A working week and a quiet weekend

After John's hectic schedule and stresses over the last couple of weeks he was pretty exhausted by the weekend and for me it's been the closest thing to a 'proper' working week since I got here with being at college, going on school visits and having meetings.
So we were pretty glad to have a quiet weekend at home, especially since next weekend it looks like J will be on MIT duty again as the President of MIT is visiting Abu Dhabi.
We lazed around at home reading the paper and watching TV. There have been some really thought provoking films on recently - never heard of them but one in particular 'Crossing Over', about different experiences of trying to achieve citizenship in the US, was very interesting. Our neighbour Helen joined us for supper on Friday night but otherwise we stayed anti social after so much activity over the last couple of weeks.
We had a run to Spinney's to stock up on the wine supplies which nearly ended in disaster when J dropped the precious liquor licence out of his pocket when getting into the car! We went back to look for it and luckily the guy who had found it had not yet driven away to hand it in or do whatever one does with lost liquor licences so we got it back - quite a relief. He looked nothing like John so I think he's have had a hard time passing himself off as Dr John Perkins.
On Saturday night we took a half hour stroll along the sea front and went for dinner at 'Amalfi', our favourite Italian at the Royal Meridien. This time we sat by the pool outside and it was just heavenly. It felt just like being on holiday - apart from on Sunday morning we had to get up and go to work! Still I'm not complaining - how amazing to wander along by the sea on a beautiful evening and eat dinner by the pool - in mid November!
Into the working week again and last night we attended a lecture on CO2 given by NYU Abu Dhabi which was really interesting and well put together. Not only that it was very well attended and took place inside the Al Mamoura building (home of Mubadala which is a very powerful organisation round here) which I'd been keen to see inside. I work across from there and J did his Board of Trustees meeting there so it was great to actually make it inside. It's every bit as impressive as it looks from the outside, complete with internal glass atrium with Formula One cars! We met the Provost of NYU who is delightful as well as being helpful to meet as I would love to work for them at some stage.
Today J went to the Dubai Air Show to meet a VP from Boeing - that I would also have loved to see but, unlike air shows in the UK, it isn't open to the general public. I went to meet Mark Rix again, from 7Days and ex MEN so a friendly face from home. This time to talk business as I'd like to use 7Days for the college. We met at the Alraha Beach hotel, outside the city and then I went on to a meeting at Masdar city with a consultant I've been trying to hook up with. Its my furthest foray in the car so I felt very pleased with myself for finding my way around. I did have a bit of a fun time at Masdar as the police had closed the road to the airport so they weren't letting anyone out. The security guy on the gate was directing everyone to another gate but forgot to tell the other security people so we ended up drving round the building site for some time. It gave me a great few of the Masdar Institute building, which i haven't seen since it was steel posts in the ground in March. It looks like it's going to be amazing and hopefully they'll start to move in early next year with an official opening in September. I was jolly glad of the 4x4 off road vehicle as much of this trek involved sandpits and unmade road. Not something I'd have been happy to tackle in the BMW. Once I'd done a tour round they did manage to direct me to the other gate but I was then on the wrong road into Abu Dhabi and desperate for petrol so it was a nail biting journey back to civilisation and a petrol station. Still a good way to test the car and my driving ability!