Four More Years!

My self diagnosis and saving of a trip to the Doctor, apparently has failed. Here I am 14 days later and still hacking and coughing characters from Mario Brothers from my throat and lungs(that would be Luigi- OK gross joke, but somewhat clever for an old blogger). My antibiotics are out, and I am somewhat better, I think I will be like America and stay the same sick course...lol. Speaking of the election...I got so much teasing from my Arab and Indian coworkers and friends...Where to start, I don't think I can...I guess I will just share my response to the multitudes, I told them congrats your guy got elected, and now they were stuck with me for four more years...In all honesty, I got a lot of good natured ribbing, I guess I am one of the better known Americans in the UAE - I am very proud to be an American, and I do think our Republic will survive four more years of Barack.

Our new warehouse is making good progress in getting built. I took a visitor out to it this week, and I was struck by how big it felt inside now that the concrete has been poured. There are a few products that I want to bring in from America, but I am trying to time it so that our warehouse is open. Our engineer responsible for building our new facilities (my buddy Mahesh) is estimating completion shortly after the first of the year. I am hoping we can begin shipping from the facility in March.

This week, I attended a US Dairy Association conference on American Dairy products that are available for export from America to the Middle East. I learned (shockingly) that America exports more dairy products around the world than any other nation. There were 6 US Based companies presenting, only three of them employed Americans to peddle their products. The others, employed Europeans. I guess we could whittle down our unemployment if these American companies used more Americans. I guess though that the US Dairy councils French Manager might not agree with me...sigh.
I have been racking my smaller than average brain trying to come up with a better way to get money back to the states. It costs me $50 to wire money (and an additional $75 in currency exchange fees) back to my bank in the US, and that seems high. I found out that I can use an ATM card in America to withdraw money, and the fee will be about $9. Sounds good, but I can only withdraw $250 a day....why is life a big Rubik's cube to me...
Johnnies social life calendar this past week was highlighted by Kelly taking me out for a late birthday dinner. The gift included an invite to a movie of my choice (she's already seen the Bond flick...) so it will be a great birthday present. Hayley and I had lunch at cheesecake factory yesterday. She says Muzzy is making fun of her wearing glasses, those kids of mine....
Sufi will be joining my food service sales staff this week. I am on a mission to explode sales next year. In August, My first month running sales, our sales shrunk 6% from August 2011 in food service. In September - we grew by 6.1%. It is so similar to what Bob and I inherited at Transmed in 2010. We ended up with 86% growth in 2011, I expect to repeat that at Barakat. I will keep you apprised.
I guess you may have heard that Iran tried to shoot down one of our drones in the Persian Gulf last week. It happened the first of November, a week before the American elections...Hopefully things won't escalate.
Time to hop in the shower and head out for my Friday errands and lunch. My friends in America are never far from my thoughts and hopefully I am not far from yours. See you next Friday...