Back Down Under

Above - Abu Dhabi Airport, heading back to OZ for a holiday

Above - One of the first things NS did when getting back to OZ was head up to the Edgy lookout and just, 'take it all in'.

Above - B3, B4 and Lachie, WHPS sports carnival cheering squad.

Above - Full of smiles and giggles, Giorgia and Sky.

Above - "i luv you" , "i luv you too" , "no, i mean it man, i'm not just sayin this cause i'm drunk, i luv you" , "yehhh, me too" , "and me to" , "yeh me too", heh...i luv you" ,then all three crash to floor.

Above - Punk, Chuck, Merv, NS, Jas and Rosco; There was 6 different versions of this song being sung simultaneously, but geez it sounded good!!

Above - John, Cappa, Picko, Strongman, Floydy; debating the intricacies of world sports.

Above - Marrissa, Magic-hands, Suzie Q and Sarah; some of the northern beaches finest.

Above - Nel, Ange (with FS lookalike shoulder piece)

Above - The Wheelos, Dohy, Aikes, Punk, Dixon, Merv, Chuckles and Rempt; a quiet night from the lads left the house standing the next day.

Above - Despite sub-zero temperatures, B2 and B1 hit the surf back in Oz whenever they could.

Above - What a site, all four clean the wax off the ol' twinny, getting her ready for some waves.

Above - Enjoying each other as much as catching up with friends. As usual NS was left with all the cooking duties for the party.

Above - It was soooo hard t get on the plane after enjoying the Oz home life again; Dee Why to Longy beach.

Above - The 4 B's at Taraonga Zoo.

Above - B3 wore his train drivers hat, "just in case the State Railway paged him to work", hanging with the bros.

Above - Before heading home to Oz for a holiday, B3 and B2 tried out the new school pick-up bus in the U.A.E.

Above - It was a bit windy, and i didn't have anything to hold on to but this shot from the top of the Burj Al Arab (world's tallest building) came out o.k. I was having a look to install a new roof-top-garden.

Well, I'm writing this back in the U. A .E, and FS and the boys are still back in the land of Oz, but it is fair to say that we all had a great time catching up with family and friends and meeting some new additions to all the various families.

As most would know, FS and the boys went back a few weeks earlier than my-self, it was so hard to walk away from the airport check-in, knowing that they were heading to God's country and that once i walked through the air conditioned doors to the outside, the harsh reality of a 45c heat would hit. It was all i could do, was count down the time minute by minute, hour by hour until i was getting dropped off, checking in and launching on one of Etihad's finest.

By all accounts, the surprise early visit of FS and the boys caught alot off guard. FS's mum went into mild hysterics, Karen thought FS was there for a hair appointment, Kylie forgot FS had gone and said hello as if it had been 5 minutes (before it registered obviously), Christine went semi hysterical at a surprise dinner the next day, Nel drove past FS and boys walking back from school and "i thought i recognised her", to me in an email a week later. B1 and B2 were treated like major celebrities the first afternoon of school when their mates saw them, B3 was naming friends to see that didn't actually exist, but was pumped to see Lachie and Will and his girlfriend being Ava, and that left poor little B4, whom nobody recognised at all. One of the best was a lunch FS went to at Karen's; Lisa C turns up and after 30 minutes asks who the little blonde boy is?

From my own account, it was 10am when i flew out of Abu Dhabi and 48c with extreme humidity. T-shirt and shorts, landed in Sydney to 12c and a freezing SW wind....bloody beautiful. Everything was weird, a taxi driver that understood every word i said, although he only drove at the speed limit (60-80km/hr), it felt so slow after driving the last 20 months at 140km. Driving through and into the beaches was a strange feeling also, excitement for sure, but the senses were picking up on the fallen leaves from the Liquid amber trees, the large flowers of the Magnolias, green nature strips, people walking outside and so much more.

Everybody says it, but it isn't until you get home, you realise that not much at all has changed (besides some friends with extra kids in their stock of course). I mean, the check-out-chick at the local top shops asked FS if she had gone away for a weekend. The war veterans are still running people over at the shops on their way to the bank, the school mums still have coffee at the same spot every morning, mum still had nothing worth eating in the fridge or cupboard ( i sense she hid all the good stuff knowing i was coming), but you know what, for me the lack of change was great...it was so easy to come home, to have some catch-ups and a couple of stories about being away, and before 5 minutes we're talking about how the mighty eagles are going in the footy, what's the surf doing, and how if it's not printed in the Manly Daily, it's not worth knowing about.

Of course for FS and I and the boys too, it was such a special thing to come home to family and friends, one of the treats of being away i guess is coming home. I did need to re-adjust to a couple of points though. Filling up at the petrol station i parked and for about 25 seconds couldn't figure out why no-body was coming to fill the tank and clean the windows?? not to mention the huge difference in cost of the petrol. Rather than paying 30cents/Ltr I'm digging deeper for the ridiculous $1.70, cough.

Anyway, my 2 weeks went way too fast, but it was great to get on the turps with most people at our little do, or to catch up with others at BBQs or school events etc. I was really struggling to get on the plane and my last couple of days i asked FS a couple of times for the reality check i sometimes need. Of course some of my best mates put it best, "everything is still here when you get back, keep having fun over there and maybe save up for some hair transplants while you're there". Mates...who needs them!

FS and the boys will be coming home at the end of August after 8 weeks in sunny (most of the time) Sydney. I know B1 and B2 are really going to miss their mates again, but i can't wait to tell them all about my trip through the Maldives on my way back to the UAE. That's for the next blog page though. Thanks to everyone.

Our Desert Conquer Continues

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!

kef Halak?...How are you?

Above - Yes!!, the all important answer to, "is there ride able surf in Dubai?". Occasionally, only though. May as well shut down your computer now, because this is the most important thing you'll read here.

Above - No, this is not a shot indicating that B4 has 'special needs' and wears a head guard to protect himself from damage. Rather, B4 really loves wearing B1's head gear and playing "Hugby" in the back yard.

Above - B1 churning up the sands in the desert.

Above - When not 'driving Ms Daisy' to the shops, B2 freelances as a quad bike racer, here taking the inside approach to a quick corner?

Above - Meanwhile, B3 nonchalantly sets a course record in the peewee 50 category track.

Above - Madam Butterfly, a picture of concentration steps to the blocks as the announcer calls Australia's representative for the AAESS triathlon.

Above - With my team mates in the AAESS triathlon being from NZ, i had to emphasise we were here to win, not just make up numbers.

Above - What do you get when you team an Aussie, a Scot and an NZer?...the AAESS 2nd place getters and a barrel of laughs to go with it.

Above - Good mates as well as brothers, B4 and B3.

Above - With some emails eluding to the fact that i appear to never be working, it was appropriate that i included a work shot...shame the dress-up place only had The Village people outfits.

Above - 'Brothers in Arms'

Above - Just over the border in Oman, a recent find was this oasis (in middle of photo), nestled amongst some spectacular mountain terrain.

Above - I made mention of it a year ago, another example of the simply brilliant falaj irrigation systems used in the regions crop growing.

Above - You'll notice by the people in the back-ground, that we were the only ones to dress up for the party. Check out the style though.

Above - NS takes changing channels on the TV pretty seriously

Above - Come the spouse boxing matches, virtual games mirrored reality with FS KO'ing me in the 1st round!

Above - Poppy John timed his visit to see us after reviewing the Dubai Desert Classic schedule and was as stoked as the rest of us to follow the likes of Tiger Woods.

Above - After beating the Kingdom of Bahrain on home soil, B1 and B2 will be heading to the island nation to play the round 2 match up.

Above - Poppy John, and some aspiring golf pros at the Al Ain Golf Course.

Like all the good books i read, this blog entry has plenty of glossy pictures, is able to be re-read a dozen times and keeps you right up to date with the important things in life...kind of like a Seinfeild episode, it is a blog about nothing.

From the emergency ward of the last blog, B2 now has his cast off and although it has been 3 weeks with it off, he still has about 10degrees left before he can straighten it out fully. FS is a bit worried, but i keep telling her that if he takes up cricket as a bowler he'll be sweet with the swing and like Murilee, won't get pulled up with a suspect bent arm action.

FS's oldies have been and gone, of course the extra help around the house was great, the kids remembered them and loved having them here, John's egg and bacon breakies were a treat and the 2 weeks they stayed with us must have saved me about $3grand in phone calls between FS and her mum. Whilst we were keen to have them stay an extra week or 2, they became suspect about our motives after finding a list of chores and work plan to be carried out during this period, especially as theirs were the only names on the list. They decided to leave.

The kids sporting calender has been consuming allot of our weekends, with Rugby and soccer tournaments, mixed results, but the exciting news on this front is that we are all heading off to Bahrain at the end of March for a few days so that B1 and B2 can play in a rugby tournament.

FS and i were recently invited to a wii party. Now most people will know that this 'wii' is in fact a type of interactive video game setup. For some reason, both FS and i have never heard of such a thing and funnily, both of us read the invite as WWII, then thinking this meant it was a world war 2 dress up party. Our theory of course was supported by the fact that the hosts are here training the local UAE army and we considered their passion of the military to extend to parties? So to try and take this to an informative view of Australia's role in WWII, we decided to dress as the 'Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels' (Papa New Guinea's native tribesmen who assist the Aussie troopers during WWII along the Kakoda Trail). Short of donning the loin clothes and bones through the nose we were informed what a wii actually is and decided to dress up anyway - only this time in some tight, white clothing and head and wrist bands. I'm happy to report that despite our social inadequacies, FS dominated the women's division, just getting pipped for a second placing, but i was indeed crowned wii men's champion.

At the risk that this blog is sounding more like a wrap-up by Mike Gibson and big Daryl Eastlakes on the Wide World of Sports; both FS and i recently took part in the Al Ain English Speaking School Triathlon. This was a teams event, the swimming length being 350m, the bike 11km and the run 5.5km...simple heh? Fran self nominated for the swim length, i was nominated by some mates to join them for the run length, still no problem right? In the month leading into the event, i was all but laid out with a bad flu and long hours at work were making this worse (yes i know, bring out the violins), but FS was confidently recalling to anyone who would listen about her under 12 heroics of winning a nipper race at North Narrabeen beach in a raging 10 foot swell (i became suss when i heard the size of the waves). The day before the big event, i was feeling slightly better (using the gauge of a walking corpse to a flem spitting Pakistani) and FS was still overly confident. I suggested FS try a few practise laps in our pool. You need to picture that the race pool is going to be 35m in length, our pool is 20metres. Panic on FS's behalf has now set in!!! On the first lap of our pool she has to stop 3 times, she says to adjust her goggles. The second lap her legs are starting to drop deeper and by the third lap she is taking in water and reaching for the side of the pool. It was lucky she didn't need resuscitation as myself and a group of others (who'd been subjected to her recalling of the under 12 nipper glory), were rolling in hysterics on the pool-side. FS didn't sleep well that night, and truth be known i was worried about my ability to get down stairs in the morning let alone run a race.

Race Day - I have to stress that like anything that happens in Al Ain, this event was pretty low key, relaxed and taken as more fun than anything else. But seriously, just between us, no matter what the event, everyone always wants to win or at least do well...admit it. Teamed with a couple of fit looking NZers, i was thinking this could be our day, I've got to put some pressure on the other teams prior to the start gun though...uh hu...the sports PE teacher from AAESS. If you're a PE teacher you'd want to be pretty fit and capable, so lets draw attention to the fact this guy has to be the favourite. Pressure is now off us and it's on their team. Anyway, the start gun goes off and so does FS, really digging deep, even ditching the goggles half way through lap 1, but finishing none the less and setting her team off to a good start. My team entered the run length in 4th position, by this stage the day had crept on, temps were now easily around 34c and really I've run out of excuses as to why i didn't make up the 1km deficit, but none the less finished the race with our team coming in 3rd position and FS's 2nd for the women's event. As for the PE teacher, yes his team won and he must have really felt the pressure and pushed himself too far as he crossed the line literally throwing up everywhere and unable to stand. Solid stuff!

In other news, i have found the first decent surf since being here. Stumbled across it quite by accident in the heart of Dubai on Jumeria Beach. Only coming in at about 2 foot, 3 foot on sets, a handful of guys were on it and having a ball. Looks most suited to a fish styled board as the waves looked a little fat and sectiony, but swell none the less and I'll be bringing back a board for sure.

We're all hanging out for June and July, for our planned holiday and return to OZ.