Home  The All New Blog Abu Dhabi: A Beautiful Day
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Abu Dhabi: A Beautiful Day |
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Written by Stephen Baines
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Friday, 20 August 2004 |
My alarm call went of at 6:30am to give me time to do the things I didn't have time to do last night, such as unpack, sort out the kit I needed for the training room today, the usual everyday things.
I opened the curtains to brilliant sunshine, I touched the window, and reeled back. I know this is going to sound odd, I know it makes me sound like a loony, but I'm used to the fact that if a room is cool and you touch a window, the window will be cool. Even in summer the windows are not warm. The frame was very warm. The window pane more so. A room at 20C with a window a good 10-15C higher - how odd!
I got ready, and went down to breakfast. Veal bacon is an interesting concept - can't say I'm convinced it's a bacon substitute, though, and eating that for two weeks will only make me crave the real thing. No, veal bacon was a one-off event, no more of that for me... The breakfast was pleasant enough. A nice mix of people, Scandinavians, Germans, French. Thankfully no Brits. It seems the UAE is off the radar for most brits at the moment. I meandered upstairs to get my camera.
"Morning" said the man in the lift. Without thinking I replied. "Thank god for that" he said "I thought we were the only Brits here, that's cheered me right up! Maybe we'll see you later on?" Yeah, right, I thought and quickly scuttled off at my floor hoping he wouldn't remember what I looked like.
I got the camera and went downstairs and out into the sun. It was 7:30 and it was already very warm. I took some photos of around the hotel, and looked at the results. Funny, I thought, they're all blurred. I looked at the camera. The camera had been in a nice air conditioned room for a few hours and gone out into the humid air. Result? One very fogged up lens. A few minutes later it was clear and I could take a few snaps. The grounds are nice, the view of the sea very good, and some quite cute little birds that look like minature pigeons and another that was hawk-shaped but was too fast for me to get a good look, other than it was brown with white flashes on the wings and a dark head.
My sponsor came to pick me up and take me to the hotel where the training is to be held. The accent took a little getting used to, but it's not every day you meet an Arab-New Zealander. We chatted, and got on fine. The room was also no problem - air conditioned (if a little humid, but nowhere near as bad as outside) and a good size. The kit was assembled, checked, and everything is fine, except for all the controllers I need to train them on. Sadly, they are stuck at customs and need easing out. And as it's Friday the chances of getting them out before training starts tomorrow are very slim.
Everything is checked, everything is tweaked. Manar suggests we break for lunch, and we head off to the Marina Mall. Like most buildings in Abu Dhabi it's newly opened. Like most buildings in Abu Dhabi, it's being rebuilt. The journey takes us along the corniche which is being rebuilt. The buildings lining the streets are stunning. "See that island over there?" she said, "That was the sea a year ago". Rather than building back into the dessert, the city is building into the waters. I notice as we drive around the footprint of buildings; nearly all new buildings have a much smaller footprint than the building they support - much smaller. THe architecture is quite beautiful - it makes you wonder quite what could be achieved if the same vision and risk-taking applied in the UK. Sadly, it seems The Gerkin was a building too far for us, which is a real shame as the buildings that are here show what can be done with stone, glass, steel and other modern materials. I'm sure that the buildings we recognise as traditional today were wacky races when they were built, which begs the question what will we leave behind for our future heritage? In Abu Dhabi the buildings only survive a few years before they are ripped down and rebuilt, the same doesn't usually apply in the UK so the risk taking seems massively reduced.
Refreshed from lunch, I was dropped off at the hotel for a rest before starting work again. Already I've managed to break by room key - lesson one, don't keep your mag stripe room key in your pocket when it's sticky and hot outside, as the magnetic stripe unsticks from the card...
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