Ugly City????
Sorry I can't agree with that one. I find Abu Dhabi to be for a Middle Eastern city to be clean, well organised and well laid out. The Corniche area is from what I have seen by far the best public space anywhere in the Gulf, and definately isn't ugly. For anyone considering living in Dubai and commuting to Abu Dhabi, come and see both cities for yourself and decide then. Dubai is a hell hole where you either spend a huge whack of your salary paying road tolls or spend half your life in traffic jams. I have lived in Abu Dhabi for 5 years and I find it to be far from ugly and a very liveable city.
As far as hard for women and children to live in, again I have to disagree. Basically it is what you make of it, but most expat wives if they are willing to get of their asses and look for a job can find a part time job where they will integrate into society a lot faster and make new friends. If they don't want to work there are social groups all over the place for mums. As far as kids go as long as they are pre teen age it is a good place to be. For teenagers I would not recommend it as boredom sets in and they do seem to turn into expat brats in a lot of cases.
Don't work for Etihad so have no opinion on their operations, other than saying that they need to train their business class hosties that you don't top up someones wine with a different wine and then shrug you shoulders and say "ah well its nice to try different things".???????