[RC] Linda in Abu Dhabi - Day 3, part 1 - Jay Randle
Hi Everybody
My day started at 5.30 am to give me time to get up and organised before breakfast. At breakfast Meg announced that we were going to go to the Emirates Palace Hotel for dinner on Wednesday evening with Stefano (Italian head vet from Al Asal stables) and Sefian (Moroccan head vet from Al Reef stables). We drove through this place the last time I was here and it is just unbelievably huge and ornate and grandiose and anything else you like to think of. Of course, this put us into a quandary as to what to wear so it was decided that we needed to head to the Marina Mall in Abu Dhabi that afternoon to make some suitable purchases. The trip out to the stables was spent discussing the various clothing options and what we needed to buy for this occasion.
The changes along the roadside since I was here last are quite dramatic. Lots and lots of road works going on at the moment. New housing estates have been put in and lots of the old, very ugly and tattered buildings have been pulled down. While the eyesores have gone some of the quaintness of the old buildings has also disappeared. There are still plenty of small shops on the ground floor and five or six storey apartment blocks above but it seems like this may be a dying breed! The new housing estates have blocks of about 100 houses, all exactly the same design and all the same colour and a temple. I’m assuming somewhere in the midst is a little shopping centre but it isn’t immediately apparent from driving by. It’s lucky the Arabs don’t drink because it’d be pretty tough finding your house if you were inebriated!
We caught up with the Americans today, Jan Worthington and John Crandell. They’re horses have come from the depths of winter and are very hairy. They leave their horses out over night without any rugs on and we had been concerned about them getting cold until we learnt that temps over there were -10 degrees! They are still just hand walking their horses as they arrived after ours. The hotel is also starting to fill up with some of the other international riders. Phillipe Benoit from France, some Belgium girls and a couple of others are there. There isn’t such a large contingent of international riders this year and there are very few ‘name’ riders amongst those invited. Poland seems to have got a guernsey for the first time this year so they are a bit of a dark horse.
On the way out to the stables Naomi espied a bit of McTasty sitting on the side of the road. For those not in the know a McTasty is a delectable piece of manflesh! Unfortunately we couldn’t stop and check him out further as the traffic was a bit busy and there is no roadside verge on which to pull over due to the concrete barriers! A bit disappointing but hopefully he’ll be there again. During the drive to the stable Naomi won the comment of the day award! She was telling me about getting ice-cream from the Buckskin & Rabbits shop (should have been Baskin & Robbins). Poor old Kristie cracked up that bad laughing she could barely see where she was driving. Needless to say the B & R quote has been used repeatedly.
