As the day progressed we found ourselves being totally lazy. Millie had pot noodles for supper and then pitched an absolute fit about going up to take a shower. This episode ended her in bed a half hour earlier than normal. I’m hoping she’s growing and is cranky because of that. I need this to be something that will pass, for sure. It seems to happen at least a couple of nights a week. Once Millie was in bed, Stuart and I watched television and then he went to bed and left me alone with my programs. I love watching Netflix when everyone is in bed.
I decided that I needed to get a bit more serious about getting these few pounds off that I have gathered over the last year. So Monday morning I got up to walk, even though Lara and I only walk on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Lara, as I may have mentioned, isn’t the most aggressive walker. Therefore, socializing is the main reason I walk with her in the mornings. So I’ve decided I will get up the other two days of the week and run a mile, then walk two miles....with the dogs. Well, a dog started barking on our walk and scared Duke into my legs. He’s really big enough to knock me off my feet. Fortunately, I side stepped him without any damage to either of us. After my workout Monday morning, I got ready for school. When I got to school, Jack came running to me and hugging me. He’d spent one whole night away from me. He truly is a Mama’s boy!
After school I dropped Millie for a play date at a huge Emirati’s house. Her friend Shahad is in her class. It’s typical for the local people to invite expats to their houses during Ramadan. I’m not sure of the significance. I hope it doesn’t fulfill the pillar of Islam of charity, although I assume we would qualify for charity compared to some of the local people. I went to the pool and got into it with one of the lifeguards. They have taken our large pool and decided to make it an exclusive lap pool. It’s so stupid. We’ve always had three lanes and then the rest of the pool has been for everyone else to play in. Now they move lane ropes and try to tell everyone where they need to swim. This lifeguard moved the lane rope because he didn’t like that I chose where I wanted to swim rather than where he told me to swim. There was no one in the double lane and Jack wanted to swim with me, so I moved to the double lane to swim with Jack. After a lap I realized what was going on. His wife and son were coming to swim. He was making it convenient for them. They do triathlons. Once I pointed out that now I understood what he was doing he told me he would no longer talk to me. He also told him I needed to let him do his job, to which I said, ‘Your job is to make sure people don’t drown. It’s not to make sure your wife and son have a lane to swim in at their convenience. The rest of us have had to wait up to 30 minutes for a free lane before.’ I then told him he didn’t have to talk to me. I marched up to the restaurant and spoke to the general manager, who came and talked to Mr. Nepotism. It was such a frustrating situation.
After my laps, Hannah messaged me to let me know she wouldn’t be able to make the gym. I worked out without her. She just sent me my workout again. When I got home from working out, Stuart had fed Jack and I showered. We then went to the hospital to see Cathy. Her surgery was a success, but she was in a lot of pain. When we left the hospital, I went and picked Millie up. Whew! What a busy day we had! It’s good to keep busy during Ramadan because otherwise you just sit at home and eat. There is little open and you can’t eat or drink in public. It discourages you from going out during the day for sure.
On my way home from picking up Millie I stopped at the store to get Millie something to eat. She decided she didn’t want to come in, so I left her in the car. I was buying my things and in she walks, her school
uniform all wet. She was really upset and said she thought I would be upset if she came in. From where I park the car to where I enter the store is about 20 feet. What she really meant was she thought I would be angry at her because she peed herself. She had gotten out of her car seat and peed in the middle seat on the upholstery. She had peed herself in the car. What? We got home, she showered, ate and went to bed. Jack followed shortly, as did Stuart. Stuart and I both ‘grubbed it’ for dinner. That’s my mom’s term for ‘fix ya own damn food for dinner’, although that’s not how she would say it of course.
Tuesday morning I got up and was determined to finish the personal development and English narrative of my school reports. So, any free moment I had in the day, I worked on these. By the end of the day I only had two English reports to do. I was so thrilled.
After school, I brought home two girls from my class, Orla and Sofia. Millie normally goes with them on a Tuesday because Sofia’s mum and myself normally have staff meetings on a Tuesday. Orla’s mum is a teaching assistant so she doesn’t have to stay for the meetings. She then brings them to dance for us. Since it is Ramadan, we’ve no staff meetings on a Tuesday until after Ramadan is over. I decided for this week and next, I would do my part and bring all the girls home with me and then take them to dance. I ended up sitting and waiting for Millie to complete both of her classes. It was nice to just sit and play mindless games on my phone. Millie led the warm up in her second class. She’s a crack up. She’s the youngest dancer with the biggest personality.
We swung through the McDonalds drive thru on the way home. The kids ate and then Millie was off to bed. Lara came over and we walked to Cathy’s house to see her. She had been released earlier in the day. She sounded so much better than she did the day before. She was still in a lot of pain, but I guess that’s part of it. We stayed for about an hour and then I was back home to put Jack to bed. Stuart followed Jack into his own nighttime slumber. As usual, I stayed up and fell asleep in front of the tv.
I was up and walking at 5:45 am. I walked 3 miles in 45 minutes. After my run on Monday, I decided running wasn’t great for my knees. When I got home the kids were up and getting ready for school. I finished my reports on Wednesday, which was such a relief. It seems this school year has not had one down moment. I still have a few things to do before Ramadan is over, but it feels as if the end is in sight.
After school, Tommy and Alice came with us to the pool. The plan was to swim and then go up and eat in the restaurant. After my lap swim, I went to report there were swimming bugs in the pool. It just so happened to be to the guy I had a few words with two days before. I told him about the bugs. He didn’t even acknowledge that I spoke to him. I walked away and went into the office to tell the assistant general manager, as I could tell Jay (or shall I call him ‘Baby’?) didn’t appear to here what I had said. Oh, and the pool had returned to normal. There was a sign that said lane swimming was restricted to 30 minutes per person and if there wasn’t a lane available you would need to wait.
Once we had eaten dinner, we headed back to our house. I made my two take showers, but made it optional for Tommy and Alice. Alice and Millie actually took a bath, while Jack showered and Tommy opted out. The boys played on the PS4 and Millie and Alice played with their babies. This was Alice’s first sleepover. Her mum thought she might make it since her brother was with her. So I had the girls settled into bed around 7:30 pm. The boys went to bed at 8:30 pm, and he girls were still giggly. I thought all was clear, but when I heard Pumpkin, our cat, rummaging around at 12:30 am, I wasn’t as convinced, as she woke up Alice. I threw Pumpkin outside and went back into the room with Alice and Millie. At that point Alice asked me if she could go home. I told her I was really sorry, but it was nearly 1 am and her mommy and daddy would be sound asleep. I asked her if she wanted me to scoot Millie to the middle and then I would lay in the room with them? She said she did, so I did....until 2:30 am....and she was still asleep. I finally got up and told her that if she would go to sleep the time would pass faster and it would be morning before she knew it. I assume she went to sleep because when I went in at 5:30 am she was sound asleep.
Lara and I walked Thursday morning, although I was exhausted. The kids were all up when I got back. Stuart had fed them all. They were getting dressed and just plying. School seemed to never end, as I was so tired from the sleepover. But the good news is Joan is taking all 4 of them next week.
Thursday evening we had a stag do for Peter, our new team mate. There were quite a few staff members who showed up. Our Head of Junior school bought the first round of drinks for everyone. We stayed for a couple of hours, then we went to our neighbors, Jakes and Chantelle, to play darts. I am terrible at darts, by the way. We got home around 11 pm.
We left the house Friday morning around 8 am to go to Abu Dhabi. We arrived at Yas Waterworld just before 10 am. We were quite alone at the water park until around noon. Then it got a bit crowded. Stuart wasn’t feeling well, so around 2 pm he went to check in at our hotel. He returned just as the boys got off the big trampoline. We had stayed longer and waited for them to jump on it. In the end, it wasn’t as exciting as they had anticipated. We had a great day of water park fun. It was not without injury, though. The first water slide I went down dumped me out. I broke the bursur sack on my left elbow. Any idea how many times in the day you bump your elbow and don’t notice it? A lot!
The wave pool!
The boys on the trampoline.
The Telfords, Karniks, Pritchards, and Rouvis (not pictured as they left earlier) all gathered for the weekend to celebrate Jane’s birthday.
We got back to the hotel and everyone showered. We met at the Belgian Cafe for Jane’s birthday dinner. It was lovely. Jack had mussels, of course, and I shared Millie’s calamari. We had a birthday cake and the restaurant got totally quiet to play Happy Birthday over the loud speaker. Everyone had a great day. We went back to our room around 9:30 pm. The kids were on their iPads for about 10 minutes and then it was lights out for them. Stuart and I followed shortly after then.
We got up Saturday morning and headed down for breakfast. The rest of the crew were a bit later for breakfast. They also decided to go to the pool for about an hour before we all met up at Warner Brothers Amusement Park. During Ramadan they were running a special for the theme parks. If you are a teacher, you could get 4 tickets for the price of 1. So we decided to take advantage of the savings.
From tears to laughter. She’s had just been mad at me two seconds before.
Bedrock!
Felt we were back in Arizona with Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote.
The Mystery Machine is a bit smaller than I thought it would be.
We spent the entire day at the park. The rides weren’t that crowded so the wait time was reasonable. The park closed at 6 pm, and that was when we left. Ian rode home with us from Abu Dhabi. We got home just before 8 pm. Millie showered and went straight to bed. Jack showered and stayed up for a bit. I unpacked all our laundry and started in on that. It was a great weekend, but after being so busy I always want another day.
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