Mah Salama UAE

Above - Lorraine, Karla, and FS.....so many of these nights over the years, it will be hard to imagine having a Thursday arvo drink without these 3 together.

Above - Some of the Al Ain chick gang. Karla, Joni, FS, Amanda & Keirstan.

Above - Lets dress up as some sort of excuse to have a girl's night out. Amanda, Claire, Kerry, Lozza, FS, Karla & Keirstan.

Above - Men folk doing what men folk do....standing in front of cameras and smiling....Wade, Jody, NS, Justin & Mick.

Above - Another dress up for these naughty school girls. FS and Lozza.

Above - Portrait shot of the words best neighbours. Craig and Marcia.

Above - Another international party, this one at the Saunders Aussie Out-back BBQ party. FS, Mick, Wayne, Karla, Liam, NS, Guy, Lexi, Bob, Lozza, Claire, Craig (going the grope on his missus), Marcia, Phil and Seb.

Above - Pre-going out drinks at the home made Aussie bar. Mick, Karla, FS, Hala, NS, Mitch, Lozza and Guy.

Above - Chicks at a NYE party. Hala, Bonnie, Karla, FS, Kerry, Lozza, Amanda, Rachael and Emma.

Above - Go West looking loose at the Roman party, thank god that book in front is covering him!

Above - 80's party, Bob (aka Queen) goes the reverse vaccuum suck on Lozza.

Above - No, he's not standing in a hole. Mick, ripping off my fashion again.

Above - Pimp Mick with Foxy lady Karla and Liam Bjorn Weeks.

Above - Indo Besties, Mary and Dewi at the front of our villa.

Above - Surrogate family at Xmas, the Saunders, West, McDermott and Haddow families.

Above - Santa got a little more extreme each year with his entrance. Dec 2011 saw him abseil down from the roof of the villa much to the delight of the kids and panic of FS.

Above - Our family for the last 5 years in the UAE, NS, FS and the boys with Mary at the Dubai Mall aquarium.

Above - When in the desert, its time to go do some sand bashing on the quad-bikes.

Above - Can't believe they just opened up the wave pool a month before we are leaving the UAE. None-the-less, we made good use of it. B1 and B2 after another session.

Above - Between the 5 of us, we represented the AAARFC from every age group except for U18. Thats U6 to U17 and also in Seniors Premiership and Vets. The 4 boys were their respective team captains for each year which was a great attribute to them.

What started out as a 3 month project for work, quickly transpired into a 5 year long, life changing experinace for the entire family. You could have asked me any time, and i would have told you we would only have lasted 6 months or maybe a year if we were lucky. There is always the constant anxienty of working in the UAE that your job is not safe and at the whim of a 'local' you could be gone. I guess it is a bit of a coping mechanism that alot of expats here have also, to not put too much pressure on a long term arragement, and save yourself disspointment later down the track. I remember i hated my first 3 months here without the family and the pressures of starting a new business in a foreign land where i didn't even speak the language. But in a strange way, whilst those first few months seem like a different life away, we have since become so happy, settled and comfortable here, that 5 years just seems to have flown by. So, how the bloody hell did we get here anyway?

Making the move to the UAE from an idealic life on the northern beaches of Sydney with a young family of four boys, leaving a good job , great friends and family may have seemed a little crazy to others. Even to this day, FS and i often reflect back to that fateful day sitting on the beach at Collaroy Basin whilst the boys swam in the surf and built sand castles on the shoreline. It was a complete no brainer for us, we actually couldn't think of a single reason why we shouldn't make the leap (admittedly, we weren't trying to think of reasons why we shouldnt go). It was just the perfect oppurtunity at the perfect time (any time is good for such a move though in-case you're considering it), and our decision had nothing to do with tax free dollars or any such superficial desires, but was based purely around the excitment of being able to travel a little bit with the kids, live and experiance life through the eyes of a different culture and ultimately to create our own little family adventure.

Hands-down it was the best decision we have ever made. And whilst there have been ups and downs associated with living so far away from 'home' and the endless list of frustrations that come with livng and working in the Middle East; its an experiance we can all hold on to forever and recount with each other around the family dinner table for the decades to come. I can already see us sitting back, possibly without the boys fighting, yelling or abusing one another (that in itself would be a great family dining experinance), and perhaps during that window of peace we'll all be laughing or crying at the retelling of any number of our awesome adventures which included travelling all over the world to dozens of countries (inlcuding Thailand, Kenya, Jordan, Uganda, Oman, Vietnam, Kuwait, Bahrain, Maldives, Sth Africa, USA, Eygpt, the UK, and Malaysia) living and surviving oppressive heat upwards of 49degrees celsius, somehow negotiating the roads without serious injury or death, managing the ridiculous procedures and red-tape associated with any process here, thinking about the amazing people and friends that we made from all over the world and the big parties, wild times and antics that we shared with all of them, or perhaps how the boys all played some form of international rugby, touring around the Middle East and Asia, being able to learn and use a new languauge (just enough to get me into trouble in my case), maybe it will be the incredile community we were so lucky to have been a part of in Al Ain, the Oasis City where until you have really lived there and emersed yourself into the spirit and sense of the place, you would not know what i mean (I am not able to give justice to it here in words). Either way, we have a life time of stories already, but cant wait now to add to these with the next part of our journey which takes us to the USA to start a new job, new house, new schools, more new friends and certainly we're anticipated a totally different way of living and culture.

Our 4 boys have each grown up from babies to boys and from boys to strapping young men respectively, so whilst the time has flown by, it has also left a lasting impression on our development as a family. I was always concerned about the boys growing up for too much of their youth here in the UAE, where admittedly life can be pretty good as a parent without the fear of your kids being exposed to drugs, violence etc, and where house maids are common and a lot of general chores can be handled by hired help. I was a little niave perhaps, but was concerned that the boys may miss out on an Aussie upbringing if we were here too long. This has been less of a concern the last few years as i reckon we're pretty 'aussie' in our attitude wherever we are and certainly having the boys exposed to so many cultures and differnces (all of their mates from here are from across the world) has hopefully broaden their outlook on things, (I can't really tell though as the older ones mostly grunt in monosyllabic broken voice tones and the little guys still ask questions like, "are we muslim arabs now?") so i guess only time will tell, which is pretty much what happens anywhere right?.

Whilst i neither have the time nor memory ability to recount all of the wonderful people and experinces, i know for sure that we will all miss the UAE, especially Al Ain where we met so many of our best friends. My own recount of just a few of the dozens of fondly remembered friends inlcude: when i first arrived during those first terrible lonely months, being taken in a little by wonderful people such as Suzzane and Bushy Bluff, hanging out with the NZers like Russ and Mary, the Noosa boy Jeff and Alison, creating long lasting friendships with my Palestinian mate Ahmed Osman, smoking shisha every week with my Syrian mate, Ghassan Al Eid, working closely with Ayad and Mounjid for years on massive projects, FS's close friendship with Rachel 'are you a runner too' Rice, All the boys from rugby of course, Anne and Ghazi, Cosimo and Zeno brothers and best mates to B1 and B2, all the crew from Onion Village including Bob and Lexi, Phil and Claire, Clive and Noriko, Omar and Nasheen, Alec, Ian and Chulli, Simon and Jenny, Liam, the crew outside the village including Jody and Amanda, Wade and Jonni and Paul and Emma and Justin and Keirstan, my best golfing and more often than not drinking buddy Dave 'Mitch' Mitchell, the very best neighbours anyone could ever hope for "The Shamers" Craig and Marcia and last but most definitely not least, our partners in crime for just about everything being: Go West, The Scottish Lass Lorraine, Mick "did i tell you the story about when i was back in Ireland and I..." and Karla "no i'm not his African housemaid" McDermott. We expect everyone of you and of course everyone else as well to come and visit us in the States or at least 'Down Under' in Oz!  Mah Salama UAE, we truly thank you for having us.