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Friday 6 November 2009
India Blog - Delhi Belly Edition
Day 2 in India started even earlier than Day 1. We were up, dressed and out of the hotel by 5.15am to catch the train from Delhi to Agra for a full day’s site seeing with the highlight being the wonderful Taj Mahal.
We arrived at the very busy train station, no problem and boarded the train, it was actually a very civilized train journey as we had joked about whether or not we would be sitting on the roof for the 2 hour journey!
It was also quite an eye-opening journey down to Agra. We passed by many of the slums, similar to those we had seen on Slumdog Millionaire. It was very sad to see that people actually do live in these conditions, on top of rubbish dumps, with no clean water, nothing more than a cardboard box as a house and then the toilets…….well, they were just non existent – people taking Number 1s and 2s in the streets or just next to their cardboard box! Very sad.
When we arrived in Agra, we were met at the station by hundreds of taxi and rickshaw drivers all fighting for our business. They even had police with wooden battens to keep the drivers back until we had passed a certain area. We had planned to hire a rickshaw driver for the day, but a taxi driver ended up winning our business by hassling very well and dropping his prices for us. He offered us air conditioning and he actually spoke pretty good English.
He suggested we head to the Taj 1st as it was perfect time of day, before the heat and before the crowds! We took his advice and off we went. Once we got there and saw it, it was amazing, as it’s something you have seen in photos, movies or in books, but to see it in person was fantastic and beautiful! We took lots of photos (including the standard one of “picking up the Taj”). Then we took a tour around the tomb inside the center of the Taj (which took 21 years to build), it was a very peaceful place and after the tour we actually just laid on the marble flooring and chilled for about an hour!
After the Taj we visited Agra Fort, a few shops (where the driver was on commission – quite annoying)! We then visited the baby Taj (another tomb, which the original Taj was based on), and then back to watch the sunset over the Taj whilst enjoying a beer or two.
At 7pm we headed back to the train station. We were exhausted from a full day of sight seeing, and the stomach was starting to feel a little dodgy, (now for the messy bit)! I hope you’re not eating!
About 30 minutes into the journey I was sweating and had Goosebumps all over and needed to go to the bathroom. HOWEVER, those who haven’t been to India before will not fully appreciate the meaning of ‘Indian bathroom’ (especially on a train)! To put in bluntly……..A Hole in the Floor, where you are supposed to squat and hover whilst pooping. Bearing in mind this was a bumpy moving train, you can imagine that not everyone was quite so accurate and there was poop all over the place (not even to mention the smell)!! Well, anything that I had eaten the last 2 days just bounced and I was instantly sick.
Feeling surprisingly better, I headed back to the seats. Another 30 minutes had passed and ‘that feeling’ arrived again. However, this time I had to go (nr 2). So I braced myself knowing it wasn’t going to be pretty, started to crouch down only to realize the door wouldn’t lock properly, so I’m squatting over this hole in the ground, balancing on one leg, whilst holding the door shut with my other leg – I wont go into too much more detail but wow, I was in a bad place right there and then!! (Sorry of this is Too Much Information)!!! I’m sure you can all picture the image!
After the horrifics of the train, we finally got back to the hotel. By then both of us were affected and we were taking it in turns to run to and from the hotel bathroom (where we had an actual toilet) for the rest of the night. Sunday was a complete right off, we only left the room, to go to an Irish bar, to watch the Manchester Derby (Awesome Match)! But we couldn’t even stomach water or plain fries!
On Monday we were unable to leave the room until we had to check out, and we went straight to the airport and managed to get an early flight back to Dubai!
We didn’t eat anything between Saturday night and Tuesday night, it was a very unpleasant illness and we have no idea what caused it as we were trying so hard to be careful with what we ate! We can 100% say we experienced the true meaning of Delhi Belly.
To sum up our short trip:
The poverty in India is on a massive scale, from the thousands of people homeless and the children begging in Delhi to the Slums on the outskirts of the cities. It made us realize how lucky we are but also how we take things like clean water and a roof over our head for granted! We had chosen India as we wanted to experience the different culture and see the sites, which we can definitely say we saw.
Despite the illness, it was a very enjoyable trip, amazing to see the Taj and tick it off the list.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2291001&id=6402232&l=ffbba30598
Would be great to hear from you all and let us know how you getting on.
Speak soon
Much Love
M & E
xxx
We arrived at the very busy train station, no problem and boarded the train, it was actually a very civilized train journey as we had joked about whether or not we would be sitting on the roof for the 2 hour journey!
It was also quite an eye-opening journey down to Agra. We passed by many of the slums, similar to those we had seen on Slumdog Millionaire. It was very sad to see that people actually do live in these conditions, on top of rubbish dumps, with no clean water, nothing more than a cardboard box as a house and then the toilets…….well, they were just non existent – people taking Number 1s and 2s in the streets or just next to their cardboard box! Very sad.
When we arrived in Agra, we were met at the station by hundreds of taxi and rickshaw drivers all fighting for our business. They even had police with wooden battens to keep the drivers back until we had passed a certain area. We had planned to hire a rickshaw driver for the day, but a taxi driver ended up winning our business by hassling very well and dropping his prices for us. He offered us air conditioning and he actually spoke pretty good English.
He suggested we head to the Taj 1st as it was perfect time of day, before the heat and before the crowds! We took his advice and off we went. Once we got there and saw it, it was amazing, as it’s something you have seen in photos, movies or in books, but to see it in person was fantastic and beautiful! We took lots of photos (including the standard one of “picking up the Taj”). Then we took a tour around the tomb inside the center of the Taj (which took 21 years to build), it was a very peaceful place and after the tour we actually just laid on the marble flooring and chilled for about an hour!
After the Taj we visited Agra Fort, a few shops (where the driver was on commission – quite annoying)! We then visited the baby Taj (another tomb, which the original Taj was based on), and then back to watch the sunset over the Taj whilst enjoying a beer or two.
At 7pm we headed back to the train station. We were exhausted from a full day of sight seeing, and the stomach was starting to feel a little dodgy, (now for the messy bit)! I hope you’re not eating!
About 30 minutes into the journey I was sweating and had Goosebumps all over and needed to go to the bathroom. HOWEVER, those who haven’t been to India before will not fully appreciate the meaning of ‘Indian bathroom’ (especially on a train)! To put in bluntly……..A Hole in the Floor, where you are supposed to squat and hover whilst pooping. Bearing in mind this was a bumpy moving train, you can imagine that not everyone was quite so accurate and there was poop all over the place (not even to mention the smell)!! Well, anything that I had eaten the last 2 days just bounced and I was instantly sick.
Feeling surprisingly better, I headed back to the seats. Another 30 minutes had passed and ‘that feeling’ arrived again. However, this time I had to go (nr 2). So I braced myself knowing it wasn’t going to be pretty, started to crouch down only to realize the door wouldn’t lock properly, so I’m squatting over this hole in the ground, balancing on one leg, whilst holding the door shut with my other leg – I wont go into too much more detail but wow, I was in a bad place right there and then!! (Sorry of this is Too Much Information)!!! I’m sure you can all picture the image!
After the horrifics of the train, we finally got back to the hotel. By then both of us were affected and we were taking it in turns to run to and from the hotel bathroom (where we had an actual toilet) for the rest of the night. Sunday was a complete right off, we only left the room, to go to an Irish bar, to watch the Manchester Derby (Awesome Match)! But we couldn’t even stomach water or plain fries!
On Monday we were unable to leave the room until we had to check out, and we went straight to the airport and managed to get an early flight back to Dubai!
We didn’t eat anything between Saturday night and Tuesday night, it was a very unpleasant illness and we have no idea what caused it as we were trying so hard to be careful with what we ate! We can 100% say we experienced the true meaning of Delhi Belly.
To sum up our short trip:
The poverty in India is on a massive scale, from the thousands of people homeless and the children begging in Delhi to the Slums on the outskirts of the cities. It made us realize how lucky we are but also how we take things like clean water and a roof over our head for granted! We had chosen India as we wanted to experience the different culture and see the sites, which we can definitely say we saw.
Despite the illness, it was a very enjoyable trip, amazing to see the Taj and tick it off the list.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2291001&id=6402232&l=ffbba30598
Would be great to hear from you all and let us know how you getting on.
Speak soon
Much Love
M & E
xxx
Sunday 11 October 2009
India (Part 1)
Blog time again – it’s been rather busy and lots of stuff has been happening, however we will stick to the rule of less than 750 words…..
After the Birthday Iftar at the Beach next to the Burj, we were both back busy at work but still enjoying the earlier finishes from work, due to Ramadan. The weekends came and went very quickly, however we did manage to get to a fancy dress party at one of the lads flats. I was bad taste Hawaiian Beach Surfer Dude and Erin was a Manchester United Player complete with Shinpads! The party had full DJ and sound system, UV lights and strobe lights, a bath literally full of beer cans, far too many people and an endless supply of Jelly Vodka! Great & successful party, rather tipsy & work the next day was quite painful for me! (See some pics at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2290586&id=6402232&l=5f964a6c32)
Towards the middle of September, The Holy Month of Ramadan was drawing to a close and we had planned a long weekend away to India. When the Muslims celebrate the end of the Holy Month, we get 3 days off work!
Erin worked very hard for about 3 weeks, looking into every bit of detail about India, specifically Delhi & Agra – The Lonely Planet was a very helpful guide which explained about all the various scams that happen on a regular basis where the tourists are targeted! She had also spoke to Ashley, who had visited a few months earlier on her travels and her biggest piece of advice was ‘always carry some toilet paper with you.’ Erin, using all her research and advice had done the packing into two very small suitcases (very impressive for Erin to travel so lightly) and after an early dart from work we were back in the airport lounge bar (yep, you guessed it, Bloody Mary and a Pint of Magners)!
We arrived in Delhi after a nice stress free flight and were taken to our hotel.
1st Impression of Delhi was the insane Driving!!!! No actual lanes whatsoever in the road, some places it was a bumpy track/dirt road with 5 or 6 cars and rickshaws (see pic: http://www.nriinformation.com/images/autorickshaw.jpg) trying to get from 6 “lanes” onto roundabouts. Every single driver used their horns:
To let someone know they were passing,
To let other road users they behind them,
Used their horn instead of an indicator,
To test their horn was still working (after they used it less than a minute ago)
Just because they wanted to.
It was crazy and we experienced this the entire time we were in India. It now explains why some of the driving in Dubai is so bad, i.e. all the Indians previous driving 'experience' in their homeland!
We got an early night once we arrived at the hotel. The next morning we had a personal driver come and pick us up to take us around the sights of Delhi. During this busy day we visited many temples, war memorial monuments, tombs, mosques and forts all with amazing history and some of the most detailed construction that we have ever seen (you can see all in the link to our pics below) We enjoyed a fantastic Indian Curry with all the trimmings (including large Kingfisher Beers) at a traditional restaurant for lunch.
For me the most memorable part of the day was when we swapped the car for a bicycle rickshaw (see: http://www.tropicalisland.de/india/uttar_pradesh/varanasi/images/VNS%20Varanasi%20or%20Benares%20-%20women%20in%20cycle-rickshaw%203008x2000.jpg) and were chauffeured through the crazy traffic (at rush hour) to the largest Mosque in India.
With India being a very religious country and the Muslim and Hindu religions were celebrating annual festivals, it was a fascinating time to visit the mosque. We arrived just before prayer time for the Muslims and were covered up by some rather sexy outfits (again see pic link at bottom)! We walked around the plaza of the mosque, and we were the centre of attention of over 500 people. The attention was different to the vast number of scammers and beggars that we had battled through for the majority of the day. We were actually been idolized with small Indian children just following us and wanting to be by our side and asking for photos of us. It was an amazing experience that will never be forgotten and as I mentioned in the photograph (on facebook) it felt like we were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, famous.
First set of India Pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2290984&id=6402232&l=f0bd86a8c7
Ok, so I managed to ramble on more than I thought just about day 1 and already over 700. Day two Blog will be following soon (and be prepared to hear about Dehli Belly)!!
Lots of Love
Mr & Mrs Foden
xxx
After the Birthday Iftar at the Beach next to the Burj, we were both back busy at work but still enjoying the earlier finishes from work, due to Ramadan. The weekends came and went very quickly, however we did manage to get to a fancy dress party at one of the lads flats. I was bad taste Hawaiian Beach Surfer Dude and Erin was a Manchester United Player complete with Shinpads! The party had full DJ and sound system, UV lights and strobe lights, a bath literally full of beer cans, far too many people and an endless supply of Jelly Vodka! Great & successful party, rather tipsy & work the next day was quite painful for me! (See some pics at: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2290586&id=6402232&l=5f964a6c32)
Towards the middle of September, The Holy Month of Ramadan was drawing to a close and we had planned a long weekend away to India. When the Muslims celebrate the end of the Holy Month, we get 3 days off work!
Erin worked very hard for about 3 weeks, looking into every bit of detail about India, specifically Delhi & Agra – The Lonely Planet was a very helpful guide which explained about all the various scams that happen on a regular basis where the tourists are targeted! She had also spoke to Ashley, who had visited a few months earlier on her travels and her biggest piece of advice was ‘always carry some toilet paper with you.’ Erin, using all her research and advice had done the packing into two very small suitcases (very impressive for Erin to travel so lightly) and after an early dart from work we were back in the airport lounge bar (yep, you guessed it, Bloody Mary and a Pint of Magners)!
We arrived in Delhi after a nice stress free flight and were taken to our hotel.
1st Impression of Delhi was the insane Driving!!!! No actual lanes whatsoever in the road, some places it was a bumpy track/dirt road with 5 or 6 cars and rickshaws (see pic: http://www.nriinformation.com/images/autorickshaw.jpg) trying to get from 6 “lanes” onto roundabouts. Every single driver used their horns:
To let someone know they were passing,
To let other road users they behind them,
Used their horn instead of an indicator,
To test their horn was still working (after they used it less than a minute ago)
Just because they wanted to.
It was crazy and we experienced this the entire time we were in India. It now explains why some of the driving in Dubai is so bad, i.e. all the Indians previous driving 'experience' in their homeland!
We got an early night once we arrived at the hotel. The next morning we had a personal driver come and pick us up to take us around the sights of Delhi. During this busy day we visited many temples, war memorial monuments, tombs, mosques and forts all with amazing history and some of the most detailed construction that we have ever seen (you can see all in the link to our pics below) We enjoyed a fantastic Indian Curry with all the trimmings (including large Kingfisher Beers) at a traditional restaurant for lunch.
For me the most memorable part of the day was when we swapped the car for a bicycle rickshaw (see: http://www.tropicalisland.de/india/uttar_pradesh/varanasi/images/VNS%20Varanasi%20or%20Benares%20-%20women%20in%20cycle-rickshaw%203008x2000.jpg) and were chauffeured through the crazy traffic (at rush hour) to the largest Mosque in India.
With India being a very religious country and the Muslim and Hindu religions were celebrating annual festivals, it was a fascinating time to visit the mosque. We arrived just before prayer time for the Muslims and were covered up by some rather sexy outfits (again see pic link at bottom)! We walked around the plaza of the mosque, and we were the centre of attention of over 500 people. The attention was different to the vast number of scammers and beggars that we had battled through for the majority of the day. We were actually been idolized with small Indian children just following us and wanting to be by our side and asking for photos of us. It was an amazing experience that will never be forgotten and as I mentioned in the photograph (on facebook) it felt like we were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, famous.
First set of India Pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2290984&id=6402232&l=f0bd86a8c7
Ok, so I managed to ramble on more than I thought just about day 1 and already over 700. Day two Blog will be following soon (and be prepared to hear about Dehli Belly)!!
Lots of Love
Mr & Mrs Foden
xxx
Our 1st Ramadan
Hello all,
So after reading some excellent advice from our favourite Blogger (Captain Andy Geoghegan), we are trying to reduce the length of our blogs (shorter, sharper and more often), to keep our followers interested. New rule: No more than 750 words!
_______________________
After the 3 week Amazing time in California - (AKA a 3 week food and drink binge holiday), it was quite ironic that the Muslim world (including Dubai) was about to start the Holy Month of Ramadan. Now before I even thought about moving to Dubai i didnt really know too much about this Religious Festivity, apart from the British Comedian Peter Kay's sketch, calling it Ramadan-a-ding-dong!!
So before it started we did a bit of research and heard some very interesting things, here are the basic things we found out:
· The Muslims fast during daylight hours. This starts after 1st prayer (about 4.30am) and ends at about 6.45pm.
· They break their fast at 6.45pm with what can only be classed as a feast. This is a celebration meal called Iftar.
· During fasting hours, they do not eat, smoke, or drink - not even water (which is quite harsh due to the fact its about 45C outside or 110F).
· The Non-muslim community are not expected to fast during Ramadan - However we are expected to respect the Holy Month. This means no eating, drinking, smoking or chewing gum in public places during daylight.
· Anyone found doing any of the above (even in the privacy of their own car) are frowned upon but could also actually end up paying a fine or ending up in prison!!
· Everyone finishes work earlier than normal (to allow the muslims to sleep whilst they fast). Woo Hoo - Erin finishes at 2pm for a whole month and i'm there till 4!
· When Ramadan finishes they celebrate with a 3 day holiday called Eid. Not sure what it represents but 3 days off is 3 days off and we have actually booked fights to go to India for a short cultural holiday.
· It is seen as a time where all communities come together, celebrate, share family times and generally respect one another.
I was reading an article in the paper about Fasting and this gives a good summary of why they do it:
"Fasting properly during Ramadan is a bit like doing a proper gym workout - you need to feel the discomfort before you achieve any real growth. Most of us go to the gym but do everything possible to avoid becoming uncomfortable. We will talk on the phone, chit chat with a friend or just look at ourselves in th mirror to help pass the time. It is the same with Ramadan and the spiritual muscles that need to feel the discomfort before you truly grow, so don't runaway from the pain by being moody and grumpy towards others, just because you are hungry."
Our experience of Ramadan so far has been enjoyable - We get the early finish and we visited an Iftar Feast on my Birthday on the beach, next to the Burj Al Arab (The 7 star 'sail' hotel) in a Marquee style tent with a capacity for 2000 people, that would easily pass as a five star restaurant setting. The food was great (a brunch style banquet - without the booze), the atmosphere was a celebration and the surroundings were gorgeous.
We plan on doing 2 more Iftar's before the end of the 'Holy Month' - One of these will be next week with Pepsi, next to the Burj Tower and looking over the Burj Lake and Fountains!
So there is a brief insight to why you see 1.5 billion muslims throughout the world fasting during the 9th month of the Islam Calendar. One final thing that interested me, was the fact that they don't know the exact date it will start or end - It all depends on whether or not they can see the moon!
Lots of love Mark & Erin
xxx
P.s - I'm only up to 655 words so i will add the link to our favourite bloggers website, to keep updated about Andy & Karen's trip around the world
http://www.gonefurther.com/
To follow our blog, please visit
http://erinmarkdubai.blogspot.com/
and click on follow.
Miss you all
xxx
(700 words)
So after reading some excellent advice from our favourite Blogger (Captain Andy Geoghegan), we are trying to reduce the length of our blogs (shorter, sharper and more often), to keep our followers interested. New rule: No more than 750 words!
_______________________
After the 3 week Amazing time in California - (AKA a 3 week food and drink binge holiday), it was quite ironic that the Muslim world (including Dubai) was about to start the Holy Month of Ramadan. Now before I even thought about moving to Dubai i didnt really know too much about this Religious Festivity, apart from the British Comedian Peter Kay's sketch, calling it Ramadan-a-ding-dong!!
So before it started we did a bit of research and heard some very interesting things, here are the basic things we found out:
· The Muslims fast during daylight hours. This starts after 1st prayer (about 4.30am) and ends at about 6.45pm.
· They break their fast at 6.45pm with what can only be classed as a feast. This is a celebration meal called Iftar.
· During fasting hours, they do not eat, smoke, or drink - not even water (which is quite harsh due to the fact its about 45C outside or 110F).
· The Non-muslim community are not expected to fast during Ramadan - However we are expected to respect the Holy Month. This means no eating, drinking, smoking or chewing gum in public places during daylight.
· Anyone found doing any of the above (even in the privacy of their own car) are frowned upon but could also actually end up paying a fine or ending up in prison!!
· Everyone finishes work earlier than normal (to allow the muslims to sleep whilst they fast). Woo Hoo - Erin finishes at 2pm for a whole month and i'm there till 4!
· When Ramadan finishes they celebrate with a 3 day holiday called Eid. Not sure what it represents but 3 days off is 3 days off and we have actually booked fights to go to India for a short cultural holiday.
· It is seen as a time where all communities come together, celebrate, share family times and generally respect one another.
I was reading an article in the paper about Fasting and this gives a good summary of why they do it:
"Fasting properly during Ramadan is a bit like doing a proper gym workout - you need to feel the discomfort before you achieve any real growth. Most of us go to the gym but do everything possible to avoid becoming uncomfortable. We will talk on the phone, chit chat with a friend or just look at ourselves in th mirror to help pass the time. It is the same with Ramadan and the spiritual muscles that need to feel the discomfort before you truly grow, so don't runaway from the pain by being moody and grumpy towards others, just because you are hungry."
Our experience of Ramadan so far has been enjoyable - We get the early finish and we visited an Iftar Feast on my Birthday on the beach, next to the Burj Al Arab (The 7 star 'sail' hotel) in a Marquee style tent with a capacity for 2000 people, that would easily pass as a five star restaurant setting. The food was great (a brunch style banquet - without the booze), the atmosphere was a celebration and the surroundings were gorgeous.
We plan on doing 2 more Iftar's before the end of the 'Holy Month' - One of these will be next week with Pepsi, next to the Burj Tower and looking over the Burj Lake and Fountains!
So there is a brief insight to why you see 1.5 billion muslims throughout the world fasting during the 9th month of the Islam Calendar. One final thing that interested me, was the fact that they don't know the exact date it will start or end - It all depends on whether or not they can see the moon!
Lots of love Mark & Erin
xxx
P.s - I'm only up to 655 words so i will add the link to our favourite bloggers website, to keep updated about Andy & Karen's trip around the world
http://www.gonefurther.com/
To follow our blog, please visit
http://erinmarkdubai.blogspot.com/
and click on follow.
Miss you all
xxx
(700 words)
Monday 31 August 2009
California............We arrive!!!
Hello Family & Friends,
Here is our blog #3 of our fabulous trip to California!
We had lots planned and to do and people to see during our 2 ½ weeks in Cali! A BBQ and then night out in Campbell with some friends was a great way to start the trip! Next, we drove up to Bass Lake with my parents to a lovely log cabinwe rented for the week on the lake. There was a heat wave this week, so the weather was about 100 every day (the same temperatures we have in Dubai just without the 95% humidity)! We relaxed, swam, layed out, drank some ice cold beers and Maragritas, rented a house boat for a day, jet skied, BBQ’d and also made it to Mariposa Grove and Yosemite. Mariposa grove (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariposa_Grove) is a beautiful area located within Yosemite national park with Giant Sequoia trees and lots of hiking trails. We hiked for 5 or 6 miles up to a museum, which ended up being closed by the time we made it up. But it was absolutely beautiful. We drove to Yosemite another day and went into the valley. This was the first time Mark had been and he was in awe! We did some hiking, mark & dad did some bike riding……
Here are some pics of bass lake & yosemite:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2277650&id=6402232&l=34cebafc2f
After a fabulous time up at bass lake for the week, we drove to San Francisco to stay at Amber’s flat. She was able to take some time off work and show us around her stomping ground. We saw all her favorite bars, restaurants, parks, and were really happy to see her place. We also were very touristy and did a Bay Quackers Tour around the city (http://www.bayquackers.com/). It is a car and boat refurbished from WWII, which is an Amphibious landing craft. That evening we met lots of friends at MoMo’s bar next to the giants stadium (http://www.mlb.com/sf/ballpark/index.jsp) for some drinks and then proceeded into the Game to watch Lincicum pitch an amazing game for a Giants win against the Pirates. While in SF we also made it to the newly re-done Californa Academy of Sciences Museum in Golden Gate park (http://www.calacademy.org/) which was really nice. There was an albino alligator, a rainforest with all sorts of creatures, a beautiful aquarium, an Exploratorium star show and lots more. In San Fran, we also had a Saturday night out on the town, a fabulous authentic German meal, and did some shopping.
Here are the pics from our time in SF:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2277651&id=6402232&l=43b8dac11d
After 4 nights in SF, we drove back to Morgan Hill to finish the party planning and spend some more time with the Durica’s! We had a lovely welcome home & Anniversary BBQ party in Morgan Hill. Quite a few family and friends were able to make it and it was so great to see and catch up with everyone.
For our actual anniversary on 2 August, we drove over to seacliff, where my grandparents were staying beach front in their motorhome. We spent the day with them and camped out in the motor home that night. It was defo a memorable first anniversary.
The 2 ½ amazing weeks in California flew by and we were so sad to leave everyone and were not looking forward to coming back to the heat and to reality. We were lucky enough to get a FREE upgrade to business class on the flight back, due to us complaining about the horrible flight on the way to SFO. Business class is the way to go! 16 hours of luxury on a plane!! It was the first time both of us had flown business class, and it was spectacular! Lobster, unlimited champagne, gourmet meals, a lay down chair/bed, a huge tv, etc – we felt like royalty :)
Link of our pictures from anniv party, seacliff & the flight home:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2277654&id=6402232&l=e073f2fcec
Upon arriving back in Dubai, our apartment was all in one piece, the A/C and cars were still running, and we are adjusting back to the heat. Both of us struggled a bit with jet lag and found it hard to get back into the work mode after 3 full weeks off work.
For all of those we saw in Cali it was so fab! And for all of those we missed, we are sorry we couldn’t see you & our door is always open for visitors :)
Hope this finds you all well.
All our Love
Mark & Erin
xxxxx
Here is our blog #3 of our fabulous trip to California!
We had lots planned and to do and people to see during our 2 ½ weeks in Cali! A BBQ and then night out in Campbell with some friends was a great way to start the trip! Next, we drove up to Bass Lake with my parents to a lovely log cabinwe rented for the week on the lake. There was a heat wave this week, so the weather was about 100 every day (the same temperatures we have in Dubai just without the 95% humidity)! We relaxed, swam, layed out, drank some ice cold beers and Maragritas, rented a house boat for a day, jet skied, BBQ’d and also made it to Mariposa Grove and Yosemite. Mariposa grove (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariposa_Grove) is a beautiful area located within Yosemite national park with Giant Sequoia trees and lots of hiking trails. We hiked for 5 or 6 miles up to a museum, which ended up being closed by the time we made it up. But it was absolutely beautiful. We drove to Yosemite another day and went into the valley. This was the first time Mark had been and he was in awe! We did some hiking, mark & dad did some bike riding……
Here are some pics of bass lake & yosemite:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2277650&id=6402232&l=34cebafc2f
After a fabulous time up at bass lake for the week, we drove to San Francisco to stay at Amber’s flat. She was able to take some time off work and show us around her stomping ground. We saw all her favorite bars, restaurants, parks, and were really happy to see her place. We also were very touristy and did a Bay Quackers Tour around the city (http://www.bayquackers.com/). It is a car and boat refurbished from WWII, which is an Amphibious landing craft. That evening we met lots of friends at MoMo’s bar next to the giants stadium (http://www.mlb.com/sf/ballpark/index.jsp) for some drinks and then proceeded into the Game to watch Lincicum pitch an amazing game for a Giants win against the Pirates. While in SF we also made it to the newly re-done Californa Academy of Sciences Museum in Golden Gate park (http://www.calacademy.org/) which was really nice. There was an albino alligator, a rainforest with all sorts of creatures, a beautiful aquarium, an Exploratorium star show and lots more. In San Fran, we also had a Saturday night out on the town, a fabulous authentic German meal, and did some shopping.
Here are the pics from our time in SF:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2277651&id=6402232&l=43b8dac11d
After 4 nights in SF, we drove back to Morgan Hill to finish the party planning and spend some more time with the Durica’s! We had a lovely welcome home & Anniversary BBQ party in Morgan Hill. Quite a few family and friends were able to make it and it was so great to see and catch up with everyone.
For our actual anniversary on 2 August, we drove over to seacliff, where my grandparents were staying beach front in their motorhome. We spent the day with them and camped out in the motor home that night. It was defo a memorable first anniversary.
The 2 ½ amazing weeks in California flew by and we were so sad to leave everyone and were not looking forward to coming back to the heat and to reality. We were lucky enough to get a FREE upgrade to business class on the flight back, due to us complaining about the horrible flight on the way to SFO. Business class is the way to go! 16 hours of luxury on a plane!! It was the first time both of us had flown business class, and it was spectacular! Lobster, unlimited champagne, gourmet meals, a lay down chair/bed, a huge tv, etc – we felt like royalty :)
Link of our pictures from anniv party, seacliff & the flight home:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2277654&id=6402232&l=e073f2fcec
Upon arriving back in Dubai, our apartment was all in one piece, the A/C and cars were still running, and we are adjusting back to the heat. Both of us struggled a bit with jet lag and found it hard to get back into the work mode after 3 full weeks off work.
For all of those we saw in Cali it was so fab! And for all of those we missed, we are sorry we couldn’t see you & our door is always open for visitors :)
Hope this finds you all well.
All our Love
Mark & Erin
xxxxx
A flight we will never forget!!
So its 4.30am July 17th and we wake up to the now not so sweet sound of “Sweet Child O’Mine” (Our alarm clock ring tone)! Everything on our long list was completed the night before, a 14 hour stint at work the day before checked everything off the ‘to do’ list for both of us and we were ready for our first holiday and trip out of Dubai after 8 long hard working months in the Desert.
We got to the airport on time, courtesy of the Dutco Balfour Beatty driver, checked in no problems and found the best place in an airport………….the bar! It was time for the traditional airport Bloody Mary for me and the newly formed tradition of Mimosa (Bucks Fizz) for Erin, perfect drinks to start the holiday and went very well with a big fat hearty full English Breakfast!
Boarding time arrives for our 15 & ½ hour direct flight to San Fran – we have good seats, a fantastic entertainment system, free booze and everything was set.
However……………
After about 2 hours in we notice a guy sat across the aisle to us, he was an older gentleman, late sixties, early seventies, and he had been up and down the plane a few time and then he started to venture through the curtain into Business class, soon to re-appear being put back in his seat by a stewardess. He did this on numerous occasions and we didn’t think too much of it at first. We actually started playing a game to see how long it would take before he was up again and attempting to sneak in and try and fly business class.
After about three more attempts at business class we notice the stewardess’ getting a little bit more vocal and aggressive, apparently as he was walking around the plane he started to touch a few of the crew in what can only be described as inappropriate places. His next little adventure involved him standing in the aisle and dropping his trousers, again, to me and Erin this was rather amusing and seemed pretty harmless.
The man was an Iranian and didn’t speak any English whatsoever, the crew didn’t speak his language and his wife just sat there with a stupid grin on her face, as if she didn’t know what day it was……..This is where it got kinda serious, the next thing we know, there is a huge debate and shouting and he had gone into business class toilets to smoke a cigarette and this was obviously not allowed and then the crew started shouting at him and had to get a few passengers to translate and explain the seriousness of what he had just done.
About 2 hours or so passed, then he was up again, this time the economy toilets was his choice of where he was going to smoke, the problem this time was he ended up putting the ciggy in the bin which started a fire. It was then that they decided he needed to be restrained. It took about five people standing on seats in front of him and behind him to try and tie his arm behind his back with the temporary handcuffs (zip ties) and lock his legs together in seatbelts.
He obviously didn’t appreciate this and was kicking and screaming and shouting and trying to headbutt the crew. They eventually got him in his seat, gave him oxygen and he was getting himself into a frenzy and unable to breathe. He spent the next 3 hours shouting and moaning under the watchful eye of the staff! It was very unrelaxing and there was no chance of any sleep. They let him out once, so that he could go to the toilet and of course he caused trouble, this time he pushed his wife to the ground in the aisle and then once again the 20 minute struggle to restrain him was happening!
We were then told that the police in SF had been informed and that he was to be arrested upon arrival. The remaining 5 hours consisted of him shouting and screaming randomly, and the occasional spitting session at other passengers (until they forced a mask over his mouth)! Erin was feeling very uncomfortable and was scared thinking about what he was going to do next!
Anyway, we landed in SF and were told by the Captain to remain seated, about 5 cops came onto the plain, Handcuffs ready and he was dragged off the plane. As we got off the plane, there was about 25-30 SFPD charging towards our plane (I think they had had a boring day and this seemed like a good bit of action)! He was arrested and I can only imagine US Customs and Immigration sent him straight back on the next plane out of there.
It wasn’t the best way to start our holiday as we didn’t catch any sleep whatsoever and it was a 16 flight that we will never forget and hopefully never experience again. However, we were in California and very excited to start our 3 week vacation with family and friends, just about to leave the airport when……………………………….
We were the chosen lucky ones - US Customs picked us out of the 250 people on the plane and decided they were going to open everyone of our suitcases and rummage through every item that was in there…………….Perfect!!!
Hope this finds you all well and brings a smile to your face
To follow: Part 3 - ‘We finally leave the airport’
Love to you all,
M&E
xxxxx
We got to the airport on time, courtesy of the Dutco Balfour Beatty driver, checked in no problems and found the best place in an airport………….the bar! It was time for the traditional airport Bloody Mary for me and the newly formed tradition of Mimosa (Bucks Fizz) for Erin, perfect drinks to start the holiday and went very well with a big fat hearty full English Breakfast!
Boarding time arrives for our 15 & ½ hour direct flight to San Fran – we have good seats, a fantastic entertainment system, free booze and everything was set.
However……………
After about 2 hours in we notice a guy sat across the aisle to us, he was an older gentleman, late sixties, early seventies, and he had been up and down the plane a few time and then he started to venture through the curtain into Business class, soon to re-appear being put back in his seat by a stewardess. He did this on numerous occasions and we didn’t think too much of it at first. We actually started playing a game to see how long it would take before he was up again and attempting to sneak in and try and fly business class.
After about three more attempts at business class we notice the stewardess’ getting a little bit more vocal and aggressive, apparently as he was walking around the plane he started to touch a few of the crew in what can only be described as inappropriate places. His next little adventure involved him standing in the aisle and dropping his trousers, again, to me and Erin this was rather amusing and seemed pretty harmless.
The man was an Iranian and didn’t speak any English whatsoever, the crew didn’t speak his language and his wife just sat there with a stupid grin on her face, as if she didn’t know what day it was……..This is where it got kinda serious, the next thing we know, there is a huge debate and shouting and he had gone into business class toilets to smoke a cigarette and this was obviously not allowed and then the crew started shouting at him and had to get a few passengers to translate and explain the seriousness of what he had just done.
About 2 hours or so passed, then he was up again, this time the economy toilets was his choice of where he was going to smoke, the problem this time was he ended up putting the ciggy in the bin which started a fire. It was then that they decided he needed to be restrained. It took about five people standing on seats in front of him and behind him to try and tie his arm behind his back with the temporary handcuffs (zip ties) and lock his legs together in seatbelts.
He obviously didn’t appreciate this and was kicking and screaming and shouting and trying to headbutt the crew. They eventually got him in his seat, gave him oxygen and he was getting himself into a frenzy and unable to breathe. He spent the next 3 hours shouting and moaning under the watchful eye of the staff! It was very unrelaxing and there was no chance of any sleep. They let him out once, so that he could go to the toilet and of course he caused trouble, this time he pushed his wife to the ground in the aisle and then once again the 20 minute struggle to restrain him was happening!
We were then told that the police in SF had been informed and that he was to be arrested upon arrival. The remaining 5 hours consisted of him shouting and screaming randomly, and the occasional spitting session at other passengers (until they forced a mask over his mouth)! Erin was feeling very uncomfortable and was scared thinking about what he was going to do next!
Anyway, we landed in SF and were told by the Captain to remain seated, about 5 cops came onto the plain, Handcuffs ready and he was dragged off the plane. As we got off the plane, there was about 25-30 SFPD charging towards our plane (I think they had had a boring day and this seemed like a good bit of action)! He was arrested and I can only imagine US Customs and Immigration sent him straight back on the next plane out of there.
It wasn’t the best way to start our holiday as we didn’t catch any sleep whatsoever and it was a 16 flight that we will never forget and hopefully never experience again. However, we were in California and very excited to start our 3 week vacation with family and friends, just about to leave the airport when……………………………….
We were the chosen lucky ones - US Customs picked us out of the 250 people on the plane and decided they were going to open everyone of our suitcases and rummage through every item that was in there…………….Perfect!!!
Hope this finds you all well and brings a smile to your face
To follow: Part 3 - ‘We finally leave the airport’
Love to you all,
M&E
xxxxx
Saturday 15 August 2009
Shorter & Sweeter!
Hello Family & Friends,
Well as usual it has been a bit of a whirlwind this past month. We’ve been very very busy over here in Dubai and also travelling over 8,000 miles to the opposite side of the world.
Due to the hectic month, we have broken down the long long blog update to 3 shorter blog entries, we hope you enjoy our updates
We had only just recovered from the surprise visit by Andy & Karen, getting back into the routine of work and not waking up drunk, when Ashley & Aubrey (Two of Erin’s best friends from California) made a short 5 day stop in town. They are currently doing a world tour and had 5 days in Dubai. We planned lots of events for them including a Tuesday night all you can drink Mexican meal and the infamous Friday Brunch! This time the Brunch was booked for us as well as 30 other friends and acquaintances. So it was more like a big party & was lots of fun and very entertaining. On the taxi journey home Aubrey proceeded to feed the taxi driver chips, mark was asleep drooling, and Ash & I were singing random songs!
Whilst we were both at work, Ash & Aubs also did a desert safari and dune bashing, they didn’t enjoy this too much, but I think that had a bit to do with the hangover from the night before. They both had a bit of upchuck from the crazy dune bashing. We also made it to the Burj al Arab (World’s only 7 star hotel) and did the high tea in the Sky Bar which looks out on the ocean and the Palm Jumeirah Island. High tea was very enjoyable and much more than just Tea. We arrived to a glass of Bubbly, given a slice of fantastic Beef Wellington, then we moved onto the sandwiches, pastry and the tea, followed by a large selection of little cakes, scones and jam. I would thoroughly recommend this activity to any visitors of Dubai!
We showed them the spectacular fountains at the base of the Burj, had a great night in with the girls, few cheeky drinks, cup cakes and a very very competitive game of apples to apples! (pics from their visit: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2270938&id=6402232&l=b8ec921b57)
We absolutely loved having them over to visit and were so happy they could see & learn about our life here in Dubai.
Once Ash & Aubs left to continue their travels and visit Sarah in London, we had a very busy week….we were both working extra long hours to complete all the tasks before going on holiday, we were recovering from our visitors, trying to pack for Cali and cleaning the house….(Mark did manage to sneak his next round of the Karting championship in) so the week flew and next thing we knew we were on a plane to San Francisco…………….
Lots of love & hugs,
Mark & Erin
xxxxx
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2268569&id=6402232&l=76db0e9ab5
Well as usual it has been a bit of a whirlwind this past month. We’ve been very very busy over here in Dubai and also travelling over 8,000 miles to the opposite side of the world.
Due to the hectic month, we have broken down the long long blog update to 3 shorter blog entries, we hope you enjoy our updates
We had only just recovered from the surprise visit by Andy & Karen, getting back into the routine of work and not waking up drunk, when Ashley & Aubrey (Two of Erin’s best friends from California) made a short 5 day stop in town. They are currently doing a world tour and had 5 days in Dubai. We planned lots of events for them including a Tuesday night all you can drink Mexican meal and the infamous Friday Brunch! This time the Brunch was booked for us as well as 30 other friends and acquaintances. So it was more like a big party & was lots of fun and very entertaining. On the taxi journey home Aubrey proceeded to feed the taxi driver chips, mark was asleep drooling, and Ash & I were singing random songs!
Whilst we were both at work, Ash & Aubs also did a desert safari and dune bashing, they didn’t enjoy this too much, but I think that had a bit to do with the hangover from the night before. They both had a bit of upchuck from the crazy dune bashing. We also made it to the Burj al Arab (World’s only 7 star hotel) and did the high tea in the Sky Bar which looks out on the ocean and the Palm Jumeirah Island. High tea was very enjoyable and much more than just Tea. We arrived to a glass of Bubbly, given a slice of fantastic Beef Wellington, then we moved onto the sandwiches, pastry and the tea, followed by a large selection of little cakes, scones and jam. I would thoroughly recommend this activity to any visitors of Dubai!
We showed them the spectacular fountains at the base of the Burj, had a great night in with the girls, few cheeky drinks, cup cakes and a very very competitive game of apples to apples! (pics from their visit: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2270938&id=6402232&l=b8ec921b57)
We absolutely loved having them over to visit and were so happy they could see & learn about our life here in Dubai.
Once Ash & Aubs left to continue their travels and visit Sarah in London, we had a very busy week….we were both working extra long hours to complete all the tasks before going on holiday, we were recovering from our visitors, trying to pack for Cali and cleaning the house….(Mark did manage to sneak his next round of the Karting championship in) so the week flew and next thing we knew we were on a plane to San Francisco…………….
Lots of love & hugs,
Mark & Erin
xxxxx
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2268569&id=6402232&l=76db0e9ab5
Hot Hot Hot!! - (Mid July Blog)!
Well we have been rubbish for the last 2 months and not managed to get an update out! Don't worry, we are still alive and kicking - just been super busy at work and especially at play!! Most of you keep up to date through our status on facebook - but those who dont here is the last 2 months blog summarised as much as possible!
The temperatures here in Dubai over the last two months well can only be described as BLOODY HOT!!! The lowest temperature we have seen has been 30 degrees C (thats at about 11pm) - It has been on average about 40-45 degrees everyday with the highest temp we seen at 51C!! Within the last 2 weeks it has become very humid and as soon as we walk outside the sunglasses steam up!
Some Big and Exciting News for us both was that about 2 weeks ago we received a phone call, with an urgent message to call HSBC - In Dubai there are strict laws about financing and going into debt and huge penalties, anyway, I phoned back quite nervous about what they were going to say..............and to cut a long story short - We had won 10,000 Dirhams, in a draw we were entered into when we signed up to the account. We picked up a cheque and had our photo taken yesterday. All very exciting and I have already spent the money in my head!
In May we were lucky to have Trish & Sarah visit us again!! It was SO lovely to see them and we had a great time. They bared the heat and did lots of sun bathing while mark and I were at work, so went back to the UK with a lovely tan. We also made it to the Burj al Arab for a high tea –asian style – Sar was in awe at the site she’s been wanting to see up close for so long. They made sure they were here on a Friday, so we could go to a Friday Brunch – we took them to the Yalumba brunch – which may be the wildest one here. Let’s just say ‘how good is Sambuca!!’
Mark’s 6 month probation period ended at work & my 3 month probation ended. So this gives us a bit more job security and confidence. Poor Mark is still working his fingers to the bone, but he hopes to get a big part of his project agreed on in the next few weeks, which will be a relief. He’s been able to get his mind off work on some evenings by joining a karting Championship (at the Dubai autodrome: http://www.dubaiautodrome.com/general/index.aspx ) - This may allow him to qualify for a race in October against a few of the F1 drivers who will be here for the Abu Dhabi F1 race. Mark has also been golfing every Wednesday night at Emirates Golf Course.
Our friends whom we hung out with from our first week in Dubai, Dan & Gemma, welcomed their son into the world on 28 June. We have been lucky enough to see baby Ryan and hold him a few times – so precious!
We made it out to this place called the Irish Village a few weeks ago for a friends birthday celebration. It is a quaint area with cobblestone pavement and lots of bars & restaurants – literally like a village in Ireland. It’s very nice and we’ll defo head back there. (http://www.theirishvillage.ae/)
Mark and I were very sad to have missed the wedding celebration of my Uncle Tom and his wife Judee, but from the pictures it looks like it was a beautiful day! We were also sad to have missed Ashley’s graduation with her Masters in SLO, all the girls went down and we missed a great time – looks like they relived what we did last year drinking from 5.45am!
Last week, Andy & Karen surprised us! They booked their flights 2 days before and flew over from the UK for 5 days and we packed them full of the must do’s in Dubai. The top priority was the Friday Brunch, which we went to at the Shangri La hotel – this was a big hit and we had a fun and crazy day! We took full advantage of the 'all you can drink' arrangement that the Brunches provide. The boys (instructed by Karen) brought a whole new meaning to the Dubai Desert Classic! (photos and video to follow). We also went out for some lovely meals, saw the Amazing Dubai Fountains at the Mall and we booked them on a Desert Safari (andy did some Sand Boarding, however it was so hot in th Desert, that the sand actually blistered his skin - Ouch)! it was awesome just to see them and spend time with them, show them our lives and re-live a few Jagerbomb moments with them. Andy (after a few beers) has agreed to visiting us once a month from now on.
We have another set of visitors coming in a weeks time, 2 of my best friends Ashley & Aubrey!! They are doing a world trip for the next few months and are stopping here for 5 days! We can’t wait to see them and of course have a desert safari & a Friday brunch planned for their visit!!! (I'm sure there will be a great blog after their visit)!
On the 17th July we fly direct to SFO, Cali for 3 weeks! If you haven’t received the emails from my mom or myself, we will be at bass lake at a cabin from the 18-24 July – and we would love anyone to come to join us there! We also are planning a BBQ at the Durica residence in Morgan Hill on the 1st August – let us know if you need more info about either. We hope to see all that we can while we are in Cali! And we look forward to getting away from the HOT & very humid weather here in Dubai and look forward to time away from work. Mark never thought that he would be looking forward to flying to California to COOL down!!! hehe!
Hope you are all well! We love and miss you all!
Love,
Mark & Erin
The temperatures here in Dubai over the last two months well can only be described as BLOODY HOT!!! The lowest temperature we have seen has been 30 degrees C (thats at about 11pm) - It has been on average about 40-45 degrees everyday with the highest temp we seen at 51C!! Within the last 2 weeks it has become very humid and as soon as we walk outside the sunglasses steam up!
Some Big and Exciting News for us both was that about 2 weeks ago we received a phone call, with an urgent message to call HSBC - In Dubai there are strict laws about financing and going into debt and huge penalties, anyway, I phoned back quite nervous about what they were going to say..............and to cut a long story short - We had won 10,000 Dirhams, in a draw we were entered into when we signed up to the account. We picked up a cheque and had our photo taken yesterday. All very exciting and I have already spent the money in my head!
In May we were lucky to have Trish & Sarah visit us again!! It was SO lovely to see them and we had a great time. They bared the heat and did lots of sun bathing while mark and I were at work, so went back to the UK with a lovely tan. We also made it to the Burj al Arab for a high tea –asian style – Sar was in awe at the site she’s been wanting to see up close for so long. They made sure they were here on a Friday, so we could go to a Friday Brunch – we took them to the Yalumba brunch – which may be the wildest one here. Let’s just say ‘how good is Sambuca!!’
Mark’s 6 month probation period ended at work & my 3 month probation ended. So this gives us a bit more job security and confidence. Poor Mark is still working his fingers to the bone, but he hopes to get a big part of his project agreed on in the next few weeks, which will be a relief. He’s been able to get his mind off work on some evenings by joining a karting Championship (at the Dubai autodrome: http://www.dubaiautodrome.com/general/index.aspx
Our friends whom we hung out with from our first week in Dubai, Dan & Gemma, welcomed their son into the world on 28 June. We have been lucky enough to see baby Ryan and hold him a few times – so precious!
We made it out to this place called the Irish Village a few weeks ago for a friends birthday celebration. It is a quaint area with cobblestone pavement and lots of bars & restaurants – literally like a village in Ireland. It’s very nice and we’ll defo head back there. (http://www.theirishvillage.ae/)
Mark and I were very sad to have missed the wedding celebration of my Uncle Tom and his wife Judee, but from the pictures it looks like it was a beautiful day! We were also sad to have missed Ashley’s graduation with her Masters in SLO, all the girls went down and we missed a great time – looks like they relived what we did last year drinking from 5.45am!
Last week, Andy & Karen surprised us! They booked their flights 2 days before and flew over from the UK for 5 days and we packed them full of the must do’s in Dubai. The top priority was the Friday Brunch, which we went to at the Shangri La hotel – this was a big hit and we had a fun and crazy day! We took full advantage of the 'all you can drink' arrangement that the Brunches provide. The boys (instructed by Karen) brought a whole new meaning to the Dubai Desert Classic! (photos and video to follow). We also went out for some lovely meals, saw the Amazing Dubai Fountains at the Mall and we booked them on a Desert Safari (andy did some Sand Boarding, however it was so hot in th Desert, that the sand actually blistered his skin - Ouch)! it was awesome just to see them and spend time with them, show them our lives and re-live a few Jagerbomb moments with them. Andy (after a few beers) has agreed to visiting us once a month from now on.
We have another set of visitors coming in a weeks time, 2 of my best friends Ashley & Aubrey!! They are doing a world trip for the next few months and are stopping here for 5 days! We can’t wait to see them and of course have a desert safari & a Friday brunch planned for their visit!!! (I'm sure there will be a great blog after their visit)!
On the 17th July we fly direct to SFO, Cali for 3 weeks! If you haven’t received the emails from my mom or myself, we will be at bass lake at a cabin from the 18-24 July – and we would love anyone to come to join us there! We also are planning a BBQ at the Durica residence in Morgan Hill on the 1st August – let us know if you need more info about either. We hope to see all that we can while we are in Cali! And we look forward to getting away from the HOT & very humid weather here in Dubai and look forward to time away from work. Mark never thought that he would be looking forward to flying to California to COOL down!!! hehe!
Hope you are all well! We love and miss you all!
Love,
Mark & Erin
Tuesday 5 May 2009
double brunch=april fools ;)
Hello All,
Wow…well I know I say it every month that the time has been flying, but this month it has really flown!! I think it is going even quicker now that I’m working! We are both quite swamped at work, especially Mark, yet still enjoying what we are doing.
We have kept ourself busy outside of work as well. At the beginning of the month we attended Cirque du Soleil – Alegria, which was in a massive temporary tent at our local mall. It was a very impressive show and tantalizing act that has been travelling around the world! (http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/showstickets/alegria/Tickets/dubai.htm see this site).
A few of mark’s friends from work have either been made redundant or are moving to other countries, so we have partaken in a few leaving-do’s….one involved an all you can eat and drink champagne brunch at the Shangri La hotel. We had a fab time, so decided to head out with the group of 25 to another brunch, drinks only, directly after the first one. This was a bad decision, we were in a taxi on our way home within 25 minutes of the second brunch. This was also the day mark’s phone ended up in the wash – so if you haven’t sent through your phone/mobile numbers to us, please do, for all mark’s digits were lost! Another couple, with whom we were friends with, are moving back to the states. L We were introduced by them to this lovely very Authentic Mexican Restaurant – so we had a nice leaving do meal with them there.
Neither of us have had a bank account here in Dubai for the 6 months that we’ve been here, but we have finally been able to obtain all the documents necessary. Mark no longer gets paid in cash, and I have had my first pay check into our account, which was very exciting!!!
Another very important thing we’ve been waiting for, for ages, is our Alcohol License!!! We finally were issued the card. It allows us to spend up to 1000 dirhams a month on booze – which is about $275 or 185 pounds. We haven’t had to use it yet, for upon receiving the license they gave us a free crate of beer. Plus we have drove to the next emirate over Umm Al Quwain, to buy booze at a place that doesn’t require a license – and it is much cheaper! So we stocked up and have a full bar of drinks – take your pick.
Since we have been here 6 months now, Mark is now off probation at his work. This means, if they do decide to lay him off (make him redundant), then he will get at least 2 months notice. So this allows us to be a bit more relaxed about the situation, for before his probation was up, he could have been laid off one day and that’s that.
We have been doing quite a bit of car research over the past month, and finally found one we loved! We purchased a used Land Rover-Range Rover from a fellow expat who is leaving dubai. I’m sure some of you have seen some pics on facebook, and we’ll put some more on soon! It is called “The Beast” – and as for now we are rotating weekly who gets to drive it to work! We’ll see how long that rota lasts. Hehe
Pepsi, sponsored this Autism awareness campaign in Dubai and a go-karting event was held for all the sponsors. Because the event was very last minute no one from my office was able to partake in the go-karting, so both mark and I did. I was a bit hesitant at first, but once I got driving I loved it! Of course mark loved it as well (for it’s one of his favorite sports) and it is defo something we will be continuing to partake in the future.
Later this week we have visitors, Mum & Sarah are coming for a week! So we have been making plans for their holiday in the heat!! Which we are very eager for!! Speaking of the heat – it is pretty much here! It’s been about 100 or hotter for just about a week now – so the summer heat is coming!!! Kind of scares me!
Marky and I have booked our flights to Cali – we will be flying direct to SFO on July 17-August 5 – so very excited about that as well! J
I think that is it in regards to our life to date….now we wanna hear about yours…..send us what you have been up to, we’d love to hear it!
All our love,
Mark & Erin
Xxxx
Wow…well I know I say it every month that the time has been flying, but this month it has really flown!! I think it is going even quicker now that I’m working! We are both quite swamped at work, especially Mark, yet still enjoying what we are doing.
We have kept ourself busy outside of work as well. At the beginning of the month we attended Cirque du Soleil – Alegria, which was in a massive temporary tent at our local mall. It was a very impressive show and tantalizing act that has been travelling around the world! (http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/showstickets/alegria/Tickets/dubai.htm see this site).
A few of mark’s friends from work have either been made redundant or are moving to other countries, so we have partaken in a few leaving-do’s….one involved an all you can eat and drink champagne brunch at the Shangri La hotel. We had a fab time, so decided to head out with the group of 25 to another brunch, drinks only, directly after the first one. This was a bad decision, we were in a taxi on our way home within 25 minutes of the second brunch. This was also the day mark’s phone ended up in the wash – so if you haven’t sent through your phone/mobile numbers to us, please do, for all mark’s digits were lost! Another couple, with whom we were friends with, are moving back to the states. L We were introduced by them to this lovely very Authentic Mexican Restaurant – so we had a nice leaving do meal with them there.
Neither of us have had a bank account here in Dubai for the 6 months that we’ve been here, but we have finally been able to obtain all the documents necessary. Mark no longer gets paid in cash, and I have had my first pay check into our account, which was very exciting!!!
Another very important thing we’ve been waiting for, for ages, is our Alcohol License!!! We finally were issued the card. It allows us to spend up to 1000 dirhams a month on booze – which is about $275 or 185 pounds. We haven’t had to use it yet, for upon receiving the license they gave us a free crate of beer. Plus we have drove to the next emirate over Umm Al Quwain, to buy booze at a place that doesn’t require a license – and it is much cheaper! So we stocked up and have a full bar of drinks – take your pick.
Since we have been here 6 months now, Mark is now off probation at his work. This means, if they do decide to lay him off (make him redundant), then he will get at least 2 months notice. So this allows us to be a bit more relaxed about the situation, for before his probation was up, he could have been laid off one day and that’s that.
We have been doing quite a bit of car research over the past month, and finally found one we loved! We purchased a used Land Rover-Range Rover from a fellow expat who is leaving dubai. I’m sure some of you have seen some pics on facebook, and we’ll put some more on soon! It is called “The Beast” – and as for now we are rotating weekly who gets to drive it to work! We’ll see how long that rota lasts. Hehe
Pepsi, sponsored this Autism awareness campaign in Dubai and a go-karting event was held for all the sponsors. Because the event was very last minute no one from my office was able to partake in the go-karting, so both mark and I did. I was a bit hesitant at first, but once I got driving I loved it! Of course mark loved it as well (for it’s one of his favorite sports) and it is defo something we will be continuing to partake in the future.
Later this week we have visitors, Mum & Sarah are coming for a week! So we have been making plans for their holiday in the heat!! Which we are very eager for!! Speaking of the heat – it is pretty much here! It’s been about 100 or hotter for just about a week now – so the summer heat is coming!!! Kind of scares me!
Marky and I have booked our flights to Cali – we will be flying direct to SFO on July 17-August 5 – so very excited about that as well! J
I think that is it in regards to our life to date….now we wanna hear about yours…..send us what you have been up to, we’d love to hear it!
All our love,
Mark & Erin
Xxxx
Sunday 5 April 2009
Hi Again from Sunny Dubai
Hi again from Sunny Dubai,
We have now been out here living in the Desert for just over 5 months and it really is amazing how the time is flying – Seems like only yesterday when we were out in Manchester and busting out some moves on the dance floor at our leaving do! As per every previous month here, March was again very busy and also lots of fun! We had the Durica Invasion for 2 weeks!!
Wow, what a fantastic fortnight it was! It started with a very long 24 hours of traveling (helped by horse tranquilizer strength sleeping pills and the obligatory Bloody Mary’s at the airport), they were here in Dubai!!!! They brought lots of booze and pressies – and we had a Durica Christmas in March! :) We did so much when they were here and loved it all! Mark and I had some time off work and acted as complete tourists again.
Few highlights of the two weeks were:
The big bus tour is a great way to see all the sites and form their boundaries of Dubai.
We were able to relax at Aquaventure (Huge Water park) at the Atlantis Hotel on the Palm Jumeirah Island.
We attended an event called the Taste of Dubai, where we saw celebrity chefs Gary Rhodes and James Martin, we consumed lots of food from all the popular and posh restaurants in Dubai and enjoyed some wine tasting as well – (the wine imported here is defo not as good as the Cali vineyard wines)!!
One of the highlights was definitely the desert safari – all the screaming as we flew across the dunes was quite entertaining-we have some good video footage that we will try to get online soon!
Mark and Dad enjoyed a few hours in Ski Dubai – ripping up the powder – getting big air and loving the snow and being on a (fake) mountain! Lol
The five of us toured the ‘old town’ area of dubai seeing and learning the history of the emirates. We also did lots of shopping in the Souks, buying lots of nick-knacks and testing our bartering skills!
The Friday Brunch we enjoyed at Madinat Jumeirah, Mina Al Salam, had loads of gorgeous food and lots of free drink that we consumed – the strawberry margaritas were defo a big hit! Me and Amber achieved a full on Brain Freeze – Marky was very proud! We also sat on the table next to Jim Davidson (A famous comedian from England)
On Amber’s last day here, we had a special treat of entering into the Burj al Arab for the first time!! The only 7 star hotel in the world-the sailboat looking hotel for those of you who don’t know! It is much bigger than it looks from afar, taller than the Eiffel tower, and the interior décor was pretty and very bright colors, yet tacky at the same time. We had an lovely Asian tea and 7 course meal there, and then admired a beautiful sunset over the palm islands at the Burj al Arab.
We ventured out of Dubai to some of the surrounding emirates: Abu Dhabi, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Umm al Quwain, as well as Oman. Making our way around the sites and visiting the Heritage villages. We also stayed overnight in Ras al Khaimah (another emirate) at a beach resort, soaking up the sun by the infinity pool and with drinks in hand!
It really was a fab two weeks, with far too much food and drinks ‘most’ nights! Now its time to get fit and lose the weight, ready for the next visitors! (Sarah and Trish for a week in May).
Other BIG NEWS this month…………..I am no longer a Lady of Leisure!! ……………………. – Marky made me “Get my Ass to work” – hehe!
I started at PepsiCo on March 18th and I’m really enjoying it, meeting lots of nice people, working for a huge Multi-National organization and it seems like a fantastic company, with good benefits with great opportunities and so far the perfect start to my life as a working woman!
Mark is keeping extremely busy at work and is now working on 2 projects – Long long hours but still enjoying it and the work is pretty exciting, with regards to the fact, once the fountains open officially, they will be seen all around the world as twice (maybe 3 times) the size of the fountains at The Bellagio in Vegas!
To balance those long working hours he is getting to play more golf with some of his mates at work. So he is starting to get good use out of his top of the range Taylor Made R7’s! (clubs)!
Two weekend’s ago I had a softball tournament. The Dubai teams threw a tournament for teams from all over the middle east. There were 10 male teams and 10 female teams competing…..our team didn’t do very well at all, but it was still lots of fun watching and participating in a tournament. Reminded me of the good old days when I played tournaments every weekend when I was younger. Mark also enjoyed the beer and a huge rack of BBQ Pork Ribs – (Pork is not normally sold at restaurants in Dubai)
Mark and I now are officially Residents of Dubai, UAE. We are now trying to sort out all the paperwork and processes needed to be done once we became residents – ie. Alcohol license, bank acct, drivers license, etc.
Since the family left, the weather has been crazy here! Tons of flash flood rain and thunder & lightening storms! Even Hailstones (which most of the locals didn’t know what hail was)! I do not enjoy them at all, but mark is loving storm watching!!! I think the rain and cooler weather is passing, and the hot summer is on its way! It is heating up daily now!
We miss you all dearly and hope to hear from you soon!
All our love,Mark & Erin
xxx
For those of you who don't have facebook, here is a link to some pictures of when the Durica's were here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2242843&id=6402232&l=c016a0640f
We have now been out here living in the Desert for just over 5 months and it really is amazing how the time is flying – Seems like only yesterday when we were out in Manchester and busting out some moves on the dance floor at our leaving do! As per every previous month here, March was again very busy and also lots of fun! We had the Durica Invasion for 2 weeks!!
Wow, what a fantastic fortnight it was! It started with a very long 24 hours of traveling (helped by horse tranquilizer strength sleeping pills and the obligatory Bloody Mary’s at the airport), they were here in Dubai!!!! They brought lots of booze and pressies – and we had a Durica Christmas in March! :) We did so much when they were here and loved it all! Mark and I had some time off work and acted as complete tourists again.
Few highlights of the two weeks were:
The big bus tour is a great way to see all the sites and form their boundaries of Dubai.
We were able to relax at Aquaventure (Huge Water park) at the Atlantis Hotel on the Palm Jumeirah Island.
We attended an event called the Taste of Dubai, where we saw celebrity chefs Gary Rhodes and James Martin, we consumed lots of food from all the popular and posh restaurants in Dubai and enjoyed some wine tasting as well – (the wine imported here is defo not as good as the Cali vineyard wines)!!
One of the highlights was definitely the desert safari – all the screaming as we flew across the dunes was quite entertaining-we have some good video footage that we will try to get online soon!
Mark and Dad enjoyed a few hours in Ski Dubai – ripping up the powder – getting big air and loving the snow and being on a (fake) mountain! Lol
The five of us toured the ‘old town’ area of dubai seeing and learning the history of the emirates. We also did lots of shopping in the Souks, buying lots of nick-knacks and testing our bartering skills!
The Friday Brunch we enjoyed at Madinat Jumeirah, Mina Al Salam, had loads of gorgeous food and lots of free drink that we consumed – the strawberry margaritas were defo a big hit! Me and Amber achieved a full on Brain Freeze – Marky was very proud! We also sat on the table next to Jim Davidson (A famous comedian from England)
On Amber’s last day here, we had a special treat of entering into the Burj al Arab for the first time!! The only 7 star hotel in the world-the sailboat looking hotel for those of you who don’t know! It is much bigger than it looks from afar, taller than the Eiffel tower, and the interior décor was pretty and very bright colors, yet tacky at the same time. We had an lovely Asian tea and 7 course meal there, and then admired a beautiful sunset over the palm islands at the Burj al Arab.
We ventured out of Dubai to some of the surrounding emirates: Abu Dhabi, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Umm al Quwain, as well as Oman. Making our way around the sites and visiting the Heritage villages. We also stayed overnight in Ras al Khaimah (another emirate) at a beach resort, soaking up the sun by the infinity pool and with drinks in hand!
It really was a fab two weeks, with far too much food and drinks ‘most’ nights! Now its time to get fit and lose the weight, ready for the next visitors! (Sarah and Trish for a week in May).
Other BIG NEWS this month…………..I am no longer a Lady of Leisure!! ……………………. – Marky made me “Get my Ass to work” – hehe!
I started at PepsiCo on March 18th and I’m really enjoying it, meeting lots of nice people, working for a huge Multi-National organization and it seems like a fantastic company, with good benefits with great opportunities and so far the perfect start to my life as a working woman!
Mark is keeping extremely busy at work and is now working on 2 projects – Long long hours but still enjoying it and the work is pretty exciting, with regards to the fact, once the fountains open officially, they will be seen all around the world as twice (maybe 3 times) the size of the fountains at The Bellagio in Vegas!
To balance those long working hours he is getting to play more golf with some of his mates at work. So he is starting to get good use out of his top of the range Taylor Made R7’s! (clubs)!
Two weekend’s ago I had a softball tournament. The Dubai teams threw a tournament for teams from all over the middle east. There were 10 male teams and 10 female teams competing…..our team didn’t do very well at all, but it was still lots of fun watching and participating in a tournament. Reminded me of the good old days when I played tournaments every weekend when I was younger. Mark also enjoyed the beer and a huge rack of BBQ Pork Ribs – (Pork is not normally sold at restaurants in Dubai)
Mark and I now are officially Residents of Dubai, UAE. We are now trying to sort out all the paperwork and processes needed to be done once we became residents – ie. Alcohol license, bank acct, drivers license, etc.
Since the family left, the weather has been crazy here! Tons of flash flood rain and thunder & lightening storms! Even Hailstones (which most of the locals didn’t know what hail was)! I do not enjoy them at all, but mark is loving storm watching!!! I think the rain and cooler weather is passing, and the hot summer is on its way! It is heating up daily now!
We miss you all dearly and hope to hear from you soon!
All our love,Mark & Erin
xxx
For those of you who don't have facebook, here is a link to some pictures of when the Durica's were here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2242843&id=6402232&l=c016a0640f
Friday 6 March 2009
Fantastic February
Hello again People,
Yes another month has flown by and its Blog time!! It is incredible how quick time is flying for us our here in the Desert, and that is with me not having a job……..but guess what, I finally got one!!! :) After about 6 interviews and psychometric testing, I finally got the contract from Pepsi, so I am now an employed woman! I will be working for PepsiCo International as an assistant for the Regional Planning Director of Finance. All the paperwork and visa processing is now going through and I officially start work on March 18! So unfortunately on St. Patty’s day I will have to stay away from the green beer. I’m really looking forward to my job and the start of my career. So as I mentioned last month, the spiraling economy has now hit here. Lots of people are departing Dubai, mostly due to redundancies (laid off), but now that I have a secure job we are a little less on edge.
Mark has also been put on another project, so we feel quite secure with what he is doing as well. It all changes here very fast, but as for now we are ok. Of course with this extra project mark is now doing, he is working a lot and lots of over time. I don’t think he’s had one Saturday off this year yet.
It definitely feels like home here now. We see the beautiful sun, the burj al arab, the burj, the busy roads, the beach, a few sandstorms, etc every day and now have got used to the fact that this is our home and that we aren’t just on holiday. It is a good feeling, for we feel comfortable and used to Dubai now!! And our apartment is coming together as well into a nice home! We even have our own plant, we call him Chesney. I wanted a doggie, so this was a compromise.
We went to this insane place called dragon mart – which is this huge shopping complex with loads of retailers selling everything and anything you could possibly think of, but at the just imported from china value! They have everything from bath tubs, to electronics, to plants, to restaurant size fryers, and even fork lift trucks. Mark and I were very overwhelmed, but we managed to find a few nice lamps for our house there (courtesy of Mr & Mrs G Foden)
We celebrated our first valentines day – actually together! Made tons of sushi from scratch and tempura! It was lots of fun learning a new type of cooking! We will defo be making sushi rolls again in the near future – they are easier than we expected! Mark has decided he is going to take up golfing again. So he got a very nice full set of Taylor made irons – well they were supposedly from me for v-day! Hehe So he’s been heading to the driving range, and considering taking some professional taught lessons.
The girls at the shower!
Well I’ve blabbed on for way to long once again…hope you managed to get through it!
Yes another month has flown by and its Blog time!! It is incredible how quick time is flying for us our here in the Desert, and that is with me not having a job……..but guess what, I finally got one!!! :) After about 6 interviews and psychometric testing, I finally got the contract from Pepsi, so I am now an employed woman! I will be working for PepsiCo International as an assistant for the Regional Planning Director of Finance. All the paperwork and visa processing is now going through and I officially start work on March 18! So unfortunately on St. Patty’s day I will have to stay away from the green beer. I’m really looking forward to my job and the start of my career. So as I mentioned last month, the spiraling economy has now hit here. Lots of people are departing Dubai, mostly due to redundancies (laid off), but now that I have a secure job we are a little less on edge.
Mark has also been put on another project, so we feel quite secure with what he is doing as well. It all changes here very fast, but as for now we are ok. Of course with this extra project mark is now doing, he is working a lot and lots of over time. I don’t think he’s had one Saturday off this year yet.
It definitely feels like home here now. We see the beautiful sun, the burj al arab, the burj, the busy roads, the beach, a few sandstorms, etc every day and now have got used to the fact that this is our home and that we aren’t just on holiday. It is a good feeling, for we feel comfortable and used to Dubai now!! And our apartment is coming together as well into a nice home! We even have our own plant, we call him Chesney. I wanted a doggie, so this was a compromise.
We went to this insane place called dragon mart – which is this huge shopping complex with loads of retailers selling everything and anything you could possibly think of, but at the just imported from china value! They have everything from bath tubs, to electronics, to plants, to restaurant size fryers, and even fork lift trucks. Mark and I were very overwhelmed, but we managed to find a few nice lamps for our house there (courtesy of Mr & Mrs G Foden)
We celebrated our first valentines day – actually together! Made tons of sushi from scratch and tempura! It was lots of fun learning a new type of cooking! We will defo be making sushi rolls again in the near future – they are easier than we expected! Mark has decided he is going to take up golfing again. So he got a very nice full set of Taylor made irons – well they were supposedly from me for v-day! Hehe So he’s been heading to the driving range, and considering taking some professional taught lessons.
Marky Wakeboarding
We drove out to Umm Al Quwain (another emirate) to this marine club. And relaxed in the sun by the ocean and pool all day. Mark then had wakeboarding lessons from a professional wakeboarder (ex world champion, Emma Jones)! This was a gift from me from Christmas. He managed to get up right away and was riding the wake and loved being on top of the water. He now wants to take up wakeboarding, and get a boat, etc! Sounds good to me, I could drive or ride in a boat on the weekends!! :)
We still don’t have our residency….but it literally should be through in the next week! We had to go through the treacherous process of getting a medical…imagine going to a clinic with 100s of Indian men waiting to get their medical as well! Just not a fun part of the process!
The girls at the shower!
Our friends Dan & Gemma are pregnant and due in a few more months, so I decided to throw a surprise baby shower for them. There were about 10 of us, with lots of food, drinks, cake and balloons! Some of the brits/guys don’t really understand baby showers, so it was more just a party, instead of a pressie and game event. (as I don’t think many traditionally baby showers finish at 4.30am with all the guests wasted)! But was lots of fun and they were happily surprised!
My parents and Amber are heading out here in a few more days, so we’ve been busily planning a schedule for when they are here! Really really looking forward to seeing them, for haven’t seen them since September! Mark has off work while they are here and I start after they have gone! It’s gonna be a blast! Can’t wait!
Well I’ve blabbed on for way to long once again…hope you managed to get through it!
Hope this finds you all well, happy and healthy!
Send us an email of what you’ve been up to and what is happening in your lives!!!
We love and miss you all!
Love,
Love,
Erin & Mark
Xxxx
P.S. we finally have an address here in Dubai, so if you would like to post anything to us (copies of Viz, Nuts and Zoo for Mark) please send it to:
Erin & Marky
PO Box 487029
Discovery Gardens
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
For those of you who don’t have facebook or haven’t seen our albums, here are some links to picture albums from the last few months:
A fine start to 2009:
Dubai desert classic & Al Ain air show:
Chinese state circus, global village, home additions, valentines day:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2235516&id=6402232&l=297ce
Gemma & Dan’s Baby shower:
Wednesday 4 February 2009
Hello again to all our family and friends!
We hope you are all doing well in the New Year and surviving this horrible economic crisis. It has finally hit Dubai and there is nervousness in the air! There are no new building projects starting and a lot of redundancies/lay offs going on, no one is safe and looks like Dubai's "Untouchable" bubble has burst!
But even with this downward economy Mark and I are still keeping ourselves very busy and attending all the fun events that are still happing in Dubai.
We had tickets for the exhibition match AC Milan v Hamburg (football/soccer) We got to see Mr Beckham again along with 40,000 others who the majority of fans were there just to see him! The game was at the Dubai Rugby7s stadium and produced a great atmosphere – we are really looking forward to how messy and crazy the rugby 7's gets when the same 40,000 people have been drinking in the sun from 9am till 9pm – This event happens next month.
We managed to get ourselves to the 24 hour race at the local Race track (77 sports cars racing) – we were able to get on the track and do the pre-race grid walk and were stood next to Jonny Herbert. We just watched the first few hours for I got bored of watching them go around and around.
We happily discovered another very cool place in Dubai, Global village, which is kind of a theme park and Epcot center combined. It has different 'tents' that are different countries with lots of traditional food and nick-knacks for each country. It was something different to do on a Friday night but we really enjoyed it and all the sri lanken, Pakistan, Indian, Thailand, Afghanistan food we tried!
Mark did a 10k run along Jumeirah Beach Road….so to prep we were been doing lots of running and attempting to get into shape….Mark had an outstanding time of 48:23!!!! I was very proud! There was also a marathon and Haile Gebrselassie was flown over from Ethiopia so he could attempt to beat his own world record, he ended up being just a minute outside of his record, but it was great to see all the Ethiopians supporting and cheering him on (basically going wild with lots of bright colours)! This is the marathon/10k website: http://www.dubaimarathon.org/ (and if you click on photos, runners, click marathon photos.com icon, a new window will pop up and then type 5986 or Foden in the search box and some pictures of mark in his special outfit will come up).
We have been hanging out with Dan and Gemma, one of the couples who also lives in Discovery Gardens, quite a bit. We had them over for dinner and drinks, and mark and dan decided they are going to take up golfing again and have been heading to the driving range together. Now mark wants a set of irons. We also attended the Dubai Desert Classic (http://www.dubaidesertclassic.com/) with them. We somehow managed to sneak into the club house and have a Full English Breakfast sat next to Colin Montgomerie, Sergio Garcia and the eventual winner, Rory McIlroy. We tried to ignore the heat and followed various players around the course, stopping off for a drink or 2 at the beer tents around the greens. We also met Rob McCaffrey off Sky Sports (who now presents all Premier League matches over in Dubai).
Mark's company finally has done the first part of processing his visa…..we were both flown to Doha, Qatar and mark re-entered the UAE with an employment visa!! We were literally in Qatar for 15 minutes and the re-boarded the same plane. It is a bit odd how they do things here in regards to visas but never the ones to miss out on an opportunity, we were able to stock up on duty free booze and brought back to Dubai our full allowance!
The Dubai Shopping Festival has been going on From Jan 15-Feb 15th. It is basically an excuse for all the shops to put sales on and get rid of a lot of their stock. I have made my way around quite a few shops getting some stuff for the house and a few work outfits!! There are also events put on at all the shopping centers in the evenings with ribbon dancing, Chinese circus, Indian drummers, to name a few.
I still have not found a job :( but I have a really good prospect lined up….so don't wanna talk about it and jinx it, so will keep you all updated if it goes through!!
Mark and I drove to Al Ain, which is about an hour away and went to the Al Ain Aerobatics (http://www.alainaerobaticshow.com/en/default.aspx) we saw wingwalkers, the Saudi Hawks (like Red Arrows and Blue Angels) and also the final part of the Redbull GP stunt planes.
I have joined a softball team, so have games once a week and practice once a week! It is a slow pitch womens league with 4 teams, but it has been lots of fun and is good exercise!
Our 6 month wedding anniversary was 2nd of February, so we thought we would treat ourselves to a new restaurant that opened in the Dubai Mall…….California Pizza Kitchen! It taste so good and reminds us of home! hehe
Tomorrow evening we are heading to a Thursday night brunch with a group of 10 friends!! We thought we would head out for some drinks for we haven't seen many friends in the new year yet. This normally means Friday will be a right off as Mark makes sure he gets value for money on the "All you can drink" deals
So that is what has been keeping us very busy in the past month!! We'd love to hear what you have been up to with school, work, holidays, and your life! We miss you all!!
All our love,
Mark and Erin
xxxxxxxx
We hope you are all doing well in the New Year and surviving this horrible economic crisis. It has finally hit Dubai and there is nervousness in the air! There are no new building projects starting and a lot of redundancies/lay offs going on, no one is safe and looks like Dubai's "Untouchable" bubble has burst!
But even with this downward economy Mark and I are still keeping ourselves very busy and attending all the fun events that are still happing in Dubai.
We had tickets for the exhibition match AC Milan v Hamburg (football/soccer) We got to see Mr Beckham again along with 40,000 others who the majority of fans were there just to see him! The game was at the Dubai Rugby7s stadium and produced a great atmosphere – we are really looking forward to how messy and crazy the rugby 7's gets when the same 40,000 people have been drinking in the sun from 9am till 9pm – This event happens next month.
We managed to get ourselves to the 24 hour race at the local Race track (77 sports cars racing) – we were able to get on the track and do the pre-race grid walk and were stood next to Jonny Herbert. We just watched the first few hours for I got bored of watching them go around and around.
We happily discovered another very cool place in Dubai, Global village, which is kind of a theme park and Epcot center combined. It has different 'tents' that are different countries with lots of traditional food and nick-knacks for each country. It was something different to do on a Friday night but we really enjoyed it and all the sri lanken, Pakistan, Indian, Thailand, Afghanistan food we tried!
Mark did a 10k run along Jumeirah Beach Road….so to prep we were been doing lots of running and attempting to get into shape….Mark had an outstanding time of 48:23!!!! I was very proud! There was also a marathon and Haile Gebrselassie was flown over from Ethiopia so he could attempt to beat his own world record, he ended up being just a minute outside of his record, but it was great to see all the Ethiopians supporting and cheering him on (basically going wild with lots of bright colours)! This is the marathon/10k website: http://www.dubaimarathon.org/ (and if you click on photos, runners, click marathon photos.com icon, a new window will pop up and then type 5986 or Foden in the search box and some pictures of mark in his special outfit will come up).
We have been hanging out with Dan and Gemma, one of the couples who also lives in Discovery Gardens, quite a bit. We had them over for dinner and drinks, and mark and dan decided they are going to take up golfing again and have been heading to the driving range together. Now mark wants a set of irons. We also attended the Dubai Desert Classic (http://www.dubaidesertclassic.com/) with them. We somehow managed to sneak into the club house and have a Full English Breakfast sat next to Colin Montgomerie, Sergio Garcia and the eventual winner, Rory McIlroy. We tried to ignore the heat and followed various players around the course, stopping off for a drink or 2 at the beer tents around the greens. We also met Rob McCaffrey off Sky Sports (who now presents all Premier League matches over in Dubai).
Mark's company finally has done the first part of processing his visa…..we were both flown to Doha, Qatar and mark re-entered the UAE with an employment visa!! We were literally in Qatar for 15 minutes and the re-boarded the same plane. It is a bit odd how they do things here in regards to visas but never the ones to miss out on an opportunity, we were able to stock up on duty free booze and brought back to Dubai our full allowance!
The Dubai Shopping Festival has been going on From Jan 15-Feb 15th. It is basically an excuse for all the shops to put sales on and get rid of a lot of their stock. I have made my way around quite a few shops getting some stuff for the house and a few work outfits!! There are also events put on at all the shopping centers in the evenings with ribbon dancing, Chinese circus, Indian drummers, to name a few.
I still have not found a job :( but I have a really good prospect lined up….so don't wanna talk about it and jinx it, so will keep you all updated if it goes through!!
Mark and I drove to Al Ain, which is about an hour away and went to the Al Ain Aerobatics (http://www.alainaerobaticshow.com/en/default.aspx) we saw wingwalkers, the Saudi Hawks (like Red Arrows and Blue Angels) and also the final part of the Redbull GP stunt planes.
I have joined a softball team, so have games once a week and practice once a week! It is a slow pitch womens league with 4 teams, but it has been lots of fun and is good exercise!
Our 6 month wedding anniversary was 2nd of February, so we thought we would treat ourselves to a new restaurant that opened in the Dubai Mall…….California Pizza Kitchen! It taste so good and reminds us of home! hehe
Tomorrow evening we are heading to a Thursday night brunch with a group of 10 friends!! We thought we would head out for some drinks for we haven't seen many friends in the new year yet. This normally means Friday will be a right off as Mark makes sure he gets value for money on the "All you can drink" deals
So that is what has been keeping us very busy in the past month!! We'd love to hear what you have been up to with school, work, holidays, and your life! We miss you all!!
All our love,
Mark and Erin
xxxxxxxx
some piccies: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2228158&l=59729&id=6402232
Tuesday 3 February 2009
Few links for Sarah
Sky Travel link to Dubai!!
http://travel.sky.com/inspiration/hotTipCityBreaks/1223306539662_221
Hope this is good for you Sarah!
xxx
January 15th to February 15th is the Huge Dubai Shopping Festival - Basically January sales with lots of discounts, raffles and special events throughout the month!
Mark is looking for some Golf clubs and Erin is filling up the wardrobe (Closet) with clothes and shoes!!! hehe!
Shopping in Dubai:
http://travel.sky.com/inspiration/hotTipCityBreaks/1208181228165_691
http://travel.sky.com/inspiration/hotTipCityBreaks/1223306539662_221
Hope this is good for you Sarah!
xxx
January 15th to February 15th is the Huge Dubai Shopping Festival - Basically January sales with lots of discounts, raffles and special events throughout the month!
Mark is looking for some Golf clubs and Erin is filling up the wardrobe (Closet) with clothes and shoes!!! hehe!
Shopping in Dubai:
http://travel.sky.com/inspiration/hotTipCityBreaks/1208181228165_691
Tuesday 20 January 2009
crazily busy
Short Story:
"So I was at work today sending an email to the Director, just on something trivial about a meeting we had on the Bridges, and i got an auto email response which was basically telling me he was 'out of office'.
Once i actually read the out of office email it stated: "I am far too busy to look at my emails, it will have to wait"
That basically sums up, working in Dubai!! People are crazily busy working on the huge projects, very little seems to be in any sort of organised state! And meetings are called 1 minute before they then start! This usually happens once a day!
All fun and all crazy, just wanted to give you an insight to life in the Construction Industry in Dubai!"
o and we just figured out how to put pics on the blog as well....so we will start putting some of them as well. haha
Sunday 18 January 2009
Christmas in the Desert!
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So, first of all apologies for the lack of blogging, it’s been a very fun and busy 3 weeks over the festive period and into the New Year!
Secondly, Happy New Year to you all! Hope you had lots of fun over Christmas and the Holidays!
We had a very nice 1st Married Christmas day, lots of presents, and wine, and we cooked a full Christmas dinner with a 5 kilo (11 pound) turkey, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, veggies, stuffing, bacon, sausages, basically a HUGE feast!….just for the two of us! :) It was a great success, we missed having all our friends and family around us but had the strange experience of opening our presents in the 90 degrees heat! No chance of a White Christmas in the Desert!
I was off work for the Christmas period and we planned lots of things to do whilst The Foden’s were here. However, before they arrived and due to the fact that Andy, Stuart, Karen and Caroline in Tignes were making me very jealous with all their photos of the season in the snow, I managed to convince Erin to brave the cold and head to the world’s biggest indoor ski slope: Ski Dubai! I loved been back on a board, and managed a few jumps and Erin even enjoyed the skiing (which is a huge deal for anyone that has skied with her before)!
Anyway, The Family arrived on 27th December……………………………………….
……………………..With 18 bottles of smuggled booze! (We have Tequila, Vodka, Port, Sambuca, Gin, Jager and 9 bottles of wine!
Yes, they brought us a year’s supply of alcohol so in case we are desperate for a drink we have a big variety of choice now. It was great to have the family here with us, showing them the amazing city that we are living and working in. It also allowed us to act like tourists as well and see lots more of Dubai! We crammed sooo much into the 6 days they were here. The highlights being:
The Big Bus Tour of Dubai
A fun day at The Atlantis Hotel and WaterPark on The Palm.
An excellent Desert Safari trip including Dune Bashing, Camel Riding and Belly Dancing!
NYE celebrations were cancelled as an act of Solidarity for the people in Gaza, we however were able to have a fun night, with the smuggled booze, games and some very noisy kazoos!
We went to Abu Dhabi to watch the First Capitala World Tennis Tournament, where we watched Andy Murray, Andy Roddick & Roger Federer amongst others – and saw Murray beat James Blake en route to winning the event
An up close and personal visit to the Burj Dubai, as I managed to sneak us all on to the Building Site!
Sarah & Erin’s obvious highlight was when we went to the AC Milan training ground and a certain Mr. David Beckham, winked, smiled and waved at them both! They are still smiling about it now!!
We were sad to see them leave, but know they will be back and we also are now very excited as we have Mom & Dad Durica along with Amber heading over to see us at the beginning of March! So the planning and spreadsheets have already started being produced! It will again be sooo much fun! (Lets see if they can beat the 18 bottles)! Hehe!
Well I think this is long enough update to talk about the December activities, I will let Erin write the January (so far) update later this week!
It will be great to hear from you and tell us all about your Christmas and New Year fun!
We love and Miss you loads!!
Mark & Erin
Xxxxxxxxxxx
Facebook Photos of Christmas
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2221735&l=d1955&id=6402232
The Family Holiday:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2223901&l=99ae2&id=6402232
Secondly, Happy New Year to you all! Hope you had lots of fun over Christmas and the Holidays!
We had a very nice 1st Married Christmas day, lots of presents, and wine, and we cooked a full Christmas dinner with a 5 kilo (11 pound) turkey, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, veggies, stuffing, bacon, sausages, basically a HUGE feast!….just for the two of us! :) It was a great success, we missed having all our friends and family around us but had the strange experience of opening our presents in the 90 degrees heat! No chance of a White Christmas in the Desert!
I was off work for the Christmas period and we planned lots of things to do whilst The Foden’s were here. However, before they arrived and due to the fact that Andy, Stuart, Karen and Caroline in Tignes were making me very jealous with all their photos of the season in the snow, I managed to convince Erin to brave the cold and head to the world’s biggest indoor ski slope: Ski Dubai! I loved been back on a board, and managed a few jumps and Erin even enjoyed the skiing (which is a huge deal for anyone that has skied with her before)!
Anyway, The Family arrived on 27th December……………………………………….
……………………..With 18 bottles of smuggled booze! (We have Tequila, Vodka, Port, Sambuca, Gin, Jager and 9 bottles of wine!
Yes, they brought us a year’s supply of alcohol so in case we are desperate for a drink we have a big variety of choice now. It was great to have the family here with us, showing them the amazing city that we are living and working in. It also allowed us to act like tourists as well and see lots more of Dubai! We crammed sooo much into the 6 days they were here. The highlights being:
The Big Bus Tour of Dubai
A fun day at The Atlantis Hotel and WaterPark on The Palm.
An excellent Desert Safari trip including Dune Bashing, Camel Riding and Belly Dancing!
NYE celebrations were cancelled as an act of Solidarity for the people in Gaza, we however were able to have a fun night, with the smuggled booze, games and some very noisy kazoos!
We went to Abu Dhabi to watch the First Capitala World Tennis Tournament, where we watched Andy Murray, Andy Roddick & Roger Federer amongst others – and saw Murray beat James Blake en route to winning the event
An up close and personal visit to the Burj Dubai, as I managed to sneak us all on to the Building Site!
Sarah & Erin’s obvious highlight was when we went to the AC Milan training ground and a certain Mr. David Beckham, winked, smiled and waved at them both! They are still smiling about it now!!
We were sad to see them leave, but know they will be back and we also are now very excited as we have Mom & Dad Durica along with Amber heading over to see us at the beginning of March! So the planning and spreadsheets have already started being produced! It will again be sooo much fun! (Lets see if they can beat the 18 bottles)! Hehe!
Well I think this is long enough update to talk about the December activities, I will let Erin write the January (so far) update later this week!
It will be great to hear from you and tell us all about your Christmas and New Year fun!
We love and Miss you loads!!
Mark & Erin
Xxxxxxxxxxx
Facebook Photos of Christmas
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2221735&l=d1955&id=6402232
The Family Holiday:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2223901&l=99ae2&id=6402232
Sarah's link:
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