I have been on a diet for the last 6 months and have managed to lose 30lbs. I am happy about this. In the last month however I have put back on 5lbs. I blame this on the Abu Dhabi effect.
I am not sure if anyone else going out there next month is experiencing this weight gain (how could I?) but it is starting to piss me off and I know that it is going to get worse before it gets better.
Here are the reasons I think this is happening:
1. Leaving drinks
I have already had 3 leaving based celebrations. One for leaving the school a couple of weeks before the end of term and one on the last day and a third one for leaving my friends in Southampton) These have involved, without exception, my weight loss kryptonite – Pizza and beer.
2. Moving house
I have been moving a lot of stuff this last week or so, this means that the fridge had to be cleaned out, and the oven professionally cleaned before my departure so I get my deposit back. This inevitably lead to eating takeaway food every night for a week.
3. No gym for me.
My membership has now run out as I am leaving the city – I also couldn’t get there as my bike was stolen, and it is a long walk. I used to go on the way back from school, but because I am not there anymore, there was no motivation.
4. Leaving Presents
In my school, amongst the students, I have a reputation of being a bit of a sweets/chocolate fiend. (I even had a sweet treats snack rule in my classroom – this involved taking 10% of a student’s sweets or chocolate if they got caught eating in my room, if they paid it, they could carry on. This soon lead to no chocolate being eaten in my class because they finally realised that if they shared with teacher, they had to share with everyone) On the last day of term I was gifted many boxes of chocolates and packets of sweets. (They know me well). I have eaten them all.
5. Nervous / stress / boredom eating
Because I am going through a big change, maybe I am eating out of nervousness. Maybe because I am a bit in limbo, I am boredom eating. I doubt this but 5 reasons is a good number and I am slightly OCD.
This is only going to get worse. When I arrive in the Emirates I am going to be living in a hotel for up to a month, this will mean, again, takeaways. I will be meeting a lot of new friends (I hope) and will be going out with them a lot.
I need to think of a way around this as I still have two weeks of goodbye meals and drinks to get through before I go. I hope they put another fat person on the other side of the plane or we will be flying in circles if this carries on.
Saturday 28 July 2012
Thursday 12 July 2012
Excited much?
I feel, after that uncharacteristically pessimistic post I should balance it out with all the things I am looking forward to doing and seeing and experiencing.
1. Extreme desert sports (Dune Bashing, sand surfing, camel racing)
2. All you can eat/drink brunches
3. Meeting a brand new group of friends
4. Dubai on the doorstep
5. New foods
6. Every premiership game shown – even the 3pm kick offs on a Saturday
7. Being rich
8. Actually holidaying in the school holidays (Thailand, Mexico, Australia, Peru)
9. Living in a 5 star hotel for a few weeks, I have never been above a 3 star before
10. My friends and family visiting me.
11. Exploring and experiencing a brand new culture. I have heard that Emirati life is much less stressful and slower moving than UK life. I think I will fit right in.
12. Can’t believe I am putting this as I hate shopping, but I love negotiating and bartering so I can’t wait to get down to the local souks (markets) and drive a hard bargain.
It is my last week of school next week. I can’t wait to get my e-ticket.
1. Extreme desert sports (Dune Bashing, sand surfing, camel racing)
2. All you can eat/drink brunches
3. Meeting a brand new group of friends
4. Dubai on the doorstep
5. New foods
6. Every premiership game shown – even the 3pm kick offs on a Saturday
7. Being rich
8. Actually holidaying in the school holidays (Thailand, Mexico, Australia, Peru)
9. Living in a 5 star hotel for a few weeks, I have never been above a 3 star before
10. My friends and family visiting me.
11. Exploring and experiencing a brand new culture. I have heard that Emirati life is much less stressful and slower moving than UK life. I think I will fit right in.
12. Can’t believe I am putting this as I hate shopping, but I love negotiating and bartering so I can’t wait to get down to the local souks (markets) and drive a hard bargain.
It is my last week of school next week. I can’t wait to get my e-ticket.
The 11 things that scare me most
Of course, it is not all excitement, there are a few minor worries that I think I should let you know about.
1. What if I cannot teach over there?
2. What if nobody likes me and I become a social outcast?
3. I don’t drive, what if I get stuck in a school that is miles away from my living space?
4. What if a scorpion gets me?
5. Or a camel spider?
6. Or a camel?
7. What if my apartment is tiny?
8. What if I inadvertently offend a local?
9. What if I don’t get paid?
10. What if I get fired?
11. What if I get arrested?
I wish I didn’t write this. I was in such a good mood before.
I am hoping that these are natural feelings because, to be honest, I am mainly (99%) looking forward to my adventure in the sand pit. (hope that isn’t offensive)
1. What if I cannot teach over there?
2. What if nobody likes me and I become a social outcast?
3. I don’t drive, what if I get stuck in a school that is miles away from my living space?
4. What if a scorpion gets me?
5. Or a camel spider?
6. Or a camel?
7. What if my apartment is tiny?
8. What if I inadvertently offend a local?
9. What if I don’t get paid?
10. What if I get fired?
11. What if I get arrested?
I wish I didn’t write this. I was in such a good mood before.
I am hoping that these are natural feelings because, to be honest, I am mainly (99%) looking forward to my adventure in the sand pit. (hope that isn’t offensive)
About the Job
The reaction I have been getting when telling people that I am going to work in the desert is overwhelmingly positive. People have been saying ‘to get it done while you are young’ and ‘you will have a blast, it is a great country’. A few people have warned me about getting my hands cut off for stealing. But I don’t steal (check my CRB police check) so it will be fine.
I also have been asked a lot of questions about what exactly I will be doing and what the package will be like. I will try and answer these questions now.
1. I will be flying over around mid-August. I do not have my ticket yet but I am assured that it will arrive in my Hotmail inbox a week before departure.
2. I do not have to pay for my ticket and it is not my responsibility to sort it out. The ticket is part of a very generous package that also includes accommodation, medical, non-cosmetic (damn) dental, a furniture allowance and a return air-fare home.
3. The salary is pretty much the same as what I am earning at the moment. The difference is that it is TAX-FREE. This means I will get all my money in the bank as there will be no pension payments, no student loan (although I do need to see about that before I leave) and no national insurance deductions. Coupled with the rent saving this should mean I have around double in my bank after pay-day. (ABU DHABI DOOOO)
4. I have not started to learn Arabic yet minus a few key phrases for thank you, hello and goodbye. I really would love to learn but I am still teaching full time at the moment and think it will be better when immersed in the language when I move. (I will be conscious of not being a ‘Brits Abroad’ stereotype though, and will have a few polite phrases ready.
5. I do have a few worries, I will address these in the next post (they warrant a post of their own)
6. There is no war going on and it is a very safe country.
7. You are allowed to drink, but not allowed to be drunk on the streets.
8. The horror stories of people getting put in prison for holding hands or kissing in public are true. But, just by looking at the statistics, this is extremely rare. The Great-British-Media-Moral-Panic makes it out to be front-page news whenever it happens. I have seen about 3 in the last 5 years.
9. I will be teaching English to Emirati students and other students of Arabic decent in a local school, not a private one.
I think that covers most of it. Any more questions – use the comment section.
Go on, it will make my day.
I also have been asked a lot of questions about what exactly I will be doing and what the package will be like. I will try and answer these questions now.
1. I will be flying over around mid-August. I do not have my ticket yet but I am assured that it will arrive in my Hotmail inbox a week before departure.
2. I do not have to pay for my ticket and it is not my responsibility to sort it out. The ticket is part of a very generous package that also includes accommodation, medical, non-cosmetic (damn) dental, a furniture allowance and a return air-fare home.
3. The salary is pretty much the same as what I am earning at the moment. The difference is that it is TAX-FREE. This means I will get all my money in the bank as there will be no pension payments, no student loan (although I do need to see about that before I leave) and no national insurance deductions. Coupled with the rent saving this should mean I have around double in my bank after pay-day. (ABU DHABI DOOOO)
4. I have not started to learn Arabic yet minus a few key phrases for thank you, hello and goodbye. I really would love to learn but I am still teaching full time at the moment and think it will be better when immersed in the language when I move. (I will be conscious of not being a ‘Brits Abroad’ stereotype though, and will have a few polite phrases ready.
5. I do have a few worries, I will address these in the next post (they warrant a post of their own)
6. There is no war going on and it is a very safe country.
7. You are allowed to drink, but not allowed to be drunk on the streets.
8. The horror stories of people getting put in prison for holding hands or kissing in public are true. But, just by looking at the statistics, this is extremely rare. The Great-British-Media-Moral-Panic makes it out to be front-page news whenever it happens. I have seen about 3 in the last 5 years.
9. I will be teaching English to Emirati students and other students of Arabic decent in a local school, not a private one.
I think that covers most of it. Any more questions – use the comment section.
Go on, it will make my day.
About Me
Hopefully, in time, you will find out about what I am like by my writings. Before then though I feel I should tell you all a bit about myself, if for no other reason than to put my experiences in context.
I like bullet points sometimes – Here are 10 things about me:
• I am an English teacher with 3 years experience in comprehensive, inner city English schools.
• I am very impressionable and have been called ‘faddy’ (As in, I sometimes get into fads, not to be confused with ‘fatty’. I collected Pokemon cards, football stickers and Pogs as a child and never got a complete set of any of them. I have tried, and failed, to go on the Atkins Diet, and every time we get a training day at school about some new initiate, I will love it and use it for at least a week, if it was presented to me by someone charismatic.)
• I am a fussy eater
• I cannot live without certain things – Manchester United games on the TV, an internet connection to play online poker on, a few popular science books, English tea (will have to get used to putting the ‘English’ prefix in there) and Cigarettes – although I hope to stop when I start work.
• I like to socialise a lot, most people take ‘socialise’ as a not-so-clever euphemism for ‘drinking’ – In this case, well done. You saw right through me.
• I like to do things. I cannot stand doing nothing for more than a day. I like to be out and about and I enjoy other peoples’ company. I would rather spend a day with someone who I have nothing in common with than be alone.
• Some people say I have an addictive personality, and after looking at some of the case studies I think I admit, just, that I may. (Cigarettes, poker, the gym, Gran Turismo)
• I really enjoy being able to teach young people things that will help them in their future lives.
• When I grow up I would like to be either an actor, a stand up comedian, a magician or a rock singer.
• I am 26 years old, I am single, I don’t have any children, I have dark hair that needs a cut and a beard that needs a tidy up. I love holidays. I am 12st 11lbs and looking to lose another 4lbs. I am English.
Hope that gives you a bit of a picture of me. If not – see below.
I like bullet points sometimes – Here are 10 things about me:
• I am an English teacher with 3 years experience in comprehensive, inner city English schools.
• I am very impressionable and have been called ‘faddy’ (As in, I sometimes get into fads, not to be confused with ‘fatty’. I collected Pokemon cards, football stickers and Pogs as a child and never got a complete set of any of them. I have tried, and failed, to go on the Atkins Diet, and every time we get a training day at school about some new initiate, I will love it and use it for at least a week, if it was presented to me by someone charismatic.)
• I am a fussy eater
• I cannot live without certain things – Manchester United games on the TV, an internet connection to play online poker on, a few popular science books, English tea (will have to get used to putting the ‘English’ prefix in there) and Cigarettes – although I hope to stop when I start work.
• I like to socialise a lot, most people take ‘socialise’ as a not-so-clever euphemism for ‘drinking’ – In this case, well done. You saw right through me.
• I like to do things. I cannot stand doing nothing for more than a day. I like to be out and about and I enjoy other peoples’ company. I would rather spend a day with someone who I have nothing in common with than be alone.
• Some people say I have an addictive personality, and after looking at some of the case studies I think I admit, just, that I may. (Cigarettes, poker, the gym, Gran Turismo)
• I really enjoy being able to teach young people things that will help them in their future lives.
• When I grow up I would like to be either an actor, a stand up comedian, a magician or a rock singer.
• I am 26 years old, I am single, I don’t have any children, I have dark hair that needs a cut and a beard that needs a tidy up. I love holidays. I am 12st 11lbs and looking to lose another 4lbs. I am English.
Hope that gives you a bit of a picture of me. If not – see below.
Reasons for starting a new blog
Hello,
This blog will charter my traveling adventures around the world (ambitious I know). I have recently signed a contract to work for the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) and I have been told, by my agency, that I should expect my e-plane-ticket between the 8th and 12th of August.
Reasons for keeping a blog Journal:
1. Narcissism - I miss keeping a diary. I have recently found an old diary that I kept on my first big adventure of moving into my own house when I was 16. It made me smile about a lot of things that I had forgotten about. I want to be able to come and look at the things I did when I am older, and maybe more settled than I am now, and think that I didn’t do so bad with my lot. (There will be a lot of self indulgent rubbish, I will try to edit it out)
2. Exhibitionism – People that know me know that I like to show off sometimes. I would like a big audience for the blog (who wouldn’t?) and it would make my day just to see a couple of comments on my posts.
3. Connection(ism) – I hate having to tell the same stories over and over again, mainly because I like to embellish and exaggerate facts and it is sometimes difficult to keep up with what embellishments I have told to which people. This blog will be a truthful, if biased, account of what actually happens to me. I can save the exaggerations and male bravado for the bars.
4. To give something back – Before leaving for Abu Dhabi, I have read about 6 blogs about the experience. Women with families wrote all of them (that I could find) and, although extremely helpful about what to expect when I arrived, it didn’t sum up the experiences I wanted to have. This blog could hopefully, some time around June 2013, help other maybe-employees of the Abu Dhabi Government decide if it is what they want to do.
5. Practice – I eventually would like to write full time, and they say that writers should write. This (and my other blog: London Ramblings) will be my outlet.
I shall be keeping up my London Ramblings Blog as much as I can, but it will remain as an academic (ahem) blog about things that interest me. Abu Dhabi Doo will be about me and my experiences of new places.
This blog will charter my traveling adventures around the world (ambitious I know). I have recently signed a contract to work for the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC) and I have been told, by my agency, that I should expect my e-plane-ticket between the 8th and 12th of August.
Reasons for keeping a blog Journal:
1. Narcissism - I miss keeping a diary. I have recently found an old diary that I kept on my first big adventure of moving into my own house when I was 16. It made me smile about a lot of things that I had forgotten about. I want to be able to come and look at the things I did when I am older, and maybe more settled than I am now, and think that I didn’t do so bad with my lot. (There will be a lot of self indulgent rubbish, I will try to edit it out)
2. Exhibitionism – People that know me know that I like to show off sometimes. I would like a big audience for the blog (who wouldn’t?) and it would make my day just to see a couple of comments on my posts.
3. Connection(ism) – I hate having to tell the same stories over and over again, mainly because I like to embellish and exaggerate facts and it is sometimes difficult to keep up with what embellishments I have told to which people. This blog will be a truthful, if biased, account of what actually happens to me. I can save the exaggerations and male bravado for the bars.
4. To give something back – Before leaving for Abu Dhabi, I have read about 6 blogs about the experience. Women with families wrote all of them (that I could find) and, although extremely helpful about what to expect when I arrived, it didn’t sum up the experiences I wanted to have. This blog could hopefully, some time around June 2013, help other maybe-employees of the Abu Dhabi Government decide if it is what they want to do.
5. Practice – I eventually would like to write full time, and they say that writers should write. This (and my other blog: London Ramblings) will be my outlet.
I shall be keeping up my London Ramblings Blog as much as I can, but it will remain as an academic (ahem) blog about things that interest me. Abu Dhabi Doo will be about me and my experiences of new places.
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