Abu Dabbling

Thursday saw the return of the ever popular annual Dive Ball. As usual we cajoled a load of the gang into sharing a table with us. A fine night was had of it though we were all a tad disappointed by the lack of 'booty' compared with previous years. That said, we are now the proud owners of a plastic lobster, a very dodgy looking cuttle fish and a rather large crab. These have joined the booty from the previous year in the guest bathroom.

Here are a few pictures of the event......



Lady Blodwen Glamorgan-Jones and The Countess of Grimsby enjoying pre-dinner cocktails in the reception lounge.

This is before the Lady Glamorgan Jones ripped her skirt while demonstrating the ancient Welsh art of 'Ian Climbing'.







I bravely took on Ian in International Arm Wrestling. Though I don't think Ian really understood the rules. Anyway, I let him off lightly!













Annette with matching ensemble of nails, lobster and eyes.





The highpoint of the evening was the appearance of the Club Pixie!








All in all a fun filled night of japes and frollicks!

In a country where you can't drive more than a kilometer without seeing some evidence of a car accident (and we have efficient road cleaners), it was only time before one of us was involved in one. So after 15 years of driving without an accident I get shunted at a traffic light. I stopped at a red light, but the driver behind couldn't be bothered to notice. Luckily we have a landrover discovery, he had a small saloon car which now has a broken passenger side light.

This weekend we went to Dubai, staying at our friends Paul and Lisa's (not forgetting dog Clyde) place in the Springs. We popped over to Madinat Jumeirah for a curry and a pint in the evening. This is a lovely setting, sitting outside overlooking the Burj Al Arab. Unfortunately we had forgotten that the price of a pint was nearly double that of Abu Dhabi, I suppose it stopped us drinking too much.

On Friday we had a relaxing day window shopping in the new Mall of the Emirates with it's indoor real snow ski slope. We left the skiing for another day and exercised our legs walking around the largest mall outside of North America.

By early evening we were of the Nad Al Sheba racecourse - our real reason for being in Dubai - to see Robbie Williams perform in the largest concert Dubai has seen so far. 25,000 people squeezed into an area that seamed smaller then the Jamiroquai concert last week.

A good night was had even by the non Robbie fans that were dragged along

Last night we went out to see our friend Adam play base for "The Empty Quarter". This was the 1st time he has let us spectate and unfortunately will be the last as he is leaving Abu Dib-Dobs for Melborne next month. So the band are looking for a new member. It was a very good gig in a new location for us (yes after 4 years there are still new delights) although I don't think the staff were expecting close on 200 people to turn up seeing as the band only needed 60 to be able to play.








Afterwards we went to see "The pub grubs" (peviously known as What If) at Heros in the Crown Plaza Hotel.

Went over to Dubai on Thursday to the Jamiroquai concert. Very good stuff, not sure if I was one of the 'young' or 'older' crowd referred to in this article in Gulf News. Hightailed it back to Abu Dib Dobs Yesterday morning in time to dash out for the Champagne Brunch at the Royal Meridian before a few sunset beverages at PJ's. All in all a very relaxing weekend.

Today is the Prophet's birthday, hence all the bars are closed for 24 hours from last night....so...... we had a few freinds around for a games night......




Luckily today is a holiday so we can nurse our hangovers in peace!

Yesterday we had the rare (honest!) chance to sit in the sun with a drink or two...



The Club (the local expat hangout) had it's first attempt at a carnival.

I think we must have been away from the UK too long I've just realised that I found a parade of floats, hoopla and bouncy castles all rather fun. So what if it was twee and church fair like it was a good excuse to catch up with friends and support Médecins Sans Frontières.

Carefore (one of our supermarket chains) has developed an exciting new range of diet foods. This latest offering was recently spotted by our friend Paul over in Dubai.......

Just been up to the Mussandam (on the tip of Arabia in the Straits of Hormouz) for the past 4 days. Stayed at the Golden Tulip on the edge of cliffs looking over to Iran.



Drove up on Saturday in 5 hours with only half an hour at the border, where Jem realised his life long ambition of eating a ham sandwich in the no-man's land between 2 arabic nations.







The main aim of the trip was for Stephen and Lisa to take their PADI advanced diver qualification which went off with out too much drama, though it turns out that Stephen has a weird concept of navigating a triangle!



Annette and Rachel had grand plans for some hard core sun batnhing and book reading by the pool but, unfortunatley the weather had other plans with a cold front moving over and forcing down temperatures to a cardigan wearing 27C (felt like 20 with the wind chill). Not to be thwarted they moved activities to a local arabic coffee shop (not sun bathing obv.). PS Water was even colder! Thinking of getting a thermal dry suit!



Highlight for Stephen - out on the dive boat with botle nose dolphins pulling tricks less then a metre away (is that a smile or a smirk?).
Highlight for Annette - not looking at microfossils.