Shopping and Mall Of Emirates, Magic Planet

What better thing to do with boys but take them to an indoor festival centre, both Nathan and Josh raced up the rock climbing walls, and had goes on the Claw, machine arm etc etc. While off i went shopping, looking for a gift for my neice who is doing her Deb shortly.

Visting a Mosque

Went off for an adventure today, yes took mums advice went back to the lonely planet and check out things to do, so headed to the only Mosque in UAE to allow visitors.

The boys got a better understanding of the religion that drives this place and an understanding of Ramadan (which can you believe starts on josh birthday!), and they understand the consequences of eating in public during this time, they found it interesting, particularly the washing of the body before entering. I had no idea they had to wash so much of their body.
The mosque was built by the government but was gifted to them by Cairo. It is 1 10th the size and an exact replica of the mosque on the hill in Cairo, I remember going there with my Mum and Dad, it is the same, even the lanterns, just smaller.

The boys were interested in watching the emirate man pray and his stories, they just got bored with peoples questions - I think because we already know the answers about Dubai and UAE. Some twit asked the guide "did he think that women in this religion were oppressed", moron. The guide just looked at him, then said we are equal and they pray as the men do. They enjoy their customs as would you. Well handled I thought.

Wilde Wadi

Wilde Wadie Water Park And at the front enterance

Wilde all right..

Think i nearly killed myself. Well how about a dislocated shoulder, or soemhting like that, hmmm cannt move my neck much , pain shearing down my shoulder into my back, how crazy are we to try to keep up with two boys. Hang on I qued for the knee board rider. How strange not to have a boat pulling you along. U had to lean as far back as possible so the board doesnt flip from underyou and you land on your face - oh yea - thats what happened to me. Darren said it look kinda spectacular. hmmm, it dont feel it today. Sorry no photos of this one,

But here is the wave rider, i loved it. Still crazy but seem to be able to work the board better, Boys couldnt believe how long I stayed on for, what a thrill. They were off in seconds. Great fun, I think you need to know the feeling of surfing, very similar. We are so use to being pulled along by a speed boat, our balance isnt quite right for surfing.

So heres, Josh, Nath, Darren and me, giving it a go

So from there we split up, Josh wanted to ride the largest slide , we walked up, and Darren and Nath anted to ride a tube up and tube a slide, you can see Josh on teh slide and darren and nath waiting to go down the slide. .

Did you find the lizard ?

Its in the top right hand sector, look hard, it took darren and the boys a little time to find it....

Look What I Saw - by Nathan

Nathan's experiences in Dubai



Today i saw the easter bunny,heres a picture. You know that Mcdonalds across the road got robbed.





<----this was the calprite

I checked out a school but it didn't have humans??????

CAN U Find the LIZARD ???

My boys on their bikes

19/8/06 - Hatta and the Wadi

We had an adventurous day Friday. Darren days off and we were going to go to Wild Wadi, but we all have variations of the flu, so I protested. The boys had their school assessments the next day so I didn’t want them worse with the flu.

So I suggested Hatta and the real Wadi. So we headed off about 1230 lunch time. Some people go for the weekend but us Aussies like to do it all in one hit. But only approx 140 kms away.


I had never seen landscape change so vividly. It started as your usual beach sandy colour with tuffs all over the place of weed. All of a sudden, dark red sand and the dunes. Then a little further down the road, rocks and mountains came out of the ground, like dump trucks has just left a pile of boulders. Then the cliffs shot out of the ground, it looked like a meteorite had hit the ground. We were passing through part of Oman, only a small checking point sign for customs on side of road. Just kept on the highway. Then the ground turned a black colour like volcanoes dry lava. It was amazing.









Got to Hatta, it was very hot and dry, we looked about. Very quite, as everything is, during Friday, the Sabbath. Climbed a local picnic hill and got a panoramic view of the area. The kids loved this, running up and down the mountain. They had a race who could make it first, Josh ran along the stairs, round and round and down, while Nathan took a short cut straight down.








From there we set off for Wadi - the dry creek beds in the desert which have water pools in places - yes that’s it the Oasis. Darren was excited, off road and straight through desert rock and mountains, kids were watching futurama in the car and started yelling weeeeeeeee, as the car jerk up over steep inclines and plummeted down. Josh was even holding his hands up in the air like a roller coaster. I hung on, wow, what a ride.

We found the Wadi, but, one family of Indians and a couple of groups of men, Sri Lankans . It seemed we just missed the slaughter and feast of a goat cause the stomach and other bits were there and the end of one leg someone had been chewing on. Hmmm, not nice. Darren wasn’t keen to swim heer so we moved on. We drove onto the dry creek bed and traveled along for a while following the small creek. The ground was all river pebbles and boulders. I found a little spot where the creek that was running with fresh crystal clear water wide but not deep. Yet being so hot it was very refreshing. Darren said still warm, but the wind when you were out made u shiver. hmmmm very nice. I was worried about the car as we had gone over boulders and bottomed out a couple of times. But Darren being the gi-i-joe of 4wd, said no probs.





After our dip we headed back to the main road were we come across some camels ambling along the road. Lucky Darren had slowed that’s, $250,000dirhams if hit...have a look at the picture i'm sure they’re smiling. How cute – but remember they bite.


Those back along the road, passed the most amazing round-a-bout greenness grass I've seen, even at home, perfectly manicured. All the town money must go into that. Through the round-about, desert all around.




The boys wanted to stop this time at 'big red' that’s the sand dune we past on the way, and now for dune bugging - damn no credit cards available and only had 100$dirham in my pocket, enough of 1/2 hr for the boys, they loved it - josh has his number 8 yellow shirt on and Nathan travels behind with his light blue shirt on, see if you can pick them out in the photos.


Darren was bummed - next time mate. See the cars up top of big red, this is where they all come to dune bash in 4 wd. but the Hammers didn’t make it up, so they speed up and down the small ones. The boys finish just before sunsets - 7.30 after their 1 and half hrs - must be because we didn’t haggle about price. And I think the only reason they were told to return because Josh rolled his.


We head home for tea and sleep, ready for our next adventure

MY GARDEN

Yep, can you beleive it i have plenty of grass, well not as much as home, but still, cant wait till the weather allows us to play out there, place can with i
ts own BBQ, its more like a box with a grate on it for swama - grilling chicken. This is a view from our balcony, it looks out the back and down our laneway. you can see the lake at the end, quite big, we go for a walk around it takes about 30mins, walking slowly of course. Josh has already had a swim in it to get the football, the signs say no swimming

Here we are out shopping, very humid. Got conned to see Queen one night, paid a fortune only to fid out it was a cover band from Queensland, Aussieland, can u beleive it, kids enjoyed it though, we got up and sang and danced.

Settled in Dubai

Sorry, been taking time to work out msn, skype and other internet stuff and forgot to work on my adventure - or have i been having an adventure while working everthing out. Well were was I, hmm so much to cover. Still handling the heat, wow its so different it never lets up even at night. but we are getting use to it, opeing the door for fresh air and turning the aircon down to adapt, i think its working - yea right, we just dont go out much. Went ot the beach and took some photos just to say we are here . The Water is clear as crystal, but warm like a bath. not refreshing but very salty. Plenty of small pretty shells. The boys got too hot just standing there.







I had to have a picture at Burj Al Arab, just to say i am here. boys are sitting in the car with air con on had to kid josh to take the photo.

Oh this is Sasha who is currently living with my sister=in-law and her boys, we miss her madly and have a little tear now and again, but we know she is safe and well and happy, ant wait to get home to snug her.