My 26th Birthday!

The rest of the my birthday was filled with laughter, smiles, cuddles and kisses from my gorgeous husband and some new friends around us. After the football at Sarah and Brendans we returned home we were relaxed for the afternoon. Cameron had a lie down, while I was chatting to family and friends either on SKYPE, email or MSN. I had a fantastic time catching up with everyone.

Thanks to all who either rang me (on phone or on SKYPE) emailed me or chatted with me on MSN. It made it a very special day and far less depressing spending my first birthday overseas.

My new friend Tara made a booking at the Royal Mirage in "The Rotisserie" for an iftar buffet for dinner. (For those of you who don't know - Iftar is a festive dinner to break the fast and takes place just after sunset.) There were 8 of us all together and we had a lovely evening, chatting and laughing. The buffet was delicious and had so many beautiful dishes to try. It was the perfect end to a lovely birthday. Thanks for organising it Tara and thanks to Sarah and Brendan for the gorgeous egg cup set, Emma and Gavin for the box of choccies, Ken and Tara for the stunning red leaf shaped plate and glittering cream and gold candle and of course my wonderful husband Cameron for the beautiful silver jewellery box and of course, thanks to all of you for helping me celebrate!

From front left to front right:

Sarah, Brendan, Cameron, Me, Ken, Tara, Emma & Gavin

Tears and Giggles

I was determined not to shed a tear of sadness on my birthday. That lasted until about 7:20am on my birthday, thanks to my precious God Daughter, who when hanging up the phone said "kisses, kisses" and when prompted by her mum who said "say happy birthday to Aunty Kathryn" yelled at top note "Cake....Happy Birfday CAKE!!!!!!!!!!!" (Jorja LOVES cake) Also during this conversation she said "dere is (translation = there they are) she pointed to mummy, daddy, nanny and poppy when asked by Aunty Kathryn where were they. Jorja also very excitedly asnswered Aunty Kathryn's question of "what are you doing?" with "going to chuuuurch!" (even though it was Saturday). When I got off the phone, tears streaming down my face, I went into Cameron who was in our bedroom and cried "it's too hard - I want to go home." (Of course, I did not really mean that....I was just very sad and desperately missing my family and friends.)

Wake Up Call - My Message to Mummy Dearest!

Thanks so much Mum for the phone call at 4:32am (yes, Dubai time) this morning. It was great speaking to you for those 58 seconds and yes, I did realise that 26 years ago I was about an hour and 20 minutes old.

I had thought of ringing you at 11:30 your time last night to say "you were about to go up the hospital with me this time 26 years ago" but I didn't because I respected your need to sleep (turns out you were still awake) and the fact that I am a nice daughter.

Thanks to Ashley who messaged me about 5 minutes after I had hopped back into bed (from talking to mum) also wishing me Happy Birthday!

Yes, now I am wide awake (at 6:30am) and waiting for all the phone calls and messages to start pouring in from everyone, and waiting for Liz to ring for my birthday on SKYPE (good on her, she booked in a suitable time to call - thanks love). I am also awake because we are going to Sarah and Brendan's to watch the AFL Grand Final LIVE at 8am. (Yes, we are lucky enough to get it live, just a shame it is so early!)

More Later xxx

Blazing Sun, Hazy Fog and Puffy White Clouds!

It is normal here to see (and feel) the blazing sun...I mean, you don't go to the desert and expect anything else and it is highly likely that you will see hazy fog (and dust/sand in the air) however one thing you just hardly ever see here is clouds. Yes clouds, you know, the fluffy white things you see in the sky. They just don't exist here!!!

However.........Cameron read an article the other day that they are trying to make clouds here...something to do with magnetics and science stuff that I don't understand, (science was never my strongest subject.) If you are interested in reading more information about this subject, follow the link to the website: http://www.magneticeast.com/ecology/rain.html

Anyway, I just though I would share with you all how lucky you are to see clouds....and that we don't get too very often!

Our First Guest

Quite some time ago I received a text message from our friend Kim saying "Will you be in Dubai on the 21st and 22nd of September - cause I might be!" Of course I responded with "yes, absolutely, and if you come there will even be a bed for you to sleep in" (actually it turned out to be a futon but still a place to sleep!) Well, a few weeks after that I received an email from Kim saying that she was definately coming to Dubai on a short stop over to London. We were thrilled at the prospect of a familiar face from home and were rather excited about her up and coming trip.

Fast forward two or so weeks.....

Time for Kim to arrive. After a frantic trip to meet her at the airport (after meeting Cameron for lunch on the way) I had my first encounter at NOT being able to catch a taxi. The queue at Lamcy plaza was 10+ people long and not moving quickly, so I hightailed it (practically running along the road) to another cross road, where I managed to hail a cab (going in the wrong direction mind you) however at least it was a cab and off I was on my way to the airport....thinking I had plenty of time before she got off the plane, cleared immigration and collected her bags. Alas - I was wrong. Kim landed 1/2 an hour earlier than expected, so consequently, the poor chicky was waiting outside in the lovely Dubai heat, looking a little worse for wear until I got there. We found each other and headed back to our place in a Taxi, along the spectacular Sheikh Zayed Road. Once we got home we chilled out for a while before heading to the Mall Of The Emirates to do a spot of shopping before my dinner party that night.

After a lovely night (which Kim could barely stay awake for and ended up crashing on our bed) we called it a night as we were going to be up early the next day to play Tour Guides!

Up early on Friday morning (our weekend) we headed towards Abu Dhabi to show Kim the construction happening at Dubai Marina. Cameron missed the exit (as usual) so we ended up crossing the Dubai/Abu Dhabi border before turning around and heading back to where we had just come. We drove down to Madinat Jumeirah and wandered through the souqs before wandering down to Jumeirah beach to wade in the water with the Burj Al Arab in the background. (See Photo)

We then drove down Jumeirah Beach Road to Mercato shopping mall where we had lunch, then headed to have a look at Jumeirah Mosque, which is the only Mosque in Dubai that opens to the public. (On our to-do list for the near future) Then off to the Gold Souk, which unfortunently was closed, however a quick wander before getting back in the car and heading to Ibn Battuta shopping mall for Kim to purchase cheap Birkenstocks (shoes for those who don't know) and then off to Mall Of The Emirates for Kim and Cameron to hit the slopes. We then went to a delicious Turkish restaurant before heading back to the Gold Souk to see if it was open at night time. A few souks were, however most were still shut. (See Photo)

A quick drive back towards the Burj Al Arab to photograph at night before heading home to bed. Kim needed to be at the airport by 7:30am so it was another early morning.

Thanks Kim for the photos. For more photos from the talented Kim visit her website at http://www.photoscape.com.au/ (If there are any problems with the link - just let me know)

The Birth Day

Today is a special day for many people and for many reasons. According to the Incas, today is the birth day of the sun. Also, today is the birthday of our friend Jay (the only person to date to send a reply to our blog), so Happy Birthday Jay!!! Other than that, lots of other people we know are celebrating their birthdays, so Happy Birthdays go out these as well. Finally, Cameron celebrates his birthday today, starting with an SMS from his parents in the wee hours of the morning (someone forgot the time difference), the odd phone calls from the in-laws ('outlaws' according to Cameron), an SMS from his brother Dave in Queensland (at a more reasonable hour) and a phone call from his parents. The night was topped off with a beautiful home cooked meal by Kathryn. So all in all, it has been another great day in the UAE - full of birthdays.

1 year & 11 Months To Go!!!

As you can probably tell from the title of this entry, we have 1 year and 11 months to go in the Middle East - or at least until we renegotiate what we are going to do with our lives. In some ways it is so hard to believe we have already been here four weeks, on the other hand it is hard to believe we have ONLY been here 4 weeks - we have done and achieved so much in that time.

It has been a very quiet week this week, Cameron has not been 100% (he has had a bit of a cold) so it has mainly been work and home for him. I have spent the week cleaning, chatting, emailing, cleaning, cooking, chatting, emailing and cleaning!!! It feels as if I am always cleaning - the house gets so dirty with all the sand and stuff even though the balcony door is always shut! Go figure.

We are going ten-pin bowling tonight with a group from Cameron's work (and their partners) which should be a bit of fun. This weekend will probably be just spent relaxing at home and by the pool. Cameron desperately needs some down time - poor thing, he has barely rested since we got here! I have completed and passed all my certificate 3 subjects for my studies, so will get back into doing all the diploma subjects very soon.

Well, thats it for me...I'm off to get ready for tonight....Catch ya soon :)

The TV, Internet & Phone Saga

I spent yesterday (Monday) waiting for the man to come and connect our tv, phone and internet. I had watched all my DVD's on sunday and read most of the books I had here so while i was waiting for them to arrive I just veged out......and got a little bored. I discovered at about 4pm that the services were not able to be connected, but that we were rebooked in for Tuesday. It's a shame, but thats just the way it is. No big deal :) Cameron and I went out for dinner to the Mall of the Emirates and did a BIG grocery shop while we were there. It was great to have our own food in the house so that I could cook again, however it was a challenge to try and get the right stuff, so this first shop took a little while. Most of the items in supermarkets are labelled with Arabic on one side and English on the other, so the process wasn't as hard as I was expecting and most of the items on the shelves are similar to what we get back in Australia. However, I did learn that items in the cold juice aisle were sorted by juice flavour as opposed to brand. I was standing there looking up at 5 shelves of juice saying "This is all mango....there is no orange juice." Just as I was about to reach for a mango juice Cameron said "no, there is orange, but it is in the orange juice section - not the mango juice section." We ended up taking home the orange juice and I was very happy.

The man was due to come at 11am on Tuesday to connect our tv, internet and phone today and I was so excited at the thought of downloading my email, chatting to everyone on Messenger and replying to all the emails that were sitting in my inbox. He arrived on time and within half an hour I was connected, downloading and chatting. How Fantastic is the Internet!!!

Our 1 Year Wedding Anniversary.

Today we are celebrating our first wedding anniversary. Just think, a year ago we were celebrating the best day of our lives (to date) in Australia with our friends and family and today - 1 year on, we are in Dubai all alone! Unfortunately, Cameron had to work and I was at home watching DVD's and reading as our tv, internet and phone are not due to get connected until tomorrow! I received a text message from Cameron telling me we had dinner reservations for 8:45 that evening and to meet him at work at 7pm (to give us enough time to cross the Al Maktoum Bridge, which is always busy however since school went back today after the summer holidays, it may have even been more busy.) I was so excited - I spent ages getting ready (so unlike me) and was all ready to go at 6PM. I thought I might as well go and get a taxi then, not knowing how long it would take me to get to Cameron's office during peak hour traffic. (It is usually at least 25 minutes on a quiet day.) I got in the taxi at 6:05pm and, due to a bus overturning along the way, I arrived at Cameron's work at 7:10pm. He was ready and waiting for me (for a change) and we caught the same taxi to our dinner destination - the Hilton at Dubai Creek. We got there early (we had a good run across the bridge) so went to the little bar area for drinks before going into the restaurant for our 7 course dinner. It was a beautiful setting, very romantic and the best way to spend our first anniversary. The meal was delicious and we went home not wanting to eat for a week!

A perfect evening!

P.S. Happy Father's Day

Our Own Apartment!!!

We got up early today (Thursday) to go and get our tv, internet and phone connected. Unfortunately we arrived at DIC (Dubai Internet City) without a vital form that we needed, so were unable to get the services connected until we returned with the form. We went to organise the necessary forms, and while Cameron returned to DIC, I stayed at the apartment and waited as IKEA were due to come and deliver and assemble our furniture. Just as IKEA left, Home Centre arrived and delivered (and assembled) our dining room table. It is a gorgeous 8 seater table, which is rectangular, but extends out to be square. It is black wood and is quite tall, so the seats are like bar stools. It fits perfectly in our dining room area and we absolutely love it - we had our eye on a square table for quite awhile! Just after Home Centre had left Cameron arrived home. He left when we had nothing in the apartment and when he returned we had a house full of furniture!!! It did look good though. The only thing that was dissapointing was that IKEA didn't have the cover we wanted for the futon (we had to put it on order) so we had to make do with a cream coloured cover, which did nothing for the room as there are creamy white tiles and cream walls. Oh well, it's not for long.

We unpacked over the next 2 days, finding homes for all our stuff. It is such a relief not to have to live out of our suitcases anymore. We had put the curtains up (that I had bought along with the bedroom suite) in the bedroom, however the rod wasn't long enough, so we went out and bought 2 new rods - one longer one for the bedroom and one extra long one for the lounge room. Cameron changed the bedroom rod on the Friday, and on the Saturday put up the rod in the lounge room - it made such a difference to have these embroidered burgandy curtains in the lounge as a splash of colour (as well as blocking out the light at 5:30AM). With the shorter rod from our bedroom Cameron turned it into a towel rail in the bathroom - so we were all set-up.

Aaaagh - it is so nice to relax in our own place and sleep in our own (new) bed!