You may have noticed my flickr.com account hasn’t been updated to include my Abu Dhabi photos. The site is one of many blocked in the UAE — d’oh.

As in above even the warmest of Irish summers. I may not survive July/August.

It’s been raining on and off for the last four days. The drizzle is considered lucky here as, apart from, y’know, falling in the desert, it coincided with George Bush’s visit. Curiously, it also coincided with my recovery from a head cold that kept me off work for a day (this is bad for me). Ah well.

Above you see a genuine Abu Dhabi puddle, complete with a genuine AD taxi — incidentally if you ever visit, the white and gold cabs are the cheapest. Silver ones cost much more.

Much of the city’s lustre is lost beneath an overcast sky. Perhaps it’s that I live in a developing part of town, or perhaps it’s something else. Certainly this is very much a city of contrasts — rent is sky high, food and taxis are cheap. There are wonderful new buildings alongside ones that are fit to be torn down (and probably will be to make room for new, shiny highrises), as you can see below. Abu Dhabi is both wealthy and poor.

The familiar is very different here, as evidenced in the below photos. That’s not to say it’s bad — I like it here — but it takes time to adjust. That I was able to settle into the apartment so soon is helping a lot. That my Arabic is still rubbish is not, even if it’s not the barrier you might think.

There’s still so much to see here, and I will post more photos when I get a chance.