We got up Sunday morning and no one wanted to do so, including the big people in the house. But we had obligations so off we went.
Stuart was to go to the grand opening ceremonies of Oasis Hospital's new facilities. However, once I was home from swimming in the ever so cold pool, it was I who went to Oasis, with a child in tow. It seems just before she came home from school she visited the nurse who reported she had a low grade fever and extremely red ears. The infection was back so back to the doctor we went.
Once we saw the doctor and she actually woke up, he showed me a drawing of her ear drum and what it was doing. It seems her middle ear is where the infection is and the antibiotic last week was not strong enough to kick it, so it got worse. He said her eardrum would burst and then that would relieve the pressure. Ick!
Naturally, because she had napped, she had a difficult time going to bed on Sunday night. And then, naturally, Monday morning was equally difficult getting her out of bed.
Jack continued to work on his note cards for his project, which he was so excited about. He practiced saying what he was going to share with his classmates. He's so cute! I love seeing the kids learn new things and be excited about it.
Monday after working on his note cards for a while, Jack went to piano lessons. He told me afterwards that his teacher was very proud of the fact that he had memorized his piece for the concert. He told me she said he did a really good job. He's so easily motivated by praise. I hope we can soon instill that in Millie.
We took the kids to school on Tuesday because we had another riveting training where they told us how to teach and have no idea what we are up against every day, mainly second language learners who don't understand the textbooks because they are not appropriate for their level, yet we are still expected to use them. When we dropped the kids off I met with the principal to talk to him about an incident with Millie and how I felt her teacher handled it inappropriately.
After training I went to the mall to get Jack some long pants. I ran across some skinny jeans as well and both were relatively inexpensive. He was so excited to have a pair of jeans. He told me he had never had any jeans. And he's right. He may have had some when he was a toddler, but definitely not since we've lived here.
I also went for my last swim before the Mina Saylah Mile. The pool was a bit warmer. It seems they had just fixed the heater and it was starting to warm up, thank goodness. I felt ready for the swim but not having a side of a pool to hold onto at the end of each 25 meter lap was sure to be weird.
Once we were home from Jack's rugby practice we went to dinner with Cathy and a friend of hers. We went to Trader Vic's, a really nice restuarant at the Ronta na, a fantastic hotel in Al Ain.
On Wednesday, after school, I had to do some shopping for the week of innovation we were told we would be doing starting Novemeber 22. This was announced to us a little over a week ago. Forethought? Why? I tried to get them to charge my school and then deliver it the following day, with the promise of a check when the goods arrived, but that wasn't in the cards. Instead I had to go back the next day, take my accountant with me, and each of us had to pay for half of the materials because one individual is not allowed to buy more than a thousand dirhams worth of goods in one day. Lovely! The best part about it was that I wasn't at school much on Thursday.
Wednesday after my failure shopping trip, I took Millie to dance. I had gotten a message from her teacher telling me about 4 naughty things she had done in the day, one of which was to color in her own behavior chart. When asked about why she did that, she stated that her chart wasn't as full as the other kid's chart. Makes sense then that she would feel the need to fill it in.
Once the kids were in bed Wednesday evening I finished packing for our weekend in Dubai.
Thursday was Jack's project presentation. He wanted to dress up a bit. It's so cute that he feels the need to do this. He wants to do and look his best, clearly.
The collard shirt he first had on bugged him, so he settled for a little more casual. He said his presentation went well and all the kids got a bottle of bubbles because they did so well. Adorable!
This was right outside of the restuarant.
Millie, Henry, Jack and May all looked so sweet and were very well behaved in the restuarant.
The meal and company were too good. I'm not a huge steak fan, but everything combined had me stuffed as a turkey by the end of the evening.
We got up and went down for breakfast on Friday morning. Because the swim wasn't until Saturday morning, our plan was to just chill out at the pool all day. After breakfast Clare and I went out into the gulf to give the swimming a go. We were worried that since we had only swam in a pool we might panic on the day of the event if we didn't have a little practice in the salty water, and I'm glad we did. We were swerving all over the place. It was definitely going to be very different, but I felt as if I could do it. All I wanted to do was to swim it in under an hour.
The view of the beach.
The negative edge pool was cool and refreshing.
The kids loved the pool. Look behind them and you can see all the boats in the gulf.
The rest of the day we were in the pool, and often at the swim up bar, which may not have been the best decision as far as training for the event went, but we had a great day. We were exhausted by the time dinner rolled around. We contemplated going to the beach restuarant but then just went with room service and an early night.
Saturday morning we were up early. I wasn't going to eat because I was afraid while swimming I would feed the fish. But I changed my mind and no fish benefitted from that decision.
We were to pick up our race pack at 9 am and the race started at 9:30 am. Clare's friend who lives in Dubai, Avia, swam as well. Once we were down by the water I was nervous for sure. I knew it would take me the longest of any competitor. That didn't really bother me. I just didn't want to have to give up because I panicked or got tired.
Me and my two biggest fans.
When we got in the water and the horn blew, it was a bit manic. I just waited at the back and ended up being the second to last person to start swimming. Ironically I was also the next to last person to finish the mile.
The course was a rectangle that measured 800 meters, so we had to swim it twice. About half way around the first time people started to lap me. It was a bit discouraging, but I pressed on. The scariest thing was not being able to see anything in the water.
The most discouraging thing was when I started my second lap I had a guy in a kayak ask me if I was starting my second lap, and then not 100 meters later there was a lady on a boat, both who worked for the sponsors of the event, how many times I had been around. I said, 'I've just been around once. I know I'm slow, thank you'. At that point I mentally began to doubt myself. I almost cried. It was crazy. After my tiny pity party I pulled myself together and kept swimming, reminding myself that not everyone was doing what I was doing so it didn't matter how long it took me.
Because I was the second to last person to finish, a kayaker stayed along side of me the last 200 meters. It really helped me because I just followed him as he rowed. It made it a bit easier for sure. When I came to the end there were Millie and Jack waiting in the water for me.
I stood up in the sand but then shortly after I fell. My legs wouldn't work. It was weird but I was definitely fatigued and felt as if I had swallowed the ocean. My mouth was so salty. About 4 water bottles helped with that.
They ran with me across the finish line, bless them.
We did it!
We spent a little while in the pool and then headed to take showers and check out of our little piece of heaven for the weekend. We stopped at the outlet mall on our way back to Al Ain and had some lunch. I felt as if I had a belly of sea water, so snarling down some French fries with butter chicken on top was just what I needed.
After buying Millie and myself a dress, we left the outlet mall and headed home. Once home we unloaded the car and unpacked. Since the kids had already showered just before we left Dubai, they put their jammies on, had a sandwich and finished watching Hotel Transylvania. They were off to bed just after 6 pm and I was ready for bed as well.
Instead of bed I stayed up and watched some James Bond and Real Housewives, total trash. After a take out curry dinner it was bedtime.
Another crazy and awesome week in the UAE.
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