I have hungry/J'ai faim/Ich habe Hunger

For some reason this is one of the few occasions through my 24 year career at this job that I haven't found it easy to plonk my head on the pillow, stare at the inside of my eyelids for a few minutes before drifing off to a listless sleep. Instead I'd better festoon my blog with some updates before it starts to become passé. In the meatime, I'm waiting for the room service guys to bring some Nasi Goreng at 2.45 in the morning.

In the last couple of weeks, I've signed myself up for a Scuba course. It's split in to three sections. 5 modules of theory, 5 confined water dives (basically means in a pool) and 5 deep sea dives. Here in the UAE, since the water temperature hovers around the 35 degree mark during summer, there's little need to wear more than a thin body suit during the dives. I'm looking forward to straping on the long round cyclinder and getting amongst it (in a completely heterosexual manner). Speaking of which, it's no surprise that the UAE is extemely homophobic, and hearing that Canada recently legalised same sex marriages will bring much wailing and knashing of their teeth. What is also little surpise (to me at least) that one of the less straight hostette-in-training that I've heard of here has managed to liberate his swimmers four or five times in as many weeks, and they're not all foreigners. You draw your own conclusions.

Work's pretty busy these days, so I lauded myself for waking up at a healthy 1pm on Thursday (the middle-east equivalent of Saturday). This week I might get a chance to have a bit of my own time, so I'll check out a few more of the clubs around Abu Dhabi. One of my more preferred haunts is a place called the Captain's Arms, just down the road from the hotel. 25 UAE Durhams (about 5 Euro) for a feed of fish and chips, and they've got Stella on tap. Choice.

The latest word is I'll be repatriating myself to England for a couple of months from mid-August onward. I think it's in London, but don't blame me wrong if that turns out to be completely false.