Sri Lanka.... again

Last month during mid-term break we headed to Sri Lanka for a third time, but the first time with Frankie.
We rented an amazing villa in the south, just outside of Galle with two other families, all up 6 adults and 7 children under 6.

It was a fabulous holiday with lots of laughs, champagne, fresh seafood, swimming and relaxation.

If anyone is considering travelling to Sri Lanka, do it, I could not recommend it enough. Of all the travelling we have done it ranks in my top 2 favourite countries.

The villa we rented was called Auraylia, right on the beach with about 2 acres of gardens, swimming pool and several pavilions for relaxing and dining in the evenings. It also came with lots of house staff, a chef and security guard, very luxe but worth every bit of it.

After a lot of beautiful weather and far too much food we left the south and headed to the capital Colombo. We have never stayed in Colombo in the past other than airport hotels while travelling so this was a first for us.
I am so mad we have not discovered just how awesome Colombo is underneath its grimy, confronting exterior before now. Homewares shopping heaven, friendly people and unique places, the Cricketers Club was a fabulous hidden gem for a cold beer and lunch after a morning of shopping.

Happy Birthday Frankie Lulu!

Wow, I can't believe the last time I posted was for Piper's 5th birthday, and now here we are with our baby girl turning 1 last week.

It has been a long time between posts, I am hopeless at lying and there has been a lot going on in our little world. While we have known for a couple of months some big changes were ahead we weren't ready to make any public announcements until details were finalised. You will notice I also stopped blogging during the first half of my pregnancy for the same reasons, I can't blog when I am only telling half the story.

All is in motion and there is no turning back - we are coming home.  Our house in Dubai has been packed into a shipping container and we have moved in with friends for the next month. We are coming home to Australia just in time for Christmas and the fun of an Australian summer.
We are returning to somewhat of a sea change rather than Melbourne and a change in roles of sorts. Naz is returning to work with Fire Brigade and I will be continuing my project role here in Dubai but working from home for a little while.

I am going to work backwards and get some post and photos up of the last few missing months. In amongst the craziness there have been some fun times, trips to Paris, and Sri Lanka, an amazing effort by Naz in the Dubai Half Ironman and other triathlons, and lots of fun sister moments.
I have decided to get these up and more of our final weeks in Dubai to close out our blog of our Middle East adventures, a nice little memory the girls can read and see one day.

Below are some pics of our Frankie Lulu on her 1st birthday.

We have a five year old!

We celebrated Piper's birthday last weekend. Baby Piper has left the house.
Boy Five years old feels like a giant leap from a four year old.

We had a fab day together as a family and in the afternoon shared some simple party food and cake with a couple of close friends. A perfect day.

Thank you to our family and close friends who called or sent a message, you all made our day. The happiest times are also the hardest when you are living far from home.

Cake batter for breakfast. Why not.

Photographing these two together is impossible at the best of times - this time Piper decided to watch tv and Frankie wanted to practice her downward facing dog.

Love Affair

These two. Together always.
If Frankie is awake, then Lily is right behind her, all day.
Of course Frankie drives her mad, pulls her ears, her tail, bashes her with the odd toy. But most of the time, the two live harmoniously side by side.

Ramadan Mubarak or Happy Ramadan

Ramadan is here again, and although it is our third one, it doesn't get any easier.
I won't go into the details of Ramadan and how the rules work as an expat, I wrote about this here a few years ago.

I am not sure if it is because we are here for the long haul and not escaping to Europe this Ramadan, or if it is simply that Dubai is very much home now and we are so comfortable here, but this Ramadan seems to be more annoying and frustrating than the previous. Although we have moved house since last Ramadan so we are not being woken at 4:30am by canon fire this year which is nice.

I find Ramadan an inoffensive celebration, in fact I like the festive atmosphere, the sense of generosity and community that you don't normal relate to life in Dubai - but I am still selfishly, ridiculously frustrated by small things daily.

Here are my top 5 annoyances this week:

1.   The simple fact that I keep forgetting it is Ramadan at all.... I can't even count the amount of 'oops' moments or near misses I have had. My lack of being able to remember is the most frustrating thing this week by far.

2.   Not being able to drink my morning coffee in the car on the way to work

3.   Hypoglycemic, hungry drivers on the roads in the late afternoons. Apparently hungry = angry and unable to drive like a decent human being

4.   Remembering to dress conservatively. Contrary to what you read in the media and see on the news, Dubai is quite a non conservative city. Over time you learn where to dress conservatively and where to dress for comfort. On a typical weekend you will find me in shorts and a singlet or a dress. But during Ramadan it is considered disrespectful to show your knees or shoulders more so than any other time of year, even in malls and locations not usually considered conservative.

5.   The changing hours of EVERYTHING. A lot of shops don't open until late afternoon, my gym changed its timetable and the classes now start late at night and run til midnight, kids indoor play centre opens late and until midnight. It is a nightmare for an anal, structure loving person.

This does seem like a rather whiny post, but this is our reality. There are also a lot of really cool, fun and positive things about Ramadan and I will write about these next week. For instance one of our favourite daytime restaurants is closed for Ramadan but has a pop-up Iftar restaurant open in the evenings that we are excited to check-out tonight!

Look at me!

Uh huh! That is Frankie preparing to launch into crawling.... at 71/2 months. Given Piper didn't crawl until 11 months I was not prepared for the sight of Frankie up off her belly on all fours rocking this soon.
We never had to overly baby proof with Piper, by the time she could crawl and walk she understood no and boundaries. I think Frankie is going to challenge us a little more on that approach.

She also confirmed what I have watched grow ever so intensely over the past month - she is another Daddy's girl. Her first word last week was Daddy, not even Dad or Dadda like a baby sound, it is an absolute crystal clear, syrupy, sucky 'Daddy'.
This week she followed up with 'bub bub'. It didn't take Piper long to realise she could probably quickly coax Frankie into saying 'bum bum' much to her amusement... until I cottoned on and stopped the fun. No way is 'bum bum' coming before Mum Mum!!

Blue Poo, Trampolines and Fun

The mass exodus out of Dubai for summer begins this week. A huge amount of the population departs until September to avoid the worst of the heat and Ramadan. This is the first year we have not escaped to Europe, we have some exciting holidays planned for later in the year instead.

Piper's birthday unfortunately falls smack in the middle of Ramadan and the school holidays once again. So this year we took some initiative and celebrated her birthday a month early.
She had a small party for 10 friends at Bounce, which has only just opened in Dubai. For those that have not been to Bounce in Australia or elsewhere, it is an indoor trampoline centre, look it up, it will blow your mind.
Piper had simple requests - a 'Frozen' theme and a blue cake! Whilst the blue cake did tie in with the theme of the party, this is not why she chose blue cake. Over the Christmas holidays in Australia, thanks to her cousins - Piper discovered the delights of blue bubble gum ice-cream and the resulting blue poo. Yes, Piper wanted blue cake so she could have blue poo!
She had an awesome time and the genius was booking the party in the morning time slot. The kids were all happy and active and probably the best behaved at that time and it was all over and finished by 11am!

For the record - my cake wasn't nearly blue enough to have the desired effect!

Graduation

Yesterday we celebrated Piper's graduation from pre-school with a small performance at her school. We follow the American/British school system here and school is currently wrapping up for the year, and summer holidays are about to begin.
The new school year starts in September when Piper will begin FS2 (equivalent of Australian prep grade) at her big school, exciting times ahead.

Piper and her best friend (above) will go to different schools next year, which is a bit sad but I am sure these two crazy kids will still see more than enough of each other.

7 Months Old!

Because Dads make the best jungle gyms ever.

Showtime

This weekend Piper had 'showtime' at gymnastics and her class performed for all the parents.
It was a chaotic, crazy mess. Imagine 20 excited kids, too many parents and younger siblings and at least 10 different nationalities, all multiplied by our cultural differences. It was never going to be anything but a crazy, awkward hour.
Piper loved it - in her element of course with an audience to perform for.

This.

Please slow down baby Frankie.

Hot Nights and Hotter Days

I couldn't think of another title on the fly, but given the weird and unusual google searches that somehow send people to my blog, I am a little concerned what sort of traffic will wind up at this post, disappointed.

We are now just over a week out from the official beginning of summer and it is hot, hot, hot!
Today marks the official beginning for me. When I walked out of the office and my sunglasses fogged over from the humidity for the first time this year - I knew summer was here. But hey, at least I am not pregnant this year!

Naz has entered the Dubai International Half Ironman in November. So ironically as the weather heats up his training schedule is ramping up also. The crazy man has started cycling at night, and as it gets hotter intends to get up and train between 3am and 5am.
Luckily there is an 85km cycling track out in the desert, not too far from home (pictured above on the morning after a sandstorm), but it's really far out into the desert so I am not that keen on his training plans. He has already stopped running outdoors and moved onto the treadmill, and there is probably 3 more weeks before the sea is too hot for swimming and he will be stuck doing laps in our pool. He is a crazy man I tell you, all of the above is his idea of fun.

Last weekend I joined a girls only stand up paddleboard group for a combined paddle and fitness class on the boards..... which I completely underestimated. I could barely walk the next day - there were muscles hurting I forgot existed. The class is out on the Palm, how freaking cool is that, to paddle around the Palm in Dubai - one day I am going to miss some really awesome things about living here.

Piper's school year is coming to a close, only 5 weeks left before summer holidays. She has bounced back from her operation and you wouldn't know it was less than a month ago. She is back to her usual crazy self - tonight our conversation in the car went a little like this:
"Mum I really, really want to go to school more days a week, I want to go to school on Thursdays too"
To which Naz and I proceeded to tell her 'no way' and explain that this was the last chance she got to hang out at home and have Daddy days, sleep in, go to the beach and just be a kid etc. We told her that in September when big girl school starts she has to go to school 5 days a week forever - until she is all grown-up.
Her response '"umm I only want to go to school on Thursdays because they have spaghetti for lunch".

Frankie is continuing to grow and entertain us. She finally nailed the rolling thing again after giving us the false start weeks ago and then stopping. She is sitting with a little help and is growing so strong - both physically and mentally. She is a fierce and determined little one. At 6 months old she is eating 3 meals a day and snacks in-between, she definitely inherited Naz's appetite. She almost eats more than Piper already!
The one thing Frankie doesn't like.... babies. Hates them. Screams her lungs out if she is put near them. Potentially a by product of spending a lot of time with her Dad and not out and about with other babies, but at least she will be able to name every NBA team and player by the time she is 1.

Then there is the story about the crazy Aussie in purple pineapple shorts who put out a substantial house fire before the fire brigade arrived and then promptly disappeared...... but I will keep that one for another day!

Frozen v Riverdance

Somewhere in the past few months Piper saw a group of people performing 'river dance' style. It obviously struck a chord with her.
Yesterday she decided to combine her version of river dancing/tap dancing with her current obsession, Frozen, and put on a performance for Naz.
The result is hilarious - with an unexpected twist to finish!
One day teenage Piper is going to kill me for all of these stories, pics and videos - she will be sending me her therapy bill in her 20s.
Oh well, for now while we are far away from friends and family I choose to keep sharing!

(for reasons beyond my technical prowess I don't believe you can view this video on an iPad or iPhone or other tablet device, you will need to use a PC)

Half birthdays, hospitals and craziness

What a crazy week! Frankie had a half birthday.... 6 months old, can you believe that! Piper was the bravest. girl. ever. (much braver than her Mum and Dad to be honest) and had her tonsils and adenoids removed, and tubes put in her ears.
She took it all in her stride and bounced back amazingly, but the past 48 hours have been toughest. She is completely and utterly over the pain, a bit down in the dumps, and not sleeping so well. I am sure she will be back to normal Piper in a few days, this is kind of that final hump.
Sure we have our amazing nanny Rose, but this was one of those weeks where being away from family is hard. I could certainly have done with a hug from my Mum.

Otherwise life has been kicking along as per normal. Frankie is still proving to be an early riser, hello 4:30am starts to the day. Naz competed in a duathlon on Saturday and came 7th in his category, although he ran in relatively new shoes and now has the most horrendous blisters on his feet.
The heat has really kicked in even though we are still a month from summer, days are averaging 38 - 40 degrees and nighttime lows of 27 - 28. Any form of cool breeze is now a distant memory for the next 6 months.
As it heats up our plan of sticking out the summer in Dubai this year is fading. I have found myself looking up flights and accommodation for July or August a lot lately. Right now we are thinking Turkey or maybe Greece.

My favourite thing at the moment is watching the girls play together - Frankie can not get enough of Piper, and is becoming more active and responsive to Piper by the day. Almost the perfect marriage - Piper loves to put on a performance and Frankie is the best captive audience.