Category Archives: Adventures

Umm Al Quwain Marine Club “Camping” – 11-13 April 2014

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Elle and the boys had two weeks holiday for Easter. So last weekend we headed up to UAQ Marine Club to go “camping” with some friends for a couple of nights.

We weren’t the only ones with a strange concept of camping.  There were kids there with remote-controlled cars.  Our friends mentioned, that form is better known as “glam-ping” – combining glamour with camping.

It’s not the kind of camping I remember.

In fact, I can’t even comprehend the advent of people bringing their own jet skis.  Why do people go away to enjoy nature by powering along the top of the water as fast and noisy as possible?

Later there were other scenes more like what I was used to.  An example was fathers passing a rugby ball to each other – trying to show they still have it. It may be the only reason why rugby balls get packed on holidays.

I really can’t judge people for attempting to relive their youth.  I knee-boarded one day, water skied the next.
It was the first time I had tried skiing, and it was such a surprise to stand up on my third attempt.  I was fortunate to get good advice, don’t think too much – which I found quite natural to do.

All the boys, except land-bound Owen, enjoyed the lovely warm water.  Lewis particularly took to it on this trip. He even wanted to give kneeboarding a try, though decided against it after a few failed warm-ups along the beach. He was OK to miss it, there was more than enough fun riding on the boat, sitting on the donut being towed behind, having a fish, or just swimming.

Myles tried his hand at fishing, as he regularly does. Though he may be a bit hesitant to try it again.  He was sitting on the back of the boat, feet in the water, casting the line out into the sea.  Unbeknownst to him I had quietly slipped into the water from the front of the boat, and snuck around under the water beneath where he was sitting. Then I quickly pulled myself up onto the landing deck right in front of him and screamed.  As he jumped about a foot in height, I’ve never seen his face so terrified.  It would have been a different story if I happened to get a hook in my face, which I willingly risked.

It wasn’t the only fun we had on the water.  All six of the big boys went out on kayaks one day.  I was with Lewis, and out in the open water we spotted a few pieces of rubbish. It was a good opportunity to teach Lewis about doing our bit for the environment and fishing them out to put into the bin later. It was a little disconcerting though, when we made it to a secluded beach to take a rest, that there was a rubbish tip spewing hundreds of bottles into the ocean. It seemed to make our two pieces of litter we collected seem quite pointless.  We sadly didn’t take any photos of Lewis & I out in the double kayak.  Though just try to imagine me kayaking against the current, and five year old slacker in the front holding his oar horizontally the entire time.

Our two evenings were quite enjoyable – often playing hide & seek tag with the boys, despite an apocalypse of mosquitos or sand flies taking a real fancy with me in the dark.  It’s a bit of a “sore” point. My wife is usually the one who gets eaten alive by insects and they leave me alone. I joke that it’s the reason I married her.  This time however, unbeknownst to me, she cheated and applied repellent. So I was getting eaten for a change.  When I shared this story at work, my Egyptian colleague could relate to it while staying there, though he had a far more interesting description, saying the bites caused him to truly hate his life.

It’s a lovely place to stay for a couple of nights. We happened to be there at the same time last year.  Perhaps we’ll be there at the same time in 2015 also.

Maybe we’ll see our compatriot Keith Urban:

The day I wasn’t married for 20 minutes

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Yesterday my family and I went to Kite Beach in Dubai, our former local.  It reminded me of the time 18 months earlier when I lost my wedding ring there.

Probably not surprising, I remember it quite vividly.

It was just Myles, Lewis & I.

We went for a swim, walked up and down the beach fossicking for interesting shells, and then we played a bit of rugby along the beach.  One of the boys threw a poor pass which I had to stretch down to catch in front of my feet.  As I did this, something felt unusual.  I was pleased to catch the ball before it hit the sand, and ran a few more steps.  Then I realised, the unusual sensation was my wedding ring was no longer on my finger.

I’ve lost a bit of weight in the ten years since my wedding day.  As a result, my wedding ring has become quite loose on my finger.

Hindsight has 20-20 vision.  While at the beach I really should have temporarily moved the ring it to my middle finger which is a tighter (and more safe)  fit.

I checked and saw no ring on my finger, and rushed back the few steps to where it would have dropped.  It was where the waves were hitting the shore line – a terrible place to lose it.  I frantically dug into the sand and water, but found nothing.  I got the boys to help me, and after a few frantic minutes and increasing desperation I increased the search zone.

I made a mental note of the landmarks, while I thought of where I could get a metal detector, and whether I should report it to authorities. In fact there were a lot of worries going through my mind, including what kind of coverage we had for such loss of personal property.

 

What made things worse was Elle happened to be out of town.  She had flown back to Australia on a short trip.  Losing your wedding ring while the wife is away seems so much more suspicious than while she’s there.  In fact, I suspected my ring had some kind of GPS sensor that would already be sending alerts to her back in Tasmania the second it came off my finger and she’d be shortly calling me, asking what was I up to.

I tried to think calmly, and not show my utter fear of losing the ring.

After a good 10 minutes of digging, the three of us had covered the whole area where I suspected the ring would be.  But with no luck. It was gone.

I decided to clear my head and perhaps enter into the wonderful world of denial. The three of us went back to passing the football again.  The whole time I was still numb with worry about the lost ring, and talking nonsense that it didn’t matter.

After some lacklustre passes, it was clear our minds were elsewhere.  So after around 10 minutes we decided to head home.

I figured at that point, why not have one final look at the area – you know, just in case.

I walked over roughly to the area, lined myself up with the landmarks I previously noted so I was standing in the right position.  And just as I looked down, right there, directly in front of me, on top of the sand literally between my two feet, my ring just got washed in from a wave.  It was the same sand which the boys and I were furiously digging earlier to no avail.  It was completely surreal. It seemed like my eyes were clearly playing tricks on me.  Though I didn’t dawdle. I snatched up the ring along with the sand beneath it.  I opened out my fingers, looked in and lo and behold, there it was, my gold wedding ring safely in my grasp.

It almost seemed like a scene from Lord of the Rings, me looking into my palm with the ring glistening in the sun, almost animated with shine.  I avoided a slow motion raising it up above my head triumphantly – like from a movie.  Instead I put it straight onto my wedding finger, clinched it in a fist, and covered my left hand tightly with my right.

To be honest, losing something of such sentimental and financial value had made me feel completely sick in the stomach.  This feeling washed away completely with feelings of just how fortunate I was to find it again and have it back on my finger.  This emotion was no doubt intensified after almost giving up on it and wondering how to break such news to my wife.

Fortunately something was on my side that day, and it never came to that.  And while I’ve still not resized my wedding ring, without fail I always move it to the safety of my middle finger if there’s any risk that the activity could cause it to fall from my finger.

Madras – it’s more than an Indian curry flavour – March 2014

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I had a work trip last week to Chennai, India.  Being on business, I travelled without the family for a change. Altho I considered packing 11 month old Owen when he immediately fell asleep in my arms when I took him for a final quick cuddle in the morning.
The journey from Dubai started nicely in the business lounge – after purchasing a small duty free bottle of whisky (for purely sterilization purposes you must understand).
Boarding became a little less glamorous when next to me sat an Indian gentlemen whom I think muttered something about his backside being unwell. He went on to break a few other passenger etiquette points, and I imagined someone bolder than me asking to be moved as the guy doesn’t cover his mouth when sneezing in my direction.

It’s always a little bit of a worry when before the plane takes off for its destination the cabin crew walk through releasing the contents of several cans of fumigating smoke. I held my breath and wished the poisons the best of luck.

Later on it was a relief when my neighbour motioned for me to fill in his declaration form. He clearly knew no English, so he wasn’t talking about his butt afterall.

The flight went quick – being 11 hours quicker than a trip home to Australia,  it’s no surprise it felt quick. I then had a completely pain-free journey through customs and getting my baggage and ride to the hotel.

Outside the airport, I knew I was in India. This was something different to anything I’ve seen before. Even as we were landing it was clear this is a city with lots more people than I’ve ever seen before. As far as the eye could see there were apartment blocks.
I’m probably used to areas with lots of people. This is a complete metropolis of many areas, all with lots and lots of people.  That’s a very different scale.
Outside of the airport you can just hear a rabble. That’s the constant sound of lots of people.
The ride to the hotel was interesting. The paint segregating lanes of traffic were clearly not ambitious enough. On each side we felt squeezed between a constant barrage of cars and scooters and motorbikes with a family of four all on-board. I saw three clearly painted lanes, and to the left and right of our car I counted seven vehicles. And each motorbike probably had an average of 2.9 people. I thought, gee those small kids can really hang on for dear life. Then I sighed as I realised that’s literally what they were doing.

I thought the use of car horns in Dubai was excessive.  It is NOTHING in comparison. From every direction there is constant noise. It’s not surprising, most trucks and buses have signs saying “Sound Horn”. I heard a couple of theories behind these stickers.  One is sound the horn to wake up the driver, in case they have actually fallen asleep.  And the other suggestion is that it’s to inform the driver that there’s someone behind them, so they should consider applying the brake. So it’s saying something like “Please sound horn if you don’t wish me to squash you”.

Work was like work anywhere, more or less.

At lunch time we even called for pizzas delivery. It was just like in any other office pizza lunch, except here the pizzas had just as much chili as any other topping ingredients. Though this was not enough, my colleagues were compelled to still sprinkle several sachets of chili flakes on top. Amazing.

Our hosts drove us out for lunch one day. He talked about the terrible traffic he endures each day, and that he’s considering swapping his fancy car for a bicycle. It was easy to sympathise. His impressive car can travel 0-100km/hr in just over 4 seconds, yet the car’s computer showed his average speed over the car’s lifetime was 29km/hr – even with long drives in the country away from traffic.

Without the family with me, I enjoyed a selfish morning ritual of hitting the gym. But I really wanted to go out for a run, and properly experience the streets of India.  The night before I made a simple Google Map.  I printed two copies – one to carry just in case I took a wrong turn. The other I gave to my colleague in the adjacent room. If I didn’t come back, at least they know where to begin the search. Likewise I gave quite a bit of thought to what identifying information I should carry in case something bad happens.  My colleague was also thinking of the worst, when he shared that at least I was running along a street called “Dr” Kalaignar Karunanidhi Salai.
I started away from the main roads, running through quite rural estates. When running, especially in a new place, some people worry about where to find a bathroom in case something more than a simple stop is required. I figured I may have no problems in this regard, when I casually looked to my right and saw a field full of guys all taking a dump. There was a lesson learned right there, don’t run first thing in the morning.

I finished my water bottle and decided to get another drink from a corner store. The bottled water trick in the movie Slum Dog Millionaire had me a little paranoid, so I got a coke.  The guy behind the counter, I think showing he had a sense of humour, told me in Tamil it’s called “Cocku” – either that or he got away with insulting me.

As per my plan, I made it to the coast and saw the ocean.

Along the way I saw many stray dogs. You could say they all looked like they had character. Another way to say it is they were malnourished, and treated poorly.
I only encountered a couple of humans begging.  I didn’t give them money, though it was a pleasure to buy a few breakfasts with even the small amount of emergency money I carried.
The streets were easy enough to navigate, and I made it safely home without incident. Well, almost without incident. I did see a guy walking towards me looking quite erratic and aggressive to people as they walked past, and here I was heading straight for him. I deviated slightly away, though it wasn’t enough. He jumped in front of me and shouted something, though it was a little comforting that I thought it sounded like “Good Morning”, so I just kept on moving.

While getting ready for the shower it seemed completely unfair that the room I was staying in, all on my own, was larger than some of the homes I saw complete families living in.

My Indian week flew by. Before I knew it we were checking out of the hotel and heading to the airport for the trip home.  I dropped into a souvenir shop, and paid probably way too much for a few items for the kids and wife.  I feel you’ve negotiated poorly when they say with a smile “You drove a hard bargain my friend”.  You’ve done much better when they’re crying, or too angry with you to speak.

The flight home had quite a lot of turbulence, something my colleague’s never experienced on his countless trips to Chennai over the years. I wondered if it was inappropriate earlier to share with him that we were on an identical aircraft to the Malaysian Airlines plane that went missing flying on MH370 a few days earlier.

It probably goes without saying, we did make it home safe and sound.

Thank you beautiful India.  My colleagues made it a very enjoyable trip. I know I’ll be back.

LEGOLAND Windsor, UK – 03 Oct 2013

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As part of the boys’ birthday this year we treated them with a trip to LEGOLAND, in Windsor. The boys and Elle hadn’t visited the UK before, and with the short time frames we had of just the weekend, this was not the trip for much of a visit. This trip was all about the boys having LEGO-themed fun.

We flew into Heathrow, on a sadly (or for a passenger, happily) half-full Emirates flight. With so many free seats, we could split up and spread out our stuff over a few taken-over rows. Our latest addition, six month old Owen was wonderful, sleeping for ages. And the other two were good like usual. Before takeoff they had already got the headphones on and switched on their favourite in-flight channel, sadly it’s The Family Guy at the moment.

We had a few walks of the awesome A380 plane, and had a nap here and there, and got a baby photo of Owen wearing the female cabin crew’s distinctive hat (she thought Owen was a girl). Then before we knew it, we were approaching London. As we were going thru customs, the official was a little suspicious of us flying in to the country for just two days. Tho his concerns seemed to vanish when he learned we were off to LEGOLAND.

We had a Windsor Car waiting for us, which we booked via email which made life easy, and was quite a lot chearper than a London taxi.

We knew it was a reasonably short drive. And we knew when we were getting close by spotting the magnificent sight of the Windsor Castle looking quite stoic, lit up on a hill in the distance.

From there we tracked the signs to LEGOLAND. And, OH! MY! GOD! As soon as we were a turn or two away I felt like the trip was all about my own childhood dreams. There were single LEGO blocks the size of cars, telling us where we were. The roundabouts were a natural habitat of life-sized LEGO animals. And the entrance had a LEGO dragon. The same dragon happened to scare a certain smoker when she unsuspectingly smoked beneath it, and the dragon hissed and spewed its own smoke.

We entered the Resort lobby, and Lewis immediately asked if he could buy some LEGO. The place wasn’t a hotel it was the kind of toy store I thought you only see in movies. It was awesome, literally.

Our room was on the Adventurers floor, we decided against the Pirates floor. The elevator had LEGO characters talking to us “Adventurers”.

In keeping with the theme, the room was even more amazing. The boys were welcomed by an adventure. They had to count the number of green lizards the fun carpet design had, and other challenges. Once they had the four answers, it turned out to be the secret code for the treasure chest where they got their welcome present of, you guessed it, LEGO!

The boys wanted to stay awake all night. They only agreed to go to bed after we mentioned the theme park was tomorrow.

We had buffet breakfast at the aptly named BRICKS restaurant. Not only was there an impressive assortment of food, there were life-sized LEGO waiters and the largest LEGO ice cream sundae you’ll ever see.

Once b’fast was done, the boys had some play time in the indoor castle of X-Boxes. Such great product placement.

The park itself seemed to be all ours, because it practically was. Resort guests can access the park 30 mins before official opening. In that time we figured out the lay of the land, and enjoyed the serenity; or was it the calm before the storm?

The rides were awesome. We had two days to make the most of it. And on Thursday, day one, we managed probably 97% of all the rides. The boy’s favourite was the park’s scariest roller coaster, the Dragon. I was surprised that Lewis braved with hardly any prompting. The Atlantis submarine was nice. The Laser Tag was especially good. For it, you seem to have a kilometre or two to walk, then you’re put into these cars which take you around different LEGO exhibits, not too dissimilar to the ‘It’s a small world afterall’ you get at Disney Land, except for one key difference. At this one, you have laser guns, which you use to shoot the various targets you spot on the way through. This ride was particularly fun for the photos they take of the participants in mid-action.

Owen was only allowed to go on a few rides. For the others, Elle and I took turns going with the bigger boys. And since we had a couple of days, the boys would go on the good ones again, where we’d switch the parent. It worked out well.

One thing I’d say which seemed unique to LEGOLAND compared to other parks I’ve visited, is the great majority of staff really seemed to love what they were doing. It didn’t just seem like a job to them. They were genuinely keen to ensure the boys were enjoying the place to the maximum. I got talking to a few of them while waiting, and on learning that we were from Dubai, one girl complimented me on speaking English so well for an Arab.

Our day two coincided with the public changing of the guards ceremony at Windsor Castle. It seemed to make sense that the sky would open up and rain while we were standing outside the castle without shelter. It was only a drizzle, and this was England afterall. After determining that the castle tour of 1.5 hours was too long for the kids’ patience, we had a short wait on the roadside opposite the castle, then we heard the marching band. They got closer, and once I caught a glimpse I couldn’t help but admire this old institution. The bands and guards marched like they had for nearly 1000 years. The huge semi-automatic rifles they now hold, showed the weaponry has certainly evolved a lot in that time.

We missed the LEGOLAND shuttle bus, so we took a London Taxi back, before having a few final hours in the park. The boys did what they missed on day one, such as the Digger Challenge. And they managed quite a few turns of the good stuff they already knew.

Like clockwork the Windsor Car was waiting to take us back to the airport. Then we checked in at a very busy Heathrow airport, and caught our flight home.

On the way back, Owen had a bit of a tanty before takeoff. We finally managed to settle him down, then he was fine for the rest of the flight. We were split up between a couple of rows, though we had the bassinet. So it was easily manageable.

We landed in Dubai and drove home in a cab. Once home, Lewis just had to ask if we could go to LEGOLAND again tomorrow.

I thoroughly recommend LEGOLAND for anyone with kids, even for just a short stay. It’s very achievable to get a lot done. It’s thoroughly worth it for the attention to detail, the passion of the staff, and the variety of rides and attractions. 😀

Flying home

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On a plane I always enjoy a window seat. I’ve never tired of that childhood excitement at seeing the takeoff, flying up into the clouds, and seeing the miniature scenery on the ground below. Flying out of Dubai at 10:25am is one of the most beautiful window seats possible. We flew around and (what looked) quite close to the world’s tallest tower, Burj Khalifa. We were so close I felt like I could open one of the doors and throw a watermelon out and it’d get skewered onto the spire.

I also enjoy the ability to watch a movie, or three. This trip I watched the following:

    Moon Rider

What a peculiar documentary. It covers the rise and challenges of Danish cyclist Rasmussen Quad. It makes mention of the distance a professional cyclist covers thru training, which is roughly the distance to the moon – hence the movie’s title. The film began very dull. He appeared very uninteresting.
Typical of old footage, the colour was faded, with blemishes, and the effects were quite odd. Then I noted the documentary was covering events from 2010!
The soundtrack was mostly odd, drawn-out synthesizer music. It was so foreboding I felt at any moment in the story Rasmussen was going to arm up and kill everybody.
Another thing I couldn’t ignore was the race footage they showed. The riders were not microphoned, yet to add more drama, quite often there was loud, heavy breathing. I’m certain someone else added this during the film’s production. It successfully added to the creepiness. Then the story focused on the world championships in Rasmussen’s home country, Denmark. It showed the human element lovely, even introducing his girlfriend. I won’t give away the ending though it made the movie passable (spoiler alert: especially for an Australian cycling follower!)

    GI Joes: Retaliation

What a stupidly wonderful action movie. Non-stop adrenaline-soaked predictability. I rate it very highly – particularly with beer or rum.

    Hitchcock

What an amazing tale, and glimpse into the movie genius!

And then not too long later we’re less than an hour from Brisbane International Airport. What a scene. For some time there’s been a window of nothing but darkness with the odd spot of mining lights. Now the black silhouette of the landscape is capped by a rich, hearty orange of the burgeoning East coast sunrise, giving light to the still dark blue sky.
Hello Queensland, lovely to see you again.

Boys Aussie trip – 25 March 2012

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In hindsight, the 16 hour flights always go quickly. This time, our entire trip lasting less than a week went just as quickly. The following are some of the memorable moments, in our home country of Australia.

The boys as always were very good flyers, although they avoided proper sleep as far as possible. This sadly was until the flight’s last hour for Myles, and the last 30 minutes for Lewis. It made it very difficult to wake them and depart the plane once we touched down. A few passengers found it more amusing than I did. There were also many impressed that Myles was wearing a suit yet so young. Maybe a dozen commented on how handsome or smart he looked, and he probably received double that many smiles mostly from women. I could still learn a lot from him.

It’s an interesting approach to tourism that once you touch down in Australia the four massive wall advertisements you first pass are devoted to Australia’s scariest predators. It was a sense of “Welcome to Australia, you’re probably going to die” when you see a life-size picture of the largest crocodile ever found, the number off spiders we have, and the number of poisonous snakes that bless our huge land. It could be giving the public what they want, although we were hoping for a less extreme adventure.

The reason we were in Australia was to attend my new nephew’s Baptism, as well as meet him for the first time. Bracken is such a beautiful happy baby. As far as I could tell, he only laughs, eats, and sleeps all day.
At the church the bible reading by two ladies got some extra attention when a phrase that God was to say, was actually said by an unknown deep male voice. In fact it was very surprising to most, with most looking around, and even a curious “where the [eff] did that come from” from someone in the crowd.

We took the opportunity of being up the Sunshine Coast to rent a cabin near the beach for the week. I find it interesting that I fly Myles and Lewis to the other side of the world, then we stay a stone’s throw from the beach of the beautiful Sunshine Coast, yet the boys’ favourite experience of this holiday may in fact be that they get to sleep on the top of bunk beds.

It was a bit disturbing though that when Lewis woke up and climbed down from his bunk bed, he walked toward the very loud sound of my Mum’s snoring and tried to join her in bed saying “Daddy, Daddy”.

On our first morning up the coast I made the most of the early morning and went for a run. There’s something magic about the sea breeze and a sunrise. Something that maybe only the east coast of Australia can provide. I made it around to Bulcock Beach, where the wind was blowing quite strongly. It was lovely to be able to enjoy such a nice breeze in my face. When the wind is that strong in Dubai you really must head for cover or you’ll choke or be blinded from dust. Here you could breath it in, and my lungs said thank you.

Corey managed to take some time off while we were in town, so we had a sneaking suspicion we’d get to go fishing. Lewis must have been tired for it as he nodded off while we were going almost full speed at the hands of Corey’s new 125 horse-power motor – altho I don’t believe horses have hands. Seeing Lewis asleep, Myles let out a “pffft”, then perhaps inspired by Captain Haddock from TinTin he explained disapprovingly that Lewis is a “Typical Land-Lover”.

We think Myles took honors again in the fishing stakes, with a catch of several bream, an estuary cod and a small blue-dotted stingray. Altho there could be a small protest, since a couple of these fish he caught were on a line someone else baited, cast, and finished the winding in. Particularly with the stingray. Myles remembered very well that Steve Irwin was killed by the barb of a stingray. So he really wanted to make sure that it was kept well away from us – which seemed like Corey’s plan anyway. I was Myles’s assistant in bringing the ray in, what a fight they put on!

On one of the nights we went out for dinner at Corey’s restaurant. The barman that served me looked familiar, a bit like someone I went to school with. Soon after, my brother confirmed it was indeed that kid I went to school with, and it was good to catch up with him and hear about his young family. However my brother saying his name, Dean [Surname] rang no bells. It wasn’t until later when I heard someone say, “seeya Deano” that I realised I only ever knew him through his nickname.

We made our way back to the Brisbane vicinity a day before our flight. We had important shopping to do. Expats have a responsibility when they’re in their home country to buy up certain supplies for their countrymen. For Aussies in Dubai I had a list of the usual items, Twisties, Cherry Ripes, Picnics, Bushells teabags, and for this trip, promite, and Easter Eggs. Although there are enough Christian expats here in Dubai to get plenty of eggs here, you can still pick up things overseas at a fraction of the local price.

With that done there was just one thing remaining on our agenda before having to leave. My parents bought tickets for the kids to see the How To Train Your Dragon Arena Spectacular. It was great. I was amazed at how life-like they can now make such big robots move. I saw more than a few couples going to see it without a kid in sight, which is probably a good sign of the show’s popularity.

Then we took our return flight home on a completely filled Boeing 777-300 ER. The boys were amazing for me again and this time slept for maybe four hours. This allowed me to even take a nap, after drinking a handful of red wines to help the process. 🙂 Although Emirates has by far the world’s best in-flight entertainment, it was interesting to watch Lewis trying to navigate through the menus, movies, and games. Three year olds don’t know better, so they automatically swipe and pinch, like it’s an iPhone or iPad. The ICE system isn’t quite there yet buddy.

We had a lovely trip to Australia, one I’m sure the kids will always remember.
We’ll get sadly dragged back into Dubai reality tomorrow, all three boys have their dental appointments. :-/ then Sunday it’s back to work, school, and nursery for us. We’d probably get through the first day back easier if only we could swap who goes to each to these places.

Ferrari World – 26 November 2011

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We’ve had a friend from Australia stay with us, who happens to be an extremely huge Ferrari and formula 1 racing fan. So today we went with him to Ferrari World, which possibly made his day or decade. Lewis at three years is at the age where he’s really interested in cars. It was nothing though, next to someone who has watched and collected Ferrari cars for most of his life.

Myles loving to drive me in his classic Ferrari

Being a public holiday we feared the place would be overflowing with people. We were happily wrong. The entire place was free from huge queues until well after lunch – which suited us.

I learned from my last visit, to go very early to the Formula Rosso ride – the fastest roller coaster in the world. Last time we left it until quite late in the day, and the line was estimated by the staff to take more than two hours to go through.

However long the wait, it’s probably worth it! What a mind-blowing ride. I’m used to screams when roller coasters take off.  This ride was practically silent for the first 10 seconds. The 247km/hr within 2 seconds puts everyone into some exhilarating form of silent cardiac arrest. In those sorts of situations I try to tense right up.  In this case, there was nothing I could do except grimace and try to recall how to breathe. The other shocking point is, most speedy rides very soon after they hit their top speed, they slow down. The Formula Rosso on the other hand explodes you from stationary to the speed of light, but keeps going.  It then disproves Einstein and accelerates even faster for a few seconds longer than you think you can cope with.
I can’t recommend this ride enough.  Some of the rides have a warning for people with heart conditions. I fear people wouldn’t truly know they have a heart condition until they’re on this ride.  And then it’d all be too late.

My mate and I both concluded that after that ride we were happy enough to go home without seeing or doing anything further.

It wasn’t surprising, all other rides failed to live up to that experience.

We decided not to though. We did see the rest of the rides.  I had been before so I didn’t need to do everything again.  Instead I spent most of my time following the kids between driving various Ferrari replicas.  Both boys looked way too comfortable driving Ferraris.  Hopefully they get over this before they’re driving age.

In my humble opinion, the only thing which was not truly amazing in the Ferrari-sense of the word was the La Garra show. La Garra is a high energy acrobatic, roller blade, and grungy percussion thing. All the crazy kid performers were very exciting as they jumped around and pumped up the crowd, but I couldn’t help but think ‘what’s all this about?’.  Ferrari to me, and the rest of the Ferrari World experience is about the prestige of one of the finest high quality, most highly sought after vehicles.  The show was more high school musical meets Formula 1 pit lane.

Lewis getting the hang of driving a Ferrari too quickly for my liking.Myles loving to drive me in his classic Ferrari

Ferrari World is always a good day out.  Or day in I should say, give it’s the world’s largest indoor theme park.  But unless you have an unlimited budget, it’s not something you would want to do too often.

Lewis no longer a toddler, he’s proudly within the AED 120 category – I mean, Children’s category.

The boys are at the perfect age to really enjoy the place.  In fact, it was a very difficult task to get Lewis out – as the final photo of the day illustrates well.

Old London Town

London, what a magical city.

It’s almost indescribable, but there is a buzz to this place which I’ve not really experienced elsewhere.

Monday evening I woke up at 3:30am to Skype my family back in Dubai. Quite unexpectedly, when I came down to the ground floor wifi at this ungodly hour, there were a dozen glamorous people partying in the hotel bar near reception. And the party-goers were not stopping any time soon.

We first arrived Sunday afternoon by train, then caught a couple different tubes in the underground to get close to our Hotel Russell accommodation. Actually, calling it an underground is a bit of an understatement. More like middle earth. Where we got off at Russell Square, there was a 175 stair climb back to the surface. It was no surprise everyone took the lift.

My free time around the conference was limited. I was able to maximize this though, through going for a morning run. Running through a large unfamiliar city I focus almost extreme levels of attention taking mental notes of my surroundings. It worked, I didn’t get lost. I was so happy to run along the Thames and see the Millennium Dome, Big Ben, Old Parliament House. In fact everywhere you look there’s historical things of interest. My boss, and tour guide, was describing a building as being “not that old”, it was built in 1901 – 110 years ago.

After my run I had time to check out a local newspaper. Well two local papers actually. The Times so I could read the local news, and The Sun so I could see some boobs. To be honest I felt like a bit of a prude seeing journalism mixed with nudity. Having said that, I probably couldn’t write on here the name of some of the adult magazines which the news stand stocked on the shelf above.

To be honest I was a bit disappointed by the quality of journalism overall. On the TV news the first story was about impending political elections, followed by an interview by a hopeful participant of the X-factor.

The news coverage of football went beyond impressive. I now believe people when they say that the UK sees football like religion, only more important.

Once again I was spoilt by fantastic weather, OR people lie about the UK raining 90% of the time and it’s bloody awful the rest of the time. The chirpy weather girl shared that it’s been London’s warmest end to September since 1985. Quite likely some Dubai weather went across with me. You’re welcome, my British friends.

Quick UK trip September 2011

I’ve had the opportunity to attend a two day conference in London. But I figured making the most of my trip, and using the Friday & Saturday of my Dubai weekend to also see Cardiff, Wales.

My flight to Birmingham was extremely busy – just like all our flights to the UK. I saw the passenger numbers, and there was only one free seat in the entire plane.

The flight route took us over Bahrain, Kuwait, and Afghanistan, before Europe. I managed to get a window seat, and enjoyed watching a lot of the country side. Afghanistan especially, looked incredible. It seemed to have an amazing variety of scenery. I particularly loved the harsh and mountainous terrain.

A sure sign of a good flight is when it seems to take no time at all – which this flight did. A good movie helps for at least part of the way.

Once I got through Customs at Birmingham, I somehow sparked the attention of a security guard. He asked many questions about my reason for the visit, my line of work, UK itinerary, and how often I visit Australia. He seemed happy enough with my answers to let me through after only a couple of minutes – no rubber gloves needed. I must have an untrustworthy face. When I was leaving Brisbane International Airport last time out of the 8 of us family and friends, I was the only one to get special attention from security, which involved a pat down. The guy was impressed with the Liverpool stickers adorning Myles’s suitcase – so perhaps he did spared me further attention. (And I suppose he did have soft hands so it wasn’t a total loss – joking).

I pre-booked my train tickets to get to Bristol Parkway on the way to Cardiff on the web. Everything was incredibly simple to get me there. One slight glitch occurred when I overlooked the fact that I was getting on the train an hour earlier than planned. I blame jet lag, or being stupid. When the ticket collector explained my mistake he was kind enough to lend me his phone to call my boss who would pick me up at the other end. Talk about English courtesy.

In just two days traveling from Birmingham into, and around Cardiff, I’ve already marked off quite a few of the items in my game of British Bingo:

  • “innit”
  • egg butty
  • “one should”
  • fancy a pint.

I’m still waiting to hear mentions of:

  • core blimey
  • pukka
  • “guvnor”.

So far I’ve visited the National History Museum, St Fagans; the absolutely awe-inspiring Wales Millennium Centre to see Welsh National Opera perform Don Giovanni; Millennium Stadium (which I can prove with an “I entered the dragon’s lair” lanyard). One disappointment of this fine tour was the stadium’s hallowed grass was completely gone. The pitch was well into the process of being removed by an industrious team of four diggers. Well I originally thought it was a downer, until our tour guide proudly announced the slurry of mud we were seeing was such a rare opportunity. 😉

I also had a good look around the city centre. Sadly I missed visiting Cardiff Castle, due to the very popular “Cheese Fest” being held inside the castle walls this weekend. This (National) festival had so much interest the queue going inside began a few hundred metres down the street. It would have been nice to see, but perhaps I may come back some day with the rest of the family.

Wales has a rich and proud mining heritage. The mines produce coal and, judging by signage in the Welsh language, an excess of consonants.

The weather has been a real treat. Apparently I brought the weather with me. The week, and several weeks before I came there were many consecutive days of rain. I’m glad I could bring this for the people of Cardiff. Take it as part-payment for allowing me to have an enjoyable visit to the city.

Tomorrow we hit Old London Town, so I’ll be sure to have more updates then.

The Workshops Railways Museum

We were in Brisbane for our final day in Australia. So we made the most of the day with a trip to The Workshops Railways Museum with the boys’ grandparents.

The weather was terrible, so we took two devices to keep the rain away. They’re called umbrellas.

The railway museum has become an annual visit each time we’re in town for holidays.

It’s a great place for people who enjoy trains – young and old. It’s nice to see Lewis now enjoys the workshops as much as Myles does.

The only slightly unfortunate thing (for people on the north side) is the museum’s all the way down in Ipswich.

Since Lewis is still toilet training, the hour or so train trip is fraught with danger. My nose was in overdrive. In fact, I quite regularly asked Lewis if he had to poo as I could clearly smell something very unpleasant.
After Lewis denied any activity for about the tenth time I noticed the horrid stench was actually coming from the guy that was sitting behind us. It was confirmed the next station when he got off, and the train’s odour improved markedly.

A couple of police asked to see our tickets on the train. They were impressed to see my boys wearing Junior Police hats that the boys’ Nannors bought them from The Ekka. The police got off the train with us when it terminated at Ipswich. And to our luck, they were happy to get a photo with us (see below).

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Myles & Lewis as Junior Queensland Police, with real Queensland Police and me looking like a scruffy criminal

I couldn’t help but feel like a criminal with four people around me wearing police caps, and me looking quite scruffy and unshaven. It was probably unfair of me to suggest that on this end of the train line the hats could make Myles and Lewis targets for non law-abiding 6 and 2 year olds.

As it wasn’t the weekend or a local holiday, the workshops was quiet. It gave my boys the power to do whatever they wanted to for as long as they liked. So we drove a lot of train simulators for a long time.

We caught the train home, which from the Ipswich line can be quite interesting. Sitting in the next four seater was a huge Maori guy and his girlfriend. Lewis stared at him – which isn’t a good start – but then it got worse. Lewis decided to point straight at the guy and ask us why the guy “has a string there”. We didn’t know, and the guy who also heard this didn’t know what was meant either. Then after a few moments he realized Lewis was referring to his long thin “rat’s tail” of hair extending down, which the guy showed us. It was all quite jovial, thankfully. When Lewis asked why he had it, I asked why Lewis didn’t have one. I should have known better. Lewis now almost in conversation with the guy, explained that he didn’t have one cause he’s a boy. It was at this point he guys girlfriend laughed out loud. The poor (now almost demoralised) guy could only share with a wry smile that “he really got me”.

All in all a good day.

Now we’re at Brisbane International Airport waiting for boarding time to our flight back to Dubai.

Seeya Australia!