I've been painting...

Here are 3 new paintings. I am trying to paint at least a little every day. Soon I will have enough for a show and/or to sell.

A Fun Day

We decided to go out for a family brunch. Friday brunch is a big thing around here. I had read that Plant Hollywood had was a good brunch for kids and it was. It was great. The girls got their faces and hands painted and the food was normal things that we would all eat.

After that we went out to the Autodrome and played laser tag, raced go carts and watched some big race cars. It was a ton of fun. Laser tag was the best. It wasn't busy so we got to go as a family all by our selves, same for the carts too. Dani was the best at laser tag. We had such fun running thru the maze and scarying each other.

Today we were thinking of going camping in the desert, but my cousin arrives tonight. He is staying here with a bunch of his grad school friends. We want to be around so that are available whenever he is free. He will be our FIRST visitor. He is sure to have an interesting experience... his friend is a member of a weatlthy and powerful family here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from Dubai

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family around the world.

The girls got us up around 7am - it was nice to sleep in. We all came down stairs and the girls looked in the stockings while I started breakfast. Then we opened presents. The girls got digital cameras and a few other small things. They were excited about getting a WebKinz which are very hard to find here. Rameses was VERY happy to receive some sparkly balls. He played for hours (yes he plays fetch over and over and over again). Osiris got some catnip which made him happy too.

We spent a few hours today outside by the pool, reading, swimming and sunning. I cooked a turkey which turned out quite tasty. I also made my grandmother cranberry salad and some pumpkin pie. And I must say the ingredients weren't easy to find. I had to grind the cloves for the pie. Elle set a beautiful table and served us our food.

We learned a new tradition from our neighbors... so much for cookies and milk for Santa, they leave wine or sherry with some biscuits (cookies). Santa must be trashed by the time he gets to the US!


A nice family toast... to our first Christmas in Dubai.

P.S. Larry and the girls are watching crazy cat videos on YouTube as I am finishing this post. Cracks me up that they can watch video after video. Mom, look at this... Mom, look at this...

2008 "Letter"

2008

Moving onto yet another new era of technology. This year’s Christmas “Letter” is a blog entry.
The year has flown by. 


As you already know from all of the posts on this blog, we were chugging along in CT and then BAM – Dubai. Renee and I (and Dani and Elle as well) have never been one to let opportunity slip by. It has been quite an adventure. I left the US in March and Renee, Dani and Elle joined in August. So, this means I did Dani and Elle’s birthdays on Skype video. I was able to travel home over Memorial Day and in July before we all moved, so I did a belated birthday party with each. During this period, Renee continued to work, take care of the 2 kids and 1 other small thing – she finished up her MBA! She definitely is Wonder Woman.
In the middle we met in Paris, France. This was a previously planned trip that we managed to still do. We met our dear friends, Bret and Karen and their lovely girls, Camilla and Samantha. It was a wonderful time, (just scroll back a few pages on the blog)
Highlights that we have also documented in earlier posts.
• Dani is 11 and Elle is 9 – they are both amazing young ladies.
• Renee hit a milestone BDay
• Dani graduated Elementary school
• Seven and Cassie are living the high life with Lou (and Jac & Ralph and Annie) – this was a very hard choice for us. Dogs are not well liked at all here and they are getting lots of love with our very special friends in CT. We miss them every day and look forward to seeing them again. We do have Osiris with us and his new buddy, Rameses.

OK, so Life in Dubai – can best be summed up by my new everyday phrase - 
“You gotta be kidding me!” Dani and Elle have even started using this, much to the chagrin of Renee. What does this mean? Dubai does not have many major differences of life in the US, except there are, many, many minor differences. Sometimes (frequently) these minor differences add up and when you boil over, you just have to say, “you gotta be kidding me!!” There are plenty of previous posts talking about daily life. A new one this week is the wide discussion of drivers driving without their lights on. Two real reasons (amazing but true):
1. There are some that don’t know how to turn on their lights!
2. Other drivers keep their lights off to save their car battery!
YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!
------------------------------------------
Our villa compound is great. We have new friends from France, Sweden, Germany, Kenya, Wales, UK, South Africa, Australia and the Netherlands. 

Renee continues her amazing artwork and is even branching out a bit – www.rlhpainter.com
Turn the clock back to 2007 and a few things that would not have been on my radar:
• Setting up a business partnership with a local owned company in Saudi Arabia
• Off-roading/dune-bashing in our own vehicle
• Getting involved in the launch of the new Dubai Government healthcare program

The World Economy – a real item that will be in the history books that grandchildren (and theirs as well) learn from. The effects are everywhere, including Dubai. The crazed pace of construction has slowed. The price of a gallon of gas is now higher here that the US ($1.70 versus $1.66). We believe there will be world lessons that come out of the economic crisis. The world will come together even more in joint efforts to steady the course.
It is Christmas Eve here. Three notes of the perks of the nice climate.
1. This morning we went on a long bicycle ride to the beach and around to the Dhow Boats building area
2. This evening we walked to Jumeriah Madinat for Christmas Caroling on the canal in the shadows of the Burj Al Arab.
3. In the middle of the day we all hung out at the pool with neighbors.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, Happy Diwali, Eid Mubarak – Well wishes to you, your families and other loved ones.

Christmas Eve in Dubai

We started our day by going on a bike ride. We rode to the beach in the fog and watched the Burj Al Arab emerge from the mist.




After dinner we walked over to the Madinat Jumeriah to listen to the carrolling. It was such a beautiful night.... about 68 degrees. The lights were so pretty. The girls drank hot chocolate and Larry and I drank $15 beers.






When we got home the girls each opened one present - a famil tradition.


Now we are sitting around watching a movie and getting ready to play a game. Merry Christmas Eve to everyone!

Elle's school concert

Elle's school concert was very nice. The school is so large that there are separate times for each grade. The coordination was impressive as parking could have been a huge issue. The first picture is of Ria, Elle, Olivia and Hannah. She has made great friends here.

Clothes shopping in Dubai

All my shopping so far has been for food and the villa, I haven't purchased any clothes since we moved here. Today I went out looking for undershirts for Larry. First off, some stores don't carry them or they have 1 choice and not the right size. When I did find them the price was crazy, 195Dhs for one at the first store and then 349Dhs at the second. 195 is about $50US... who pays that much for a stinking undershirt! I miss Marshals... I need a shopping trip to the US.

Dubai life lesson #97 (randmon number to make it sound better)

I picked Dani and her friend up after ski club tonight at the mall. On the way out Dani asked if she could buy some bread from the bakery next door. I give her the money but wait outside the store while she goes in to make her purchase. I can see her at the back of the store talking to the waiter and waving her hands. I wonder what the heck is going on, but decide she must be telling him some story about going down the slopes today - after all, it is Dani we're talkin' about here, ya know she never shuts up! Then I see the girls sit down at a table so I walk in because I didn't agree to stay and eat - there is dinner and homework still ahead of us. I ask what is going on. Dani explains that it will be a couple of minutes because the bread is in the oven. Then I ask what she was talking to the waiter about. She explains that she ordered the break and he said 10dirham. Dani proceeded to wave her hands at the waiter and tell him the last time the bread was only 5dirham so that should be the price today. He laughs and says ah baby (very common phrase when asking to children here), for you it is only 5dirhams, maybe 3, nah, 5dirham for you.

My daughter has learned to bargain and take no crap from some yehoo raising the prices for no good reason. Big grin :]

We found our cat!

Osiris had been missing since around 8pm last night. We don't let him out of the house here, too many wild cats and such around. We have been around and around the neighborhood looking for him with no luck. I even made signs today that we were planning to hang up this evening. By chance we to talked to the security guard. Apparently Osiris was on the balcony of the villa 2 doors down. The guard removed the cat and put it outside our complex. We checked the parking garage of the apartment building next door. Osiris was huddled in a corner of the garage. I thought it was a paper bag, but went over to have a closer look. He didn't even move when we called his name. Luckily he was totally unharmded! There are so many wild cats here that he could have gotten in a huge fit or run over by a car. We are SO THANKFUL to have him back! :) :) :)

A couple of funnies from daily life

I was at Carefour today (kinda like a Walmart, but French). I was looking for door stops. Simple enough huh? Of course I knew they might be hard to find. I am in the hardware-like section of the store. I ask a man working there... do you carry door stops? Yes. Where are they? What? Where are the door stops? What? So this time I make hand gestures to help explain while I ask again... do you carry door stops? No mam, not here. Of course I realize he has no idea what I am talking about so I keep looking. Not 5 minutes later I am in that very same isle where he was stocking the shelf and I find door stops. The girls and I got a good laugh out of that one.

Our pool heater has not been working. The kids keep asking the security guard. He says in a few days they will come to fix it, they will come. Days go by, the kids still ask him and he repeats himself. Well this morning my neighbor asks. The security guard then shows her the switch for the pool heater (it is very typical for the security guard to actually "show" you the problem). She immediately sees that the switch is turned off. She turns it to the "on" position. The security guard asks her You fix? Yes, I think that I fixed it. Too funny heh?

Winter in Dubai

Today I am wearing jeans and a tank top. I just went outside to check on the girls (they are outside playing tag with the neighbor girls). I about peed my pants when I saw our security guard... he is wearing a ski hat and gloves. I came inside to check the temperature... it is 74° F. I suppose that I should not be laughing, if you have always lived in hot weather I guess this is a little cold.

Off Roading

Larry took the roof and doors off the Jeep and we drove to the desert near his office. It was fun. We got stuck briefly but we were able to get out with just a little bit of digging.




As we were leaving we ran into several camels. It's the weirdest thing seeing wild camels just walking around the desert.

Eid al-Adha

I am pretty sure that Eid means festival. There are 2 Eids here in Dubai - one right after Ramadan to celebrate the breaking of the fast and then one a couple of months later - Eid al-Adha which means festival of sacrifice. It in commemorates the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to Allah. Eid al-Adha occurs the day after the pilgrims conducting Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in Saudi Arabia by Muslims worldwide.

Men, women, and children are expected to dress in their finest clothing to perform Eid prayer (Salatu'l-`id) in any mosque. Muslims who can afford to do so sacrifice their best domestic animals (usually sheep, but also camels, cows, and goats) as a symbol of Ibrahim's (Abraham's) sacrifice. The sacrificed animals, called "udhiya" Arabic: أضحية" also known as "qurbani", have to meet certain age and quality standards or else the animal is considered an unacceptable sacrifice. A large portion of the meat must be given towards the poor and hungry people so they can all join in the feast which is held on Eid-al-Adha. The remainder is cooked for the family celebration meal in which relatives and friends are invited to share.

Reference - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eid_ul-Adha

Daily life

So my friend Nancy e-mailed me today asking about our daily lives here in Dubai because I so often write about being one big vacation. I was talking with my neighbor the other day and we started complaining about the crap around here. She stopped and said well let's not slide down the slipper slope any longer. What she meant by that was there is so much crap in your daily life here that if you complain about it you end up hating it here and it's not like you can pack up and go home whenever you want - well we could but we won't - ya know.

For instance, it has rained for the past week. More rain than Dubai has seen in years. When it rains it floods all over the place. Oh and did I mention that building are not built with rain in mind? ALL (in caps on purpose) of our windows leak. Last night our ceiling started leaking too. So you say, you're renting, just call maintenance... laughing... laughing some more. You call, "what you villa number" "A04" "ok, we come" hours pass, you call again "what you villa number" "A04" "ok, we come." You call at least 5 times before someone comes. When they get here, "ah... bad building" he says with his head cocked to the side. "Yes, bad building, you fix it" "ah... bad building" As you can see there is lots of repetition in conversation here. It's like marketing 101, repeat what you want people to remember at least 3 times. Then the dude says that he needs a part or it is too wet to fix, blah, blah, blah. Things pretty much never get fixed.

Ok, enough slipper slope. Daily life here is not that bad, really, there are lots of good things, but many days the crap out weighs the good stuff.

On the good side, we are learning so much about the rest of the world. I finally had a girls night out the other day with 4 British ladies. It was fun to learn more about their world and tell them about ours. Very different, but also very much the same.

Well, gotta run. We are going to Global Village tonight. It's a place where they have pavillions from several different countries with food, crafts, rides, music, etc.

UAE National Day

Dec 2 is UAE national day. It is a day much like our 4th of July. There were very large flags hanging from all of the hotels and big buildings.

The UAE was formed on December 2, 1971. The flag is made up of Pan-Arab (red, black, white and green) colors symbolizing Arabian unity. Did you know that most Arabic countries use the same colors in their flags? I had no idea.

In addition the individual colors have the following meanings:

• green - fertility
• white - neutrality
• black - color of the flag of the Islamic prophet Muhammad
• red - unity