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Abu Dhabi: Margarita Pracatan has left the building... |
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Written by Stephen Baines
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Thursday, 26 August 2004 |
Tonight was possibly the funniest night I've had whilst here in Abu Dhabi.
I was taken out of town for the night, to a restaurant outside of Abu Dhabi city for reasons that are not that interesting. On the way we drove past the new mosque that is being built - I thought I was being driven past a pastiche of the arabian nights, it was absolutely huge and amazingly spooky at night. The dark sky with the white marble mosque, easily the size of St Pauls and possibly some, towering up such that it needs aircraft warning lights on it. I've got to see it again in daylight - though I have a feeling it won't be quite the same.
Anyway, back to the story... We pulled into the hotel and went in and to the bar. "Oh, did I warn you...?" said Nigel "about this place". I started to get worried. "There is a rule in this areas that all bars that serve alcohol have to have a band". Ok, not too bad, I thought, and we sat down with a cold pint of Guinness which wasn't half as bad as I expected. We chatted about life in the UAE and the UK, and sat down to eat, then the band came on...
I didn't know Lady in Red was a lesbian love song. Or Wonderful Tonight, for that matter... I couldn't help but laugh - it seems the town has a sense of humour, 'yeah, let the foreigners drink, but lets force them to drink whilst hearing fifth-rate Eastern European bands singing incredibly bad covers - that should let our feelings be known".
And so it was, we had a drink, and a bite to eat, whilst a woman with a plastic surgeon given smile stumbled through the words of song after song in a manner that Margarita herself would be proud of.
It truly was wonderful tonight.
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