Twelve months in
http://blog.rjbudden.com/2012/02/twelve-months-in.html
So I've now been here a year. Quite where that time has gone, and what I've done with it, I don't know. What I do know is it that 2011 was a pretty awesome year, providing everything you might expect of the Dubai expat lifestyle. There are too many highlights to list but a few that come to mind include Sandance at Atlantis, the Rugby Sevens, Paul McCartney in Abu Dhabi, and the various and numerous brunches over the year - Saffron for my birthday in May (foody), Habtoor Grand Grill and pool party in the summer (sweaty) and the triple birthday brunch at Warehouse in December (boozy).
Work (which is after all the reason I'm here in the first place) is also going pretty well. Despite spending more time in the week in Qatar than the UAE at the moment, and being ridiculously busy the whole time, it's going alright and I'm enjoying what I'm doing - so much so that I've signed up to another year, to take me through to April 2013...
2011 ended in some style. After a great Christmas break back in the UK with my friends and family, everyone reconvened back in Dubai for the Godfather themed mega New Year's Eve brunch at Yalumbas. An awesome night ensued and ended somewhat predictably - ie with no-one really remembering anything about the evening at all. No surprise really given the 'beat the barman' game we were playing: basically, try and down the glass of Taittanger champagne in your hand before the eager bar staff come and top your glass up. Some managed 8 or 9 glasses on the bounce. Some spent the entire next day being sick. Another classic evening though and a great way to see in 2012. The only regret being not actually watching the Burj Khalifa fireworks, which looked amazing on TV the next day. Think that could be a plan for this year...
January by comparison has been a somewhat sedate month of exercise and no brunching. Ok, maybe not so much of the exercise. A group of 20 or so of us took a trip into the desert last weekend to go camping which was a bit of a novelty. It took a few hours of bashing through the dunes in 4x4s to get to fossil rock where we set up camp for the night, which was great fun. We had guitars, a fire and plenty of drinks to keep us amused into the night. Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best - it probably only rains about 5 times a year in the UAE and we just happened to pick one of those days. In the morning I woke up in my ridiculously small tent, the zip on which had broken earlier that evening, to find a small flood at the end of the air bed - not really what you expect camping in the desert...
The trip home wasn't uneventful either. Clint's Jeep in which I was travelling decided to break down after we'd just set off back to Dubai, and even worse, I'd been driving it moments before. (It actually wasn't my fault...). Despite seeking the assistance of some willing local mechanics (although whether they were qualified in anything more than using a screwdriver was debatable), the result was having to be towed all the way home which took most of the afternoon. Quite a long chilly trip in those temperatures in a Jeep with no roof. Or doors. Roll on summer...
So the first brunch of the year is planned for this Friday at Yalumba, which completes the January detox and somewhat undoes any good work achieved over the last month. Even better is that it's free, given that we all won vouchers on the gambling (well, the UAE-approved kind of not really gambling) tables on New Year's Eve. Plans for the evening though aren't quite as certain - Saturday has been announced as a dry day in Dubai thanks to it being Prophet Mohammed's birthday, so there will be no alcohol served and no entertainment for 24 hours from 5:30pm on Friday onwards. It could be house party time...
Work (which is after all the reason I'm here in the first place) is also going pretty well. Despite spending more time in the week in Qatar than the UAE at the moment, and being ridiculously busy the whole time, it's going alright and I'm enjoying what I'm doing - so much so that I've signed up to another year, to take me through to April 2013...
2011 ended in some style. After a great Christmas break back in the UK with my friends and family, everyone reconvened back in Dubai for the Godfather themed mega New Year's Eve brunch at Yalumbas. An awesome night ensued and ended somewhat predictably - ie with no-one really remembering anything about the evening at all. No surprise really given the 'beat the barman' game we were playing: basically, try and down the glass of Taittanger champagne in your hand before the eager bar staff come and top your glass up. Some managed 8 or 9 glasses on the bounce. Some spent the entire next day being sick. Another classic evening though and a great way to see in 2012. The only regret being not actually watching the Burj Khalifa fireworks, which looked amazing on TV the next day. Think that could be a plan for this year...
January by comparison has been a somewhat sedate month of exercise and no brunching. Ok, maybe not so much of the exercise. A group of 20 or so of us took a trip into the desert last weekend to go camping which was a bit of a novelty. It took a few hours of bashing through the dunes in 4x4s to get to fossil rock where we set up camp for the night, which was great fun. We had guitars, a fire and plenty of drinks to keep us amused into the night. Unfortunately the weather wasn't the best - it probably only rains about 5 times a year in the UAE and we just happened to pick one of those days. In the morning I woke up in my ridiculously small tent, the zip on which had broken earlier that evening, to find a small flood at the end of the air bed - not really what you expect camping in the desert...
The trip home wasn't uneventful either. Clint's Jeep in which I was travelling decided to break down after we'd just set off back to Dubai, and even worse, I'd been driving it moments before. (It actually wasn't my fault...). Despite seeking the assistance of some willing local mechanics (although whether they were qualified in anything more than using a screwdriver was debatable), the result was having to be towed all the way home which took most of the afternoon. Quite a long chilly trip in those temperatures in a Jeep with no roof. Or doors. Roll on summer...
So the first brunch of the year is planned for this Friday at Yalumba, which completes the January detox and somewhat undoes any good work achieved over the last month. Even better is that it's free, given that we all won vouchers on the gambling (well, the UAE-approved kind of not really gambling) tables on New Year's Eve. Plans for the evening though aren't quite as certain - Saturday has been announced as a dry day in Dubai thanks to it being Prophet Mohammed's birthday, so there will be no alcohol served and no entertainment for 24 hours from 5:30pm on Friday onwards. It could be house party time...
