General Happenings - early 2010

Above - Another item on the 'bucket-list' ticked. Jeffrey's Bay, Sth Africa, April 2010.

Above - J'Bay perfection. I left Port Elizabeth (about an hour north) to howling 4oknot onshore winds, and arrived here to perfect 3-4 foot offshore conditions. On this day, the scramble over the rocks and paddle out weren't too troublesome, but coming back in was a little rocky and the booties saved my feet.

Above - The beach scape at Jeffrey's Bay; from the multi million dollar mansions that line the dunes to the natural beauty of the dune thickets and rambling Aloe plants. The J'bay point is a magical place, but of course the true magic is in the perfect right hand waves that peel around the point for what seems like an eternity.

Above - Al Ain Amblers Rugby Tour of Malaysia, Feb 2010. The boys trying to escape from the harsh sun and tropical humidity. B1 captained his team to a respectable semi final. After extra time, the scores were still locked up, but they lost on a count of a coin flip to Singapore.

Above - Villi, Del, B1, Thomasi, Eoin and Cosi. Royal palace guards, Kuala Lumpur.


Above - NS and B1, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Above - Piss-weak Irish crashes out and pays the price.

Above - B3 and B4 repainting the house, March 2010.

Above - Boys will be boys and play with guns too, but when they tie that into dressing up for national day in the UAE? Not allowed outside like this little fella in case someone gets the wrong idea!

Above - NS and FS, social life in UAE is pretty fun. Friends party April 2010.

Above - A quick trip (3 days) back to Oz. Was great to finally see the family after a couple of years. Here, the Dees bouncing around.

Above - Good old Aussie Barby with mates. April 2010.

Above - Merv at the helm of the Barby. Our boys have been watching 'Bondi Rescue' on tele and when they saw this picture, thought it was Hoppo.

Above - Shane, Ava and NS chilling out with some magic tasting lunch from Waves. It's the little things like our favourite take outs that you miss too...besides the people of course.

Above - Easter morning. B3 and B4 super stoked.

Above - B3 and B4 with their version of a new bird cage. Love the team work boys!

Above - The other bird cage for our little budgies. B2 and B1 built most of this with B3 and B4 doing alot of the painting. We put it in the side garden and the birds love it.

Above - A man and his 4 boys. Some more quality time, 5 way interactive PSP.

Well, there has been some flyer miles clocked up so far this year for sure. Some business trips to Bahrain and Qatar, a junket to Sth Africa, some camping trips in Oman, and some extended breaks in Uganda, Kenya, Malaysia and Australia, not to mention the ridiculous amount of driving i am doing in the UAE to get around all of my projects in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Liwa and of course Al Ain.

In February, B1's rugby team went to Malaysia for a tour of Kuala Lumpur, and of course i was happy to tag along as chaperon and to keep the coaches in good drinking partners during the evenings. It was a great trip, being a fly on the wall was good fun during the bus trips to and from games, listening to the banter and ribbing between the 14's, 16's and 18's teams.

There is little doubt that the Malay take their rugby pretty seriously, and against our team at least, they had a significant advantage in the wet, muddy and humid conditions...our boys not ever having played in mud before, let alone handling a wet ball. All in all, everyone had a great trip with no major injuries and a bit of site seeing including the Twin Towers and the local chocolate making factory.

Beginning of April dad was having his 70th b'day, so it was a great surprise to all back home, when i lobbed up at the golf club where the family were playing a bit of par 3 golf. Whilst only having the 3 days to try to catch up with everyone, it was well worth it and after lots of "hi's" "when you coming backs" and "say to to the family's", bbq's, beers and a body bash down at southy beach, it was time to go. It was sooo good to catch up with all my mates and family and just to be back on the beaches at home surrounded by so much familiarity.

Also during April, i managed to scam a convention trip to Johannesburg, based on the world cup theme of sustainable communities beyond the WC 2010. It was very interesting, but of course my main focus was to quickly jump a plane and head down to Port Elizabeth and then on to J'Bay to score some quality surf. The surf was nothing short of great, even though it was freezing cold, i had brought the steamer and booties and even found a warm bakery for a chocolate moove and meat pie after the surf. I then went up to Durban, where i was only there for a couple of days, but can't say i exactly loved the place, it just had a dodgy type of vibe about it.

Besides that, normal living and the wind down of the lovely cooler weather in the UAE. Summer is well and truly here now (end of May) with daily temps not dropping below 43C. We're taking a family holiday to the YOU S OF A in June/ July, so busy planning for this, and of course FS and the boys are heading back to the land of Oz for 7 weeks in July/August. So the next post should have plenty of new adventures and piccies.