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Its been a while and I apologise for the time span between this and the last blog. Two main reasons really. I've been a lot busier at work and I haven't done a lot of different things to write about of late. To get through to Al Ain I have been starting the day at 5.30am in the car so I can get the first training sessions underway at 7.30am. Come the weekend I'm looking to chill and haven't really been out and about. You will notice a couple of new photo albums attached with this one new blog entry. I've added, The Corniche, National Day Celebrations, Dubai Sevens, and National Day in school. They all deserve their own place to tell a story of what has been happening and what happens over here.The Corniche here in Abu Dhabi I have walked along it multiple times as its a great place to go and chill, think and just stroll. I hate to think of the hours that it has taken to do all of the cobbling as the Corniche runs for miles and miles. Fountains, little parks, rest areas and vendor machines in case you need food or drink. (All chained and locked up during Ramadan of course) But it not unusual to see Dolphins or fish cruising along. A pretty good place all in all.The National Days celebrations continue to reverberate around my building as just about every man woman and child is out on the streets of Abu Dhabi. I'm talking the population of Auckland (1,000,000) in an area of 3 square kilometers out celebrating their National day. Cars are decorated up with stickers, paint, balloons, paper anything they can get their hands on. Not only the cars but the streets the buildings nothing is spared. 50% of the cars are sounding their horns and the other 50% are racing their engines. On the way home this one car literally blew-up with smoke pouring out from under the bonnet as they revved their engine up and down the rev counter scales. There are cars racing along the Corniche road way with people hanging out of the sun roofs or open air cars speeding along with people sitting up on the back. Noise and engines and sound and people. Nothing quite like anything I've stood in the middle of before. This is not just the young people out revving it up but people of all ages.The School National day celebration the boys all took quite seriously as well. The boys were 11-12 year olds (With a few older boys as there is no social promotion here in the Emirates, you fail you stay behind) and the National Day assembly handed out prizes and such. There were poetry readings quiz shows, dances and reading from the Koran. Check the photo's out of the day.For those of you that have been to the Wellington Sevens know that it is a fantastic party an event really hard to beat. Two months before the Dubai sevens the area for the fields was bare sand. In two months they set up the main ground with four grandstands and five surrounding fields. The stands supposedly held 50,000 people but my personal opinion is that the count took into account all of the people on the outside fields as well. Every stand was totally scaffolding. Think about it, around 50,000 people in scaffolding stands. They didn't sway too much up top, promise. The fields on the outside were used for a whole range of other competitions. Women's, Men's, Vet's, Internationals 10-12 competitions all up. Now while this gave you something to provide variety and wander around and watch and support a local or two that you had met. On the last day in the afternoon all of the finals get played in the main ground and it goes a bit flat with the lower standard. (6 hours of average games) Dressing up here, is where Wellington was in their very first year. Lots of colour, lots of T-shirts for teams in one colour and a few dressed as loons. Just about all of the people that got on the big screen and won themselves 500AED were from Wellington NZ. They stood out as special but in Wellington they would have been normal. Inside the venue it is treated as International neutral ground so you can buy and drink Alcohol in public. That is if you have the $125NZ dollars for a dozen Hienies. All in all though a good two days that I enjoyed but won't be rushing back to repeat. (Been there, done that, got the T-Shirt)
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