Good Morning...

Its a bit after 7am here... I am up early on a Friday morning although Friday here is the Islamic Holy day in which everyone has the day off.  Its like Sunday was when I was a kid in which shops dont open until later (if at all) and everyone is supposed to go to church (or the mosque here).

So why am I awake so early?  Well, my mobile phone this morning received 2 text messages as it lay on the charger beside my bed.  The first at 6:04am said was a message from the Abu Dhabi police to tell me that I was caught speeding on the 16th (see story below) and that I should "remember to obey the traffic rules".  Just a friendly reminder... 

This message woke me up... which meant I had to get up to go to the bathroom and it interrupted my sleep.

I go back to bed... snoozing turns into dozing which turns into sleeping....

BEEP BEEP

7:00am... "HSBC ATM Cards will not work in non-HSBC ATM's from the hours of 2am and 6am on the 27th of March.  HSBC ATM Cards will work in HSBC ATM Machines"

WTF?  OK, I am awake... I am up... so much for the Friday sleep in and here I am at the computer venting about it...

Who thought it was a great idea to send "official" SMS's at 6am and 7am on a Friday morning?!