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!
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