Tag Archives: 40th birthday

Watching the sun set on my 30s

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Along with seeing dear friends again, one of the things I was really looking forward to in Minneapolis was visiting all my favourite lakes.

I quickly realised, though, that my excitement hadn’t worn off on BB. “Not another lake,” he’d yawn, rolling his eyes at us and letting out a sigh as long as the Mississippi. “They’re bor-ing!”

“Get over it, BB!” we’d reply. “There are 10,000 lakes in this state and if you continue to complain, we’ll take you to EVERY.SINGLE.ONE!”

His little brother, meanwhile, revealed to us that he hadn’t quite grasped the concept of a scenic lake surrounded by nature with no belly-dancing fountains on it.

“Is it indoors or outdoors?” he’d enquire – seemingly satisfied with the answer at least.

As our holiday progressed, the boys did start to appreciate the natural beauty more, especially once they discovered they could kayak, ride pedalos and learn to fish – and they were definitely won over by my favourite lake of all: Lake Superior.

Does this look like a lake to you?

I love America’s Great Lakes. So much so that I couldn’t imagine a nicer place on Earth to celebrate my big birthday. Though to call Lake Superior a lake is surely the biggest under-statement there is. Like calling the Burj Khalifa a high-rise, or the Himalayas a series of hills.

I know I’m really very British – and grew up thinking the English Channel was to be feared – but isn’t a body of water that measures nearly 350 miles from tip to tip and has 350 shipwrecks, tempestuous storms and numerous lighthouses more of a sea than a lake?

The three quadrillion (3,000,000,000,000,000) gallons the lake contains would cover all of Canada, the US, Mexico and South America with one foot of water. Seriously impressive, don’t you think?

Having taken a little jaunt up the North Shore by car and train, what better way to experience the vastness of the lake than by boat. A ‘pizza boat’ to be precise.

Queuing up beside the vessel (bobbing about in surprisingly choppy water, and that was just the harbour), I was astonished to see women in floaty, chiffon dresses and heels with smartly dressed partners. They were led to the lower deck, however, for a more slap-up meal, while we – the pizza eaters (aka families with small children) – were herded to the busy, upper decks for a Pizza Hut-on-sea buffet.

Actually, I think it was Domino’s, as we saw the delivery van speeding off from the port, and the sunset cruise was unexpectedly wonderful. As it was my birthday mini-break, DH chased the boys up and down the decks and stopped them falling overboard, while I gazed out over the water and reflected on the fact that the sun had set on my 30s.

Very special – despite the soggy pizza and the fact I swear the boat lurched as fellow hungry passengers stampeded like elephants over to the buffet.

Dedicated to @Circles in the Sky (DH): Thank you for an amazing, eye-opening decade xx

Stand back: As befits the mother of two small boys, my American birthday involved planes, trains, boats and stone-throwing

Reflective mood: Learning to leave my 30s – but I hear 40 is the new 30?

The birthday week

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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!

Happy 40th birthday UAE!

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Today was National Day, the 2 December anniversary of the creation of the UAE – and a big birthday, too, as this year the UAE turned 40.

I can sympathise as mine is just round the corner, although compared to a soon-to-be 40 mum wondering whether I should be having a mid-life crisis, a 40-year-old nation sounds like a spring chicken.

This is actually someone's house! The photo is from last year, but we saw a quite a few villas just like this today while driving down Jumeirah Beach Road

BB came home from school this week waving a flag, the Emiratis decorated their cars and put lights up, and the Thursday before National Day was declared a public holiday for the Islamic New Year, making it a long weekend.

The parades, including a Ferrari and classic car parade, the fireworks, the shows, the Dubai Fountain dancing to the UAE National Anthem, the flags on cars, hot-air balloons and the Sheikh reading poetry on the radio combined to create an electrifying buzz.

Both boys enjoyed celebrations at school and nursery earlier in the week. The Arabic department at BB’s school requested that the kids wear national dress on Tuesday, leaving us mums scratching our heads over where to buy an abaya or dishdash small enough, but this was quickly followed by an email saying national colours would do.

LB’s nursery put on a lovely morning of activities that I went to with high expectations as they’d advertised among other things mosque-decorating and a dhow (traditional sailing vessel) to climb on board – they really pushed the boat out (excuse the pun!) and I wasn’t disappointed.

National Day is never entirely smooth, however – a number of young drivers always go a little crazy and indulge in stunt driving, such as driving on two wheels, which led to the impoundment of 440 cars during last year’s celebrations.

This year, the prize for the best-dressed vehicle went to an Emirati business woman who spent 162,000dhs on decorating her car with 150,000 individual Swarovski crystals – here she is showing her bling BMW to the media.

But my favourite National Day story is still my boss’ tale from last year, because it sums up perfectly the kind of exotic pets the wealthy Emiratis can afford to own. He took his kids down to Beach Rd for a ‘cultural experience’ and, amid all the spray foam and silly string, they spotted a funny-looking dog in the back of a car. Closer inspection revealed it wasn’t a dog – but a lion (not fully grown, but even so!).