and watched the next fight from some pretty sweet seat and then called it a night. At this point I was already having a hangover from earlier and my head was throbbing, I felt disgusting from dancing around sweating all day and couldn’t wait to get in bed.
We slept in a bit on Saturday although I always end up getting woken up by Liana as she gets up crazy early and then gets bored! She had a pretty bad hangover when she woke up but I felt great since got mine out of the way the night before. We went to breakfast at the Marina with Oliver and talked places for Liana to move. She resigned on Sunday and took a job in Dubai so will be moving in about a month. She is very excited to live in Dubai and I’m so happy for her although just wish it wasn’t happening til I left! I have a new place to crash in Dubai though so that works. Oliver went through the whole apartment shopping thing fairly recently so gave her some good advice as we walked around the Marina. After brunch we packed up, said goodbye to our host and then headed to the Palm for a poolside afternoon at Liana’s old boss’s place. His complex is pretty sweet so we just lounged at the pool until 4ish and then continued down to the Atlantis at the end of the palm for Chill Out Fest. It was a 2 day thing on Nasimi beach but we only went Saturday. Got there right when it opened so got a great spot, got some schwarma and drinks and plopped down in the bean bags and began chilling out like we were supposed to! The music was not great….they had a bunch of acts performing and we ended up leaving before what were the main 3 (I hadn’t heard of 2, but the last was Eryka Badu). It was a very chill place and we had some friends come around 6:30 who had a table with bottles of vodka but at this point we were both tired, not drinking anymore, and not wanting to wait around for the good music to start knowing we had to drive back to Abu Dhabi. We left around 7:30 and I was very glad to be home and in bed early. Of course we got word that the end of the night was amazing, great music, Erykah was awesome, etc but oh well…..I was happy with a really great night of sleep!
Sunday was back to work and since boss was back in town I “brought” my BC stuff so I could just go from work since going home first leaves very little time and just results in an extra cab ride. I didn’t want to leave right at 6:30 since I’d be to BC way too early so I started writing this blog and then around 6:50 left. Well I get to bathroom to change and what do you know, I only brought my socks and sneakers. Oops. So now I’m like sh*t…I have to get myself home, changed and back to BC by 7:30. This should have been my first sign that it was going to be a rough night. So I get in cab and of course he is in NO hurry to go anywhere and was one of those nervous drivers. Great. So finally we get to near my building and I just pay him and jump out and run across street to my place. My groin was hurting at this point (it was sore from Thursdays BC) and I was thinking great its leg day, should be fun if I’m already sore. So I get in elevator and of course, so did 10 other ppl who were going to every d*mn floor. This never happens to me. So I finally get to 10, run to room and start changing with a quickness. My clothes were piled nicely on my table, just forgot to put them in bag that morning. I had considered asking cabbie to stay since I knew getting another one at that time of night was going to be rough but I figured I’d take my chances and get someone who could actually drive. Took forever of course and I’m watching the clock tick. Finally get close and got stuck behind line of cars turning so again just tossed him my money and jump out. I rolled up with about 60 seconds to spare, sweet. Well then we start our warm up run and as I go to fix my hair, bam, my heart tie breaks. Now with as much hair as I have, there is no way I could ever work out without a hair tie! So I’m tying my hair tie back together, trying to do the warm up run and feeling every step in my groin. Great. So then he tells us that its hell week and its going to be the hardest leg session we do the whole month…..could it get any worse?! So we head to the beach and its sooooo windy so sand is flying everywhere and made doing any running very difficult. We did 150 squat jumps to start and my groin felt okay for those so I was feeling better about the workout. Well then we did suicides. My groin was done on the first leg of the first one. Ugh. Sucks. I managed the rest of the workout and did a pretty good job except for the left leg lunges since that killed my right groin. I was half crying, struggling through the pain but refused to stop (why do I insist on being so tough sometimes?!). It ended up being a great class and I burned 659 calories in an hour!!! Hit Spinneys for some more pineapple and turkey and also picked up an ice pack (icing my groin was not so much fun!). Took a cab home this time, had some dinner and got in bed.
Yesterday was interesting because my right butt muscles were sooooo sore from the right leg lunges and my right groin hurt so I was walking around all lopsided. My left butt off course didn’t get quite the workout cuz of the modified lunges..hopefully I don’t end up with uneven butt muscles! Had a pretty busy day at work and then we left early to meet my boss and some others who are in town to have a Real Job/Current Job happy hour. A bunch of ppl couldn’t stay for dinner for various reasons so it ended up being Dean, Oliver, Liana and myself which worked out cuz I was gonna have to do dinner with Dean tonight to talk Boston and that would screw up my BC schedule, etc. Only bad thing was we didn’t end up eating until 10 and I ate WAY TOO MUCH but it was sooooooooooooo good. French onion soup, lobster tail, ribeye…yum yum yum! I could barely move when we left and immediately regretted my decision to stuff my face cuz I felt so bad all night and still pretty full this morning.
Headed to BC tonight and actually brought my stuff to work so I’m doing better than Sunday. Also it’s arm day and he assured us no leg work (although there will prob be running and that’s what really kills the groin) so we’ll see how it goes.
I did a ton of planning for friends upcoming visits this morning so I feel much more organized! Helena and Martha will be here next Wednesday, yay! Maria is not til June but its still nice to have a good idea of what we’re going to do (especially since that’s my last week here so anything I want to do and haven’t yet, needs to be done then!). I also am considering moving to the Beach Rotana. I go there to the pool on weekends a lot anyway, they have a much better gym than mine with classes, its connected to the mall and has a hypermarket below it so all in all, would be much better for me. Plus bigger room so for guests would be great. I got them to negotiate an amazing rate (wishing I had done this months ago!) so I think I may pay the difference from where I’m at now and go for it. Alice is there so that would be nice as well. Don’t really want to deal with the actual moving part but I think its gonna be worth it. Oh and the kitchens have stoves…so if I decided to not be lazy I could actually cook something other than pasta! With Liana leaving it makes sense too as I liked where I was cuz it was walking distance to her place and I went to her gym with her all the time so had really stopped going to my own..but now I have no reason to stay where I’m at so think I’ll prob go with it.
Oh and had a good chat with Dean about whats next for me. Its still up in the air but might have a more clear path now which would put me in New York for a short time and then to Boston. Not sure if this means moving to Boston and then commuting to NY during week or what…so much left to be figured out but ideally in the next few weeks will know. I was very against flat out moving to NYC but I think it would work out well for a short term stint since all my friends are there, etc. And I could start getting acquainted with Boston and settle in somewhere (ie: move my stuff somewhere) but split time between the two. As much as I love to travel, I think it will suit me just fine for the short term!
I’m excited for a fairly chill weekend. Liana’s dad is coming to town and we’re taking him to Anwar’s birthday/house warming party so that should be fun! Other than that I plan to spend two full days pool side, and do some major pampering. My nails are a mess, my hair is in desperate need of a cut and I could use a massage.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Liana & Cristina do Doha!
It’s 5pm and I’m struggling to get through my Sunday…we took the late flight home last night and I’m feeling it now. Almost over though (boss is out this week so we can leave a bit earlier!) and I figure writing this will occupy my time for the rest of the day. Lots to write about this week so here goes:
As of Friday morning I officially made it one long month off cheese!!!! A lot of people asked why I gave it up completely and it’s mostly because I eat so much of it. I know it’s not terrible for you (does have a lot of protein, etc) but I just ate entirely too much and since I’m trying to lose weight I figured this was something that would be a challenge and would ideally help with weight loss. Most people said I wouldn’t last and I gotta admit, I wasn’t sure I would either but I also know once I say I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it. It def. made me make much healthier choices, like the two nights in a row last week that I got dragged to Italian restaurants, I ended up with grilled prawns and salad instead of cheesy pastas or pizza. I only lost a kilo (2.2 lbs) but am now just 1 kilo away from my goal weight so I’m pretty pumped! Instead of giving up something for April, I decided to pick up Boot Camp instead.
Boot camp is 3 days a week on the Corniche (the beach) at 6am or 7:30pm. I’ve been wanting to do this for months but didn’t have anyone who wanted to do it with me…the new month started last Sunday and I didn’t hear about it until Tuesday so missed one session but not a big deal. It’s 50% off this month too which is fab. I was getting a bit used to Pump at the gym so I think this is going to be a great change for my body. I’ll probably alternate between mornings and nights but it’s great that I have a choice. So I went Tuesday night having no idea what to expect but it was great (other than the sand everywhere..I hate sand and we were often laying in it to do abs or push ups or what not). It was arms day and I of course had just upped the weight I did for everything (mostly arms) at Pump on Sunday so on Tuesday was still fairly sore but I survived. Did a lot of running around with bars over our heads, racing in the sand, push ups, etc etc. It’s about 90% females and I’d say I’m in better shape than all but one (and she runs triathlons!) so it was nice to be able to keep up with everything rather than dying like most ppl. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel on Wednesday and was actually a little bummed when I first woke up cuz I felt fine…..the soreness did start to set in Wed night/Thursday though and trying to put my dress on for work and take it off was pretty hard! I think I’m gonna end up working a lot of random muscles that I don’t normally do. I got up at 5am on Thursday to hit the morning session since we were flying out Thursday night. I went to bed early but of course couldn’t sleep so I was not super happy at 5am but made myself get up in the dark to go. It’s a bit hard to get a cab at that time but I gave myself plenty of time so was all good. It was assessment day so not as intense of a workout as Tuesday but I still had the same avg/max heart rate (I was also jumping around in between all the assessment stuff). Ppl kept saying I had way too much energy cuz they just wanted to sit around when we weren’t assessing…but I was like I did not wake my a** up at 5am to stand around. One of the things was the plank (for your abs) and I was able to hold it for 3 minutes! I was impressed with myself, ha. I was lazy all weekend and going back tonight (didn’t get home til 2am from airport so there was no way I was going this morning)…I’m looking forward to getting my body moving but also would love a nap. Ha! This is good though since I paid for it already I’m not gonna skip out on sessions and ideally by end of the month I will be at my goal weight.
Okay so now that I’m all out of order……
Monday Liana and I hit the mall after work as we both needed some stuff and decided to skip gym to make time for it since we never do on the weekend when we plan too. Part of the reason is that we both hate shopping (sometimes the similarities between us are scary!). Thankfully I found a new going out top and sundress at the first store cuz after that I was pretty much tired of shopping, ha. I need a new camera and sunglasses but just no patience to go look for this stuff. I went into Sunglass hut and was annoyed within a few minutes so ended up with a random pair from Aldo that did the trick for the weekend. I tried to find my old ones online but can’t find them in black. So at point we’re both just sort of standing there going….do you want to go in xyz or what..and she goes…I’m done whenever and I was like sweet, me too. The best part about the whole trip was the frozen yogurt that we had. YUM! It was called French vanilla but pretty sure it was actually cheesecake….it was fat free at any rate and so good so I got a big one and made it my dinner. Funny..went into Nike (I need new work out tops since I ruined almost all of mine in my laundry disasters) and was eating my yogurt and they were fine with it. I didn’t see anything I really liked so went in to Adidas where I was chased down and told I couldn’t eat in the store. I was like oh yeah…I liked this top, but Nike will let me eat in their store so I think I’ll go back there..which followed with a “just sayin”.
Tuesday was day 1 of bootcamp.
Wednesday I was ready for a night with no gym or shopping or plans so I decided to be lazy. I had coaching calls with 2 partners at home to try to figure out what I’m doing when I get back so feel good that the ball is rollin (just not sure which direction its going in yet!!!) and then I was in bed at 9 since I was getting up early Thursday for bootcamp. Too bad my mind was racing and I didn’t fall asleep until closer to midnight. I suck at sleeping lately.
Thursday was morning boot camp and then a fairly chill work day. I was exhausted for the whole morning and got in trouble for yawning too much, ha! I was listening to music and didn’t even realize that I kept yawning until Liana finally pointed it out and then I realized I was doing it like every other minute..oops. We went to our typical long Thursday lunch in the sun and after that I was much more alert. We actually left the office at 5:30 which I think is a first and was nice cuz I got a quick nap in and finished backing before heading off to airport.
I got in a cab that turned out to be a bad choice as he was an idiot. Went to get Liana (told him Marks and Spencer..he was questioning the location like there are more than one, there aren’t) and then when we said okay to the airport his first question was Dubai. We are in Abu Dhabi, maybe the AD airport could be your first guess. Then he asked if he could stop for gas (or petrol as they all call it here…the other day I was telling this driver to stop at the gas station and he clearly didn’t get it….oh right..the petrol station sorry!). Anyhow..I can see his gas gauge and he’s got a ¼ freaking tank so we were like no way, take us to the airport and then go get gas we have a plane to catch. Oh you do? Um yes! So then we get to airport and are like Terminal 3….so the traffic sucks a bit but you just deal with it til you pass Terminal 1 and get to 3….he kept trying to drop us at 1 and said we should walk…no..you should drive and do what we are telling you to do because we are paying you for it. I’m sure he wanted to murder us both. So then the fun starts trying to check in. We had checked in online but sometimes they say they cant verify your info and you have to re check in at airport. So we do…cept there is no paper to print our boarding passes..awesome. So we go to another machine that has paper except now it already thinks we have our passes and wont do sh*t. When we finally get up to the counter the guy is trying to fix the machine that prints luggage tags…we are being patient at first until he starts helping everyone and their mom that comes up complaining but will not just finish checking us in and giving us our boarding passes. I told her there was no way our bags were going to make it at the rate we were going but thankfully they did! Since all of this nonsense took so long we only had time for one drink at duty free (oh yeah, cuz I also picked the wrong line AGAIN at immigration) and no time to look for new sunnies (Liana’s word for sunglasses) or a camera. So we get on plane and Liana and bought a hat and said she was going to wear the hat and sunglasses the whole weekend to try to be incognito as she knows way too many ppl in Doha and didn’t tell many ppl she was coming. Epic fail. She was recognized by 2 different ppl within 5 minutes. The first guy just busts out with….EY, tax, Doha right? She hasn’t even been there in a year! Crazy. Flight was easy (oh…so the Etihad flights to/from Bahrain/Doha have been regular small planes..ie: one aisle….they check EVERY SINGLE PERSONS boarding card when you get on the plane to tell you the seat and where to go. First off, there is one aisle…so straight is really the only option but thank you for letting me know. Also, I can read. It says 7D, you do not need to read it to me. I’m quite surprised they don’t just escort every person to their seat cuz clearly they think we are the dumbest people in the world), got through immigration and then went out for our ride. The hotel sent a Jag to pick us up and essentially chauffeured us around the rest of the weekend…fabulous.
So short back story…wasta is an Arabic word for being able to get things since you know people. Liana is queen of wasta. When this one guy she knows from Doha found out she was coming he said he’d get us set up with an upgrade at the W since he is good friends with the general manager. This then became him picking up the tab for the whole weekend and he wasn’t even in town so Liana didn’t have to see him or anything. So we get to hotel and we knew we had a suite booked but they were like, oh we’ve upgraded you to a Wow suite, you’ll love it. They were right. Wow is right. It was so pimp! We had so much room, crazy lighting, a swivel swing chair (possibly the highlight of my weekend!) and a bottle of chilled Moet with strawberries waiting. At this point we decided that we’re putting all the crap from getting there behind us cuz things were def. looking up! Liana’s aunt had a friend that had just moved to Doha and was staying at the W so Liana called her up to have some champagne with us….which turned into talking forever. Meanwhile I start getting ready as my hair takes forever and then do my makeup and am essentially ready and this lady is still there asking questions about Doha. Liana finally got her to go by giving her the champagne from our mini bar..lol. Oh, so the room was great but a bit confusing cuz there were buttons for everything. We’re trying to figure out how to open the curtains so Liana is all looking for a break in the fabric…turns out they are electric, ha. The shower was almost impossible to figure out too, we couldn’t find room service menus, the phone was too high tech, etc etc. We never even turned on either of the two massive TV’s! We were gonna leave the hotel and go to this bar where Liana had a friend that worked but ended up just staying at the W as they have some really nice places and it was getting late and it was easy. We went to Wahm first which had an indoor spot and then out by the pool . Weather was amazing all weekend, had some cocktails, she caught up with everyone and their mom that knew her and then when they stopped the music we went to another more clubby place called Cristal (also in hotel). Because we were guests we got in everywhere very easy and just charged drinks to the room. Had a great time dancing at Cristal and then retreated to our fab suite, poured more drinks that we never drank, and passed out. Oh wait, but not before Liana was being ridiculous on the couch, it was surrounded by black strings (so was the bed) and she was like..oh no I’m stuck..I can’t get out. Ha. The pictures are a riot but she looks wasted so they are staying on the camera.
Friday we woke up early (and by we, I mean Liana woke up early, went to breakfast and then decided she was going to bother me until I got up cuz she was bored, lol). I was exhausted as Thursday was a very long day (started at 5am, ended about the same time 24 hours later) and I just wanted to sleep in. No luck. So we head down to pool where there is no sun yet and just curl up on the chairs and laugh about the night before. I got an egg white omelet, my first with cheese in a month…it was very disappointing. I wasn’t all that hungry cuz I was hungover and tired so that might have had something to do with it. We had massages booked at 11 so just kind of bummed around until then. The spa was amazing..I haven’t had a massage since last year and after all the stress I’ve had in the last few weeks, it was much needed. Went from there to a pedicure and Liana got her nail color changed. Then we went back to the pool and the sun was out and shining. Got cocktails, relaxed, got lunch, relaxed some more, was fab. Liana had a work call at 2:30 so she went up to to do that while I chilled a bit longer and then we headed off to the Interncon hotel where they were having some big Corona sponsored volleyball beach party. We had a bit of a hard time getting in as we only had Dirhams (UAE cash) and they use Riyals. So they wouldn’t take our Dirhams, neither of us brought an ATM card (nor was there was one close by anyway!). So we’re just standing there, oh Liana is still on her call, and I’m giving the people shit about not taking our money. Finally a guy comes in and I’m like hey..you wouldn’t want to trade dirhams for riyals would you? Score, he was game. It’s a 1 to 1 ratio so really not sure why they care. In Bahrain you could use whatever money you wanted and the ratio was not 1 to 1. Anyhow..got in..and then we were like sh*t..how are we going to buy drinks since our money is useless. Turned out to be a non issue as Liana scored us drinks (she did have to play water volleyball for a couple rounds..thanks girl!). It was a little boring at first but picked up as the sun went down and the DJ was playing, etc. So we’re standing at this one table and this guy is talking to me and then starts dancing all ridiculously and somehow this became an invite to a dance off. Now before this I’m just standing there, arms crossed, so I think he thought I was an easy win. WRONG. He goes, wow I didn’t expect that, but I just got beat. Yep, thanks, now please go away cuz you are weird. This was also about the time I was too sober and a lot of obnoxious guys were getting drunk and I was not amused by most of the bs so got Liana to leave with me. At this point I just wanted to get in bed and sleep for days but we didn’t come to Doha to sleep so showered, took a 30 min power nap and rallied. My straightener decided it would be a great time to die so that sucked but I did my best with the blow dryer. We went to dinner in the hotel with Liana’s friend Steve who I had met in Dubai last year and it was delicious food (I had a caprese salad finally!) but there was this one young kid screaming at the table next to us and a wedding reception going on in the lobby which made for a lot of noise as well. Good thing we weren’t trying for a romantic evening! We all had red bulls and coffee to try to wake up and then went to Lava back at the intercom as the DJ from the beach party was supposed to be there and he had told Liana it would be hip hop.
So we walk up and are asking the “bouncer” about the music. His explanation was atrocious. He was like, oh there are 2 DJs (but NOT the one from the beach earlier that day) and then someone who sings and plays the guitar. What? We’re thinking, how the hell is it hip hop on a guitar but at this point we are over there so figured we’d wing it. They took our dirhams too so we were happy! The first DJ was awesome….there weren’t many ppl at the club but Liana and I were jamming…loving the music, drinking, dancing and I felt much more awake. Then the second DJ comes on who WAS the guy from the beach that day…but he ended up being a huge downer. Music just wasn’t great and mood def dropped. Then the third guy was a guy based in Dubai who sang live and was amazing. It was more r&b than hip hop but it didn’t matter cuz he was so good (although now there is just no energy left at all!). Eventually we ended up outside where it was quieter and Liana hit on the singer! Oh this was pretty funny….so we go outside and no one is there….but the music from inside had actually gotten better so I’m out there just doing my thing dancing….and all of a sudden, there are loads of people outside….so I proceed to sit down….and then they all went back inside. It was pretty funny but after a few times I got bored and just stayed sitting. People kept trying to force us to take shots and apparently NO is not well understood in Doha. No I don’t want that. Because I don’t. No thanks. I don’t like tequila. Give it to someone else. Thanks but no. This turned into taking it and immediately putting it down on the table. What a waste but it was the only way to make them go away! Thankfully the bar closed at 2 as I was so tired and couldn’t wait to get in bed. Unfortunately the cab we got into was one of the smelliest of all time. Lol. I am laughing just picturing Liana hanging her head out the window like a dog. It was really bad. Got back to hotel and jumped into our comfy bed. Lucky for me, Liana actually slept in and I was awake before her Saturday am. I think we slept til like 11 which was great. And I was soooo excited cuz we were going to Rics!!!! I was introduced to Rics in Bahrain and they had the best omelets ever. The aunts friend met us downstairs and Liana took us on a scenic (read: long ) route to Ric’s so she could show us stuff.. This was all good but I was starving! Ric’s Doha is very different from Ric’s Bahrain. No alcohol, no pork and its tiny. However, the omelet and potatoes were an exact replica of Bahrain so I was in heaven. Soooo cheesy and delicious! Dolly (who has been in my prior posts) came to meet us for a bit and then dropped us back at the hotel. We hit the pool for the afternoon although it was kind of weird weather so not sure how much color we actually got. I also scored an eyebrow wax at the spa. Noone in Abu Dhabi will wax and its so annoying (correction, they will wax anything else you want, but nothing on your face which makes no sense to me). Threading sucks. It doesn’t hurt nearly as much for me as most ppl say it does but the result sucks and I hate it. Maybe I’ll need a regular trip to Doha for waxing..ha! We got ourselves late checkout to 6pm so went up around 5:15 to clean up the disaster we managed to make in such a short time. Showered, got dressed and headed out. Our flight wasn’t til 10:30 so we were gonna hit the souk for dinner. So when we checked out, we found out just how much money we had managed to spend in 44 hours. A lot. We enjoyed every minute of it as well.
We got dropped at the souk and went to a delicious Italian place where I had shrimp risotto and Liana had pasta. It was a bad weekend on the food front cuz I was back on cheese, Ric’s and eating way more than normal. I told her we were gonna need wheel chairs at the airport. After we ate we still had some time so walked around the souk (of course she ran into someone she know but we got away with just the one encounter!). They had more pashminas than I’ve ever seen in my life and then we found a fun section with animals. They had bunnies and ducks and parrots and dogs and fish..you name it, they had it. Liana knew there was a falcon store somewhere (super popular, insanely expensive birds in the region) so we went and found that. By the way, she speaks Arabic…not fluently but I was very impressed after the weekend how much she actually knew. She isn’t forced to use it much in the UAE but in Qatar it proved very handy. A little Arabic and a sultry look will get you far, ha! So we find the store and lucky for us, a very creepy guy was working. Ha. He let each of us hold the falcon (this is the point I realized my blackberry wasn’t saving pictures anymore so I have nothing to show for the whole evening ). Anyway the guy was such a creep was all rubbing our boobs with his elbow as he was setting the bird up on our arms..it was so gross. Then he was trying to get Liana’s number. Yuck…..we could not wait to get out of there and sanitize our hands. He gave her one of the hand shakes/finger tickle….I did not get so lucky…hahahahahah.
Went back to pick up our stuff and hit the airport. Liz, who I met at dinner last week was in Doha all weekend but unfortunately we could never meet up….she wasn’t getting my texts (they showed up when we landed in Abu Dhabi) and Liana’s phone doesn’t have roaming so she wasn’t getting Liz’s texts. Anyhow..we met up with her at airport and all flew back together. I won’t even discuss the annoyances at the Doha airport cuz I’m getting sick of writing, but I may have wanted to punch someone one in the face! We got in late so that part kind of sucked cuz by the time we got our bags and I stocked up on wine (I bought my 5 allowance plus made Liana buy me a 6th!) it was 1:30 when the cab dropped me off at home. My camera broke two weekends ago (the display screen) and I only took it with me as Liana and I decided it would be funny to take pics having no idea what anything looked like and she’d bring hers for nice pictures. Well she brought her charger and battery, but no camera so mine was all we had. I am fairly impatient and wanted to see what I had managed to capture so loaded those up (did a pretty good job if I do say so!) and then got in bed.
Work yesterday wasn’t too bad despite the small amount of sleep although Liana and I kept periodically yawning! Got some nice warm and fuzzy text messages from the ex’s friend about what a sh*tty person I am for leaving him. Great start to Sunday morning right?! Skipped the morning boot camp but went last night and it was awesome. We essentially did squats for an hour in one form or another and by the end I was COVERED in sand. So much worse than last time. I was thinking..hmm…how the h*ll am I gonan get a cab to pick me up like this. I managed to wipe most of it off, hit Spinney’s for some fresh pineapple and turkey slices and then went home. All the sand is a good exfoliant, even though I hate the way it feels. I am surprisingly not too sore today and I didn’t cheat at all. Most of the class are cheaters. I’m not sure why they even bother. I mean I guess some exercise is better than none but it was like constant skipping reps when he wasn’t looking, walking instead of running, not fully doing any of the exercises. Meanwhile I’m like, 90 degree squat for everything, plus keeping up. At one point we were doing squat thrusts with the medicine balls and there were 4 5KG balls and one 8KG ball. I had picked up a 5KG since it was right in front of me when I started…well one girl could barely move so the guy comes over and makes us switch…and then goes…don’t worry, that’s a compliment. Def feels great to be in such good shape! Okay…its lunch time and I’m starving and this has gotten way too long. You are all likely asleep or have moved on to more fun things. Until next time!
Oh also just remembered....Friday marked 5 months of living in the Gulf and I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I have less than 3 months to go and am hoping it goes by slow but I know it will fly by as we have loads of plans and fun weekends ahead, plus visits from friends in the US. A huge part of me wants to stay here and knows that in a few months I will hate my decision to leave, but I also know that I need to go back to the US and reality (living over here is a bit like living in a dream). Just making every second here count!
As of Friday morning I officially made it one long month off cheese!!!! A lot of people asked why I gave it up completely and it’s mostly because I eat so much of it. I know it’s not terrible for you (does have a lot of protein, etc) but I just ate entirely too much and since I’m trying to lose weight I figured this was something that would be a challenge and would ideally help with weight loss. Most people said I wouldn’t last and I gotta admit, I wasn’t sure I would either but I also know once I say I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it. It def. made me make much healthier choices, like the two nights in a row last week that I got dragged to Italian restaurants, I ended up with grilled prawns and salad instead of cheesy pastas or pizza. I only lost a kilo (2.2 lbs) but am now just 1 kilo away from my goal weight so I’m pretty pumped! Instead of giving up something for April, I decided to pick up Boot Camp instead.
Boot camp is 3 days a week on the Corniche (the beach) at 6am or 7:30pm. I’ve been wanting to do this for months but didn’t have anyone who wanted to do it with me…the new month started last Sunday and I didn’t hear about it until Tuesday so missed one session but not a big deal. It’s 50% off this month too which is fab. I was getting a bit used to Pump at the gym so I think this is going to be a great change for my body. I’ll probably alternate between mornings and nights but it’s great that I have a choice. So I went Tuesday night having no idea what to expect but it was great (other than the sand everywhere..I hate sand and we were often laying in it to do abs or push ups or what not). It was arms day and I of course had just upped the weight I did for everything (mostly arms) at Pump on Sunday so on Tuesday was still fairly sore but I survived. Did a lot of running around with bars over our heads, racing in the sand, push ups, etc etc. It’s about 90% females and I’d say I’m in better shape than all but one (and she runs triathlons!) so it was nice to be able to keep up with everything rather than dying like most ppl. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel on Wednesday and was actually a little bummed when I first woke up cuz I felt fine…..the soreness did start to set in Wed night/Thursday though and trying to put my dress on for work and take it off was pretty hard! I think I’m gonna end up working a lot of random muscles that I don’t normally do. I got up at 5am on Thursday to hit the morning session since we were flying out Thursday night. I went to bed early but of course couldn’t sleep so I was not super happy at 5am but made myself get up in the dark to go. It’s a bit hard to get a cab at that time but I gave myself plenty of time so was all good. It was assessment day so not as intense of a workout as Tuesday but I still had the same avg/max heart rate (I was also jumping around in between all the assessment stuff). Ppl kept saying I had way too much energy cuz they just wanted to sit around when we weren’t assessing…but I was like I did not wake my a** up at 5am to stand around. One of the things was the plank (for your abs) and I was able to hold it for 3 minutes! I was impressed with myself, ha. I was lazy all weekend and going back tonight (didn’t get home til 2am from airport so there was no way I was going this morning)…I’m looking forward to getting my body moving but also would love a nap. Ha! This is good though since I paid for it already I’m not gonna skip out on sessions and ideally by end of the month I will be at my goal weight.
Okay so now that I’m all out of order……
Monday Liana and I hit the mall after work as we both needed some stuff and decided to skip gym to make time for it since we never do on the weekend when we plan too. Part of the reason is that we both hate shopping (sometimes the similarities between us are scary!). Thankfully I found a new going out top and sundress at the first store cuz after that I was pretty much tired of shopping, ha. I need a new camera and sunglasses but just no patience to go look for this stuff. I went into Sunglass hut and was annoyed within a few minutes so ended up with a random pair from Aldo that did the trick for the weekend. I tried to find my old ones online but can’t find them in black. So at point we’re both just sort of standing there going….do you want to go in xyz or what..and she goes…I’m done whenever and I was like sweet, me too. The best part about the whole trip was the frozen yogurt that we had. YUM! It was called French vanilla but pretty sure it was actually cheesecake….it was fat free at any rate and so good so I got a big one and made it my dinner. Funny..went into Nike (I need new work out tops since I ruined almost all of mine in my laundry disasters) and was eating my yogurt and they were fine with it. I didn’t see anything I really liked so went in to Adidas where I was chased down and told I couldn’t eat in the store. I was like oh yeah…I liked this top, but Nike will let me eat in their store so I think I’ll go back there..which followed with a “just sayin”.
Tuesday was day 1 of bootcamp.
Wednesday I was ready for a night with no gym or shopping or plans so I decided to be lazy. I had coaching calls with 2 partners at home to try to figure out what I’m doing when I get back so feel good that the ball is rollin (just not sure which direction its going in yet!!!) and then I was in bed at 9 since I was getting up early Thursday for bootcamp. Too bad my mind was racing and I didn’t fall asleep until closer to midnight. I suck at sleeping lately.
Thursday was morning boot camp and then a fairly chill work day. I was exhausted for the whole morning and got in trouble for yawning too much, ha! I was listening to music and didn’t even realize that I kept yawning until Liana finally pointed it out and then I realized I was doing it like every other minute..oops. We went to our typical long Thursday lunch in the sun and after that I was much more alert. We actually left the office at 5:30 which I think is a first and was nice cuz I got a quick nap in and finished backing before heading off to airport.
I got in a cab that turned out to be a bad choice as he was an idiot. Went to get Liana (told him Marks and Spencer..he was questioning the location like there are more than one, there aren’t) and then when we said okay to the airport his first question was Dubai. We are in Abu Dhabi, maybe the AD airport could be your first guess. Then he asked if he could stop for gas (or petrol as they all call it here…the other day I was telling this driver to stop at the gas station and he clearly didn’t get it….oh right..the petrol station sorry!). Anyhow..I can see his gas gauge and he’s got a ¼ freaking tank so we were like no way, take us to the airport and then go get gas we have a plane to catch. Oh you do? Um yes! So then we get to airport and are like Terminal 3….so the traffic sucks a bit but you just deal with it til you pass Terminal 1 and get to 3….he kept trying to drop us at 1 and said we should walk…no..you should drive and do what we are telling you to do because we are paying you for it. I’m sure he wanted to murder us both. So then the fun starts trying to check in. We had checked in online but sometimes they say they cant verify your info and you have to re check in at airport. So we do…cept there is no paper to print our boarding passes..awesome. So we go to another machine that has paper except now it already thinks we have our passes and wont do sh*t. When we finally get up to the counter the guy is trying to fix the machine that prints luggage tags…we are being patient at first until he starts helping everyone and their mom that comes up complaining but will not just finish checking us in and giving us our boarding passes. I told her there was no way our bags were going to make it at the rate we were going but thankfully they did! Since all of this nonsense took so long we only had time for one drink at duty free (oh yeah, cuz I also picked the wrong line AGAIN at immigration) and no time to look for new sunnies (Liana’s word for sunglasses) or a camera. So we get on plane and Liana and bought a hat and said she was going to wear the hat and sunglasses the whole weekend to try to be incognito as she knows way too many ppl in Doha and didn’t tell many ppl she was coming. Epic fail. She was recognized by 2 different ppl within 5 minutes. The first guy just busts out with….EY, tax, Doha right? She hasn’t even been there in a year! Crazy. Flight was easy (oh…so the Etihad flights to/from Bahrain/Doha have been regular small planes..ie: one aisle….they check EVERY SINGLE PERSONS boarding card when you get on the plane to tell you the seat and where to go. First off, there is one aisle…so straight is really the only option but thank you for letting me know. Also, I can read. It says 7D, you do not need to read it to me. I’m quite surprised they don’t just escort every person to their seat cuz clearly they think we are the dumbest people in the world), got through immigration and then went out for our ride. The hotel sent a Jag to pick us up and essentially chauffeured us around the rest of the weekend…fabulous.
So short back story…wasta is an Arabic word for being able to get things since you know people. Liana is queen of wasta. When this one guy she knows from Doha found out she was coming he said he’d get us set up with an upgrade at the W since he is good friends with the general manager. This then became him picking up the tab for the whole weekend and he wasn’t even in town so Liana didn’t have to see him or anything. So we get to hotel and we knew we had a suite booked but they were like, oh we’ve upgraded you to a Wow suite, you’ll love it. They were right. Wow is right. It was so pimp! We had so much room, crazy lighting, a swivel swing chair (possibly the highlight of my weekend!) and a bottle of chilled Moet with strawberries waiting. At this point we decided that we’re putting all the crap from getting there behind us cuz things were def. looking up! Liana’s aunt had a friend that had just moved to Doha and was staying at the W so Liana called her up to have some champagne with us….which turned into talking forever. Meanwhile I start getting ready as my hair takes forever and then do my makeup and am essentially ready and this lady is still there asking questions about Doha. Liana finally got her to go by giving her the champagne from our mini bar..lol. Oh, so the room was great but a bit confusing cuz there were buttons for everything. We’re trying to figure out how to open the curtains so Liana is all looking for a break in the fabric…turns out they are electric, ha. The shower was almost impossible to figure out too, we couldn’t find room service menus, the phone was too high tech, etc etc. We never even turned on either of the two massive TV’s! We were gonna leave the hotel and go to this bar where Liana had a friend that worked but ended up just staying at the W as they have some really nice places and it was getting late and it was easy. We went to Wahm first which had an indoor spot and then out by the pool . Weather was amazing all weekend, had some cocktails, she caught up with everyone and their mom that knew her and then when they stopped the music we went to another more clubby place called Cristal (also in hotel). Because we were guests we got in everywhere very easy and just charged drinks to the room. Had a great time dancing at Cristal and then retreated to our fab suite, poured more drinks that we never drank, and passed out. Oh wait, but not before Liana was being ridiculous on the couch, it was surrounded by black strings (so was the bed) and she was like..oh no I’m stuck..I can’t get out. Ha. The pictures are a riot but she looks wasted so they are staying on the camera.
Friday we woke up early (and by we, I mean Liana woke up early, went to breakfast and then decided she was going to bother me until I got up cuz she was bored, lol). I was exhausted as Thursday was a very long day (started at 5am, ended about the same time 24 hours later) and I just wanted to sleep in. No luck. So we head down to pool where there is no sun yet and just curl up on the chairs and laugh about the night before. I got an egg white omelet, my first with cheese in a month…it was very disappointing. I wasn’t all that hungry cuz I was hungover and tired so that might have had something to do with it. We had massages booked at 11 so just kind of bummed around until then. The spa was amazing..I haven’t had a massage since last year and after all the stress I’ve had in the last few weeks, it was much needed. Went from there to a pedicure and Liana got her nail color changed. Then we went back to the pool and the sun was out and shining. Got cocktails, relaxed, got lunch, relaxed some more, was fab. Liana had a work call at 2:30 so she went up to to do that while I chilled a bit longer and then we headed off to the Interncon hotel where they were having some big Corona sponsored volleyball beach party. We had a bit of a hard time getting in as we only had Dirhams (UAE cash) and they use Riyals. So they wouldn’t take our Dirhams, neither of us brought an ATM card (nor was there was one close by anyway!). So we’re just standing there, oh Liana is still on her call, and I’m giving the people shit about not taking our money. Finally a guy comes in and I’m like hey..you wouldn’t want to trade dirhams for riyals would you? Score, he was game. It’s a 1 to 1 ratio so really not sure why they care. In Bahrain you could use whatever money you wanted and the ratio was not 1 to 1. Anyhow..got in..and then we were like sh*t..how are we going to buy drinks since our money is useless. Turned out to be a non issue as Liana scored us drinks (she did have to play water volleyball for a couple rounds..thanks girl!). It was a little boring at first but picked up as the sun went down and the DJ was playing, etc. So we’re standing at this one table and this guy is talking to me and then starts dancing all ridiculously and somehow this became an invite to a dance off. Now before this I’m just standing there, arms crossed, so I think he thought I was an easy win. WRONG. He goes, wow I didn’t expect that, but I just got beat. Yep, thanks, now please go away cuz you are weird. This was also about the time I was too sober and a lot of obnoxious guys were getting drunk and I was not amused by most of the bs so got Liana to leave with me. At this point I just wanted to get in bed and sleep for days but we didn’t come to Doha to sleep so showered, took a 30 min power nap and rallied. My straightener decided it would be a great time to die so that sucked but I did my best with the blow dryer. We went to dinner in the hotel with Liana’s friend Steve who I had met in Dubai last year and it was delicious food (I had a caprese salad finally!) but there was this one young kid screaming at the table next to us and a wedding reception going on in the lobby which made for a lot of noise as well. Good thing we weren’t trying for a romantic evening! We all had red bulls and coffee to try to wake up and then went to Lava back at the intercom as the DJ from the beach party was supposed to be there and he had told Liana it would be hip hop.
So we walk up and are asking the “bouncer” about the music. His explanation was atrocious. He was like, oh there are 2 DJs (but NOT the one from the beach earlier that day) and then someone who sings and plays the guitar. What? We’re thinking, how the hell is it hip hop on a guitar but at this point we are over there so figured we’d wing it. They took our dirhams too so we were happy! The first DJ was awesome….there weren’t many ppl at the club but Liana and I were jamming…loving the music, drinking, dancing and I felt much more awake. Then the second DJ comes on who WAS the guy from the beach that day…but he ended up being a huge downer. Music just wasn’t great and mood def dropped. Then the third guy was a guy based in Dubai who sang live and was amazing. It was more r&b than hip hop but it didn’t matter cuz he was so good (although now there is just no energy left at all!). Eventually we ended up outside where it was quieter and Liana hit on the singer! Oh this was pretty funny….so we go outside and no one is there….but the music from inside had actually gotten better so I’m out there just doing my thing dancing….and all of a sudden, there are loads of people outside….so I proceed to sit down….and then they all went back inside. It was pretty funny but after a few times I got bored and just stayed sitting. People kept trying to force us to take shots and apparently NO is not well understood in Doha. No I don’t want that. Because I don’t. No thanks. I don’t like tequila. Give it to someone else. Thanks but no. This turned into taking it and immediately putting it down on the table. What a waste but it was the only way to make them go away! Thankfully the bar closed at 2 as I was so tired and couldn’t wait to get in bed. Unfortunately the cab we got into was one of the smelliest of all time. Lol. I am laughing just picturing Liana hanging her head out the window like a dog. It was really bad. Got back to hotel and jumped into our comfy bed. Lucky for me, Liana actually slept in and I was awake before her Saturday am. I think we slept til like 11 which was great. And I was soooo excited cuz we were going to Rics!!!! I was introduced to Rics in Bahrain and they had the best omelets ever. The aunts friend met us downstairs and Liana took us on a scenic (read: long ) route to Ric’s so she could show us stuff.. This was all good but I was starving! Ric’s Doha is very different from Ric’s Bahrain. No alcohol, no pork and its tiny. However, the omelet and potatoes were an exact replica of Bahrain so I was in heaven. Soooo cheesy and delicious! Dolly (who has been in my prior posts) came to meet us for a bit and then dropped us back at the hotel. We hit the pool for the afternoon although it was kind of weird weather so not sure how much color we actually got. I also scored an eyebrow wax at the spa. Noone in Abu Dhabi will wax and its so annoying (correction, they will wax anything else you want, but nothing on your face which makes no sense to me). Threading sucks. It doesn’t hurt nearly as much for me as most ppl say it does but the result sucks and I hate it. Maybe I’ll need a regular trip to Doha for waxing..ha! We got ourselves late checkout to 6pm so went up around 5:15 to clean up the disaster we managed to make in such a short time. Showered, got dressed and headed out. Our flight wasn’t til 10:30 so we were gonna hit the souk for dinner. So when we checked out, we found out just how much money we had managed to spend in 44 hours. A lot. We enjoyed every minute of it as well.
We got dropped at the souk and went to a delicious Italian place where I had shrimp risotto and Liana had pasta. It was a bad weekend on the food front cuz I was back on cheese, Ric’s and eating way more than normal. I told her we were gonna need wheel chairs at the airport. After we ate we still had some time so walked around the souk (of course she ran into someone she know but we got away with just the one encounter!). They had more pashminas than I’ve ever seen in my life and then we found a fun section with animals. They had bunnies and ducks and parrots and dogs and fish..you name it, they had it. Liana knew there was a falcon store somewhere (super popular, insanely expensive birds in the region) so we went and found that. By the way, she speaks Arabic…not fluently but I was very impressed after the weekend how much she actually knew. She isn’t forced to use it much in the UAE but in Qatar it proved very handy. A little Arabic and a sultry look will get you far, ha! So we find the store and lucky for us, a very creepy guy was working. Ha. He let each of us hold the falcon (this is the point I realized my blackberry wasn’t saving pictures anymore so I have nothing to show for the whole evening ). Anyway the guy was such a creep was all rubbing our boobs with his elbow as he was setting the bird up on our arms..it was so gross. Then he was trying to get Liana’s number. Yuck…..we could not wait to get out of there and sanitize our hands. He gave her one of the hand shakes/finger tickle….I did not get so lucky…hahahahahah.
Went back to pick up our stuff and hit the airport. Liz, who I met at dinner last week was in Doha all weekend but unfortunately we could never meet up….she wasn’t getting my texts (they showed up when we landed in Abu Dhabi) and Liana’s phone doesn’t have roaming so she wasn’t getting Liz’s texts. Anyhow..we met up with her at airport and all flew back together. I won’t even discuss the annoyances at the Doha airport cuz I’m getting sick of writing, but I may have wanted to punch someone one in the face! We got in late so that part kind of sucked cuz by the time we got our bags and I stocked up on wine (I bought my 5 allowance plus made Liana buy me a 6th!) it was 1:30 when the cab dropped me off at home. My camera broke two weekends ago (the display screen) and I only took it with me as Liana and I decided it would be funny to take pics having no idea what anything looked like and she’d bring hers for nice pictures. Well she brought her charger and battery, but no camera so mine was all we had. I am fairly impatient and wanted to see what I had managed to capture so loaded those up (did a pretty good job if I do say so!) and then got in bed.
Work yesterday wasn’t too bad despite the small amount of sleep although Liana and I kept periodically yawning! Got some nice warm and fuzzy text messages from the ex’s friend about what a sh*tty person I am for leaving him. Great start to Sunday morning right?! Skipped the morning boot camp but went last night and it was awesome. We essentially did squats for an hour in one form or another and by the end I was COVERED in sand. So much worse than last time. I was thinking..hmm…how the h*ll am I gonan get a cab to pick me up like this. I managed to wipe most of it off, hit Spinney’s for some fresh pineapple and turkey slices and then went home. All the sand is a good exfoliant, even though I hate the way it feels. I am surprisingly not too sore today and I didn’t cheat at all. Most of the class are cheaters. I’m not sure why they even bother. I mean I guess some exercise is better than none but it was like constant skipping reps when he wasn’t looking, walking instead of running, not fully doing any of the exercises. Meanwhile I’m like, 90 degree squat for everything, plus keeping up. At one point we were doing squat thrusts with the medicine balls and there were 4 5KG balls and one 8KG ball. I had picked up a 5KG since it was right in front of me when I started…well one girl could barely move so the guy comes over and makes us switch…and then goes…don’t worry, that’s a compliment. Def feels great to be in such good shape! Okay…its lunch time and I’m starving and this has gotten way too long. You are all likely asleep or have moved on to more fun things. Until next time!
Oh also just remembered....Friday marked 5 months of living in the Gulf and I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I have less than 3 months to go and am hoping it goes by slow but I know it will fly by as we have loads of plans and fun weekends ahead, plus visits from friends in the US. A huge part of me wants to stay here and knows that in a few months I will hate my decision to leave, but I also know that I need to go back to the US and reality (living over here is a bit like living in a dream). Just making every second here count!
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