A trip to Dubai Creek Park

Last weekend we headed on over for our visit to some really GREENERY!! We were in desparate need after having not had any experience of a true park for 3 months. This park is huge stretches along about 4 kilometres of Dubai Creek on the Bur Dubai side (as opposed to the Deira side which is where the financial district is).
We paid our 5AED entrance fee ($1.75) each and headed on in. It was not too busy, and the people that were there were having famiy bbqs, smoking lots and lots of Sheisha and lazing around. There was plenty of open space as well as shade from trees. It was a really nice few hours. The chair lift was closed which was a bit of a shitter but we can do that next time. Enjoy the pics!

Here come the rains Marge!

We had more rain yesterday and more is forecast for today. Mind you, it was a stinker yesterday before the rain hit and the sandstorms were quite severe. Here are a couple of pics from yesterday's rainy efforts.

The first pic is of Sheikh Zayed Road with all 14 lanes covered in water...the second pic shows the human gutters working overtime to sweep(!!!) the water off the road. hmmm.... no gutters. This year has been the wettest on record by far as well as the latest and coldest winter. People are suggesting that we are in for an absolute stinker this Summer.

More chocolate in my tummy then on the strawberries

Tuxedo Strawberries

Since I have some have time on my hands at the moment to experiment with cooking, I have noticed Aidan belly getting plump. I have wondered if there’s any correlation between the two.

I was talking to our neighbours and they were experimenting and distributing faux jewel and pendant encrusted chocolates to local restaurateurs and department stores. The response they received was positive but they were taken aback when requests were made for the chocolates to be encrusted with genuine diamond pendants. I have said it before and will say it again, there’s now such thing as over the top here!


After being inspired by our neighbours story, I refuse to serve Aidan expensive confectionary but the least I can do is make the confectionary look smart. In the process of dipping the strawberries in chocolate I think more time was spent licking the chocolate off my fingers then worry about getting it onto the strawberries.

This dessert will increase Aidan’s intake of fruit if nothing else. Enjoy!

It's just a small party in the neighbourhood

Yesterday when we were going for a walk around the neighbourhood we noticed the villa down the street were setting up some serious looking stage lighting in front of the place. There were lots of outside lounges/seating being setup around the yard. Hmmm.....we figured they were going to pretty big measures for a party but then we remembered which part of the world we were in.

Last night when we heard music coming from outside and thought it could only be one thing, it must be the party they were setting up for yesterday and we were right, only we had underestimated the size of the party. As we got closer we estimated there were probably 50
cars parked out the front and they weren't just your ordinary sedans, there were some pretty pricey cars. And we saw what the stage lighting was for, a live band playing and a light show was being shone onto the front of the cream coloured villa (remember a villa in this part of the world equates to a small mansion back home).

To show you there’s no such thing as “over the top” around here, there were doormen/security guards at the front gate and to finish it off nicely were poles with red velvet ropes on either side of the drive way to guide you to the front gate.

This is quite similar to “Sweet 16” on MTV. It’s a TV show showing the extents wealthy families go to celebrate their daughters 16 birthdays - from buying expensive cars as gifts before their daughter have a driving license to hiring famous singers to perform at the party.

I’m sure the only reason why we didn’t get an invitation was because it got lost in the mail.

Welcome to the sandy part of the world.

How often do you do some dusting around your place? Once every couple of weeks at most? Well as we soon discovered after moving to this part of the world, approximately 3 months worth of dust accumulates easily within 1 week - we kid you not!

Because of the sand, windows are kept closed most of the time and use a lot of air conditioning to ensure you don’t roast in the desert heat. So you move the dust around but isn’t removed from the house unless vacuumed. The sand here is not like the beach we all knew growing up next to the beach. Beach sand grains are much coarser then desert sand. We aren’t geologists but this is our arm chair geologists’ theory:

Beach sand - Sand grains are bigger because the sand comes from sandstones/rocks in the area being eroded by waves. This erosion has happened more recent, so less wear and tear on the sand grains – hence more coarse and big.

Desert sand - These sand grains are noticeably much finer due to being constantly blown and moved around the desert over hundreds of years – lots of wear and tear from brushing against each other.

If you know a thing or two about geology and our theory is a complete work of fiction, well keep it quiet because it sounds very scientific anyway!

The roads around the area we live haven’t been sealed yet and a lot of houses are under construction so on a windy day, even the slightest breath of wind will whip up the sand. So once a week we do a major dusting and vacuum to get rid of all the tumble weeds of dusts gathering in every corner.

We experienced our first significant sandstorm of the season the other day. That morning we headed out, leaving a few windows slightly open to allow air flow – boy was that an understatement. While driving around we couldn’t see much further then a few hundred meters down the road because there was so much sand being blown around. If you usually navigate according to landmarks then that day you would have gotten so lost even using a GPS wouldn't help. Because the sand in the air was so thick, it total blocked out building in a familiar landscape and thick blankets of sand would dance across the roads as you drove.


In the afternoon when we returned home, to our amazement there was more sand inside the apartment then outside! The heart breaking point was Quyen did the cleaning and dusting the day before and now the lounge room looked like a sandbox. We needed professional help to relocate the sand out of our apartment and back into the desert, so we called in a cleaner to get the place looking spic and span - within 3 hours the job was complete.

Lesson – Do not have the windows open unless you’re at home to close them incase a sandstorm whips up unexpectedly.

Hello from Oman!

We took a border run on Friday to get Quyen's passport restamped for another 60 days. Her residency will be through by mid next week. However, that's the same time as the old visitor visa expired. So, we headed to Oman! A whole 150km away. It was a beautiful drive through sand dunes, amazing mountains and the most breathtaking scenary.

We got plenty of pics and at one point were driving up to the top of the mountain range when we came across about six camels on the roadway. It was a great experience. We stopped the car and watched them for a while. Mind you, we didn't have a choice as they were blocking the narrow road with a cliff on one side and a border fence on the other. this place was about 30km off the main road and is the border of Oman and the UAE. The Emirate of Dubai stretches up to the border from the coast.

Enjoy the pics!

Britney Spears' undies

I scan through the Aussie news each day and when I see an article on the NSW election update reading:

"Treasurer Michael Costa spent 20 minutes this morning explaining why the national accounts figures aren't relevant to whether or not NSW is in recession, but managed to spice things up with a mention of Britney Spears' undies."

it reminds me of why I made my decision to take me off the electoral roll when I left Australia.

Onya Michael Costa!