O and I spent Christmas and New Year’s Eve in Abu Dhabi this year.
We were here last New Year’s Eve as well (everyone remember how well that turned out?) but this was the first Christmas that we spent away from our families… ever!
I won’t lie, the lead-up to Christmas day was a little on the traumatic side: Facebook, emails and Skype calls back home were filled with tales of the snow and cold. While this was a monumental pain in the arse for everyone in the UK, for me it merely served as a reminder of just how UN-festive things are out here. I missed the cold, and my family, and Christmas lights and incessant Christmas music in the shops.
I found myself getting a little weepy from time to time as the weeks went by and I forced the Christmas spirit by playing Christmas music non-stop at work, in the car and at home, and putting our 4-foot plastic Christmas tree up about 3 weeks early (poor O couldn’t say anything for fear of sending me into a spiral of gloom and despair that would, no doubt, have resulted in Jacob Marley-esque wailing, chain rattling and howls of protest at his trying to steal Christmas from me like the Scrooge that his is!).
The day itself rolled around and I was worried that I would be a blubbering mess the whole day, but in fact it was ok. For the first time in years O and would be spending the day together – usually he is with his family and I am with mine. We got up not too early, exchanged presents over tea and coffee (Santa – who is also a master of deception – brought me a Kindle, yay!, which was exactly what I wanted and what all of my not so very subtle hints pointed towards) and then we made the Foreigner traditional Christmas breakfast of scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, toast and copious amounts of tea. We then played with our presents for a few hours before getting ready and heading a few short blocks away to our dear friends D and R’s flat for Christmas dinner, along with a couple of other strays who wouldn’t/couldn’t make it home.
Now, do you remember me talking before about how you can get pretty much anything delivered. Well guess what… That includes your Christmas dinner as well! Almost all of the hotels and a few other eateries besides offer to make and deliver your turkey plus trimmings, taking every single little bit of hassle out of feeding people on the day. We had a ginormous turkey with chestnut stuffing, chicken sausages (they were to be “pigs” in blankets but beef/veal bacon is happily accepted amongst most sane persons as being beyond foul so they asked for ‘no blankets please’), rice, mixed vegetables, spuds, gravy, cranberry sauce and a chocolate-orange mouse cake for dessert. On request from certain (ahem *blush*) demanding friends of theirs, they also provided additional sage and onion stuffing and R made a delicious soup for starters. She also decorated the dining table in a luxurious layer of glitter, that shimmered like freshly fallen snow. We are still finding glitter all over our flat and that's just the stuff we brought home on our clothes, hair and (in O's case) in our boxer shorts. D and R have cats, so I dread to think where they're finding glitter.
There were, of course, mince pies and I heard a rumour about a Christmas pudding, but by the time the 6 of us had destroyed almost half the turkey and all the rest of the gubbins that came with it I don’t think any of us could have fit even a smidge more pud, no matter how much custard there was to wash it down with.
It probably goes with out saying that the wine and beer flowed freely, and I’m sorry to say that your faithful Foreigner ended up well and truly bladdered. The next day was nearly the end of the same faithful Foreigner but I was saved from the brink of death by O and his numerous miracle cures. I wish I could claim that Boxing Day wasn’t a complete wash-out, but I’d be lying through my teeth.
I took a few glorious days off work over Christmas, but all too soon I was back in the very quiet office (just three of us were in) until New Year’s Eve rolled around last weekend.
Oh what fun and joy was had…! Mostly. One thing is for certain, it was no where near the disaster that last year was.
One of the perks of my job is that I get to find out about most of the goings on in Abu Dhabi. Being the ‘Events Gal’ means that I get a lot of emails that tell me a lot about all the fun things that are taking place, and New Year’s Eve was no exception. I extracted what I considered to be the highlights, the best options out of those on offer and presented my findings to the panel. After a few days of back-and-forth debating (no one was seriously hurt I should add) we were decided! One of the hotels walking distance from our apartment *insert smug laugh here* was offering a four-course meal including drinks and entrance to their roof-top bar all for one price. It wasn’t a small price (but then it never is on New Year’s Eve) but by no means was it one of the higher ones in the city and they were able to accommodate all 17 of us which is something of a miracle considering we booked a mere three days before the main event.
Sadly, the food was terrible. But the company was fantastic and that’s the most important thing. We saw in the new year in a lift on the way up to the roof bar, but that was amusing rather than disappointing because we were all crammed into a couple of lifts together and did the traditional hugs and kisses when we all disembarked. We danced (some of us more than others) into the wee small hours and staggered home some time around three.
This Friday will see the end of the three-weekend extravaganza of celebrations. I will be gathering together all of my nearest and dearest, in the region, to celebrate and commiserate something of a landmark birthday.
A (hopefully) delicious meal followed by yet more drinks and even more dancing will probably see me suffering from exhaustion for the next few weekends, because on Sunday your humble Foreigner turns 30.
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