Abu Dhabi...part 5...

Couldn't get much more than 5hrs sleep last night. Don't know why. It wasn't too hot or cold in the room but it might have been cos I'd nodded off for a couple of minutes the previous evening and then woken up again. That always affects my sleep.

After the usual morning routine, I hailed a taxi and headed of to the oven/office and what promised to be an interesting project team meeting.

Firstly, it was delayed by 30mins by the client, so when the PM called and said to join our guys at Dunkin Donuts, I wasn't too keen on it, having just eaten, but it sounded like I was going to get a heads-up on the upcoming meeting and I went along for the walk. And to get out of the office for a while.

The guys went through two donuts and a coffee each, but I couldn't have faced that sickly sweet stuff so early in the morning, so I had nothing except the pleasant walk.

We got back to the office about 5mins after we were supposed to have, and everyone was waiting for us...talk about giving them a stick to beat us with.

I grabbed my laptop and notebook as I had a feeling I was about to get a grilling about the interim risk report I had finished a couple of days earlier and that had been sent to the client the day before.

The meeting lasted about an hour, more than half of which was the CIO telling us how he, on behalf of the team, had completed negotiating the scope of the project with our company sales guy and how, basically, he had got his own way and that now everything that had been excluded from the scope, was now included, and how he would be the team's sole negotiator from now on. Fuckin' windbag. I think it was meant more for our benefit as we had been kicking against the scope since before I started on the team.

For the balance of the meeting, our PM ummm'd and ahhh'd his way through some stuff and we defended our risk report.

After that, it was back to my hot corner and more documentation that I had requested.

About 2pm I went out for a walk and ended up having a chicken salad and Americano coffee at the Starbucks around the corner.

The rest of the afternoon dragged by and at 17h10 I said goodnight to those that were left in the office and walked up to the BMW dealership for my taxi back to the hotel.

Straight away, I changed into baggies and went for a swim in the rooftop pool again. It was a bit uncomfortable as there was a nippy wind blowing up there, and quite strong.

After a good few lengths, I decided it was time for a beer, so I went and hot changed into jeans again and headed down to Heroes, where I ended up having two pints of Guinness and an Asian Chicken Burger with salad for dinner while I was there.

There were about a half dozen different nationalities in the bar, which is not uncommon. Standing next to me is a south African, a Yank, a German, a Filipino somewhere close, and also a black African language I don't recognise and an Englishman.

The England/Ireland cricket match is on and it doesn't look good for the Paddy's.

Finishing my meal and drink, I head up to the room and nod off to the TV again.

Lifestyles of the rich and famous....not. As you guys can see, travelling on project overseas is not a glamorous event at all. It sometimes consists of long hours working, but mostly it consists of tedious routine (hotel, work, hotel) and not much else, as you are away from your familiar environment of home, family, friends ad familiar surroundings. It gets a bit much after a couple of weeks away...



Part 6 coming up...