Another week, another dirham

I got up Sunday morning and walked with Lara. We said goodbye for good to our dear Mr Clarke. Millie was sad, butlooked forward to meeting her new teacher, Mr. Milnes. We all were curious about him. He was due into school on Wednesday. 

After school Lara went with me to McGettigans,the venue where we were having the Rugby Ball on Friday. We needed to check to make sure everything was set for decorating. 

On the way home, we stopped at the vegetable stand close to the Village. I decided to get okra to fry for Jack. He had been at Lara’s a few days before and she was frying okra. He had a taste and seemed to fall in love. The plan was to fry it up the following night. 

I got home and Cathy came over to help me make decorations for the ball. We made paper chains that looked like tickets for a ride. They were cute, but quite time consuming. 

Sean came over for strategic planning regarding the rugby committee for the 2019-2020 season. Our Annual General Meeting is on May 2, wherewe vote in the committee for the following season.  We all have to reapply for our current positions. 

Millie went to bed at 7 pm, but wouldn’t go to sleep. She just kept saying things from upstairs. At 8:45 she said she had a nightmare.  I informed her that you can’t have a nightmare when you are wide awake.  She finally went to sleep. 

However, when Stuart went up to bed, she must have woken and came in to bother him. She was told she would go to bed especially early on Monday evening. 

Monday morning we got to school and the day began. Nothing monumental happened, but we did have a meeting at the end of the day about our last House competition at school. Since it will be Ramadan, we can’t have any music for the competition, nor food. 

I left just after the meeting. When we got home, I started in on folding laundry. Then I went to work on cutting up mangoes and kiwis. I then made dinner for the kids, which included fried okra. After dinner was fixed, I made three batches of banana bread. While that was baking, I ironed two outfits for work. I was such a productive domestic goddess. 

The during. 

The finished product. In the end, Jack didn’t like the okra. He said, ‘Mom, I don’t mean to hurt your feelings, but I don’t like this stuff.’ So that was the end of that. I, on the other hand, loved it. 

The beginning. 

Stuart went to the club for a bit. Millie went to sleep, as promised, at 6 pm. She actually stayed in bed and went to sleep. Jack was off to bed around 8 pm and I took a well-deserved shower and proceeded to lay on the sofa for my evening of television indulgence. I actually went to bed at 9:30 pm. But due to the fact that I don’t need a great deal of sleep, I was awake at 3 am and didn’t really go back to sleep. Ugh!

Tuesday morning we didn’t walk because Lara did something to her foot and I don’t like to walk alone. It’s too difficult to do so with both dogs. 

I picked up Alice and Tommy for school because Joan had a couse in Dubai on Tuesday and Wednesday. We got to school in time for swim squad. Tommy and Jack were dropped off at the senior school, while the girls and I proceeded to the junior school. 

It was a good day, busy but good. I freaked out when the Head of Academics was covering for one of my teammates and asked me what I was doing in maths. I told her that although I was teaching the concept, I wasn’t doing the activity that was outlined in the plans. She came around later and asked me if I was having math on Thursday morning after the assembly. After panicking that I was being observed again, it was finally revealed to me that someone was coming for ateaching interview  and they were using my children as the class for the lesson. Whew!

At the end of the day, I took Millie to dance, as the girl she normally goes with was sick. I had a chat with one of the moms from dance. We were looking at some new classes for the girls next year. 

When Millie finished her class, we headed to pick Jack up from the birthday party he was attending at Bounce. When we got home, McDonalds was delivered. You heard that right. Gotta love a country where McDonalds delivers. 

Cathy and Lara came over to help me finish the paper chains, and really for a chat. Lara sewed my fabric together as well. 

Wednesday school was uneventful. That evening we had to go to the club for a committee meeting. Then Lara came over to tell me about her foot issue. It seems she sprained it walking down her stairs on Sunday after we walked. Strange. 

Thursday after school we went to the mall to get Stuart   a birthday gift. Once we were home and the gifts were wrapped, we headed to the Club for coaches appreciation. I had decided it couldn’t be a late night as I had to get a lot done the following day for the ball. 

Stuart opened his presents as soon as Millie woke up. We ate cinnamon rolls and the I was off to the venue. Brain and Cathy came with me Friday morning to hang the swag from the posts in the beer garden. It only took about an hour. Once we were back home, I took a shower and got ready to go to the salon to have a mani/pedi and have my hair done. 

Why does the back of my hair look so great, yet I don’t get to enjoy the view. Shame. 

While I was getting gorgeous, Stuart took Jack to a sleepover birthday party. That would mean that Millie would stay with Claire Friday evening. She was totally fine with having Claire’s attention allto herself. 

I got home just in time for my make-up to be done by a teacher here. I always freak out a bit when I have my make-up done as I think it makes me look older. But she does an amazing job. 

I tried to go for a bit of a Send in the Clowns look, because the theme of the ball was Under the Big Top. 

Once my make-up was finished, I got dressed and headed to McGettigans to finish decorating. The wind had kicked up during the day, but in the end the decorations withstood the wind. The entire evening was a total blast. We didn’t get home until almost 1 am, but the lack of sleep was worth all the laughs. 

Me and the birthday boy. I told him I was throwing him a BIG birthday party. Ha!

Lara, Leanne (who decided at the last minute to come to the ball), Cathy, and me. 

My man and my girls!

Saturday morning we got up and had breakfast. We picked Jack up from his sleepover at 10 am. Then we headed out to clean up the party decorations. I threw everything in my boot and decided I would sort it out later. 

I lazed around for the rest of the day. I couldn’t be bothered to get off the sofa. Around 5:30 pm Cathy picked us up and we headed to a new restaurant called Off the Hook. We had heard great things about it. It did not disappoint. It was a wonderful concept and the food was amazing. This was our celebration of Stuart’s birthday. Sean and his daughter Carly came, as did Cathy and Claire. We were with the people we love the most. It was a great birthday weekend. 

We picked our sauce and it was seafood in a bag. We ate with plastic gloves and bibs. We will definitely visit this place again. 

The kids went to bed shortly after we got home from dinner. We were all tired and were trying to gear up for our last week of regular hours. Ramadan starts in another week and our hours go from 9 hour days to 6 hour days. It’s the law in a Muslim country, and I love it!

Term 3 has begun

I got up to walk on Sunday morning only to see it was raining. So back to bed I went for another hour. It had rained most of the night, so the first day back to school would prove to be a bit scattered. I had difficulty getting into the groove of things. I wasn’t terribly motivated. 

Lara and I decided to walk after school, but the wind and sand were too much. So instead I had a cup of tea with Cathy. She had come over for Stuart to help her with her new employee pack for Brighton. Jack went out to play with his friends while Millie played upstairs. 

I wasn’t very hungry, and since I have started to feel a bit like sausage in a casing, I felt I could afford to go easy on dinner. I ironed some clothes for the rest of the week and then went to the store to get the kids some meat pastries and Stuart some cheese. When I returned, Mary Poppins was in full swing due to Stuart’s desire to watch it.  I ended my evening with a bag of popcorn. 

Monday I spent a great deal of time making sure I knew what my lessons needed to be for the term. It was a good working day. I went to see Walid about getting us in a new house by June 15. He said he would do his best. 

When I left school, I met Stuart at a house to look at it. It was WAY too big for us. In fact, it was a house that was built as two separate houses, and it was a wreck. It still amazes me how they show these homes. They are never done up like they would be at home. They are frankly, often, something I would never consider living in. However, once a contract is written on a home, it’s amazing how it transforms into something livable. 

We got home and went out again to house search. Once we were home for good, the kids showered and ate dinner. Stuart and I vegged on the sofas for the rest of the evening. 

I was going to get up on Tuesday morning to walk, but I slept so crappy I decided to give it a miss. Once at school I decided I would meet Lara after Millie’s dance class and walk then. 

We took our classes to the supermarket for a school trip. We practiced our skills with money as well as selected healthy food. It was so fun. We had a picnic once we returned to school with the food we bought. After school we had our normal Tuesday staff briefing. It was over around 4 pm. Stuart had picked Jack up from school and Millie had gone with her friend Orla for her dance classes. 

I met Stuart to look at more houses. We found one we liked, but it’s more expensive than our housing allowance. We shall see what our finance guy at school can negotiate. 

I then headed to dance to see Millie before she went into her second class. I brought her some chips but arrived just as she was going back into the studio so she wasn’t able to eat them. 

Once dance was over, we headed home. Stuart had ordered McDonalds for everyone. The kids ate, showered and I headed out to walk with Lara.  Once I was home, I showered and called it a night. 

Wednesday I got up and walked with Lara. We have decided we had better get our bodies into some sort of shape before we start heading to the pool everyday. It’s heating up fast here and it won’t be long until the pool will be the only place we will be able to get relief. 

At school we started our theme work of Under the Sea. We sketched fish, fish printed fish, and dissected those same fish. It was WAY more fun than I had anticipated. However, it was quite difficult to get the smell of fish out of my nose. Ick!

The eye was very difficult to get out of the fish’s eye socket. 

After school we headed to the club. The kids played and we met up with some friends. We got home around  8 pm. The kids showered and went to bed, but not without a bit of whinging. They don’t know a good thing when they’ve got it. Lara and Brian came over for a chat and we sat in our carport that we have made into a front porch. We solved all the problems of the world. Lara and I decided since we had a late night, we wouldn’t get up to walk Thursday morning. 

School on Thursday went quickly, thank goodness. We started the day with our House competition. This was Millie’s teacher’s last day. She wanted to buy him some chocolate and a rose, so we had stopped the previous evening to purchase those things. 

Once school was over, we headed home and got ready for the rugby prize giving at the club. It was for all youth and adult teams. It was to start at 5 pm and conclude at 8 pm. I was the MC for the event, which seems to be my lot in life recently. I’m told they think my voice is easy for people from all over the world to understand. I think it’s just that they can’t find another sucker to do it. At the prize giving Lara walked our Under the Big Top Rugby Ball clipboard around to sign people up. Fortunately, we got enough signed up to assure the ball was a go. Whew!

Hannah, me and Sean were just waiting for the party to begin. 

Jacks team. 

Jack, himself. 

The community team was represented well. 

My favorite community player. 

Once the prize giving was over, we brought the kids home and went to Millie’s teacher’s leaving party. We ended up not getting home until 1 am. This made it more difficult to get up and go to church but we managed. 

After church we went grocery shopping and Stuart made us a beautiful lamb dinner. Cathy was over and after the kids went to bed we watched Graham Norton. He’s a talk show host from the UK. He is hilarious. We spent two hours watching different clips on YouTube. 

Saturday morning I went to get the material for the swags to decorate the beer garden when the ball was to be held. We went to the club to get some other things we needed to decorate for the ball. Once home, I started prepping lunches for the following week. I had some lunch and Stuart and I watched movies. We seem to do a great deal of movie watching these days. 

Jack played out most of the day since he was still grounded from his PS4. Millie convinced us that if she stayed in her pjs all day long then she wouldn’t need a shower that evening. Fine by me. 

She ended up not holding up her end of the bargain, but she only went outside for about 10 minutes. 

The rest of the day was pretty chilled. We had dinner, Jack showered, and then the kids went to bed. Cathy came over and we ordered from the Schwarma Shack. It was delicious. We called it a night around 9 pm. One week down, another 11 to go. 

The second week of break

Sunday Stuart didn’t have to be into work until 8:30. I got up shortly after he did and we had coffee together. He left for work just before 8. The kids and I did absolutely nothing until the afternoon. Jack, sadly, chose to slap his sister across the stomach. Therefore he lost the privilege of his PS4 for the remainder of the day. This forced both kids to play outside, which is always a good thing, especially since the summer is just around the corner and being outside will be out of the question. 

When Stuart got home from school we watched three very silly movies with Will Ferrell. I had decided to be domestic that morning and put white bean, chicken chili in the crock pot for dinner. 

We got up Monday and headed to Dubai. My friend Hannah was supposed to come but she had to work and couldn’t. The kids went skiing/snowboarding, and Stuart skied with them. He took pictures and videos, which is fun for them and for me to see. While they were in the snow, I went to find decorations for the Rugby Ball. 

Jack had fallen snowboarding. He hit his head and was brought down from the slopes by the paramedics. He was fine, but sometimes it’s hard to tell how much he really hurts or is putting on an act. When he said, ‘I can’t remember what happened,’ I knew he was milking it a bit. 

After the kids finished in the snow we got food from the food court and headed home. Millie spilled her Coke on the floor of the car. Why was it down there? Don’t know. 

Once we were home the kids went off to play and Stuart called him mum. He then left for rugby training. I watched my new obsession, Gossip Girl, while the kids showered and ate dinner. Stuart got home just before Jack went to bed. We watched some tv and then Stuart went to bed. He was going to have to go to work on Tuesday. 

When I got up on Tuesday morning Stuart informed me that Luna was on the front porch when he got up. He heard her meowing. What? Apparently she had jumped out of the bathroom window and knocked out the screen. She was ready to go back and be the club cat. We were ready for her to do that as well. 

Although Luna wasn’t as psycho with the other animals on her last night, we still couldn’t justify upsetting the three faithful pets for the new, obnoxious one. 

Millie and I returned the cat to the club, and then stopped at the store to get eggs so we could make brownies. Millie has become quite the little helper recently. 

Once he brownies were in the oven, I cleaned up after Luna, putting away her food bowl, litter tray and cage, and then sat down for some coffee. When Stuart got home from school, he played on the PS4 . Jack ate lunch on his PS4 break. 

We had potential new rugby committee members over on Tuesday evening to talk about this next year’s committee. Sometimes we are living in a real life soap opera. When your community is so small, as our expat community is, it gets a bit like a small town. It seems everyone knows everything about everyone’s personal business and they are not afraid to share it. 

Wednesday morning we were up and at the rugby club pool. We met up with Rochelle and her kids. Jacks friend Adam came with us as well. You know how your kids have one friend that is always causing some kind of drama? That is who Adam is to Jack. He’s a nice boy, but terribly sensitive. Once he was collected by his mom, all of the other kids were fine and played lovely together. Jack continued to bother me about getting a vochure for his PS4 and finally was denied the privilege of having access to his PS4 for two weeks. He just doesn’t know when to stop badgering me. 

We ate lunch down by the pool and then I had a meeting regarding the Athletics Day that was to take place on Friday. It was the first one we had done and we ended up having over 100 children sign up. It was sure to be a great day. 

When I got home Wednesday evening, we all showered and chilled for the rest of the evening. Stuart had training but got home around 8:30 pm. 

Thursday Stuart wasn’t going to go to work, but in the end decided he needed to in order to get something things copied for tests that were to be administered on Sunday. He wasn’t away long. When he returned we went to the supermarket to buy some snacks for Lara and Brian’s that evening. We were celebrating Brian’s birthday. We headed over there around 6 pm and didn’t return until midnight. It was a great evening with great friends. 

Friday morning we were up and at the club for the Athletics Day at 8 am. All of my volunteers showed up and it was a day of new experiences for some children. We had 8 different stations and at each we had volunteers that helped coach the children through what they needed to do. Everyone got to practice and then had a go at the competition. We had everyone in age groups and let the genders compete with each other. It was amazing! All the parents were so complementary and said they couldn’t wait until the next one. 

We got home around 3:30 pm. We all three showered and sat down to watch a movie. Jack fell asleep on the floor around 5:30 pm. I made dinner for the kids and woke him up to eat. Stuart had gone to play in his last rugby tournament of the year in Dubai. He got home just before Jack went to bed. It was a long, yet wonderful day. Jack got second place overall and Millie, well, she just had fun. 

Relay running. 

Saturday morning we got up and took Jack to the rugby club to hope on a van and go to Dubai for a birthday party. They were going to IMG World, an amusement park. 

There were ten boys and two adults. They seemed to have a great time. They didn’t return until almost 8 pm. No telling how grumpy my boy will be getting up for his first day of school in two weeks on Sunday. Experiences surpass the need for sleep I suppose. 

While Jack was gone, Millie, Stuart and I watched Mary Poppins Returns, again. I watched less than they did as the maintenance guy came around to service some of our air conditioning units. This time of year, after all the sand has invaded each home, the units need a good clean. He seemed to take forever, but at least two of the three units he worked on are working better. 

Once he had left Stuart and I watched The Favourite. It was about Queen Anne. It was interesting, and mostly entertaining, but a bit dark, I must admit. Stuart made shepherds pie for dinner, which is one of my favorites. Millie simply had mashed potatoes and green beans. Then at the supermarket today we found some beautiful strawberries, so we had strawberries and cream to finish off the day. 

Once Jack was home, he was up for a shower and bed. Stuart and I watched Superman vs Batman and then called it a night. The evening ended with the sound of rain. It had started raining earlier in the day. This poor desert hasn’t seen a great deal of rain, although they cloud seed in this part of the world. It was a welcome change for sure. It also dropped the temperature a great deal, which was nice as well. 

Holiday! Celebrate!

Since it was officially spring break and we had a week off, we headed to Um Al Quain, another emirate, for a day at Dreamland. The weather was perfect. It wasn’t too hot, nor too cool. It wouldn’t last long, though. All too soon it will be hitting the 110 degree mark. 

The Karniks, Telfords and Cathy. 

Once we had enough sun, we went back to our hotel. We had decided to stay a couple of night. We went to have pizza at the restaurant attached to the hotel. It was quite delicious. 

Jack spent the night in the Karnik boys’ room, but ended up back in our room at 4 am. Cathy was on the sofa bed and woke up to let him in. Seems he woke up and the television was on and a scary movie was playing, so he was a bit scared. And, waking Cathy up was a bit dreadful, but she’s the one who decided not to get her own room and stay on the sofa in ours. I did feel bad, but I got over it and it didn’t seem to bother her. 

We got up for breakfast at Aquarius. It was a continental breakfast so it wasn’t anything fancy. The food was okay. Millie wasn’t feeling so hot and had a fever in the night but we didn’t bring any Tylenol liquid. She tried to take a half of an adult pill, but there was drama, so Stuart crushed a pill into honey. She loved that and soon perked up. 

We sat on our porch most of the rest of the morning. Millie got her swimmers on but the boys were all up in the Karnik’s room. Jack finally came to swim, and the others followed shortly. 

Lara and Brian came downstairs just after noon. We had some snacks on the porch while the kids swam. Our neighbors, Alex and Jenny, had spent the night on Sunday and decided to stay on Monday night as well. They headed off to get food for the bar b que that would ensue a bit later in the day. 

We were down close to the water. This particular place didn’t have a beach, but it was a retention wall that separated us from the water. We had corn on the cob, fresh off the grill. We had chicken and lamb skewers, potatoes, and burgers. The night ended with roasted marshmallows. Yummy!

Tuesday morning we were up for breakfast. We then packed and headed for home. We stopped in Dubai at Dragon Mart, the mall that has everything you never knew you needed. We ate lunch after a bit of shopping.  We finally got home around 3 pm. We unpacked and got laundry started. Our house cleaner had stayed with the animals and also cleaned our house while we were in Um Al Quain. We chilled for the rest of the day. Stuart made pork belly and mashed potatoes for dinner and we headed to bed. 

We were up and gone from the house by 10 am Wednesday morning. The kids were staying with Claire and we were heading to Fujeriah for a fishing trip with Reel Adventure, Brian’s fishing company. 

We got to Fujeriah before the Karniks.  We went to the mall and had a bite to eat before meeting up with Brian and Lara at the hotel. Cathy had come with us and we brought her car, since we had driven to Um Al Quain. 

Once we got to the hotel, it was decided that the girls would go to the Sailor’s Club, while the boys got the boat in the water and took a run on it. 

When the men returned we had dinner. A fellow fisherman had caught some fish that day and had the restaurant prepare it. The seared tuna and sashimi were shared with us. I prayed we actually caught some fish the following day so we could eat our own catch. After dinner we walked down by the water to look at the boats. We were back at the hotel just before 11 and decided to call it a night as we would be on the boat by 6 am Thursday morning. 

The roads in Fujeriah are an absolute mess. It tools us about 15 minutes longer than it should have to get down to the dock on Thursday morning. We stopped to get ice and get Subway sandwiches for the boat. The ice would go in the hold in order to keep all the fish we caught nice and fresh. 

The Subway run!

The bait fish were delivered. 

The ride out into the Arabian Sea was about 25 miles. Lara and I decided to start sunning our bodies. That proved to be a bad idea 8 hours later, even though we reapplied sunscreen. 

The entire crew. 

The captain!

And although we gave it our all, we didn’t catch one single fish. But we did see an amazing pod of dolphins. So not all was lost, and we enjoyed being with friends out on the water. 

God’s glorious imagination with these creatures truly amazes me. 

After many hours, no fish, fantastic dolphin sighting, burnt bodies, and a lot of laughs, we were off the boat and back in the car for the journey home. Once we were home we started unpacking and doing laundry. I changed our bed as Claire and Ashley had slept in it the  previous night. After a shower and a lot of lotion on my legs, I settled in for a little nap on the sofa. 

Friday morning we went to the vet to pick up this little girl. She has been hanging around the rugby club for several months now. We think she and her kitty siblings were dumped there by someone who didn’t want them. There is a huge problem in this country with stray cats. People don’t get their animals sterilized so there is a constant flow of kittens all over the place. Well, this little one came up pregnant. Our vet takes strays and sterilizes them for half price, and of course we felt obligated to have her fixed. Unfortunately, this meant euthanizing the kittens, which were not at full term anyway. It sounds awful that we would do that, but the municipality traps these cats and only the good Lord knows what they do with them. So we tried to do our part and at least help this mama. 

Her name is Luna and we are hoping she will be able to go back to the club and be the club cat. As long as we can convince the patrons that she has been fixed and vaccinated, and is actually helping to keep away rodents, she will be fine. The lady who owns the clinic, Nadia, is putting together a proposal for the entire resort to consider doing a sterilization campaign with all the cats in the resort (golf club, rugby club, equestrian club, and shooting club). Then reintroduce them with a feeding station away from where humans eat. Hopefully this will be a solution. 

Luna wasn’t exactly a fan of the dogs. 

And Pumpkin bitch slapped Luna. They may not be the best of friends either. It will be best if we can return her to the club in a few days. 

I may have gotten caught in the cross fire. Ouch!

We put her in the front bathroom for the night. She had food, a towel to lay on, a litter tray and water. When I got up Saturday morning, the bathroom wasn’t exactly tidy, but she was still alive and she had used the litter tray. Cats are so easy. 

Luna stayed on the sofa most of the morning. Stuart went to get a tire of mine patched as it had a nail in it. He was then informed that all of my tires are a year older than my car. Huh? This country is terribly shady at times. At any rate, the garage told him I would need new tires in the next 6 months as mine we cracking because of the heat. Lovely!

Before he returned I brought the kids to Bounce for a couple of hours. In about a month we will be coming here a lot as it will be Ramadan. They run good specials during the month and we get bored because there is little to do during Ramadan. It’s hot and everything is closed early. We will only be in school from 8 am to 1:30 pm, so we will have a lot of ‘home time’, which can be a bit maddening. 

Once we were home from Bounce, the kids played on their devices and Stuart and I watched television. Sean came over later in the afternoon but left before we ordered food from 101 restaurant, one of the cheapest and best Arabic restaurants. Cathy had come over and we decided to watch Mary Poppins Returns. 

We paused the movie for about 30 minutes so we could Skype Clare and Scott Richardsons in the UK. We needed to schedule our ferry crossing for the summer. We have rented a camper van for our time in the UK and we are going to see our friends Gemma and Fechin in Ireland in August. We are so excited. 

Once our conversation was finished we finished watching the movie. Millie and Jack stayed up until 10 pm. Jack hadn’t watched Mary Poppins, but Millie did. Cathy left after the movie and it was bed time. It was a wonderful week and the kids and I looked forward to another week of nothingness!