Winter sports
http://blog.rjbudden.com/2011/12/winter-sports.html
So this is winter then. Still a very pleasant 25C most days - hot in the day time but cool at night. None of that humidity nonsense from back in July.
The last few weeks have been crazy busy. I'm now spending most of the my week in Doha, so am doing a lot of travelling between there and Dubai - my passport is getting a hammering and will need replacing next year at this rate. It's only an hour flight from DXB to DOH but it still takes about 4 or 5 hours with all the rigmarole of getting to the airport, checking in, waiting etc. Pretty tiresome but it's going to continue well into the new year so I need to get used to it...
With being so busy at work it would be good if the weekends were a bit more relaxing, but they haven't been recently. There's been a lot on the last few weeks, especially in the run up to Christmas. The F1, various brunches, Rugby Sevens, birthday and Christmas nights out - all great fun but I'm looking forward to a bit of a rest over Christmas. The Rugby Sevens was an awesome weekend (well, day - work got in the way on the Saturday). Dressing up as tennis players (possibly inspired by my vague resemblance to perennial semi-finalist Tim Henman), we batted tennis balls around the DHL stand of the Sevens stadium all day in the sun watching the rugby, continuing later at the Irish Village. Great weekend, which saw England crowned champions the following evening.
My mates Annie and Oli came over from the UK the following week, and we packed in plenty of sight seeing in the seven days they were here. We chose the wrong day to visit Aquaventure water park at Atlantis (grey clouds and windy - pretty chilly when you're in the water all afternoon), but had a great trip out into the desert for some dune bashing and camel riding. Turns out some camels take more kindly to having a human sat on their back than others - mine was definitely not keen on the experience...
We also celebrated a triple birthday at a brunch at Warehouse - surely one of the best we've done yet, with constant mojitos, beers, wine and amazing food. From sophistication back down to earth with a bump as we carried on at Waxy's in Bur Dubai - cheese-tastic with loads of Christmas tunes, in case anyone had forgotten that it was rapidly approaching. A fantastic day despite the hangover the next morning...
To continue the sporting theme (purely viewing rather than participating, you'll notice), the Dubai World Championship golf tournament was also on a couple of weeks back, so we took a trip out to watch the penultimate day. Not having been to a golf tournament before I didn't really know what to expect but it was actually pretty good - Dubai do a pretty good job of organising these big events. The tickets were free which made it even better. We saw the likes of Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Alvaro Quiros, the eventual champion, on the 17th and 18th holes.
And so that brings us to almost the end of the year. Not quite sure where 2011 has gone - I've spent almost a full year in Dubai now and it has absolutely flown by. I'll have plenty of time to reflect on the highlights of the year when I'm flying back to the UK tomorrow - am very much looking forward to getting home for a week to see mates and family at home. I could also do with getting into a bit of the Christmas spirit - it doesn't feel right here, it's just not cold enough. I'm pretty sure that will change the minute I step off that plane at Heathrow tomorrow evening...
The last few weeks have been crazy busy. I'm now spending most of the my week in Doha, so am doing a lot of travelling between there and Dubai - my passport is getting a hammering and will need replacing next year at this rate. It's only an hour flight from DXB to DOH but it still takes about 4 or 5 hours with all the rigmarole of getting to the airport, checking in, waiting etc. Pretty tiresome but it's going to continue well into the new year so I need to get used to it...
With being so busy at work it would be good if the weekends were a bit more relaxing, but they haven't been recently. There's been a lot on the last few weeks, especially in the run up to Christmas. The F1, various brunches, Rugby Sevens, birthday and Christmas nights out - all great fun but I'm looking forward to a bit of a rest over Christmas. The Rugby Sevens was an awesome weekend (well, day - work got in the way on the Saturday). Dressing up as tennis players (possibly inspired by my vague resemblance to perennial semi-finalist Tim Henman), we batted tennis balls around the DHL stand of the Sevens stadium all day in the sun watching the rugby, continuing later at the Irish Village. Great weekend, which saw England crowned champions the following evening.
My mates Annie and Oli came over from the UK the following week, and we packed in plenty of sight seeing in the seven days they were here. We chose the wrong day to visit Aquaventure water park at Atlantis (grey clouds and windy - pretty chilly when you're in the water all afternoon), but had a great trip out into the desert for some dune bashing and camel riding. Turns out some camels take more kindly to having a human sat on their back than others - mine was definitely not keen on the experience...
We also celebrated a triple birthday at a brunch at Warehouse - surely one of the best we've done yet, with constant mojitos, beers, wine and amazing food. From sophistication back down to earth with a bump as we carried on at Waxy's in Bur Dubai - cheese-tastic with loads of Christmas tunes, in case anyone had forgotten that it was rapidly approaching. A fantastic day despite the hangover the next morning...
To continue the sporting theme (purely viewing rather than participating, you'll notice), the Dubai World Championship golf tournament was also on a couple of weeks back, so we took a trip out to watch the penultimate day. Not having been to a golf tournament before I didn't really know what to expect but it was actually pretty good - Dubai do a pretty good job of organising these big events. The tickets were free which made it even better. We saw the likes of Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy and Alvaro Quiros, the eventual champion, on the 17th and 18th holes.
And so that brings us to almost the end of the year. Not quite sure where 2011 has gone - I've spent almost a full year in Dubai now and it has absolutely flown by. I'll have plenty of time to reflect on the highlights of the year when I'm flying back to the UK tomorrow - am very much looking forward to getting home for a week to see mates and family at home. I could also do with getting into a bit of the Christmas spirit - it doesn't feel right here, it's just not cold enough. I'm pretty sure that will change the minute I step off that plane at Heathrow tomorrow evening...
