Being here brings a new meaning to TGIF (Thank Goodness it's Friday). As it is the holy day everything is shut until late afternoon except the malls which still open at the normal time of 10am.
Yesterday I took part in what has become nearly a ritual here in Abu Dhabi for Westerners, Friday Brunch. All the major hotels have them and my friends from the Western Region booked for us at 'Le Meridian' hotel down on the Corniche. She thought it was fitting as that was where we had our first drink when we arrived, in fact our first outing in the new city.
The hotel itself is amazing and has a very popular pool with its own beach. So we're sitting outside on the veranda having our lovely food while women in bikinis and men in speedos (yes speedos) swan around a few metres away. There was a steady stream of families and holiday makers heading to the pool and beach. No worries about skin cancer here! Also no money worries for the majority of people here. And we're not talking Emirate.
The brunch runs from 12noon to 4pm and we arrived in taxi at 12.30pm to meet up with our other friends, all from our original group. There were six of us, including us four kiwis. Our close knit group of us three originals has been swelled by the addition of another kiwi who works here and was in our group but already lived and taught overseas so met us here.
Like most things here, the hotel is luxurious and sitting in the cool foyer would be a very pleasant way to spend a day, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. You'd also get to meet an interesting class of people there.
The food looked amazing and was a vast spread of delicious and tempting dishes, artfully displayed to tempt the palate. You can choose to have drinks (alcohol) or juices. We all chose not to drink as we had a full day ahead.
There were ten freshly squeezed juices available including fruit smoothies. Talk about spoilt for choice. The yoghurt was artfully presented in small glasses with a variety of fresh fruit on top. Everything is labeled so you know exactly what you are choosing. It also probably stops the staff from being asked 50 times, "What flavour is this?"
Another unit held fresh fruit. You could chose from either the already prepared fruit salad or take a selection of sliced fruit. I had chunks of pineapple and watermelon, passionfruit presented as halves, grapes, and a new fruit that I've seen but not tried before. It has a bright pink skin and the flesh is white dotted with small black seeds. A bit like a kiwifruit seeed. It is called ' Dragon fruit' and is an Indonesian fruit. It tasted nice so now I can buy it in the supermarket.
Then there was the cold buffet. This included cold smoked fish & salmon, with the best variety of salads I've seen here. I feasted on coleslaw, red cabbage salad, lettuce, greek salad and potato salad.
The hot buffet included your traditional breakfast dishes such as grilled tomatoes, fried fish, chicken, small sausages, hash browns, veal bacon (remember you can't get pork here) and omelettes cooked to order.
The bread table had about 15 different breads on it along with butter in a round roll which you sliced yours from or margarine in the tiny containers. I tried a green bread, probably pistachio, a fruit bread and I also had a ginger gem with real butter! I haven't had either of those in a while.
The desert counter was laden with tempting morsels all beautifully layered and decorated. I tried my favourtie, cream brulee, along with another custardy pudding flavoured with pistachio and a small slice of one of the desserts.
Tea and coffee and water were brought to our table while we dined. To finish there was a selection of cheeses but nothing to eat with them so that is when I tried the green bread.
This four hour food fest cost us 127AED which, while moderately expensive here, was value for money. In NZ around $45 so good value really.
You can often pick up coupons for brunch at reduced rates and there is currently one available for 70AED so I will grab a couple of them for next time.
After this I walked along to the Abu Dhabi Mall with my friends, the boys deserted us at this time for manly things, while two of us we went to the hairdresser in the Rotana Hotel which is part of the mall. It looked expensive and the women leaving had the most elaborate hairdoes (red carpet looks). My friend had an appointment so I asked if they could fit me in for a cut. Yes, so I sat to wait. While they were colouring her hair I decided to see if they could do mine and Yes again. So I managed to get a colour, cut and blow dry for 500AED. One guy did the colour and he was brilliant. He looked at our hair and chose a very natural colour for both of us. Even though the English was limited you felt in safe hands. He sure knew his stuff. Then another man took over for the cut. He whizzed through our hair in about five minutes a piece with the quickest cutting I've ever seen. Very European and very professional. Then for the blowdry which the most time was spent on. We both came out looking like filmstars and felt we should have had a room with a frock to slip into then head out somewhere stylish.
Instead the concierge hailed a cab and we headed to another mall to get nails done. I'd had another coupon and got a manicure, pedicure and 15min neck massage for 59AED during the week so I didn't need mine doing. While my friend had hers done I went for an hour long massage with a Thai girl at my beauty spa. That's where I got my face threaded! Talk about not knowing what I was letting myself in for. Me of no beauty treatments back home, now I'm having regular trips to the various places for this or that.
After a good long browse at Marks & Spencers, The Body Shop and all my favourite shops in this tiny mall it was a taxi ride home. We were stuffed, probably due to all that food we ate! Lucky that I'd spent an hour or so in the gym that morning then had an early swim.
Today I have to do mundane tasks like clean the apartment and actually do some school work ready for my performance appraisal by the Principal this week. As I've mentioned previously, and I'm sure I will again, the paperwork here is unbelievable. I have to have an evidence folder documenting the various appraisal outcomes in case they aren't observed during the classroom observation. What a way to spend my weekend!
But I'll do it as I don't want to get caned! Not like the two girls I sent out last week. I've also had my first, and again it won't be the last, experience of the reaction from the students when they don't get an A or B on their report card. The previous teacher wasn't kind to them when she did their reports and I got the flack for it as my name was on the report card. The response was crazy and I had to call in the Vice Principal to defuse the situation and explain it wasn't me who wrote them. I wasn't prepared to take the blame for that mess up! And these are only 10 & 11 year olds! Never a dull moment here.
Yesterday I took part in what has become nearly a ritual here in Abu Dhabi for Westerners, Friday Brunch. All the major hotels have them and my friends from the Western Region booked for us at 'Le Meridian' hotel down on the Corniche. She thought it was fitting as that was where we had our first drink when we arrived, in fact our first outing in the new city.
The hotel itself is amazing and has a very popular pool with its own beach. So we're sitting outside on the veranda having our lovely food while women in bikinis and men in speedos (yes speedos) swan around a few metres away. There was a steady stream of families and holiday makers heading to the pool and beach. No worries about skin cancer here! Also no money worries for the majority of people here. And we're not talking Emirate.
The brunch runs from 12noon to 4pm and we arrived in taxi at 12.30pm to meet up with our other friends, all from our original group. There were six of us, including us four kiwis. Our close knit group of us three originals has been swelled by the addition of another kiwi who works here and was in our group but already lived and taught overseas so met us here.
Like most things here, the hotel is luxurious and sitting in the cool foyer would be a very pleasant way to spend a day, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. You'd also get to meet an interesting class of people there.
The food looked amazing and was a vast spread of delicious and tempting dishes, artfully displayed to tempt the palate. You can choose to have drinks (alcohol) or juices. We all chose not to drink as we had a full day ahead.
There were ten freshly squeezed juices available including fruit smoothies. Talk about spoilt for choice. The yoghurt was artfully presented in small glasses with a variety of fresh fruit on top. Everything is labeled so you know exactly what you are choosing. It also probably stops the staff from being asked 50 times, "What flavour is this?"
Another unit held fresh fruit. You could chose from either the already prepared fruit salad or take a selection of sliced fruit. I had chunks of pineapple and watermelon, passionfruit presented as halves, grapes, and a new fruit that I've seen but not tried before. It has a bright pink skin and the flesh is white dotted with small black seeds. A bit like a kiwifruit seeed. It is called ' Dragon fruit' and is an Indonesian fruit. It tasted nice so now I can buy it in the supermarket.
Then there was the cold buffet. This included cold smoked fish & salmon, with the best variety of salads I've seen here. I feasted on coleslaw, red cabbage salad, lettuce, greek salad and potato salad.
The hot buffet included your traditional breakfast dishes such as grilled tomatoes, fried fish, chicken, small sausages, hash browns, veal bacon (remember you can't get pork here) and omelettes cooked to order.
The bread table had about 15 different breads on it along with butter in a round roll which you sliced yours from or margarine in the tiny containers. I tried a green bread, probably pistachio, a fruit bread and I also had a ginger gem with real butter! I haven't had either of those in a while.
The desert counter was laden with tempting morsels all beautifully layered and decorated. I tried my favourtie, cream brulee, along with another custardy pudding flavoured with pistachio and a small slice of one of the desserts.
Tea and coffee and water were brought to our table while we dined. To finish there was a selection of cheeses but nothing to eat with them so that is when I tried the green bread.
This four hour food fest cost us 127AED which, while moderately expensive here, was value for money. In NZ around $45 so good value really.
You can often pick up coupons for brunch at reduced rates and there is currently one available for 70AED so I will grab a couple of them for next time.
After this I walked along to the Abu Dhabi Mall with my friends, the boys deserted us at this time for manly things, while two of us we went to the hairdresser in the Rotana Hotel which is part of the mall. It looked expensive and the women leaving had the most elaborate hairdoes (red carpet looks). My friend had an appointment so I asked if they could fit me in for a cut. Yes, so I sat to wait. While they were colouring her hair I decided to see if they could do mine and Yes again. So I managed to get a colour, cut and blow dry for 500AED. One guy did the colour and he was brilliant. He looked at our hair and chose a very natural colour for both of us. Even though the English was limited you felt in safe hands. He sure knew his stuff. Then another man took over for the cut. He whizzed through our hair in about five minutes a piece with the quickest cutting I've ever seen. Very European and very professional. Then for the blowdry which the most time was spent on. We both came out looking like filmstars and felt we should have had a room with a frock to slip into then head out somewhere stylish.
Instead the concierge hailed a cab and we headed to another mall to get nails done. I'd had another coupon and got a manicure, pedicure and 15min neck massage for 59AED during the week so I didn't need mine doing. While my friend had hers done I went for an hour long massage with a Thai girl at my beauty spa. That's where I got my face threaded! Talk about not knowing what I was letting myself in for. Me of no beauty treatments back home, now I'm having regular trips to the various places for this or that.
After a good long browse at Marks & Spencers, The Body Shop and all my favourite shops in this tiny mall it was a taxi ride home. We were stuffed, probably due to all that food we ate! Lucky that I'd spent an hour or so in the gym that morning then had an early swim.
Today I have to do mundane tasks like clean the apartment and actually do some school work ready for my performance appraisal by the Principal this week. As I've mentioned previously, and I'm sure I will again, the paperwork here is unbelievable. I have to have an evidence folder documenting the various appraisal outcomes in case they aren't observed during the classroom observation. What a way to spend my weekend!
But I'll do it as I don't want to get caned! Not like the two girls I sent out last week. I've also had my first, and again it won't be the last, experience of the reaction from the students when they don't get an A or B on their report card. The previous teacher wasn't kind to them when she did their reports and I got the flack for it as my name was on the report card. The response was crazy and I had to call in the Vice Principal to defuse the situation and explain it wasn't me who wrote them. I wasn't prepared to take the blame for that mess up! And these are only 10 & 11 year olds! Never a dull moment here.
What a fantastic way to spend the day! Eating and being pampered arrrahhh! So jealous! Good on you for making the most of all your fabulous opportunities!
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