Palace of Mirages (Qasr Al Sarab)

The pictures can't really do justice to how beautiful and restful this place is but here we are enjoying the desert and having a wonderful weekend.

An amazing weekend in the desert

On Thursday after work we took the trip out into the desert to Qasr Al Sarab (Palace of Mirages). This is a new desert resort which only opened in the Autumn but looked amazing and a great way to experience the desert in luxury. I bought the trip as a surprise Christmas present for John as I knew he'd be ready for a break after the rigours of the WFES.
Once we'd got off the main road we just headed for 150km into nowhere on one long straight road. Gradually the sand started to look more picturesque and less like dust and John saw some camels over in the distance. We saw several camels riding happily in the back of trucks on the way out of Abu Dhabi, heading for the camel beauty contest at the Al Dhafra Festival. Criteria for a beauty in camel terms involves having good teeth, pointy ears and uniformity of hump in case you were wondering!
The last 12km was amazing - a vaguely metalled track through the desert, off even the main road and up and down a range of dunes. It was very exciting and I was very happy to be in the Jeep and not the BMW. We arrived after what seemed to me behing the wheel, an epic journey, but was in fact just over 2 hours from Abu Dhabi.
We had a beautiful room, with a bath big enough for about 5 people as well as a walk in shower, a huge bed and a picture window overlooking the biggest sand dune and valley. But most amazing was the outside terrace which was as big as the room with all kinds of different seating arrangements and great views. It was so calm and peaceful after the city and so lovely to look at. Time seemed to stand still, though sadly it did get to be time to come home long before we were ready.
We ate in the rooftop restaurant, though inside on the first night, as it was a bit windy. On the second night we were able to eat outside, listening to the silence and the lights twinkling in the dark - it's a bit like being on the edge of a very calm sea, being so close to the desert. The food was magnificent and we enjoyed some delicious Rhone wine.
After a long walk round the hotel, which is really a small village with Center Parc type villas, with their own little pools as well as the balcony and terrace rooms, and a climb up one of the smaller dunes, we settled ourselves around the pool. The water was lovely and warm and even hot in the jacuzzi. It was warm enough to sit in the sun and we had a lovely chill out. Later on I joined the people heading up the largest dune to watch the sun set - amazing to see nothing but desert for miles around. Climbing the dune was hard work but worth the effort and it felt great to run back down in bare feet.
I am going to bring all visitors to Abu Dhabi out here to see this for themselves - imagine having this on your doorstep?! However, unlike the lake district, which is a similar distance for a weekend break from Manchester, I would never tire of the view from Bramrigg House, but I think the sand would start to get a bit wearing if you had to look at it every day!
Anyway we headed back to the city on Saturday, fired up for another week at work. We were excited by the news that Mum and her friend Jo are planning a trip to Abu Dhabi which fired us up to go and look for some more furniture for the apartment. I rather ran out of steam after I'd got most things sorted so the time feels right for a few more furniture shops. We didn't find anything but I am sure we will when we are not so spaced out by our amazing trip to the desert.

WFES in pictures

Here are some pictures of the exhibition at the WFES - Masdar Institute's stand - featuring Hamza and Matteo as John was too busy with VIPs to be around for a photo when I was there I'm afraid. However, it does look amazing with all the experiments and videos going on. Also a picture of the Wordsearch team with their much smaller, but still beautifully done, stand and one of the prize giving for the Zayed Future Energy Prize.

Finding the path through the trees at last

I realise with all the talk of the WFES I didn't really get chance to talk about what I've been doing but it was pretty all consuming! Last weekend we didn't really get the time off as John presented to the UN Climate Change committee who were meeting at the Emirates Palace on Friday. It seemed to go well and as the official driver I had a few hours to hang around the EP. Never a great hardship as they do nice tea and it's a good people watching opportunity - on Friday a huge cruise ship was visiting so the passengers were wandering around before having afternoon tea. I had a leisurely look at the Guggenheim exhibition which has Cezanne, Gaughin, Seurat and Kandinsky and its a treat to look at the paintings without a crowd. On Saturday John copped for an ADEC workshop to discuss the future of technical education in Abu Dhabi which was tough on him after the week he'd had. I went for a long run on the Corniche which was hard on the legs as I haven't been out since Christmas but it is a very picturesque route by the beach.
Thursday night we went to a supper at the Masdar Institute to celebrate the end of the summit which was lovely. We ate outside and it was a pleasant evening and a super atmosphere. Some of the younger faculty had brought their children who were running around enjoying the attention and it has a really nice family feel to it. I think the MI people are great - so passionate about what they do which creates a sense of common purpose in a challenging situation and the culture is really strong.
This week I really feel like I'm starting to get somewhere at work. I've met senior people at nearly all the subsidiary companies now and heard about their needs and hopes for marketing. I've also met the people doing marketing around the place and I can see the beginnings of a really nice community which could grow into an inhouse communications consultancy.
I went twice to Dubai for the Arab Health Congress, where two of our companies were exhibiting and met some of my colleagues from Maidis and Global Medical Solutions and had chance to talk to them and hear more about their work. Driving to Dubai was a first and I was very proud of myself to manage it without incident. Arab Health is a huge event and we had an amazing stand. I also went out to Al Shahama again to meet the Youth Development division of Al Shaheen. The guy who runs it, Phil, is quite amazing and what they are doing in schools, using military style training to instil confidence, leadership and teamwork in Emirati school children is awesome. I am really looking forward to working with them on communicating the benefits of the program more widely. I met with C4AS who do ICT for a wide range of applications and who also have huge ambitions to grow their business.
One thing is very clear, that the ability to write well in English is going to be a very useful skill and people are really delighted to hear that I like to write. I wasn't really sure, since I don't speak Arabic, how good the English would be. However it does seem to be a valuable asset.
I am enjoying working with Nidal, who has been doing marketing here for a while, she knows so much about things that I've never really been involved with, like actually creating exhibtion stands and dealing with the detail of creating completely new corporate ID.
Next week there is a big recruitment event in Abu Dhabi so I've been madly writing recruitment brochures for several of our companies - something I do know about and which comes easily so that has been great fun. Next week I'm due to start on another range of HR comms material - the staff handbook and employee newsletter so it feels like familiar territory.
I'm making real progress with my development plan though I haven't yet installed the new software that I'm supposed to be using! I didn't get to meet with Mr. Obaid this week so I'm hoping to impress him with the plan when I see him next week. Last week he did let me know that he was pleased with the progress so far so I hope that he'll like what I've been doing - always tricky to know with a new boss!
After a busy week and a lot of driving it's starting to feel more like the old days and I'm looking forward to taking a break at the weekend - I'm sure John is looking forward to a rest even more! We are off to Liwa, out in the desert, to stay in a new hotel out there which should be lovely. Could do with some peace and quiet as last night, at 1am they decided to deliver half of a new building across the street from our bedroom. This involved several hours of heavy lifting from a huge crane so it was pretty difficult to sleep. I guess they chose 1am so the traffic would be quiet rather than thinking about all the people trying to get some sleep!
Never a dull moment in Abu Dhabi - even in the early hours of the morning.

World Future Energy Summit Part Two!

John has certainly been meeting the great and the good of the world where future energy is concerned. I think he has had meetings during the summit with the Presidents of Greece, the Maldives and Estonia as well as the Crown Prince of Denmark and Prince Albert of Monaco. He finally met the UAE Crown Prince who made at least two visits to the actual summit and came along to talk to the Young Future Energy Leaders which is a complementary program run by the Masdar Institute. There were probably many more but it got a little bit hard to keep up at the week has progressed! He has also been giving presentations and speeches, though I think tomorrow is the big one, when he presents to the UN Climate Change Committee at the Emirates Palace. I had hoped he would get at least one day off before going back to the reality of daily work but he has also been asked to sit on a committee looking at the overall future of education in Abu Dhabi and guess what? They suddenly decided that the committee should meet - all day Saturday. I can't imagine that happening at quite such short notice in the UK! The expectation round here is definitely that the expats are here to work, not to experience the Emiratis lifestyle. Not just John, but most of our friends, seem to work with great frequency at weekends, late nights, early mornings and undertake lots of travel. The slower pace people talk about and the importance of family life is not one the expat community can really join in with. I am assured that it will be the same for me once I get my feet properly under the table and into the many tasks ahead.
We did have a very enjoyable treat as part of WFES though. Last night we went out for dinner with one of the speakers, Nigel Brandon from Imperial, who is a former colleague of John's. We had a lovely evening with him and his wife Jan and took them to Al Fanar, the revolving restaurant at the top of the Royal Meridien, so that they could see Abu Dhabi by night. It has to be the best view in the city. I've only been in the summer when it isn't nearly as clear. It was a slightly unfortunate choice of venue on my part though, as it turned out there was a dinner going on at the hotel which John should have received an invite to but somehow didn't so we met a lot of his colleagues and I think the organisers were a little embarrassed! Database management and planning is not really top of the agenda in the UAE though I'm working on it from my small part. Even more nightmare planning as it turned out I'd erred on the side of caution and booked the restaurant too early (over a week ago). Clearly no-one does this and they didn't have my booking on the computer and my phone doesn't keep text messages for long so I couldn't even show them the confirmation. Luckily they were far from full so after a wobbly few minutes we did get let in. We also had to walk as the summit had clearly used up all the available cabs and although I rang at 6 I was told to call back at 7 and when I did that there were surprisingly none available! John had nobly given his driver the night off as he has been doing a lot of running around. However, it was a lovely evening so apart from slightly eccentric hair (on my part) we got there on time and in one piece!
I expect they'll be a part three on WFES and there are certainly some photos to add when I get the use of John's laptop over the weekend so don't go away if you're interested in this amazing event and its impact on our lives!

World Future Energy Summit Abu Dhabi

This week the event that everyone has been preparing for and anticipating for so long finally arrived and its certainly been a manic week for John. A chance to showcase his work and the Masdar Institute to the world. It was due to start for us on Saturday with a vist to the exhibition to see what the stand would look like but, like all these things the world over it wasn't ready on Saturday! So after we'd hung around waiting for most of the day we realised that we did have some time to ourselves and went out for a lovely stroll in the sunshine along the Corniche.
Sunday morning John had a breakfast meeting so we got up especially early (despite the fact that we have four bathrooms we just share the one and manage our mornings around it!) And I was in excellent time for work. Somehow John's driver didn't know about the early start so we needn't have rushed and poor John had to start off this stressful week by standing on the street. After this meeting he went to lead the press conference at the Emirates Palace to launch the Boeing Biofuels project. Over 100 journalists were present and it certainly made all the papers (National, Gulf News, Khaleej Times) and the radio over here. I'll try and create some links as there was also a supplement in The National featuring a photo of John in front of the new campus wearing the obligatory hard hat!
I went down to look at the exhibition on Monday morning and admire the Masdar and Masdar Institute stands which were huge and very impressive. MI had created mini labs in the back of the stand where they were demonstrating live work and ongoing research which really added to the usual displays. They also had a big part of the Masdar main stand with videos of John talking about the project. I didn't have the right level of VIP access to attend the opening ceremony so amused myself by taking a good look at the rest of the exhibitors and talking to John's people, who are all so very passionate and enthusiastic about their Institute its wonderful to talk to them. I was also able to admire the Wordsearch stand - rather smaller than Masdar but still perfect and talk to my friends there. They were hoping for a name check by Ed Milliband about UK companies setting up successfully in Abu Dhabi but I never got to see Ed so I don't know if it happened!
John went to a big do at the British Embassy in the evening and I was very sore about not getting an invite, especially when he finally arrived back just before midnight and told me about so many of my Abu Dhabi friends who were there! I must work harder to get myself known as a Brit working in Abu Dhabi and stop being an invisible wife!
Tuesday was the Zayed Future Energy prize giving ceremony and thanks to John's PA, who nobly gave me her ticket I was able to go along. Not such a jolly do as the Embassy but infinitely better for my soul and to get to the heart of what Future Energy is all about. Being Brits we were told to turn up at 7pm and so arrived at 6.45pm to avoid being late but of course it didn't really start till 8pm! Must try to remember about Arab time but I don't think I'll ever really break the habits of a lifetime. Once they'd got themselves organised and managed to find everyone a seat (they had some elaborate ticketing system with hand held scanners but it didn't work due to the people who turned up not being the people they were expecting! However, since even John's invite said he was from the Higher Colleges of Technology it was hardly surprising!) it got started.
The prize giving itself was wonderful - moving speeches and interesting videos about last year's winner (who we met) and this year's short list. Last year's winner was amazing - he'd set up a scheme to train women in Bangladesh to fit solar panels to individual dwellings - bringing electricity to people for the first time. Watching these women bringing the solar panels by bicycle then up on the roof fitting them and then watching the faces of the families when the lights were turned on for the first time was truly awesome. What amazing people there are in the world.
This year's prize was won by Toyota in recognition of the huge strides they are making in car technology. Totally different and a really good move to recognise a huge global company in contrast to last year. The Japanese guys from Toyota who were there were also inspiring and clearly love what they are doing. Hopefully the publicity generated by Toyota will also help to put the prize on the map and generate even more interest for future years. They had nearly 700 nominations so perhaps they will start to create categories as well, which would be good, to recognise different kinds of contributions. It must be really difficult to judge but then the panel is a very auspicious one so I expect they manage. It would also have been nice to hear more about the long listed entries.
The prize was given by the Crown Prince which was also fantastic, since, although the Sheikh's pictures adorn every workplace and public building, I'd never seen him in real life.
By the time it was finished it was late and I was starving so we looked at the hordes heading in for the dinner and decided to head for home and a quick supper there. I was really privileged to have been able to go along.

success for ECAE

Although I've moved onto my new role I still like to keep a close eye on what's happening at ECAE and I was thrilled to hear that so far they've received 500 completed applications with 40% of those being from Emiratis. Perhaps in some small way I managed to help change the perception of teaching as a career out here and to encourage a new generation to look at becoming teachers. I'd like to share some of the ads with you but haven't worked out how to upload a PDF yet. However, here are some pictures of my successful venture into PR with the Kitab Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony.
Not to forget the people behind the scenes who didn't make it into the press but did a lot of the work. Irum, the Marketing Manager for Kitab, Marina, Exec Assistant to Dr Haslam and yours truly!

Christmas in pictures

Finally some pictures of our wonderful Christmas break in the UK. I'm afraid I was mainly too busy enjoying myself and taking daily champagne to remember to take many photos. However here are some pictures of a lovely Skipton in the snow (a white Christmas for the first time in ages), my carefully designed Christmas table with bits and pieces which has travelled over 3000 miles to take part and John with his Mum at Ashdown Park hotel.

Getting better at blogging

I've been reading in Time Out about how to be a good blogger and I'm afraid it would seem I'm not very good at it. I'm not doing anything to link my blog or to make it more accessible to people who might be interested so I'm going to have to take some time to try and work that one out. I'm also writing far too much in each post so I apologise now for boring the pants off those of you who bother to read it - I'm afraid I've always been a bit verbose!
I am also sorry that there haven't been any pics for a week or two. Owing to a dead laptop and no new one yet from EAI I'm having to post in the office after work and I haven't yet persuaded the PC to talk to the camera - however some pics will be on their way soon, though rather late to catch up with the words.
Anyway thank you to those of you prepared to put up with my ineptitude - I'm very grateful and I'll work on making it more interesting as I get better at it!

One week in and getting there

I've now been in my new job and back in Abu Dhabi for just over a week and I'm starting to make some progress. It felt a bit disjointed just being back here and quite hard to settle back in. I felt like I missed the UK more than I'd expected to and it certainly felt like those awkward early days in January, which are always a difficult time after the excitment of Christmas. It's funny because I didn't experience the Christmas build up nearly as much as you would in the UK, despite the Christmas displays in the shops and the events. Not being a holiday here or having a big close down just didn't create that feeling of anticipation. However, January still feels a bit flat. I can't blame the weather either - we are having a gloriously sunny 20 plus degrees every day whilst Europe seems to be experiencing the worst winter I can ever remember - minus 20 in Manchester, what can that feel like? Still I'm gradually getting back into things and starting to find my feet all round. John had a tough first week as well, with a lot to deal with and a nasty cold so it was generally difficult all round.
I decided to start making introductions and start to find out who was who and what needed to be done and managed to set up some meetings with subsidiary companies. Anyone already involved in marketing is pretty reticent about talking to me, which is understandable. There doesn't seem to have been any official confirmation of what I am here to do so I guess they probably feel just a little bit threatened. However, many of the subsidiaries have been very welcoming and the guy who looks after the web site set up a very motivating meeting with him and another team member. It took me till yesterday for IT to sort out my PC so I could actually access the web site but once I could it does help a little.
Yesterday I went out to Al Shahama, which is on the way to Dubai then out into the desert to visit Al Shaheen, who look after assessment and testing, primarily for the military but with a view to extending to a wider client base. The journey is the farthest I've been on my own so it was a mini adventure on its own and despite the desert I didn't see any camels! The guys there were brilliant, so welcoming and keen to brief me and I ended up spending most of the day there. Assesment and the related work is something I'm familiar with so we were able to talk the same language and Kevin, one of the senior team even comes from Yorkshire! I'm in the process of working with them on a marketing plan so at last some real work to do. Today I was due to go on another visit but had to postpone it as HR actually came up with their very first induction programme for new joiners. Quite a relief to get some specific information though no real surprises. I had to miss the tour, which was a shame as I got the call to have my briefing with Mr. Obaid, my new boss. Wow! Once he got started it was a pretty comprehensive brief so I now have the opposite problem of having so many things to think about that I'm not sure where to start! Effectively he'd like me to review all the subsidiaries and the centre and work to create a business plan/marketing strategy for all of them. He'd also like me to take on all the central marketing, look at the web site, build relationships with universities so we can recruit the best Emirati graduates, make recommendations on sponsorship and CSR projects, arrange competitions and create a strong brand and image for EAI. I also have to tell him what budget and what team I need to do all this with the relevant ROI and business case - hooray, sounds great though a hell of a task. He also wants me to use a new business planning software to do it all so I shall have to learn that as well. More technical competency building.
So hopefully I'll manage to achieve lots of this and pretty quickly, since HR have just instituted a new, objective based, performance review system so it looks like they'll be plenty of measuring going on!

Back in Abu Dhabi - New Year New Career!

Anyone who's ever worked with me will know that using 'New Year New Career' in a recruitment ad in January is a sackable offence for using such a hackneyed phrase. However, in my case this new year it is actually true!
We got back to Abu Dhabi on Saturday night and on Sunday morning I started my new job, heading up a new marketing and communications department for Emirates Advanced Investments. The problem with heading up a new area is that I appear to be a department of one and have therefore not got anyone to show me the ropes or to give me any brief or steer! According to my job description I report into the CEO, who I've never met and was interviewed by the COO, who has been too busy to meet me so far so I'm rather in the dark as to how to get started on the task of building a brand for EAI and providing a marketing strategy. I'm sure all will become clear in the fullness of time but I've never been a patient person where work is concerned or one to sit idly by waiting for work to arrive. As the days pass I am coming to the conclusion that I am going to have to somehow work this one out for myself and get started - I've always been pretty good at creating work so I don't suppose this challenge should be any different. The HR Director has specified that he'd like to build an employer brand and to raise awareness of EAI as an employer, particularly amongst young Emiratis so I ought to be able to get to grips with that. I have a desk and a computer, though only a temporary one as they were unable to open the door to what is to be my new office - perhaps someone else had it earmarked as it was particularly attractive with a small balcony looking across the road to the sea. Everyone I do meet is very friendly and welcoming so hopefully it will sort itself out before too long. The location is certainly an enviable one, a series of villas out on the breakwater, behind the Marina Mall, with a drive across the causeway with amazing views of the city and the Emirates Palace across the sea. On a day like today when the emails from Manchester tell me about several inches of snow and a struggle to get to work for everyone whilst we are enjoying lovely sunshine and a balmy 23 degrees I should perhaps not feel so homesick.
Abu Dhabi has so much going for it - not just the weather and the iconic buildings but a terrific way of life, including magic fairies, who, for 100 AED per month wash my car every night whilst I'm asleep (how cool is that!) However, it is always a bit of a wrench coming back and saying goodbye to Manchester again.
John is about to plunge into another hectic time so I hope I'll soon be rushed off my feet at work. Mid January sees the World Future Energy Summit which is led by Masdar and the Masdar Institute and will attract over 20,000 delegates from around the world interested in renewable energy and sustainable technology. I am planning to go along myself to find out more. After all, the whole Masdar Initiative turned my life in a completely different direction and took me thousands of miles from home, so I am keen to get involved and find out more about this amazing project and the things that are going to save the planet. I also have a vested interest in seeing the collateral that I was involved in producing whilst working for Wordsearch and helping out with the Masdar Institute marketing material. For John the summit is going to mean an exhausting week of press conferences, networking and dinners.
Next month J is due to go on a visit to Japan, Korea and Singapore so he'll be away from Abu Dhabi for a while and there is talk of Paris in March so it's going to be non stop for him and large additions to his frequent flyer miles.
Looks like this might be a good time to really make some progress with my novel! I managed to get hold of a copy of 'A Diamond in the Desert' in Waterstones in Manchester which I've been reading. The author spent her childhood and early career here and then came back on a visit to see how much it had changed. It makes fascinating reading for a reluctant expat who's trying to adjust to the UAE and create a new life at a rather advanced age!
As the day's pass though life settles back into its pattern and the UK returns to the stuff of email.
I met up with Katie from Wordsearch to do the official debrief and hand back of the Masdar Institute work and I'm sure all concerned will breathe a sigh of relief. It can't have been easy for the marketing team having to deal with the Provost's wife, especially a bossy, grumpy one like me. It definitely wasn't easy for the Provost who had to listen to my opinions on the marketing material every night and what I would do differently if it was me!
I also popped into ECAE for a brief visit though I hope to have longer next time and see how things are going - we got a bonus full page in 7Days today though so things are still going well.
We are heading to the new desert resort at Liwa for a weekend break at the end of the month - I bought it as a suprise Christmas present for John as I thought he would be able to do with the break after the summit and before the Far East trip. I am really looking forward to seeing the desert and waking up in the morning to watch the sunrise over the sands. The drive will be a challenge though as it will be the furthest I've been in the Jeep.
Yesterday they opened the Burj Dubai (or the Burj Khalifa to give it its official title) to much fanfare. The developer appears to have made a profit with 90% sold but I wonder how much of it will actually have people in it. Still it's an amazing building which I am keen to visit (J is not so keen as he doesn't like heights!) The other silver lining is that, due to the global economy, no-one is likely to build anything taller for a little while. However, I am not planning a trip just yet over to Dubai but we will be able to build our own version of the tower by cutting out the model in The National all this week!

Into the New Year

Monday morning we got repacked, wrapped up some more presents and set off for the South. We stopped for a bit of lunch and exchange of presents at John's brothers and to pick up John's Mum, before heading for Ashdown Park in Sussex for a couple of nights break for the three of us. AP is a sister hotel to Luton Hoo, where we got married so we thought we'd give it a try, the only problem with sister hotels is that you can't help making continuous comparisons. The building itself has had a varied past including being a convent and a training centre for Barclays. Worried by Rachel's memory of spartan rooms when she was working there in her graduate training programme I upgraded our rooms which turned out to be very large and comfy though a bit chintzy and tired. I had asked for rooms close to the main restaurant and without too many stairs so that Isobel wouldn't have to walk too far but somehow that got lost in translation and we ended up about as far away as it was possible to be, up one flight of stairs and with an outside trip if you wanted to avoid a further 3 flights of stairs! However, it was a lovely hotel (with proper baths) and the food was really good (here at least they beat Luton Hoo). Times must be hard in the hotel business and we certainly got a good deal of two nights b&b for the price of one as long as you took dinner. This was clear in the small savings - hardly any toiletries or teabags and only one canape each with the preprandial drinks!
Tuesday we headed to Tunbridge Wells for a bit of shopping - something of a carbon copy of Harrogate or Cheltenham (standard Spa town shopping experience!) It worked for me though,despite parking challenges and a lot of hill. I was particularly delighted, when discussing my IT illiteracy with a man half my age in Curry's Digital, to be told that if I was really the IT idiot I claimed to be then I was a good looking one!
We'd enjoyed watching a special programme about the making of 'Not the Nine O'Clock News' the night before - I can't believe that it's the 30th anniversary of the programme. Despite being a topical programme of its day I didn't think the humour had dated at all but then it was my era. We bought a full set of the programmes on DVD in the BBC shop in Tunbridge Wells so we can continue to enjoy it in Abu Dhabi. So along with some new episodes of Cranford (clearly not written by Mrs Gaskell) and a set of Taggarts given to us by Rachel and Andrew we won't be totally reliant on repeats of Midsomer Murders and the occasional film on Orbit Showtime!
There is a general election coming up in the spring so I've requested our postal votes, though whether they'll be time to post them out and back once the date is announced seems unlikely. In Manchester my left wing vote should still count, though a Tory government is by no means certain. However, The Guardian, did put a positive spin on the likely outcome by reminding us of the counter culture and creativity generated in opposition to Margaret Thatcher and the 18 years of Conservative Britain - including Not the Nine O'Clock News, Spitting Image and Brit Pop, so maybe there is something to look forward to! I was amazed to see the unrest in the public services which everyone is desperately trying not to liken to the winter of discontent. I can't really comment from my far away position but I do want to remind people of what state the public services were in in 1997, with decaying hospitals, school buildings anc chronic underfunding in so many areas. Times are hard now, but then they are everywhere - even here there are sad tales of redundancies, especially for people with partners or family working in Dubai. Anyway enough pollitical ranting and on with the story of our lovely family break.
On our final day at Ashdown Park we were joined for lunch by John's son Matthew and his mother which was great. Matthew seems to be enjoying his year abroad in Granada as part of his degree and looked very well. He is planning to come and stay with us in Abu Dhabi in February when his exams finish which should be fun.
We headed back to Leysdown for the night in order to take John's Mum home and for some shopping in the morning as she doesn't have a car anymore.
New Year's Eve we set off back North, stopping at Rachel and Andrew's for a lovely New Year's Eve meal and more champagne - I don't know how I'm going to manage without my 24 hour champagne fix once we go back to normal life and work and how I'll cope with only one meal a day rather than the 2 or 3 which we've been manfully putting away over the holiday. If I can get any clothes done up by the time we get back it will be a miracle!
Having seen the New Year in we headed back to Manchester on Friday morning to get ourselves prepared for a crack of dawn return to Abu Dhabi on Saturday morning. I had reckoned without the fact that shops in the UK do occasionally shut and most of Manchester was shut on New Year's Day so I was unable to stock up at Boots and M&S with the necessities. We do have both shops in Abu Dhabi but they just aren't the same thing at all! However all was not lost, Pizza Express was open for a last fix!
Cases packed we headed for Manchester Airport at 5.30am and the shuttle to Heathrow. Whilst we've been away there was a terrorist attack on a plane to the US with an extremist with explosives in his underwear. I wasn't sure what difference it would make but nothing much seemed to be in evidence - although they clearly entered our details in incorrectly when we dropped the bags off in Manchester so, John in particular, kept being stopped for passport checks and they were reluctant to let us onto the Abu Dhabi flight at first. They now charge a pound for a plastic bag to put your gels in, which is not only daylight robbery, but environmentally unfriendly as they come in plastic bubbles. For some reason you have to go through security at Heathrow if you come off an international flight onto a domestic one but not the other way round. Clearly they only trust security at UK airports. It hampers the purchase of duty free and toiletries, especially as no-one seems to know what the rules are and Boots were not keen to sell me some hay fever spray in case it got confiscated. Thankfully no-one suggested that we take our underwear off and we arrived onto the flight in one piece with everything still with us.
Club World in the daytime is such a luxury - champagne, nice wine, comfy chairs and an interesting film. The food is not as good as Etihad and they'd run out of John's choice of starter, but overall it was a great experience.
We arrived half an hour early to a taxi queue and rain (no chauffeur service with BA!) but it felt really warm after the minus temperatures of the past few days.
Back in Abu Dhabi after a wonderful trip to dear old blighty and a new chapter with a new job and a new year to contend with.
Once again, if anyone is reading this, I hope that 2010 is a good one for all of you and that you have lots of look forward to.

A wonderful Christmas

John didn't manage to get home till 8pm on the final day, but since the taxi wasn't picking us up till 11.30pm we had time to walk round to the pub at the Sheraton for supper and relax before we set off. The security guys insisted on opening one of the cases at the airport but thankfully it was the one with the clothes in rather than all the Christmas pressies and table decorations which would have taken a lot more unpacking! After a quick glass of champagne we settled down to sleep and actually got a very good night - I think the beds are longer on BA than Etihad, and the staff were charming, no sign of grumpiness at all at being denied their strike. We arrived early and the shuttle to Manchester was only about 30 minutes late, despite snow, ice and freezing temperatures. Some of the passengers at Heathrow had been there all night whereas we felt very refreshed.
It was great to be home, despite the icy temperature in the apartment which had had no heating all winter. We hit the shops immediately to scoop up the last minute presents and had a sumptuous Christmas lunch in Selfridges before John treated me to two new dresses in their sale (Matthew Williamson and Givenchy, though I think the black Givenchy might be a bit racey for Abu Dhabi) and Prada shoes (not in the sale but very lovely) - a fabulous Christmas present. We settled in for a relaxing evening of TV watching - I shall never complain about UK TV again, after the rather sparse offerings on Orbit Showtime it felt like a feast of entertainment. I shall have to get a DVD recorder so we can record things to take back as the broadband just doesn't have the band width for the iPlayer function and doesn't work in the main room. We went to bed that night with snow falling on an already covered ground - there must have been about 10cm which is more than I've ever seen in central Manchester.
Christmas Eve we went back to the shops early, before the crowds and managed to buy some new Armani jeans and jumper for John's Christmas present. We then got packed up and had a quick treat lunch at Pizza Express (how I've missed that experience) and set off for Skipton. We managed all but the last bit up to Mum's though with foot hard down and a high gear I got the car up the last hill. It was so great+ to see everyone and the North Yorkshire countryside looked lovely in the snow. We wrapped up presents and ate another delicious meal before an early night as the time difference was still a factor in our body clocks.
Christmas day I took Mum's dog, Kirsty, for a run in the snow and ice. Frozen ground and dog noses proved irresistable so I had to persuade Kirsty to run rather than sniff. I did my usual with the table decorations (pictures to follow) and was able to annoy everyone for days with the gold star confetti and red laminated hay! Before we started on champagne and present giving and a wonderful Christmas lunch with all the delicious trimmings. We were joined by Marion and Brian, my brother in law's parents so there were 10 of us for Christmas lunch so it was a real family party and Mum managed the whole feast with the rest of us providing skivvy support. It was one of the best Christmas Day's for years and I loved every minute. John and I headed off down the hill to stay in a small hotel in Skipton for the night as the house was rather full.
Next morning I skidded my way back up the hill over black ice to pick up Kirsty for another run/sniff session and ended up on my backside at least once. Getting the car back out proved tricky but with help from several people with spades I managed to drive down to pick John up and get back to Mum's in one piece. Another wonderful lunch and more TV. Everyone else headed off on boxing day so John, Mum and I enjoyed a quiet night and managed to fit in some more champagne and a small supper!
We headed back to Manchester after lunch on Sunday and this time Kirsty seemed to have got the hang of running again - just in time for her to forget how it works till my next visit. We'd booked Sunday night at a new Italian restaurant which has taken over the space of the much lamented 'Establishment' which went bust 3 years ago and has been missed ever since. I had to swallow my football allegiances as it is partly owned by Rio Ferdinand and called, unsuprisingly 'Rosso'. However, the food and the place were super and we were joined by Wayne and Colleen Rooney so it's clearly the 'in' place in Manchester at the moment. Certainly somewhere to look forward to for our next visit since Harvey Nichols and even Paul Heathcotes, Grado, have been disappointing in recent visits.
All in all a very enjoyable time - I just love being back in Manchester and the UK and visiting familiar places. I always loved the place but you appreciate it even more when you go away!