Four weeks in the books

I just got done with week four at work. Things are going very well and I'm start to get a feel for my role here. I'm putting in pretty long days. I have a lot of meetings with the US that don't get started until 4pm. Enough about work though.

I got up at 4:45 this morning to go for my first Abu Dhabi bike ride. I met some guys through a tri club here and they let me tag along. The picture is from the side of the road while I waited for Nick to change a flat. We did about 45 miles from my apartment out to Yaz Island and back.

Yaz Island is where they do the Formula One races. It's an amazing place with high end hotels and restaurants. They also have Ferrari World, which is part museum, part amusement park...and Gail just reminded me, there's an Ikea out there also!

We had a bit of a head wind on the way out and my legs were barking at me very early! It was 86 degrees when I left at 5:20! After turning back I welcomed a little tail wind. We were cruising between 17 and 22 mphs and you could really start to feel the heat. At mile 30 I was starting to hit the wall. The combination of the heat and being off the bike for two months was catching up to me. I pretty much suffered for the last few miles. Once we were out of the city the road was nice. Friday is weekend here, so traffic was light and drivers were mostly courteous.

When we got back to town I had to weave my way through all the construction and traffic. Not fun! I'm really glad I went, but might not go out for that distance again until the weather cools down. Just too hot for this gringo.

So, yup, that is our first camel sighting! Gail came across it at the cultural center.

No big plans for today. Just going to get some pants hemmed at the tailor. Tomorrow we're going to Shangri la. We'll post lots of pics.

Oh ya, we're booked for Australia in September for Adam and Juliette's wedding!

Really looking forward to that. They aren't giving away tickets by the way. $3900 for ours, but they are non-stop, which is nice. It's still almost 14 hours from here. Yuk!

I'll be ready for the vacation by then. We're hoping to do a couple short trips also. Places we've considered are Cyprus, Beruit, Jordan, Greece and India.

That's all for now folks. I'm looking forward to having visitors even though I'll probably have to work. Book your room now!

Mark