Pack your bags, we're headed to Paris!

Resort weather has arrived in Dubai. It is absolutely beautiful, temperatures in the low 90's and the sky is clear and very blue.

The above is the view from my Sandoval Garden Balcony this morning at 10 am. The early morning sun worshippers are out, of course, I am staying out of the sun....wouldn't want the Sun to ruin my pastie white complexion. No chance of rain (December/January can't be that far away) and forecasts of low to mid 90's for the next week put a smile on my desert weary heat stressed face. It has been a long summer.
Speaking of nice weather, the forecast for Paris next week is nice fall weather. highs will be in the low 60's and lows near 50. I am flying to France on Monday morning to attend the Sial International trade show. I attended the same show two years ago with other managers from Transmed. This time, I am the sole attendee and have lots of scheduled meetings to pack into just a few days. I am returning on the "red eye" flight back to Dubai on Wednesday night, arriving after a 7 hour flight at dawn on Thursday morning.
Speaking of long flights, my dear friend Kelly is boarding a flight(s) and flying a total of 18 hours back to Dubai today. I heard from her a couple of times during her Ace corporate training in Chicago and she claims to be learning a lot. It's funny not having her around for a couple of weeks has been stressful. We are each others psychologists, sadly I lie on the couch much more than she does in our relationship. I hope I can squeeze a lunch in with her before I leave town (wouldn't want her to miss me for another week)...the poor gal...lol.
It was nice to have my friend and former Transmedian colleague Kumail join the Barakat sales team this week. He is going to be a main cog in the newly created restaurant channel. Surprisingly, Barakat has never pursued the restaurant business, concentrating instead on the 5 star hotels. I have begun budgeting and setting the plan numbers for 2013 for our food service group (Barakat International). It looks like the final goal will be 150 million or 100% growth. These companies in the Region...sigh...I thought the 86% growth the Transmed team achieved in 2011 was tough...lol.
This is Fred and Debbie's anniversary weekend. The crisp Autumn air of Knoxville, Tennessee will be alive with romance this weekend! I am blogging it in case I forget to send my wishes. They have been married now for 25 or so years - it seems like yesterday that I threw snowballs at their parked car on their first "real" date on a wintry evening in the King College parking lot in 1983...what a great lifelong friend I have been...lol, probably have been the cause of over more of their "disagreements" in their quarter century of marriage...Remember, adversity will make your bonds stronger...you're both welcome - glad that I have helped!
Well, I need to hop in the shower, and get ready to face the world. Lunch, dry cleaning drop off, and face driving in Dubai trying to accomplish all of the normal Friday errands that need completed.
I hope your weekend is nice (no Nick I am not going to blog about the Cardinals every week, and how sweet it is for them to be going (almost) to the World Series while the greedy Albert Pujols sits at home counting his millions)...but I did mention it - hope you are happy.
So happy weekend to all, especially Fred & Debbie!
I am going to go and get ready to mingle with the French!!!!