With a couple of months to go before we depart for good old Blighty, I thought I would take the opportunity to use this and subsequent blogs to look back at the last year or so spent in Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates... Illustrated with the pictures I have taken I will revisit our trips, days out and weekends away exploring this fascinating and frustrating land of Arabia...
Knowing very little about the place we decided early on to make the most of cheap petrol and big roads and explore as much as we could.
The first thing you notice is the sand...
Coming from the UK where everything is green, to land in a country where everything is a browny yellow is a shock - the shot above is what you see everywhere, all the time... Wind-blown sand and salt bush. The contrast with the blue of the sky is marked and the glare is intense... We needed sunglasses!!! The next thing that strikes you in Abu Dhabi are the buildings - huge, glass buildings; even the small buildings are large... and the contrast with the sea...
Downtown Abu Dhabi from the
Heritage Village taken just over a year ago...
So we did the tourist thing, visited the sites and marveled at the diversity of people, food, experiences that were on offer..
We also bought some sunglasses...
and of course, a hat...
Nearby was the Heritage Village - a Tourist venue designed to illustrate just what the UAE was all about before they discovered oil...
A souk-style shopping area full of trinkets, bling, postcards etc. Tourists are bused in, wizz round and bused out again. It is actually better than it sounds - some of the exhibits are fascinating - the one about fishing in the gulf especially and the area showing traditional irrigation, although it could be bigger, does show a system that many will not have seen before. If you ever visit Abu Dhabi the Heritage Village is worth a visit - it only takes a couple of hours and you get to see a camel and his handler...
So our first views of this city were of big buildings, sand and tourists... The main problem we had was finding our way around... the roads don't appear to have any real pattern despite the grid system they are supposed to have - every time we went out it was a lottery as to how we got home, which way and how long it took... so many times we got lost. Fortunately, we live near the HQ of Aldar - a massive construction company out here - their offices are pretty iconic...
"...aim for that" would be the cry when we first started usually followed by "...how do we get off this ****** road?"
But we got used to it, learnt our way around - we only get lost occasionally now...
Moving back into the present day, the week has been fun - it started with a school prospectus shoot...
Geography...
Sort of English type thing...
Cover girl...
... and following that I had a meeting with a new client, took a tutorial with my star pupil who still wants to be anonymous and sorted a shoot for Sunday...
On top of all that we have had the stress of finding somewhere to live in Cambridge - we need to do this ASAP to make sure Quinn gets a place in a good school... difficult when you are living in the country - really difficult if you live abroad... We seem to have found one, now someone has to view it on our behalf and then (hopefully) we can reserve it etc. and all will be sorted... Finally, I am starting to clear out apartment of stuff we don't need - anyone in the UAE want an iPod dock - made by Sony, great sound...
There is no rest - day off tomorrow, who knows what that will bring and then a promotional shoot for the Arabian Swim Academy - looking forward to that, so keep your eyes open for images from that HERE, where I will be posting news all week as usual.
Keep looking and I'll hopefully see you all next week...
TTFN
Knowing very little about the place we decided early on to make the most of cheap petrol and big roads and explore as much as we could.
The first thing you notice is the sand...
Coming from the UK where everything is green, to land in a country where everything is a browny yellow is a shock - the shot above is what you see everywhere, all the time... Wind-blown sand and salt bush. The contrast with the blue of the sky is marked and the glare is intense... We needed sunglasses!!! The next thing that strikes you in Abu Dhabi are the buildings - huge, glass buildings; even the small buildings are large... and the contrast with the sea...
Heritage Village taken just over a year ago...
So we did the tourist thing, visited the sites and marveled at the diversity of people, food, experiences that were on offer..
We also bought some sunglasses...
Nearby was the Heritage Village - a Tourist venue designed to illustrate just what the UAE was all about before they discovered oil...
So our first views of this city were of big buildings, sand and tourists... The main problem we had was finding our way around... the roads don't appear to have any real pattern despite the grid system they are supposed to have - every time we went out it was a lottery as to how we got home, which way and how long it took... so many times we got lost. Fortunately, we live near the HQ of Aldar - a massive construction company out here - their offices are pretty iconic...
"...aim for that" would be the cry when we first started usually followed by "...how do we get off this ****** road?"
But we got used to it, learnt our way around - we only get lost occasionally now...
Moving back into the present day, the week has been fun - it started with a school prospectus shoot...
Geography...
Sort of English type thing...
Cover girl...
... and following that I had a meeting with a new client, took a tutorial with my star pupil who still wants to be anonymous and sorted a shoot for Sunday...
On top of all that we have had the stress of finding somewhere to live in Cambridge - we need to do this ASAP to make sure Quinn gets a place in a good school... difficult when you are living in the country - really difficult if you live abroad... We seem to have found one, now someone has to view it on our behalf and then (hopefully) we can reserve it etc. and all will be sorted... Finally, I am starting to clear out apartment of stuff we don't need - anyone in the UAE want an iPod dock - made by Sony, great sound...
There is no rest - day off tomorrow, who knows what that will bring and then a promotional shoot for the Arabian Swim Academy - looking forward to that, so keep your eyes open for images from that HERE, where I will be posting news all week as usual.
Keep looking and I'll hopefully see you all next week...
TTFN
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