George W may be arriving a bit late to the Middle East, but at least he timed his trip around my Monday. This week in particular has been busier than any week in the history of weeks. The rainy weather does not help the crazed locals keep things safe on the roads either. I had to teach Abu Baker how to use the defrost on his windshield yesterday evening and explain that there are multiple settings on his windshield wipers since he never uses either. He was so impressed at how much I knew about cars - little did he know that knowing how to defrost your windshield is a necessarily evil where I come from.
Getting to my point, yesterday I had to do work with one of our clients at the Intersec trade show at the Dubai World Trade Center. All in all, it was a lot of fun, a little exhausting, and quite a pain in the butt trying to get media to show up since traffic was backed up about 3 hours from where we were located. Weather played a factor, but apparently heightened security was the biggest concern with Bush coming into town. Would you believe that the havoc wreaked upon the city yesterday with his arrival led the UAE government to call for a public holiday today! We were all advised at 5 pm on Sunday to stay home on Monday. All roads are closed into downtown Dubai and everyone in the public and private sectors have the day off, which means I get to do work at home in my scrubs and sweatshirt. The weather has been pretty dreary as well, with flood waters and downpours but I think it will accommodate a good nap while I'm home today.
Follow these links for some local news on Bush's visit:Gulfnews
Reuters
ameinfo
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