Dubai 1 - brace yourself

An eight and a half hour flight with a one and a half year old toddler... maybe we hadn't thought this through. Still, we needed to get over to see the grandparents before little Emma hits two years old and starts being charged for her seat. And unbelievabley, after about two and a half hours of reading her books, drawing with her crayons and playing with stickers, she lay down on the floor, gathered a few cushions, and made it quite clear she was ready for bed. We were neddless to say, delighted. She slept for about 6 hours. Okay, so she was a bit short for the baby bed they gave us, but it saved us having to hold her!

The Heanys live in an apartment block at one end of the marina. There they have a kiddies play area,

and Emma loves slides!

She also loves shoes. Mom's shoes in this case.

I can't remember whether it was day 1 or 2, but pretty early on in our stay, we headed to the beach where Emma got to play in the sand with her prezzies from Granny - buckets and spades, etc. She also got to swim in the.... sea. My geography has deserted me, what sea...the Dubai sea. I dunno, the Arabian gulf? This is the Burj de la dfsgdhfashgdgf (or somthing like that) in the background. It's the world's first 7-star hotel. Apparently high tea is about R2,000 there. We decided not to pop in.

That night we popped out to The Walk for some suchi where we got to watch the high rollers drive past us in their souped up cars.

The next day it was off to a mall, not just any mall though, a fancy shmancy mall.

At the shopping centre, we hired a trolley car for Emma. Do you think she liked it?

Thank God we had a personal escort though, cos driving around was crazy. The street signs are all in this funny language... I mean, really! And take a look at this one... claerly someone has grafitti'd it with a white smudge. Shocking. I would have thought you could get your hand cut off for something like that! But it was everywhere. They also had strange animals there. we found this horse at the side of the road. It must have been suffering from elephantitis on it's back or something... Emma and i fed it some bushy bramches to cheer it up, poor fellow.

Cath's mom helps out at an English library over there, and they have story hour every week. We couldn't miss THAT. Emma loves reading!

Back at the flat, getting some rest before our next activity. Note the chair in the foreground Emma was given by granny - she loved it to bits. It's an elephant chair, with ears and a trunk.

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The desert trip, not to be confused with the high you get after eating too much pudding.

IN MY DEFENCE, I didn't know it was anything but a nice casual drive around the desert. Then it became clear it was something a bit more active. Dune Busting - that name about says it all. It started off innocently enough, a few photos in Arab garb.

But then the action began... up dune and down dune, while my stomach was sent into a series of cartwheels and tumbleturns, eventually resulting in me opening the car door and ... blegh hnnnn. Blegh hnnnn.

View from our car.

It was great. I was in the front (which I would have though would be better) while Cath's mom shared the middle seats with two Aussies and Cath and Emma in the car seat took the back. Shame man, lil Emma kakked herself at times but was so good.

We stopped off for a break and a few desert pics before heading on again.

Emma loved playing with the fine red sand.

Eventually, as night was falling, we made it to our rest camp where we were treated to a belly dancer, a nother type of fancy dancing, a camel ride, allowed to dress up in Arab garb and hold a falcon. On the camel.

The dancing.

Belly dancer chick and her crowd.

Cath got a henna tattoo on her ankle.

and got to hold a falcon.

The next dancer dude.

Eventually Emma wanted to sleep again, and passed out at our table. It was a great night out and fortunately, the drive home was a lot more peaceful than the drive there.

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The next day we headed out for a walk with the pram. Via a coffee shop of course. Sights around the marina. And as the weather was good, hit the pool in the afternoon. Lil Emma wasn't so keen to get in herself - a bit chilly... ... but she wanted ME in.

She thought the whole pushing me in thing was hilarious!

We took a stroll around the pool area to take in the sights.

... and the buildings around us.

Then it was time for some games... a bit of soccer and beat daddy to the ball.

Later that eve we caught up with an old friend, Lindsay McDonald, for supper. Cath's dad whipped up an amzing meal of salmom teriyaki.

And the next day, Emma crashed in the afternoon again - shame she was sicky and was so lethargic a lot of the time. Turned out she had an ear infection so she wasn't well, all things considered. she was sooo good.