Above - Yes, i guess Santa does know where the UAE is. Mrs Claus was able to confuse Santa somehow about how many gifts he could fit into his sleigh. Convinced that it would be a reasonable amount, Santa was most surprised when he saw the huge pile to be distributed to villa 148 only. At least the kids left a cold beer and shortbread biccy out for him and some carrots and water for the 'reincamels'.
Above - Chillin in the desert after another evening of 'sundowners' and dune bashing.
Above - Chillin this time in the natural spring waters of Jebel Haffet.
Above - Nan and Pop came to visit and loved the Dhow rides on Dubai creek. Pop particularly was enthralled with the craftmanship that goes into the boats.
Above - Just like Aussie's fibbing about their pet kangaroos and koalas at home. We were able to convince Nan that we had to take the Camel to go shopping. Nan and FS head to town for a coffee.
Above - Nan and NS at Fossil Valley. No this place was not named after the visit of Nan and Pop.
Above - After watching B1 go around on the rugby pitch, B2 seized his chance and was a standout for the Al Ain under 8's.
Above - B2 breaking away again.
Above - B1 running it up against the Dubai Exiles team during the Abu Dhabi International Rugby Tournament.
Above - B1 playing for the AAESS soccer team. They thought they were plaing for Argentinia. Indian twins Melvin and Kelvin were good players, but we just liked yelling out their names together.
Above - BBQ with some neighbours; Clive, Noriko, Marcia, FS and B3.
Above - B3 and Kindy pal, Lotte.
Above - B4 at Snoopy Island, Fujairah.
Above - Fishermen heading out on the Gulf of Oman sunrise, Fujairah.
Above - Snoopy Island and beach. The breakwall just needs a little right-hander peeling off it for this to be the most perfect place in the UAE.
Above - Heading out for a banana boat ride. NS, Russell, Jenae, B2 and FS. Hardly any of us could walk after this. The boat driver cranked the 230HP engines to full bore and went mad, gotta love the safety over here.
Above - Sunrise over our camp at Sandy Beach, Fujairah. G'day, and a belated Merry Xmas to all. We sent a bunch of xmas cards to all, so we hope these arrived on time or at least at all. Looking back at the last blog, it seems so long ago, and so much has happened over the last few months. We've had more rugby tournaments for the kids, a couple of birthdays, a visit from Nan and Pop, the kids were kicked out of school, we bought a new car, being camping again, had another local Muslim custom of Eid Al Adha (different to the last of Eid Al Fater), Xmas has been and gone, today is new year's eve and soon FS's oldies will arrive. Amougst all of this, we've almost finilised the residency visas for FS and the boys and yes...i've been doing a little bit of work too.
Next week will mark 1 year since i moved here; it's hard to believe that a simple 1 week assignment, turned into a 3month gig and then somehow, into establishing a business here and staying for this long. I never thought we'd stay longer than a year, and despite there being no guarentees in this part of the world we think we'll give it another year. Our logic...we've been through the hardest parts of dealing with all the beauracracies and paper work and other barriers, so let's hang around and enjoy another year, en shala.
So anyway, the summary for the last 3 months goes something like this - B1 and B2 got stuck right into their rugby and for a few weeks we were travelling every weekend to parts of the country to play 5 games a day type tournaments. Unfortunatly, the under 12's got a hiding in every match, coming up against much bigger and stronger teams. B2's team did really well, just missing the finals of a few occassions. The expat community is really very large when you consider the small % that would actually play in such tournments, yet the turnouts were massive.
B2 celebrated his 8th birthday during November. Convinced as we are that he has some perculiur ways about him, he was adamant that the only presents he wanted included a camel, a falcon and a few thousand dirhams...yeh right. A couple of turtles and and an aquarium later, we now have Jaws and Nipper as part of our travelling circus family.
We were all excited when nan and pop came to visit for a week. It was really nice to sit and catchup on all the family news and events from home; stuff that never really comes up in phone conversations or emails, like how i'm still their favourite child and the others were adopted anyway.
N and P were spewing that the week they chose to come, the pool was closed for maintenanace, the golf course was closed for upgrades and apparently during their cruise before coming here the entire country of Libya was closed for repairs also. Despite only being in town for a week, we managed to squeeze an enormous amount in. BBQs and drinks in the desert on sunset, dinners at the top of Jebel Hafeet, visits to the Gold Souk where P was chastised for not purchasing gold bars in N's honour, 4x4ing in Oman to see the fossil valley, wadi's (bullet casings found at one site left us looking into the mountains for rogue snippers) and more souks, there were camel rides and a visit to the Madinat resort in Dubai where a simple 'greasing' of the valet drivers hand opened up a world of exculsive resturants, arber rides and site tours normally reserved for the famous and good-looking, and of course time with the grandkids where our 'delightful' boys were able to demonstrate their familarity with N and P's company by rumbling, swearing and generally carrying on. We even let N and P have a day to themsleves to explore Al Ain in a taxi. They walked home from town, apparently too scared to experiance driving the streets of the UAE in a 1970's nissan with no seatbelts and Pakistan driver displaying the license of a red headed Scot's man??
Setting up a business here has been a huge challenge. It takes 2 days to register and obtain a business operating license in Australia. In the UAE, recent data from the Ministry of Commerce suggests that at best case it can be done in 68 days in the UAE. I took about 6 months, this includes opening a bank account (5 minutes anywhere else in the wolrd) 2 months here. I only received my visa card last week after opening the account in September. Consequently, starting a business here means my own and those of my family Visas needs to go through the company. A visa is the key to nearly everything here, without it, you may as well be from Mars. So understandbly, we were delighted when i recieved my visa in November (11 months after being here) and we have nearly crossed the line with FS and the boys now too. But not before the school insisted we remove the boys (B1,2 and 3) from school as they were not registered with the Ministry of Education etc etc. You can imagine the boys were devastated by this...not, but luckily we were able to manage a period of stay with the MoE, and look set to be right for the start of 2008 year, en shala.
You may remember the story about my car being over-run by beefed up Hummers and Range Rovers whilst travelling the highways. Well, my gaining the visa meant we could buy our own car here. Ahah!!, my chance to get some protection on the road and some style and extra grunt also. But what's this...FS decides she doesn't like the clour of her 2007 V6 Fuel injected, beefy- rear-ended Pajero she drives to her daily coffee and chats. No, she needs a more powerful and later model car that is coloured to match her new shoes. So yes folks, i am still risking life and limb everyday driving the shitty Lancer that requires Barny Rubble type motions to gain extra speed entering a round about to duel with the oversized SUVs boring down on me. FS in the meantime has upgraded to the Limited Edition 2008 Yank Tank Dodge Durango with a 5.7Litre Hemi V8 engine and personalised driver settings. I wonder if the visa means i can exercise the right to take an extra wife or two?
Just before Xmas, the Muslim culture celebrated Eid Al Adha. As all of the significant dates of the Muslim Culture are based around the moon, this is celebrated at different times throughout every year. Traditionally, Eid Al Adha, is celebrate 70 days after Eid Al Fater. A sheep or goat is sacrificed to signify the reinactment of Mohamoud's sacrifice of same when his son was born (this is my own very loose understanding of this event, not to be used as an exact interpretation in any major assignments or trivial pursuit questions please). This is also the time when so many muslims make their pilgramige to Meca (in Saudi Arabia). It is said that all Muslims should visit Meca at least once in their lifetime to ensure a good after-life. One thing for sure, on the official day of Eid Al Adha every ute, truck, boot and sunroof had a goat in it heading to a family feast.
We chose to go camping over this weekend over to the eastern seaboard of Fujairah. Camping on the beach just outside of Dibba, we were blown away by the absolutely amazing snorkeling over coral reefs and an island called Snoopy Island. Fair dinkum, the coral itself was really good, but the marine life was nothing short of fantastic. Small reef sharks, turtles, eels, urchins and the most amazingly coloured fish. The morning sunrises were wonderful...thanks to B4 for waking us to see these. We took a ride on a banana boat whilst away too. B3, our resident daredevil was with us as well as a couple of mates from New Zealand, heh bro, we went camping with. This was going to be fun, hopefully he would throw a few wild turns and send us catapulting into the sea a couple of times. Finally the boat cranks up, he's got two 115HP engines on the back, but surely he'll only use 1 of these? By the way, where is the spotter, i only see a driver? Before we know it, we are gripping the straps with every ounce of strength we have. Baiting the driver to go faster is FS waving her hand in the air like a cowgirl. B3 is hating it! The second engine kicks in, FS lowers her hand and grips the handles questioning her own wisdom at this previous baiting, B3 might be crying, i don't remember, check with him. First throw into the sea and B3 can't climb into the boat quick enough, leaving just 4 of us on the banana. The driver takes this as a challenge as he cranks the boat to full bore, he is not even watching to see if we fall off!!!, what the...now he's making a call on his mobile phone, probably telling his mates about these dam tourists he is using as shark burly. B3 is now smiling, looking back at our faces no doubt. None-the-less, we make it back to shore alive and to be honest stoked on such a thrill.
A week after Eid, is Xmas. We celebrated at home having the same ridiculously early start as every year (part of the fun), but with no family to go visit during the day, we are able to relax at home over a big cook-up breakfast and take a few cold beers with our neighbours (the christian ones that is). We had a great little party later that evening with all the expats living in our village and even a pop in by the big guy (santa) himself. Most of the expats have to work Xmas day here, as it is not recognised, but the kids are at least on school holidays for end of year break.
B1 celebrated his 11th birthday yesterday by having a few of his mates stay over and terrorise the village girls. And with that, we have pretty much brought you up to speed with our little adventure here. Wait a minute, i forgot to mention that FS and i celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in December (yes, if you do the maths of 10 years marriage and an 11 year old son, you will realise we had an immaculate conception). Now some would go on to say you get less for murder...not me, i know how lucky i am, FS tells me everyday.
Happy New Year to all, we miss you all greatly, but hopefully the blogs will bridge the gap a little and we are planning a trip home to Oz in one way or another during 2008. See you then!
