Saturday, March 29th - It's warming up (everywhere) and pics of things you might not see anywhere else!

It's nice to see that the temperatures in Ontario (and the rest of Canada) are finally warming up a bit. We can say the same thing here. Actually, we practically had the same temperature on Friday; it was 32 degrees - only difference is we had it in Celsius whereas you had that in Farenheit. We went back to the Palms (our resort like getaway) and spent part of the day by the beach and in the pool. We did groceries afterwards and watch a movie at night - not too exciting. On Saturday, I went to school for 4 hours to finish my report cards, and Jacqui went tutoring until 5 pm. We skyped with friends in the evening, and called it a weekend.

We did not try them!

At the airport, in Abu Dhabi

Need money but can't get to an ATM? No problem, we'll come to you.

What can I say?

Tag found on a piece of clothing in a store, in Sri Lanka.

Wednesday, March 27th - Pics from last weekend

Various buildings of Dubai and yachts, seen from our yacht tour last weekend

Our yacht for the afternoon

This yacht doesn't look too shabby!

The small boat on the left isn't that small

This one has a three motors boat at the back, and a smaller one on top with two motors

Monday, March 24th - Trip to Abu Dhabi is done

We had a very nice weekend in Abu Dhabi. We left Thursday after work, on a 5h40 flight (which was late) and got to Abu Dhabi by 9pm. We were travelling with another couple that used to live there for 10 years, so after a little chat at the airport, we took a cab to our hotel while they were getting picked up by their daughter. We stayed at the Rotana Beach Club, which was fabulous. It kind of sets the tone when you first walk into the lobby to someone playing music on a grand piano, while being accompanied by a violinist. It was by far the nicest hotel that we've stayed at.

On Friday, we drove to Dubai with our friends - they had their daughters' car. She and some of her friends had rented a party boat for the late afternoon and early evening, so we cruised on the gulf and in the city of Dubai on an 80 foot yatch for 4 hours. Yes, life is tough! It was pretty amazing. Saturday was spent by the pool and by the beach, while Sunday saw a quick excursion to the Abu Dhabi Mall, which is attached to the hotel. We flew back Sunday afternoon, and went back to work on Monday. We are now looking forward to our next trip - London, England, towards to end of April, three and half weeks from now.

You know you're in the Middle East when there's an arrow pointing east on the ceiling in your hotel room, ...

and you have the Qu'ran and a prayer mat in your night table!

A 7 star hotel in Dubai

Cruising along!

Hotel in Dubai

Same hotel.

Another one

 More pictures to come tomorrow!

Tuesday, March 18th - It's been a while

Wow, it's been more than a week since my last post. I figured most of you were on holidays and wouldn't have time to read it. But now that everyone is back to work, it's time to give you an update on our lives. Well, ... nothing has changed! We are still working, doing groceries on weekends and going out to restaurants once in a while. Jacqui is still tutoring 6 days a week, and enjoying it.

We are going away to Abu Dhabi for the weekend - we will take Sunday off as well. It should be fun. We are going cruising with friends on the gulf, from Dubai to Abu Dhabi; looking forward to that. We've also bought tickets to go see a Queen cover band in April; it's at the British Embassy, which entails various kinds of tea.

I forgot to mention in my last post that Julie got her wish; she will do her residency at Montfort, in Ottawa. She was very happy about that - we were too!

Here are more pictures of the sand sculptures that we saw a few weeks ago.

Sunday, March 9th - Sand Sculptures

Only in Kuwait. Jacqui and I went out for dinner last Wednesday night to a Japanese/Italian restaurant. It was very nice as it is located on the 11th floor of a building overlooking the marina. The view was nice, but the amazing thing was the background music. It was instrumental piano, but it was all Christmas music!!! We couldn't help but laugh.

On Friday, we went to see the sand sculptures exposition. It's part of the festivities celebrating the 25th anniversary of the liberation from Iraq. We started by walking through an indoor souk, where we saw this spice table. It was pretty cool to see. Then we went into the fair grounds to see the sand sculptures.  It was absolutely amazing. It was done on the theme of Sinbab the Sailor and Ali Baba and the forty thieves. Everything sculpture is made of sand (some special sand we are told) and they had been working at it since September. It opened to the public at the end of January and it's there until April. We do ice sculptures in Canada; they do sand sculptures in Kuwait. The artists were from all over the world. I will post pictures of it with the next few blog entries.

Spices, in bulk!

It did smell really good

Tuesday, March 4th - Mid-week blog

Our week is going by smoothly. Going back to work wasn't too painful. It kind of helps knowing that we are leaving again for a weekend in two and a half weeks. Since there's not much to say, I figured I'd put more pictures of our trip to Sril Lanka.

Wishing all our friends and colleagues in education a very good March break, and we're hoping that things will warm up for you soon. We almost feel guilty putting shorts on when we come back from work (27 degrees today - humidex 30).

Cinnamon Bey Resort

We were on the third floor

Getting close to sunset time

The grounds (or speedos)

Part of the beach, by the resort

Don't let the su....n go down on me, ...

Our last sunset in Sri Lanka

Cheers!

Beach - 5 minute walk from our resort

We were there!

The tide coming in

Scenes like this make it hard to leave!

Taken through the window, at the airport!