I will try and be more light and breezy in my rantings today, for the glass is truly half full. We are having a slower than anticipated sales month in March, I believe the weather is definately a factor. The blowing sand that makes February less than desirable has carried into March and made the normal pool and ocean activities undesirable. Tourism has slowed and the malls and eateries are not packed. The weather looks to be changing and hopefully we will have a strong surge to finish our month off. The high for Monday is only fore casted to be 70 degrees, that is not normal for here.
Trying to get a sense of normalcy with Nick now being gone. I gathered some of his pans and dishes that he left behind. Reem got a few pots and pans as did Hayley. Kelly got his wooden cutting board and I grabbed his left over cleaning supplies. The big winner in the "Nick left behinds" sweepstakes.??...That's right...Shams. He got Nick and Mimi's plates (IKEA's finest green plates from their value line) glasses and left over cooking utensels. He was like an 8 year old on Christmas morning. The scavenging got Muzzy thinking about the future, as he let me know how nice my tv's are....sigh.
Last night Hayley and I dined at one of my favorite places. The Royal Buddah at the Holiday Inn Al Barsha (the hotel I primarily lived at between apartments). They have a very minutive waitress from Miramar named E E that is our regular server. She is very shy and cute, so of course she gets my full grilling about her life and service every time I see her. Well it's always a treat (I have a great fried rice and shrimp dish there) when we go there. Last night, I met Hayley right after work, and while dining I got a phone call from Muzzy about a work issue (yes, the blue cube keeps us working to correct their issues all the time) and I spoke with him. Now it was a normal call that lasted about 5 minutes with me mostly listening. The vacationing British retirees at the adjoining table were not keen on me taking a phone call. The Mrs. ripped into Hayley as I talked on the phone, about my rudeness and if I had a business call I should take it outside. I ended my call and bit my tongue. Her husband sat quietly and I of course felt sorry for him....I probably should have apologized, but I was too mad....Hayley laughed at the lady...oh well, at least I felt young for a moment.
Fred arrives one week from today. I really need a break from the routine. Still haven't planned much. The big event of the month is occurring today. One of our best employees in the warehouse is a young man from India named Shereef. Now Shereef's English is poor, but his work habits are excellent. He routes our trucks and handles delivery emergencies for us. Well, Shereef steered us through a couple of difficult days a couple of weeks ago when our system went down. Well I asked Shereef if there was anything I could do for him to help compensate for his extra work....His answer surprised me. He wanted lunch....with Hayley. lol...Now Hayley is an attractive 25 year old from New York, and under normal circumstances, this just wouldn't happen. Well, Hayley is a trooper, so she agreed. We asked where (I am the chaperon and have the credit card)he would like to dine....he said Chilies(no you can't make these things up). So in a couple of hours, I am hosting a much anticipated lunch date (the warehouse guys are teasing Shereef unmercillessly) by a company. I hope we all have fun, I know my primary responsibilities are driving (Shereef doesn't), paying, and taking lots of pictures.lol.
Steve left yesterday for a 5 day weekend in the UK. The rest of the office was also short of employees as our company soccer team has a match against the head quarters company team in Lebanon this weekend. The company actually is paying for airline tickets for our employees to go root our team to victory. Its nice to see these kind of activities, but no one from Food Service made the team, or is traveling in support.
We had a new joiner to our team (Josie from Kenya) this past week, and two more start this week (Jina from Syria and a young Turkish lad is joining Georges team). I still have three openings to fill - One exciting thing to share about work, is it looks like I need to make a business trip to Australia in April...Enough about work for now.....
I am excited about the approaching American baseball season (My Reds have had a good off season) and TV in general. Survivor (craziest, weirdest show ever last week), American Idol, and Entourage are all in current season, and Game of Thrones returns in April to help pass the time here in the desert. I am going to get a massage this evening, and then hunker down for another 6 days of work on my calendar of servitude. Time now to get in the shower and begin my preening for the lunch date of the decade....Dining in Dubai, will never hit a pinnacle like today again. I will see you here next week, have a great weekend.
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