Above - An Emirate wedding ceremony (blokes only), traditional dress, drumming, sword and rifle displays. This was in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
Above - What a pathetic site. We've only just arrived here at the Sharjah airport for the measly 1 hour flight to Bahrain, but we already look like we've done the Sydney to Heathrow express.
Above - NS at the club house of the Abu Dhabi Golf Club; impressive club and course.
Above - Studies have revealed that smoking a single sheesha pipe is the equivalent of smoking 70 cigarettes. Try telling that to this young gal as she celebrates her 18th birthday at the Um Ul Quain water park.
Above - First day of school, nervous?
Above - B1 nursing B4...too cute.
Above - No, the TeleTubbies did not come to the UAE. This lady was wearing the latest in Muslim swimming fashion at the water park in Um Ul Quain.
Above - The Oyoun Village Golf Team; LtoR: NS, Mitch, Dave, Jeff, Bob, Russ, Stu & Chandra.
Above - Dining at the HRC in Bahrain with the Keast's and Holmes'.
Above - Driving the roads here it is not uncommon to find yourself in a sand storm.
Above - B1 can't even eat his lunch without the village girls thronging to see what he is up to.
Above - "That's right baby...feel the camera...be the camera...yeah, that's it!"
Above - Having been here so long, we feel comfortable at the public stonings of infidels and other criminals...you know the ones, like the guy who gave another motorist the finger for cutting him off. Wind those arms up boys.
Above - Lunching Lebanese style. Business and pleasure, lunch with Imad and Gary.
Above - B4 sand hoping at Fujairah's Sandy Beach.
Above - NS and FS at the HRC.
Above - B3 collecting shells at Sandy Beach.
Above - B2 and mate Zano with their new pet, an injured baby sparrow. Unsure who would keep the pet, they went halves.
Above - B4, even block building here means incorporating the Burj Dubai (world's tallest building located in Dubai).
Above - While the night was still a little in control at the Al Ain Spring Ball, we dined with Mick and Karla.
Above - Then the music started, and '2 Can Fran' kicked-in to mode and it was 'murder on the dance floor'.
Above - Heeeello Laaadies...Karen, Marie, FS and Gill.Well we're still here and despite the title, we probably haven't conquered the desert just yet, but certainly things have been going well and we continue to have a lot of fun. Again, it has been a fair slog between posts, let's just put that down to being so flat out?
The boys (B1 & B2) completed their rugby season tour of Bahrain's Kingdom to take on the mighty red and whites. We all ended up travelling over to make a little holiday of it. The club chartered a plane to take us the 1 hour flight from Sharjah airport into Manama, the capital of Bahrain. We were lucky to make it in the end, with B2 coming down with a bad bug the night before, but true to family form, shook it off just as we boarded.
The weekend itself was great fun, 130 or so club members from our little community making the trip, we booked an entire hotel and the canary yellow (not Australian gold) uniforms and supporters outfits dominated the tournament ground. B1 playing in the under 11s got a rude shock when they ran onto the pitch to see a very different team to the guys they played a few months earlier. Turns out that Bahrain were struggling for numbers and most of their team were under 13s and 14s. There is a considerable difference in size between these age gaps and our boys got truly slapped. Unfortunately B1's season ended in a neck brace after a rogue elbow to the neck caused some major spasms. Of course Fran was completely calm and nonchalant about the incident and sees no reason why they can't play next season too. For clarification i have derived that interpretation from her hysterical screams and questioning of B1, "did you enjoy your last game?!" B2 on the other hand ran-amukthrough the opposition, sealing Al Ain's only 2 wins from the tournament. There were no signs of the lurgy that had plagued him the day before and all was good. The second day of competition was cancelled (it was about 40c the first day and hotter the second), so we adjourned to the Bahrain Water Park..awesome fun. Summary of Bahrain is that i was expecting (not sure why) that this would be the tropical island of the Middle East. Reality is that it is actually very ordinary and reminded me of what the moon might look like. It was very interesting to see quite a few Saudi's and other 'local' men walking with a beer or even in the bars of the city. There is a bridge connecting Bahrain to the coast of Saudi Arabia and it would seem Bahrain is to the Saudi Arab as the Gold Coast is to nubiles during schoolies.
Conscious that the weather is really starting to warm up here again, we wanted to get into the outdoor living/activities as much as possible before literally shutting the hatches. One of our weekend trips saw us heading to the emirate of Um Ul Quain. With all the oil money floating around here in the UAE, there is just still so much contrast between Duabi and Abu Dhabi as compared to the other emirates. Ul Um Qain has little to no landscaping (always a good benchmark), there are unfinished roads and rubbish everywhere. It might be one of those emirates that'll do their 'thing' over the next 10 years. None the less, the Aqua Adventure Park there was really good, lovely park like grounds to sprawl out your stuff and some awesome rides with next to no queues at all, but hands down, the best thing were the other people at the park, particularly our Indian friends. In all my years of surfing, beaching, taking kids to water parks, swimming carnivals etc, I've seen maybe 10 or 15 swimming rescues. The life guards at this place should be paid a fortune, there was a total of 6 people in the park that day that could actually swim or at least tread water and make it to the edge, those six all travelled to the park that day in our car and include B4.
While FS ad i and the two bubs were setting up our gear, we had B1&2 race back with exasperated reports like, "dad, you should have seen this Indian guy, he dropped down the penny drop slide and didn't come up, the life guards had to jump in and rescue him!" or "mum, you should've seen this other Indian guy in the wave pool, he was stuck up-side-down under his tube and the lifeguards had to jump in and save him!" Dismissive of these exaggerated accounts, FS and i headed with the bubs to the smaller pools. On the way we saw about 10 rescues and through out the day we all saw about 400 (really) and i even dragged a few water spluttering, but happy to be alive Indians out of the knee deep bub pools, bottom of the slides and of course the beach/wave pool area. Without wanting to sound callous at all (it was one of those, had t be there type situations), we often found ourselves (the 6 of us), sitting on a bench next to the penny drop slide, having a drink and chuckle at the Indian nationals dropping into the small but deep pool at the end of the slide, sinking to the bottom or flapping their arms madly as is trying to fly. The Life guards were great and whilst the seriousness of pulling the drownees out of trouble was not lost on them, they would most times exaggerate the save or their dives into the water...sorry, but it became very funny. FS asked one of the guys we pulled from the water why he went in if he couldn't swim. Simply his answer with head wobble and all was that, "someone will save me".
Another weekend, we went back to Sandy Beach, camping with a bunch of friends. Again, the snorking was awesome around Snoopy Island, the bbqing was great fun and a couple of beers around the fire was magic, but the temps were starting to get too hot, and whilst the bus load of German tourists (mostly heavily over-weight and a generation or two older than us), seemed to love burning themselves to the point of blisters, we were struggling when it came time to trek the sand from camp to water. It was a great way to meet people though, stopping under people's shade tents for respite on the feet.
After assisting on a volunteer basis at the local school, FS was approached to head the special individual learning needs department. Unable to commit to a full time post, she is working part-time, but i guess like any teaching position, especially when starting a unit from scratch for a school, her hours have been pretty huge. Even so, FS is really enjoying the challenge and the results and feedback have been very encouraging for her. Of course this meant that B4 would have to start kindy 2.5 days a week. He was able to demonstrate his ability to place 4 pens in his nose (learnt last summer here during FS's home schooling), although his unbelievable appetite could mean increased fees for everyone next term to cover food supplies. In the short time she has been tackling the job, FS has now already established a satellite class for the special needs children.
We had a good laugh, after her first day, when FS came home saying i had to provide a letter of no-objection for her to work. The next day she went for her local driver's license (about 8 months over due) and again needed a letter from the husband saying that she had my permission to obtain a driver's license and to drive by-herself. Ohh yehh, i had some fun with the first few drafts of those letters..."yes, FS has my permission to work, on the basis it does not interfere with her ironing,cleaning and cooking, although i suspect that she may regret losing three coffee mornings with the girls"....or...,"she is able to drive but i take no responsibility for the carnage caused", FS pretended to laugh along with me?
The Al Ain Spring Ball was held just last week and oh, what a night. A formal evening that proved that just because you dress people up, a free bar will always get them going and kicking off the heals. All the crew from our little village went, baby sitters were arranged to stay till late and a couple of 'on the table dances and singing' by some notorious offenders (reminds me of a wedding back in December 1997 and several RSL nights out) led the way. For us, the dance floor was on fire during the Grease Mega Mix and a rendition of the Oils' 'US Forces and Ganggajang's, 'This is Australia'.
Last bit of news for this blog relates to a 4th birthday party that B3 recently attended for a classmate. The same kid attended his birthday a few months earlier here at our house. At B4's party we had a few games, some party pies dipped in sauce, pass the parcel and i think a coffee for the parents that stayed, a fairly normal party by most standards. For this little girls party however, we suspected some 'one-upmanship might take place, i mean that chocolate cake that FS cooked was pretty good. So last night i was dropping FS B3 and B4 to the party. B1&2 and a mate were in the car too, as we were heading to the movies. Sure enough, it turns out the little girl is a sheika, related to one of the head shieks of the UAE! We passed the armed guards at the front of their palace and all our jaws hit the ground, bang. On the front lawns on the palace grounds were - a 3 storey high inflattable slide, a jumping castle the size of an olympic pool, a reverse bungy ride, a band, an MC for the party, a fully set-up Baskin Robbins icecream stall, face paiting, a fully set-up Macca's stall for the kids, a fully catered silver service buffet for the parenst that stayed (only females were allowed it turned out), magic shows, small ferris wheel, Ferry Floss stall and whle all the time i thought we were killing it in our new 4x4, it faded to insigficance to the stretch hummer and BMW's, Lamborguinis etc in the driveway...so, yeah B3&4 had a bit of fun.
Looking ahead, we're off to Greece next month and then back to OZ for a couple of weeks also, we can't wait for either of course and whilst the obvious things like friends and family we can't wait to see, we all have our favourite foods from home we are starving for...me, sculling fresh full-cream milk from the container, the boys, burgers and chips from Waves near our house, FS, Thai takeaway and all of us combined, pies and sausage rolls from the UpperCrust...mmmm, meeeeaat pie!
