Where’s my rattle?

Mai Tai’s, Freedom Day Celebrations and some X Fighter action...

Spoilt for choose as always, the plans to head for dinner on a ‘Friday’ night turned into an epic search for the perfect place to go. One thing about Dubai, there is always a deal of sort happening here, there and everywhere...making the decision of where to go quite difficult. And not quite satisfied enough with the already million and one deals, we took advantage of Carol’s Emirates face card...it’s a wonderful thing...50% off all food and drinks at Mai Tai in the Dubai Marina, what more could you ask for?

Apparently...just a taxi to get you there! We have come to realise that trying to get anywhere on Thursday night for a specific time, or just in general really, is just crazy thinking! Come Thursdays the taxi system here does not work...they don’t ask where you going when you phone to book, meaning they actually have no queuing system, so they can’t plan their pre-booked journeys...i.e. if they knew they were dropping someone to The Lakes, they could plan or estimate an arrival time for someone else’s pick up at The Lakes...or so you would think. But no, it’s far more fun to make people wait and wait and wait...so after over 1.5hours of yes you guessed it...waiting... for the taxi we pre-booked, we decided to head off on foot towards The Lakes Club, in the hopes that we could snag a taxi, in the way I mentioned before.

After a bit more waiting at the main roundabout near The Lakes Club, looking a bit too much like 2 hookers with their pimp...heehee (just to clarify... the standing on the street corner part of being a hooker... as opposed to being dressed like hookers) or more appropriately for for this country, a man with his 2 wives... our cunning plan finally paid off and we were finally on our way for an evening of cocktails, food and good company.

The Marina at night is just a buzzing hub! Even after our dinner and cocktails and ‘little’ walk... when we landed up doing almost a complete loop by foot of the Marina (because someone who thought they knew where they were going, aka me, clearly didn’t) in search of a shisha place (good news though we now know the landmarks to look out for, should we ever get lost along the Marina Walk again! ☺) anyway by the time we found a shisha cafe it was quite late and heading for the early hours of the morning, and yet the Marina Walk was still buzzing. The strangest thing though, is that it’s not the usual culprits you would find on a late night out anywhere else in the world, i.e.the ‘youngsters’ out for a night on the town...isntead it’s families with their kiddies of all ages, who are still out and about. Mark and I struggled to keep up with the sprightly Carol, who fitted in quite easily with the local’s unusual family night time outings, thanks to her own unusual sleeping pattern, as an Air Hostess.

Friday morning arrived and Mark was up and at it early...heading to the gym, whilst Carol and I had a lazy lie in before heading to sun ourselves at the pool. And boy oh boy was it hot! Yes summer is definitely coming...the temperatures have already started to soar! From the pool we tried our hand at booking yet another taxi, this time to take us to the South Africa’s Freedom Day Celebrations (yes, in Dubai)...sounds like they do it every year, so we decided to go along and check it out...and since Carol is practically South African she came along too! This time making the taxi wait for us (being a Friday and during the day, they were back on track and even a little bit early). So off we headed to the Jebel Ali Shooting Club (note to self to make another trip there soon, to try our hand at target practice!), where the event was being held. After about a 20 - 30min trip out into the dessert we finally found the spot, which was literally in the middle of nowhere. Stepping inside the grounds, we were hit with a sea of SA accents, the most we have heard in one place, at one time, for quite awhile. We were given competition forms to fill out (to win a car)... much excitement... so without me even realising it, Percy Montgomery (and a few other rugby legends) just walked right on by (part of the day included a Legend’s rugby match by some of the Springbok legends, against the Lion’s legends).

There were a few stalls set up, including a dive shop stall (which Mark of course stopped at straight away), it had some good specials on, but since we had just arrived and not wanting to get too carried away, we settled on buying 2x underwater rattles (to aid our communication on our next diving trip). There were a few other stalls, which included some jewellery, paintings and an SA rugby jersey shop (I finally am the proud owner of 1x times SA rugby jersey).

The next part of the grounds was dedicated to those participating in the potjie competitions...and what a lot there were! Some had gone all out, with t-shirts printed with their group’s name ‘Ama Pot Pot’, banners you name it. There must have been about 15 stands or more for the different groups who had set up for the big cook off...some of which had been there since 9am (on what was an extremely hot day). There were jumping castles for the kids, Savanah, Jack Daniels and Amarula stands for the bigger kids and the Savanah stand even had a ‘bobbing for apples bucket’, where you could win a prize. Mark took advantage of this in about the first 5 minutes of being there...cooling himself off with the added bonus of winning a free drink. It didn’t take long for us to sniff out the boerewors rolls...lunch! YUM! Boerie and biltong and all things nice...

Gareth joined us a bit later, in time for the Legends Rugby match...which if you can believe is only the second rugby match I have ever seen live in my life! (I know... and yet I still call myself a South African...shameful!) All I can say is I’m glad I didn’t have to run around in that heat...not to mention scrumming up nice and close to all those sweaty bodies...sitting on the stand was hard work enough! ☺ Carol unfortunately had to leave us at half time, as she had an early flight the next morning...but I’m pleased to report that the Springbok legends didn’t disappoint!

The rest of evening proceeded with some proper SA music in the mix and somewhere along the line the scuba rattles made an appearance...or should I say my new scuba rattle came out, which lead to Mark asking ‘Where’s my rattle?’ I guess you had to be there at the time, but it had us in hysterics... should anyone at the tables next to us have heard, I could only imagine what would have gone through their heads... priceless! The evening came to a close, but not before the winners of the various competitions which had been going on throughout the day were announced...and I’m afraid to say that lucky streak I had a few years ago obviously completely wore itself out! Maybe better luck next time!

Gareth and Reinet have since headed off to sunny SA for a holiday, giving us the opportunity to temporarily 'have' a pet again. Mark is back in his element with a man's best friend...and has finally become a fully fledged member of The Lakes community...by walking Rocco everyday.

Then this past weekend the Redbull X Fighters were in town to entertain us with their daredevil motorcross stunts (seriously there is something on basically every weekend here). The arena was set up at JBR Walk (the Jumeriah Beach Residence Walk) just down the road from us and right on the sand at the beach...for what was a sell out show...something like 15,000 people! Once the show finally got underway (considering Mark and I had bought the cheapo standing tickets (but at least we were literally right in the front leaning against the track's barrier) ...we had already been standing for 2.5hrs before the show had even began...followed by a further 2 hours whilst the show was on), we weren't disappointed. One of the Sheikhs arrived, to introduce the X fighters and the Arabian Adventures, who must have organised the event, put of bit of a show on for the crowd, bringing in some of the Sheikh's 'pretty' camels all decorated, along with some Arabian sword fighters and obviously the bikers, who revealed themselves from behind big black robes. As soon as the display was over, our camera decided to run out of battery (as I had forgotten to charge it before we left). Thankfully it managed to last for a little bit longer, regardless of the flashing red light so we at least managed to get a few pics and videos. The riders tricks brought a few gasps, ooh's and ahh's, from what was generally a rather quiet crowd, at the amazement of the height of the bikers jumps, how they bent their bodies in some of the angles they did, how they managed to not loose or their bikes midair and how they managed to stay on the bike during the landing. All in all another great night out experiencing something different!

Next up...some African sun (we hope since we hearing it's rather cold over there) and a very special little someone's big day!

We looking forward to seeing some of you very very soon...2 more days and counting!

Boys will be...

...Boys

The last few weekends have been adventure weekends for the boys...dirt biking in the dessert, deep sea fishing, and a couple of a good old braais.

Whilst I didn't loose any sleep over not going deep sea fishing (considering the one and only time I have been deep sea fishing in the past, was with Kerry Breetzke, her dad and half brothers, when we were in High School and about 5 minutes after finding the perfect spot to fish, I proceeded to 'feed' the fish...and I can tell you it was not fun being out there with nowhere to go and nothing else to do but feel extremely sorry for myself as the boat bobbed up and down in the swells the whole day)...I was however a little bleak that it was boys only for the dirt biking session in the dessert.

The guys got up early to head to the KTM farm, so as to make the most of their time in the dessert before the complete heat of the day hit. Obviously, since I wasn't there, I don't have all the stories to tell, but it sounded like much fun was had by the three of them. The team consisted of Mark, who I think has only ridden a bike once before (and a road bike at that), Rob who hadn't riden a bike in about 10 years and then Gareth, who had his own dirt bike in SA, so the only experienced one out of the lot.

Kitted up in the full biker gear, from jumpsuits, to biker boots, helmuts, breast plates, knee pads, shoulder pads, you name it....they headed off for the dessert and as you can imagine there are lots of stories to be told...from dust clouds (after hitting dunes at funny angles), front wheels being buried into the sand and having to be dug out, lots and lots of falls, people going missing for awhile, issues trying to jump start bikes after heat and physical exhaustion (not to mention dehydration), feet burning in biker boots when touching the hot hot sand...you name it, the list goes on. But nothing could detract from the fun that was had...

That was, until they hit the short stretch of road between the dessert itself and the KTM farm...with only a few metres to go before arriving at the place to drop back their bikes off after an exhilarating riding session...what could possibly go wrong?

Mark was in front, so when a car (an FJ Cruiser to be exact) pulled out of its driveway without looking, there was no stopping in time...Mark tried to slow down, but skidded before hitting the car...body, bike and all...over the bonnet he went before finally hitting the ground of the otherside of the car. Thankfully (and a very big thankfully at that) he wasn't too badly hurt...his quick thinking of lifting up his leg, before it got trapped between the car and the bike on impact probably saved him from some major injuries, and instead he walked away with with only a few minor injuries, a couple of bruises, cuts, scrapes, bumps and the main injury being to his wrist (yet again, which was only just finally coming right after his last incident with it).

Once the shock had subsided, he was ready to give the driver of the FJ Cruiser a piece of his mind...but on turning around, with the sun in his eyes he saw the driver happened to be an Emirati (in his white dish dash), with large gates behind him and the longest drivway to an absolutely huge house. Had he been a little less compis mentis at the time, this sight might have caused an even greater shock than the accident itself...considering he was looking into the light, seeing an 'angel' in white, stood above him at the big 'pearly' gates...

Gathering his thoughts he decided to rethink his approach on giving the driver a piece of his mind (for obvious reasons) and instead 'inconveniently' asked him for some ice for his wrist. Then after agreeing not to take any further action, the driver headed off to pray, whilst Mark and co made their way back to the KTM farm, where they had to explain what had happened to the bike. Thankfully broken clutches and damaged bikes are a regular occurence and no costs were incurred (and because the driver actually happened to be a sponsor of the farm).

Needless to say I was very pleased in the end that they had made it just a boys thing...as I most certainly would not have been any fun dealing with all that gear in the heat of the day (and how hot it was), falling off bikes and then seeing Mark hit by a car to add to it all....so my lazy lie in that morning was a much better option for me that day after all.

Then this last week Mark was lucky enough to join Gareth, Rob, Helga and Sarah on a deep sea fishing excursion. Again they were up at the crack of dawn, this time heading for the Dubai Marina and a speedboat as the choice of transport for a spot of fishing.

Once in the big blue, with the fishing lines out and a couple of bites (excuse my poor excuse at fishing lingo) Mark got the catch of the day with the 'hugest' fish you have ever seen! :)

Rob had a bit more luck with his catches and managed to get a few better sized fish that he could actually take home for dinner.

Not too long into the excursion, some of the other 'fishermen' on the boat decided it was time to 'feed' the fish, instead of catching them, and as it happens the ripple effect soon took it toll on a few more onboard and a couple of sea sickness pills were necessarily distributed.

Once back on on terra firma the stomachs were settled with a hearty breakfast...after yet another great adventure and another tick off the Dubai 'To Do' list.