Abu Dhabi Day 6: Cratcoons
Well- this is a bummer. I can't upload pictures for today!! :( :( Maybe tomorrow I will be able to put them in.
I should start out by saying this- I have a life philosophy: I do NOT drive more than an hour and a half one way to get somewhere if I am not going to spend the night. And I certainly don't do it more than one day in a row. I'm not sure how any of us missed the fact that Dubai is an hour and a half away from Abu Dhabi... not including waiting for a taxi to come. It is over two hours to get there and two hours to come home. EVERY. DAY. The inefficiency of this is KILLING me. Seriously killing me. We are spending FOUR hours a day DRIVING. I swear to Pete I'm really ready to rip my hair out. Do you know what I could be doing in that four hours of time????? NOT SITTING. Running. Tanning. Souking. Researching. Knitting? Drawing? Washing my hair???? We know how much I don't like to....nay... CAN'T..... sit still. Omg, a thousand tears. For some reason, when we saw on the itinerary that the travel time was 1.5 hours, ALL of us assumed (you know what happens when you assume! Thanks for that life lesson 8th grade teacher Mr. Drake who was forever high in class!!)- that 1.5 hours meant round trip. Omg. So painful. My suggestion next time would be to stay in Abu Dhabi when we have meetings there......I take full responsibility for that though because- to be fair, we were asked SEVERAL times what we thought. And you know what we all said???? THAT SOUNDS GREAT!! We clearly need an updated definition of what 'great' means. I think we were just so excited we didn't pay as much attention as we should have. I own it. It's our mistake.
Anyway- today we went to Mubadala Investment Company. They asked why we were there and as I was explaining what we were doing (we take turns introducing the group)- the woman looked at me like I had three heads and said she wished she would have known why we were there so she could have adequately prepared the presentation. It was like she had no idea we were coming.... I'm curious to know what they "thought" we were doing.....but they pulled it together pretty fast (and also had delicious coffee- which has been a super plus, in addition to the dates which the Professor frequently demands, ha ha) and gave a great presentation on their investment portfolio. I am continuously amazed at the vision of this country.
After that, we went for a super yum lunch and, for probably the third time in my whole life, I was the first person finished. Outside of my children (hello daily 1.5 hour dinners......) I am quite possible the slowest eater on the planet. But I was so freaking hungry and that lemon fish was so good, I don't think I took longer than five minutes to literally clean my plate. Omg so yum.
After lunch we then went to 1776- which is basically a company that teaches entrepreneurs how to infiltrate the market and how to go about getting investors. It was really beneficial to me as I have been at a standstill with my www.residencysos.com website for awhile and am looking for how to move it forward. I get that the reason we were here is to help in our project but I am super excited about what I learned today on a personal level.
After that, we did the usual thing in Abu Dhabi and wait 45 stupid minutes for a taxi (you need a van for five people, which is quite hard to come by) before the 1.5 hour trek home. You know its a long drive because every time we do the drive the driver has to stop and get gas!! I will say this- I look for various ways to entertain myself on the drive- so today I played "I spy" with myself and looked for mosques on the way home- I was not disappointed! I found four on my side alone and that was when I was paying attention! It was really something to be driving along the highway and the desert and then all of the sudden to see a mosque pop up.
We went down to do dinner by the marina when we saw, what we have now named: Cratcoons. It is a cat/rat/racoon all mixed in one. I don't know where the crap these Hunger Game Mutt Lookalikes come from but they are disgusting and come out of the woodworks. Ebby refused- and I mean REFUSED (thought she might slap me when I asked if she was sure!) to eat outside for fear the cratcoons would get us!!! All in all, I say today was a very informative day:).
I should start out by saying this- I have a life philosophy: I do NOT drive more than an hour and a half one way to get somewhere if I am not going to spend the night. And I certainly don't do it more than one day in a row. I'm not sure how any of us missed the fact that Dubai is an hour and a half away from Abu Dhabi... not including waiting for a taxi to come. It is over two hours to get there and two hours to come home. EVERY. DAY. The inefficiency of this is KILLING me. Seriously killing me. We are spending FOUR hours a day DRIVING. I swear to Pete I'm really ready to rip my hair out. Do you know what I could be doing in that four hours of time????? NOT SITTING. Running. Tanning. Souking. Researching. Knitting? Drawing? Washing my hair???? We know how much I don't like to....nay... CAN'T..... sit still. Omg, a thousand tears. For some reason, when we saw on the itinerary that the travel time was 1.5 hours, ALL of us assumed (you know what happens when you assume! Thanks for that life lesson 8th grade teacher Mr. Drake who was forever high in class!!)- that 1.5 hours meant round trip. Omg. So painful. My suggestion next time would be to stay in Abu Dhabi when we have meetings there......I take full responsibility for that though because- to be fair, we were asked SEVERAL times what we thought. And you know what we all said???? THAT SOUNDS GREAT!! We clearly need an updated definition of what 'great' means. I think we were just so excited we didn't pay as much attention as we should have. I own it. It's our mistake.
Anyway- today we went to Mubadala Investment Company. They asked why we were there and as I was explaining what we were doing (we take turns introducing the group)- the woman looked at me like I had three heads and said she wished she would have known why we were there so she could have adequately prepared the presentation. It was like she had no idea we were coming.... I'm curious to know what they "thought" we were doing.....but they pulled it together pretty fast (and also had delicious coffee- which has been a super plus, in addition to the dates which the Professor frequently demands, ha ha) and gave a great presentation on their investment portfolio. I am continuously amazed at the vision of this country.
After that, we went for a super yum lunch and, for probably the third time in my whole life, I was the first person finished. Outside of my children (hello daily 1.5 hour dinners......) I am quite possible the slowest eater on the planet. But I was so freaking hungry and that lemon fish was so good, I don't think I took longer than five minutes to literally clean my plate. Omg so yum.
After lunch we then went to 1776- which is basically a company that teaches entrepreneurs how to infiltrate the market and how to go about getting investors. It was really beneficial to me as I have been at a standstill with my www.residencysos.com website for awhile and am looking for how to move it forward. I get that the reason we were here is to help in our project but I am super excited about what I learned today on a personal level.
After that, we did the usual thing in Abu Dhabi and wait 45 stupid minutes for a taxi (you need a van for five people, which is quite hard to come by) before the 1.5 hour trek home. You know its a long drive because every time we do the drive the driver has to stop and get gas!! I will say this- I look for various ways to entertain myself on the drive- so today I played "I spy" with myself and looked for mosques on the way home- I was not disappointed! I found four on my side alone and that was when I was paying attention! It was really something to be driving along the highway and the desert and then all of the sudden to see a mosque pop up.
We went down to do dinner by the marina when we saw, what we have now named: Cratcoons. It is a cat/rat/racoon all mixed in one. I don't know where the crap these Hunger Game Mutt Lookalikes come from but they are disgusting and come out of the woodworks. Ebby refused- and I mean REFUSED (thought she might slap me when I asked if she was sure!) to eat outside for fear the cratcoons would get us!!! All in all, I say today was a very informative day:).
ROFL I really wish I could see one of these cratcoons you speak of! lol
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