On project in Dubai...Part 3...

And what a great sleep it was - 8hrs solid! I didn't want to get out of bed and felt myself drift off a couple of times but resisted the urge.

I staggered out of bed, showered, shaved, shampoo'ed and ad shumshing to eat and then I'm on the Metro train to the office where I spend a boring, tiring day reading piles of documents and trying to complete a report, without much success. The room I was working in must have been an old fridge to the building's previous tenants. It was fuckin' freezing.

So, it was with much relief, that I got kicked out of the room at 4pm by some arab wanting his room for a conference call. On ye go, pal, freeze yer bollocks off.

For the first time in three train rides I managed to get a seat. So now I was able to have a look out of the windows at some of the sights without having to worry about overbalancing.

There are some amazing buildings in Dubai - all glass fronts, which means their aircon bills all year round must be astronomical, but even more so in summer.

I'll post some photos of buildings after the weekend, which starts on Thursday afternoon. In arabland, the weekend is Friday and Saturday, but in Saudi Dryland, it is Thursday and Friday. UAE royalty is trying to convince the Saudis to change to the same days as the UAE so that only one business day is lost to the rest of the world instead of two. Not much chance of that cos they are religious fanatics there and weekends are sacred.

Anyway...there are a couple of huge malls on the train route, so I'll be hopping on and off on Friday morning, doing a bit of shopping.

The exchange rate here is easy to calculate. Basically, take the AED price and double it on anything you want to buy, to convert it to ZAR. The UAE currency is twice as strong as SA. All because of oil. Or what oil they had. The rate never varies and is pegged at AED3.66 to USD1.

Back to the hotel and I sign online again and have a lengthy Skype chat with SWMBO at home. Actually, it was more like a lengthy listen, with me interjecting now and then to explain how to change a light bulb on the garage wall fitting...

At around 7pm, I felt like something to eat before I do a couple of hours more work and I'm writing this (eat your heart out, Sisturrrr) from the Wagamama's restaurant on the ground floor of the hotel.

The food is great. The deep-fried squid could have come straight out of the sea, it was so tender, and the chicken yellow curry (with bed of rice) was nicely spiced and not too make-your-nose-run hot.

Coupled with that, a pint of Chinese "Tiger" draught beer and I'm reluctant to go back to the room to work, but work I must. Sadly, I pay my bill and make my way back up the escalator and take the lift to the 5th floor.

Hoo hum...the life of a project resource in Dubai...


Part 4 coming soon...