Thats been a month now that I’ve been working “permanently” and really enjoying it so far. It’s good that it’s only part time as I get the morning to do whatever I want then go in at 12pm till 4.30pm. Plus it gives me a little bit of pocket money too

We had Donna, Rob & their kids out for a few days staying with us recently. They came out for a week but only stayed two nights with us. It was lovely to see them..although Donna ended up quite ill! (not my cooking… honest!) On the Monday that they arrived at our house, we decided to get a take away and open a bottle of wine. Well…. 3 bottles later, we were gished!!! And it was only me & Donna that were drinking it!! I had to take the kids to school in the morning & I dread to think what the other mums were thinking!! Here’s me, hair sticking up on end, no make up, in my tracky bottoms & trainers with a serious case of wine breath that you wouldn’t believe!!! And to make matters worse, I work at the school so I was seriously hoping not to bump into any staff members that I knew!! It just confirmed the long standing rule…. never on a school night!!

We’ve been having a few maid issues too… I know, I know, it sounds all too presumptuous but it is the norm here and I actually do need her now that I am working as the kids finish school before I finish work and they don’t do after school care here (coz everyone has a maid!!). Our last one seemed ok but then there were a few visa issues and she left and never came back!! We interviewed a million other maids (well, maybe not a million but it felt like it) and all I got were nutters! I must attract the chancers of the world coz when I called to arrange interviews, they all came out with bizarre demands! Some would only work certain days, some would only work certain hours, some would only work for a certain amount of money, one even said that my house was too big and she didn’t do big houses!! Oh the list goes on!! I do realise that this sounds really petty, but lets face it, I wouldn’t walk into a job interview where the hours, salary & job description had been explained prior to applying and demand that I wanted more money, less hours etc!! I was close to just scrapping the whole idea but luckily found a nice girl who was happy with everything and so far has proved to be a good little worker! We pay her really well and are not demanding at all so long may it last!!

Oh god I sound like a right expat wife don’t i?!

We had a fab New Years Eve… a heap of us went camping again out in the desert somewhere, brought heaps of music, food & booze and had ourselves a little party!

We spotted some camels around the campsite earlier when we arrived and we seemed to put them off coming our way so settled down to setting up tents, bbq’s, campfire and most importantly the bar!!

Once the menial tasks were done, the main tasks of eating & drinking began!  We were all sat round the fire chatting etc when someone spotted a little lizard crawling up one of the cool boxes.. it was sooo cute!  We removed it from camp incase one of the dogs decided to eat it and carried on with our fun & games!  About an hour later, someone then pipes up “Come here & look at this?”  We figured the lizard came back but no…. it was a scorpion!!  After a few prods with a stick and photos being taken, we  decided to flick it into the fire.. sorry but  we weren’t chancing that coming back into camp!!

The rest of the evening went as expected, eating, drinking & making a beer bush (as you do!)  To explain this bizarre ritual, Ian decided instead of putting his empty tin of beer in the bin he was putting it on this shrubby bush thing next to the camp fire… so we decided to go one better and started adding all sorts, party blowers, plastic cups, glow sticks etc….  In the end, it was quite artistic looking and worthy of a exhibition in the Tate Modern!!  

We saw in the bells … thanks to Lu having downloaded big ben’s chimes on her ipod along with Auld Lang Syne and other random new year songs!  Had a few more glasses of the bubbly stuff and then headed for bed!

We woke up to hot air balloons and paragliders overhead & some unexpected visitors in our camp!  The Camel had returned ….. with several others!!  They had a sniff around, came REALLY close (which I did NOT like) then decided we weren’t that interesting after all and toddled off!  We had sausages & bacon for brekkie, sat around for a while then got packed up ready for the off!

It was sooo much fun, even if it was FREEZING!!  Well, maybe not freezing in the scottish sense of the word but it was definitley cold for being out here!!

Off for a snooze now to catch up on what I missed last night….(no not partying…. more worried if the camels would somehow would manage to undo the zip on my tent & snuggle in beside me!!) 

A few sample pics of the beer bush, lizard, hot air balloon & our early morning visitors!  The rest as are usual on my flickr page!!

Since I last wrote, my mum has been out on holiday, I’ve been working, I’ve been ill and then it was xmas!!  Mum came out for 10 days at the end of November and it was really nice as she got to buy the kids xmas pressies so they had something to open on xmas day.  I’ve been doing supply work at the local school here (which the kids are all moving to in Jan) and have just been offered a full time job .. well when I say full time, it’s 12pm – 4.30pm Sunday to Thursday.  I start on 3rd Jan and I’m really looking forward to it!

I came down with flu last week and was completely floored!  I felt like poo!!  Feeling much better now though thankfully.  And then it was Xmas!! Cam was up around 8am absolutely hyper and got everyone up, we opened presents then Andrew made us all bacon & egg butties for breakfast!  We lazed about for a while then got lunch sorted.  After lunch we headed to the golf club with the kids to meet some friends for a xmas drink!  Once we were there, we decided to head round and gatecrash another friends house….. what a fantastic night!  Imagine sitting outside till 1am on Xmas night while the kids played in the pool!  It was strange but nice!  I did miss the cold tho… when I went outside to put the rubbish in the bin & forgot that it was hot!

Having a relaxing day today…. sitting catching up with Eastenders, Strictly Come Dancing & the rest of the tv programmes that I download! 

 Hope everyone has had a lovely Xmas and eaten & drunk too much

xx

Andrew had been in the golfing event on the Thursday & Friday so we got a table for the ball at night.  It was out of this world.. the entertainment was excellent, the food was brilliant and the firework display was something else!

Considering we’ve only been in Dubai since February, I couldn’t believe the amount of people I knew there… I couldn’t even go for a pee without getting stopped by someone I knew!  Everyone ended up at ours for an impromptu party which went on till the early hours and included someone trying to breakdance and splitting his head open against the wall

We actually had a blast!  In the end, we had exactly 50 people camping!!!!  23 adults & 27 children and everyone of us had a fantastic time…..(apart from the sleep deprivation).  We ended up on Ghantoot beach on the way to Abu Dhabi but unfortunately, the part where Lu camped last time was closed off for construction, so we ended up camped between 2 beach bars… well we didn’t realise they were beach bars until evening and they started to fill up with people!  Hence the reason we had little sleep!!  (not through our own partying!!)

We all enjoyed it so much that we have decided that we are doing it again on 7th December somewhere in the desert this time and again for New Years Eve but that one is gonna be a posh camping doo as we’re gonna hire a generator & get caterers…. HOW ACE!!

Pics are up across on flickr but here is one of most of the cars lined up!

I’ve never been camping before EVER and I’m soooo nervous but soooo excited too!  There is around 13 families going…. all with kids of various ages so I’m presuming it’ll be a laugh and at least we won’t be bored with that many people around!  I had to go out today and buy all the camping gear you could possibly need and I got myself….. wait for it………

…………………A PINK TENT AND PINK SLEEPING BAG…………….. How ace!!!

Anyway, Loz has a heap of pals who’s parents are going and so does Cam but as Kayl doesn’t ‘socialise’ with that lot, she’s taking 2 of her friends along to keep her company!  I think I’ve packed enough food for the WHOLE campsite but better safe than sorry… I’d rather have food than run out and be stuck in the middle of nowhere starving!!  (well, ok, we’re only 20 mins drive from the city but you know I like to dramatise things!!) I’ve even bought rechargable torches, lanterns, blow up mattresses, sleeping bags, cool boxes… jeez, I’ve got everything!!  I’ve been told to bring cosy clothes for night time as it gets really cold!!  If I hadn’t popped out to the garden at 6.30am this morning then I would have disagreed with them but flippin heck….. it was FREEZING!!  Honestly, I had to put on my jacket… I think it was 21.5oC 

Anyway, I’m away to bed and no doubt have nightmare’s about all the creepy crawlies that will invade my tent during the night! 

The kids had an absolute ball, Lauren even wanted to have another party the following night!  We got the last of the die hard singstar goers out the door around 4am and did a quick scoot round shoving things in black bags then hit the sack!  Cam must have went to bed around 3am ish and didn’t surface until 2pm!!!!  And only then did he wake up coz Andy went into his room and woke him up!!!  Loads of people dressed up and my fave was my mate Lisa who came as Amy Winehouse complete with beehive wig, drawn on tattoos and a plastic syringe taped to her arm!  :-D

You can see the pics over on flickr!  A good night was had and have recieved loads of texts saying it was a great night …. phew…job well done!! 

Haven’t posted for AGES… been really busy trying to get my butt into shape down at the gym and  just general day to day life!  My brother is out on holiday just now with his mate Simon so have been faffing about with them too doing the Tour Guide Barbie bit!

I got badgered into joining the gym by my friends as I kept talking about it but never actually doing it so I went along one day to try it out.  I got a call the next day from the manager of the gym asking how I got on and there were special offers on memberships blah blah blah.  He sounded dead sexy on the phone so when I saw my mate Lu, I was harping on about how sexy his voice was and we decided that normally when this happens that the person does not fit the voice if you know what I mean!!

Anyhow, I arranged to go & see him the following week to sign up so on the Sunday, Me & Lu pitches up at the gym and I ask to see the manager but was informed that he was running late and told to go and do my workout & he’ll be in by the time I was finished!  Great, I thought, I’m gonna be all sweaty & manky but hey never mind coz he’ll probably be 5ft 2, fat, bald and generally NOT HOT!

So… off I trot to the machines and spend an hour working bl**dy hard!  I left Lu still working out and headed off to the reception to ask for the manager.  I  was asked to sit in the seating area that faces all the treadmills etc so went & sat down, red faced, sweaty & looking pretty crap!  Well…. this stunning bloke comes walking towards me and I’m thinking “God, please don’t let this the manager” …. You guessed it…. it WAS!!!

He then sits opposite me with his back to all the workout machines & starts going through his sales schpeel while I was trying to smooth my hair & wipe up any excess sweat that might have been forming on my brow.  The next thing, I see Lu out of the corner of my eye walking towards us (behind the manager who could not see her but I could) and she clocks the manager, her jaw drops, she then winks at me and gives me a massive thumbs up behind the managers back!  Well … honestly, it was all I could do to stop myself from laughing and blushing!  Needless to say, I signed up at the gym if only to have a sneaky peek at him every week!!! 

Oh … and I nicked his pen so I have a permanent reminder of him

The clips can be a bit lengthy to open & watch but it is well worth seeing them!!

 This following one is this years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbD0TJYG8Bw

These are the previous two years:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lK0IAnBTn7s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSMWvfMqIXI

You’ll probably need to let it run through before watching so that it doesn’t stop & start!!

P.s…..they didn’t have teachers that looked like that when I was at school?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgoOihBb78w