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!