February Photo a Day - Week 3

Ok so work has been extremely crazy this past week and I got a little slack with my photo's but here are the next round (I still have a couple to catch-up on so will double post next week I promise).

15. Phone - Piper's 'iphone' she swipes it with one finger like an iphone and it goes with us everywhere.... whenever we think she is talking to herself we often find that she has this to her ear and is talking to Nanny, Stella, Molly, Tilly, Finn, Leigh or Steery. Her one sided conversations and imagination are hysterical!

16. Something New - My new goggles. I can't run, my shins are absolutely destroyed from netball and running for fitness is not worth the pain, I also hate the gym! Actually I think it is just that I dislike 'gym people'. So given we have a swimming pool in our apartment building I have decided to take up swimming.... uh huh real swimming like laps and stuff not just floating, splashing and cooling off with Piper. I took the plunge this week for the first time and surprisingly I actually really enjoyed it..... let's see if I can keep it up.

17. Time - note exactly time but these little gadgets on my computer screen remind of the time difference and just how far away Australia is. Ironically in the photo it is my winter and Melb summer temperature being displayed.

18. Drink - My fave drink at the moment, I have pretty much cut down non essential dairy but hate soy milk hot chocolates and they are so impractical in the heat here so I am on soy milk ice chocolates..... YUM!! (and Starbucks do free home delivery)

19. Something you Hate to do - Working very late at night on pricing and cost analysis for proposals! This was appropriate at the time given it was very late and I had worked 60 plus hours during the week and was in a foul mood, but the reality is I am a nerd at heart and love pricing analysis and spreadsheets.......

20. Handwriting - Piper practicing her P's..... which would be great and so cute.... if only she hadn't practiced on her white wooden table and had used paper instead!!

A timely reminder we live in Arabia....

This weekend we were pretty much house bound for the entire 2 days due to severe sand storms!
The wind whipped up on Thursday evening and by Friday morning it was horrendous.
I am still getting my head around the fact we are on the otherside of the world... when I read the weather report as strong southerly winds I expected a cold snap with freezing winds NOT nasty, dry, hot winds that bring sand storms!
It was so bad we had to get a taxi instead of the 5 minute walk to the mall for our groceries and that was the only time we left the house and Lily just completely refused to pee outside in the wind much to Naz's frustration!
The downside now is that we need rain to clean everything...... it has only rained once for 5 minutes since we moved here 5 months ago so that is not likely to happen!
I bravely wrapped a scarf around my head and ventured out to take some of the photo's below.

Looking out or window first thing in the morning.... the pool is still blue and not the sandpit it became later in the day

You can only just make out the buildings in the distance on the right

If you know this area at all you will realise all the buildings behind have completely disappeared

February Photo a Day Challenge - Week 2

7. Button - these are the lift buttons in our apartment building

8. Sun - Whilst you cannot see the sun directly this is looking out from near our building over the construction behind us. The Sun is setting behind the buildings, if you squint your eyes and look closely at the smaller building to the right of the tall one on the left with the crane you will see it has an image of His Highness that covers the entire building. There are a few buildings like this in Dubai and we were a bit excited when we saw this one going up near our house!

9. Front Door - this is taken in the Old Town community across the road from our house, I have to pass through these beautiful doors to get to a friends house.

10. Self Portrait

11. Makes You Happy - Getting matching pedicures with Piper!

12. Inside Your Closet - Our walk in robe, poor Naz has been banished to the closet in the spare room. I will miss this when we leave, I loooooove it! But do need to sort out those shoes?!?

13. Blue - View from our balcony in a different direction, taken at twilight. This is the Address Hotel, it has bright neon blue stripes up the building that you can't quite see in this photo. (also has a fab bar in it with hapy hour every night and a great cocktail list)

14. Heart - Piper's valentines card she made for her Daddy

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.

February Photo a Day Challenge - Week 1

For the month of February I am participating in a fun photo challenge put together by the blogger 'fat mum slim' you can check out her blog here http://www.fatmumslim.com.au/

I shared this challenge with a friend and it has been fun checking in daily to see what we have each posted, it has also given an insight into each others daily lives while we are so far away.
So I have decided for the month of February I will post up my photo challenge images on a weekly basis here so I can share them with you all.
 I hope you like and gives you a different view into our lives in the middle east. If anybody else is also participating in the challenge please post a comment and share your photo's!

1. Your view today - I worked from home as Naz was in Abu Dhabi working, this is my balcony office! 

This is what my view normally looks like at the office, this was taken at thebeginning of a sandstorm the next day.

2. Words - Taken at the entrance to the Palace Hotel, this is a shortcut we take to get to the mall. Words are in arabic.

3. Hands - Don't you love those little hands stuffing her face while camping in Oman on the weekend.

4. A Stranger - What luck for my photo challenge today! Omani locals helped us out of a tight spot at Dibba Beach, Oman on the weekend when a friend got bogged. Note for the O'Briens - we will not be buying a jeep!

5. 10am - In a cab on my way to a client meeting

6. Dinner - oops I was so hungry and had a really bad day at work so entirely forgot about the photo challenge until after I had eaten my dinner! Sweet potato mash and yummy steak!

Run Naz Run!

I have been wanting to put this post up for days but it has been a busy week and I also had camera and technology issues, but I promise to make it up with at least 3 updates this week!
Last Friday 27th January Naz competed in his first marathon (42 kilometres for you non runners like me) and he made it!! We are soooo proud of him.
It's not often you have a world class marathon starting and finishing on your doorstep so he couldn't pass up the opportunity, it has also been a goal for some time now.
He has been training since we arrived in Dubai apart from the week he had off after injuring his back doing handstands (note to men weighing 100kg - your body is NOT meant to hang upside down).
Come race day I am not sure who was more nervous, the enormity of what he was about to do was a bit overwhelming for me. We were up at the crack of dawn to get to the start line, a mere 400 metres from our front door. Friends were racing in the 10km event so there was a nice big bunch of us together to cheer from the grandstands.
If you are familar with Dubai the race basically ran from Downtown (Burj Khalifa) through DIFC (financial district) to the beach and along the coast to the Burj Al Arab and back.
In the time Naz was running (4 hours 25 minutes in total) Piper and I cheered on our friends in the 10km race, met up with a group for a long breakfast back at Souk Al Bahar, gave the dog a quick stretch of the legs and strolled back for the finish.
It was amazing when we spotted him making his way up the final leg, we waited with friends at the 400m mark to cheer him on for the finish and it was incredible how much a bit of support from a group of friends can spur on that last bit of energy!
He is now recovering well, after a few days of exhaustion and what he tells me is a common runner's cold the only injuries left recuperating are the knees and shocking chaffing 'nappy rush' under his arms from his singlet! Which is lucky really because he is competing in the Wadi Bih Team Marathon in 6 days time, it is a 72km off road marathon through the desert and Wadi's (rock water pools) completed in a team so I understand each member runs approximately 19 kilometres. I will post on that after the event!

Apologies in advance.... I am having a nightmare with photo's on my blog at the moment, they are randomly switching between vertical and horizontal so until I have this all sorted tilt your head and enjoy xo

Happy Australia Day!!!

Top 10 things we are missing this Australia Day!

• Friends and family of course.....
• A drunken Russell or two
• BBQ with real snags...... real snags MUST have pork in them
• Sunshine.... the cold snap hitting the UAE has not yet passed (I am wearing boots and a jumper)
• Backyard cricket or football
• A day off work....typing this from my office :(
• An excuse to be drunk in the daytime..... in fact we have not yet got our liquor license so drinking anytime, anywhere is illegal for us
• Sam Kekovich and lamb
• Triple J's Hottest 100 Countdown..... GO Alpine and Christian!!!! (I have podcasted this and I am listening live via my ipod in the office)
• Dim Sims on the BBQ..... no Dim Sims over here at all

What's been happening lately!

It has been awhile since I have written a blog post and update on what we are up to in general over in the land of sand so here it is..... sorry in advance it is rather long!

The weather has currently hit a ‘cold snap’ over the last week and it is expected to last another 3 days, but thankfully back to nice winter 26 – 28 by the weekend.
At the moment in Dubai we are getting lows of very low teens and 17 – 19 during the day, which may not seem cold to a lot of people but believe me we have most certainly acclimatised and our blood thinned and it is freezing outside. The winds have been strong and very chilly blowing in off the back of a nasty cold front in Iraq. Perhaps the only thing worse than the cold weather is the SAND!!! It is everywhere coating everything possible. I am sure it is not called hay fever but my sinuses and head sure feel like hay fever they are so clogged with sand and dust. We have had several days of sand storms and very low visibility... Yuk!

It is a big week in our house – Naz is competing in his first marathon on Friday! Yes you heard right, my crazy husband is running 42 kilometres on the weekend just for fun!!!!! It has always been a bit of a goal for Naz and given the Dubai marathon starts and finishes on our boulevard in Downtown he couldn’t resist. Stay tuned for an update and photos next week!

We are also in the middle of buying a car over the next fortnight – a task we have put off but really need to do. It is a bit of a nightmare but thankfully my colleagues have all been through it already and learnt the hard lessons. We are a bit excited, it will give us a lot more freedom and less stress caused by crazy taxi drivers!
So along with buying a car we also have to buy new camping gear. Desert road trips and camping are popular pastimes in the UAE with so many different areas to explore from mountains to beautiful beaches, deserts and some of the biggest sand dunes in the world!
We have our first camping/road trip planned in 2 weeks time with a group of friends to the Empty Quarter. The Empty Quarter is a unique desert area at the northern tip of the UAE bordered by UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen so it does belong to somebody..... they just haven’t bothered to draw lines in the sand or lay claim to it. It is only inhabited by nomad’s and even then only at certain times of the year. I don’t actually know what is there really other than some of the largest sand dunes in the country and of course camels!! Stay tuned for a post road trip update!

Overall life is treating us good and we are all healthy and happy! Ok so that might be a stretch for everyday but terrible 2’s end eventually don’t they?
Piper is growing at a rapid rate lately – I am looking forward to some toddler shopping in Melbourne, almost all her pants are halfway up her leg! I am starting to think she may not have inherited my height genes after all!

My work is going well and Naz will hopefully have some exciting news soon but in the meantime he has taken on an events management contract for the next month. I won’t name any brands on here but he is managing a 4 day launch for a new luxury car at the Yas Island Formula 1 track in Abu Dhabi next month. I should mention that other than the 4 days in Abu Dhabi and the occasional day down there he is doing this work from home so is still looking after Piper!! I know... I am a very very lucky wife!

Finally a big blog world hug and kiss to all of our friends and family who have popped out beautiful new bubba’s over the past month! We cannot wait to meet you all and Naz just wants all the baby photo’s to stop because you are all making me clucky for more xoxox