Ramadan Kareem!

Marhaba everyone!

We've been back in Abu Dhabi for two weeks now and we're back into our routine.  Saturday is the start of Ramadan and one of the nice things is that our work day is reduced to six hours.  I'll leave my office a bit earlier to exercise twice a week and I'll stay late on the other three days.  So I'll end up working more hours a week over Ramadan but still fewer than the normal 40.  After that is the EID break and then I'll need to start figuring out when to begin using my twenty work days of vacation this fall.  It will be nice to have all these breaks this fall in the midst of another busy semester at work.  I finally have a new co-worker so it will benefit the library and especially public services!

Our vacation in Alberta and B.C. was great and naturally too short. It was great to see my brother and sister-in-law after three years. Another highlight was seeing the Pacific Ocean on Vancouver Island. We really enjoyed staying at the Middle Beach Lodge.  The $35 seafood dinners were great, view from our balcony and beaches were wonderful.  The weather was unseasonably hot and we got a sunburn despite wearing sunscreen, sunhats and keeping our shirts on.

The long 25 hour journey from Vancouver to Edmonton to Toronto to Frankfurt and finally Abu Dhabi was luckily uneventful.  I'll mention that the Frankfurt Airport is not a very attractive or comfortable place.  They are doing a lot of construction but I don't know how it can improve things.  It felt like one was in a prison by being rather dark and having few windows. 

Below are some interesting stories from our neck of the woods:

A bygone age brought back to life
Love that stands the test of time
Saudi ready to unveil its future
Shoe repairer's soul is in the souq
The poetry in personal messages
Abu Dhabi's last wind tower to be preserved