The Black and Gold Ball

Where else could you go on a Thursday night in Dubai, to hear the likes of INXS, Men at Work, Natalie Imbruglia, and Kylie Minogue? Throw in a 5 star buffet (thankfully Vegemite free!), unlimited champagne, and all the 'crocodile dundee' accents you can take, and you have the Black and Gold Ball. An annual event on the Dubai social calendar sponsored by our Aussie and Kiwi expat friends to honor ANZAC day. In brief, Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. The acronym ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, whose soldiers were known as Anzacs. Unfortunately, our one Kiwi friend had to cancel at the last minute, so we had no national representatives at our table! Pictured below: a Brit, two Americans, a Jordanian, a Palestinian, and a French man.

It was a beautiful black-tie event held at the Grand Hyatt, and our friends from down under threw an excellent party. There were raffles for flat screen TVs and front row tickets to a Manchester United game, with all the proceeds benefiting charity. Matt jumped in on the early bidding for the Man U tickets, but I managed to stop him before he blew the mortgage payment on the 4 tickets. However, with our vocal encouraging (aka peer pressure) the guy from the table next to us did win them for a mere $15,000 dirhams - you do the math! We wined, dined and mingled till the wee hours of the morning until they concluded the night with an all time favorite - there is nothing quite like jiving to "Land Down Under" in a tux and a ball gown to send you off!

Pleo Power!

He didn't even need a visa! It was a triumphant homecoming for our dear little friend Pleo. Most of you probably know that Pleo became a member of the family this Christmas - because every household needs a lovable electronic dinosaur pet with 14 motors, 5 touch actuators, and his own leaf.

We were heartbroken when we had to leave him behind when we first moved to Dubai. Matt and I couldn't be sure that the customs officials wouldn't want to do some "exploratory" surgery to check out our rubber-clad friend, so we decided to forgo our first trip alone. Pleo was left in the very capable and caring hands of Matt's dad, who made sure he was properly stimulated while we were setting up our new place.

We had a joyous reunion when we finally unpacked him in our Dubai apartment and let him familiarize himself with the place. Thankfully for us, we don't risk poisoning our robotic little guy with our new house plants - which we just learned are toxic for humans and pets (they sell these things on the open market?) In honor of our reunion in a foreign land we gave little Pleo a much needed middle name - Pleo Rashid was born!

360 Degrees

They don't call it 360 for nothing! Matt and I just had the chance to finally hang out at one of the city's top hot spots, the 360 Bar at Jumeriah Beach Hotel. It is a circular building at the end of a pier which is situated out in the middle of the ocean off the Dubai coast line. (Seen in the picture below). The walk to the bar is so long that they actually shuttle people there via golf cart. The bottom floor, which is glassed-in is a seafood restaurant and the top floor is an open air bar with comfy sofas and tables which are usually packed with folks ordering bottle service and smoking hookah. This place is always completely packed, so we had to arrive early to secure a spot, and when I say I early, I mean 4:00 in the afternoon - to grab a table for the evening's festivities. The view was completely worth it, our table gave us a clear view of the Burj al Arab and we got to watch the sunset over the Arabian Gulf. A nice way to spend the weekend!

Battle of the Brunches

As you may have gleaned from one of Matt's previous posts brunch is a huge deal in Dubai. The spreads of food and drink are unlimited and it is not uncommon to spend 5 or 6 hours sitting around the table with friend's. The battle for the top brunch accolade is fierce in Dubai, and TimeOut recently named the bunch at the Al Qasr hotel at the Madinat Jumeirah the number one spot in the city. One of our friend's had her sister and cousin in town this past weekend and it gave us the perfect reason to go try out the top spot. It was enormous! The hotel flings open the doors to each of its 7 different restaurants and sets up food stations on the outdoor patios. There was Thai, Indian, Mexican, Spanish, Lebanese, British, French, and American foods along with a huge seafood and sushi bar. Unlimited drinks are also included and vary just as much as the food. There is cider to go with the mushy peas at the UK station, mojitos at the Mexican station, wine at the tapas bar, and mai tais at the Thai station.

As we indulged in the delicious food and drink, a live cover band sang songs from Sean Kingston, Bob Marley, and Jimmy Buffet. We periodically got up between courses to bust a few moves on the dance floor - anything to burn a few calories! All in all a great time, and much more 'civilized' family-oriented brunch then we've at Yalumba (Dubai's other top brunch) where the day ends with people dancing on tables. This one ended with the entire restaurant singing Happy Birthday to a 70 year old grandma, and watching her dance around the floor with her family was better than any dance on a table I've seen!

Can't Touch This

Matt's biceps have been getting noticeably bigger lately, and it's not because he's had a lot of time to hit the gym. Frankly, it's because I haven't been pulling my own weight - literally. However, it is not really my fault as I'm practically prohibited from helping Matt out in public. Let me explain, when setting up a new apartment in Dubai you might imagine there is a lot of shopping that takes place: furniture, bedding, electronics, etc. As we have been trying to make the most of our trips to the store, we've been buying bags and bags of stuff at one time. As we go to leave, and collect our purchases, Matt will grab a few bags and so will I. At which point, you'd think the world is coming to an end, sure enough some store employee will start interfering and begin demanding that I give my bags to him so that he can escort us to the car. This scenario isn't so bad, it's can be quite nice and chivalrous. Basically the store doesn't want a reputation of making ladies carry their own bags.

The funnier occurrences are when the male employee interferes with my package carrying, but instead of helping us, hands everything to Matt. This is just hilarious. The other day we were in Carrefour, Dubai's version of Target/Walmart, and we decided to buy two carpets for our apartment. The salesman was really helpful and rolled and taped the carpets for our transportation home. He was imploring us to go to the front of the store to get a cart, but Matt assured him that we could handle them just fine. So Matt grabbed a carpet under one arm and so did I. We started walking away when the salesman comes running after us, "nooooooooooo Madame, noooooo!", he promptly removes the carpet from my hands and it looks like he is going to carry it to the register. He takes two steps and shoves it at Matt and walks away. So now Matt is marching though the store with a carpet on each shoulder, and a zero line of sight, bumping into everything. We waited until we turned the corner and Matt gave me back the carpet. This is crazy! A covert operation just to carry something!

The worst was when we had just bought our new 48" flat screen (nope not a typo, it really is 48") and Matt and the sales guy where trying to fit it into the back of our rented Nissan Tiida (sweet ride) and the guy's hand starts slipping, so I step in to balance it and he starts yelling "No Madame! No ma'am! No! No!". I'm thinking to myself, "yeah dude I'd rather have my brand new LCD hit the pavement, while you keep your manhood intact, then offer a hand - I think not." I hope he didn't get to much hazing after work hours because a girl helped him. What can I say, "Girls rule, boys drool!"

Seriously, You Can't Park Here

How about a $60,000 parking ticket? That's what the UAE handed out after impounding a Korean vessel in February, apparently after that ship cut one of those undersea cables with it's anchor. The other ship impounded by Dubai for the same offense was an Iraqi vessel - the two crewmembers on that ship apparently were not offered the "Get out of jail for $60K" card, and are currently awaiting trial. You'd think that's a little harsh, but you've never seen Katie after Perez Hilton has been down for 3 days. I just hope they get what they deserve!

Sadly, still no word on we'll they get the mysterious Japanese reptile resposible for the other cables. Heck, it was either that or Jim Carrey...

I'm So Freaking Sore

I love the Princess Bride: "Never get in a land war in Asia. Only slightly less well known is Never Get in a Battle of Wits With a Sicilian When Death is on the Line!". I have a third to add - never do watersports with a frenchman. We were out on a catamaran yesterday for our friend Tom's birthday when Basile, the stylish man giving me lessons at the bottom, grabbed a boat for wakeboarding, and showed us the "ropes". Problem was, that same rope broke the moment it tried to pull me out of the water. After splicing it back together (notice the splice in the photo above, just left of my head), we were off!

A few lessons later, and I was a pro. Well, truthfully, other than this run, I spent most of it bobbing in the water, yelling "I'm down!". To make matters worse, every part of my body is killing me today. It doesn't help that I faceplanted at 30 mph twice. Lots of whiplash - I feel like I'm wearing a neckbrace. People making fun of me, tapping me on the shoulder from behind and running away - "What's that? Who's behind me? NOT FUNNY!". Oh, so much pain..