Life is for living and I have not
yet lost my desire for new time experiences. I was able to add to my
collection of firsts last week. After W's disappointment over the Edinburgh Dyson
hairdryer-gate we landed at the 18th century country mansion, Dunnikier
House hotel in Kirkcaldy, Fife. The following day we were to do the Elie Chain
Walk. This is a short walk (just a couple of hours) along the cliff face – but can
only be done when the tide is out. The walk is made possible through the use of
stainless chains bolted into the cliff face at a number of points along the
walk. These allow the walker to climb or descend vertical sections and traverse
other sections. It was exhilarating and such a great way to spend a hot and
sunny bank holiday Monday with friends.
Unfortunately, Tuesday meant a drive
back to Manchester, and jumping on the early morning plane bound for Abu Dhabi.
The project the University has there is in good shape and colleagues were
really making a difference to the lives and wellbeing of the young people placed
in the young offenders centre. The visit coincided with the Al Israa wal Miraj public
holiday. Unlike the British equivalent, this holiday was tacked on to the end
of the working week. It wasn’t a problem for the visit but no alcohol
was sold in the 24 hours leading up to the holiday. Strangely the 24 hours was
not the 24 hours immediately before the holiday, which was just as well as
there was a bit of a football match in the hotel bar big screen, and for the
first time in my life I spent an evening watching football – Real Madrid
versus Manchester City. But it was an interesting, albeit, a very noisy
experience.
The visit to Abu Dhabi was to
resolve some contractual problems and on the last day I had a meeting on the
roof terrace of the Viceroy hotel. Ascetically and architecturally, it is a
marvel, day and night. Part of the hotel straddles the Formula 1 race track, and at times the conversation was made slightly more difficult because of the
racing cars roaring around the track – but it was another first. I was also
able, for the first time visit our University office in the city centre, a circular tower building that was all glass,
and stainless steel. Thanks to Graeme for his superb hospitality and access to communication
technology expertise and facilities.
Technology was an important
feature in last week's work, and the pace of change in what is now possible never
ceases to amaze me. It enables ideas to be shared, for time zones to be
transcended and conversations to take place where before they simply wouldn’t
have been possible. There was even wi-fi available on the plane, although I couldn't
get it to work, I am sure it will soon mean business will get done 24 hours a
day where you happen to be, even if that happens to be 40,000 feet up in the
sky. But it was good to be able to keep in touch, although as the visit to the
project demonstrates, at times it's important to make sure you can still have face
2 face conversations.
Friday, saw a return to the UK,
then a drive up to the House in Scotland. It is always good to get back home, and to get
grounded once again. Monday is the start of a new working week, with a new set of challenges to face
and opportunities to explore. But right now, this is the last time I am going to
make use of technology until I'm sitting at my desk on Monday morning – the
heat in Abu Dhabi was intense, here the day promises to be a more familiar
British Spring Day and it will be good to get outside with Cello and stretch my legs.
Having said that however, my
shout out this week is to a lady called Judith. I have never met her and only
know her through Twitter conversations and re-tweets. Last week I could feel
for her as she tweeted her frustration and not being able to get her blog
together sufficiently to post - and hadn't been able to do so for 5 weekends on
the trot. But yesterday came a confirmation tweet to say the draft of her post had
been completed! As I’m looking forward to reading it, I may just keep my
phone on after all - as Lily Bobtail might say, 'just in case!'
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