intercon

Even though I'm not terribly excited to be back in Dhabi, at least I'm staying at the Intercontinental, which is a massive step up from the Meridien. Though, it has it's quirks. And is located on a hill in the middle of no where (residential area, though I found a grocery I can walk to in 20 minutes).

My maid introduced himself to me shortly after I checked in, and said if I had any requests I should let him know (I am living here for 4 months, which, apparently, is a record for this particular hotel). One request I made was to not change my linens or towels more often than once a week. That request was met with a pained smile. We negotiated changes every three days. At least it isn't every day...he's a very nice maid and brings me extra berry tea packets (I know it sounds hideous but it's really good).

I have this weird TV that turns itself on and sends me messages. The problem is I'm not sure how to delete the messages so after one arrives I turn the TV off and it continues to turn itself on again 3 more times before giving up hope. I'm sure there's a button or something I'm supposed to be pressing but I can't figure it out.

No one is going through my stuff here, but I have noticed that the plate covering the peep hole in my door keeps getting opened (it opens by flipping upward so, unless there is some strange gravity thing going on in my room, it's being manually opened). But I just check it when I get home every night and close it.

I've checked out the gym which has a new machine I'm going to try out called the power plate. I'm not even sure what it does so I am going to watch some YouTube videos and maybe test it out first thing in the morning when no one else is at the gym.

Everything in my room is managed with this controller thing that I failed to find the first night I was here (the maid thoughtfully plugged everything back in for me the next day and put the controller on the bed so I could find it). I can even turn on the do not disturb light outside my room from bed.

And the best part is they do yoga classes 4 days a week here. It will be nice to get back into yoga...

Tomorrow I'll report on the beach. I'm spending the weekend having some R&R since I haven't had much chance to lay around and do nothing the past few months.