The Great Al Rayyana Collapse

If you read a few posts back – OK, I realize I haven’t written for a long time, you will see that I have recently moved in to my new apartments. I have just finished furnishing the place with bed, sofa, TV etc when, as I was just about to eat my dinner that Mother had made (Oh yeah, my Mum was visiting at the time) when there was a shake. At first I thought it was an Earthquake but then rested on the fact that it was just somebody upstairs washing their clothes in a noisy washing machine.
Then my phone started ringing, then I got a text, then a knock at the door. It was my friends, running around the corridor Rambo-esque knocking on doors and telling people to look out the window. I looked. This is what I saw –

Basically the carpark and courtyard area of our building had collapsed and it had fallen one story into the underground carpark. Luckily nobody was hurt (better get that bit out of the way – sorry to ruin the ending of the story) but we all had to stand around outside after being officially evacuated.
My Mum wasn’t wearing shoes and she missed her flight as the passport and luggage were left inside and nobody was allowed in to the building to retrieve them.
The collapse cause a fair amount of anxiety for a lot of people, especially those with young children as it made people think of all the inevitable ‘what ifs’ and obviously, the fact we were forced out of our homes.
Before you all feel sorry for me though – read on
About four hours after the collapse we were shuttled via bus, to this fine looking establishment.

The Yas hotel is amazing, just as I was getting used to having to cook and clean for myself I find myself in a world famous hotel (2 weeks and counting now) with all my friends. My Mum even got to stay a night.

The Abu Dhabi Bulge

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.