Another busy day in Al Safa. Having picked up my Father from the airport last night we launched ourselves into a Winter season of visitors and fun with JG joining us next weekend and P an L - old friends from HK days also visiting us from Zurick just before their move to London.
I had an early start today with a walk around the block in an attempt to maintain my 100% record this week of 10,000 per day. This was followed by Church School and then a trip to the cinema for to watch the new JK Rowling film after which this blog post is named.
Although V and E bailed out shortly before the end when it got quite scary it was a very engaging film. Very much in the HP tradition although probably aimed at an older audience. There were some very funny set pieces as well as some serious messages and everybody enjoyed the spectacle.
After a trip to Spinneys to pick up some food for our Friday night BBQ we enjoyed some prawns, sausages and quizzing although England's cricketers contrived to put a slight dampener on the evening in the test match against India.
Stats
Friday, November 18, 2016
Thursday, November 17, 2016
Summer Holiday 2016: Part 3 (return to Dxb)
Whilst E and the kids enjoyed the first part of their Summer down in Bristol, I returned to Dubai for 5 weeks of work and sunshine (or more accurately, intense heat!). Actually, it was not all work as I also invested in a fitbit (basically an exercise tracker)and managed - with the exception of one day, to hit the "recommended" 10,000 steps per day that seems to be the benchmark for "proper" exercise in the 5 weeks or so I was back in Dubai on my own.
This was actually no mean achievement given my almost exclusively sedentary working environment which makes achieving even half that figure a real challenge. I was however assisted by the fact that we moved office in early July so that we were much closer to the WTC with its cavernous - and more importantly air-conditioned - conference halls which were perfect for lunchtime walks designed to increase the number of daily steps.
Even with this facility on my door step, hitting 10,000 steps a day was not possible unless I also planned a walk (which increased to a fast walk and then a fast-ish walk with intermittent slow jogging as July wore on) either around the streets of Al Safa near our Villa or on the running track down along Kite Beach/DOSC. Given the heat and humidity, even a relatively short walk gave rise a decent sweat. This coupled with a very close eye on my diet - the Fitbit dashboard allows the recording of all foods as well as related calories so I was able to eat reasonably healthily, and the avoidance of too may after work drinks (which is a major feature of HK and Dubai expat life when the families are away for the Summer holidays!) meant that not only did I feel about as fit as I had in years but also I had lost around 4kg by the time I headed back to UK for the rest of the Summer holidays in early August. Part 4 to follow shortly.
This was actually no mean achievement given my almost exclusively sedentary working environment which makes achieving even half that figure a real challenge. I was however assisted by the fact that we moved office in early July so that we were much closer to the WTC with its cavernous - and more importantly air-conditioned - conference halls which were perfect for lunchtime walks designed to increase the number of daily steps.
Even with this facility on my door step, hitting 10,000 steps a day was not possible unless I also planned a walk (which increased to a fast walk and then a fast-ish walk with intermittent slow jogging as July wore on) either around the streets of Al Safa near our Villa or on the running track down along Kite Beach/DOSC. Given the heat and humidity, even a relatively short walk gave rise a decent sweat. This coupled with a very close eye on my diet - the Fitbit dashboard allows the recording of all foods as well as related calories so I was able to eat reasonably healthily, and the avoidance of too may after work drinks (which is a major feature of HK and Dubai expat life when the families are away for the Summer holidays!) meant that not only did I feel about as fit as I had in years but also I had lost around 4kg by the time I headed back to UK for the rest of the Summer holidays in early August. Part 4 to follow shortly.
Wednesday, November 16, 2016
Summer Holidays 2016 - Part 2 (London/Maidstone)
After a relaxing weekend in Brighton we have a slightly more stressful trip up to London when the train unexpectedly terminated at Gatwick and we were forced to get on a Victoria train and then get a cab across to Clerkenwell to the apartment we were staying in. The apartment was just off Clerkenwell Road and whilst entry was somewhat complex, once in it was exactly what we needed – two bedrooms and a big lounge/kitchen in a quiet location very close to my old office on Clerkenwell Green and handy for the City.
After dropping our bags we headed off to the British Museum near-by where we had booked timed tickets for the Sunken Cities special exhibition – it included artefacts and a couple of huge statues recovered from the lost cities of Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus which lay at the mouth of the Nile and had disappeared into the Mediterranean a thousand or so years ago. The kids seemed to enjoy it as well as our quick look around the Egyptian gallery and also a visit to the Rosetta Stone which I always enjoy.
We then had a quick dinner on Holborn at a very nice Italian restaurant and then back to the apartment. I then went off to Highgate to meet up with OF to watch England get beaten by Iceland in the Euros. The less said about that the better although it was good to catch up with OF.
The next morning I was working in the London Office. There was very subdued atmosphere when I got in - a combination of England’s defeat in the football the previous night and the continuing somewhat stunned reaction to the Brexit vote. The mood was not exactly helped by the pouring rain. We were due to go to the theatre in the evening but had to change the date because V had not been feeling well. We were lucky enough to change the tickets to Wednesday and so were able to make a trip to Chinatown that evening where we indulged ourselves in some Chinese food and the crispy duck that had been such a hit last Summer.
I was working again the following day and also decided to buy myself some shirts – my collar size seems to have increased! In the evening went to Gaucho off Piccadilly and then went to the Criterion Theatre to watch “The Robbery that went Wrong” – the kids absolutely loved it – English slapstick at its best and everyone had a great time!
The following day I met JH for lunch and then took the family down to Maidstone where we stayed with my Father. On the Friday E and I went off to a big Dinner with senior management in Pennyhill Park – training HQ for the English Rugby Union team and a lovely hotel although getting there around the M25 was a nightmare. We caught up with R and S as well as some of my colleagues Dinner where the topic revolved again around Brexit.
On the Saturday we had a leisurely morning and then headed back down to Maidstone where we picked the kids up from their sleep over with their cousins at M and B and then we all headed off to D’s 40th at Maidstone Football Club. A live band and a chance to catch up with the family made for a pleasant evening and on the Sunday I headed back to Dxb and the Kids and E. headed to Bristol for the start their Summer holidays proper. Stand by for the next instalment of our Summer adventures after my month back in the sandpit.
After dropping our bags we headed off to the British Museum near-by where we had booked timed tickets for the Sunken Cities special exhibition – it included artefacts and a couple of huge statues recovered from the lost cities of Thonis-Heracleion and Canopus which lay at the mouth of the Nile and had disappeared into the Mediterranean a thousand or so years ago. The kids seemed to enjoy it as well as our quick look around the Egyptian gallery and also a visit to the Rosetta Stone which I always enjoy.
We then had a quick dinner on Holborn at a very nice Italian restaurant and then back to the apartment. I then went off to Highgate to meet up with OF to watch England get beaten by Iceland in the Euros. The less said about that the better although it was good to catch up with OF.
The next morning I was working in the London Office. There was very subdued atmosphere when I got in - a combination of England’s defeat in the football the previous night and the continuing somewhat stunned reaction to the Brexit vote. The mood was not exactly helped by the pouring rain. We were due to go to the theatre in the evening but had to change the date because V had not been feeling well. We were lucky enough to change the tickets to Wednesday and so were able to make a trip to Chinatown that evening where we indulged ourselves in some Chinese food and the crispy duck that had been such a hit last Summer.
I was working again the following day and also decided to buy myself some shirts – my collar size seems to have increased! In the evening went to Gaucho off Piccadilly and then went to the Criterion Theatre to watch “The Robbery that went Wrong” – the kids absolutely loved it – English slapstick at its best and everyone had a great time!
The following day I met JH for lunch and then took the family down to Maidstone where we stayed with my Father. On the Friday E and I went off to a big Dinner with senior management in Pennyhill Park – training HQ for the English Rugby Union team and a lovely hotel although getting there around the M25 was a nightmare. We caught up with R and S as well as some of my colleagues Dinner where the topic revolved again around Brexit.
On the Saturday we had a leisurely morning and then headed back down to Maidstone where we picked the kids up from their sleep over with their cousins at M and B and then we all headed off to D’s 40th at Maidstone Football Club. A live band and a chance to catch up with the family made for a pleasant evening and on the Sunday I headed back to Dxb and the Kids and E. headed to Bristol for the start their Summer holidays proper. Stand by for the next instalment of our Summer adventures after my month back in the sandpit.
Tuesday, November 15, 2016
Summer Holiday 2016 Part 1
Slightly belated round up of our adventures during the Summer. Things kicked off with the Kids and E flying back to UK for the Summer holidays towards the end of June. I was able to go back with them as I was working in London the following week and we had chosen the day after the Brexit referendum to travel.
Because of flight timings, we were up with the lark on the Friday morning so were able to see the early voting returns and things were not looking terribly promising for the Remainers - and of course this was borne out by the time we landed in London when the majority in favour of Exit was confirmed shortly before touchdown.
Our trip to the UK also coincided with the Euro Football finals and England had already shown signs of things to come with a rather laboured draw in the first game.
We had flown into Gatwick and had decided to revisit old haunts down in Brighton at the weekend with the kids - staying at the Renaissance Hotel on the sea front. We had a great room with partial sea views and great views over the rooftops of Brighton town and the Pier.
After unpacking, We had lunch in Harry Ramsden's and spent the afternoon walking along the pier, sitting on the beach and eating ice creams - very pleasant indeed. After such a huge lunch we had an early night and were up bright and early for a great breakfast in the Hotel and then a quick mooch around the shops before meeting an old friend JG who had travelled down from his Mothers in East Grinstead and who worked at Sussex Downs College. It was good to see him again and we spend a very pleasant couple of hours having lunch at Café Rouge and then wandering the beach-front (including taking advantage of the photo opportunity afforded by the giant donut statue next to the pier....) followed by a visit to the Aquarium - a very well-renovated version of the 19th Century original.
JG and I then decamped to the pub in the evening to watch some of the football which was a real through back to times past when we regularly used to do that of a Saturday when he lived in London in the late 1980's (that makes me feel old simply writing it .....).
Sunday got off to a slower start as we did a bit more shopping and then met up with some old friends from HK days (K and W who will be recalled from my previous blog (http://taitamtales.blogspot.ae) and their son J. The kids were delighted to see J and we had a lovely meal with them at the Dome next to Brighton Pavilion (a restaurant E and I used to frequent back in the days when she lived in Brighton) and we then had a pleasant stroll with them down to the seafront (where a seagull nicked part of my doughnut - one of the fresh ones made before our very eyes on the pier which E and V took a real fancy to).
The sunshine of the Friday had been replaced by more changeable weather by the Monday but all in all it was a pleasant break which was only slightly disrupted by the challenges of getting up to London by train due to the problems with Southern Railways - tune in for the next instalment tomorrow!
Because of flight timings, we were up with the lark on the Friday morning so were able to see the early voting returns and things were not looking terribly promising for the Remainers - and of course this was borne out by the time we landed in London when the majority in favour of Exit was confirmed shortly before touchdown.
Our trip to the UK also coincided with the Euro Football finals and England had already shown signs of things to come with a rather laboured draw in the first game.
We had flown into Gatwick and had decided to revisit old haunts down in Brighton at the weekend with the kids - staying at the Renaissance Hotel on the sea front. We had a great room with partial sea views and great views over the rooftops of Brighton town and the Pier.
After unpacking, We had lunch in Harry Ramsden's and spent the afternoon walking along the pier, sitting on the beach and eating ice creams - very pleasant indeed. After such a huge lunch we had an early night and were up bright and early for a great breakfast in the Hotel and then a quick mooch around the shops before meeting an old friend JG who had travelled down from his Mothers in East Grinstead and who worked at Sussex Downs College. It was good to see him again and we spend a very pleasant couple of hours having lunch at Café Rouge and then wandering the beach-front (including taking advantage of the photo opportunity afforded by the giant donut statue next to the pier....) followed by a visit to the Aquarium - a very well-renovated version of the 19th Century original.
JG and I then decamped to the pub in the evening to watch some of the football which was a real through back to times past when we regularly used to do that of a Saturday when he lived in London in the late 1980's (that makes me feel old simply writing it .....).
Sunday got off to a slower start as we did a bit more shopping and then met up with some old friends from HK days (K and W who will be recalled from my previous blog (http://taitamtales.blogspot.ae) and their son J. The kids were delighted to see J and we had a lovely meal with them at the Dome next to Brighton Pavilion (a restaurant E and I used to frequent back in the days when she lived in Brighton) and we then had a pleasant stroll with them down to the seafront (where a seagull nicked part of my doughnut - one of the fresh ones made before our very eyes on the pier which E and V took a real fancy to).
The sunshine of the Friday had been replaced by more changeable weather by the Monday but all in all it was a pleasant break which was only slightly disrupted by the challenges of getting up to London by train due to the problems with Southern Railways - tune in for the next instalment tomorrow!
Monday, November 14, 2016
Piano confusion
The more eagle-eyed of you will have spotted that A. has been preparing for his piano exam over recent weeks (Grade 3) and has been busily practising the various pieces, exercises, scales/arpeggios and aural/Musical knowledge sections of the syllabus (and I have been swotting up on my rather ancient musical knowledge to try to help).
The exam was yesterday and A. had been very diligent in his preparations - no mean feat given how packed his schedule is with school work, ECA's etc. There aw therefore a great deal of consternation yesterday afternoon after he arrived at the exam venue only to find that, whilst the time and venue were correct, his teacher had in fact entered him for the Grade 3 exam of a different exam board - he had been practising pieces for the Trinity exam whereas the examiner was from ABRSM!
They let him play the pieces (I think one of them may have overlapped with the ABRSM syllabus) and he went through the scales/arpeggios and the aural exam (again one or two parts overlapped between the two music boards). Unfortunately there was no musical knowledge section - only sight reading which he had not prepared for this time (he did it for Grade 2 last year) - Trinity make it one of 4 options whereas ABRSM seem to make it compulsory.
Despite the rather disconcerting turn that events took for him yesterday afternoon, A. did not seem to be too downhearted - probably relieved that he would not have to put up with my nagging any more to practice! We will have to wait and see whether ABRSM allow the examiner to take into account the pieces he had prepared. It is obviously very frustrating that this has happened and we are keeping our fingers crossed that everything works out OK and he does not end up having to do it all over again.
The exam was yesterday and A. had been very diligent in his preparations - no mean feat given how packed his schedule is with school work, ECA's etc. There aw therefore a great deal of consternation yesterday afternoon after he arrived at the exam venue only to find that, whilst the time and venue were correct, his teacher had in fact entered him for the Grade 3 exam of a different exam board - he had been practising pieces for the Trinity exam whereas the examiner was from ABRSM!
They let him play the pieces (I think one of them may have overlapped with the ABRSM syllabus) and he went through the scales/arpeggios and the aural exam (again one or two parts overlapped between the two music boards). Unfortunately there was no musical knowledge section - only sight reading which he had not prepared for this time (he did it for Grade 2 last year) - Trinity make it one of 4 options whereas ABRSM seem to make it compulsory.
Despite the rather disconcerting turn that events took for him yesterday afternoon, A. did not seem to be too downhearted - probably relieved that he would not have to put up with my nagging any more to practice! We will have to wait and see whether ABRSM allow the examiner to take into account the pieces he had prepared. It is obviously very frustrating that this has happened and we are keeping our fingers crossed that everything works out OK and he does not end up having to do it all over again.
Sunday, November 13, 2016
A Year in Review 2015: July/December
Only a year late! I had forgotten that I had not finished this. Most of the Summer of 2015 is already on record as I counted down my big birthday bash. It kicked off with a motorhome trip around France which preceded a Hog roast party for friends and family in Maidstone to the accompaniment of pouring rain and was followed by another BBQ in Castletownebere in Cork which was similarly accompanied by pouring rain! We did not let this dampen our spirits and the weather in Ireland subsequently improved allowing a visit to Allihies beach as we did a tour around the peninsular (the colour of the water there was incredible), a trip to Bere Ireland and then a few days at K's house in Killarney which allowed a nice drive around the ring of Kerry and some (very cold) surfing at Inch.
September saw us return to Dxb for our birthday proper but we were soon on our travels again in October when we had 10 days in UK during the Rugby World Cup. The first part was spent down on the South Coast with my Sister and her family when we did some walking around Chichester - we stayed at a very olde Wolde BB in a delightful village just outside Chichester and the weather was lovely - misty and golden in a very autumnal way! I also managed to snag a ticket to the Australia v. South Africa semi-final with Richard P. The main event was the RWU final which Dad, me, A and my Sister went to on a beautiful Autumn day. Twickenham was looking at its best and the full house crowd were treated to a decent game of rugby which at one point looked like it might get very close until a certain Dan Carter asserted his authority and took the All Blacks away from the Aussies. We were straight back to Dxb the day after, and since I had exhausted my holiday allowance for the year, that was the last of our travels for pleasure for the year. However, in November, I had another work trip to Seoul where although cold the weather was good. Christmas was spent in Dubai and we managed to have our Christmas Day swim which was very pleasant.
September saw us return to Dxb for our birthday proper but we were soon on our travels again in October when we had 10 days in UK during the Rugby World Cup. The first part was spent down on the South Coast with my Sister and her family when we did some walking around Chichester - we stayed at a very olde Wolde BB in a delightful village just outside Chichester and the weather was lovely - misty and golden in a very autumnal way! I also managed to snag a ticket to the Australia v. South Africa semi-final with Richard P. The main event was the RWU final which Dad, me, A and my Sister went to on a beautiful Autumn day. Twickenham was looking at its best and the full house crowd were treated to a decent game of rugby which at one point looked like it might get very close until a certain Dan Carter asserted his authority and took the All Blacks away from the Aussies. We were straight back to Dxb the day after, and since I had exhausted my holiday allowance for the year, that was the last of our travels for pleasure for the year. However, in November, I had another work trip to Seoul where although cold the weather was good. Christmas was spent in Dubai and we managed to have our Christmas Day swim which was very pleasant.
Saturday, November 12, 2016
Saturday in Safa
A beautiful autumnal day with the temperature in the early thirties, the sun shining and the sky clear. Em and A. went off to their Spanish class this morning and so V and I had a lazy morning. Brunch was at Shakespeares as Em and I caught up on the weeks events. The afternoon was a mix of intensive piano practice with A. in advance of tomorrow's exam including a good session on the aural exam which taught us both some interesting facts about major and minor chords...
Today was also the day I decided to prepare the bikes for our winter cycling activities. I probably have the most awkward bicycle pump known to man. It has an attachment nozzle which is so sensitive that it will fall off or let the air out of a fully pumped tyre as soon as you look at it. So cleaning and preparing the bikes was perhaps slightly more stressful than I should have been although the kids helped with the cleaning- in fact A. cleaned his Mothers bike under a a slight misapprehension that it was his own - as I said to him it was the thought that counts ( and they do look a bit similar!
We then went on a very pleasant ride around Al Safa and ended up in the little park where we had a game a football against another family and the back in time for Dina's speciality BBQ spare ribs preceded by final piano practice before tomorrow.
I then had time to watch England beat South Africa to bring to a close a very satisfactory Saturday.
Today was also the day I decided to prepare the bikes for our winter cycling activities. I probably have the most awkward bicycle pump known to man. It has an attachment nozzle which is so sensitive that it will fall off or let the air out of a fully pumped tyre as soon as you look at it. So cleaning and preparing the bikes was perhaps slightly more stressful than I should have been although the kids helped with the cleaning- in fact A. cleaned his Mothers bike under a a slight misapprehension that it was his own - as I said to him it was the thought that counts ( and they do look a bit similar!
We then went on a very pleasant ride around Al Safa and ended up in the little park where we had a game a football against another family and the back in time for Dina's speciality BBQ spare ribs preceded by final piano practice before tomorrow.
I then had time to watch England beat South Africa to bring to a close a very satisfactory Saturday.
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