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.

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.

Busy day

Up early to read a decision on one of my cases. Slightly disappointing start to the weekend! Also some early piano practice for A. before his exam on Sunday and then off to Church and then Church school. E. is having her belated birthday celebration at a local Hotel this afternoon and A is at a confirmation retreat so V and I go off to the beach where V. clambers around the climbing/obstacle course and I swot up on musical notation for A's musical knowledge section of the exam. Bit of a rush to get to Jebel Ali in time for parants meeting at A. Retreat and then back via Spinneys to pick up prawns and Clonakillity bangers for BBQ tonight. Everyone seemed to have a good time so after an unpromising start, eventually a pretty decent day.

New beginnings?

The big news today is that Donald Trump is the new US President. Following hot on the heels of Brexit, this is a good example of why I should not trust my political instincts anymore! I thought that the Brexit vote would probably be close but that Remain would win and I thought that DT was most unlikely to be voted in as President. Very wrong on both counts and it just goes to show how living in a little expat bubble for over 10 years can leave someone with very little idea about what makes people tick politically in UK and USA (although to be honest I have always found US politics a little hard to fathom out!).

IT will be very interesting to see what happens next. I have probably followed this American election with more interest than usual although I do recall from Obama's first victory how it seemed to be achieved on the back of a groundswell of hope for the future. How times have changed. No such groundswell today with this US election being very much characterised by constant personal attacks on each other by the candidates. Hopefully this will not set the pattern of behaviour for the next 4 years.

Change in Season

After a long hot Summer the cool of Winter seems to have arrived. Last Saturday was Bonfire Night (November 5th for non- Brits) and having been out trick or treating with the kids on Halloween we decided to try to remind the kids about their British rootes by buying some sparklers and toasting marshmallows (over a BBQ so not very British....). We managed to miss the DOSC fireworks display by an hour so we went for a walk along the beach and that coupled with the fact that we managed a swim in the pool earlier in the evening tells you that we were very far from a traditional British November evening so I suspect we are going to have to work a little harder to recreate for our kids the Bonfire Nights of our youth!

Abu Dhabi

Another day of travel, this time up the SZR to speak at a conference in AD. After 6 weeks of what feels like fairly constant drafting of notes/presentations/submissions/power points for a variety of talks and presentations in Europe/ Far East and the Gulf, I can finally focus on drafting some blogs! Of course, whether that actually means I will put finger to key board is another matter....

November Post a day

Well I have come a little late to the party this year - my first post is 7 November which even for me is pretty tardy. In my defence, life has been very busy work-wise having just come back from a short trip to do a hearing in Paris and prior to that a business trip to Seoul for a week in mid-October. Work is still pretty busy but I will see what I can do to catch up on some of the missing posts so that I can at least say I have done close to 30 by the end of the month!