We had Sunday off from school to celebrate the prophet's birthday. We got up to take my car to the Kia service station. It seems they want to service it in the first 1000 kilometers and then every 5000 after that. The place we take it looks like it is where all crap cars go to die; always super crowded and wrecked cars all over the place. When we got there they told me they couldn't take it in because they already had all the cars they could possibly service that day. Okay then.
We went to collect Cathy and her girls. Cathy had gotten up earlier than we had and delivered her car to Kia. She would need a ride back to her car at some stage so we picked them up to go to Bawadi Mall. We were in search of picture wire. The down side of decorating a place from nothing is that you have to buy silly things like picture wire.
We ate lunch and then took Jack to the inner tube slide instead of Fun City. He had a great time. Millie played on the indoor playground and everyone was happy. We shopped a bit for nothing in particular then headed back to Kia to take Cathy and the girls to their car. By the time we got home, bathed the kids and fed them, it was time for bed.
Monday was extremely uneventful, which was nice. Both kids were sound asleep before 7 pm. It was great. However, since the time we started our December break, Stuart and I have not really returned to a sensible bed time. Monday night was no different. Midnight was the time we finally decided to hit the hay. I function relatively well on 5 hours, but from the snoring I heard on Tuesday afternoon around 3 pm, I can only ascertain that Stuart doesn't function well on that little of sleep.
Tuesday evening Jack, Millie and Stuart headed to the Rugby Club for Jack's team practice. They wear their kits to practice, which I think is great. They don't have that many matches so having them wear the kit to practice to get good use out of is a great idea if you ask me.
Wednesday was by far the longesti day I have had at work. We got up early so that we could get my car to the maintenance shop and have the oil changed. Stuart just happened to have a meeting in town and it didn't start until 8:30 am. So he was able to pick me up and drop me at school as well as pick me up from school to take me back to get the car. After I picked up the car I headed back to school. Our parent-teacher conference started at 4 pm and went until 7 pm.
In my 21 years in education I have sat in on multiple parent- teacher conferences, but none have been quite like this. It was a little slow at first, but when it did pick up it was manic. In Arizona we assigned time slots and apparently people just knew to stay outside of the classroom while you were talking to another parent. It's a big festival here. It appears that no one cares who is in the room when a teacher is speaking about their child's progress, but I suspect what seems to be the case is not, at all. I believe we are trying to change that process so that there is a little more privacy. Mind you, on more than one occasion having several parents in the room served me well. Some of my parents needed others to translate for them. All of the parents that come to see me told me their daughter loved me. Whether it was true or not, I loved hearing it. I had about 17 of my 47 show up, which I think is pretty good. Parent teacher conferences is a relatively new concept here and it will take some time for everyone to get used to these conferences being an expectation. All of the parents I met with were very concerned about their child's progress.
When conferences were almost over, our Head of Faculty came in and said that our grades were really low, that some of our students who most likely are A/B students were failing. I couldn't believe it. After 3 hours at school that evening, trying to manipulate grades and figure out the problem, I headed home at 10 pm, a little defeated. It turns out there is a glitch in the program and they are going to work to get it sorted out before we ha out grades. Unfortunately someone at Stuart's school didn't get the memo and passed out the grades, screwed up and all. Needless to say he had some students upset. He dreads going to school on Sunday because of potential parent reaction. Hopefully things can be sorted out quickly.
Thursday evening, after a long week, even though it was only four days, we headed to the Rugby Club for dinner. We made an early evening of it because I headed to Abu Dhabi to spend the day with Gina on Friday. We have not had a girl's day since before Gina came to the UAE.
Gina had a Groupon for a day at Traders, a hotel with a private beach. So we ate lunch at the restaurant at the beach and then laid on lounge chairs for hours on end. I think we were there over 4 hours, just talking and laughing and catching up, with no interruptions. It was wonderful. 
Right across the water is the new Ritz Carlton. We just dreamed of what they were doing on that beach.
We shopped in the late afternoon, had dinner at a place called The One, which was a combined furniture/home store and restaurant. Needless to say there were some things I had to have for our apartment. We closed the place down and were finally back at Gina's apartment just before 11 pm. Below is the view from Gina's place at night. She overlooks the Grand Palace Hotel and the new palace is being built just to the left of the hotel. 
We stayed up talking until super late. We ended up calling a mutual friend (Sherry Bollard) who was at school. It was so fun! I have magic jack and can call anyone with a 480 prefix. So it definitely came in handy on Friday.
Saturday morning I woke up just before 8 all on my own. It was weird not having a small child crawling I to bed or yelling 'Mama' from his/her room so that I can come in and get him/her althought both are quite capable of finding their way out of their bed and room.
I headed home just before 10 am. When I got home the kids ate lunch and went down for a nap because we were having dinner with our Irish friends (Gemma, Fechen, Oscar and Astrid) on Satyrday evening. When Jack got up from his nap he wanted to go out and ride his bike without the back 'little' wheels. Stuart made his wishes come true and it wasn't 10 minutes until Jack was back in the house, pouting just a bit. It seems Jack has a little more 'Pennell' in him than I really want to admit. If he can't do it right the first time he doesn't want to do it at all. That was the scene out in the yard with Jack and his bike. I suppose one day he will just get on with no training wheels and go. Until then we do a great deal of coaching. Ugh!
Saturday evening we spent time with Fechen, Gemma and their kids. We have made some wonderful friends here, and as I continue to say.... this is the best decision we have made for our family, our marriage, and our future. We are still very happy we came inspite of some of the frustration.
Low to everyone,
Stuart, Dana, Jack and Millie
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