Arrived Safe And/Or Sound

Hey everyone,

Well, I'm here, I'm safe, I'm at work, and I have things to keep me happily busy. That really is the key point summary isn't it? If you're of short attention span, feel free zone out now, because you know the gist of everything in that one sentence.

For the rest of you, here's what I've managed to go through so far. The flight over was smooth as could be, after smelling what The Rock was cooking on the Calgary-Frankfurt leg, there was a short layover in Frankfurt that consisted mostly of walking and feeling tired. Didn't sleep much on that 9.5 hour flight, but managed to get four restless hours on the next leg between Frankfurt and Bahrain. Most everyone cleared off that plane, and an intrepid few of us surged onward to Abu Dhabi.

"Holy crap" were the first words out of my mouth when entering the secured area. Does anyone remember "Flight of the Navigator?" It was sort of like that, except really really big, really blue, and there were places to eat. I was too in awe/tired to take any pictures, but I will get some on the way out. Wow.

By the time I was out of there it was about 11:30 PM (about 20 hours after leaving home), so grabbed some Lebanese food and went to sleep in the IMV Apartment. IMV has a beautiful apartment here in Abu Dhabi... and right now, the process of refining and furnishing is taking place. Lee "Boy" Osness was staying there last month, and I'm not sure how much he enjoyed sleeping on the mattress that had the plastic factory wrap on it instead of sheets, or the shower that had no curtain, etc. Anyways, as of today, those omissions have been fixed.

The office at IMV is pretty good too. It's a villa, so basically a big residence converted to an office that works really well for myself and the 25 other employees. I have a pretty big office (or rather, cubicle in a room to myself) that actually has it's own bathroom (complete with tub/shower and bidet). How many of YOU have an office with it's own bathroom?? That's what I thought. (I think I just set myself up for Fergie to comment about the stupidity of working in an office). There's also a that brings tea twice a day, so that's pretty sweet. On the downside, the only printer in the office is on the ground floor and I'm on the third floor. Sometimes I pretend I'm Tristan that has to head down to 11 to get my printed documents. Well, not really, but I did call someone an "old sailor." Also, for better or worse, there is no Stadler or Waldorf.

Anyways, I could write lots more, but it would make this e-mail far too long. Next time, I'll try to elaborate a bit on what Abu Dhabi itself is like, but not until after the weekend (that's Fridays and Saturdays here). That's right, my weekend starts in a few hours, so enjoy working for two more days suckers! Pictures to come then, as well.

Cheers!

Curtis