It is really heating up here in Dubai, As I type this, it is 11:30 in the morning and it is already 91 degrees outside. 100 degree weather starts rearing it's ugly head by the end of the month....The sand storms have been swirling around, about half of us Americans are walking around with a chronic cough (I call it sand lung) and my eyes are scratchy all the time. You have to put the sun shades on your car window when you park outside or you come back to a furnace. In about a month, I can turn off my hot water heater in the bathroom, because the water is heated up naturally through the dessert pipes, so I will have to get my cool water from the hot water tank...unbelievable yes, but also not an exaggeration.
I got to see a couple of innings of the Reds game before work on Wednesday morning (12-4 Reds win - Made them 5-0 so far), I really hope I get to watch more baseball this year. It truly is one of my favorite passions. The country here was into the big Cricket matches last week. First, there was the semi-final match between Pakistan and India (the country is about 35% Indian ex-pats) - No work was done (started about 12:30 in the afternoon - match lasted about 8 hours...) Indian beat Pakistan (made me smile), then in the championship last Saturday India beat Sri Lanka...haven't seen do many happy Indians since I spent an evening at a Seminole casino in Miami. I am gonna have to make an effort to figure out Cricket.
Bob and I went to church this morning, the early service (seats around 200) is packed, and the later service (Cowboy and Mary attend) is standing room only. Who would have thunk that I would have had to move to an Islamic country half way around the world to see people pack a church service like Christian sardines. Our pastor (Jim from Georgia) just returned from a convention in Atlanta. Bob, leaves for a trip to home to his family at the end of this week. This will be the first time since Karim quit that I will be at work without Bob. It is a nice challenge to steer the ship in Bob's absence. We have a meeting on Saturday morning with Bob's boss Hani, and Hani's bosses from Lebanon (Sammy and Maroon). It is a meeting for me to discuss sales structure, numbers and strategy's going forward.
The good news about this kind of meeting is the timing. March was a record month in sales with 6.4 million. We also had a growth rate of 61% over March 2010 sales, and we had the best margin we have had since I took over the sales force in October 2010. We need to enjoy the ride, but also need to put the pedal to the metal....
Vineet starts this week. He is a young man from Bombay, India...I will have to work on a nick name...Vinny the Greek, or Vinny and the Jets or Vinny the Pooh are the early nominees. I really liked his work ethics and the story of his life during his interview. He worked full time putting himself through school and he was just plain likable in his interview. He reminded me of John Achurch (SYSCO colleague from St. Louis) hopefully he will perform like Johnny.
Reem starts on April 18th, she is back in the states visiting family in Texas right now.
The local radio station that I like (Virgin radio 104.4 FM-top forty/dance? music) had an audition/competition for a movie reviewer this week. You had to call in if you wanted to be the personality to do a weekly movie review...Well Monday morning I hear Bob talking to someone on the phone at the office about radio...Wednesday morning I am driving to work, and there's Bob on the radio reviewing "Salt" - an Angelinie Jolie film that I haven't seen (Bob rated it 4 out of 5 stars)...He did fine, but I don't think we are going to lose him to the radio yet...I will let you know.
Nick has moved into his new pad. It is a nice high rise apartment that costs about 20% less than mine, with a much better location (nearer new office/no new construction going on)...The building itself is not as nice, but I am thinking seriously in moving there when my rent contract ends in July. Nick is buying a TV today, and some furniture this week (I have loaned him my inflatable queen sized mattress) he is trying to make it livable until Mimi and his 16 year old son Riley arrive in June.
I am headed to the pool for an hour, then to the Mall of Emirates to get my hair cut. Nick and I are meeting for an early dinner at a new customer of ours (Shake Shack) then back here to watch Survivor and American Idol. The girlfriend doesn't get off until 9 pm on Fridays (9 to 9 on Fridays -very long day) so it's a guys day. I have Poultier in my golf pool, so late tonight I will be watching the Masters and hoping to make the cut!
Busy time, and the days are soaring by!!!!
Have a great weekend,
John
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