On, On Into the New Year ...

G'day

Well, another year is down and another has begun.

Thanks to our friends Michael and Gayle Dougall from Mount Isa and local friends too numerous to mention, we had a great Christmas and New Year period wining, dining and socialising. As I say more often these days, "What else could one want in life but good food, good wine and good friends?" We have certainly been blessed with all three and have a few other creature comforts too.

Michael and Gayle have driven off to Muscat in Oman today and of course I'm at work for this and the next two weeks until our end of semester holidays begin. Since Michael and Gayle have been here we've been up to Jebal Hafit for lunch, tried out the fish night at the Al Ain Intercontinental's Wok Restaurant ... delightful. We've driven to Abu Dhabi and up along the UAE coast as far as Dibba returning via Mussafah Friday Markets (the Friday markets that are open every day!). Chris and I also attended the wedding of Oscar, one of my work colleagues which was a Philipino affair. Good to see someone else taking the road to matrimonial bliss.

Between us we've taken several hundred photographs of the elaborately decorated roundabouts in the UAE (mainly Al Ain) and streets, mosques, parks and gardens, events and friends etc. These will add to our fond memories of our time in the UAE when we are back in Alice Springs wondering why we ever returned. We're bound to wonder that given the cheap cost of living here compared with that in Australia and particularly Alice Springs.

As another year dawns, we look forward to continuing our journey in the UAE, holidaying in Europe during the mid-year break, and consolidating and preparing our financial and other affairs for our eventual return to Oz in mid-2008.

We hope this finds you and yours well and you follow our lead and get a blog so we can keep in touch more frequently and easily. M&G have now got their own blog and have promised to update it at least monthly. Time will tell. On Friday M&G will have flown out of Dubai and Graham and Anne of Bundaberg arrive for a few days on their return from visiting family in England.

Every best wish


Robin
for Robin and Christina

Tory Turns 5 Today!

G'day

I just had to write a post today to share Tory's birthday with you. Our young man turns five today, 24 November 2006. In the photo taken at the Al Ain Air Show in January, 2006, he is checking out a United Arab Emirates Army armoured vehicle.

All is okay at this end. I'm busy at work and manage to get to the occasional social activity, of which there are plenty. Unfortunately, it's common to get invited to several on one evening and then have to choose.

Chris has commenced some voluntary teacher aide work at the college helping our first year students with their English for four hours each day on Wednesdays and Thursdays. She's also into quilting and has a group of friends who get together periodically for a quilting and tea session. She's just purchased a top of the range Janome Memory Craft 11000 sewing machine for about half the cost that it would have been in Australia. It's a beauty with a wireless connection enabled mother board that will transfer graphics from our lap top to the sewing machine and vice versa. What next?

To give you an idea of how cheap things are here, I bought a swag of lovely shirt and trousers material earlier in the week and have dropped it off at a tailors to be made. Each pair of trousers (polyester cotton) will cost $27 and each shirt $17 which includes the cost of material. I think there are four pairs of trousers and six shirts. It's just incredible and a previous batch of shirts are lovely and fit exactly as I want them. Way to go. It's easy to get spoiled here.

Winter is settling in now and the evenings and mornings are refreshingly cooler. Days are still warm and sunny, but not hot like they are in summer when it gets to around 50 degrees. Everyone here wears jackets, but it's really not that cold judging from last winter.

We have friends from Australia visiting us in December and are very much looking forward to their company. Even though I will still be working, we'll have plenty of time to do some touring and other things together.

Each January and June numbers of people finish their contracts at the colleges and return to their home countries. It's all a bit sad getting to know people, developing relationships, and then seeing them depart. However, we all leave at some time and it's all part of being an expatriate.

Hope all is well at your end, wherever you are.

Every best wish


Robin
for Robin and Christina

Cyprus Was Wonderful!

Dear Friends

It's amazing how much territory you can cover and how much activity you can fit in one week. We arrived back at Dubai just after midnight yesterday after spending a day driving around Jordan between our flight from Larnaka to Amman and Dubai.

Jordon is the most crammed, dirtiest city we have ever seen, no doubt partly due to it's age. We saw some of the ancient Roman ruins and had a good taste of the "old" city and the much nicer "new" city. The architecture is surprisingly different from that in other Arab countries we have visited ... much nicer with what we feel is a Spanish influence (just guessing ... any architects out there?).

Our time in Cyprus was magic. We stayed our first four days at Amarakos Farm House (photo of courtyard above) in a regional village with Mrs Angela and her team, two of whom are daughters. We received traditional Greek Cypriot hospitality and food for breakfast and dinner, which was fresh, well cooked and very, very tasty, thanks to Mrs Angela. The Keo beer was tasty and the local wines we drank were equal to any we have tasted anywhere else.

Each day we drove around a different region of Cyprus, the only region we didn't visit is that taken over by the Turkish after their invasion in 1974. The old villages have very narrow roads and wonderful brick houses, many of which have been there for hundreds of years. The liquor laws are obviously liberal as beer is available almost everywhere in every type of shop or restaurant throughout the country. Interestingly, the Cypriot Communist Party and the Greek Orthodox Church are major shareholders in the Keo Beer Company which proves that religon and politics can mix.

We visited numerous archeologically significant sites including Aphrodite's Baths and saw many living Greek Godesses in restaurants and on the beach displaying all but very small parts of their shapely, tanned little bodies. I asked at least two stunners and an old lady if they were related to Aphrodite ... only the older, seasoned veteran said, "Yes". I'm sure the other two were just shy.

With a mixed British/Greek history, Cyprus is a hidden delight which is why many Brits are rushing to retire there. The weather and everything else is just perfect. If you ever get a chance to visit, don't miss it.

Best wishes

Robin
for Christina and Robin