I M.I.Z. Abu Dhabi !!!

There is a point every morning as I breach the crest of Mussafa bridge at 16^th street where the peace of the accommodation center of this part of the world changes for a whole different world for the next 8-10 hours…

There should be a sign post at the top of the bridge….not of speed limits, not of the bumpy road ahead, but a man pulling his hair out with the notation, ”NUTS AHEAD”, welcome to CRAZY VILLE..

For Mussaffa truly is full of nuts and the next ten hours are about pulling one’s hair out….Crazy best describes the road system and the drivers.

Draw a  map of the Mussafa Industrial Zone (M.I.Z) and there comes a point where you just have a stack of lines veering off one another….there are no street names here….

I tried explaining to a supplier yesterday, go straight on 16^th street, turn left onto 13^th street then turn left into…well just turn left then right, then second right and well after that follow your nose….. We are the factory that smells nice…!!!

Moving to Abu Dhabi I had visions of the grand Emirates Palace, the modern structures of grandeur that fill the Internet, ideas of YAS island and so many glistening buildings of grandiose design that we have all seen and been impressed by in real estate magazines.

Mussaffa, well, it is like an arm pit …. Necessary , serves a purpose but not the kind of place you want to spend eternity….

And we won’t we are moving on within a year or so, currently working out a new kitchen plan and building the kitchen of dreams to take our endeavor ever forward…..

For now at least Mussaffa has one great asset…………………………………….. hang on, I’m thinking……………….oh yes……………....we get Radio 2 from Dubai, which is truly heaven on earth….

They play such fantastic music….and they have the greatest morning team to ever hit the airwaves...seriously funny duo that makes mornings worthwhile again.......after 7 years of radio dribble in another land....

There are days when I’m working long and hard and even tired I feel like I’m an apprentice once again working in the back pastry area of OSCARS restaurant on the Gold Coast, age 14 and just starting my apprenticeship… Don henley's Boys of Summer and Pharaohs by Tears for Fear, Vienna by Ultravox and U2 where all the big thing and to hear them again today….makes this maddening chaos all worth while…

Some days , living in the armpit of the UAE just isn’t so bad ….I close the doors to the kitchen, put on my chefs jacket and rock around the kitchen like a 14 year old…..and thus I join the citizens of NUTS VILLE , which we all  lovingly call the Mussafa Industrial Zone.... Being nuts has never been such fun....