Activities

In an earlier blog I tossed in a picture of me steering a 42' sailboat away from Abu Dhabi, don't worry we didn't go far, but it was a great way to spend a Thursday afternoon out of the office.

This picture shows Abu Dhabi in the background and on the boat is me steering, Erika the actual Captain of the boat, one of her crew and sitting down is my boss in the purple cap and our Fitness Center Manager in the purple shirt on the left. All five of us from the Athletic Department went out to see what the boat would offer if we started offering sailing classes to students.

Certainly not a tough way to spend a Thursday afternoon. The fourth member of our staff is now steering while the 5th member is behind the camera taking pictures. Our Thursday is the end of the work week and on the way back in we were escorted by two dolphins who were swimming beside us and jumping out of the water. A nice way to end the week.

So on the 7th we went Kayaking and since then have sent 20 students out on a kayaking adventure, on the 21st we went sailing, on the 15th I attended and spoke at a walk to help raise awareness about breast cancer. It turns out I was the featured speaker because I'm a man and men talking about breast cancer here in the UAE are tough to find. So I spoke to the crowd of about 400 before the walk about family history, education and early detection.

On October 22nd I was invited to a Polo Match which was also a breast health awareness event. Never been to a Polo Match before and I now know there are four team members not counting horses (4 of those too) on the field. I ended up not doing much talking to any group there, but did do a television interview. Come to think of it I don't even know if that aired. I'll have to check.

On the 27th I attended my first ever Cricket Match. Some of my fellow employees and students are big cricket fans so 12 of us went to a T20 match, which is a much shorter version of a match and lasts around 3 hrs, between Pakistan and South Africa that was taking place here in Abu Dhabi. Cricket is huge in South Africa, Pakistan, India, England, Australia and many other countries and it was nice to go with some folks who could explain the game to me. We also had one American there who was able to explain it to a few of us that could also relate it to baseball.

I know this, I can now read a report of a cricket match in the sports page and at least understand it. Normally Cricket has Test matches which can last 1 day (about 8 - 9 hrs) or 3 or 5 days. A T20 match has 20 overs and each over has 6 balls so the bowler {pitcher} throws 120 balls to the batsmen on the other team and they try to score as many runs as possible. If the bowler knocks down 10 wickets he's gotten the other side out. The match I went to ended on a sixer for South Africa after 18 overs and 8 wickets. Don't I sound educated?

Sorry no pictures from Cricket or the Polo match. I did get a new digital camera when I signed up for a 1 yr subscription for The National newspaper though and I took it to Athens with me the following weekend.

QOB: "One thing common to most success stories is the alarm clock." Anonymous

Stay cool or for some of you stay warm. The weather has turned back there in the states, but it's now beautiful here.

Wayne