Paradise City

Oh, hello. I didn't see you sitting there.

It has been a while. The last few weeks--almost a month, really--have been spent in North America, the land of awesome weddings, awesome beaches and awesome food.

Awesome beach, with awesome dog.

Now Mrs. Blog and I have returned to the UAE, the land of... well... awesome weather. At least this time of year.

There's no gentle way to put this, but it is never an easy transition. Abu Dhabi really is the land of a million daily paper cuts in a lot of ways. For Mrs. Blog, especially, it is a firehose of icy water blasting away the comforts of Southern California, where she has stayed the last few months. Now instead of playing fetch with our dog in the morning, she is faced with playing a game I like to call "catch a taxi and try to explain where you want to go without using an address." It's not fun, but can be rewarding.

But we need to be fair to Abu Dhabi here. This is the best time of year to be in the UAE--the temperatures are perfect, the humidity is almost zero and those qualities draw all the fun out of hibernation. Last night we went to Arts Abu Dhabi at the Emirates Palace Hotel and wandered (along with thousands of others) among masterworks by artists like Jeff Koons. Our favorite bit, though, was an "art sensation" labyrinth they had set up on the beach... complete with cocktails!

Then there's the F1 race this month. And a concert by Prince. And all of those things (combined with the great weather... did I mention that?) make the transition back from the land of pork and beer just a little less traumatic.