A busy time

Well the last few days have been particularly hectic - mainly for John though I've managed to keep myself busy too.
John spent Saturday working with the team on the presentation to the Board of Trustees at the Emirates Palace and not getting home till after 10pm. I believe all their hard work was worth while and it seemed to go well though the meeting itself was pretty chaotic, as things tend to be round here, with members of the Royal Family and other dignitaries dropping in and dropping out most of the time. John showed me the folder with the business plan and all the slides and handouts and it all looks amazing with lots of exciting projects and a clear set of goals and priorities.
Today he is at the MIT conference where he was participating and doing a presentation on the Masdar Institute.
Last night I was invited to join the MIT people for dinner at the Emirates Palace which was lovely. We ate at Sayad, the fish restaurant there and the food was amazing though the service was very slow. We had a very convivial evening and it was good to be a part of it. One of the Board of Trustees is also the Chairman of Man City but I don't think J was able to give him any advice!
I spent Saturday on the beach at the Hiltonia beach club which was lovely though not nearly so much fun on your own. However, it was amazing to be sitting on the beach in beautiful sunshine on a normal weekend in November and to swim in warm sea whilst enjoying a view of the city and the corniche. I shall definitely go back and take John to enjoy it too when he has a bit more time.
Today I went on school visits with Sarah, one of the recruitment team, which was fascinating. It was a delight of Emirati organisation with non of the schools seeming to expect us despite having received letters from the education zone and calls from the college to confirm! Mikes and projectors finally got organised after Sarah had started her presentations and pupils continued to arrive long after the session was underway. I couldn't do much apart from smile and look interested and enthusiastic as the presentations were in Arabic! However, we managed to gather 26 forms from interested girls so hopefully it was a worthwhile exercise. It was great to see inside the schools and in one case we watched most of a PE lesson since the presentations were in the gym. Funny to see Emirati girls in jeans and t shirts doing exercise, as there were no men present they did not have to wear Abayas. The girls were particularly impressed by my shoes and keen to know where I got them - perhaps I should bring some back from Manchester next time!
I have a desk and an office in college now as well as a laptop, but so far no network connection or phone, but I am making progress. I've started work on pulling a series of brochures together and bought a domain name www.teachuae.ae to create a more generic portal for their website. I enjoy spending time with the recruitment team who are friendly and invite me to share their lunch of flatbread with all kinds of delicious toppings. I wonder if just sitting with them as they chat away in Arabic will help me to learn the language but I doubt it somehow.
I hope that I will be able to add some value to their marketing activity as we have stiff recruitment targets to meet and very quickly. Paul, who is from the US and one of the professors, has also joined the team as we have been allowed to recruit from the private schools for the first time and he is making great headway in this area.
For the rest of this week John and I are both now involved in 'Manchester week' with two receptions to go to. I would love to get involved in helping to create links between the two cities that I call home, though I hope the Manchester people won't be too disappointed to come all this way and meet someone from Manchester!