Home  The All New Blog Abu Dhabi: An unusual day
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Abu Dhabi: An unusual day |
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Written by Stephen Baines
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Saturday, 21 August 2004 |
I'm not used to getting up on a Saturday morning and getting ready for work. I awoke, got ready, and didn't bother with breakfast. My body was rebelling and saying that it didn't eat at 4am UK time. Fair enough, I thought, and read a bit of the Khaleej Times and had a chuckle, and made my way down to meet Manar.
We went to the hotel where the training is taking place. The kit was still not here. Without knowing the right people to manouvere at customs there wasn't much chance of it arriving any time soon. Thankfully someone knew someone who did, and by mid-afternoon it had arrived. Mains cables for the controllers, however, were not to be found, so after the day had finished Manar and I made our way to one of the malls where there was a Radio Shack to try and get some three pin plugs and flex - none to be found, and none in the Abu Dhabi Co-Operative Society, either. So it was the more exciting route - small shops of Abu Dhabi. It took some time to find somewhere that could help. For one plug and flex they wanted 10 Dirhams - a little haggle and pointing out we wanted 6 sets, and the price came down to 5 Dirhams. I hasten to add it wasn't me that did the haggling. It was a fun experience, and I was very tempted by the intial offer of the receipt in Arabic. The thought of accounts trying to make sense of it...
After everything was sorted I came back to the hotel. I got changed, and went for a walk down the street. The sun was in the sky and setting and made everything look magical, and the call for prayer was ringing through the air. I wandered down towards the mosque to see what was happening. Everyone was arriving, the streets started to empty, and the call for prayer was over loud speakers. I felt somewhat cheated; I felt cheated in the same way I do when church bells in a village turn out to be pre-recorded.
The sun had now set, and the sky started to fall in - what was hot and humid became incredibly humid. I realised that going out in the evening doesn't actually help. The heat and sun keeps the water in the air, the sun going down forces it to drop like a stone on anything a bit cooler, ie me. I felt thankful for the linen jacket I'd taken, it kept the worst of it off my body. My face was running, yet I wasn't sweating - it was pure condensation. I slowly made my way back to the hotel and went for dinner.
The heat is getting to me a little, and I didn't feel like a lot so I had a selection of salads and some amazingly well cooked artichokes and a local fish called Hummour which was the thickness of cod but the taste and texture of sole.
The night was starting to fall, and I decided to do something I'd been warned not to. I was told not to paddle in the sea as it's far too hot, just stick to the pool. Stuff that, thought I, why not? How can I be here and *not* try paddling in the Gulf? How can I *not* experience a hot sea. So I wandered down, and the beach was still and silent. I sat on a steamer under a palm tree and listened to the sea lapping on the shore, and smelt the sea which reassuringly smelt just like the sea anywhere, and I went and paddled in the sea. It felt hot. Then I realised it felt hotter than the air around, which is 40F. And I started to laugh, and paddle and made footprints in the newly washed sand, and sat again under the palm tree and enjoyed my Robinson Crusoe moment.
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