Abu Dhabi

Ventured with our guest to show them around Abu Dhabi for the day. It really is a nice looking little metropolis from the bay.

Had a drive around town and went out to Marina Mall, and a walk along the corniche. If it wasn't for the humidity, it would be nicest place in the UAE to live... but my vote remains with Al Ain.

Abu Dhabi (really big) Projects

Just to be fair I thought I would search around to find a similar link for some of the projects going on in Abu Dhabi. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a single resource, apart from the Abu Dhabi Projects List which brings most of them together. I know there are a number of others and with far better coverage on sites such as TDIC Projects, Aldar Development, and Sorouh Real Estate.

I guess one of the more interesting ones for us here is Noor Al Ain. Not sure what happened with the 4-storey height restriction on this one.

Abu Dhabi

Have just come back after a few days in Abu Dhabi. We like Abu Dhabi, probably a little more than Dubai at the moment. The main problem with the place is the MAJOR lack of parking. This seems to be the case throughout the city, but maybe I'm wrong. I suppose that is what happens when a small metropolis grows quickly. The roads are really not built for the amount of traffic they have on them now, and it would seem most buildings don't have parking (for whatever reason). Although it may be getting a little crowded, still doesn't seem as messy as Dubai roads.

K and A return “home”

Well it has felt like a very long month, but K and A finally returned to Al Ain last night. A long day for them both... final day of school/work, flying to Abu Dhabi, and a taxi to Al Ain! But now we can finally start making our villa into a home and settling into life in Al Ain. At the same time I guess this closes the Qatar chapter, which ended far sooner than I thought it would.

I enjoyed many things about Qatar and had no problems with Doha itself (minus the driving, disorganised roads and construction); the place has so much potential. Obviously I was very disappointed about not being able to obtain a decent job while there and found it strange the only two interviews I had were for positions in the UAE and Bulgaria. (A funny side note is that a potential position finally came up with Qatar Airways, but I had already left)

The end result though was this relocation to Al Ain, and so far the city and my employer have far surpassed any expectations I may have held. I know from the last experience you shouldn’t come into this with any expectations, but it is hard to not have some. As you may have guessed from the Qatar blog, one of the main reasons for leaving Qatar (apart from the package I was offered) was to remove ourselves from the situation we found ourselves in with regards to K’s employer. When you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all... so I will leave it up to her to say what she wants if she feels the need.

When I think back the memories that I wont loose are:

• The night we arrived and lost all power in the villa. Very tired, hot and muggy but hearing the call to prayer echo around the streets for the first time was pretty special.


• Learning to drive all over again on the roads of Doha!


• Watching the sunset over the singing dunes.


• The whole process of getting a traffic incident report.


• Not just the closing ceremony, but being in Doha to share the whole Asian Games experience.


• The cats!

The funny thing looking back is I really wasn’t in Qatar for very long at all!