It's Abu Dhabi Baby!!!

Well, after a long time planning it, finally I arrived in Abu Dhabi. This place is very different to life in the west. That's not necessarily a bad thing.

I stepped from a world where the temperature is about 1 degree to a world where the temperature is about 18 degrees. At 11 o'clock at night. In the winter. It was lovely to feel warm for the first time in about 2 years!

We were picked up by the company driver, who took us to the hotel. But before he did that, he took us to see a flat that he knew was available for rent. The landlord showed us round. at 11:30 pm! It was lovely, and the upshot is that after a couple of days dithering, we decided to rent it. We should get the keys this weekend, and be able to move our things in over the following week, while we still have our hotel rooms available.

The apartment is ideal, only about 5 minutes away from work, and has two bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and 2 living rooms. Which means we can share without having to get in each other's way too much, and we can both have our own space whenever we need it. It also means we have room for guests, so form an orderly queue!

I can't believe how friendly people are here. They literally can't do enough to help, and if you need something done, there are plenty of people around to do it for you. Wherever you are served, you are served with a smile, and people want to take the time to talk.

Despite what you might have been told about the Middle East, in the UAe there are plenty of bars, and it is surprisingly liberal. As long as it's not flaunted in front of the local people, they seem quite happy for us westerners to be left to our own devices.

The picture above is the view from my hotel room window. Dave's room has a much better view, with an impressive panorama over the whole city. Spectacular at night! There's a lot to do, and it's all pretty daunting and very different to what I'm used to, but I'm confident that I can cope with it all. So far, so good anyway!