bloody sunday

Sunday I got to my customer site at 730 and spent 1 1/2 hours arguing with the system administrator trying to get a log on to a server I need for my project. Then I sat in my "office", which is just a desk shoved in a stairwell outside my customer's door.

It's a bad location because everyone walks by. Worse some of them want to talk to me. I normally just say good morning and avoid turning around, but some guys are quite persistent, including this little indian guy who had the cheek to ask me yesterday if it's true that blond women have different pubic hair than women with black hair.

Not knowing how or wanting to respond, I went downstairs to get some tea. When I got back to my desk I discovered the office boy had stacked what is possibly all of the paper in Abu Dhabi on my desk. Which, I should mention, besides being next to the printer, is next to the shredder.

Are you goddamn kidding me I thought to myself as I tried to work through the noise and vibration of the shredder. I can't yell at the office boy though. He's very nice. Last week I bought him a pot holder because he's always carrying this metal coffee pot around and it's really hot. But, instead of using it to protect his hands, he hangs it around his neck like it's the biggest employee badge ever.

Also, I got sunglasses for the guys who clean and do work outside because they don't have any and they'll end up with cataracts and not able to work. I thought, when I gave them the glasses, I had explained that to them very clearly. But, every time I see them outside, they don't have them over their eyes. They wear them on top of their heads, like I do when I'm in the office (that's how I, um, fix my hair - wake up and pull it off my face with my shades). When I say "No, put your sunglasses on your face" they say "yes madam we wear sunglasses" and point to their heads like I'm the one who potentially has problems seeing.

There is a door out to a patio near my desk, which I was quite chuffed about since that meant I wouldn't have to walk down 3 flights of stairs and then go out a locked door to smoke (there isn't usually anyone to open the locked door so you risk a long wait in the hot sun if you go out it). But the door is broken and won't close. It's very, very hot at my desk. And I'm surrounded by 5 offices belonging to the loudest screaming arabs on the planet.

As it seems things can't get any worse about my work place, they do. Yesterday around 10 am the fire alarm went off for 5 minutes. One arab, E, started screaming "shut that fucking thing off!" as loud as the alarm. Finally I went to his door, said "as an engineer, you should know that yelling doesn't fix things" and then I slammed his door. Point taken. He later attempted to get back into my good graces by bringing me dried sugared pineapple (they taste like smarties, but better and after I eat two I feel like I'm going to vomit from the sugar overload).

The alarm went off intermittently for the rest of the day. I got back to my hotel around 7 feeling like I had a concussion, did my workout, and was getting ready to take a shower after eating the biggest pizza ever (I needed it, I've already lost 10 pounds from the heat). It was 915.

But no. I heard a muted boom, and then the power went out. I went down to the lobby in my workout clothes. They said that only a sector of the hotel lost power, and that they would send someone to my room to fix the problem. I went back and laid down on my bed, still in my work out clothes. And waited. And waited.

Soon I felt like I was going to suffocate from the heat. I wandered down to the lobby again, mostly to be in the air conditioning. It was 1130. They told me to go back to my room immediately and that someone would be coming soon. Yeah. That's middle eastern soon.

I drifted off into a light sleep around 130. At 330 all of the lights on my room came on and the air con kicked in. I was so happy suddenly that I started laughing out loud.

Or, perhaps, I was losing my mind.

In any case, 530 rolled around quickly and the day at the customer site could not have been any longer.

Tonight, inshallah, I will go to bed at 10 and the power will stay with us.