Posts
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
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