The weekend

Thursday night we headed into town to the dreaded footpath area to the beer garden at the Le Meridian Hotel on the Corniche again. As it was the other two girls last night in town we had farewell cocktails. I had a volcanic something or other which consisted of gin, apple syrup & champagne in a beautiful fluted glass. We sat on beanbags overlooking the beach. Lochie came with us this time so the five of us had a pleasant evening leaving around 11.30pm.

 Friday afternoon most of our group went off to their new regions to begin work on Sunday Two buses arrived, a large one to take the crew to Al Ain, a small rumpty one with a luggage trailer to take the others out to the Western Regions/Al Garbia. Now there are only 12 of us left in the hotel so breakfast today was a quiet affair. The girls with us have gone to the Western Regions and are loving their new hotel in Mirfa. Much grander than here. One poor woman got to go in a car on her own to Liwa Hotel. She's emailed today and is feeling lonely.

So my goal it to extend my group of friends now that the other two girls have left.

Friday 4pm the boys had teed up a game of touch with another kiwi guy. So off we set on the bus with the plan to go as far as it went then catch a taxi out to the golf club by the airport (Al Ghazal Golf Club by the International Airport, not the Abu Dhabi Golf Club which is out that way also. I know as the taxi took us there!). 1 1/2hrs later we arrived, at least 1/2 hr late. Ummmmmmmm!

So we rock up there and I'm thinking I'm the only female as the one rugby field was full of men. I thought I'd probably be able to play as some looked fairly overweight and older. I sure wasn't getting a taxi back home so resigned myself to sitting down and reading my book in the corner somewhere like a rugby groupie. Who me??? Then I wandered around the corner to the grandstand all covered in shade cloth to find a small group of women all drinking cider. Naturally I forced myself to join them and had a great afternoon. So much for getting away from teachers as 1/2 them were! I've been invited to join the Sexy Saracens on Facebook... But haven't yet.

The club is the Saracen's Rugby Club which is mostly South Africans with a few kiwis thrown in. They had a Brii at the clubrooms (Sth African BBQ) and had NZ rugby on the big screen, Crusaders vs Blues, so I felt quite at home. Heinekein on tap also. What more can I say? Some things never change.

We got dropped back into town later that evening by a kiwi guy and I think that'll be who the boys play for next year. Most welcoming and we made some good contacts for Lochie and his schooling, plus he got to mix with some girls his age.

I begin work tomorrow at 8am by meeting with my HOF (head of faculty) next door at the ADEC headquarters then hopefully she will take me to my new school. Soon I'm heading to the malls to get some last minute clothing for work. Yesterday I put on a sleevless top to wear and felt half naked and changed it. I've adapted very quickly especially when you use the bus, you want to be covered up. So I'm not yet sure on the dress code at my school but have bought a long, trailing on the ground, skirt to wear. My long skirts from home are way too short over here. Plus my cover up tops show too much neckline so our version of cover up is way less than here.

The weather is nice, we can walk around and it's okay to stand out & wait for the bus. I love waking up to the view from my room, usually at the call to prayers but have been sleeping through it a few mornings already.

Here is the view from the beer garden.