We helped celebrate Christine and Sinead's birthday on a surprise (for them) Dhow Cruise in Abu Dhabi with a lavish and absolutely delicious spread of food! We took the giant Dhow (wooden boat) down the Corniche for a couple hours at night, saw the city ligths, stuffed ourselves silly, drank fruit juice (no alcohol on board) and definitely enjoyed the night!

the grand table with gold plates

The lobsters...yum

Christine and Sinead cutting their cake

And another post on SUPing...just because I didn't realize both of us had already started one on here!


Here's Stew Nield managing a hand stand. Gives new meaning to the term "Walking on Water" commonly used amongst SUP'ers.


Jen and two friends / students Laura and Mike. I bet Laura wishes her student were as attentive as she is.

Nick Having fun.

I had an opportunity to join a group of Emirati and Expat women for day trip to Al Ain where we visited the camel market and spent the afternoon on a date farm where we had lunch, got traditional henna done, learned more about dates, talked about our two cultures with the Emiratis and listened to a short presentation that the girls and Ali (he's like the cultural ambassador for the UAE and helped put this great day on for us)

Emirati culture presentation

talking about the date trees

Arabic food, yum

The coffee guy

Jahili Fort

Traditional Henna

at the Camel Market

We've been out on the beautiful waters of the UAE almost every weekend SUPing or Stand Up Paddleboarding. Dubai is gaining momentum as new people are coming down to the beach each week to give it a try and Abu Dhabi isn't too far behind. At the moment I'm trying to grow the sport in Abu Dhabi, sell some boards and get people out on the water...plenty of it here...and do something fun!

In Dubai in front of the Burj Al Arab

Nick ready for a dive to check out the coral below

Whilst a lot of pictures have been taken of the Burj Dubai (the tallest building in the world) or the Emirates Palace hotel, Abu Dhabi is a city of contrasts. You've got modern constructions everywhere but there's some areas that modernisation forgot. Here are some photos from the back of our place and I will add more to this later: photos from the hood.



Do you think these people knew they had the same kitchen wallpaper???



Does this guy pay rent for the pavement?

The path for the new at the expense of the old.



We live in the building in the background.

After living here for over 8 months now, we finally made it to the biggest tourist attraction that Abu Dhabi has to offer: The Grand Mosque. It is the fourth largest Mosque in the world and reportedly it was going to be the biggest until the Sheikh declared that it shouldn't be bigger than Mecca. Ok, but what's wrong with the second largest mosque in the world me thinks? But apparently the mosque is covered with the largest piece of carpet in the world.
The mosque is amazing, no matter where you look, it demands open mouths and photos to be taken. The turrets are tall and reach upwards and the domes look amazing high in the sky. Once you get inside the main prayer hall, the walls are opulently decorated and the carpet is smooth and makes you want to take a piece home for your living room.
Instead of going on about it, you should just check out these photos. Unfortunately, I don't think the photos do it justice like seeing it in the flesh.



... oh and yes that is Jen in a traditional female Emirates Abaya.


This is a wall with the many names of Allah. You can't write his actual name so there is one space left blank... so these might be his nicknames?

Rather phallic, isn't it?

Yes...there is surfing in Dubai...no it doesn't compare to the likes of Oz, etc. but the season is just around the corner and there is a stretch of beach out by the Burj Al Arab hotel (sailboat hotel) that gets some waves...Nick and I have been out a few times making an early morning drive up from Abu Dhabi. Definitely improving those surfing skillz

Boy it is tough fasting between all meals, breakfast, lunch and dinner, but we survived :) . Ramadan was a time that we were forced to be clever and cunning. We developed ways of eating or drinking without any noticing. Our cunningness ranged from driving and sticking your head down below the windows, ducking into empty rooms or toilets to scoff down whatever snack or water we could, or, the more obvious and somewhat dimwitted idea, putting food in your hand and doing a forced and easily noticeable cough.
The toughest part was when I met a friend at the pub at 6.30pm but the bar couldn't serve food or drink till 7pm. Try it sometime, there is absolutely nothing to do in a bar with no food and drink. It becomes like a friend's living room with their parents sitting in there with you; that kind of awkwardness.
p.s. Think about the ramadan fast and spare a thought for Muslims living to the far north in Europe. Devout Muslims would need to fast for sometimes 16 or more hours because the sun sets only for a few hours!

Iftar buffets are the best and worst thing for everyone during Ramadan. They're the best because it is the meal that Muslims break the fast with. A day without food and water would make me absolutely want to gorge myself on delicious food at the absolute first possibility; the worst aspect. One might think that people fasting for a whole month each and every day may lose weight but we've heard that many in fact put on weight because they eat twice as much during the twilight hours to compensate for a day of fasting.
And this leads me to write about the Iftar at the Shang Ri La hotel in Abu Dhabi. It is a beautiful hotel with an amazing buffet. Sushi counter, grilled to perfection fish, steaks, kebabs, a wide range of curries, pastas and salads and even a sugar fest to end the meal. The dessert buffet was one of the largest I've ever seen with three chocolate fountains and endless cakes, desserts, baclava and sweets.
...no wonder diabetes is on the rise