Dubai Desert Safari

Firstly, apologies for the lack of posts lately. I've had this one sitting in the scheduler for awhile now, but just wasn't feeling the motivation to get it done. I really need to start regularly scheduling some time on my 'to-do' list to post about some of the cool things I've done over the last few months. This post is actually way overdue, since these pictures were taken in June last year! My sisters came to visit me for a few days in Dubai, the first time any of my family had come to visit since I moved to Dubai in 2010. Better late then never I guess!

We had limited time, since they had both taken tie out of busy work schedules, but the main motivating factor was that Madonna was performing in Abu Dhabi. My eldest sister is the biggest fan, and I said to them, why not come for a quick visit AND catch the concert? Lucky for them, since Madonna then cancelled the Aussie legs of her tour. So at the age of "more than 35", eldest sis finally realised her dream of seeing Madonna perform live, something she'd wanted to do since she was a teenager.

Anyway, on to the photos. In the short time we had, we decided to do the typical Dubai Desert Safari. I'd originally wanted to go with the company affiliated with my employer, but a friend told me try another one that she'd been happy with. She must have got them on a good day, because while we had a fun time, there were a few aspects that we really weren't that happy with, but I think it was due more to the individual guys taking our tour than to all of them being that way (I hope)

Old area of Dubai

Earlier in their visit we did the whole Gold Souk/Abra ride thing, which was fun but very hot in the middle of summer. Cheap though, at 2dhs or so a ride. Whee!

Dubai Creek

After calling it quits since it was too hot, we took a ride to check out the Atlantis Hotel. Unfortunately, since my prior visit they had blocked off access to all except hotel guests, so you couldn't see any of the awesome rooms that I had seen. Shame, but understandable, since hordes of tourists had been turning up with tour guides too lazy to actually guide, and had just dumped them to wander for an hour or two.

The famous gold vending machine. You can buy small (really small) bars, coins and pendants, some with touristic stamps of Dubai landmarks on them. Still worth $$, though.

After Atlantis we went to our hotel for the pickup. The 4WD showed up, along with a khandoura-and-dishdasha wearing driver who turned out to be Omani. Two couples were in with us, making for a bit of a squishy ride. After driving about 30mins, we took the usual stop at that random petrol/snack shop on the Al Ain road then headed into the desert for the start.

Real dunes!

It was a liiiiitle disappointing that instead f getting to sandboard, they parked up with some other cards and we ended up waiting about 30mins for a bunch of other cars to join us, while the drivers sat around talking and smoking. I'm not sure if there was never any sand boarding on the agenda, or if we just lucked out and got the lazy ones. :/ So, took the chance for some happy snaps.

I got sand... in my shoes....

I love the colours in the sand, so pretty

Once the other cars arrived, it was time for some dune bashing. While it was fun, our driver seemed to get particular kicks when people were asking to tone it down, lol... Stopped just in tie before we all got car sick. So, if you get easily motion sick, skip this bit, haha!

After the dune bashing, we got a bit of time to sit outside, by this time it hard started to cool down so we could take some pics together. If you didn't know any better, we could have been the only people there :)

My fave photo from this outing

After the desert, we headed back to a camp, on the way stopping for photo ops with camels. We had all seen them before, so no big deal, but the other tourists went nuts, it was kind of funny.

An A380 on its way somewhere fun...

I really like this photo, camels are actually very interesting to photograph and
are capable of so many expressions.

Then it was to the camp for traditional henna painting, dinner and a show. We did the henna, me completely forgetting that I would still have the marks at work. oops!

Luckily I had 2 weeks off, so the henna marks were mostly gone by the
time I had to fly again. Good thing because my trousers no longer fit at
that stage- too much eating!

The show consisted of a belly dancer, and then a tanoura show and a whirling dervish. He was good, went for at least 7 minutes non-stop. Don't know how they do it!

Yummy dinner.

All in all it was a fun outing with my sisters, I'd like to do it again for the full experience, so I think next time I'd try a different company. Want to see the falcons again and also try the sand boarding :) If you visit Dubai, do try the desert safari, especially if you only have a short time. Combine it with a visit to the Gold Souk and an abra ride and you have the traditional UAE experience....

Video Games Live- Dubai

It's no secret that I'm a big nerd, especially when it comes to the 80's and video games. So I was very happy to see advertised online that the cool Video Games Live concert was coming to Dubai. It started in the US and has since appeared in dozens of countries to rave reviews.

The basic concept is that it's a montage of videos and images from popular and famous video games set to music which is provided by a live orchestra. The sow is accompanied by various effects including lighting, sounds, smoke and lasers (The effects and content very from show to show and between cities, dependant on the venue) Details at Video Games Live

Even though December was my reserve month, I bought tickets and hoped that I would get the day off. As luck would have it, I did. Yay! Time to get my geek on...

Premium tickets were the middle tier, with the others being Regular and VIP. I went for Premium as the rep at Virgin M.E. told me that Regular was standing only and Premium had seats. Unfortunately I found out on the day that this was not the case, which was annoying as the Premium ticket was almost double the price of Regular. Oh well.

The doors opened in the afternoon, as there were some meet n greet events with various visitors and also some gamin displays. I went a bit too early as I got a little bored after awhile, the concert only started at 7.30 and it felt like standing around a long time as there was a bit of a delay. The gaming stations they had were: Skylanders Giants on Playstation, Mortal Kombat on Playstation, as well as a FIFA game, a FPS game (didn't pay much attention) and another adventure game (possibly Uncharted 3 but I'm not sure). I was a bit disappointed not to see any Nintendo, especially with the Wii U having been recently released, but I think that is more a reflection of the distributors in Dubai than the organisers.

I kicked some teen's ass my first time playing MK3, he got really mad when
I pointed out that using Scorpion's spear throw every turn is kinda lame.... lol

Finally after lining up for about 40 minutes, it was time to go in. It was free seating but I managed to end up in the front row of the premium section by lining up early. I ended up sitting next to two Emirati girls who commented on my Nintendo t-shirt and asked where I got it :)

"Roses are red, violets are blue, All your Base,
Are belong to us" A geek joke to start the event



I also did some nail art for the occasion. Pika pika!

Yes I wore my Tanooki hat! ^_^

Time to begin!!



The emcee also played guitar in some of the sections, and he was really good!

Most of the segments included music accompanying scenes from games, but with added content like having the actual composer of the musical score there to conduct the orchestra (example, God of War game)

Everyone knew this one...

An intermission allowed guests to get refreshments and for the
orchestra to take a break (it was quite warm inside)

My fave, the Legend of Zelda montage. It got lots of applause.
As a big fan, it was cool but I think they could have had 'more'..

Another cool segment included an onstage Guitar Hero play-off, where the competitor played on the big screen, and an interactive Space Invaders where the player was the 'ship', he moved across the stage and the ship moved on the screen, aided by motion capture. That was really neat!

Earlier while we had been waiting, I saw and chatted with some cosplayers from various genres, they were called up on stage to participate in a Cosplay Contest. We had a range from Mystique from X-Men to Final Fantasy groups, Ezio from Assassin's Creed and a 'soldier' from Call of Duty. (the guy from Call of Duty won since he was so 'into' his cosplay and acted the part as well, he had the audience laughing. Winner was determined by the loudest applause from the audience, which seemed fair.)

Sadly my camera battery died in the middle of the Zelda theme (of course!!! /sarcasm) so  don't have any more pictures from it, but I do have some on my phone so hopefully can upload a pic and video or two from there.

All in all, I enjoyed the event. There were a few minor issues that I think could be improved upon, but as a new concept to the Middle East and the first VGL concert in Dubai, it was pretty good. I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10 and will definitely be going to VGL M.E. 2013 :)

June Empty- Fa Silk & Magnolia

I didn't get through many empties in June, given that I was off from work a lot and not using as many products as normal. So I only have one empty for this post, which is Fa Shower Cream.

To be honest I hate paying a lot for shower gels/creams since generally they mostly do the same thing and often aren't as moisturising as they claim. This one fits the bill nicely since it doesn't cost a lot and has a nice fragrance. It's a 'Cream & Oil' so you don't need much to get a nice lather. It's not wimpy lather either, feels nice and soapy and takes awhile to wash off completely. The fragrance is 'Silk & Magnolia'. It's fairly strong and leaves traces after you shower, which I like. Doesn't clash too much with perfume though. This actually reminds me of the old Dove Cherry Blossom Shower Creme Oil which I used to use back home, but haven't seen here.

Overall I like this product and have bought it again, gives a nice smell, lathers well and doesn't set me back the earth like other brands here might.

Cost: Dhs15 (About USD$4.10)

Sunset...

Taken a couple of days ago. You can see Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building to the left side. The pyramid-shaped building is part of an Egyptian-themed mall here in Dubai.

Dubai Snapshot

Gold Souk Atrium, Dubai Mall

Ramadan

Ramadan. The time of year that most expats tend to complain about & dread. Long hot summer days with nothing to do, nowhere to eat during daylight hours and most of their friends escaped from Dubai or working.

But, Ramadan isn't all bad. For those who haven't had much exposure to the Muslim culture, Ramadan is about consideration for those less fortunate than yourself, appreciation for what you have and self improvement to be a better person.

One of the more achievable goals during Ramadan is being charitable to others. Of course, this is something that we should try to do at other times as well, but if you've been lost for something to do, Ramadan month can be a good motivator to get started and get ideas.

Back in my home country, myself & my coworkers used to collect the toiletries from our hotel rooms when we stayed in other cities. There was a collection bin in our main office where we could drop these off and the company would then send them on to charities and hospitals to make use of them. Lots of hospitals loved these items, as often they had families of sick & injured patients coming at short notice to stay, often with whatever they happened to be wearing at the time and no luggage. With Australia being as large at it is, some patients were flown in from remote areas for treatment and had nothing with them. So, all of the small shampoos, soaps and toothbrushes came in very handy.

Since arriving in Dubai I have still been collecting the items, but was unsure what to do with them.



I discovered the website Helping Hands UAE; an organisation that helps labourers, abused maids and others in less fortunate circumstances with donations of toiletries, food and other items given by donations from expats and others. I got in touch with them and the lady that organises these things said that they are always in demand of hotel items. They can be transported easily and are a good fill-in measure for people who just need a few items until more permanent arrangements can be made.

So, if any of my fellow cabin crew or foreign, travelling expats are reading this, I urge you to do the same- collect the toiletries and other small "giveaway" items that you don't use and send them on to others who will. Helping Hands also accepts other donations, just contact Elle (via their website) to see what is required. Ramadan especially is a busy time for them and all help is gratefully received!!!

(Please note, I am talking about the items I am expected to use in hotel rooms, such as soaps, shampoos etc. I am not taking anything such as towels, robes or the like as this would be stealing. I also do not use any items from onboard the aircraft in accordance with company policy. My airline has their own arrangements for charity and I support those also where I can. This post was written solely by me as a result of my own experience and Heping Hands UAE did not request me to write such a post. However, I am sure they would be happy to hear from you for anything you may be able to give!)

Mixing It Up

A week or two back. my friend Robyn came through Dubai on her way back to Australia for holidays with her family. Now Robyn actually is qualified as a raw chef and makes lots of yummy things that are also super-healthy for you. Me, well I'm a bit of a sweet tooth and have found it very hard in the past to stick to a healthy diet as I just love my sweets too much!

Lately though, I've been managing to get to the gym quite often (at least once every three if not every 2nd day or even oftener) and I wanted to have the right food to go with working out more.

Robyn & I went for lunch while she was here in Dubai, and afterwards we traweled the mall as all good Middle East-dwellers do ;) The fruit & veg section of Carrefour was duly visited (and raided!!!- I bought lemons, oranges, and some fresh mint) and then I decided that I was finally going to stop putting off getting a blender!!!

I settled on the Kenwood 3-in-1 Wizzard, as I wanted something that not only would blend but I also could chop with. It wasn't the fanciest model but at 129dhs instead of about 179, it was a good price.


Really glad I got it, have used it a few times already now, and it's very easy to use and the attachments it comes with are just what I wanted.

So, here's a recipe I thought I'd share with you, for a yummy cold juice.

1 orange
2 or 3 slices of pineapple
1 or 2 kiwi fruit
ice cubes
lemon or lime to taste

(I don't have a juicer yet but I used the old fashioned hand juicer. The Kenwood comes with a big measuring/smoothie cup so as I mixed things in the chopper part I'd put the blended fruit in the cup to mix more later...)

So:

1. Juice the orange and put juice in the cup
2. Trim the skin off the kiwi and blend it, add to cup
3. Blend the pineapple and add to the cup
4. Add a squeeze or two of lemon or lime juice if desired
5. Add a small amount of water to thin out the mixture
6. Use the hand mixer to blend the ingredients together in the cup



You could pour the juice over ice, but I was naughty and used the hand blender part to crush two small ice cubes into the mix (I shouldn't really as the manual says it won't do ice but it seemed okay, but I'll limit this as much as possible.)

This was so refereshing in the summer heat!! Next time I might try adding some strawberries or mint too if I have them on hand.

Burgundy & Gold (Outfit Post)

I've always liked the combination of burgundy & gold, especially when accented with black and/or white.

I remember seeing Nicole of Gary Pepper Vintage wearing an amazing burgundy pleated skirt in one of her posts, and when I was last in Sydney, pleated skirts were popping up everywhere in the store windows including Dotti and Valleygirl. Sadly, they looked kind of wrong on me.

While on my visit to AdelaideI was very happy to discover a similar, non-pleated skirt in Supre. It also came in black, bone and a tan colour. I really liked the tan and if it's still there next time I get to Sydney I think I'll buy it as well. In the last couple of years I've thought Supre clothes are quite expensive for what they are, but as I wear long skirts all the time in Dubai this purchase would be worth it.

Today I wore it for the first time in Dubai, this test run was to the mall for a nice dinner on my own.



Detail Shot:

This shows what I like to call my 'Lord of the Rings Tree' necklace. I can't recall where I bought this but I know it was $5 or less. I LOOOOVE this necklace & have been wearing it to death lately.



These are also the first pictures of my new hair colour. The lighting is not that great but it's quite red now. Last time I got it coloured it was more a darker, red-brown than a true red-copper brown.

Skirt: Supre
Cardigan: Crossroads, about 4 or 5 years ago
Belt: ICE Brisbane, about 3 years ago
Necklace: Bargain, probably Diva or similar
Shoes: Forever21 New York City
Hair Colour: L'Oreal Excellence #44 ;)
Makeup: Dior Lip Glow, Maybelline Colour Sensational #55 Pinkalicious & Dior Addict Ultra Gloss in #557 with CoverGirl TruBlend Mineral Powder (no longer on sale) :(

Tee Vee

After convincing myself for ages that I didn't *NEED* a tv, at least not for a few more months, the searing temperatures in Dubai finally made me cave & I figured summer & right before Ramadan is as good a time as any to get a tv. So, I went out and got myself a nice shiny 32-inch flat screen tv. The good thing is, I can connect my laptop to view photos and videos, and watch all my DVDs that I have in a list waiting to be seen.

The tv I got is a Sony Bravia, I had wanted a Samsung but it didn't have a VGA port for my computer (which doesn't have HDMI) and it didn't have a headphone port either. I prefer to have the option in case I want to watch movies in the middle of the night, I won't feel bad about making any noise!!

Next time I go home on leave I'll probably bring back my Nintendo 64, or if I can find one for a reasonable price online, a Super Nintendo. I love me some retro games!!!

I'm Coming Home...

After a very laid-back layover in Beijing, I put on my uniform and got ready to head back to Dubai. It was a very easy trip, and I spent most of my time running around doing duty free and taking cups of water to sleepy passengers. It was quite good as I made a tidy commission; I've been putting my duty-free earnings into an envelope as savings so it's a little something extra.

Soon we landed, much earlier than I had expected, and on the urging of some other crew I ran to check the flights home and whether there were any seats. Before, the system had shown zero seats on the Sunday flight, so I had booked to go on the Monday, but lo and behold there were now LOTS of seats free- I guessed maybe they had changed the plane to a bigger one. Whatever the reason, I sure wasn't complaining!

I raced home, threw my uniforms in the wash and began madly packing my suitcase, hoping that I wouldn't forget anything important in the rush. I managed to get my bag packed so quickly that I even had a little bit of time to check my Facebook & email before I left, important for a slight internet geek like me :)

Then it was off to the airport in the hope that the figures on the travel website were correct and there were, in fact, seats available. I only needed one!!! I took my bag to the standby counter and to my luck the guy checking people in told me that I didn't need to wait for the flight to close, he could just give me a boarding pass right away. He asked me if I would like "3 or 4 seats".... errr, what??? Turns out there were so many seats free, he marked the ones next to me as last to be allocated so hopefully I'd have some space to lie down and sleep. I really needed to, as I had 2 hours of sleep before my flight back from Beijing, and none since then. So really, I hadn't slept much since the first night in Beijing.

I went through to departures, where I stopped in the store to buy some water, some snacks and a magazine or two to read on the flight. I also somehow miraculously managed to visit the restroom and get myself something for breakfast, all in the 20 minutes I had before boarding started. I'm not sure why everyone else seems to find it hard to find the toilet,or buy water but see, it can be done, travellers!!!! Haha.

Got on the plane and settled in, deciding which movies I'd want to watch on the way while waiting for lunch to come around. Luckily for me, the flight was quite light so the seats next to me remained unused. In fact it was so empty that everyone else who wanted to move to a row on their own got to, without having to sit next to me. Yay for a row to myself!! :)

Typically, I didn't sleep much on the flight. I dozed off until one of the crew woke me for lunch, then I watched a movie (From Prada to Nada which is apparently a remake of Sense & Sensibility) and after that I just. Couldn't. Sleep. Argh!! I spent the time reading the in-flight magazine, my book and wandering around the plane, occasionally chatting to the crew. I must add, they were really great, coming around regularly with water & juice, and one of them even left me a bottle of water & toothbrush on my seat after I had mentioned not going to sleep the night before. Yay you guys!!!

Soon it was time for the "dinner" meal, and I figured I'd try fit in another movie before we landed. I decided on 'Tangled', having heard good things about it, and I wasn't disappointed!



I thought it was a great movie, the graphics were brilliant and the little chameleon sidekick is quite possibly the cutest ever in a Disney film.



I think the lantern scene is my favourite, it's just so pretty!

Soon it was time to land & after spending about an hour in customs & quarantine, I was home free into freezing cold Perth!!! I think I underestimated just how cold it is & really wish I'd brought my fluffy pyjamas. Thank goodness for electric blankets & kitties that want to sleep on your feet! ^_^

Down Time

The last few days I've been feeling sorry for myself, as somehow, somewhere in the potential bacterial breeding ground that is a giant aircraft, I managed to pick up some sort of bug and was now sniffling and snuffling through the day. As always, I began knocking back the echinacea, vitamin C and water in the hope that it might chase off whatever I'd caught in the minimum of time.

I'd felt fine the morning of my Hong Kong trip but by the time I got up the next morning I had a touch of a sore throat. Nothing to keep me from sightseeing though! But by the time we'd got back to the hotel at the end of (a very long) day, I was fast sounding like the penguin in Toy Story that lost it's squeaker.

Thankfully today I'm mostly back to normal so hopefully I'll be able to fly my next trip. Of course I'll call sick if required but unfortunately as I have leave after that I'll cop an 'absent from work' on my roster and I'd really rather not thanks very much... but, it can't be avoided if I'm sick. Ugh. I was doing so well, not getting sick with anything like this since just before I moved overseas!!

Today was spent in a somewhat frustrating and time consuming process of trying to fix a problem with the tickets for my leave. Getting home was no problem, but going elsewhere that I needed to go was fast becoming an issue. Normally, we just book tickets online but for some reason the system wasn't letting me. Online help wasn't, and trying to phone through to the call centre went unanswered for hours. Finally, I did what they told me to do last time and made the trip into the office to visit the ticketing desk.

Again, as last time, they refused to help me, until I had to plead my case and explain that as no one was answering the phone, and had been giving me the wrong info for weeks, that today was the last day I could possibly get the tickets. Normally, I could have requested them today and picked them up right before my leave, but with tomorrow being a public holiday here I didn't wat to risk missing the ticket collection. (I can't get these emailed to me like I can with everything else).

As with many things in this country, it took a lot of waiting around, a lot of re-explaining my story to several different people and a LOT of errors and wrong info before I finally had tickets in my hot little hand. It was an epic four and a half hours waiting until I got them, so needless to say I am glad to be back at home recovering and away from the freezing a/c of the office. I'm only a bit ashamed of getting a tad emotional with the supervisor but I think it was what finally convinced him to make them help me!! :P

Not much else was going on, as I was pretty much just resting and doing things around the house. I did go to the mall to pick up a few things, one of which was a scrapbook as some friends and I are planning on starting a 'craft n wine' night- bring whatever we're working on, have a few glasses of wine and watch some tv box sets. Yay!!!!

It's getting really hot in Dubai now, I felt the need to be outside for a little bit, so went to the pool with my book but I only lasted 40mins before the heat sent me scurrying back inside. It's sure going to be a change being in Oz during winter- family tells me there was a huge storm the last few days and it even hailed in my city!!!! I'd better pack warm clothes...

Things I'm Loving

* DVD box sets-
with the weather heating up (50'C is not uncommon now) a good, addictive tv series is just the way to go. I've been watching The Hills Season 6, Boardwalk Empire, Downton Abbey (which I finished in about 2 days) and Big Bang Theory Season 4. Yay for good tv

* My $9 Jackets-
During my Sydney trip I stopped by SES on a whim and bought 2 semi-military style light jackets- one in a bone/beige colour and the other in charcoal. I have lots of 'cold' jackets and cardis but nothing really in between. I've been wearing the beige one almost constantly since I got back. Shopping this cheap is guilt free! :D

* Staff Tickets-
I really am lucky to be able to make use of discounted airfares to go travelling. As I already posted, I went to Prague for 2 days recently and am taking my sister to Adelaide during my leave so we can visit our grandparents. I'm going to try to aim to do a mini trip at least once every 3 months, if not oftener.

* Twitter-
Aside from keeping in touch with friends, I've been able to find out some great travel info, recommendations of places to go and best of all, I saved money on my credit card by talking to my bank on Twitter! They managed to sort out some issues I'd been trying to have fixed for at least 6 months and all it took was one phone call. I don't like to plug things but National Australia Bank is definitely taking a step in the right direction with the way they're using social media.

* Saving (Well, not spending as much)
As you might know, one of my goals this year has been to pay off my credit card debt- happy to say I've been making progress (with some help from NAB) and have been very good- I went to Sydney and didn't use my credit card once, not even for hotel bills or anything, which is very unusual for me! I'm on track with my car loan and in about 5 months it will be finished so I can use that money towards my credit card and start paying it down even faster.

* The Internet-
Well duh, this is an obvious one for me, but I do love it. Aside from my blog, it allows me to keep in touch with friends and family, and get things done that I would otherwise only be able to do when I go home on leave. Sometimes just a silly random email from a friend is just what I need. Currently, normal everyday emails from a friend about the progress of the house she is building are keeping me a little bit at home.

Stormy Weather

Living in the desert, it's easy to forget what "normal" weather is like. Sure, I don't live in the DESERT desert, like other people, and there are plants and trees and greenery around. But the weather, while mostly nice, can be downright depressing on occasions.

In winter, it's very pleasant, nice temperatures and the odd cloudy days perfect for going to the beach, every so often a windy day and occasionally a sudden dust storm will blow up out of nowhere. Those can be quite scary! During summer it's about 5 months on endless furnace temps (50'C is not uncommon) and the wind only makes it worse...

One thing I do miss living here is rain. Sure, at the time I used to moan about how annoying it was, getting from my car to the house and car to work and getting soaked. But I do love lying in bed & listening to the rain fall, it's soothing. I also love how the air smells after rain, it's fresh and earthy, like eveything is clean.

The other day a friend & I were talking about this exact thing actually, how nice it is to be snuggled up under the covers & listening to the rain on the roof. The weather forecast said there was supposed to be some rain the next day. We pooh-poohed it as probably coming to nothing like most rain showers here. I commented how I really missed the rain and how nice it would be to be able to do just that, hide under the doona while the rain comes down.

Funnily enough, about 30mins later I got a text from said friend telling me that at their place it has just started bucketing down rain, and was it raining at my house yet? It was starting to drizzle a little bit by this time, so I went downstairs. All of a sudden it was like someone turned on the tap- water coming down in sheets, thunder and lightning (very very frightening, haha) It was GREAT!!!

I stood in front of my building under the eave, still getting partly soaked but loving that we were in the middle of a storm and it was still WARM!! I was getting odd looks from everyone else takign shelter in the building lobby. A stack of delivery bicycles and motorbikes was slowly growing in our driveway as the poor food delivery guys ran to the lobby to get out of the rain.

It was awesome, and the rain probably happened again about three or four times that night, and again the next day. The storm seemed really close from 20+ floors up! My friends down the road are more than 40 floors up & said that it felt like the lightning was going to come inside the apartment! I woke up at about 4am with rain pelting my windows. I recalled seeing the window cleaners out all that day prior to the storm and felt sorry for them, all that work wasted and probably lots of gunk washed down from the top of the building to keep them occupied for another month!

So weird that I had just been saying I missed the rain, and not an hour later here was a storm! Now, about that million dollars I've been wanting...

LV = Leave = LOVE!

Finally the day rolled around where that blessed green box appeared on my roster: XX followed by two weeks of 'LV LV LV LV LV'. Woo hoo!!!

I arrived from New York at about 9pm, then right away I started doing my washing and getting my bags ready. Of course, after being so tired on the landing and through to the bus trip back to my apartment, by this time I could not fall asleep. I probably had about 2 or 3 hours of sleep by the time my phone rang to wake me up. I decided to skip getting a taxi to the airport and use the convenient Dubai Metro instead. It was a short walk from my building to a station and then onto the train. It took maybe 15 or 20 minutes to get to the airport. From there it was easy to take my bags and check in. Phew, my bag weighed right on the 30kg limit, lucky!!!

I spent awhile looking around the shops and the airport in general. It's only when on leave that we actually get to see inside the airport; usually we get taken direct to the plane from our crew centre and so miss seeing all the goings on of the airport. I picked up some supplies for the flight (bottled water and some snacks in case I didn't like what was being served) then had myself a quick breakfast before boarding. (See, it's not that hard to do, passengers who tell me you can't buy water in the airport!!!)

I went to the gate as it said boarding, but silly me didn't actually look outside of the window and check if there was even a plane there. (It wasn't there yet). After waiting about 45 minutes, the plane did show up and was cleaned ready for our flight. While waiting, I got talking to a girl sitting by me, as she wanted to plug her iPhone to my laptop to charge it. No problem. It turned out she used to work in a town that one of my previous airlines flew to. We even knew some of the same people. Small world indeed!!!

Once boarding was called for my section I headed onboard, putting the things I needed immediately in the seat pocket (and making sure I didn't block the aisle while I did so). The size of people's carry on luggage still never ceases to amaze me. I had the smallest of small rollaboard bags, others were bringing stupidly large bags plus myriad smaller items, then getting annoyed when there was nowhere to put them. Of course, putting things under the seat in front (in their own legroom) was out of the question. The lady in front of me wanted to put her bags in MY legroom (Um, no thank you was my answer).

Soon everyone was settled and off we went. I was going home!!! Despite being tired, I didn't (or couldn't) sleep. I ate my lunch (which was the fish as they'd run out of the choices) and it wasn't too bad. Of course some people made such a fuss, so when the poor crew got to me, he nearly had to ask me to repeat myself when I said that whatever he was serving is fine. I wasn't using a crew bag so I don't know if he knew I was crew- his reaction said probably not. After the meal was done I watched some movies. "Morning Glory" with Rachel McAdams and "Never Let Me Go" with Carey Mulligan. I quite like her, aside from her cute awards show outfits she has an interesting face.

Anyway, the flight was okay, weird and uncomfortable for me because I'm not used to sitting for so long. Eventually, we arrived and it was nearly time to meet my family. Yay!

After a brief stop in duty free to buy Moet for my sister's birthday, it was out to Arrivals & my family. We got my bags into the car then headed home. Being around 3am by this time, we were all hungry and I requested to make a stop on the way home.



Hungry Jack's!!! For those of you who like Burger King, imagine it but ten times better. I still haven't found any Burger King anywhere in the world that even comes close to Aussie Hungry Jack's- not even in NZ.

Getting home, I dumped my stuff in the foyer and we descended into the lounge to devour our burgers and fries.... man it was sooooooo good!!! All the while watching 'Jersey Shore' (don't ask) re-runs and me answering myriad questions about my life in the Middle East.

I'm not one of those people who can keep a good gift under wraps for long, so of course then the unpacking of bags in the middle of the lounge room floor followed, I like seeing what people think of the presents I got for them. As it was my sister's 30th birthday I splashed out a bit and bought her the new Dior Cannage makeup palette, she said it was exactly what she had been thinking to buy for herself and the cool thing is onc eth emakeup is gone the case can be used as a clutch bag. Cute!!

For my aunt I got an 'I <3 NYC' t-shirt and glass Arabic perfume bottle and for my sister's BF I got him a set of new york shot glasses with the Subway symbols on them which are really cool looking.

The first few days of leave were spent doing boring stuff like Dr's appointments, car service and all that fun stuff. We didn't really do a lot, I hadn't planned much before I left and we just went with the flow.

Most nights we had a dinner together followed by cocktails and watching tv. During the day it was so hot, which resulted in spending lots of time at the local pool or the beach. I loved going to the beach, here are real beaches, not the yuvky rubbish-strewn ones I'd seen in Dubai. I didn't need to worry about creepy guys taking my photo. SOme nights it was so hot that we went to the beach at 10 or 11pm. I'm also kind of ashamed to admit that we did have our fair share of meals at Hungry Jacks or making stops for M&M McFlurries from McDonald's. The last big meal I had in Oz was fish and chips at Peter's by the Sea, in Scarborough. It's been there since my dad was young and was THE hangout by the beach. Happy to say the chips are as good as ever and the fish was really nice, batter golden crispy and piping hot. As always there was lots of chicken salt involved. Yum!!!

This probably makes for a boring post, but just being at home and hanging out with the family was great. While home, I celebrated my 28th birthday, along with my gorgeous nephew who turned 1 on the same day. We had a big BBQ with delicious food and of course, cake- or in our case- cakes :P

The times when my family were working was when I did all those things that one does when on leave- bank stuff, getting my fillings re-done, sorting my boxes which were in storage. That part was kind of fun (despite the heat) and it was almost like shopping as I got to clothes I had wished I'd brought with me when I moved. Now, I have much more choice when it comes to what I wear in Dubai.

Too soon it was time to get on the plane back to Dubai. This time I had to share the row of 3 with a couple, about my age. All through the flight the girl kept going to the bathroom what felt like evry five minutes. She wanted me to trade my aisle seat for the window. Normally, I'd agree but they had been annoying me so much, sticking their elbows into my space, trying to put their bags in my foot space & so on... plus, I hate being in the window as sitting down for that long is hard enough as it is without being trapped. Eventually, I wandered down the cabin and found another seat as she just kept climbing over me without warning, not giving me the chance to move my legs. Win for the inconsiderate passengers! :P

Finally we reached Dubai. I lugged my bags outside the airport but having never come through the arrivals since I moved here, I got lost and couldn't find the way to the Metro (the odd directions from one of the staff didn't help, either). After about half an hour I managed to backtrack & find the right way. Arrived home at the apartment & typically couldn't sleep! It was okay as I had a day before my next flight.

Soon enough it was time to get ready for work again. This time I'd be going back to Bangkok!