A pretty good day for Andrew

What a day. Went to day one of the Dubai Desert Classic Golf Tournament. Golf legends everywhere. Followed Lee Westwood and Darren Clarke for a while, and then Ernie Els and Colin Montgomerie. Saw Sergio Garcia, Jimenez, Olazabal, Casey - just watching them warm up was amazing. Emirates Golf Course is beautiful - the treated effluent they spray on the fairways works a treat! Tried to get on TV - spent lots of time right behind players on the tee, and next to the Emirates girls...

Then in the evening went to pick up the new wheels. Nearly 3 tonnes of british legend - Landrover LR3 4.4 litre V8. Love it. Goes well and feels very safe. I'll be driving to Abu Dhabi probably twice a week, and it's a road full of nutters, so the fact I'm in something pretty close to a tank suits me down to the ground. I reckon it's a pretty cool lookin machine too - as do the kids!

Had it in the sand already this morning with the kids. They are braver than me.

International Day

Well it's International day at JPS today and Jack was very happy to wear his All Blacks top (Thanks Nana Sue). Jaime however was not happy at all with borrowing a top from Jack. She wanted to wear her tinkerbell dress. Not the kiwiest of things. So thanks Aunty Kirst for the kiwi singlet.
The other children at school were all wearing there national dress. Some little japanese girls in their Kimono's looked amazing. Makes you realise how multi cultural the school is.
The mum's all help out their countries and make stands and food and some put on shows etc. I shied away from helping as per normal. Maybe next year... or maybe not!

The Villa

We have confirmed a villa for us to move into. It is brand new, and not even connected to the power network yet. We hope to move in on 15 Feb, all going well. The villa is in a complex of 22 villas, with a lovely pool, a great gym, and a kids playground. The house itself is huge - 4 bedrooms, each with ensuite, big lounge, massive kitchen, massive study, kids TV area upstairs, a maids room(!!!), and a backyard in complete contrast - probably smalller than our lounge in Whitby!
Not sure how we'll go living so close to so many other people, but compared to some of the other places we saw this looked like really good value - having the pool and gym is fantastic.

School!!!!

Monday 12 January - a very important day. First day for Jack and Jaime at Jumeirah Primary School. A very early start, because school starts each day at 7.35am. Delanie gets out of bed at 6am. Will be interesting to see her mood at the end of this week....

Kids were wonderful. Excited to be wearing a uniform for the first time, very few tears getting up so early in the morning. Both were a little unsure about meeting new people, but came through the day with aplomb. Jaime hardly acknowledged us when we walked out of the class, and Jack started making mates from the first minute - he came home the first day to tell us he had won one of the races during PE, and that he had a new best friend called Jeremy.

Hatta and Oman - the desert

On Friday we went on an adventure to the desert. Andrew and Cheryl Henderson, and their son Alex, volunteered to lead us on a journey to Hatta, and then onto a Wadi in Oman. We managed to ride a camel, drive miles into Oman along a pretty rugged road (and see fish in the pools of water smack in the middle of what seems like the driest place you could ever see), and then drive the rental Prado across the sand.




The kids were a little unsure of the Camel at first (as was Del), but all were brave and gave it a go. Shaneen was the Camel's name - he was a very gentle very smelly guy.

Jack and Jaime loved the spell in the desert. We had to wash them twice that night - the sand is very fine, and gets into absolutely everything. It was a fantastic day, with scenery that was simply beautiful and so different from anything we have seen before. It was fun explaining to Jack that there are places in the world that, unlike NZ, you don't need to fly for hours to be in a whole different country!

Wild Wadi Waterpark and Swensons

Last day before Andrew has to go to work, so had a big one. Started with a drive out to Arabian Ranches to have a look. Missed every single turn we should have taken. Covered a LOT of ground. But, learnt something in the process - while the Ranches looks like a like really nice place it is a long way from most things.

Main event for the day was a trip to the Wild Wadi Waterpark - a theme park with pools, surfing machines, and hydroslides that go both up and down hills. Highlight had to be the jet-propelled rides UP the slides. Very cool. Actually very cold - there was a sea breeze, and I hate to say it but we were cold. Bummer. Will have to go back when it is really hot...



Another highlight was the fact that from the park we got amazing views of the Burj Al Arab - the seven star hotel, and the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, which looks stunning as well. Very nice piece of the world around those two.

Then to finish things off for the day we managed to find Swensons. Del very happy, as was Jaime, as you can see.



We also managed to prove once again that boys are way different than girls. While the girls loved their ice cream, the two boys ate pizza instead!