Things are Heating up in the UAE

This week this blog could go so many directions. big job changes, sweltering heat. and rapidly beating drums of war might be a few things to drivel about. I am a little slow moving about this morning due to my former employees throwing me a goodbye/congratulation party. Wednesday marked my completion of two years of employment at Transmed, and also the end of my career there. I am sure that almost everyone that visits this blog frequently, knows about my resignation. I have accepted a new career opportunity at another UAE based company (Barakat International). I don't actually start for another 10 days or so (due to Visa requirements), so we will save for a future date the details about the upcoming exciting position.
In the last week, it has reached 120 degrees here. On Tuesday, as I pulled into my local Subway for my favorite breakfast (egg and cheese on sesame sub bread - yes I eat it several times a week, so as much as I love it, it's only a matter of time until I won't be able to eat it, sigh....) the temperature was 100 degrees. You will have to trust me, when it is breaking 100 degrees at 8 am, it's hot. No chance for an afternoon shower (Clouds? - a man can dream can't he?) in the 8 months of summer here,  the humidity in the morning and evening is incredible. (last night at midnight heat index was 129 degrees). Well Tuesday was slated to be my last full day at work. The 10 story office building that is Transmed's UAE headquarters was a sauna. The air conditioning had gone down overnight.I worked until 1 pm, I left when I was so soaked in sweat. The smell, well, let's just say I would not want to experience another day like it. The air conditioning was not fixed until sometime that night.

Several of my employees did a pretty cool thing, they came over to my apartment last night for a send-off celebration. We dined on CAB hamburger patties and they gave me some nice gifts (Mont Blanc Wallet and Key chain) and Fathuma and Josie made me a hand stitched flower (Needle point) and framed it for me (my walls are painfully bare). I had a wonderful time and it was very touching that they would visit.

By the way, while I am unemployed for the next 10 days, I am suspending the self imposed 2 picture max blog rule :-). Muzzy (Tonto), Hayley, Fathuma, (me) Josie, Juan, Kelly and Kumail are pictured above, Vinny snapped it and Ceren and Lauren had already left.
It is becoming more likely with each passing day that there will be a conflict between Iran and somebody over here very soon. As a refresher, the governments of Iran and the UAE have very poor relations. There are actually 3 small Islands located in the Persian Gulf that are claimed by the UAE as territory and occupied by the Iranians.

Dubai is less than 100 miles from the narrowest part of the Straight of Hormuz. The United States has a large Air Force presence in the UAE (you never see an American military serviceman in uniform in the UAE) and we also have a huge fleet harbored in Bahrain (right next to Qatar on the map). The Iranian Parliament has just voted to block the straight, and the Iranian government has just show cased their missile ability and threatened to attack the countries that are hosting American troops. You add to the mix the fact that Israel will probably find a way to take out Iran's nuclear capabilities if the rest of the world fails. I am nervous (mainly from job issues-more than a fear of war killing me) but so far life and commerce here are normal.
As a funny aside form last week, my blog title "Nipplemania" caused my blog hits to go up. Last week there were 70 hits to the site (yes if you google"nipple and John Bruck" this blog is the number 1 search result. Danny Messimer is always asking for more sex and action in the  blog, and Hayley and Muzzy are bored with the content, so maybe they have proven a little risque-ness can go a long way...lol.
I am really excited about my new job, I will try and keep that excitement going to stave off the inevitable boredom that having no job for the next two weeks will certainly bring. I will try and stay cool and hopefully things won't heat up war wise in my backyard. See you here next week, and thank you for checking on me.