Tuesday, August 5, 2008
"I'm not a man, I'm a machine... Chisel me down, Until I'm Clean"
I'm just listening to Maximo Park's album "Our Earthly Pleasures". It's pretty cool. I've totally overlooked recent UK music, and I'm really enjoying it. Especially the tune "Our Velocity"
So.. what's new? Well, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Dubai. I've been here a couple of days now. The trip was supposed to be last week, but it was delayed. Gotta say, it's a pretty strange place. It's so hot all the time, but the sky is permanently overcast. You can still sunburn really fast though. I'm told the smog and construction dust hides the sun, but I find that hard to believe. Apparently, you can only see the sun/blue skies a few times a month.
Weather aside, the hotel is awesome. It's 4 star or something. My room is on the ground floor, and if I step out of the patio, I have a couple chairs and a nice deck table. The pool is about 10 steps away. It's just a shame I'm here to do some work! That said, I got today off (waiting for paperwork to be processed for my airside security pass) and I'm going to get tomorrow off as well. Hopefully the pass arrives by Thursday. If not, the Dubai weekend is Friday/Saturday, so I won't get the pass until Sunday, and I'll have to lounge around by the pool until then... What a shame!
Today I was up early to go register my paperwork and get photographs taken. After that we walked back from the airport to the hotel (a 5 minute walk), and although it was hot, the air was quite bearable. I'm told that today has been the coolest day in recent weeks, and the air was less humid than normal. Long may it continue! Today was probably the hottest I've been in, but without the bright sun, it was acutally quite nice. Kinda like being in a sauna or steamroom.
I actually went to the gym for a couple of hours this afternoon, and they've got a top notch setup. They have every kind of work out machine you can think of, free weights etc etc, so it's pretty cool for me. I did a couple kms jog and then 7km bike, and then some weights. Just as well, as for dinner tonight we stayed in one of the hotel's 15 places to eat and had a seafood buffet. For once, I had a lot of a little, trying all the different things, rather than going crazy and eating loads. (on a related note, my attempts to lose weight are going well, lost 13lbs now in 2 weeks, hopefully gym and swimming while here will help that out). They had some really nice tikka fish, and sweet and sour prawns, which I'll have to try again. They also had sushi but I didn't trust it. (I'll wait until I am back in Richmond!)
My colleague has to work tomorrow. I would have been helping out, but I can't get my pass until Thursday earliest. He's going to try get all his stuff done by the afternoon, and we're going to go check out one of the local water parks. Should be fun, haven't been to one of them since Gran Canaria about 6 years ago with Chris and Gaz. That was probably one of the last times I flew out of Birmingham as well. It was odd to be flying away with work, and not using London Heathrow and the BA lounge and all the perks. That said, the Emirates flight was cool. I had nobody sitting in the 2 seats next to me, so could relax, and the food and entertainments were much better than BA premium economy. The seats were more narrow which was a shit deal for me, the stewardesses kept knocking into me with their trays (I was in the aisle seat) so I had to move. Wouldn't have been much fun if I had to stay in that seat the whole time...
Anyway, enough for now. I get another day of R&R, and then hopefully Thursday start the real work out here before coming home next week....
PS - Photos added to the gallery here
So.. what's new? Well, I'm sitting in a hotel room in Dubai. I've been here a couple of days now. The trip was supposed to be last week, but it was delayed. Gotta say, it's a pretty strange place. It's so hot all the time, but the sky is permanently overcast. You can still sunburn really fast though. I'm told the smog and construction dust hides the sun, but I find that hard to believe. Apparently, you can only see the sun/blue skies a few times a month.
Weather aside, the hotel is awesome. It's 4 star or something. My room is on the ground floor, and if I step out of the patio, I have a couple chairs and a nice deck table. The pool is about 10 steps away. It's just a shame I'm here to do some work! That said, I got today off (waiting for paperwork to be processed for my airside security pass) and I'm going to get tomorrow off as well. Hopefully the pass arrives by Thursday. If not, the Dubai weekend is Friday/Saturday, so I won't get the pass until Sunday, and I'll have to lounge around by the pool until then... What a shame!
Today I was up early to go register my paperwork and get photographs taken. After that we walked back from the airport to the hotel (a 5 minute walk), and although it was hot, the air was quite bearable. I'm told that today has been the coolest day in recent weeks, and the air was less humid than normal. Long may it continue! Today was probably the hottest I've been in, but without the bright sun, it was acutally quite nice. Kinda like being in a sauna or steamroom.
I actually went to the gym for a couple of hours this afternoon, and they've got a top notch setup. They have every kind of work out machine you can think of, free weights etc etc, so it's pretty cool for me. I did a couple kms jog and then 7km bike, and then some weights. Just as well, as for dinner tonight we stayed in one of the hotel's 15 places to eat and had a seafood buffet. For once, I had a lot of a little, trying all the different things, rather than going crazy and eating loads. (on a related note, my attempts to lose weight are going well, lost 13lbs now in 2 weeks, hopefully gym and swimming while here will help that out). They had some really nice tikka fish, and sweet and sour prawns, which I'll have to try again. They also had sushi but I didn't trust it. (I'll wait until I am back in Richmond!)
My colleague has to work tomorrow. I would have been helping out, but I can't get my pass until Thursday earliest. He's going to try get all his stuff done by the afternoon, and we're going to go check out one of the local water parks. Should be fun, haven't been to one of them since Gran Canaria about 6 years ago with Chris and Gaz. That was probably one of the last times I flew out of Birmingham as well. It was odd to be flying away with work, and not using London Heathrow and the BA lounge and all the perks. That said, the Emirates flight was cool. I had nobody sitting in the 2 seats next to me, so could relax, and the food and entertainments were much better than BA premium economy. The seats were more narrow which was a shit deal for me, the stewardesses kept knocking into me with their trays (I was in the aisle seat) so I had to move. Wouldn't have been much fun if I had to stay in that seat the whole time...
Anyway, enough for now. I get another day of R&R, and then hopefully Thursday start the real work out here before coming home next week....
PS - Photos added to the gallery here
