Silent Sunday: Flying low over The World

Posted on by

You might recall that for DH’s big birthday, the piece de resistance of the celebrations was a surprise seaplane ride. I didn’t bottle out and, not only that, I’d do it again in a heartbeat!

I took this photo while swooping over The World islands, the epitomy of Dubai’s boom-time ambition. Intended to be developed with tailor-made hotel complexes and luxury villas, and sold to millionaires (didn’t Angelina Jolie buy Ethiopia?), work ground to a halt during Dubai’s financial crisis. But you’ll notice that one resort, on the isle of Lebanon, is open, offering beachfront cabanas that can be rented out for the day, brunch and an exclusive membership plan for yacht owners.

On a desert island three kilometres out to sea, in an uninhabited archipelago, with no easily available source of water or electricity: that’s no mean feat! I really want to go, even if I get there by water taxi rather than by yacht. There’s even a Friday nightclub called “Stranded”, priced around AED250 for entrance and transport.

More birds-eye photos of Dubai’s most iconic landmarks coming up – I took enough photos to fill a month of Sundays!

Elderly couple’s marriage tips go viral

Posted on by

Yesterday, I posted a bit of a rant about getting to work. Yet despite my complaints – and even though the roadhogs who drive like they’re riding the dodgems are unlikely to change their ways – it’s not unheard of for me to actually enjoy my commute.

I get to sit quietly, after all – and I love listening to the radio, especially Catboy and Geordiebird in the mornings.

The other day, my favourite Dubai 92 DJs played a YouTube clip – about marriage – that had me chortling out loud in the car. My steely grip on the steering wheel relaxed and for a few minutes, the furrowed lines on my forehead – the result of rush-hour-induced driver’s grimace – disappeared.

I also realised that other commuters in the traffic jam into Media City were peering at me, but I didn’t care!

Since today is mine and DH’s wedding anniversary, what better day to post this video. Selma and Kenny are an elderly couple who couldn’t make it to their grandson’s wedding and so made a video instead, offering tips on how to have a long and happy marriage. They’re adorable.


And, on the occasion of our anniversary, here are a few things I didn’t know about marriage nine years ago:

– You should never go to bed on an argument…stay up and fight!

– If he lets me think I’m getting my way, I’m happy

– There’s a way of transferring earnings that’s even faster than electronic banking: Me not working

– That we’d end up in Dubai. Didn’t enter my wildest dreams

– That a successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person

Bad manners on the roads

Posted on by

My drive to work isn’t long – 25 minutes or so – but negotiating Dubai traffic can be an adrenalin-fuelled way to start the day.

I hate being ‘extreme tailgated’ – a rude and all-too-common gesture where a car tails you at speed with a 5cm gap, sometimes flashing its lights until you’re intimidated enough to move over. Or tries to sneak round on the hard shoulder like it’s another lane.

Since my route to work is on a two-lane speedway, I’ve had several motoring menaces ‘up my bumper’ over the past few weeks – including a wannabe stuntman today who I was still honking long after he’d disappeared over the horizon. The %@*{xy£x&z!

I mean, if I was walking along, would he come sprinting up behind me, breathe down my neck, jostle me until I fell sideways into the path of a Lycra-clad jogger, then run away at speed? No, he wouldn’t! He wouldn’t dream of it. He might think the metal box he’s sitting in means he’ll get away with it, but it’ll catch up with him, I thought to myself.

Seriously, how hard is it to park in one space? Would you sit on two chairs at a crowded venue – would you?!

My other pet peeves are ‘the weavers’, who hurtle in front of you if you leave more than a five-foot gap, ‘the wrong turners’, who reverse back down exits if they’ve left the highway too soon, and ‘the idiots’ who make right turns from the left lane.

I probably should add that bad driving encompasses all social groups in Dubai and women certainly aren’t exempt. Cup-cake-wielding mums in frilly dresses sometimes start gnashing their teeth with aggression once they’re behind the wheel of the family 4×4. I’m constantly amazed at the honking, the pushing and shoving and the inconsiderate parking that takes place on the school run.

But back to my commute: my other worry is a new speed camera on my route that I keep hearing about. Apparently, it’s causing a lot of controversy for being set at a really low speed, but I don’t know where it is – which means I’m suspicious of every lamp post or road sign I pass. And it’s not always easy to keep to such a low speed when you’re being shunted along from behind.

Glamping in the Middle East: Part 2

Posted on by

I realised over the past week that as expats, we may spend a lot of time in hotels – because that’s where the bars and brunches are – but to truly experience the full extent of Arabian hospitality you really need to book into one. Preferably for a few days. Maybe more.

Sure, we’ve had visitors who’ve stayed at hotels here and been ‘upgraded to an executive suite’, with an on-call butler serving champagne, dates and refreshing rolled face towels on silver platters. So I knew there was a very good reason why holidaymakers love Dubai – returning home with a renewed zest for life, an armful of gold bangles, a Persian rug, a comedy camel souvenir and their best-ever tan (persuaded?).

Behind the tent…Looks inviting, no?

But, until now, all our travel has either been to visit family back home, or – when we’re travelling with the kids – to countries within a tolerable four-hour flying time radius.

At the Banyan Tree Al Wadi resort in Ras Al Khaimah (an hour’s drive from Dubai) this weekend, I learnt that you really haven’t sampled UAE hospitality until:

● Your accommodation is even nicer than it looks on the photos and has its own private, crystal-clear pool outside

● You are transported anywhere you want to go in the resort by gulf buggy (not as lazy as it sounds – the temperature was in the mid 40s)

● A call to reception to request a buggy ride to breakfast also means maids arrive from nowhere to make the beds before you get back

“Honi, I don’t think there’s room in here for both of us!”

● The bathroom (pictured right) is bigger than your living room

● You’re greeted at your breakfast table by a falcon (the UAE’s national bird)

● Luxurious dressing gowns are laid out on the duvet during the nightly ‘turn down’ – and slippers placed by the bed

● The decorative pebbled pools are lit up by ‘fire features’ from which dancing flames arise

Of course, this is all bank-busting stuff if you pay full price, but there are deals-a-plenty to be had in the UAE (we booked one night, and got the next night free thanks to a summer offer). And the great thing about Dubai is the amount of choice available.

If you fancy staying in a vast waterscape, with exhilarating wild-water rides – two of which catapult riders through shark-filled lagoons – and you want to swim with dolphins, then book the Atlantis on the Palm. Or if you can stretch to a seven-star, super-luxe break, check in at the iconic Burj Al Arab, where there’s a private reception desk on each floor and you can arrive by helicopter.

Or, wait a while, and you may actually be able to stay in a room with an underwater ocean view. Believe it or not, architects have designed a half-submerged spaceship-shaped hotel that, if it gets built, will offer guests the chance to sleep below the surface of the sea.

“Are we going there for my birthday?” BB just enquired, totally enthralled by the concept of sleeping with the fish.

Silent Sunday: Glamping, UAE-style

Posted on by

I’ve discovered the most comfortable tent in the world – at the Banyan Tree Al Wadi resort in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates. There were even desert gazelles wondering by. But just wait till you see what else was out the back…

Quite possibly the easiest, most hassle-free camping ever

The birthday week

Posted on by

It’s DH’s birthday – a big one! The actual day was on Tuesday, but as it’s a nice round number it’s turned into something of a birthday extravaganza.

Last year, the day passed in a bit of a blur, because of a medical drama in our family. DH’s lovely brother, who also lives in Dubai, returned from Africa with flu-like symptoms that turned out to be malaria. He came to stay with us while he recovered, so while all this was going on – and I was busy swatting gnats just in case (despite being assured by the hospital there was no risk to the boys) – my attention wasn’t really on birthday celebrations.

This year, I promised myself I’d make up for it, so in dutiful wifely fashion, I’ve been busy organising a birthday DH won’t forget. I think I’ve just about managed to pull off a three-part celebration that’s taking up most of the week:

PART 1: (the day) Presents at silly o clock, before school and work. Then Bab Al Shams, a desert resort located in the middle of absolutely nowhere, for a late-afternoon swim and dinner. We’ve done our fair share of camel riding in the Middle East, so we lounged in the pool and watched tourists clambering on the camels, shrieking as they were pitched forwards at the start (camels use their knees to get up and down). It was quite comedic.

Bab Al Shams Desert Resort & Spa – not too far from where we live and very, very nice


PART 2: (the weekend) We’re taking the kids away, to Ras Al Khaimah, one of the seven emirates of the UAE, for more swimming and more desert. The resort, the Banyan Tree, looks amazing and we’re staying in a ‘Bedouin-style tented villa’. It’s not a tent, I did study the website photos carefully to check, and I suspect it won’t be the ‘oasis of serenity’ it’s advertised as once we arrive. I also just found out my boss is going there this weekend.

PART 3: (the piece de resistance) Using a ‘buy one, get one free’ voucher in the Entertainer, I’ve booked a ride on a seaplane. I may yet bottle out.

Of course, no birthday is complete without cake. Baking is not my forte so I ordered one from Bakemart. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out and fully expected something like exhibit A. So was very pleased with exhibit B, despite the squashedupwriting!

Exhibit A: On facebook (from Walmart in the US)


Exhibit B: Happy birthday DH!

Blowing the diet (spectacularly)

Posted on by

Admittedly, when the climate turns hostile and you have small children, there are times when you feel like you’re in an endless spin cycle of soft play and swimming – with a turbo-charged tumble dryer blasting hot air at you the moment you step outside.

But the truth is, there’s always something new or different to do in this part of the world – you just have to get creative and keep an open mind.

Fashionistas in hats, heels and posh frocks strut their stuff at the Dubai World Cup

Dubai is renowned for pulling out the stops, and I was reminded of this again this weekend at the Meydan racecourse – a megastructure rising out of the desert, overlooking a carpet of lush green grass on which the Dubai World Cup – the “world’s richest horse race” – is held each year. With a purse of $10 million, and a dazzling array of hats, fascinators and feathers, the focus is as much on the fashion as on the horses.

We weren’t there for the races though. We were there to eat, at the Meydan Hotel’s Friday brunch – kind of like Sunday lunch transferred to a Friday, but with a lot more excess. Think gastronomic marathon with buffet stations laden with lobster, crabs, roasted meats (even Yorkshire puddings!), sushi, salads and a smorgasboard of mouth-watering desserts. To say the tables were straining under the weight of so much food isn’t far from the truth.

Sea food – and eat it! (my kind of diet)

“You don’t have to eat it all,” DH told me, as I wondered round, my eyes larger than my stomach and my brain doing a quick calculation to figure out just how much damage I could do to the diet in one meal .

But, whilst the food was amazing, there were a few other things that stood out. On pulling up outside, the sheer scale of the place is breathtaking. The mile-long building is a veritable land-scraper and, even when racing isn’t taking place, you can almost imagine the sound of pounding hooves echoing off the grandstand.

The rooftop swimming pool above the state-of-the-art grandstand and racetrack

Guests can look on from track-side, bar-side, pool-side – or from the bathroom tub in the five-star hotel. I don’t think watching the ponies could get any plusher.

Perhaps the most memorable thing, though, was the attentiveness of the staff who work there. Valet parking is common in Dubai, but at Meydan there’s an attendant for every door of your car – even to open the boot. Kids are treated like royalty (with kids’ entertainment laid on) and the waitstaff are so quick to clear your dishes (so you can move on to your seventh course) that you practically have to put your bag on your plate if you want it to still be there when you get back to your table.

So our experience was more about eating than racing, as there wasn’t a horse in sight at the $1.25 billion racecourse.

Why? Because they’ve all gone to Europe to escape the summer heat.

Midas touch for mothers

Posted on by

I’ve mentioned before that Mother’s Day can get a little confusing when you’re a bi-national family living overseas – and when Sunday is the first day of the working week.

What’s more, last weekend, we managed to take this confusion to a whole new level.

The Body Analyser scales – your fat-ratio revealed, and not gold plated

On Sunday, last week, I rushed home from work, and was greeted with flowers, chocolates – and, drum-roll, a set of digital bathroom scales! (not only do they tell me my weight to the exact decimal place, they also give information that honestly should be censored, such as BMI, fat-ratio and water (wine?) content – needless to say, I never hop on after eating and sometimes don’t drink a drop of liquid for two hours beforehand).

I digress. Last Sunday, we gave chocolates to our nanny, and made a phone call to my American DH’s (surprised) mother in Lebanon. I even wished everyone a happy Mother’s Day on my blog. It was one of those ‘feel-good’ days and we just assumed we hadn’t heard much about it because we were in the UAE and the British expatriate contingent here is larger than the American.

Then, at bedtime, the penny dropped, when a friend I’d sent a greeting to told me it was next Sunday. We’d got the day totally wrong. We were a week early – how embarrassing!

So today, it’ll be a quiet Mother’s Day for us. I’m still feeling wonderfully spoilt by last weekend’s treats and can’t eat too much with *those* scales sitting upstairs. By chance, I have the day off work and BB’s school is also closed. I may see if he’ll join me at Starbucks before going to the supermarket, then I’ve promised I’ll take him swimming.

To all my American mom friends – Happy Mother’s day, again! And, to any US moms in the UAE reading this, I have a little idea for a glamourous Mother’s day gift you could suggest if you happen to walk past the Damas jewelers store at the Dubai mall.

Matching gold iPhones and BlackBerries are also available


Yes, it really is – the world’s first 24-carat gold iPad 3, launched in Dubai and so far only shown to VIPs. But you’d better be quick – there’s only 250 of them. Your DH just has to come up with a cool $5,499!

Our ‘snow day’ in the Middle East

Posted on by

Within hours of my first son’s birth in Minneapolis, the ground started glistening as though a fairy had sprinkled dust over the entire city.

No, I wasn’t still high on the cocktail of drugs. It was the end of November and a blizzard had set in, covering everything with a blanket of thick white snow and turning the houses, with their undisturbed snowy roofs, into works of art.

We drove BB home from the hospital – very gingerly – in a snow storm and during the first two years of his life in the midwest of America, there was snow and ice on the ground for at least four months each winter.

Yet, of all this, BB remembers nothing! Despite my valiant efforts to bundle a wriggling, obstinate toddler into an all-in-one snow suit (I honestly think it would have been easier to dress an octopus) and drag him along on a sled, he has no recollection of the fluffy, white stuff.

LB has never seen real snow and so it was with great excitement that we set off last week to the top of a mountain range in Lebanon. Our goal was to build LB’s first ever snowman and so carrots were grabbed from the kitchen, jumpers stuffed into the back of the car.

I have to admit I was sceptical: it was so hot in Beirut. How could there possibly still be snow, I wondered? The temperature remained warm even as we climbed higher – our slow ascent through 1850 metres monitored by my DH and his Dad who, being pilots, checked the altitude on the car’s GPS at every opportunity.

Songs were sung, wrong turns taken, then, low and behold, we suddenly saw snowy peaks! Real snow pasted on the already-stunning scenery like icing sugar.

In Lebanon, you can surf the sea and ski all in one day! Snowballs were thrown, of course – despite the lack of gloves

The winding mountain road led us to a ski resort called Faraya, closed now for the season but beautiful nevertheless. Beautiful and cold.

Straight out of the desert in Crocs and with a constitution that means they shiver in the refrigerated section of the supermarket, the boys whined at first – but after wrapping LB in a pashmina and donating DH’s socks to BB (who knew we’d need winter clothes in the Middle East?) we set about building our snowman with cold wet hands.

A glamorous Lebanese lass climbed on a snowmobile – driven to the very edge of the snow so she wouldn’t get her bejewelled black-suede boots wet – and set off at speed clinging to her boyfriend. If she can do it, I can too, I thought – and so I hopped on the back when the boys went for a spin.

Precious memories were made, but I have to admit one of the most memorable moments was a conversation in the car on the way up:

“Have you ever seen snow before?” my mother-in-law asked the boys.

“Yes,” they replied, nodding their heads earnestly.

“Where? In England? America?” she prompted.

“Nooo. Dubai,” corrected BB, as though it was the most obvious answer and you’d be a ninny to think otherwise.

And then, “Will we see penguins on the mountain Grannie Jane?”

Ski Dubai (our ski slope in a shopping mall and home to the most-pampered penguins in the world) has a lot to answer for!

Overheard after flying (with kids)

Posted on by

Last week I was listening in on my two sons and LB’s best friend D, the cutest boy with the most beautiful white-blonde curls.

“Just look at those gorgeous curls,” I always say to his mother, as though she hasn’t noticed!

D’s dad is also a pilot and D had just returned from a trip home to see family in South Africa. We’d just got back from visiting my in-laws in Lebanon and LB and D were over the moon to see each other again.

In between discussing D’s new pirate ship, the three boys started talking about their trip. Obviously, being expat children, seeing family involves an airplane ride and it made me smile how small boys, who know no other way, view the mode of transport that takes them *home*.

BB: “I just got back from Leb-alon.”

LB: “And meeee!”

BB: “What country did you go to D?”

D: “Af-rika!”

BB: “Is that a long way?”

D: “Yes. But my daddy’s airplane went fast! Like this….whoooooosh”, pretending his fingers were an airplane and whizzing them through the air.

LB: “Whooooosh,” for effect.

BB: “But my daddy’s airplane went faster than yours,” his hand turning into a blur of motion as he illustrated high speed.

D: “No, it didn’t! My daddy’s airplane went super-fast!”

Followed by a detailed explanation from BB of the games he played on the in-flight entertainment system.

It’s a funny ole’ lifestyle sometimes, but never seems to phase little boys.

With a ‘need for speed’ already ingrained, heaven help us when they’re 16!

Wishing all my American mom friends a very happy Mother’s Day next weekend!