Nice swing

When you arrive at the driving range a caddy comes up to the boot of the car in a buggy and takes your clubs round to the practice area. There's a nice bar and restaurant just behind the golf area so Liz met us for lunch. The waiters bring you out a cold flannel to mop your face down with which is a relief after a couple of hours in 40 degrees at the mo! Jack is revelling in doing the 9 hole par 3 in 38 this week, only his second go. He has realised I think that all that practice has paid off at Bromborough, his swing is excellent and he tells me what I am doing wrong! Check out the position at the start of his downswing!

Golf at last

Finally Jack got to the point where he was bored and Liz asked if I would take him to golf to get him out of the house. No need to ask twice and last Friday we nipped down to the Montgomerie club which is about 15 mins from our house. The Academy has a nice driving range and a pitch and putt length 9 hole par three, which is only around 35 Dirhams or 5GBP for Jack during the week, for unlimited balls on the range and as many rounds as he can do in the heat. We met up with his mates Alex and Adamm so he is now well set up for drop off at golf and pick up later.

Bugsy

Amelias school production of Bugsy was great, very professionally done and the kids had a ball. Amelia had a part with the tap dancing group towards the end which was good. They were all on a high at the end - I am not sure how the teachers would have got them calmed down for the rest of the day at school!

Jack and his IPod

Jack wasn't over excited about all the dressing up. He was the only one in school gear. He spends much of the time with his IPod in and so needs asking twice for everything, once to take his ears out and once for the question, which usually gets a mumble for an answer, Kevin and Perrie teenager style.

Fairies in the Garden

Madeleine had her end of year school ball arranged by one of the parents
at the Meridien Hotel Dubai Marina! It was a full Tux do for the boys, ball gowns for girls and the date coincided with Amelia's school show, a Bugsy Malone production, so a busy day!

Frankie says Relax

The Hely fortnight seemed to fly by and after an early drop off at the airport the house could relax- its a weak link but I liked the picture of Madeleine. The two weeks coincided with Jack doing his SATS, which seemed to have gone well- his maths grade has improved and he hit his target for Science. Just English to find out. The girls both finished SATS before Jack but haven't heard any results. Jack has signed himself to play football at school, Amelia is signed up to re-start her violin lessons at the start of next term, which is very encouraging after she has already taken up the tap dancing again. We are looking forward to the school show next week - Bugsy Malone- when she will be dancing in her Charleston dress made by Liz! Friday 13th is the school ball for parents, which is at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel- should be very nice but a bit hot in a tux!

Shimmers and Antique Bazaar

As a wise man once said "There's plenty of places to eat in Dubai" and we managed to get out to a few including Shimmers, a sort of Caribbean style beach bar with BBQ style food and loads of cushion areas for relaxing with a coffe and Sheesha after the meal. This was at Antique Bazaar, our favourite Indian restaurant, complete with live sitaar, drums, wacky singers and dancers.

Abra Kadabra

My first Friday off during Helen's stay was the opportunity to drive the crew into town for some Soukh browsing and a ferry cross the Creek on the Abras. We bought some sheesha baccy a load of sandals and had a nice cafe stop creekside. The weather is starting to get really hot now so it got a bit too uncomfortable to keep going after we had been around the Old Soukh, the Spice Soukh and the Gold Soukh. Helen got the hang of haggling down the sales guys, buying a silver chain for 50 after he started off at 150 Dirhams- you are OK if you can divide by 7 here to convert Dirhams to a Pounds equivalent!

Lunch at Al Qasr

Helen and Liz had a pretty chilled week, the kids are still at school from 8am to about 3pm so the big decisions were lunch or Karama shopping or both. This is at the Al Qasr Madinat Jumeirah, where Helen met a few of the school mums.

Sister Act

Before the vapour trails had disappeared from Pam's departure, Helen arrived for a two week stay- Arlene just about had time to change the bedding. I drove out early Friday morning and picked her up at the airport, found out the flight was late and drove back to pick up everyone else to meet her! Sleep off the journey- no chance! We were straight down to the beach after a walk to our compound pool found it with the pump in repair and the water green. This is Liz on Jumeirah Beach Park. It was very busy on the beach, the weather was hot and as it was Friday about 2,000 Indian blokes were in the water- Liz and Helen might go again on Monday when it's ladies only day.