It's been just over two months since I arrived in Abu Dhabi. Things have been still very busy with settling in but as of Nov 21st i officially moved into our new home. If you care to see any pictures, I've posted them all on Facebook. If you don't have Facebook and still want to see them, get on Facebook…or i can simply email them to you…:). I think the last time i emailed I was heading to Dubai to do a major shopping spree. Since then i've been to more malls/shops and spent more money than I want to remember but in the end I'm quite happy with the end product. That said I can't really take much of the credit as Carmen has really been the ring leader in this process. With the camera phone I was able to send her pictures of every item I was looking at and assuming she was not sleeping I would get feedback in 5 minutes or less. I'd be scared to think what the house would look like if she wasn't involved. For the items that I really wanted (i.e. LED flatscreen TV) i would just wait until it was late in Canada and then send the picture. By the time i got a response back I would be like…"darn i already purchased it and they don't have a return policy"
Its amazing how time has flown by. Its already near the end of December, less than three weeks and I'll be home. Part of the reason I think that time flew by was that I was able to make it back to Edmonton for a week in early November. Due to a muslim religious holiday (Eid al-Adha or Festival of Sacrifice), three days were given as public holidays. I decided to take an additional 2 days off and flew home for the week. Since everyone and their dog seems to leave UAE during this holiday, the flights were limited and the airport was ridiculously busy. I ended up finding a reasonable priced flight but it was an ugly milk run. I first flew 14 hours to Washington DC (Btw - i had to fly from Dubai as the flights from Abu Dhabi were either sold out or extremely expensive) and then I flew to Chicago and then to Edmonton. All in all it was just over 24 hour of a trip. Needless to say I was happy to see the Edmonton airport. For those that are wondering, the typical flights to Abu Dhabi or Dubai are approximately 18 hours (8 hours to london, 2 hour layover and 8 hours to UAE). If you can avoid a 14 hour flight, I would recommend it….its simply way too long to be sitting! When I arrived in the edmonton airport Carmen and the kids were waiting for me, but i didn't get the welcome I was expecting. Carmen can tell the story better than i but i'll give you the brief summary. Carmen didn't tell the kids I was coming home. She instead told them that they were going to get a treasure (I know, very debatable) on the friday (the day i arrived). The whole week I think Carmen used the friday treasure to bride the kids when they misbehaved. On the friday Carmen and the kids drove to the airport and when they arrived, Rafi remembered that this was the spot that they dropped Daddy off when he flew away, but didn't clue into the fact that treasure might be related to someone arriving. After waiting for a little while at the airport, the so called treasure walked through the customs doors. Carmen noticed me first and told the kids that the treasure had arrived. The kids of course weren't thinking a person at all so they literally looked through me trying to see what the treasure was. Finally as I approached closer, both of them realized who was here. My precious girl immediately smiled and came to give me a hug. Unfortunately my little guy was not so impressed. He arched his back and gave out a loud shriek something like this "THATS NOT A TREASURE!!!". I guess Daddy didn't quite meet his expectations. After he got over the initial disappointment, he also warmed up to the fact that I was home. It was a busy week of playing with the kids and helping with closing off all the loose ends that need to be done before New Years. I was very sad to leave again but at least this time I knew it would only be for an addition 5-6 weeks.
Since I've been back I've done a couple of things of interest:
I decided to run in a 1/2 marathon in Abu Dhabi last weekend. There seems to be a good community of runners in UAE so there is always a race of some sort going on either in Abu Dhabi or Dubai. The race started at 6:30am so to avoid some of the heat. It was a last minute decision to run in the event and with my trip to Edmonton, I didn't get as much training in as I would have liked. No records were broken that day, but I had a great time and got to see another part of the island.
This weekend I golfed at a beautiful golf course in Dubai with a colleague of mine. The golf course was designed by Ernie Els (or his company at least). They've designed it to have the feel that you are golfing in the desert. Basically there is fairway and then sand waste bunkers everywhere else. The course was in splendid shape. It opened in 2008 (just before the financial crisis hit Dubai) and so there are tons of buildings surrounding the course that are only partially completed and look like they are not being worked on. This is a bigger problem in Dubai as so many companies ran out of money when the real estate bubble burst. Its not uncommon to see a building that is 80 - 90% complete just sitting there for 2-3 years with no action on it. Kind of a shame.
Another highlight since I've been back is that I paid and took possession of our two vehicles. This was a bigger process that I originally anticipated, so I'm glad its done. I think in my previous email I mentioned a Lexus SUV and a Audi car. The audi car purchase fell through and instead I found a lexus IS 300 car. Both vehicles are 2007's and each have approximately 75000 kms so are in decent shape.
I think that is it for now. See you in December.
