Morning, James is sleeping, time to do some blogging, and studying. James normally sleeps between 10.30 and 12.30, that's when I have my studdytime, mostly. I am doing an open university course in History, to eventually finish my degree as A-level teacher of English and History. It's really fun and interesting, but al lot of reading, as always...I have been trying to teach Emma about Egypt, Cleopatra and the pyramids and she finds it really interesting. It all started when they were on their Summer camp week, after returing from Sweden. The camp was at the Cleopatra Spa, in Wafi City. You really have to see it to believe it. The Wafi center is built as a pyramid, with Swinxes, big ornaments, and gold statues of the Pharaos and Egyptian Queens. Since I was reading the pyramids at the time, O started telling them all about it in the car from the summer camp. The every day, after passing the golden statues, Emma would say, 'can you tell me about Cleopatra again'. Talk about fantastic learning experience. Isabelle, however, said that I shouldn't have told them that Cleopatra was killed by a snake, because now she will have nightmares...oops. The next day Emma and I read (ok, I did the reading) in the paper, that a dog had been eaten by a python in somebody's home. There was a big picture of the snake with half a dog hanging out of it's mouth. Emma was shocked, but found it so interesting that she had to go on the internet and search info on snakes, bless her. She mad he mummy very proud!

However, not all days are golden days, far from it, we have also had some sad days in the last week, like when the girls decided to play doctors and used one of mummy's lipsticks as blood and painted Isabelle's favourite doll all red....I cried more than the girls, I was that upset. Not because of the lipstick, but becasue I put a lot of effort into buying her that doll for Christmas last year. I have to confess that I did a lot of yelling, and said they were spolit brats who didn't understand the value of their possessions or money for that matter (God, did I really say that...). But anyway, they were very sad and accepted the punishment without discussion - no cinema that day, as we had planned.

Ok, so I had to do something to feel a bit better, I planned a new ladies night of course. I have included some pictures of the lovely Media One hotel. top floor. Great night, but terribly strong coctails, had the worst headache the next day...

Thank God for Chaturi, who could take care of James the next morning.

Talking about Chaturi, it was her birthday yesterday, we celebrated with chocolate cake and presents. Her own celebration in the evening was to go to KFC with her friends and have fried chicken, her favourite food, apart from Sri lankan healthy food. James enjoyed his first real chocolate cake. He ate it all on his own and clearly had a great time!

Time to studdy the Greeks! and Alexander the Great!

Ramadan Kareem and Eid Mubarak!

Merry christmas and a Happy new year..sort of...We are back in Dubai! And we came back just in time for Ramadan, yiha...not. But we have survived, and it is all for a good cause obviously. The muslims don't eat or drink during the sun hours to be solidaric with the poor, they eat after sunset, iftar it's called, and before sunrise. They also give away lots of money and things to charity during Ramadan. Of course it has also been made into a great tourist thing, where all the restaurants who have to be closed during the day, offer big Iftar meals to a good price in the evening. We tried it one night, Mezze starters, lentil soup, bbq meat and rice. Very nice actually.
During daytime, it has been hard though. As an adult you are not even aloud to drink water in your car, even if it's 40 degrees outside. I must confess that I did though, many times. For one week I had to drive the girls to summer camp everyday and it was very hot. Of course I drank water, but you have to be discreet. One of the first days back, we all went to IKEA, thinking we could have lunch in IKEA. But of course, they didn't even sell the tradional hot dogs. After a long time in IKEA, we eventually came to the check out, where the queue was long...Both the girls and me were about to die from starvation (everything is relative), so we left Jon with all the packing and went to the IKEA shop to buy Swedish bread and biscuits. Since only children and preganant women are aloud to eat during the day, we had to go to the toilet, where we had our own ramadan buffee...On the way back we saw 2 big car accidents, the last car was actually on fire! We had also been told not to drive in the afternoons when the muslims are very hungry and weak. A scary experience.
Now, we have finally celebrated Eid weekend, when Ramadan is over and all the muslims celebrate with food, parties, holidays and presents. No alcohol of course. All the schools and government offices are closed for 3 days. Most private companies are also closed. So we have enjoyed a nice long family weekend, with lots of time at the pool, some bowling indoors, and lots of socialising. We went to a fantastic seafood party on Thursday, without children, and had a great time, with great Swedish friends, a Kiwi from New Zealand and Jon from England. Chaturi put all the kids to bed, she is a true blessing to have.
So, Friday we were very tired, and didn't do a great deal. Jon, however managed to invite a new English family for homemade pizza in the evening. So, we ended up making our own pizzas with a family from New Castle. A very nice evening, and a bit too much wine...Saturday was a nice poolday, and then the next door neighbours from Ireland/Scotland came to dinner with their 3 kids. I made lasange and she made cheese cake, great combination. Complete chaos for a few hours, but very nice indeed.
That's it for now I think. I just have to say that the temp is finally going down, slowely, day by day. Especially the evenings are fantastic. I can see that it's only going to get better.

Lots of love, miss you all!

Anna