Monday, December 28, 2009

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...

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

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

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

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...