Love and Hate relationship

Love or Hate relationship

After nine months of living in Abu Dhabi I’ve decided that I have a love/hate relationship with the city.  This discovery came about as I cruised home in a taxi last night from a trip to Al Whada Mall.

Exiting the mall, I find the usual queue of around 50 people waiting for taxis.  I hate that.  But I love the fact that after 10 minutes in the queue it’s my turn to get my groceries loaded into the boot by the trolley boy (who is ancient) and head off home.  My tip of 2 dirham will keep him in water for a day (1 dirham per small bottle or 1.50 for a 1.5 litre).

I love the relaxed way of the Philipino people like the couple who were in the taxi queue behind me and the way she rested herself by leaning on my trolley while waiting.  I hate the way these people are treated as second class citizens by the locals.  Still I suppose it’s better than being third or fourth class!

I love the fact that most children here want for nothing and are indulged.  I hate the fact that they are spoiled little brats for the most part.  While waiting to pay for my groceries in the Lulu Hyperstore at Al Whada, three children came up to the queue with a container of watermelon each.  They were with their maid (Philipino).  The elder of the three, a girl of around 11-14 years promptly tried to jump the queue in our line but wasn’t able to.  So she dumps her purchases on the maid then stomps off.  I’m not sure what happened but next thing the girl and her younger sister, around 7 or 8 years, try the next checkout, only to be rebuffed again.  Next thing I see them in a third checkout just waltzing up to the checkout guy and jumping the long line.  I was very pleased to see the woman who was being served at the time go nuts at the man about to serve them.  But these girls just ignored it all and didn’t budge so got served next.  I hate the way all the expats (mostly Indian, Syrian, & Lebanese in this queue) allow this to happen.  It’s a bit like our job, you keep your head down and don’t cause any trouble because the threat of a plane ticket home is very real.

I love the fact that I wake up to an amazing view of the city each morning.  I never thought I’d enjoy living in a city but I am still astounded by my good fortune in being here.  I hate the fact that it takes an age to get the lift down to work each morning.  You never know if you’ll be on time or 5 minutes late.  It may take 1 minute to arrive on my floor or it may take 5!  Someday’s it’s only you in the lift and you go straight down, others you stop on 10 floors on the way down.  I meet another woman from work in the foyer and share a taxi in around 7.10am daily.  I’m lucky to normally get a ride home with one of the others who live here and work with me.

I love the fact that you can just decide to go out for a meal at the last minute and find an inexpensive hotel or restaurant.  A kiwi friend has her 2^nd son over for a visit so we headed off down to the Captains Arms pub in the Le Meridian complex, mid week.  It ended up with around 7 kiwis having a drink then we had a meal there.  For around 130 ($43) dirhams I got a pub meal and three alcoholic beverages.  Drinks during happy hour are around 20 dirhams ($7 NZ) for a beer or wine.  Happy hour lasts for about 6 hours so lots of happy people.  I hate the way many here could never afford to pay that and live on next to nothing, sending most of their earnings home to their families in another country.

I love the fact that I have family here and am so pleased that I brought my son with me.  You need to work at extending that family by developing strong relationships with your own circle of friends as they become your family here.  I hate the fact that everyone is transient and can leave at any minute.  I’ve already had two friends leave, one couple back to NZ, and one guy who came in with us did a runner back to the States last week.  Much to our surprise!  He hadn’t informed anyone and emailed a friend once he arrived back in the USA. Perhaps he flew home to vote?

I love the fact that transport is so cheap here.  Buses have increased from 1 dirham to 2 dirhams while taxis remain the same.  My taxi to work costs 12.50 dirhams, around $4.25 NZ, which I pay half daily.  So much cheaper than a car.  I hate the way that the taxis had a 20 dirham flagfall during the Formula 1 to take advantage of all the wealthy people attending.  I love the way the Sheikh paid all the taxi drivers an additional 1250 dirhams to be on call during the four days so that there was never any shortage of taxis to catch back into town.  I hate the way there were no shuttle buses back into the city for us to catch so we had no choice but to use the taxis.

I love the way that the Al Whada Mall, which was huge by my standards, has now doubled in size seemingly overnight.  An extension has opened which I wandered aimlessly around last night.  It is so large that I had to keep stopping and looking down over the endless line of escalators to get my bearings.  The shops just seemed to go on and on and on.  I hate the way the salesgirl followed me in one shop, as if I was going to steal something.

I love the way that there is so much entertainment to choose from.  I hate the way that it all falls on the same weekend so that I have to make a choice.  The Jacksons (Michael’s 4 brothers) are playing at the end of November on a four day weekend.  But it’s the same weekend as the Dubai 7s.  It’s also the same weekend that we are able to getaway for one of the many short breaks offered by the airlines to a foreign destination like Sri Lanka, Kenya, or Jordan.

I love the way the teenager has made friends from many different nationalities.  I ‘hate’ the way the birthday party he attended last night was at the Rocco Forte Hotel in the Presidential Suite!   

All in all Abu Dhabi presents many different facets of life.  It’s a case of seizing the moment and doing as much as my income will allow me to do in the time I have here.