Dubai (Mis)adventure

Well we are back from Dubai having spent an enjoyable weekend seeing some of the sights and visiting Rachel and her family. Rachel was a part time teacher at the BSB last year and she was the first to welcome us to Bahrain and invite us round to hers for tea on our first weekend. Her husband's company relocated them during the unrest here because he can work from anywhere really. They seem to have settled well.

Dubai is a busy city but we enjoyed it. The only slight mar on the situation was the fact that we were in Dubai and our luggage was in Saudi Arabia. We got it back just in time for coming home really.

We used Dubai's new(ish) metro train system which is part under and part over ground. About GBP2.20 buys you an all day, all zone unlimited journey ticket. I am using GBP because I dont have a pound sign on this keyboard and I can't be bothered to find out how to put one in.

We had booked in to go up the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world. You "only" get to go up to the 124th floor (of about 160) so you are actually still some way from the top but the view is amazing.

From this close its impossible to give a feeling of how tall this building is but looking at the other "skyscrapers" behind us gives you some impression. And we are not at the top. The lift goes up 124 floors in 60 seconds. That's two floors a second! The amazing thing is that there is no feeling of speed in the lift. You would hardly know you are moving. There are no windows and the only thing you see is the floor numbers rattling upwards on the lift sign. The only time I can recall seeing numbers change so fast is when watching the petrol prices in UK!

Anyway enough for now. Must get ready for work.
David

The most useful gift in the world

Hey girls if you want to wriggle your way to a man's heart then take a tip from Ashley. How about this for the most useful gift in the world. I love it!


Sorry, you'll have to turn your head on its side.

Busy. busy, busy

Well its been manic since we arrived back. New teachers to be settled in to school and the start of another school year. New classes and names to learn, new courses and resources to get my head around. All in all a very busy start. Sheila has been very busy too with many nights not finishing work until 7pm. Her job seems to get more complex and more important every week. I think she keeps the whole school running smoothly.

Ashley arrived last night and will be with us for the next two weeks. We are flying to Dubai next weekend to go up the tallest building in the world. The Burj Khalifa

It doesn't look that spectacular until you look at the "skyscrapers" beside it. Its almost 830m high, that's half a mile give or take! We will try to take some of our own pictures when we are there.

Not long after Ashley leaves to go back home Babs, Dave and Valerie are coming to visit us. We are really looking forward to that. By that time the weather should be almost perfect (it's still too hot here really). It's still over 40 degrees in the daytime. We won't be climbing the Burj Khalifa with them but we might go up the observation tower half way across the Saudi Causeway. Those of our visitors who have done that (Michael, Ashley and Nicola) will testify that it is a rivetting experience! Not to be missed.

There is also a possibility that Nicola will be coming back again in the gap between Ashley and the others. If that happens we will be almost "fully booked" from now until early November. Not long after that we will be home again for Christmas. Its all go in a busy life. By the way, when would YOU like to visit?

The golf season starts today with the Captains's Drive In. Its a nine hole competition to get the season under way. 18 hole competitions start next week but I will miss that one due to us being in Dubai. I will start proper the following week. Believe me that will be early enough. 18 holes in this heat!

OK that's not bad for a quick post to bring you back up to speed.

David