Under the Boardwalk..

On the Boardwalk really, it's a restaurant at the Dubai Creek golf complex that a lot of the guys at work had recommended. After our recce at the New Gold and Diamond Centre, we headed to by the Creek, across the floating bridge and to this restaurant on the side of the creek, which extends out over the water on a kind of jetty structure. The food was great and around 6pm was the right time to arrive, as the heat had gone out of the sun as it headed down towards the horizon.

Hot chocolate needed

We stayed in there for about half an hour or so, which was a deal longer than anyone else who came and went in the same period- we are from the frozen north after all- but it took a round of hot chocolate to extend our stay! Madeleine was first to start feeling the pinch so we got out for a warm up. There's a Toys'R'Us in the centre so we had a shop for Satya's birthday present for tomorrow present- he is a boy in Madeleine's class.

Chilled out in Times Square

No we didn't skip over to New York- Liz wanted to do a recce on the Gold and Diamond Centre near to where we live, but it didn't open 'til 4pm so we went to the Times Square mall nearby for some lunch. In there is a cafe bar called chillout, where all the furniture is made from ice and the temperature is kept at -6 degrees. The drinks are served in hollowed out blocks of ice and all the furniture, ornaments and lighting are made of ice.

Wiso and Crosso

Andy Wiseman and Catherine Cross, two of my ex-colleagues from Mouchel, came to Dubai this week after presenting papers at a conference in Bahrain. On Wednesday night I met Andy at Longs Bar on Sheikh Zayed Road, then last night (Thu) Liz and I went out to meet them at Barasti, a bar/pub complex at the back of the Mina Seyahi hotel, onto the beach. It was really busy but a great evening, we had a few beers, ate a buffet dinner at the hotel and finished off with a few more drinks and an apple sheesha. Arlene our maid did the babysitting, we could be doing some more dining out when Jeanette and Ian arrive this Sunday!

La Veranda

Last Friday was a one day weekend for me but Liz had arranged to meet with Kevin and Lorna for a family meal at La Veranda, a restaurant at the back of Jumeirah Beach Hotel. Jack Amelia and Madeleine get on well with their two girls, Heather and Katie. After an Italian meal, we all walked along the harbour surround to the far end where there is a nightspot- not quite for us on this occasion but looked very lively!

Katies 10th birthday

05 April and Katie reached 10 in Dubai! She has to wait for UK for her main prezzie (too big!) After all the prezzie opening we did an open top bus tour of Dubai, finishing at Karama where we did some shopping for genuine fake designer goods, through the secret door..... Jack and Steve bought James Bond type Omega watches and I picked up a pretty good Rolex for around 20GBP! We finished the week with tea at Japengo in Mall of the Emirates and even saw the fountain do its flame show-after which the kids and Liz all "told me so"! We were sad to see them all go on Sunday but we had all had a great time together.

Wild Wadi

The day came at last for the Wild wadi trip, not so many pics as there's too much water about for cameras! We were there for the full

day, 10am to 7pm and the kids loved it. Steve Jack Carolyn and I did the Jumeirah Sceirah this time, the biggest vertical water slide outside North America apparently!

Is it the Diddymen?

The ski Dubai shop nearly lost all its hats for this photo, whilst we were waiting for the official snaps to be developed. I think nearly as much was spent on the pictures as on the ski classes!

Avant-ski

The pictures of the kids in ski school were a bit blurry from afar so here's one getting ready to go! They were well excited, and so were some of the adults! We watched them fora while from the snowpark then did some tobogganing and rubber ring slides

ourselves. The hour class was over all too quickly and Carolyn was keen to come back again to ski herself!

Ski Dubai for Jack's birthday

Jack wanted us to go to Ski Dubai for his birthday, but as the lesson bookings were strange times it meant the 5 kids all had a lesson whilst he took a slope pass to go snowboarding and Liz Steve Carolyn and I went in the snowpark. This clip if it works is Jack snowboarding down the main slope!

Jack reaches 14!

02 April arrived and Jack surfaced to open his cards and presents. He wanted an ipod touch for his birthday and thought he wasn't getting one until 01 April when Maddy gave the game away! He has reminded me he wanted one every day since the end of January, just like a mini version of his Uncle Chris when we were kids. Most of his cards arrived before the day and Steve and Carolyn had brought presents from the UK. He did well for dirhams all the same, about 700 dirhams that were pretty much all gone by the end of the day after he bought a docking station with speakers for his ipod and a hard case to protect it, so thanks everyone for his cash, that's where it went!

Curry heaven at the Antique Bazaar

When we first visited Dubai Liz and I stayed at a hotel with a great Indian restaurant in, Antique Bazaar, and we both said Steve and Carolyn would love it, so it was good to take them and realise it! The food was great, there was live sitar and drum music followed by an Indian band with dancers, making for a great atmosphere.

Habtoor Grand

After the weekend it was work again for me but Liz had set up a trip for all to one of the hotels next to the beach, you can pay something like a tenner a day to use their facilities. As it was Easter, some were only open to guests, but they all got in to the Habtoor Grand near the marina. It has a pool with a waterfall/rockslide feature, and from the photos they spent most of the day in there!

Is that Shakira?

Great barbeque. As night drew in we settled down for our desert evening under the stars. We all had henna tattos, smoked a sheesha pipe, rode a camel and had some pics in the Arab Abayas and dish dashes. The food was really nice, kebabs of various descript and the bar was well stocked with red wine and we weren't driving home! When the belly dancer came on she was a little surprised to see that our lot had all brought their own gear and joined her on the mat.

Son of the desert

Just a pic of George of Arabia but I liked the shot so much I wanted to put it on.

Heading for desert barbeque

The dunes were much bigger than I expected, it was really good fun and a surprise for me how you can drive up sand even when it looks pretty impossible. After an afternoon of screaming and great photo stops we arrived close the barbeque venu, some

where which felt like the middle of nowhere but was actually half an hour drive from Dubai. This was a pause to take pics of the desert sunset.

Desert Princesses with the Queen

The main event and my first trip out dune bashing! We were all picked up at the villa and driven out towards Hatta in two Land Cruisers. The girls all came with me and Liz, Jack and George were with Steve and Carolyn in the other car- guess where all the screaming came from? Our driver was nearly deafened but it made it more fun. This is at a pause for photo shots and to let air out of the tyres before heading up the dunes.

Beachcombers

Monster buffet next the Burj al Arab, it was a good setting by the beach for a huge lunch, with lots of Thai food at the buffet. Luckily Liz booked an inside table, as the air conditioninng was needed, the weather is hotting up.

Lunch at Jumeirah Beach Hotel

I took three days of my leave to make a long weekend Wed-Saturday and Liz booked up some outings for these days. First was lunch at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, the beachcomber bar. We still managed to sneak in a visit to Mall of Emirates on the way to get a look at Ski Dubai, this is at the front on the way. The fountain does a show with a soundtrack, and the kids and Liz kept telling me it also fires up flames, which I didn't believe.

Kids and water- they love it

As Rolf Harris might have said, put a computerised fountain in the middle of a load of kids, and you know only too well what might might happen. Somehow they managed to scramble back to the side where we were having a coffee, and we knew we should have brought towels for covering the car seats home.

George looked like had swum across the marina!

Johnny Rockets

The same evening we all went to the Marina Walk for tea at Johnny Rockets. It was really warm and nice to sit out, and we took in a walk along the marina promenade. The kids all seemed to enjoy the food, especially the chocolate peanut butter milk shakes (that was me really).

Camping might be history

I was busy at work on the Sunday the Knowleses arrived so Liz needed to pick them up at the airport. After parking at the mall near our villa she took a cab to the airport to meet them and after an exchange in the mall carpark from the taxi to our car they were all crashed out at the villa for the day, overcoming the jetlag and not sleeping on the overnight flight! We had a barbeque at the villa the first evening when I got home from work. Next morning Liz took them to the beach at Jumeirah beach park, this is Steve and Carolyn soaking up some rays.