gulfnews : Cheetah caught in Abu Dhabi

That's right, you're reading it right! There was a cheetah roaming the streets of Abu Dhabi a couple of days ago. After reading the article I simply feel bad for the animal. It seems like its owner isn't the nicest of people.
It got me thinking how horrible this could of turned out as a lot of people let their children play out on the streets. Imagine if the cheetah was hunting!

gulfnews : Cheetah caught in Abu Dhabi has fractured foot

Our Anniversary

Last week was our 4th wedding anniversary. To celebrate Steve booked a helicopter ride around Abu Dhabi. We both thought it was a great idea & a totally different way of seeing the city. The views were spectacular & I can't believe we were able to see ALL of Abu Dhabi in a half an hour! The down side to the whole thing was how sick we both felt the moment we took off. Didn't realize that a helicopter ride is the opposite of smooth :-)
Regardless, Steve took some great pictures of the city & here are some of them.



Here we are before take off.

 

Emirates Palace, the worlds 2nd most expensive hotel ever built. The tall buildings behind it are Etihad Towers.




From left to right; the new Souk (two very tall buildings are now now on the same spot the original Souk was), ADIA &  the extremely tall building on the right is the Presidential Affairs Ministry.




Steve's current office, 4th building from the street on the left.




Birds eye view of The Club.




Ferrari World.




F1 track, you can see here the track goes right through a hotel!




A bigger picture of the race track.




Aldar (a construction company) head office.




Shaikh Zayed bridge.




Shaikh Zayed Grand Mosque. It's not the largest Mosque in the world but it can fit up to 46 000 people!




Steve's new offices. Not quite finished yet.



Girls Wkend Away!

The count down has begun to my "girls wkend away"!!!
I am super excited to be able to get away for a couple of days. We are a group of 5 friends all with small children & non of us have been away from our kiddies since the first one was born. So we decided that we need a weekend away without the hubbys & kiddies. We're not going far, only to Dubai, but we booked a fabulous hotel which will provide us with a 24h Butler service & free drinks in the evening.
I think that while I'm away Steve will have a great time with the girls without me constantly hovering & telling how things should be done (I swear I try my best not to do that). I don't believe he has ever been left alone with both girls for more than an hour or two. This will give him a chance to experience my world for a couple of days :-)

Update on Abu Dhabi

The city changes all the time. At the rate that projects get finished over here it's insane. Every time we're away for a couple of weeks something new pops up on the cities skyline.

The latest updates are;

The monumental Shaikh Zayed Bridge has finally been finished & is open. This project was way over due but now that it's done it's beautiful to look at. As one web site puts it "the bridge has the prospect of becoming a destination in itself and potential catalyst in the future urban growth of Abu Dhabi." I totally agree with this as the other 2 bridges in Abu Dhabi are really nothing special to look at.



Here's what the final project looks like!

 Next on the update list is Steve's new office. Not a surprise but they are behind schedule & will only be moving into the new space June 2012 if I'm not mistaken. The structure is up along the Easter Ring road but it really doesn't look like it will be finished any time soon. Steve & I watched a documentary on the buildings on the Discover channel. It is pretty amazing! The new Abu Dhabi Investment Council offices will be the first in the region!!! They are using original Islamic architecture to block out the direct sunlight entering through the windows. Unlike, all of the buildings in Abu Dhabi, the Council's offices will not have tinted windows as it won't need them & in turn will use natural sun light indoors. To block the sun the architects are using movable Mashrabiya screens which will open as the sun light hits the building. The same way they will close when the sun moves to the other side of the building. This will allow for less energy consumption in terms of less AC & less indoor lights. It is pretty impressive what they are building & I'm sure it will be just as impressive if not more to be working in these offices.

Here are some pictures I found on the web of how the buildings will look like once finished.

The Souk is now open with a variety of stores & restaurants. This Souk is rebuilt on the sight of the original Souk in Abu Dhabi, which unfortunately burned down a couple of years ago. A Souk for those of you who don't know is a market place. I couldn't find any pictures of it so next time we're there I'll have to take my own.

Ferrari world is now open. It is the largest indoor them park in the world with the fastest roller coaster in the world! I tell ya they don't do it small here :-)



A bird's eye view of Ferrari World.


The public beach extension is still in progress, that project has been on for over a year. Makes me wonder how great the public beach will be. The Municipality of Abu Dhabi has decided to build 120 new parks for children to help battle the high obesity & diabetes numbers in children here. The new parks are great! Most of them are fully shaded & they all have cork on the ground which means a lot less boo boos' for Lea when she falls & Amelia can can crawl around easily.

That's it for now, I'm sure I forgot about other new developments here so when I think of any I'll post about them here.  







Snoop Dogg Concert

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Snoop Dogg concert at Yas Arena. I'm not a huge fan of his, but Steve is & it was a great excuse to go out with some of our friends.
We had a great time with tons of laughter & memories that will last a life time. We both felt like teenagers again going to a concert. It's been a while since we did that...
The reason why I'm posting about the concert is that Snoop came out on stage in a dish dash which is a traditional Emirati male outfit that's worn by men. The crowd went wild when he came out.

Here's a picture of him in his hotel room before the concert.

Scuba Diving here we come!

 Every time Steve wants to try something that’s considered dangerous or living on the edge he always asks me to do it with him. On our honeymoon he went bungee jumping & there was no way that he was going to convince to do that with him. I think I screamed louder than he did watching him jump. A couple of months ago he went sky diving in Dubai. Again there was no way I was going to do that with him. This time I didn’t scream as I didn’t see him actually jump out of the plane, but I was nervous none the less.

So now scuba diving. He’s been talking to me about this for a while, how great it would be for us to do this together & take vacations & be able to enjoy scuba diving.

I agreed after we tried it out in the pool at The Club. Not going to lie I was scared (I’m still scared) when I went under water for the first time. I was so nervous that I forgot to breath & was holding my breath until my instructor reminded me to breath.

We just finished the theory part & as of this Monday evening we will start our pool sessions. After that it’s out in the open water. We have to pass a theory test first & then the water exercises begin. If we pass everything we will be BSAC certified & we will be allowed to dive up to 20 meters. Exciting! Although I told Steve that I’m not planning to go below 6 meters 

It’s not an official date & it’s not like we’re talking over a romantic dinner, but it’s still nice that every Monday evening we get out of the house, leave the girls with a sitter & go learn all about scuba diving.

Cross your fingers everyone that we get certified & it all goes well!

We joined The Club!

For the past 2 years we have been members of the Abu Dhabi Country Club, which is just a fancy name for a gym. Than as I joined AD Mums I was visiting The Club quite often as that’s where they were holding the play groups. I fell in love with the place! They have their own private beach, 2 pools designed specifically for children that are fully shaded & are in a closed off area with the floor made out of cork so there’s no slipping & falling. An adult pool, many restaurants, a gym, climbing wall, tennis, squash, scuba diving club, a full library, the list goes on & on. Best of all they run loads of activities for the little ones.

Becoming a member of The Club is something else. It is the longest running members club in AD. It actually exists longer than the UAE!!! It is the only non for profit club which means that the membership wait list is quite long & also that the membership fees are used to subsidies for the cost of food & beverages as well as provide members with tons of free activities.

I’m there during the week several times. I take the girls to ‘story time’ at the library, we meet our friends for a pool date & lunch, & I take Amelia to ‘soft play’ on one of the morning when Lea is at nursery. They also have a babysitting service so I can leave the girls there & go to the gym. All the staff are super friendly & very helpful.

Apparently we were very lucky that we got in within 2 months. We met some people that waited for over a year to become members! Whatever the wait it was all worth it as we look forward to our weekends & spending them at The Club. Every time we’re there it feels like we’ve gone away on a mini vacation!

This is the private beach we get to enjoy!

Teaching is taking over my husband!

Some of you may already know this, but Steve has ventured into the world of teaching. He always said that one day he would love to teach and when the opportunity arrived last year and he took the plunge.

Poor guy has been head over heels in books & studying, reviewing, practicing, but most of all STRESSING. He is a perfectionist & he would not stop until he felt somewhat comfortable with the material. I don’t know how many time he asked why he’s doing this to himself? We missed him a lot as for a couple of months he was missing from our lives studying & preparing after work.

All the hard work paid off as Steve has made himself one of the best teachers at the Institute & he has quite the fan fare fallowing him 

I’m very proud of him for doing such a great job & for giving his best into everything that he does. He got such good feedback from his students that his head is slightly enlarged now :-o All the positive comments have given him the much needed confidence that he was missing. Now as he says “he feels calm & relaxed in front of a class, rather than stressed & nervous.” Go Steve!

Update on the Girls

Since my last Post (and I’m very embarrassed that my last Post was over 10 months ago!!!) we’ve been very busy.

Amelia is now 11 months and Lea is 2 ½ years old! Where does the time go???

Lea is now going to nursery 3 times a week & she absolutely LOVES it! Her teacher is Ms Val & we really could not have asked for more perfect teacher for her. Lea gets so excited when I wake her up in the morning & tell her that we’re going to see Ms Val. She has also started ballet classes once a week. It took her a couple of weeks to get comfortable but now she is a little ballerina  I think the part she likes the most is wearing the tutu which is my favorite part too! There’s just something so special & precious about little girls in ballet outfits trying to fallow the dance instructor. In other big news Lea is a big girl fully potty trained since a week after her 2nd Birthday. We are so proud of her because she only had a few accidents & she really likes to choose the underwear she wears every morning. At the moment her favorite are Dora underwear given to her from Babcia.

Amelia is a little screaming, standing, crawling & sometimes cruising rascal. She wants to do everything Lea does & needs to be everywhere Lea is. She is so tiny but so strong. She still has no teeth but not to worry she is able to chew her food just fine.

Steve & I were just talking the other night how different the two of them are. Amelia is much more emotional & vocal than Lea ever was, but Lea is very bossy & controlling. I think we’re up for very interesting teenage years ahead!

P.S. I promise and I know I’ve promised before, that I will do my best to post on here as much as I can.