Back in Abu Dhabi

Back to our life in Abu Dhabi, though John doesn't have a moment to get used to the time difference or the temperature as he flies out to Boston tomorrow morning - still think of those Etihad air miles he's clocking up! He certainly got straight back into it with loads of meetings to catch up on in between the international jet setting.
As a special welcome back present Etisalat turned up yesterday, completely unannounced, to connect the wireless broadband. It feel like a huge step forward in getting settled and it means I can now sit comfortably in the lounge to blog rather than squashed in a corner of the bedroom. In the end, hopefully, everything will get sorted. No news on the credit cards but hey!
It's a busy week for me too and not just with getting the laundry sorted and adequate food supplies in, though I do plan to do a bit more work on the apartment. Mum gave me some lovely prints of Yorkshire for my birthday which I'd like to get framed and hung and some general bits and pieces to improve the aesthetics. Hopefully we will also have our first visitor at the end of the month as Keith, who was John's witness at the wedding, is planning a trip to this part of the world. This should give me renewed vigour in the furniture buying department to get the spare room kitted out. Plus, now that I have an internet connection I need an office!
Today I went to a women's networking group lunch at the Beach Rotana which was lovely. Everyone is so very friendly round here so once again I met lots of new people. Amazing women with careers, jobs, experience and even entrepreneurs running their own businesses out here. It is very humbing to see how much other women can do and should spur me on to make something happen in my own professional life. A fabulous guy from a Dubai PR company gave an exciting speech about social networking - nothing new for me there, though he has persuaded me to give twitter another look - I've always found it a bit intrusive but I can see how relevant it is in a blackberry world with permanent on line networking. Perhaps I'll link my blog to twitter rather than sticking with linked in.
Tomorrow I'm going to Dubai for the long awaited meeting with the Minister for Knowledge and People Development, which is a bit scary but should be interesting. Then on Wednesday I have a second interview with the mysterious firm that I had a first interview with a few weeks ago. They seem to have moved offices but still can't furnish much information or a job description - still we'll see how it goes. I've also had word that the university where I went for the interview might be interested in using me and work to do some freelance on their marketing literature, whilst they make up their minds on the permanent job front, so plenty of interesting things going on.
There are two more networking events and a speculative meeting with a consultant over the next week so I hope to have something to report very soon and my experiences won't just be about bathplugs and internet connections!
Bad news on the beach front though - the actual beach bit is still not going to be finished for till November so no free access to the sea at present. This is a real shame for those of us who live so close to the sea, as the weather is simply peachy now (sorry to everyone reading this in Manchester and other northern climes). It is still hot and sunny but now feels lovely with a pleasant breeze and a temperature in the late 30's. I promise not to mention the weather too often in the coming months but there needs to be some compensation for not being able to pop to Tesco's for a bottle of Pinot Grigio!