Ok after a week in Abu Dhabi we packed
ourselves into the minibus, threw our suitcases into the back of the truck, and
drove 2 ½ hours to Al Ain (which can only be described as a sandy version of
Hollywood)
We arrived at the Hilton hotel and
immediately became friends with the happy hour menu and Lana the waitress (who
proceeded to give us free shots of tequila over the next 4 days)
The first school we visited was next to a
big mountain called Jebel Hafeet, after we did the drop off we got taxi’s up to
the top, sat and watched the sunset, took some selfies and nearly froze to
death. I didn’t realize how freezing it would be 3000ft in the air of Al Ain.
I must mention that the whole above trip
wasn’t the same without Ben the techie(who is typing this as Alana talks
because she is to lazy to talk and type right now).
Anyway……
Because we finished the days so late, there
wasn’t much time to do anything after work until we got to Sharjah, we worked
through the weekend at Sharjah book festival where is was a great experience to
work as it was a different atmosphere to the school we usually perform at.
It was the same concept as the Edinburgh
fridge festival.
We left all the set and costumes at the
venue and only had 15 minutes to Load in and out each day, the Audiences also
were a lot different as there were a mixture of ages and cultures attending the
show,
Because there were groups performing either
side of our show we were very limited to the time we had to pack-down and get
changed, everybody had to work at a quicker pace than usual and we managed to
be done within the 15minutes everyday! When we are performing at schools its
less pressure to leave in a quick time therefore people would tend to have a much
slower pace in doing there role in the pack down.
With the audiences at the book fair being
public audiences, we got great feedback on social media including tweets like:
“Thank you for the spirit of enjoyment ”
“Thank you for a beautiful show in sharjah
book fair have lots of fun”
it was nice to get feedback from people
other than 5 year olds and teachers
The best part of performing at the book
festival we had all - inclusive meals provided by the organisers,
After having a 3 hour nap I decided to go
for a walk to see the Sharjah Fountains it was a 40 minute walk at 11:30pm.
Arrived at the waterfront to watch the fountain show but it didn’t live up to
the Dubai Fountains I saw earlier in the tour, however it was very colourful.
After the fountain show had finished we walked back to the hotel, the thing I
was most surprised at was the amount of children running around and family
having BBQ’s and picnic at 1:42am, I guess it must be because it was the
weekend and also the perfect temperature outside.
Despite realising I had left my costume at
the hotel 10 minutes into the taxi journey and having to turn back for it,
having to move rooms 3 times in a week and having a rooftop pool not fit for a
goldfish with no sunlight I enjoyed my time in Sharjah
Next week we fly to Bahrain ……….
