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Tuesday, September 16, 2008 - (see all news for this day)
first few days in abu dhabi - 09:14 AM
(filed under 'general')
abu dhabi reminds me heaps of bahrain, which is not surprising, really, considering that they're both in the middle east, both muslim places & they're not really all that far from each other. it's much bigger, though. bahrain has a city, but i remember that it took not very long at all to drive through it & that i could see one end of the tall buildings through to the other end fairly easily when looking from a tall building. here, you can't really see from one end to the other. well, you could from an aeroplane, perhaps .. & maybe then if there was no haze.
some days there's a quite solid haze over the city. i don't think it's pollution. well, not totally, anyway. it seems to be more like a kind of thick & warm fog from the heat & the humidity in the air. it changes, too. it might be really hazy in the morning, then clear in the afternoon. or clear for most of the day, then suddenly hazy in the afternoon.
it's very hot here, of course. same as in bahrain. i actually missed most of the worst heat in bahrain when we lived there. mum got married in july two years ago & so smiley & i came back to australia for that & ended up staying for the duration of the worst of the summer heat. now i'm right in the thick of that summer heat here in abu dhabi. it's such an oppressive heat. thank goodness that almost everywhere you go is air conditioned.
when i arrived at the airport & walked outside at about midnight, i walked into a wall of humidity. you can actually feel the moisture in the air between your fingers as you rub your thumb & first two fingers together .. & that was at midnight when it was probably the coolest! i have no idea what the actual temperatures are, but i'd guess at around 45 degrees centigrade (113 fahrenheit). since we spend most of our time in air conditioning, as soon as i walk out into the heat, my glasses fog up immediately & i can't see very well for a minute or two until they heat up, or else until i walk back into the air conditioning.
i'm sharing a room with two others: donna & lesley. donna is the business development manager for nana may's & lesley is the sunshine coast distributor. lesley has been with nana may's since almost the beginning. both donna & lesley are really lovely. they set up everything here two weeks ago. donna goes back to australia very early tomorrow morning, leaving lesley & i to run the stand. lesley will be here for just under another two weeks until she hands over to jenny (the owner of nana may's) when she arrives to do the last week of the show with me.
the show itself coincides with ramadan & eid. ramadan is when the muslims fast & pray for one month, then eid is the celebration at the end of it. there's no eating or drinking allowed (not even water) in public in daylight hours. there are some places around that non-muslims can go to eat, but you certainly can't carry open food or drink around with you in public. it makes it a bit tricky if you get thirsty while you're out. we've been solving that by ducking into a change room at the shops or into the toilets to take a quiet swig from the water bottles we've been carrying in our bags. we have food for ourselves in the hotel room, of course & if we've been out, such as yesterday when we went to the emirates palace, we can find a non-muslim restaurant or cafe in which to eat.
the emirates palace was amazing. incredible opulance. gold everywhere. quite beautiful, actually. i took heaps of pictures. i won't be able to upload any to flickr until i'm back, though, since flickr is blocked here.
the show is basically a big market. hundreds of stall holders showing & selling their wares. mostly it's jewellery, clothing & accessories. i think there might be some perfume, too. i've had a little wander around on a couple of occasions, but the exhibition centre is seriously huge & if i was to take a good look at every stall, it would take days to get through it all.
there are heaps of places selling rip-offs. fakes, you know? in fact, at one of the stalls, lesley bought a soccer ball for her son: a louise vuitton soccer ball. it's hilarious! it cracks me up everytime i see it. i'm sure louie vuitton himself would be so proud to see a soccor ball with his name on it that it would bring a small tear to his eye. hmm. funny for me. probably not so much for him.
i have my eye on a gorgeous ring at the jewellery stall of some people donna knows from the previous middle eastern show in bahrain. it's not top notch stuff, but it's decent quality sterling silver with real semi-precious stones. since i've been working at the markets in australia, i see so many ladies wearing lovely rings & i've been wanting a nice one for myself. something kind of flamboyant, but not over the top. once i've got one more day's pay, i'll buy it for myself. then i'll try not to buy too much more, since i'd like to save most of the money i'm earning to buy stock for my stall for when i'm home.
so far i've bought a really cute orange top which was on special at the marina mall, a local sim card (& another top up) so that i can text & make phone calls from my mobile phone that won't cost a fortune, & three really cute pairs of stripey socks from one of the stall holders at the show. i love stripey socks. i've not seen ones like these at all in australia. one of the pairs is thigh high. the other two are very short like sports socks. the only onces i've seen in australia are knee high or mid-calf length.
today, before donna leaves early tomorrow, we're planning to go to heritage village. a customer told us about it last nght. it's all about the history & heritage of abu dhabi as it was before the oil boom. it sounds great. i'll take my camera, of course.
no. i'm working with three others in total. i'm not running it all. hehe.
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so, basically a working touristy trek. sounds all good. i read that you are the only one working the entire venture. you da man, girl!! lol! good to be careful with the spending. sounds like a mecca for buying lots of trinkets. be careful there. miss ya' real girl.