the smallest world...

i wanted to apologize for not sharing as much lately as normal... things have been busy and we have both been working and trying to survive. unfortunately i am working most afternoons, and lorien is during the day, so we are not seeing each other as much as we would like. the good news is that tinsley always has someone around to keep him company!!

you find out lots of interesting things when you move to a new country for a short period of time. Like how everyone seems to want to move to canada! they keep asking me why we are here and not in canada when they want to move to toronto or vancouver. i tell them that of course i have the option of moving back whenever i want though!!

we have met a lot of great people that we will miss when we do leave. People from all over the world are living and trying to live in this country; we have met great people from england, ireland, india, nepal, phillipines, america, australia, syria, egypt, just to name a few... and just like when working back home, we will be sorry to leave them.

a couple of people at the hotel i have had great conversations, drinks and good times with, and i will hate to leave them... one pastry chef from Goa India, we have shared drinks and our love of Pink Floyd and Dave Matthews. Another is a friend from Englad who shares my love of dub ska/reggae... other great conversations with a colleague from syria... all cool people, and some cool teachers and husbands of teachers who lorien works with. nice guys from ireland, canada, and the U.S. we hang out a ton together...

work itself has been interesting to say the least. the uae labour laws leave much to be desired, and they are part of the reason why we are not travelling as much as we should, especially for me. but we are working around the issues and having fun in the city. we went to the fifa club team world cup last week, and we had a bunch of friends over for christmas dinner and the house was all decorated up for christmas, so that was a ton of fun!!!

we will make up for lost time over the next two years. our plan is to go to egypt in feb, and do some other stuff around uae in march when lorien's parents come to visit... oman is also on the list, as is thailand and nepal. and i am planning to come back to vancouver in october for my 20 yr high school reunion.

hope all is well with everyone back home, we miss everyone, and really enjoy the time we get to web cam with people...

is it just me or is this a little creepy???

first off, i am going to try to start adding random things about abu dhabi, things you would only find here... and hopefully i can take a picture to capture the essence of the moment...

for example, a toyota pick up truck has a spare tire cover with the picture of the Sheik... no picture will try to catch it next time

for a country this rich, and there are stray cats everywhere, and i mean everywhere... probably about 12 on our street alone...

how can i taxi the same distance 5 different times, and get the meter charge 5 different amounts??

ever seen a guy driving goats around in his truck, with one in the passenger seat??? lorien has...

more to come with photos!!!

anyway, back to the topic

Dead Guy Warning!! be warned about this news story!!!

is it just me or is this creepy??

How to ID a Dead Guy

grand mosque tour

had a great day on a city orientation tour with my work... that way you don't look stupid when guests come up to you and ask you things like, " so where is the mosque???" and " what is it like??"

photos from top to bottom...

1- my group from the hotel, standing in the courtyard, can hold 70,000 worshippers, marble cool to the touch even in the sun...
2- beautiful chandelier, and on the walls are the 99 names of allah
3- inside prayer hall, carpet has no seams!!!
4- inside the female prayer hall looking out onto the courtyard... seperate hall when praying due to you ending up shoulder to shoulder with the person in front of and beside you..
5- from outside... far right is a seperate structure, the tomb of the first sheik zayed, grand mosque named in his honour, koran is read 24 hours a day outside his tomb because he was so respected... people read until tired, then someone else takes over...

Priceless... like the commercial...

total minutes trying to find parking= 30
total counters attended=4
total return trips to same counter with different forms=3
total cost of extension =600
extra month gained= 1

smooth, hassle free help from Aly, my Egyptian friend from the H.I.= Priceless...

night time shot of the hotel, with thanks to Shabri for the pic...

p stands for private pork room and potentially hazardous to your faith

tonight we enjoyed bangers and mash, washed down with lovely kilkenny...

that involved pork and alcohol... all we needed was some gambling for the perfect non-muslim trifecta...

abayas and home internet...

let the fun and dualling laptops begin!!! finally we have home internet in the villa...

hope everyone is having fun in canada, apparently there is a little rain right now??? :) the nights here have been great, everyone comes out when it gets cooler in the evening, and enjoys the lower temps... it has been getting cooler, even since i have been here, but still around 35 degrees mid day, around 95 degrees fahrenheit i think...

we just bought a bbq and patio set, we have a little shared 3rd floor terrace with space for an outdoor patio set and bbq... we had a great drink night with everyone bringing a mexican dish the other night, about 20 of lorien's teaching friends came out... everyone brought a chair, and we hung out in the downstairs courtyard, not a bad night... apparently there will be a halloween party at one of the other apartment villas on the weekend... might be a little too crazy for us though, they are having a wet abaya contest!! :)

speaking of which, i have learned a bit more about abayas while living here... wearing the veil fully covered, or just having the seductive eyes showing, or showing their face completely, all of this is more fashion choice than anything... but when the women all get together, with no men around, like in lorien's school, they shed all their outer layers... i have to mention though, with so many nationalities and cultures here, especially even between one muslim country and another, and other countries who are not muslim, there is a mix of styles between all the women, local or ex pat or otherwise...
a good source of faq's is http://www.ask-ali.com/

not much on the travelling front yet, still trying to get organized in the house... probably going to do day trips to dubai or sharjah first... then further like oman, then maybe egypt... hope everyone is doing well, looking forward to seeing people in feb and march and the other cooler months!!

random stuff about my new job, and Etisalat is the bain of my UAE existence...

so most of you know from facebook that i took the job at the new holiday inn abu dhabi...

i am liking the experience i am gaining, and the people are great here... 30 different nationalities work at the hotel..
i am the only canadian, but there is also an american, and a couple english and australian...

there are a few from each country, but only one or two from places like holland, russia, mexico, france, etc... there are several from egypt and syria, and the rest are either indian, sri lankan, or filipino...
the cafeteria is a mix of languages!!! mainly arabic,indian,filipino,english...

the beauty as well is that we celebrate all cultures, especially when it comes to food!!! there is always a variety of foods from india, phillipines, and arabic/lebanese food... this is the highlight of my day, tasting many, many different dishes, all free... i love spicy and flavourful foods, so this has been a great experiment of various dishes...
and right now, the management are testing the restaurant food before the guests arrive next week, so it is a real treat!!!
i would name a lot of the different dishes, but you get the idea :)

everyone has a great command english here as well, with varying degrees of fluency...
several staff have multiple languages, with one of my external guards who is from nepal, who knows 8 languages, he is a great asset to have...

right now, i am working 12 hour days trying to help get the hotel ready for the opening... my boss is egyptian and a nice guy, so it has been a good experience...


what else??? i will take pics soon, but still no internet at home... i am using the hotel internet at work, but once we have home internet, we will post pics here and on facebook...

Around here, Etisalat is now a curse word!!!

stray cats and roosters...

just a short blurb today... still no home internet, so i am at the ADNEC business centre using the wifi... 25 dihrams for 2 hours... home internet might be awhile, because we are in a new villa, which has no home phones or internet cable installed yet...

so besides looking for work, i am taking tinsley to the local park, and making sure he doesn't get attacked by the dozens of stray cats... everywhere... and we have a neighbour who has roosters, which like to start singing about 3am... then the 445am call to prayer, which is lovely but always wakes me up (lorien sleeps right through it now after 2 months)...

joined a flag football league for expats, run by a couple of local american guys... first game is wednesday, on a artificial turf field with the grand mosque in the background, all lit up at nightime when we play, pretty cool... duplays.com we are the dead horse ( Cuz you can't beat a dead horse!!! i didn't make it up, what can i say!!)

our villa is made up of all of lorien's teacher friends, and a few of their pets... mainly american, canadian, and british...

pics to follow soon, but first i need work... i have one job offer, and asst safety manager at a hotel nearby ( we are living in the embassy area) but it is not as much money as i want, so i might hold out for better... you can only change jobs twice, then you have to leave the country for 6 months, so it might be better to find something i really like first...

more to come soon... oh yeah, the drivers here are crazy, like montreal and vancouver drivers times 10!!

Waiting, sweetheart... waiting...

Air Canada, once again being a frustrating pain in the ass...

i am sitting here thinking of the scene in ocean's 11 where the mormon twins are at the race track in utah...

waiting, sweetheart.



-Good. Go.



-I'm waiting.- Why?



-You're like a little girl!



I'm going to get out and drop you like third-period French.


i am sitting in toronto right now, about to enjoy 13 hours of flying, after enduring 4.5 hours to toronto...



i want to thanks air canada for making booking in such a pain... first not finding my booking reference, then calling someone who knew what they were doing, then punching in my e-tix, and that actually found me!!




and then, after charging me for overweight ( thanks for the C/C Dad...) she says i am over the maximum overweight...


" do you not realize that both bags are leaning on the scale right now???"


"ooops..."


so i get to toronto, and go to the wrong terminal... apparently there is so much international travel they split it up between two terminals, hmmm...

etihad airways rocks!! all she did was give me a mild rebuke for the baggage being over... "make sure for next time!!" " me-no problem!!"

a couple of quick shout outs before i forget...

many thanks to animal travel, and my eagle ridge vet clinic, for all their help getting tinsley ready for his flight... he arrived happy, and that made lorien happy, which makes me happy... i will send photos from the UAE with all of us...

thanks canada, it has been fun... next post from overseas...

Almost there...

Well, as most of you know, Lorien is already in Abu Dhabi, and i should be there in a couple of weeks... This blog is for a lot of folks who don't have facebook, and still want to follow us over in the UAE. Hopefully it will give you a taste of what we are doing, and what life is like for us and others in Abu Dhabi...

The last few weeks have been pretty crazy... Lorien is running around over there getting paperwork done, visas for me to come over, work orientations, furniture allowances, in short lots of little things that are time consuming. And waiting for a cab for 45 mins in 40 degree heat kind of takes the fun out of things...

But i still get phone calls and texts and pics of fun little things she is doing that could only be happening in AD. Like the call to prayer over the loudspeakers, which i can hear through skype. Or the video she sent of our new apartment we should be into in a couple of weeks... Or the 3 guys on the camel in the mall singing at the top of their lungs as ramadan comes to an end.

Pretty cool, i can't wait for the culture shock, i am looking forward to it...

As for me, i have been getting Tinsley set to travel, getting our shipment ready for transport, moving out of our apartment, and getting our stuff brought down to our parents. Oh yeah, and still trying to concentrate at work while thinking of all the documents i need to send to various people...

I will post more when i am overseas... looking forward to several going away parties, and looking forward to seeing Lorien...