It’s been a while since I’ve spent so long in a new city. Abu Dhabi wasn’t what I’d imagined it would be (most of my references came from SATC, so that’s hardly surprising, I suppose.) It started with curiosity, waned as ambivalence, and eventually settled as a quiet, comfortable rhythm. The city has grown on me over the past six weeks, due in large part, no doubt, to the somewhat special conditions of my stay here, being on client site for a project.
There was the tourist avatar that I got to don, even if unwittingly. Qasr Al Watan, the Presidential Palace, was a sight to behold. The Louvre didn’t disappoint, notwithstanding the 15-min long survey that the hapless and witless attendant at the exit made me fill out.
Quad-biking at sunset on the Ajman dunes was just the rush of adrenaline I required that Sunday afternoon. The way Emiratis celebrate on the UAE National Day made me wonder at the simplicity of it - how exciting can spraying string confetti and foam on fellow countrymen, in this case country boys and girls, get, I wondered. That, and honking the horn of your car synchronously with hundreds of other cars jamming the roads leading to the waterside where fireworks were on display. To each their own…
There were the hotspots that I got to visit. It turns out that a handful of restaurants are at the top of every culinary list in downtown Abu Dhabi - Zuma, Grand Beirut, 99 Sushi, Coya, Bentleys, Hakkasan, Cafe Milano. I got to sample the fare at four of them. While I didn’t visit the beach at Corniche or Yas, I did make it to Soul Beach on Saadiyat Island, the newest posh neighbourhood in the making.
There were several ‘firsts’ during this stay:
- First Thoughtworks project onsite
- First time in a room full of stickies
- First time staying on the 20th floor of a building
- First sauna experience
- The first time that I felt motivated to learn how to swim
- A karaoke debut
- First time zooming down the highway at ~200 kmph in a sports car, the Porsche Boxster
However, I think most of it has to do with the human experiences I’ve had here. At work, it was a bunch of great colleagues that I’d never met before but got to know very closely.
Outside work, it was a lot of the service staff at the hotel I was staying that became regular appearances in my day. At breakfast, there was Sabah who always smiled wide, and Faisal who never smiled at all, except today (and I caught him at it!) There was Aftab who was always prompt and Bandana who was always helpful. There was Jayvee who was very eager and Niraj (?) who was mostly avoidant. At the Health Club, there was the perpetually tired but always smiling Kabita, the initially grumpy but eventually friendly Suleiman, the doe-eyed beauty from Sri Lanka, Prithimali, and the good natured Thu. At the cafe, there was the always attentive Rose and the somewhat shy Joemarie. At the entrance of the hotel, there was the eager-to-please Mohammed, and the quietly helpful Joe. At the spa, there was the immensely talented Lina, who worked my high-strung traps like magic.
Then there were other guests at the hotel who became friendly, such as the Emirati gentleman (whose name I never managed to get) who wished me enthusiastically at the gym each morning, and some who wanted to become too friendly, such as an older Emirati who was eager to give me unsolicited attention (yikes!) In the final week, I also made friends with my next door neighbour, a big burly Australian, Nat (short for Nathan?), who goes to work in Dubai. Turns out that both of us like to work out early in the morning.
But I think the biggest reason that this time in Abu Dhabi will stay with me is because it gave me time with myself, to process the pain and grief of losing Dad. It gave me the chance to think about what happened, what I’ve lost, what I’ve earned, and what I’ve learned. It gave me the chance to get away from my regular life to focus on me and how I was dealing with his passing. It created the space for me to figure out how I can support my family, especially Mum, from here on. It gave me the chance to be just me for a while. And for that, I’m grateful.
