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Hellllllloooooooo family & friends,
So I hope you have forgiven me for the “too graphical” blog that I sent out last time with ‘The Train Incident’ in Delhi! The final result of the trip to India was that I lost 7lbs in 48 hours and Erin lost 6lbs. Not a healthy way to lose weight but it does confirm the rumours that people use a short break to India as an annual diet routine.
So we were back in Dubai, the summer weather had started to leave us, meaning that the 50 degrees heat was now becoming a constant 30 degrees and the humidity has decreased from 100% down to a normal feeling. This has meant that October and November have been fantastic for us both, with many activities, trips and events now taking place in the cooler temperatures (hence the lack of blog as we have just been so busy) – So this will probably be a first of a few blogs.
Our first weekend back from India was very busy, I was playing golf at the Montgomerie course. It was a fabulous course with some outrageous holes with a lot of water. ‘Team Manchester’ were playing ‘Team Celts’. The match finished tied after a pressure putt from me made par on the very tricky 18th hole! I’m really looking forward to giving my Dad a good game on there! Because I knew I was playing golf all day with the boys, I had surprised Erin for her Birthday (few days early) and treated her to a few treatments at a local spa in a nearby hotel. She was very relaxed and enjoyed it an awful lot. I think it now means that golf for me is now very expensive as I will now be sending Erin off to a spa as well! Hehe!
For Erin’s actual birthday, we finished work and went to the new Sega Zone at Dubai Mall. Its an indoor theme park with a few rides and roller coasters. Quite a different experience but we had lots of fun and then followed by a lovely meal at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen)! On the Thursday evening, we headed down to the Dubai Marina and to the Yacht Club for happy hour with a few friends. We made full use of the 2 for 1 offer and ended up drinking very tropical cocktails in Mai Tai with Alan Curbishly. Overall, a great Birthday week for Mrs Foden.
Whilst we have been in Dubai, a lot of the people we have spoken to have talked about Camping trips in the winter and how much they have previously enjoyed them, we wanted to get in on this and due to the fact that Erin had bought a 6 man tent off an expat leaving for a ridiculously cheap price, we planned a trip up to Oman with a few friends. We had lots of preparation to do before we left, shopping for camping equipment, packing and most importantly, testing the tent that we had bought to make sure that there were no problems with it. This doesn’t seem too much of a problem for most people, however, in our apartment since we don’t have a garden, this led to a very entertaining (but successful) 30 minutes of us putting up this massive six man tent in our not so big bedroom! Hilarious !
We left for Oman straight after work on Thursday night with the cars all packed with food, booze and firewood. It was a pleasant 3 hour drive from Dubai, including a stress free border crossing, then arriving at the beach, set up the campfire, bbq and tents and cracked on! A few beers, bottles of wine, a lot of tequila later, some comical ‘toileting’ and a small teabag incident, it was time to crash in our luxury tent for the night with airbed, pillows, duvet, etc (Erin was well prepared).
We were awake early on Friday morning, threw all the sausages on the bbq, packed up and left for a boat trip. As there was a group of 12 of us, we had hired a huge wooden traditional fishing boat called a Dhow with a driver for 6 hours, where we basically sailed around the Arabian gulf, Dolphin watching, fishing, snorkeling with some beautiful fish, a few cheeky beers and a lot of sunbathing / sleeping. It was a fantastic trip and very relaxing for everyone.
For the second night in Oman, we had planned on a trip up the Mussundam mountain range and set up camp there. This involved an hours drive up the rocky, dusty and very steep winding 'roads.' We were in a convoy of four big 4x4’s. The other 3 had been off-roading before, we however were ‘4x4 virgins’. As the roads got steeper and narrower, I changed the setting on the Range Rover to Mountain Mode and off we went. Erin was getting very quiet and a little nervous, I could tell this by the white knuckles that she was holding onto me with! I on the otherhand was having the time of my life. There was a real adrenaline rush as we were kicking up dust and stones as we powered up the tracks, carefully climbing over huge some rocks, listening to 'The Beast' use all its mechanical power to get us to the top.
The scenery was amazing with sheer vertical drops on one side and fascinating rock formations on the other. We just missed the sun setting from the top of the mountain, but headed back to a nice flat area (there wasn’t many) and once again set up camp and had a great night, pretty much like the night before but with an added ingredient of glow sticks, which seemed to keep everyone far too amused for hours!
The weather is now perfect in Dubai and over the first few months after Christmas we will defo be doing some more camping trips.
That’s enough for now, further blogs to follow shortly. Hope to hear from you guys soon.
Much Love
Mark & Erin
xxx
See some pics from my golfing day, Erin's Birthday, & our camping trip here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=325949&id=508925482&l=8d2d63805e
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=326498&id=508925482&l=b18e5848f8
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=327554&id=508925482&l=e157ac9bb6
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