Another week has disappeared and I somehow find myself in my fourth week already, the time seems to have flown by and I feel like I have really settled in now. 

Work last week was very productive as I managed to prepare 17 RFC’s (requests for change).  These are changes that the main contractor (Khansaheb), have discovered between the tender drawings on which the job was priced and later revisions of the drawings issued by the client and their consultants for construction.  These changes are usually changes of design or the introduction of new materials etc.  As a result of these changes there is normally a cost implication and the RFC is a tool to set the wheels in motion for getting this extra money from the client!

This week I am starting work on the next stage of the process, which is firming up the costs of each change and submitting them for approval by the client and their consultants.  I have sort of taken over the meeting room as my office now as the site office is tight for space and every desk is being used.  There are drawings in sizes up to A1 and documents of all sorts strewn over the table which I then bundle up and hide under the table when a meeting is away to start.  It is very interesting sitting in on these meetings and I feel I am picking up a lot by just sitting in on them and when it comes to me preparing a document later on, something I picked up in a meeting will come in useful as I try to find out the supplier of a particular product for example.

We had an architect over from America last week who has designed the marble water fountain for the extension to the mall where I am working, it has sculptures of horses all around it which have tails of fish.  To construct it, an Italian who is representing a stone company in the middle-east is buying the marble in Italy, shipping it to China and flying an Italian sculptor to China with it to over see it’s construction before shipping the parts of the fountain to Dubai for its final assembly.  It is a huge logistical undertaking but every detail seems to have been accounted for and it is just a shame I wont be here for it’s installation, no matter I will just have to come back for a visit next year! 

I have been exploring the massive mall during my break a little more, now that I have some sense of a bearing in the place and I’ve discovered an amazing smoothie/juice shop where I am currently working my way through its menu, just another 20 or so to go.  Near the hypermarket which itself is insanely huge there is a little bakery/kebab shop (weird combination I know) where most mornings I get a ham & cheese croissant for breakfast at the bargain price of 70p.  The kebabs or shawarmas as they are known here are loads of chicken breasts piled together and cooked on a spit just like normal kebabs but it tastes a lot better and it is piled with a load of salad, all for 80p including a Pepsi!

Last Tuesday I played football again with the guys from work and my UAE strip that I bought from the Souk the previous weekend got its first run out.  I think it did the trick as after hitting the posts and cross bar numerous times, I eventually scored.  I’m sensing a hat trick coming my way this Tuesday.

On the weekend I began with a swim under the near full moon on the Thursday night (it still seems weird finishing the week on a Thursday and starting on a Sunday).  Living in Dubai does have its perks, like the pool a five-minute walk away or if you live in a high rise, then on the top floor with views across the city.  On Friday I went to Friday brunch down by the creek with my host Ian Gordon, his wife and daughter and another family.  This brunch was a help yourself buffet which you got free rein over for four hours!  It was very big on the seafood and the octopus salad was particularly good, the best bit however, was the desserts!  There was so much choice that I couldn’t decide so I just got a dinner plate and had a bit of everything, tiramisu, chocolate mousse (normal and white), coffee tart, fruit tart & fruit salad to name but a few.  There were also watermelons that had eagles heads and decorative patterns carved into them, they were very impressive, had my camera recovered I would have taken some photos.  On that note my camera hasn’t survived its swim in the sea so it looks like I will be treating myself to a new one, there is certainly plenty of choice over here so the only problem will be narrowing it down to which one I want.

After brunch we headed back to watch the Wimbledon semi-finals and watched disappointedly as Murray was put out despite us having a Saltire flag out on the sofa.  I got my fix of TV for the week as the villa I’m staying in isn’t connected for digital and there are no free channels broadcast.  To be honest though I haven’t got much time to spend watching TV.

On Saturday I headed in to the office to do some typing up from my first week when excel wasn’t working on my laptop and a quantity surveyor without excel is like a tennis player without a racket! So thankfully that has been resolved now.  I had also agreed to run around Safa Park, which is a large park in the centre of the city that has a rubber track running for 3.4km around its perimeter.  Ian is part of a running club and he suggested I join them and seen as I’m due to run 10km in Glasgow in September I felt obliged to give it a go.  As the temperature climbed to above 40 degrees I was starting to feel a twinge in my hamstring and hoping I’d left my trainers at home but a verbal contract had been made and I couldn’t back out now.  As it turned out it wasn’t too bad, I was sweating just warming up but as we ran around there was some semblance of a breeze that didn’t feel like its usual hair dryer self. In the end I managed 15 minutes 7 seconds, the next challenge is to do two laps, I might however, save that joy for the last week.