Naz in Lycra

Two weeks ago Naz competed in an Olympic distance triathlon held at the Atlantis Hotel, on The Palm, Dubai.

Fortunately, this coincided with Grandpa’s holiday in Dubai, so he was lucky enough to have 4 family members out there cheering for him.

I have been chasing Naz around crazy sport events for long enough now that I can read an event map like a pro, calculate what his times should be and when he will transition, and then get myself around the event to at least catch him 3 or 4 times throughout the race, and give him a bit of encouragement.
It’s a lot more fun these days too with Piper running around with me. Her excitement to cheer for her Dadda is pretty infectious.

On this particular day I was pretty impressed that I had managed to get two kids up, dressed, fed and out the door by 7am on my own, (I felt like I had completed a triathlon myself just getting us all into the car). Naz had left at about 4:30am to get his bike and gear checked in.

Naz kicked some butt on the day and came in 21st in Olympic Male Open. He also got to race against, and meet his boy crush, fellow Australian and two time World Champion Chris McCormack.

Not one to slow down, yesterday ,Naz competed in the world first Desert Triathlon. A combination of run, cycle, and endurance horse ride. 
Before you go picturing Naz in lycra on horseback, he competed as part of a team - he completed the cycle leg only. Unfortunately his horse was disqualified and did not race so they received no team result, but Naz’s cycle leg was an impressive 31 out of 127 competitors.

Unfortunately, I did not take my camera - I knew I would have my hands full with the girls. The event was incredible and dominated by local Arabs and royal family members. His Highness Nasser bin Hamad al Khalifa was the winner – completing the run, cycle and 40km horse ride on his own – faster individually than the teams could do it!! He was pretty impressive, I guess if you are the son of the King of Bahrain and married to the Head Sheikh of Dubai’s daughter you probably have a bit of time on your hands to train, I am thinking employment is not really an issue.

If you want some more eye candy of Naz in lycra, below are some of the official photographs taken at the Atlantis Triathlon. Piper received the best cheer for her run down to the finish line with Naz, and they gave her a medal of her own.

Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

Because I know you visit this blog to catch-up on our family happenings and adventures and not to be bombarded with my photography hobby pics (also known as grandparents want to see Piper and Frankie not your personal indulgences Carly), I have started a separate tumblr website for all of my non-family photography. If you want to follow my new website you can find it here.  

Market Mornings

Our favourite part of the weekend is by far Friday mornings. During winter there is a large market in the grounds of one of Dubai's largest parks. It is a beautiful market of fresh farm produce, gourmet food and craft all under the shade of large palms.

On Fridays we get-up and head straight to the market, we grab a coffee and some food then find a patch of grass under a palm to spread out our picnic mat. We are usually joined by friends and the kids run crazy while we relax on the grass, stroll through the market stalls and eat some more.

The weather has started to heat up fast over the past week and sadly there will only be a handful of Fridays left to enjoy these beautiful mornings before it is too hot and all outdoor fun ceases.

Ahoy there!

With all the change of welcoming a new family member and then a few medical issues since Frankie and I returned home from hospital, this weekend we decided to dedicate some time to Piper.

On Friday (jammed in between feeds and with Naz sitting outside just in case the boobs were needed) I took Piper for some girly fun and we both relaxed with a pedicure at our local salon.
Then today Naz organised the most elaborate and amazing treasure hunt for her. She is very much into pirates and treasure at the moment and got right into it.
Earlier Naz snuck out and with chalk marked out his crosses and skulls and buried treasure throughout our community - the park, the pool area and around the lake walk. This was all coordinated with a map and instructions he had prepared for her.
Her haul of treasure was a new set of glitter pens once she had located each individual pen!

Back pack organised and ready to go

Frankie slept as usual - and yes she is wearing a beanie in Dubai! Winter has arrived and we had a strangely cold and wet weekend

Road trip - Jebel Shams, Oman

Ramadan is officially over and life is getting back to normal.

I am scared to 'type' this out loud but the weather has even felt cooler the last two days. Last night it got to a low of 34 degrees, so all fingers are crossed the heat is over and winter is on its way.

The end of Ramadan brings with it Eid celebrations and several public holiday. These holidays are not officially announced until the evening before Eid begins. UAE residents were given 2 public holidays.... sounds generous, however, all of our neighbouring countries (Saudi, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain) were given a week off so it was a little disappointing.

To make the most of a four day weekend and escape the oppressive heat we headed off on a road trip to explore the mountains of Oman in an area known as Jebel Shams.

A friend who also joined us for the road trip recommended this route and camping location, assuring us despite our hesitation that it was an easy drive and would definitely be cooler temperatures.

Well he got the cooler temperatures right. Jebel Shams camp is 2000m above sea level and the peak is 3000m. The nights were cool enough to throw on a jumper and light a camp fire.

As for the easy drive.... not so right. Firstly it was approx 7 hours each way including toilet breaks and border crossings (we had 3 adults, Piper and Lily in the car).
It was an extremely steep climb and took some time to get up the mountain itself. It had been raining and some of the 4WD driving was a little hair raising. In fact at one point on our scenic drive the next day I freaked out on a steep descent and opted to get out and walk (brought back lots of childhood memories Dad).

It was a great break and another Oman road trip is in the works for later in the year.

Our Bedouin tent - we glamped it a bit and stayed in this instead of taking our tent

Walking through a little village on the start of our hike

There were goats everywhere just waiting to be terrorised by Lily

On our hike looking back at  the cliff
wondering where the path was and how the hell we just walked around
that with a toddler and poodle!

Naz doing 'hero' poses. Don't worry Liz there was a big ledge beneath him x

Like father like daughter, my little daredevil rock climber

Weekend Camping Trip

Last weekend we embarked on a camping trip with friends. Originally we planned on heading to the Empty Quarter down near Saudi Arabia, however, on Friday we woke to one hell of a sand storm! So camping in the middle of the world's largest sand desert was certainly not going to be a good idea.
We revised our plan gathered up our passports and drove north accross the UAE to the northern most point of Oman and camped at a beach called Dibba. Thankfully Dibba is surrounded by mountains and cliff faces so we were quite sheltered, unfortunately a lot of people had the same plan so it was a busy little camping hole.
Dibba is small Omani town on a large bay, popular for it's beach and sand dune 4 wheel driving fun. As the crow flies it is only approximately 60 kms from Iran across the Strait of Hormuz (which goes somewhat to explaining the strange night sky activities, no heart attacks please Nanna's we were safe).

Naz and the boys had purchased a sand board in preparation for the Empty Quarter so they were more than happy to test it out at Dibba. We also kept ourselves amused with lots of swimming, sand castle building, beach cricket, mountain climbing (although the O'Briens only made it half way up the mountain..... it was difficult carrying Piper and then Lily decided she was going no further and dug her little paws in).
As much as Piper loved running around the beach and swimming nudie rudie for a weekend I think the happiest O'Brien of all was Lily! She swam, rolled in the sand and dug her little heart out.

Sunrise - 'thanks Piper for making sure we were awake early and did not miss it'

Piper, Lily and Laura

Mornng sand board and play in the dunes 'best friends'

Yes that is a streaker on the cricket pitch!

I think her favourite thing about camping was swimming and playing nudie rudie

Aargh still having camera issues. Mountain climbing.

French macaroons to start the weekend

Secretly I think I buy these just for the packaging..... but they are also super yummy with an amazing choice of flavours!
We visited this gorgeous french patisserie on our way to grocery shopping this morning but unfortunately only 3 made it all the way home.