Time Flies, Lots Happens & Some Special Visitors Arrive

Above - Dubai Madinat lunching on the canal. FS, B2, B3, Jakey, Poppy and B4.

Above - December: Poppy John, B1, B2 & J enjoying some golf at the Palm Sports Resort, Al Ain.

Above - Craig De Randt as Mr. C with B3, J, B1, B2 & B4.

Above - Chrissy morning, pressie time and the boys have hit the jack pot it seems. Mary watches on with excitement.

Above - B3 can't believe his luck and is over the moon that Santa delivered a new bike.

Above - NS and PJ washing the camp pots in a falaj system at Wadi Damm. The falaj is basically the irrigation system running through a palm oasis plantation, we camped the night at the mouth of the Wadi, and whilst it was the only sandy patch in site the sleeping was still a little rocky.

Above - Our majestic camp site in the foothills of some Omani mountains on a misty morning.

Above - PJ with 5/7ths of his grand kids posing in the rock pools at Wadi Damm.

Above - PJ enjoying the cool Wadi pools and waterfalls, Wadi Damm.

Above - B3, B2 and J checking out the 'Bee Hive Tombs' estimated at being built 3500 to 2500BC. Located in the Western Hajar mountains, the tombs are a must see if you find yourself this way.

Above - A spot of trekking through the Western Hajar mountains.

Above - Frosty the Snowman Archie. Year 1 school Xmas concert.

Above - FS, Mally & Lisa with their satellite class getting ready for the Xmas concert.

Above - Sand boarding stack! Maddy, B4 and Michael come flying off the board half way down the dune.

Above - Al Ain U/6 Champions Trophy winners of the Abu Dhabi Youth Tournament. Case, Sherrif, Callum, B3 and Katie.

Above - Try scoring machine B3 bolting for the line chased by the Dubai Hurricanes defence.

Above - Al Ain U/14, 7-a-side Plate Champions, Al Ain Youth Tournament. Coach Piers, Jnr, Taylor, Thomasi, Cosi, Villi, Lachie, Owen, B1 and Delton.

Above - Al Ain U/10 team. B2 front row, third from right.

Above - MOvember, NS and B4 changin' the face of men's health forever.

Above - Kings of Leon concert following Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix; Mick, NS and Karla. Mick is really 6'5", just standing on his knees here!!

Above - Steve Tyler old school rockin' at Aerosmith's last ever concert, closing concert to the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix. Smoke machines, fireworks, lights, leather pants and all...awesome!

Above - Yas Marina Circuit, F1 race won by Vettel, Aussie Mark Webber came 2nd.

Above - Halloween in Oyoun Village, B3 (at back), B4, Tommy, Maddy and Ailsa, using cuteness to scam lollies from neighbours.

Above - B4 pirate, Lovis under sheet ghost, B3 grim reaper, B2 Joker.

Above - Lorraine's 30th; bar wench and punk rocker Guy.

Above - The police arrive to breakup the party! FS on bike patrol.

Above - First of 2009/2010 school year. B3 (year 1), B1 (year 8), B4's first day at school (nursery), and B2 (year 5).

Above - Traffic jam in Oman.

Above - Wadi Madbah, biggest waterfall in UAE, not massive but a nice waterhole for swimming in 45c summer weather.

Above - Paintball skirmish for B1's very late b'day party.

Above - Sabrina, FS and Rachael "Are you a Runner Too" Rice after just completing their 22km run through the summer heat of June...43c even during the evening. Has not run a metre since!!

Above - More relaxing than running. Chilling out on a weekend to Fujairah Beach. RR and FS.

Above - Mussandan peninsula, view from the Dhow.

Over the last 6 months I've taken to a fortnightly ritual of heading down to the nearby Indian Barber shop for a haircut and shave. Sounds very simple, it is; it's a nice little perk of living somewhere where there are more barbershops on a single street than there are flies at the local camel market. Don't get me wrong, when i say i go every fortnight for a shave, it doesn't mean I'm not cutting my whiskered face before work each morning, and a haircut is probably an exaggeration, being that the hair on the barber shop floor at the completion of my service would be lucky to give a balding mouse some transplants. But here in lies the perk of the whole thing. You see, the UAE is synonymous with promising much more than it could ever deliver and more often than not, one is left feeling a little short changed, ripped off or maybe having paid for a quality that will never be there. On the other hand, you occasionally find these little gems, such as our little Indian Barber shop, where they know and greet you by your name, the same guy looks after you each time, and yes, the piste-resistance, the glassed off booth, like being seated in the owners box at a Man City game or maybe it's more like being put into a quarantined room in the hospital with a case of Swine flu...either way, you feel a little special.

So, for 25 dibs (about 7 aussie bucks), i get to have my noggin shaved from 1.5mm to 1mm, and whilst i know the job was completed in the first 45 seconds with the electric shaver, my barber man does his best to pretend he is then feverishly snipping loads of hair with his scissors for a further 10 minutes, i close my eyes and think back to the good ol' hair days where this would have actually been the case with 'Bob the Butcher' down on South Creek Rd, doing his best to give every Sydney northern beaches kid a bowl cut and straight fringe (at 14 years old this was compensated by the chance to read the stick mags in his waiting room). Just as I'm about to fall asleep in total relaxation, a sprayer is used to waft fine particles of water across my face in preparation for the facial shave. The cut-throat blade is then produced and like Edward Scissor Hands cutting an ice sculpture, Mr Ayub the Barber Shop Man has a two day growth under control and my face feels like a babies bum.

So where i am going with all this? Back up to my first sentence and the point is, we've actually begun to get into some sense of a routine with our hectic lives here. The quick synopsis of the last 6 months would have me saying that all the boys are all at school and going relatively well, FS is busy teaching at the same school and whilst only being part time, is spending more hours there in a week than she's paid in a month, but she loves it! I've had the opportunity to work on some nice projects

A couple of highlights since returning to the UAE from Thailand have been: FS and Rachael 'are you a runner too' Rice completing their half marathon run. After about 4 months of training (long gossip sessions with intermediate spats of jogging thrown in), they completed the feat one summer evening in temps of 43c. Not a single step of jogging has been completed since, instead the training sessions replaced with shopping sprees??

We've done heaps more little trips including a couple of weekends to Fujeriah's beaches and into Oman, camping a bit in some isolated Wadis and plains, of course the only hassles with camping in the middle east, is the lack of avaliable fire wood, meaning most of the packing room in the car is filled with pre-bought piles of timber to ensure a nice camp fire for the marsh mallows. Wadi Damm remains our favorite spot to date.

A few trips into the desert outside of Al Ain with our mates has provided plenty of laughs too; one highlight being Guy and Lorraine taking their new 4x4 just metres off the dirt road into the sand, only to get bogged. Of course a good friend's misfortune like this is always a great excuse for a laugh and provides plenty of fodder for future ribbing. Adding insult to injury was FS leading a cheering squad during the rescue.

We weren't without our own sand bogging or two either; a quick dune bashing session with the kids after fishing at an isolated oasis saw me get my 4x4 bogged down to both axles and past the doors! After about 4 hours in the hot sun and finished of all our water, we were eventually semi rescued by a passing Pakistani guy who gave us his water, enough to keep us going until FS arrived with Mick 'i like wearing riding chaps' Mcdermott whose contribution was to catch everything on camera as future fodder no doubt.

We waived farewell to some of our friends who's contracts had ended in this largely itinerate environment, sadly this included FS's partner in many crimes, RR. The Rices and Ricicles leaving the UAE for the jungles of Africa, but of course this just gives us the excuse to travel there and say G'day and learn a bit of Swahilii.

The new school term started in September with B1 heading to yr8, B2 into yr5, B3 to yr1 and B4 joining the school in nursery. This is probably the only time we'll ever have all 4 boys at the same school together. B4 earnt the monicker of Part Time George, as the school is particular of all it's students attending fulltime, we chose to send him only 3 days a week and spend the balance at home with FS or with Mary.

The boys started rugby again with the UAE league coinciding with the slightly cooling weather. All the boys are playing good rugby, with both B1 and B2 being named captains of their respective teams and B3 turning out to be a try scoring whiz in the U6's. The rugby club has been a real blessing and a driving force behind keeping some of the homely aspects of living abroad.

Work wise i've been lucky enough to be involved with some great jobs including the Abu Dhabi Formula 1 circuit; lots of impossible deadlines and ridiculous demands all being made worthwild come race day/s. A great spectacular to be a part of, i'd highy reccommend anyone to go to at least one F1 event if given the chance. The post race concerts were great too, including Beyonce (i didn't actully go to see her, instead partying with our good mate Lozza at her cracking 30th/Halloween party), but was stoked to see Kings of Leon and Aerosmith, hanging out with Mick and Karla.

We setup the Middle East Mos for MOvember and raised a tidy 2 grand aussie for the cause. Funny thing was that as the tach' grew i found myself increasingly fixated with licking my lips brushing the hairy catepillar...unfortunatly FS was hardly licking her lips or salavating at the thought of kissing me with a MO, so come December 1 it was straight down to Mr. Ayub the Barber Shop Man for a shave.

The closing of the decade was rounded out for us with a visit from Poppy John and Jakey Ju. We were obviously stoked to have them come stay with us after a year and half since we were last back in Oz. It's a pleasure to have the oppurtunity to play host and tour guide, but most importantly just to hang out and catch up. Jake was full of questions and thought everything was "weird". Poppy couldn't believe how big the 4 boys were, standing on his tippy toes everytime he was near Zach. A back to back test revealing B1 a couple of inches taller! I took Poppy to my Barber shop, but obviously they weren't used to cutting anything other than a bald spike; as Linc said over the video phone during a Xmas day call, "he looks like a dunny brush". We took Jake to see the pet camel we 'bought' him a couple of years back, and the boys enjoyed riding around on 'Frank's' hump. All in all a great trip and we hope to see more family and friends coming over this way soon.

So 2009 is kaput and 2010 looks to have lots on store. We're busy making plans for a few trips including Uganda and Kenya in February and dependant on the work being here, will try to hang around to maybe see another year out and get in some more exploring and new experiances! Hope to see you all here soon, happy new year!!