Burgers and beers, the magic cure

“Burgers and beers at Stars and Bars, burgers and beers at Stars and Bars, burgers and beers at Stars and Bars” was the mantra that saw me through the last half of a pretty crappy week a little while ago.

The first time I experienced the delights of Stars and Bars, the new(ish) burger joint located in the rather well-to-do Yas Marina, was with friends before going to see Eric Clapton at Yas Arena (the concert was spectacular – Eric was on great form and it was a real pleasure to see Old Slowhand performing live. I loved his version of Layla, it was slow and yearning as befitting a man of his advancing… experience, rather than being powerful and desperate as I know it from recordings). 

The menu looked great – all Tex-Mex, burgers and delightfully unhealthy fried accompaniments – but when I first caught a glimpse of the food, as I passed another table on the way back from the loo, it looked somewhat insipid and flat.  Considering that the closest contender for the burger crown is probably Fudruckers, with it’s build-your-own-burger and wedges for fries, S&B had a lot to live up to… and in the appearance steaks it failed miserably.  Burgers with a lot of bun and a bit of meat showing (as opposed to the majestic tower that you could create for yourself at Fudruckers) seemed to swim on a big white plate with a handful of chips on the side.  I prepared myself to be distinctly under-whelmed. And because I’m such a kill-joy I prepared my fellow diners too!  Ha!

Our burgers arrived, looking every bit as school-canteen as the ones I’d spotted earlier.  Lifting up the top bun there was a single lettuce leaf and a single slice of tomato – the two rings of raw onion I donated to O who likes them more than I do.  I dolloped on some ketchup and mustard and grimly took a bite.

Oh my good god!  Those burgers are a.may.zing!!!  The bun is proper American burger bun, all milky and a bit sweet but with really good bite – soft and solid and mmmmmgood.  The burger itself was juicy and delicious, charred perfectly on the outside and still flavourfull and not in the least bit dry even though I’d ordered it cooked through.  To be honest, I can’t remember what the fries are like – they’re like fries, neither amazing nor terrible, but they perform their purpose of providing yet more carbohydrate and a change in texture to the meal.

S&B combines super star burgers with quite a fun restaurant. The staff are a little over-friendly, but a lot of them have found that magic place between “enthusiastic” and “annoying”, which is always a good thing. Some of the seats are race car seats, there is a band, thereare arcade games and it is Abu Dhabi’s version of rough and ready – which means that if you hang around long enough, members of the local Harley-Davidson biker gangs will show up… yes really!  Is it any wonder that this is our new favourite burger place?

So as a tough week for both of us drew to a close we needed to go somewhere with good grub, cold beer and where we could linger for a few hours wearing jeans, flip-flops and a t-shirt.  S&B it had to be.  We sat outside in the warm and had awesome stuffed jalapenos, I had the chili cheeseburger on the recommendation of our waiter and will never look back at a measly cheeseburger again.  And lo, the stresses of the week washed away, peace descended, planets aligned, and all was well in the world.  Such is the power of burgers and beers on a Thursday night.

30 and 1/4

Since turning 30 my life has transformed into a glamorous roller coaster of parties, travel and glamour that has left me no time to keep up with the little things in life like blogs and Facebook and the dishes...

Sadly, this is not actually true (apart from the bit about the dishes, but that's only because we have a dishwasher).  What is true is that work has become a lot more demanding, in both good and bad ways, and there is this thing happening in July - it's just a big party really - which is taking up all my time at home as well.  So when I'm not working at work or at home, I'm trying to find time to skype/email with family and friends, see friends here and keep up with my essential and extensive grooming regime (which is actually really important you guys!).

Not that I'm all "woe is me" (even though that is one of my favourite things to be).  It's been a lot of fun lately!  I've been doing some pretty cool stuff.

In February I had a trip back to London for a couple of reasons, firstly my sister very kindly provided me with my first go at being an Auntie by having the most beautiful little boy I have ever seen, ever (and I am not biased, not biased at. all.), which was most obliging of her and for which I'm very grateful.  I also had a bunch of stuff to organise for this party in July and so was able to sort cakes of the cup variety, speak to some official people and have a few things signed off about that, eat some truly amazing food and feel all smug about it, make a list of some ridiculously expensive forks and plates and buy a very important pair of shoes which I can't actually talk about but which are amazing!

I'm fairly sure there were a few other things that happened but it all got kind of lost in the mists of stuff-that-isn't-nearly-as-important when I held my nephew for the first time *sigh*

Then I came back to Abu Dhabi and some stuff happened here too!

We arranged some music, got some invitations made and sent them out (waiting for RSVPs is ridiculously nerve racking, why on earth do we do things this way around?!) and organised a fun thing or two for the party.

In between all that was work.  Which is ok - sometimes better, sometimes I wonder what the hell I'm doing and want to beg O to let me give up work and be a lady of leisure... until I remember how mind-numbingly boring it actually is being a lady of leisure and scrap that plan.  Work has allowed me to do a few very fun things that I probably wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.

One of the fun things was a photography course (with these guys) which was awesome!  It was a two day course over a weekend that takes you from absolute beginner to knowing how to semi-manually operate a camera and really think about the kind of picture that you are taking.  It stops a digital SLR being an extra heavy and extra expensive point-and-shoot and means that you have way more control over how the final image looks.  I am so so so glad I did it and would recommend it to anyone.    I'd been wanting to do it for ages, but I didn't have a DSLR and wasn't planning on getting one in the near future either.  Then while I was in London in February my mum told me she had upgraded her DSLR for a newer, more expensive, betterer one and so was donating her old one to me!  She insisted she didn't want to sell it because it had too many nice memories, but equally didn't want it sitting around not being used so gave it to a worthy cause.  And so as soon as I got back I emailed Gulf Photo Plus and got myself signed up!  The main things we learned about were aperture and shutter speed and how to control those for effect.  We also learned about the evils of the F-word and the A-word (flash and auto, respectively).
Here are some of the better pictures that I took as a result of the course:

So that was fun and now I want to take my slightly more cumbersome camera with me everywhere!  Which I unfortunately can't do but I really must get out there before it gets too hot.  I think after the party in July I am going to take the second level so that I can learn even more!

There has been some eating out (and discovering the joy of chicken livers done Arabic styleee), much homesickness and feeling guilty for not being around while young ones are growing up and much excitement and anticipation about parties in July.  There has also been some heartache which was carried over with some horribly sad news from home - some kinds of bad/sad news have ways of making you feel very old and yet very young at exactly the same time.

And that pretty much sums up life since turning 30. 
I will try to be better at updating more regularly, I will I will I will I will I will I.....

Plague stops play

As I mentioned before, on Sunday (9^th) I turned 30.  The festivities for this momentous occasion were due to take place on the preceding Friday, but – as the title of this post may have given away – an outbreak of plague interfered with our fun and games over the weekend.

O and I both have stinky colds.  That’s right… have!  We’re both still suffering.  Woe is us.

O spent last week stoicly pretending that he was alright really, while steadily getting worse and worse.  I started to feel the onset of my cold on Wednesday but thought it would be the usual case of the sniffles and that by the weekend I’d be fine.

Friday morning saw us both feeling terribly sorry for ourselves and I was able to convince O that we should reschedule the birthday festivities for the next weekend.  After a couple of hours of protesting on his behalf, he gave in and rang the restaurant.  Ten minutes later we were both gently suffering on the sofa watching episodes of the US version of The Office and he told me how relieved he was that we’d cancelled.  By 7pm (the time that we would have been sitting down to dinner had we not cancelled) we were quietly dying, each in our own personal circle of hell, and the relief that we had cancelled was immeasurable.

Sunday rolled around and I had to go to work… boo!  Though I wasn’t feeling too much better I thoroughly enjoyed the special birthday breakfast (with a toast tasting experience – half marmite and the other half cut in two again with black-current jam on one bit and a praline spread on the other – tea, juice and a little dish with vitamins and a decongestant) and beautiful gift, both provided by O.

Work was work and not over quickly enough.  On Sunday evening we went to one of our favourite restaurants, Rodeo Grill at the Beach Rotana hotel, for dinner with our friends D and R.  The food was lovely as ever and the company was superb, but unfortunately I was still feeling pretty rough and couldn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

These last couple of days have seen O get better and then worse again and me just get worse.  We are keeping our fingers tightly crossed that we both feel human again by this Friday coming for the Celebrate/Commiserate Foreigner Turning 30 – Attempt #2 because if we cancel again then I don’t think there will be an Attempt #3.

On a slightly more fun note, last Thursday I was invited (along with my deputy editor) to the launch of a Korean food night at a hotel not too far from work.  It was great!  I got to meet the Korean Ambassador, ate some delicious food and got a teensy bit tipsy on Soju – a Korean drink that kind of like Sake, only much sweeter.  If anyone in Abu Dhabi is reading, I thoroughly recommend heading to the Holiday Inn on a Thursday night for some delicious food!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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.

Arrivals and Departures

Sunday was an interesting day for me this week – I had a bit of a cultural crash course in some social traditions that I hadn’t had experience of before.

After a full day at work I went first to a Mubaraka. One of Os cousins has recently had a beautiful baby girl – when I say recently, she isn’t even a month old and is a perfect bundle of pinkness and sleep – and she was welcomed to the world with a party in her honour. It was much like a baby shower, only we got to coo over the baby herself and there were a lot of women there – of all different ages and with different relationships to the mother of the baby.

It was a great time, with lots of gossip as people came and went, new people to meet and old faces to catch up with. There was a lot of food and waitresses constantly circulating with drinks. Some people were only able to stay for a short time, while others were there all night, the important thing was to go and kiss the mother and see the baby (who was also circulated at intervals between feeding and sleeping). As each person left they were given a gift and as many special baby-themed chocolates as they could carry.

It was a joyous occasion, and I’m enjoying these events more and more as I’m getting to know more people in Abu Dhabi and learning the proper dress-codes and etiquettes. Unfortunately I couldn’t stay as long as I might have wished, because I had to leave this lovely Welcome to go to a Farewell.

O and I are incredibly lucky with our neighbours, there are just two apartments on a floor so it’s just us and them. We live opposite a couple who have three children that are around our age. One daughter still lives at home and we are quite friendly with her. They are lovely people, incredibly generous and friendly and warm. They had us over for iftar during Ramadan and treated us as one of the family.

Very sadly, we found out that our neighbour’s father passed away on Saturday morning after a protracted illness that had left him in intensive care for a long time. She went every day to visit him, most days twice a day. It was very sad news for both me and O.

When someone passes, there is an 3aza, a period of mourning during which the family of the deceased opens their house to receive visitors. In some cases the men and women are in different rooms (and in rare cases they will be in different buildings). People dress modestly and in black, and sit for enough time to drink a cup of coffee and then go. If you are close to the family you might stay longer, but the important thing is to go and share in the grief of the family, even if it’s just for a short time. The 3aza might last for two or three days, for three or four hours each day, and during this time there is a constant stream of tea and coffee being made, glasses of water being passed around and prayers from the Quran being read out or played in the visiting rooms.

So after the mubaraka I headed home, did a quick change into some black clothes, took my jewellery off and went across the hall to sit for a while. There were a lot of women there but I was able to pay my respects and I sat with the daughter and her friends for a while.

So it was an emotionally charged evening, starting with an extremely happy welcoming and then a very sad farewell.

Updates updates updates...

So many updates to make!

Ok, well, the dress I bought turned out to be a major disappointment (it was practically see-through) so it was sent back – no huge surprise there really, how much can you really tell from an online picture? However the good news is that the people at Net-a-Porter are beyond helpful and really quite lovely, and I was able to get the vast majority of my money back – so no harm done.

I finished my Arabic Level 1 and passed with 96%, which is – I think you’ll agree – awesome! I want to start level 2 but it’s a bit tricky right now what with timings and making sure I get the same teacher as for Level 1, but I’m hoping to start again soon.

Lots of progress has been made on The Grand Affair. We have a venue for the deed and for the party afterwards, both of which are rather swish and rather gorgeous – even if I do say so myself. Venue for the party will cover food and drinks (fab!) and I’ve pretty much sorted the transportation. I’ve picked a dress and will have the first proper fitting for that in May, but I still need to find shoes and accessories. The most pressing issue right now is the entertainment… But that’s quite enough of all that stuff.

The other fun news is that I have a new job! It’s not really all that new I suppose, since I’ve been here nearly two months, but I always consider myself new until I’ve passed my three month probation period. Anyway… I have finally found my way into publishing!

I now work for a weekly Abu Dhabi magazine. It’s a lot of fun – hands down the best job I’ve had so far – but is a lot of hard work too. On the days the magazine is sent to the printers we are often at the office quite late, for various reasons, which can be tiring and frustrating. But it is ultimately very rewarding when the issue comes in to the office and we can get a proper look at how the finished article turned out.

Central to my job are the different events that are taking place all over the city, which means that I now know what is going on all over the city! Unfortunately, O and I are either so busy at work or so tired from work that we don’t get the chance to do much of it!

My office is no longer walking distance from the flat – sadly. This means that I am currently taking two taxi trips a day, each one taking between half an hour and 40mins. It is time for me to get a car. I was perfectly happy without one when I only had to take cabs occasionally – but I have now reached saturation point. It’s not so much that they are difficult to get hold of, in fact it is now easier than ever to get a cab, it is the constantly having to have enough cash to cover the journey (plus tip), having the same conversations over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again, feeling obliged to talk when I’m fed up/tired and being stuck in traffic when I can’t just blast out a bit of Lady Gaga to help me through. Don’t judge me!

So I need to get a car, and I imagine that this will open up a whole world of fun and frolics hitherto undiscovered out in the land of sand. I shall endeavour to keep you posted, as much as I am able and I will most certainly try to be a much better blogger.

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

So there I was, merrily writing up my Thailand holiday (in MARCH! God I'm a terrible blogger) to post and trying to decide just how boring it was to make it into two blog posts, when certain wheels were set in motion.

Well, actually, the wheels were set in motion the month before when 008 handed in his resignation. I was surprised and a bit concerned about my job - his assurances that my job was not in any danger rang somewhat hollow since he wasn't actually going to be there to ensure his assurances. Still, I went on my lovely Thailand holiday and he worked his month's notice, leaving the day before I got back.

I can't say I was exactly devastated because we hadn't exactly gotten to know each other that well, but it was weird and I didn't have all that much to do.

I'd say about a month went by, before the day came that I was writing up my Thailand trip and one of Senior Leadership Team I'd been supporting called me into the conference room in the presence of my friend from HR to tell me I was being made redundant.

Ho hum. Such is the way of the world, and I was planning on looking for another job once I'd seen out a year there.

But the timing sucked to say the least!

O had gone on a business trip to London the week before, and the world being the glorious place that it is, his return was delayed by that lovely little ash cloud that was hanging around. I had also been hoping to have the security of an income while looking for another job which was now out of the window. I had only just 6 months with this company and so wasn't entitled to any settlements, but they were rather fab in allowing me to not work in the office during my months notice period - so that I could get a head start on the job hunt.

Since I didn't actually DO all that much, I didn't have a lot that I needed to hand over. I made a few phone calls to my friend in Dubai (who tells me she reads this now, she must be bored - Hi P!) who was going to have to bear the brunt of what I wasn't doing any more and told the SLT what they needed to know. I packed up my desk (forgetting a few things, of course) into a couple of bags and trudged my sorry self home.

When I got home there was a delightful surprise waiting for me. The electricity in the flat had been turned off. It turns out someone forgot to pay the bill. The thing about no electricity out here is that it means no air-con. This is bad. So after a few frantic and teary phone calls to the UK and to long-suffering friends in AD, I found I could call the electricity people and I begged and sobbed for them to turn me back on - which they did within the hour! The now heavenly whumph-hmmmmmmmmm of the fans starting up awakening me from the nap I decided to take.

So there we go. I am now unemployed yet again!

However, that is not the only change in this little Foreigner's world this year - oh no! We have good changes as well!

After O made his way back to the UAE (no doubt swimming through shark infested waters, hitching lifts with militia and then crossing the desert by camel) he asked me a question and I answered "yes". So there's that.

I started Arabic classes. So there's that too.

Both are fun, although the first is taking up far more time than it really should since the grand affair isn't actually taking place until next year (but I already have the ceremony booked and have bought a dress - eek! Fingers crossed it looks good - I'll explain another time), but it's so much fun looking at food and hairstyles and shoes and flowers and food and venues and dresses and jewellery and bands and did I mention the food?

The second one is going surprisingly well. I fully and wholeheartedly recommend Berlitz for all your language learning needs! They use the immersion technique (where the language of instruction is also the goal language the majority of the time, this helps to think in the goal language instead of trying to translate words and sentences from your mother tongue).
It's not easy, but I never expected it to be. What I am very surprised about is how quickly I'm picking up the reading and writing of Arabic - I was always terrible at orthography and couldn't figure out new alphabets at all. But this is fun and we are learning it slowly enough that it can remain fun. Plus, practicing writing means I don't have to study conjugation.

Lots of ch-ch-ch-changes in the land of sand - and I'm also foolishly considering starting a restaurant review blog linked to this one! Considering how bad I am at maintaining this lovely space it probably is an exercise in futility. But I do love writing about food, and the only other proper review site I've found is this one, which is alright - but the reviews are generally a little basic. I think I could do better.

Thinking about it. Now where are those pictures of horse-drawn carriages I was looking at...?

Designer Dining in Dubai

We were in Dubai again weekend before last (yes, we are rather jammy and spoiled) and once more we tended to hang around the Burj Khalifa. This time we even stayed in The Palace hotel (which is one of The Addresses) which is next to the Souk al Bahr and where Asado is situated.

On our first night we were taken to the Cavalli Club for dinner.

Having been completely oblivious to its existence before that Thursday night, and also having been told it was the “Cavalli Café”, I did not expect to be greeted with a red carpet and white-clad bouncers behind the velvet rope at the back of the Fairmont on the Sheikh Zayed Road.

We had to ascend a completely closed and close black velvet lined stairway, lit only by pin-points and purple strips along the stairs, that felt like an ostentatious birth canal before we emerged into the club. The main floor was taken up, predominantly, by dining tables of varying size with “coffee” tables interspersed among them for people early enough to nab one but not dining.

Huge great swathes of Swarovski crystals on string dangled from the walls like really extravagant net curtains, hanging between and around the larger dining tables around the edge of the room and also surrounding the numerous chandeliers which looked very much like oddly shaped upside down salt shakers wrapped in strands of yet more crystals.

The dominant colours of the room are black, purple and zebra, with flashes of white and gold. It is just so unashamedly and hilariously bling that it is difficult to be offended by the tackiness, while at the same time difficult to miss the fact that it is very, very tacky. I spotted at least two bars, one of which was surrounded with varyingly sized bottles of Roberto Cavalli vodka – the grains for which, I have no doubt, Mr. Cavalli harvests himself by the light of the moon and keeping only thoughts of beautiful women in mind while he does so.

All pretentiousness aside (and there was A LOT to set aside) the Cavalli Club is a surprisingly good restaurant. The atmosphere is all about the fun and fabulous but it feels neither too predatory nor too bitchy and the music is spot on. Our reservation was for 10 which, for a dinner club, is a dangerous time if you are hoping to be able to hold a conversation with your companion(s) but the DJ kept the volume just right so that the diners could converse while still feeling a club-vibe. From sometime around 11:30/midnight the volume slowly but steadily increased until the venue was definitely more club than dinner, but the raising in volume was so gradual that we didn’t really notice until we found it difficult to hear the person next to us, and by then we had all finished and were ready to leave anyway. Aside from a terribly bourgeois moment when the “sommelier” got lambasted for not knowing what was in a dish (I don’t know because I’m the sommelier. “But if you don’t know what’s in the dish how can you recommend a wine to go with it?” I can recommend based on if it’s a light meal or heavy, if you are having meat or fish or chicken. “So, basically, you can tell me that red goes best with steak and white goes best with fish?” Yes. Maitre D' – “He’s new.”) the service was fab. Efficient, quick but not rushed and patient. We were a party of seven and the waiter did not even look vaguely irritated when a number of us changed our order a couple of times.

So! On to the food. The food was very good. Really. I was impressed. Unfortunately I can’t remember what everyone else had (not even O! For shame, for shame!) but almost the whole table had the same main dish.

The prequel was an amuse bouche. A rather blah, teeny, round, cheese and potato croquette, served with a smudge of marinara sauce. It did not forecast the meal to come in any way, being somewhat uninspired and flavourless.

I started with tuna tartare that was served on a chunky olive tepanade and topped with very white crab meat. It was served with bitter green leaves dressed in a very subtle truffle oil which managed to enhance every other flavour in the plate and hold it’s own at the same time but at no point was it overpowering. What a clever little truffle oil! It came with a bread lance (to call it a “stick” would be far too modest) speckled with white and black sesame seeds which was a welcome bit of crunch to a largely smooshy dish.

The main was quite simply divine. A “mille fuille” (yes, really) of beef tenderloin and garlic sauteed spinach, topped with a fat but dainty slab of pan fried foie gras. Though I asked for the beef to be medium-rare (as is my wont) the layers were made up of such thin pieces of meat that it was impossible for it to be anything but cooked through. It didn’t matter though, the tenderloin was – indeed – tender and soft. The foie gras was lovely, a gorgeous addition and the richness of it was counterbalanced by the assertively salted baby carrots and asparagus that graced the plate along with some very nice sliced and griddled new potatoes. As is so often the case, it was a bit part on the plate which made the show: the garlic spinach was so subtle but so integral that it would have been the element that I didn’t know was missing, had it not been there. It all worked so wonderfully together and each element was able to stand alone. The accompanying sauce was nice and savoury, I would have said it was a red-wine reduction had we been in any other country, and I didn’t want to ask the long-suffering waiter after he’d been so considerate to our table already. Perhaps it was juniper berries…?

For the sweet, a few deserts were ordered and did the rounds of the table. Being so stuffed and satisfied after my main I was reluctant to indulge (I know! ME!!) but I did try some of Os caramel tiramisu, which worked well when you tried to escape from it being a tiramisu. Very creamy but not too heavy, nice caramel and dense spongey bits, the coffee in the form of a scoop of real coffee ice-cream nestling on top of the glass the tiramisu was served in. Other deserts were an exotic fruit platter (which I didn’t bother with though it looked very pretty) and a selection plate with a fantastic almond ice-cream and an oozy chocolate fondante.

We took the fur-lined lift down to street level on the way out at about 1 in the morning as the club was just heating up. Absolutely a place to see and be seen, but with the right people and for the right reasons I would love to go again, have dinner and stay for the festivities into the night.


The next day, instead of relaxing and hanging out within walking distance where much entertainment could be had by all, we piled into our cars and drove out to Atlantis. Sited at the epicentre of the outer-rim of Dubai Palm, in order to reach it you have to drive up the trunk of the palm, past roads leading off to the “fronds” and a multitude of identikit apartment-blocks-that-kinda-look-like-hotels which brings to mind Barrett Homes: the Dubai model. Turning a bit of a corner and Atlantis appears, shouldering itself up to the sky, in all it’s pink and green “glory” it looks somehow embarrassed to be there. With more than a whiff of Disney-does-Arabia already present, Atlantis somehow made me think of those poor souls who dress up in the character outfits at EuroDisney for the little kids whose dreams of the real Disneyland were only recently crushed and who stare, distinctly unimpressed, while they cavort and jape in the rain.

We ate in Rostang, (allegedly) a traditional French brasserie from two-star Michelin Chef Michel Rostang. Looking back, I wonder how often Monsieur Rostang ventured to his namesake restaurant, particularly at lunch time. The entire meal was a farce, from start to finish. Having arrived behind the rest of our party we had to ask for menus and call the waiter over to order our drinks. To be fair, we were seven people dining, some having starters, some not, ordering drinks and, I dunno, FOOD. I know that can be a little confusing. However, this is a restaurant under the name of a two-star Michelin chef, I would expect the staff to have had a wee bit of training and to know that neither a croque monsieur nor a club sandwich count as “starters”. Oh yes. These two sandwiches came out with the starters, along with one wrong starter and one missing starter (can you say a missing starter was brought out? Probably not, let’s just move along swiftly, shall we? Good-o). After a bit of disagreement with the waiter who kept trying to assure us that sandwiches are starters and whose only response to my question of what does one have as a main course following a sandwich starter was to keep offering to bring me the menu, the sandwiches (which came with chips!!) were taken away and the Maitre D' came over. We explained the wrong starter and he went off again. Came back with the correct one and then asked if everything else was fine. No, we are also missing another starter. The first course took about an hour. By this point I was ravenous and very much looking forward to my wild mushroom fricassee with penne pasta in a creamy sauce. Wild mushrooms my arse. The pasta was that quick-cook rubbish that has the texture of old crumbly rubbers and the creamy sauce was cream that had been heated through with a bit of onion in. The limit was reached when O found something that looked like an ex-winged beastie in his salad. On closer inspection it appeared to be some salad roots or something, but it showed that the garnish hadn’t been washed properly and, for me, enough was enough. I couldn’t eat any more after that – and I’m not a particularly fussy eater when it comes to unexpected items in my food. The Maitre D' was summoned again and we complained about the whole sorry show. I would absolutely NOT recommend eating at Rostang which is a real shame because it is a lovely looking restaurant, a breath of authenticity in the wholly cynical church of tourism that is Atlantis.

The rest of the weekend, by turns, passed slowly and quickly with good and bad food (notably another fantastic meal at Asado, how spoiled am I?, and a really disappointing brunch at More) and the impulse purchase of a pair of canary yellow roller-blades because they were half off and I felt tubby after a weekend of eating.

I felt a press of sadness walking past the McQueen shop and perused the shoes, bags and jewellery in Chanel before it was time to pack up the car and head back to real life in Abu Dhabi.

A weekend in Dubai

Times have been a little stressful recently at Foreigner Towers recently.

It’s complicated, and boring unless you’re in the middle of it, but there was a period of about three months where O and I weren’t sure if we were going to be able to stay in Abu Dhabi or if we were going to be told to pack-up and ship-out without too much warning. I should clarify at this point that the push would come from work sources and no other.

To be waiting, powerlessly, to hear a final decision that is always promised tomorrow but never comes leads to a great deal of tension and I, for one, felt an awful lot of anger.

The decision finally came. It wasn’t the one we hoped for, so there is still a lot of anger on my part, but at least we are no longer living with a weight dangling over our heads. And we are staying, which is brilliant.

After such a stressful time, O and I needed a bit of a break from it all, so he booked us into a hotel and we spent the weekend before last in Dubai.

It was just the two of us, we needed a little time just with each other, and we had a simple plan: Check out the Dubai Mall. Conveniently, there is a lot to do in and around Dubai Mall so we were well entertained. The Burj Khalifa (nee Dubai) elegantly dominates the surroundings, which includes a handful of hotels, the Souk Al Bahr (one of the new-old “souks” that seem to be cropping up everywhere) and a waterway out of which a fabulous water-show is propelled every evening after the sun goes down.

Having driven up on Thursday night we were able to get an early-ish start on Friday. Early enough for brunch anyway. There are a myriad of places to eat in Dubai Mall and unfortunately we decided to have dim sum at Ping Pong. I’ve heard less than amazing things about Ping Pong in the UK, and the branch in Dubai lived up to the low reputation. The service shuttled from obnoxious to surly and from non-existent to intrusive. The food was strictly ok.

After eating we strolled around outside, enjoying the sun and the water and the view of the Burj before taking the plunge and entering the mecca of consumerism that is the Dubai Mall.

What is so good about this particular mall is not only the size (which is immense) but the organisation. After you have solved the mystery of the dual floor-numbering system for the mall and car park (FAR more complicated than anything in this world needs to be, brain surgery has to be easier) and are able to actually get in to the mall it is particularly easy to find your way around and find what you’re looking for. All of the high end designer shops are in one section, the accessories are in another. Jewellery has its own area, as does electronics, and near by is the book shop of wonder – Kinokuniya. A Japanese book shop it is the largest I have come across in the UAE and, so far, the best anywhere. So well organised, and intuitively so, it was a joy to browse and I can only imagine that if you are after something specific it will be easy to find. While there is a food court, there are far more interesting places to eat or stop for a coffee dotted around and amongst the shops.

Needless to say, we killed a lot of time there.

After resting our weary legs for only a short hour back at the hotel, we donned our gladrags and headed out for dinner at Asado in The Palace hotel. An Argentinean restaurant, it gets its name from the open fire that the speciality is cooked over. That speciality? Spit roast baby goat. There was really no option for me and I had to have the goat, while O went for a steak. The steak was good, but the goat was amazing. We’d ordered sides but barely touched them and I whole heartedly recommend the empanadas for a starter, O had a beef and onion one that tasted like the most perfect Cornish pasty in the world. We were both too full for desert.

It was still early so we headed around the Souk and across the bridge to one of the Arabic restaurant/cafes that had a lot of pleasantly cramped seating outside the ground floor of the mall for coffee and shisha, both very nice. While we were there we were able to get a much better view of the fountain display.

There is a very shallow waterway separating the Burj Khalifa from the mall, souk and hotels. Once the sun goes down the water show begins! Every 20 minutes or so there is a flurry of water shooting up into the air in a delightful manner, accompanied by some rhythmically and atmospherically appropriate music. Every hour or so there is an extra long, extra delightful show and everything stops for a short while to watch.

Having had our fill of watching water being projectiled into the atmosphere, we moseyed back over to the souk and settled on Karma Kafe (yes, I absolutely HATE the name being spelled that way) for a couple of beverages, primarily because is by the same people as Buddha Bar. It was nice, the music a little on the loud side though and appeared to be mostly geared up for eating. The décor was fun in that red Zen way but the best bit was, just as we were deciding to go, the floor show started!

There was a buzz of activity behind the bar and then the music was cranked up even higher while the bar staff indulged in a little fire play for the benefit of the customers still remaining. There was the spinning and throwing (and dropping) of Molotov cocktails, fire breathing and a little touch of fire poi. All good fun, though I fear the performers needed a lot more practice since O and I slipped off our bar stools and took a couple of steps back to a slightly safer distance!

Brunch on Saturday morning and another brief spin around the mall (where I may or may not have finally maxed out my credit card) before we headed back to Abu Dhabi and reality.

It was a lovely weekend. I had a great time exploring a part of Dubai that I didn’t know at all before, and shopping is always fun.

Dubai is a fun city to visit, but for me, I wouldn’t want to live there. While I’m not a restrictivist, there seems to be a distinct air of Anything Goes in Dubai, which I can’t really get behind. Without going into specifics, there were a few moments when O and I looked at each other and said “you wouldn’t see that in Abu Dhabi” and I certainly felt glad of it.

Dubai moves a lot faster, is a lot more hedonistic and has a lot more westerners. Which is fine, absolutely, but I’m so glad that I live in Abu Dhabi.

Steak a la Marco Pierre White

A couple of days ago, O and I went to the Marco Pierre White steakhouse for the second time. The first visit was my birthday treat and this last one was (as far as I’m concerned) to celebrate a couple of very cool people moving to Abu Dhabi.


The restaurant is snuggled away in the gorgeous new Fairmont hotel (Bab Al Bahr) which sits next door to the Souq at Qaryat Al Beri (which is, in turn, next to and linked to the Shangri La). An unassuming entrance leads into a dining room that is casual, but definitely trying very hard to be so. Tables are roomy (apart from in the smoking section, although that is right by a window looking in to the kitchen so smokers aren’t treated like total pariahs) and not laden with silver, flat or glass wear and the additional decoration (small flower arrangement and a candle) are removed after ordering to make way for the freshly baked bread. Crisp white linen always works, but unfortunately I can’t say the same for the huge ostrich leather chairs which are not as comfy as they look and have arm rests too high to fit under the table.

But all that is trifling really. The service is excellent (friendly and not too formal) and only just briefly touched on overbearing on our first visit – I put this down to the restaurant being fairly empty for a Friday night – perfect on our second visit, they only have one sitting so once you book the table is yours for the whole night and the food is superb!

After ordering they serve delicious bread, of three different flavours baked into one loaf – cheddar and rosemary, mustard and onion. These come with salted, tomato and fig and date butters. It is very difficult not to fill up on the bread.

On our first visit I had duck foie gras served with caramelised pears and warm raisins while O had a warm salad of jumbo asparagus, fresh crab meat and a perfectly poached egg. I’m not normally a fan of fruit with savoury food, but the pears and even the raisins (a real no no for me) were the ideal accompaniment to the foie gras and counteracted the richness of the duck liver with a helping hand from some spiced salt served on the raisins. O’s dish was absolutely delicious. We both knew that asparagus and runny egg is a magic combination, the addition of the crab worked so well providing extra flavour and texture without removing anything from the other, more established, ingredients.

For the second course there was no question of what to have. It had to be steak. It had to be fillet and it had to be medium-rare. That’s not to say there aren’t other delightful options on the menu, if a slab of cow isn’t really your thing. There is a nice choice of fish which all sound delicious, not to mention rosemary baby chicken and a mustard encrusted rack of lamb. But! As I said, on this first visit there was absolutely no question. We ordered dauphinoise gratin, garlic mushroom and more asparagus for the side dishes and we both had the truffle cream sauce.

My steak came perfectly cooked, while O’s was a little over done. It was dealt with speedily and with subtlety, and we didn’t have to wait long until the second – better – steak was brought out. Since O had already dished out some of the sides and the sauce, we were provided with full portions of these (but not the spuds – sadly) as well. It was all phenomenal.

The deserts at this MPW are all terribly English. Off the top of my head there is bread and butter pudding, chocolate fudge cake, treacle tart, an English cheese plate and sticky toffee pudding. I seem to remember there being some kind of burnt cream thing as well, but I can’t remember exactly what it is.

I’m sure it will come as no surprise to anyone that I ordered the chocolate fudge cake. O went for the treacle tart.

While the savoury courses are portioned well, the deserts are huge. Definitely share portions. I was able to manage half… just.


On our second visit I started with potted duck. I’m generally a fan of potted meats (although since that’s such an un-appetising term I’ll stick to rillets) as long as they are done well I was exciting to try it with duck. It was ok, but not spectacular. I felt it was under-seasoned, it definitely lacked… something, but since I’m not a chef (and so probably shouldn’t comment on seasoning or much of anything) I couldn’t really tell you what that was. It was accompanied by a lovely thick marmalade which cut through the fatty-ness delightfully. O had the crab, asparagus and egg dish again and since O is the kind of person who prefers to try everything on the menu rather than stick with something he knows is good – that should really tell you something about how fantastic this starter is.

For the second course, I was very tempted to try the rosemary roast baby chicken but I stuck with what I knew was superb and had the fillet medium-rare again, with the same truffle cream sauce. O went for the rack of lamb and it was wonderful. The lamb was perfectly cooked and the crust had just the right amount of heat to enhance the flavour of the lamb without detracting or distracting in any way from it. Sides were gratin dauphinoise, triple cooked chips (not my cup of tea with steak, much prefer soft potatoes), spinach and mushrooms.

This time, O and I shared the sticky toffee pudding which was light but gluey in the way steamed puddings should be, subtle and not too sweet. Delightful.


I have to say that I think MPW is my new favourite steak restaurant. The food really is lovely, though I don’t know if the price tag is entirely justified. We are able to get a fabulous discount at another, excellent, steak restaurant that is closer to us in town which will remain our regular. That said though, I’m already thinking about when we can go to MPW again – I’m going to have the Eton Mess for dessert.

New Year’s Eve in the Desert

Due to my new job, O and I weren’t able to spend long in the UK over Christmas and flew back the day after Boxing Day.

This meant that we were to spend our first New Year’s Eve in Abu Dhabi.

What to do?

We had a number of options. Most of the hotels with bars/clubs had some sort of event going on. There was talk of going to a beach party organised by one of the hotels and then sneaking in to the inevitable club party, we could go for dinner, we could do nothing OR we could go and see in the new year out in the middle of the desert.

We went for the last option – mostly because of some deluded notion of making the most of being able to experience things while we can, or something, but also because a lot of people we like were going and the other options slowly fizzled away unless we wanted to do them on our own.

So. December 31st saw us shuffling on down to a car park to wait for the bus that was going to take us into the desert. 10 minutes pass and we find we’re in the wrong car park so hot-foot it across the 6-way junction and make it on to the bus. A slow and perilous journey begins and I make sure too look for that window that busses have that have a little hammer next to it or are easy to push out (there isn’t one) because the bus is in a less than ideal condition and much the same could be said about the driver. Still, after an hour or so on the motorway and then a desert road, we get there… somehow.

Where “there” is, I’m not entirely sure, but we’re herded off the bus and – in sixes – into range rovers. It is at this point that the most fun part of the evening began. For five minutes we were driven off the road for a brief but wonderful bit of dune-bashing before coming to a stop at the top of one particular dune.

Looking down we could see what was supposed to be a Bedouin Camp with falling down walls, shelters around the outer edges, a big stage in the middle and a camel outside (really). The stage was for dancing and that night’s “entertainment”.

All around the stage were big carpets that had long, low tables interspersed with cushions to sit on. Along two sides of the camp were covered seating areas away from the stage, on another was the shisha area and along the last side were the toilets (with paper and soap and everything, praise be!) and the food area.

This is where it all began to fall down. For the (worryingly low) ticket price we understood that we’d be getting food, drinks – even alcohol, shisha and entertainment. Food there was, only they made the mistake of opening the buffet about two hours after everyone had arrived, meaning everyone was hungry which meant the buffet got mobbed and people queued for a good hour to get any food. If you didn’t queue then, that was pretty much it for another few hours until the (awful) shawrma station opened, which was supplemented by some very greasy fried spring rolls and stuff. Thankfully the drinks didn’t run out, although we were looking at 30 quid for a bottle of very average white wine of which there was only one kind.

The shisha was free, if you could figure out the ways of the secret society to get any and then maintain it with coals and replacement heads throughout the night. First we were told we couldn’t have the shisha next to the stage, which we weren’t, so no problem. Then we were told we couldn’t have them on the carpeted area because of fire risk – fair enough, but the designated shisha area had six seats, we were eight and some of us wanted to smoke and some of us didn’t – so we moved to the sand. We tried bribing one of the shisha guys to look after us and bring us coal but he ignored us completely after getting his money and we ended up raiding the nearby barbeque pit for our own coals.

This leaves the “entertainment”. At one point there was a magician for the kids, and a belly-dancer came out and gave the most pathetic performance I’ve ever seen. For the rest of the night there was a DJ who played non-stop Bangra. I’ve no issue with Bangra, but I can’t help feeling that since we were supposed to be having a faux Arabic/Bedouin experience, music that has an Arabic slant to it would have been slightly more in keeping with the theme.

We were able to, on the whole, enjoy ourselves – in spite of the complete lack of organisation. Though I would never see in the new year in the same way again, I am now much more keen to go on a desert safari which I’m told involves lots of dune bashing and culminates in a similar event.

One thing I am really glad about though: As budget as the event was, and how badly organised, at least there were toilets.

When The Killers came to Abu Dhabi

I can’t believe I haven’t written about this already! I would blame my Christmas brain but… yeah.


In December a terribly exciting thing happened – The Killers performed in Abu Dhabi… and the tickets were affordable!!!!! WHOOP!

Lots of performers play here, of lots of different varieties. Since I’ve lived here we’ve had (off the top of my head) Christina Aguilera, George Michael + Alicia Keys, Andrea Bocelli, Beyonce, Kings of Leon, Aerosmith and on New Year’s Eve it was the turn of Rhianna.

Not a lot of those interest me, and those that do (Kings of Leon and Aerosmith) I wouldn’t have been able to afford the price of the tickets since both played after a Formula 1 day, which meant that you had to buy an F1 ticket to be able to see the show. Cheeky, I know.

So it’s always a treat when a less-mainstream (for the UAE) band comes to town and tickets are both available and at a decent price.

The venue was the Emirates Palace (a monument to gold leaf and marble of all the colours of Starbucks – apart from green) and I had no idea what to expect having never been there. Imagine my delight when I found that the stage is in the open air giving a decidedly festival vibe in one of the blingingest of cities.

The weather was wonderful for December, nice and warm, the set was fab but short and half way through the gig a shooting star passed right above the stage!

A top night and one I hope I get to repeat soon.

This is not about cars

Not too long ago there was a little event that occurred in Abu Dhabi, you might have heard of it… the Formula 1?

Yes, well. Much hoo-ha was made over it all over the world and though it appeared that the UAE had gone F1 crazy (!!!), most of the people I spoke to were decidedly “meh” about the whole thing. The biggest draw was not the cars, but the bands playing after each day of racing. We had Beyonce, Kings of Leon, Aerosmith – all very exciting but the shame was that you had to shell out for a race-day ticket in order to be able to see the bands.

The lead up to the race weekend was quite mental. For months there were stands in the malls where you could win tickets to the races, advertising was everywhere, they closed roads to clean and re-paint the sides and markings, the Corniche was brought to a standstill while one of the cars was filmed going up and down, up and down, up and down the same strip to be used in various kinds of PR and road safety stuff.

Ferrari Red was the colour of the season, and no-where more so than on Yas Island.

Abu Dhabi is an island, separated by a very thin strip of water from the mainland. The island of Abu Dhabi is, itself, surrounded by loads and loads of smaller islands, some of which are accessible by car and some by boat. Some are natural and some are man-made, created as a result of dredging the very shallow waterways around Abu Dhabi Island in order to create “paths” for boats to avoid getting banked.

One of the natural islands is Yas Island and Yas was selected to be the site of the F1 track. In a rush of construction that is still on going today (I can’t seem to find out when it was actually started) Yas, which was first turned into a nature reserve, now has the Marina Circuit (site of the F1) which is straddled by the island flagship Yas Hotel, a golf course, several other hotels and in the future will be the site of Ferrari World (allegedly the world’s largest indoor theme park), Yas Mall, a water park, a Warner Bros theme park, residential buildings and a scattering of marinas.

Formula 1 came and went and life returned to normal, except that now there is a whole new glut of hotels and their bars and restaurants to explore!


This weekend, O and I decided to explore Yas Island. We had the choice of going to the new Rotana (we are rather fond of Rotana hotels, since we stayed in one most of the time we were out here exploring and looking for a place to live) or the Yas Hotel. Cuisine was the deciding factor so we booked in to the Japanese restaurant, Kazu, in Yas Hotel.

It was a good thing that we went for the Yas Hotel because it’s a sight to behold. The outside has no sharp lines, it is all curved and smooth covered with lights that cycle through a small range of colours, which gives the impression of being organic – especially when seen from the approach out of Abu Dhabi. The inside is incredibly modern, the lobby and public areas of the hotel look like the space shuttle terminal out of 2001. It is all WHITE and very bright. Once your eyes get used to the assault of so much glaring brightness it is an interesting structure, but rather clinical for a hotel. It is a little too easy to get disoriented because all of the corridors look the same, but this in itself added to the sense of adventure for the first time visitor.

We were escorted to the restaurant, which is along a corridor that appeared to house all of the other restaurants also. After glancing briefly into the other restaurants I’d complain that the sense of being in some sort of terminal (either airport or spaceport) remains – each seemed to be of the same basic design with only the soft furnishings and the colour of the walls differentiating one from the other (although, this is based on only a brief glance inside and I may have the wrong impression).

We sat outside on the “terrace” which overlooks part of the race track. The terrace, again, perpetuates the airport feel – all of the tables and chairs along the row were exactly the same, even though they belonged to different restaurants and the view was somewhat less than exciting since the track was empty.

The food was simply awful. Actually, that’s not fair, not ALL of it was awful, but enough of it was so bad that we complained. Grilled chicken skewers (yakitori) was delicious, so I suspect the tepanyaki or anything from the grill would be good, but the edamame with chilli and garlic tasted like it was smothered in kebab shop chilli sauce, the seared scallop sashimi wasn’t seared in the slightest, the tuna belly nigiri was off and the other nigiri had been made a while before and left to sit out, resulting in an unpleasant sheen to the salmon and a distinct lack of flavour. So put off by this point we didn’t even try the yellow tail. The salmon sashimi was fresh and delicious and the spicy tuna hand rolls were nice although the nori was incredibly tough and we had to request the hand rolls to be made without the spicy mayonnaise that they always seem to come with here.

Our complaint was received with good grace and offers to replace what was below standard. We declined. The offending items were removed from the bill and we were given complementary scoops of green tea ice cream, which was a nice gesture though – sadly – the ice cream tasted awful. Clearly made from and tasting very much of UHT milk/cream and barely a whisper of green tea.

We moseyed on down the terrace to the outdoor seating for Atayeb which describes itself as a Pan Arab dining spot. Despite the identikit furniture, this looked very nice, and they offer shisha on the terrace. After pausing at Atayeb for a smoke (not cigarettes – still off those, go me!) and a beer or two we found our way to one of the four bars Yas Hotel boasts. We went to “Rush”, the hotel’s signature bar. Despite it being absolutely empty (well, not absolutely, but near enough) and the pretentious name the atmosphere at Rush was quite nice. I’d definitely go back again, even though the drinks cost an arm and a leg – although that is pretty standard out here.

The only snag, really, was getting home. Since Yas Island is not yet a popular destination for the late-night revellers (even on a Friday night) there is a distinct lack of taxis coming and going between there and Abu Dhabi island. I fully expect this to change, but for the time being it is necessary to ask the concierge to phone for a cab. In our case, he at first wanted to charge an extortionate fare – but the concierge was able to find someone much more reasonable. He only charged us twice what it cost to get there.

It was a lot of fun visiting a new place. Abu Dhabi isn’t small, but it isn’t large enough so that a new restaurant/bar/hotel/anything opening gets lost in the noise. Which means that anything new gets a lot of attention and buzz, whether it deserves it or not! Though there are still some restaurants and bars to be discovered, I predict the lure of Yas Hotel will be short lived. There are other, comparable, hotel-complexes which have more character and diversity that are no further away (and in fact are currently more easily accessible) than Yas.

Aaaaand Employed Again

I have found myself gainfully employed again, after a brief but enjoyable period of having nothing but housework to avoid doing.

Funny thing really – for all my months and months of applying for jobs, this one found me!

It was while my mum was visiting, we were treating ourselves to an expensive day on the beach (the public beach has been closed for months now while they are renovating it – again – after being open for only 6 months, so we had to go to a hotel) when I got a call on my mobile asking if I was interested in an Executive Assistant opportunity.

My reaction was decidedly lukewarm. But I had another conversation with the person who called, found out the job was a little more involved than I had thought, and decided that I’d be stupid not to go for an interview, because at the very least it would be some much needed interview experience.

First interview was ok, saw the office and met the woman I’d been speaking to on the phone. Both seemed quite nice. I learned more about the job and found it would probably be more interesting than I had thought, and certainly nothing like my last “assistant” role. What’s that thing they say about having to eat your words...? Yeah.

The decided lack of experience on my CV had me convinced that I wouldn’t be invited back for the second interview – so I carried on applying for jobs and avoiding housework.

Imagine my surprise when I got called in for that second interview, this time with the guy whom I’d be assisting in an executive manner! It went well enough, but once again I didn’t expect much to come of it. I went against advice and was completely honest about my experience and abilities, it would have been silly not to – they had my CV and could see that I’d had one “real” job aside from doing the PhD. However, an unexpected trump card revealed itself, when the guy whom I’d be assisting (henceforth to be known as “008”) said that he’d done a PhD and when it finished realised that he didn’t want to go into academia!

Trump card or no, I still didn’t hold out much hope that I’d get the job.

So, once again, I was somewhat surprised when I got a missed call while getting a leg-wax from the woman who had called me the first time when I was on the beach telling me that I had the job! Who’d of thunk it?!

I accepted, needless to say. It would have been foolish not to for all manner of reasons, the current economic climate being just one (and incidentally, who’d have thought that a phrase like “current economic climate” would become one of those that just trips off the tongue with the greatest of ease? Fun times, eh?).

Fast forward a few days and I had decided to treat myself to a mid-week sun-bath before I start working and have the chance of doing so taken away. Lying there on the self same beach I’d been on with my mum when I had that monumental first phone call and work calls again. I did not say that I was sitting on the beach (again), because I didn’t want to give the impression that I am a complete WAG, but listened while I was told that I needed to email a copy of my passport because they needed it to process my IT equipment. No biggie, thinks I, that’ll be to give me access to a desktop computer, an email address and to put me on the phone system. No no! In fact, it was so that I could get my laptop and my blackberry. I suddenly felt very aware of a heavy weight of responsibility settling itself on my nicely tanning (burnt) shoulders. I’m pretty sure I laughed. All I had running through my head was thoughts of: You see this phone? It means we OWN YOU!

I also couldn’t understand why an Executive Assistant should be in want of a laptop AND a blackberry, which made me briefly entertain the fantasy that I would actually be working for someone who was kind of like James Bond… hence the “008”… (Eddie Izzard has NOTHING on me.)


I’m starting my third week at work now, and so far it’s been ok. Had a few incredibly stressful moments and a few terribly boring ones. There’s a huge amount that I don’t understand, but that’s inevitable with any new job, and especially when one isn’t trained in the field of that job.

I’m finding my feet and getting to know the people who work around me. Everyone is very nice, very welcoming and very helpful. The office is small-ish but not too small. The only complaint is the long hours, but it’s standard here. I try* to get to work between 7:30 and 8 and 5 is the earliest I’ll go home.

Home time, whatever time that may be, is wonderful. It’s winter so the weather is gorgeous right now and I walk home! Depending on the height of my heel it can take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, I pop in my iPod and take my sweet time strolling around the centre of Abu Dhabi. There are always loads of people around, walking and driving, and I feel terribly cosmopolitan and smug thinking about my half hour of daily exercise. But joking aside, I’m finding it a great way to let go of the day, especially a stressful one.

My last job was depressing because it was so brain meltingly boring and kinda soul destroying. This one is way more stressful (in my last job I was finished all my daily tasks by 10:30 and had to hope for something to come up, in this one I stayed long after most people had gone on a Thursday to try and get something finished) but I feel like I’m actually doing something with my day, that my job has value and, should I want to, there is a career path I could take here. In the last two weeks there were at least three times when I thought that I was in over my head and maybe I should leave within my three months probation period, which is kind of distressing and definitely one of the reasons I need my walk home in the evening.

I don’t know what I’m going to do in the summer though!




*This is a whole other blog entry in itself!

Unemployed Again

My job was only temporary – six months filling in for someone who was on leave – so it wasn’t exactly a surprise when I was told that my services would no longer be required (only they were much, much nicer than that – they even bought me a going away present!) and I had actually been expecting it to happen two months earlier.

I worked the full six months, which is fantastic in terms of pay, but was more than enough in terms of time in the role. I was soooooooo not right for that job. It wasn’t especially difficult, it wasn’t especially challenging (apart from sometimes, but then any job is challenging when you have to deal with ‘special’ people who seem to have been put there for the sole purpose of making you want to bang your head against the desk and gouge your eyes out with a rusty tea-spoon).

But really, that was part the problem (the challenging bit, not the head-banging/eye-gouging bit). The role was not challenging in any way after the first couple of weeks. After learning all the processes and who everyone was and which gloves to use to handle them… that was it! And very often my set tasks were completed before lunch and I had to wait for something else to come up. No challenge.

I was bored and frustrated, but it taught me about the kind of jobs that I absolutely will not be applying for now that I am looking again. Anything with “assistant” in the title is out (unless the job title is “Jonny Depp’s Bathing Assistant”, in which case I might make an exception – depends on whether or not dental is included in the health insurance).


And so begins the dance of looking at job advertisements online, filling in their make-you-want-to-tear-your-hair-out application forms, attaching my CV and cover letter and never hearing a thing from them.

Job hunting everywhere is tough right now – I know that. I have enough friends (I do too have friends!) in enough parts of the world to have a decent idea of what the job market is like across a fair proportion of the globe.

Really, it is no harder to find work here than it is anywhere else. In fact, if you are in the right industry then you’re golden! Sadly, I am not in the right industry and so I am more like slightly tarnished tin.

Here’s the thing. If you’re in gas, construction or engineering you will be snapped up – in some cases they’ll even train you! Though they do prefer that you be Emirati for that. Anything else and you can find work, however you had better have been doing the exact role that is advertised for, oooo, let’s say 5-15 years.

‘Transferable skills’ is not a commonly known commodity, I’m sad to say. And since I abound with transferrable skills and not very much else… I’m not hearing a lot of response back from the applications I send out.

I’m really not going about this the right way, I know that. I know that I should be shlepping my bum around to all the places that I want to apply to and speaking directly to the HR department. But, to be honest, the thought of all that makes me very nervous. I’ve not had to do stuff like this before. Of course I’ve had interviews, but that was always in the academic world, which I know! I don’t know this world at all. And I feel completely pathetic confessing that, at the age of *cough*28*cough*.


For now, I’m enjoying being the master of my own time again. And I’m filling in those application forms and emailing my CV. It’s been a week and I’m not bored yet, I still have a number of little projects that I had neither the time nor the inclination for while I was still working. I’m also determined to get into the kitchen more and have already begun that process with a delicious lasagne last week and I have plans for all manner of soup related experiments.