Dasan

I've been assigned a "personal assistant" at the hotel, who's name is Dasan. He's a very nice and helpful guy (he's my maid from the previous entry, today he gave me a card with his name on it).

You don't realize how ridiculously spoiled most people are here until you end up at an upscale place like the intercon. Today Dasan asked me, as he was cleaning my room (he usually cleans mine first but today was running late), why I never use the bathtub (my room has a separate bath and shower stall). I thought about that for a moment, since my tub is really big. I said "I guess because I don't have any bubble bath". A few minutes after he finished cleaning my room, he knocked on my door and handed me a bottle of bubble bath.

Then he came into my room and mentioned that the reading light on the side of the bed I don't sleep on was not working. It wasn't working because the light on the side I do sleep on had gone out and I swapped them. Having once tried for two weeks at the merid to get a light bulb replaced, finally having to go out and buy a new one, I figured it was the easiest thing to do. Dasan presented me with a light bulb in a box, as if it were a bottle of wine. I wasn't sure what to do so I peered at the box and said "very nice! my dad works for GE".

He wrinkled his brow and then said "but is the wattage alright for madam?" I said "it's fine" having paid no attention as to what it was. He said "we use this for soft light, but if madam wants to read, I will bring a different wattage". I assured him I wouldn't read on that side of the bed and he replaced the bulb. He went out to his cart AGAIN and brought me two large pillows. I have 8 pillows in my room so I wasn't sure what he was doing, and then he pointed out to me that they are more firm and I can use them when I'm propped up in bed reading instead of piling the 8 squishy pillows I have against the head board.

He stowed them under my sofa, informed me that he was taking tomorrow off, and inquired as to whether or not I would be alright. I assured him I would be and then he stood at the door. I was busy sending emails so didn't notice him until he cleared his throat. "If there is nothing else for madam I will go" he said. It was weird. Like, what am I, the queen or something? I said "There's nothing else. Enjoy your day off!" and, seriously, he bowed and exited my room.

Also, I went to the gym today right after the beach and accidentally tracked some sand in on my shoes. A cleaner in the gym was literally SWEEPING the treadmill behind me while I was running.

I need to get into a different frame of mind because I am back at work tomorrow, and I can't get anyone but the tea boy to do a damn thing.

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.

flops

For this trip to the ME I decided to bring high flops and my low flops. My high flops are flip flops with a heel on them. They make me the tallest person in the room. I am wearing them to work every day. My low flops are my chacos. I use those to walk to and from texas kid's apartment. It's not so hot here that I can't walk. I'm sure that's going to change soon.

I'm staying at the Intercon. Super posh but everything is expensive, and, typical of Intercons in these types of countries, it's on a hill in the middle of nowhere. My room is about twice the size of my place at the merid (no balcony though, boo hoo). I have a huge bathroom and the shower is a rain shower.

I was surprised my hair got such a good reception. After Dr. T initially almost had a heart attack (I walked up to him and he didn't even recognize me) he's adjusted. I don't know why I ever grew my hair out in the first place. I like short hair.

I had my first project meeting today. It went poorly in the morning (utter confusion, as usual, attempts to extend the scope of the project, and complaints about the doughnuts) but the more I ramped up my performance the more the team started to respond. I found myself, this afternoon, yelling (jokingly) at one of the guys on the team "You don't need to go on vacation! This is more fun than vacation!" By the end of the day everyone was giving themselves nicknames so I could spell/pronounce their names.

I hope it goes well. It will be a lot of work. And now I'm exhausted. It's hard for me to be "on" all of the time. I sometimes feel like I'm the writer, producer, and actor of a sit com with a live audience. And I'm worried every time I do this that the show will flop.