A Spot of T

Finally posting more pictures from Dubai. I have hundreds. We did so many things, but here are a few highlights. The city itself is unbelievable but it is hard to capture it all in a few pictures, so I’m not going to bother.

This first picture is the view from our hotel room balcony. Small boats, called Abras, take you from place to place on a man made water way system. It felt like being in another world. The tall hotel in the background is the Burg al Arab - a 7 star hotel. It really was spectacular. It is built on a man made island. We went there for dinner twice. Once to a seafood restuarant “below sea level”. The walls were huge aquariums filled with tropical fish.

This next picture is the beach at our hotel. The water, the Arabian Sea was warm but the waves were quite violent, making swimming toughB, but fun!

The beach attendants prepared our lounge chairs and came around throughout the day with cold faceclothes, popsicles, pineapple sticks, and cucumber slices for your eyes. They also sprayed our faces with evian water, and offered to clean our sunglasses - not for tips.

This picture is from our balcony at night:

When we were with the World Tourism people (about 600 of them) we went on a desert safari. These are what our tables looked like - we sat on cushions. There was entertainment - belly dancers etc. camels to ride, hooka pipes to smoke, henna tatoos, and palm readers. The food was amazing - buffet tables with chefs from around the world. It was an amazing evening.

Here’s a picture of us in Dubai - Just before we left our hotel to attend a party in the dessert.

Well, I’m home and “other the hump”. Whew. I finally feel normal. It’s been a long time since I could say that!

Our trip was incredible, spectacular, a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We were treated like queens and went from one amazing activity to another. The city of Dubai and it’s people blew us away every time we turned around. To make matters even better, we laughed from the moment we woke up in the morning, until we fell asleep at night. We did a few crazy things too. Never once did we even think of turning on the TV, there was no time. Hence, my lack of blog entries but I will post more pictures when I can. Just brought them home last night on my jump drive as they were all on Judy’s laptop.

So, remember how I went on about my worries as to how my family would make out in my absence? Well, I was right. I came home to a mess. Here are some highlights:

1. Molly, our dog, stunk. And since she sleeps in my daughter Jenny’s bed, all her bedding reeked. I’m also pretty sure Molly also suffered a nervous breakdown while I was gone. She just wasn’t herself.

2. The kitchen sink had a leak and couldn’t be used.

3. Two toilets were plugged.

4. The dryer was broken and there were piles of laundry everywhere. My husband Rick informed me that he was wearing a old pair of MY underpants!

5. My mother-in-law was sick in the hospital.

On top of the jetlag and getting this house and all it’s people sorted out, I had to prepare for company, make hospital visits, and attend a shower on Sunday. Today I am finally breathing a sigh of relief and so thankful to be returning to “normal”.

So many reasons for not posting here like I had anticipated. Mainly too busy or too tired, or hard to get images converted on Judy’s laptop. We’ve been having an awesome time, learning so much about this place and speaking to lots of people who live here… and interesting tourists from around the worldRight now as I type this we’ve just had breakfast but back home it’s 2am and everyone is still sleeping!A few notes on these pics:The picture looking at the water with the hotel in the backgound is the veiw from the balcony of our room. Almost looks fake, eh? It’s the real thing. The waterway goes all through this complex and we can take the “abra” boat to get from place to place. The “Burg” hotel in the background of our veiw is one of the newest landmarks in Dubai. It’s shaped like a sail of a ship and slowly changes colour all night long. It is actually built on a man made island and boasts a golf range on the rooftop. Inside it is something else. We were blown away. Honestly. We ate dinner there in an underground seafood restuarant. Taking the elevator down to it was like a submarine ride.We’ve spent a lot of time going to the local markets - souks. Once you get downtown it is almost impossible to get a cab back so we hired our driver (Mohomoud) to stay with us for the day. He was such a sweet man, really took care of us helping us get good prices with the shopkeepers. OK - so we bought some local dress as you can tell from my outfit. Have I mentioned that we have barely stopped laughing all week? Of course we went to one of the malls here- the largest apparently outside of North America, called the Emerites Mall. We were not impressed. So much materialism and money here, everyone trying to out-do each other, similar to what we see in certain pockets everywhere. Of course taxi’s are readily available here. We were dropped off at valet parking at the mall with million dollar sports cars parked by the door.   An interesting fact about Dubai - They have a 0.0 % crime rate here. There is NO crime. None.  

We’re here. feeling, hmmmm… kinda weird, tired, giggly, but safe and sound. The term culture shock has taken on a whole new meaning. Right now, Judy and I are ferociously each tackling our own addictions. She’s trying desperatly to get her international BB in sync, and I’m trying to get online. She’s talking to her IT ppl in canada, arguing with aliant (bell), and working with our hotels business center. ahhh… a new UEA sim card just arrived at our door so maybe she’s in luck! I’m also waiting for an internet connecter cord to arrive. Looks like they’re a tad behind the times in this country…. I was sure they’d have wifi. Enough about that and on to our journey. We left Saint John at 5:45 our time arriving in TO and leaving from there at 9:45 on Air Emerites. The flight was 13 hours long but I must say it was very pleasant. Our seats turned into beds which they made up for us and the food and service was exquisite. Judy watched PS I Love You. I watched The Ultimate Gift. We laughed generally enjoyed ourselves until falling asleep gazing at stars lit up on the ceiling of our cabin.Arriving at the airport was soooooo strange. The heat hit us hard. Our welcoming committee was FAR from welcoming! Then we found our woman holding up a sign with our name on it and we felt as if we’d been rescued. She escorted us through customs and a waiting drive to our hotel. And here we are. Things are so very different but I really don’t have a whole lot left in me tonight to go on… One thing totally different was how we checked in. These men took our luggage and then walked us into this huge ornate room and told us to sit on the couch. First, they gave us wet faceclothes to wipe our hands and face, then they insisted on us each having a small cup of arabian coffee poured from a huge gold pot - then opened an ornate box of nut stuffed dates for us to try. After we were relaxed, they checked a computer for our reservation and then some sort of a business attendant woman (she was from Switzerland) shows us to our room. At the desk in our room, after showing us around, she then asked for a credit card and signature! Talk about backwards!!  

I woke up this morning and my eyes immediately popped open and I began going over my to-do list. Things are coming together, especially work-wise. I really got caught up this weekend. So peaceful working when I don’t have emails flying in all the time. Lots of last minute things going on this week but I can breath a sigh of relief on that front!

So what am I going to wear? My room is loaded with piles of clothes. We’re in the dessert so it’s going to be hot, and with my recent weight-loss not a whole lot fits. Luckily I have a ton of real nice handy-me-downs to go through and didn’t have to buy much at all. I’m taking a folded up suitcase inside my big bag for shopping. Did I say shopping?? can’t wait. Apparently the markets are amazing.

We leave Wednesday around 5 pm, fly to Toronto via Air Canada, and then board Air Emirates for a 14 hour flight straight through. We plan on laughing, eating, and watching movies all night long. We’ll fit some sleep in there somewhere. We’re staying here at this resort which is right on the ocean. I need to stick my big toe in that ocean. I do that wherever I go, whether I actually swim or not. I’m planning on blogging the trip from Dubia right here on the CPO blogs for friends and family. Stay tuned

I feel as though I may as well get this over with. I’ve been putting off writing my first blog entry simply because I thought it should be perfect and I just haven’t had the time to compose a “perfect” first blog entry. So it’s after 12 am and I just decided, what the heck? I’m going to dig right in here and write. My blog’s not set up properly either, but the way things are going - I will NEVER have the time to get things perfect. So, how does that saying go? There’s no better time than the present.

Why am I so busy? The biggest thing happening in my life right now is getting ready for a trip to Dubai. Why am I doing to the Middle East you wonder? My very good girlfriend (no, I’m not gay) is going there on business, to accept an award on behalf of her family. She doesn’t want to go alone. So she’s taking me. The actual business end of things is a worldwide tourism summit which we will attend for two days, the other five days we’ll be tourists ourselves, and from what I hear, Dubia is quite the city to visit. I feel like a little kid lately - I’m sooooo excited

What else is going on in my life? Been super dooper busy with work. Lot’s of exciting stuff going on and working some crazy hours. Andrea and Jay (they are family but I will explain more in another post) are here for a visit and I’m feeling guilty because I’m so consumed by my work and getting ready for my trip that I can’t pay them enough attention. I have lists galore and every moment of every day seems booked solid until I leave.

What is worrying me lately? I’m constantly wondering how on earth this family is going to function without me. Crazy, eh? My dh (and he is dear) is heading up a shut down and working 14 hour days straight through so it’s not like I can count on him. Even though my kids are older and self sufficient I worry. Things are constantly popping into my head like - what if Jenny needs a clean bra or can’t find her xxxx? What if Bobby needs more money and nobody can transfer to his account but me? Nobody will remember to buy milk when we run out and Jeff will go nuts without it. Will they remember to make sure Molly (our dog) has food and water? I know it’s a mom thing, but what the heck??? OK - a promise to myself: When I get on that plane I’m going to stop worrying. Let’s see if I can keep it!