Making professional progress

Last week I thought it was high time I started to think of ways of using my professional skills and experience before I bore everyone to tears with tales of Bisto, curtains and internet connections! I sent out some of the CV's that I've been preparing, to demonstrate my experience and background in a number of areas, to everyone in John's contact book who looked like they might be interested.
It has been a very produtive exercise and one that I hope will bear some fruit either in terms of consultancy or employment for me whilst I'm out here.
On Thursday I met up with the couple from the agency who do marketing for Masdar. I've very much admired the work which they did and it was fascinating to hear the background and to hear more about what it's like working out here (all sounds very familiar and similar to working with clients in the UK actually!) We swapped lots of notes and stories and ended up turning coffee into lunch - yes the Shangri La finds a way of catering at coffee and lunch time to those of us who aren't fasting! It was great to meet them and to talk about work for a change.
On Thursday afternoon I went to meet the Provost of one of the other universities and he actually does have a marketing role that he's looking to fill. He's very keen, though we're now struggling to find a date for a panel interview that fits in with Eid and our trip back to the UK. I also had to fill in a lot of scary forms and try and arrange some references in a bit of rush and I've yet to hear more about the important details of this role - like budget, team, objectives and salary package. Still it sounds promising.
I had a call this morning from an organisation who've been passed my CV by someone else - lot's of that goes on, and they've invited me for an interview tomorrow, though I've no idea what for at this stage, so I'm not going to be very well prepared.
About 3 other people are getting back to me with dates for initial meetings so I feel heartened that my experiences may have some value. I was beginning to wonder since I'm not an Emirati and I don't speak Arabic but all being well - Insha'Allah, then there may be something exciting for me to do.