Jenny Through the Looking Glass

I had hoped that arriving at the understanding that not only will nothing happen as you think it will but it could actually be the complete opposite of what you expected would be a great coping strategy but I'm afraid it doesn't always work. What may seem like a funny story afterwards can be pretty upsetting at the time! I mentioned last time about trying to get ahead of the game by ordering stands and flags which were not signed off due to a lack of any immediate need. What I didn't know was that my much missed colleague had gone one step further and actually ordered them. So sitting quietly lamenting the unsigned purchase order on my desk, one day a guy arrived with 26 of the most impressive pull up stands and 26 flags. My immediate problem was where to put them as we have no storage. This was easily solved, as our office was originally designed as a bedroom and therefore has a pallatial ensuite bathroom complete with bath and shower. Since I wasn't planning to take a bath during office hours any time soon (though on some days with the temperature over 40 and lots of running around it wouldn't be a bad idea!)the bath now holds most of the pull up stands and it makes a very good store. Even if someone inadvertently turned on a tap they are in waterproof coats so I think we'll be OK. Paying for them is going to be a bit more of a challenge so I'm going to have to start selling them off to the subsidiaries on a piece meal basis and persuade the supplier to hold the invoices till this happens. So if you know anyone who'd like a bath full of stands you know who to call.
We are the proud owners of a state of the art Mac with 27 inch screen and wireless keyboard as well as a matching laptop ready for when our new Graphic Designer joins though Fatima is a dab hand with the machine as well. Macs are really cool and we are the first people to get one so people actually pass by our office especially to see it - they totally ignore us so we are thinking of opening an outlook diary for it for viewing appointments. Because we are so ahead on this one IT have no idea what to do with a Mac so we can't link it to a printer or email just yet but it looks nice!
The Request for Proposal exercise has been an interesting one. I am clearly pathologically not suited to how things work here with my orderly British planning mind. Only two companies actually followed the instructions and filled in the pricing tables, several sent creative work even though I'd expressly asked them not too as I can't release SOC material until the contract is signed, one even completed the prices in US Dollars - the words 'all prices must be quoted in UAE Dirhams' must have passed them by so it was a nightmare to try and analyse and create a spreadsheet. We have always fought really hard not to include creative work with a tender as you don't have a proper brief and can't present it in person but that didn't stop companies trying to guess what Special Opps did, making up new logos and plastering pictures of planes across the ads! I've come up with a recommendation but whether anyone takes any notice of it I can't be sure or even whether a decision gets made at all. For now we seem to be producing ads and just about everything else ourselves which adds to the stresses of life.
We tested our two Graphic Design trainees and Fatima, Sumaya and I were all in agreement which was good. HR continue to look for more candidates to replace Nidal but I don't think they've understood the brief (or maybe they have different instructions from on high?!) Mostly they don't send anyone with much of a marketing background and today I got a Geologist who works in a Materials Science lab which is completely random. I think I might suggest we interview her just to hear what HR question her about!
The lunch for 700 never happened as the two merging companies couldn't agree on its importance. Hopefully they are better at working together in other areas! I also hardly dare hope that the 4 month saga over whether we should pay one of the subsidiaries major advertising agencies just might get resolved. I've been working away resolutely on this, providing analysis of other companies prices, talking to legal and generally trying to get the situation sorted without bloodshed. At time of writing it looks promising but I'm not holding my breath!
John and I have been trying to chill out as much as possible outside of work. We've got a bit anti social, preferring each others company to anyone else after the strains of work. But then we enjoy being with each other so why not? We've been trying to use our 'buy one meal get one free' from The Entertainer Guide (it's such a responsibility having a whole book full of money off coupons, I don't know how my father would ever have coped!) So we've had some lovely meals out at Indigo, the Indian at the Beach Rotana and our old favourite Vascos at The Hilton. We also went to Oceans at the Royal Meridien which had some great seafood though a noisy group of Masdar City folk. Finally, The Ghost, arrived in Abu Dhabi. We've both read the book recently and I'm always keen to see Ewan McGregor in anything. I was afraid it was going to pass us by but it was on in the VIP cinema at the Khalidya Mall. It cost about four times the regular price but we did get waiter service for the ice cream and fully reclinable airline seats for that! It doesn't make it any warmer though so I had my usual cinema kit of wrap, jumper and socks which were envied by one of the other cinema goers who thought they were part of the VIP offer! They love it really cold here. I know it's unbearably hot outside but that doesn't really mean I should have to bring a cardigan to work in order not to freeze inside. The car has decided to cope with the heat by not doing 'four' on the temperature gauge so once it gets over 40 degrees it goes back to 31. This way it can fool itself and me that it isn't so hot really.
We decided it's getting too hot for the beach - strange to have to come out of the sea after half an hour's swim because you're in danger of getting overheated rather than blue with cold! However, for the first time since we came here I have managed a bit of tan from our weekend beach jaunts which is going to fade. This weekend we've managed to take advantage of some great summer rates to return to the Shangri La where they chill the pool to a lovely cool temperature - imagine chilling a swimming pool not heating it.
I told you it was like Alice Though the Looking Glass with everything backwards to what you'd expect!