The Bog is Black

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O.K. Now that we've got the lame excuse for toilet humour and a poor anagram out of the way it's time to update you all on what's been happening to the Toms.

We are now mostly settled into our new home for this year – a newish 2 bedroom apartment well situated in the heart of Abu Dhabi. We are on the 10^th floor and have a very pleasant and expansive view with a little bit of sea in the distance.

Abu Dhabi is so far really great – quite the opposite of Doha in many ways. It has a very settled and almost western city style feel to the place – in that it is quite established and conventional looking. There is some construction going on here and there but so far I haven't seen any rocks or dust or potholes. The streets are set out in an easy grid pattern, there are footpaths and pedestrian crossings, and the driving is pretty sensible and courteous. We are in the central area with shops of all descriptions, restaurants, cafes etc... We could walk to the closest shopping mall which has a big Lulu's supermarket and we would, if it wasn't quite so hot currently.

The Corniche is particularly pretty with a couple of good beaches and more being developed. Set across the road from and parallel to the Corniche is a long strip of established gardens with a few restaurants and cafes, kids play areas etc.... it is all very splendid , well thought out and leads to ( at one end ) the magnificent Emirates Palace and out to the impressive Marina Mall, which, if you can manage to not get lost, you might find the Ikea store where there are no end of useful household gadgets, furniture and more. Absolutely spectacular views from the mall are to be had back across to Abu Dhabi city.

So Lynne is now working for Cognition again here. In their infinite capacity to totally mess up a good thing, Qatar's Education Council has decided to try and go it alone in education – the general consensus being that they are in no way, shape or form ready to do this massive undertaking without expert help. So very probably next year they will be calling out for help again.

It is not just in Education but pretty much every infrastructural undertaking in progress that an inability to do a proper job seems to be their forte. It would seem that there is an inverse correlation between having the money ( and they have obscene amounts of the stuff ) to do the job and actually accomplishing it.

An example, all too commonly witnessed, in March they decided to dig up the road outside our apartment – there was nothing wrong with the road! It was a lovely road with virtually no potholes. It was then left as a dusty track with large piles of asphalt and rocks for over a month, then a ditch was dug to expose an old sewer pipe running the length of the street. Weeks later concrete trucks arrived and the pipe was neatly encased in concrete. Fantastic we all thought progress...mmmmm.. A couple of weeks later huge digging machines arrived and smashed up said concreted pipe and the ditch was filled in again. Large holes were dug...Nothing much happened for another month. Just as we were to vacate the building prior to the end of contract, a flurry of activity saw berm edgings being laid. We heard that while away on holiday in July that they had laid a new road. On our arrival back a month later yes there was some new asphalt down but soon after being laid massive big holes were dug right in the middle. No doubt somebody forgot something that should have been connected or put there in the first place...So nearly 5 months and still the end is not in sight. On leaving it seemed that the workforce on this road had been reduced to a couple of guys with shovels.

In the 2 years we were there I only saw a couple of things completed, but never fully and not without ongoing problems.

I for one am not going to miss that road one little bit. Another thing I wont miss is, while driving, some crazy, dangerous, mad f...wit in a big 4 wheel drive right up my rear end, flashing his lights and tooting so that he can get to the cafe and sit down with his mates ( who also probably don't have or need jobs ) and smoke in the well signed non smoking areas and generally do nothing useful.

Well time for a change it seems and I look forward to the next year in civilisation.

There's nothing quite like a holiday.

July came and excitement was in evidence as the holidays had arrived. After a long stint of work without a break, the weather already unbearably hot and Qatar was driving us crazy.

It was time to escape and meet up as planned with the Smith Family in the magnificent countryside of Tuscany. We stayed for a week in a pretty little village, La Romola, about 15km's out of Florence ( Firenze ). Day trips to explore Firenze, a stunningly beautiful and historic city, every time you turn a corner there is another amazing sight, then back to Romola for a shared home cooked dinner with the Smiths, a few vino's, then down to the “ Sportivo “ for a gelato or coffee or another vino with the locals, and we all got along fabulously despite not being able to speak each others language. We hired a little Fiat for two days to explore the countryside ( it is no wonder so many people rave about Tuscany it is very pretty ) including a visit to Pisa where not only is the Tower on a lean, many other buildings nearby are too. Apparently it started to lean whilst being built and they just carried on regardless.

Next we spent 3 days in the Cinque Terre, a rocky Mediteranean coastal area of 5 small villages with walking tracks between. We stayed in Riomaggiore and the Smiths a couple of villages away in Vernazza. Historically fishing villages and wine growing country ( and still is ) there is now a train that goes to each village but the general tourist thing is to walk to all 5 villages (4 tracks). Brian managed all 4, Linus 3, Lynne 2, Julie 1 and Ruby and Curtis zip. Some crazy types do all 4 in one day, but it was far too hot for that and two of the walks involve some quite serious uphill stuff. Much better to slow it down, have a swim, visit a cafe or have a gelato. Although the Cinque Terre is very touristed it is such a stunningly beautiful area that we can't recommend it highly enough if you ever go to wonderful Italia - Molte Benne. Bellissimo.

Holidaying in Italy with The Smiths

A couple of fast trains had us in Lausanne, Switzerland on lake Le Mon ( lake Geneva ) visiting old friends Dave and Carol. Being the middle of summer there was very little snow to be seen, but judging on the beauty of the place it must be awesome in the winter months. Dave and Carol live on the side of a vineyard covered hill overlooking the lake and to the mountains across the water. A lot of time was spent sitting around outside relaxing, soaking up the view and having a few good laughs over local wine and English ale and eating a fair bit also. Visited the historic little town of Gruyere nearby, very pretty and of course bought some cheese.

3 Days were spent in Roma doing all the sights – Colosseum, Spanish Steps and of course the Vatican – the Pope was on holiday, maybe he'd gone to the beach. Pity we didn't get to have a chat but his place is pretty impressive with all those Michaelangelo's and Raphaels and much more. Rome is such an interesting place to just walk around and we did a fair bit on the hoof.

From Rome we flew to Morocco. Stayed the first night in Casablanca which despite having a romantic sounding name is really a bit of a dive. Everything is pretty run down and shabby and it doesn't appear to have any renovation since the movie.

On to Fez. Fez is the oldest settlement in Morocco and has the world's first ever university.

We stayed in this most majestic Riad ( converted house ) which was like a mini palace. The central courtyard being surrounded by magnificently tiled and carved walls and doors – absolute craftmanship of the highest order. A pool to cool off in after a hot day exploring the place was only let down by a too hard bed. The old part ( Medina or Market ) of Fez is like a sloping rabbit warren of narrow streets winding in any which way up and downhill. So easy to get lost in but good fun exploring and trying not to be tempted by all the fabulous goods on sale. Fez is the craft centre for leather goods and ceramics and it was very difficult to not buy anything.

From Fez we travelled ( 7 hours ) by train ( 1^st class and insanely cheap ) to Marrakech. In contrast to Fez, Marrakech is quite modern in parts, has lovely gardens and the Medina is all flat – still easy to get lost but at least there is no uphill struggle. In the middle of the Medina is a large square where you are amazed by all manner of activity and amusement in the way of snake charmers, performing monkeys, magicians, transvestite dancers and food and drink stalls of all kinds. It is rather exiting and exotic and it is quite nice to sit in a cafe on the periphery and just watch the crazy world go by.

They say there are not many visitors to Morocco who escape without buying a carpet and in our case we indeed left with not only a carpet but also a teapot, a brass plate, several pairs of shoes, slippers, ceramic bowls and a dress for Brian!!! No he hasn't become a Moroccan transvestite dancer it is actually a Jalaba which is kind of like a lightweight kaftan thing for men that is very comfortable and cool in the hot weather.

That was our holiday and it was as they say over here - Too Much Good.