Am connected!

Well, I am writing this post from my office at Masdar... by office I mean temporary pod like construction with plastic walls. By desk I mean cheap Ikea style allen key job that looks like a school desk. But this is the way it is here, and I am not complaining. Until 2010 when the Masdar headquarters will be built, the company will be living in a nomadic existance of demountable buildings that are growing rapidly. My office is on the outside skin of the building, and I am looking inwards to an open plan area and currently there are about 30 indian workers madly fitting it out with workstations. In Australia, office fitouts would occur at night, but here, we are all working whilst workmen hammer, drill and drop things with abandon.

And I think this is an example of the clear "organised chaos" here in the UAE. The building I am in is still having the footpaths put in outside and they are preparing the ground for further extensions between my building (known as SAF2) and the first building (SAF1) where the reception area is. I will take some photos and put them up tonight. Behind us, the construction is underway for the huge Photovoltaic plant that will be used to generate power for the site and then the city and then, hopefully collect enough energy to pump back into the Abu Dhabi grid.

The issue with today is that all day has been a mini-sandstorm day with the breeze up and visibility down to about 100 metres. In Australia, you would have water carts keeping the dust down as earthworks shifted the clay soil around. Here, it is all sand and "keeping the dust down" is a foreign concept. Therefore, today when walking between buildings, its been sunglasses on and mouth shut to keep the sandy grit out. Needless to say, all the cars are a shade of sandy brown.

But I dont want to sound negative... this is what its all about and embracing the differences from back home.

EDIT: Pics from my office window.


These two pics are shot from my office window. The top picture is the testing bed for the future Photovoltaic solar plant that will power the site and then the city. The plant will have a 1km x 1km square area of these things!

The second photo is a bit to the left and shows the other building and the car park and the general dusty / sand storm that was about all day today.