Blowing in the Wind

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Another weekend, another adventure. This weekend, four of us—me, Lindsey, Ilmarie, and Simon, the one who likes to do drawrings—went to Abu Dhabi, UAE to see the Red Bull Air Race. I know I was a little verbose with the last post, so I’ll spare you from all of the small details of the weekend.

We left early on Friday morning; too early for all of our liking, but it allowed us to get into Abu Dhabi, check into our fabulous corner suite at the Sheraton (it wasn’t the new fancy pants 7 star hotel, but it was still a steal of a deal), eat and shop a bit before the race. Quick aside: Abu Dhabi has an IKEA and a Tiffany & Co…we thought we found heaven in the Middle East. I, of course, went and milked Tiffany & Co. for all its worth and had my ring and earrings polished (that’s what you gotta do when you pay for the brand name!).

Anyway, we got to the race with minutes to spare and found a spot on the beach, albeit behind a boat that blocked half the course, but we found a spot. Now, you know what’s not fun? When you’re sitting on a beach in a desert environment and a sandstorm brews. Yup, that’s what happened. The wind picked up and, within minutes, we all had sand in every crevice of our bodies. Nice visual, huh?

Well, it was easy to make the inference that little, tiny planes flying through an inflatable obstacle course less than a 100ft above the water don’t do so well with wind, so, after waiting for almost two hours, we figured out that the race had been cancelled. This was very disappointing as Friday in the UAE was equivalent to N. America’s Sunday, so we doubted they would do it on Saturday, as that was like a Monday. For those who already scrolled through the pics, you know what the plot outcome is…yes, they did reschedule it.

Anyway, we still had a great time on Friday night, as it was St. Paddy’s Day and we found the Irish (and those who just pretend to be this one day of the year) hanging out at an Irish pub in one of the hotels. By fluke coincidence, I even managed to wear green for the evening! The rest of the crew celebrated in true Irish style and paid for it the next day as they frantically searched for food (bacon, in particular, as it was rumoured that certain places in Abu Dhabi served pork) to curb their hangovers. During our failed search, we did discover that the race was going to take place that afternoon, so we were quite excited that we would get a chance to see it before we headed out. We changed our flight to catch a later one that evening and sat back to enjoy the race.

Again, I was amazed. In less than a week, I experienced land and air speeds that seem to defy logic and play tricks on the human eye. Speaking of tricks on the human eye, I was amazed to actually see people at this event! Not quite the 1.3 million spectators in Budapest last year, but a healthy crowd by Arab standards. Many brought out their little boys (yes, I meant to say just little boys), but these little pipsqueaks quickly turned their attention away from the sky and towards the rocks on the beach, as it was much more entertaining to throw rocks in water than watch the amazing acrobatics happening right above them!

After a very long weekend putting up with Simon’s smart ass comments, we finally made it back and are already planning our next trip, which will be Dubai at the end of the month…and there’s also some talk of Hong Kong in April! Oh, and for those of you who have inquired, yes, I do work in between these adventures!

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Photos

Polly Pocket
Since the race was cancelled, we had to find something to do to entertain ourselves, so we made our Polly Pocket pose in the oyster shell.

Livin' the Good Life
I managed to snag a great deal at the Sheraton and the four of us were living it up in a corner suite. Here's Simon checking out the room's amenities.