Flying High in Dubai!

Two weeks have flown by since I last sent an update….I can't believe how fast the weeks are going by. And that is with me not having a job. Yes I'm still unemployed :( but continuing to look and hoping to find a job soon. I may have a few options…for met some people in the last few weeks that said they will keep their eyes open for me at their companies. Luckily life is far from boring here, and I am keeping myself very busy still, finding new things to do daily, and being a housewife! ;)

Our taco night dinner party was a great success…the 2 couples headed over for dinner and Steve brought some illegal beers over! We hope to try to do them once a week with our Discovery Garden friends!

Mark's old boss Neil was in Dubai on business and he treated us to a lovely Chinese Dinner at Le Meridian…which was then followed by some drinks at the Irish Bar Dubliners….they even had Magnus Cider on Tap, so I was very happy!

We were very excited to head to our first Friday Brunch, at Madinat Jumeirah, a amazingly beautiful hotel on the beach and surrounded by man made streams with turtles in them! We have heard that this is the best and poshest Friday Brunch, so when we get visitors here we will be taking you here!! (http://www.madinatjumeirah.com/special_offers/#PTP_061102_01332184_1BKW8) –

There were16 of us at the brunch, most of the guys work at Balfour and a few were ex-balfour employees. The food buffets were just spectacular, there were 2 rooms and all of outside full of food from around the world, there was anything and everything you could ever imagine – Mexican, roast dinner, sushi, chocolate fountain, and then it was also all you could drink margaritas, bloody mary, mojitos, champagne, wine, etc, Mark definitely enjoyed the all you can drink and decided he was going to do make sure and get his moneys worth…he was quite drunk and around 6:30pm we had to head home so he could go to bed! Haha It was a lot of fun and we are continuing to meet lots of new people and make new friends.

After Mark's early night, he was able to get up at a decent time the next day and surprisingly didn't feel too horrible. We made it out to the Autodrome at motor city – after getting lost and heading the wrong way for about an hour. There was The Superbike Championship motocycle races, so we were able to watch mark's co-worker, Rod Scott, race and win (http://www.gulfnews.com/sport/Motor_Racing/10259993.html). Abdul Aziz Bin Laden, Osma's nephew was also racing and we were standing right next to him after the race was over….kinda freeked me out. There was also a motorcycle stunt driver which was cool to watch and then Touring Car races, where we watched the Porsche win! While we were at the autodrome we experienced our first sandstorm….the wind started to pick up and a few minutes later you could only see a few feet in front of you because it there was so much sand in the air.

We have never seen something like that before….but I guess the Sandstorms happen about once a month here (http://www.saranair.com/images/others/sandstorm_dubai2.jpg). After the sandstorm passed it then rained…….for about 10 seconds, which will add to its 10mm (0.4 inch) average rainfall for the month of November.

This weekend that just passed, Mark only had Friday off work…so we tried to squeeze lots into Thursday night and Friday…. The Atlantis hotel, which is a new hotel that opened at the end of the Jumeirah Palm Island, had it's official opening party. Over 2,000 VIP guests flew into Dubai to attend this $20 million dollar party. Look at this link to see some of the famous people who were there:
http://www.gulfnews.com/tabloid/Society/10260390.html There was a firework display about 3 times the size of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, this display was visible from space and had rockets launched from over 716 spots!

Mark and I had a few drinks with some work mates at the Mai Tai bar in the marina, where you can get bowls of rum….bowls of drinks are the future as we discovered on our honeymoon in Santa Cruz!! We then made our way to the beach at the base of the Jumeirah Palm Island with our friend Ian who brought an ice chest of beers to watch the amazing fireworks!!! We were in awe:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ie5ear3bHUQ

We had a relaxing beach day on Friday and stayed till 5:30 to watch the amazing sunset over the Arabian gulf.

Mark is back at work today and I'm continuing my housewife duties and job searching. Tonight we are having a few friends over for dinner and to watch the football matches!

I may head to airport tomorrow to try and catch a glimpse of some of the famous celebrities that are now leaving town!!

Here are some pics we have taken over the past few weeks:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2212822&l=48361&id=6402232

We hope you are all doing very well and miss you all!!! We are enjoying all the updates you are sending us about what you all have been up to, so keep those coming!! :)

Happy 18th Birthday Simon and Happy 25th Birthday Amber!!! Sending you lots and lots of
love!!!!

xxxxxxxxx