Above - Wadi Damm, Oman.
Above - FS towing B3 through the Wadi pools in Oman.
Above - B3 and NS launching into the deep spring pools at Wadi Damm, Oman. This was a pretty gnarly jump for little Arch, but he just nonchalantly climbed up with me and counted me down from 3.
Above - B4 and NS, scalding our feet on the burning rock platforms. The white stripes are quartz of some sort that looked really nice running their veins through the black rock.
Above - Rachael "are you a runner too?" Rice mountaineering through the scrambling rocks at Wadi Damm, Oman.
Above - Wadi Damm threw so many surprises with caves and pools around every corner.
Above - B2 falling from the skys into the deep spring pools of crystal clear water. 
Above - B1 finds another rock pool in Wadi Damm, Oman.
Above - Another waterfall and cave with late afternoon light glittering through. Wadi Damm, Oman.
Above - Red Bull Air Race, Abu Dhabi Corniche'. B2 and B1.
Above - Abu Dhabi Corniche Beach
Above - Abu Dhabi Red Bull Air Race, amazing how close the fly to the beach front. A lack of regulations in the UAE makes this event one of the best to watch from a spectator perspective.
Above - B2 and NS, just in case we forgot where we were.
Above - Seems our front door is a popular spot for having silly photos taken. FS and Lorraine heading out...to a rodeo given FS's hat?
Above - Heading out, again. Lorraine, FS and Karla.
Above - Burnt out from everything, B4 and B1 catching some Zzz's. 
Above - Treated like a man-slave, i was dressed down to a loin cloth, had oil smeared all over and a pair of white gloves so as not to smudge the glass wear. My sole responsibility - make sure the girls never had an empty cocktail glass. Lorraine, Karla, FS and Allison.
Above - Sk8 or Die!! Max, B1, B2 and B3.
Above - Get all dolled up and attend the Hilton Pool Party, Have a few drinks and then jump into a tiny inflatable boat in the pool. How did they think this was going to end?? FS and Lorraine, pre-turnover and having to get dry next to the sharwarma stand.
Above - Karla, FS, B2 at the Atlantis Water Park, Dubai.Trashed, wiped out and thoroughly exhausted from the month of April. My throat's sore, head ache pounding, on the verge of a fever, the aches and pains of a flu (no swine kissing being going on here, so not the Mexican Flu) are creeping through my joints, I'm behind in my work, emails haven't been answered, the grass in the back yard is a foot high (note -must get the gardener on to this), my hair looks like a dread-locked hippy (well, 3 of the remaining strands are tangled), in summary, it's been a big month just gone.
FS has taken up running in the last 2 months and has gone from being able to jog/walk/crawl for 20 minutes to jogging for 90minutes and somehow managing to have full discussions the whole way. Coming home from a long run, she asks for a shoulder rub, then after a few weeks i finally realise this is because she's jogging the entire time with her head to the left talking to Rachel. They run a few times a week and late at night to avoid the heat of the day (it's hitting 40c every day now and only getting hotter). The objective is to be able to run a half marathon in June in under 2.5 hours!!
Parties seem to have been high on the agenda for April too. The girls heading out to the Hilton hotel pool party. Lorraine 'let's have tequila shots' West, led the way, even when her and FS ended up in the inflatable before being overturned by a couple of over-zealous party goers. All dolled up, dripping wet and left standing next to a rotisserie.
The local football (soccer)league team, strangely enough called Al Ain, won both the Etislat Cup and the President's Cup, which was great news for our mate Mick, who is the Trainer for the team. Currently sitting in 3rd for the League Cup, they probably won't win that this year, but a great effort to the fittest team in the world. I've passed a few of my tips through the year, falling back on my heh day as coach of the Strikers under 5,6, and 7 teams.
A couple more farewells, of note was the cheerio to Gary 'Bushy' and Suzanne 'Matilda' Bluff. These guys have been here for over 16 years and were really good to me when i first lobbed up in Al Ain, having me over for a couple of BBQs and keeping me up to date with the Hash House Harrier runs. A couple of others also have finished up and a quiet farewell drink always ends up a little off-balance. A couple of birthday parties and the month was rounded out with the Al Ain Rugby Club Ball. Otherwise known as Al Ain's night of nights (AA is a quiet little backwater), this year's Ball was great too. FS was unstoppable on the dance floor, others were less than graceful on the bucking bronco, but provided plenty of laughs after a few pints.
FS had another D.Q. moment. We took her to the opthamologist for a routine procedure on her eye. Immediately after we're sitting in the doctors room whilst he wrote a prescription. FS then drops from the chair and proceeded to collapse onto the floor, went into a massive convulsion, stopped breathing and looked like a ripe blueberry. Of course the doctor's response didn't fill me with a great deal of confidence as i held her in my arms..."ooh, oh, what's happened, what's this, what do i do??" he spluttered...The next 90-120 seconds were an adrenalin fueled rant, culminating in me having to start some compressions and breathing...before FS finally came back and was eventually rushed down to emergency. The story goes on, but not here, all i can say is that it was really scary, and her D.Q crown remains firmly in place.
We missed out on the cricket games between Australia and Pakistan, moved to the UAE as the Aussies refused to play in Pakistan for safety reasons; but managed to get to Abu Dhabi to watch the Red Bull Air Race, which was fantastic. The stage was the Corniche near the Abu Dhabi Marina, apparently the best event of it's series for spectators because the local authorities allow you to get so close. FS took B2 to see a remake of the production of Annie on stage. FS and the kids also headed up to the Atlantis hotel to have a go at the Aquventure Water Park and a couple of days at the beach before the sand gets too hot.
Without a doubt, the highlight of the month was a day trip we made into Oman. About 2 hours drive into the middle of nowhere, through the Mezyad border gates and after throwing a left after the town of Ibri, drive past several old forts atop the vantage points of small hills, where only the ruins are left, past the honeycomb tombs near Al Ayn, then turn right onto a small 4x4 track for a few hundred metres. This is the opening to a very large mountainous gorge. After a short trek we came across a small dammed section not overly impressive in itself, but the valley spiralled way up into the mountains to 'Allah knows where'. We continued clambering over the rock shelves and around a couple of the bends in the track before shortly coming across a crystal clear water hole with a small water fall cascading down into it. It had the instant feel of a bottled water commercial and over the course of the day we continued to trek our way though the beginnings of the valley, wading at times through pristine cool water and even crouching and wading through caves and up water falls. The area was completely isolated, with 100m shear cliffs either side and only about 40m across from edge to edge. The water was so clear, only intensifying in its colour the deeper it ran through different pools. It was a 42c day and the rocks were steaming hot, making the pools even more appealing. Also fascinating was the amount of fish (albeit very small), cat fish, silver coloured and even some yellowed coloured ones. The kids came across a couple of small snakes. The smaller kids loved sliding down the slippery rock waterfalls and into small pools and the big kids were hunting the deep pools with big rock-offs. Wadi Damm, was with out fail, the most attractive area we have come across since living over here, and we've arranged with a couple of others to go back for weekend camping in the coming weeks.
At the other end of the candle, I've been flat out with work, the 6 day weeks and long hours have exhausted alot of my enthusiasm for it and driving everyday to Dubai and Abu Dhabi has become a bit of a grind also. I may have mentioned it before, that most of the management of the company i second myself to are living here without their families, so they pour themselves into their work and literally have no balance at all, of course they can't understand why i don't work 18 hours every day.
So, as i shake off the baggy eyes and lethargy, i find the candle has burnt away the wax and I'm announcing that the month of May is going to be a quiet, on the wagon, resting month and more moderated hours....I am no sooner thrown the calender and find FS has the family down for a Dowh boat trip in Dibba, Hosting a dinner with half of the village coming, Camping weekend back at Wadi Damm, weekend away at Fujeriah, 20/20 cricket in Dubai, my work calender has too many tenders due, 500 staff who don't know one end of a shovel from another, site engineers who have degrees in agriculture (animal husbandry i later find out - not landscape) and trying to manage AED400M worth of landscape with a financial controller who doesn't want to spend a single dirham and haven't paid their workers in over 2 months!!!! I'm so glad to have my own little business here when stuff like that happens. At least i can pay myself, whereas these other buggers are fretting constantly.
Ahh yes, the desert summer has arrived, everything is how it always is in the UAE...full of madness.
