we still do it ...

Get up at stupid-O'clock that is, and drive to parts unknown. This time we went to Fujeirah and more specifically Snoopy Island. We were going to go just for the day and at about 15:00 decided to see if they have rooms available, turns out they did, so we stayed over.

And herewith the whole story in pictures:

a map to show where we went:

Sunrise at stupid-O'clock:

Carpet shops on the side of the road, just before entering Fujeirah.

and here's Moi, a rare shot of me behind the camera

The nursery on the other side of the road:

And just to prove that Kaydin really does wake up with a smile:

Just before the resort you'll find Bidiya mosque. It's the UAE’s oldest place of worship and is known as the “Ottoman Mosque”. It is unique in design with four small domes held up by a massive central pillar. We drove past too quickly though and I didn't really get a nice shot and on our way back we were way too tired to stop. Will do next time though.

And now for the fun part, at the beach, off course we had to get the boy into the sea as fast as possible. He was totally adorable, not scared at all and seemed to enjoy it quite a bit. The only concern Kaydin had was that daddy just wouldn't let him crawl right into the sea! Dad's, such spoil sports sometimes, LOL!!

This would be Snoopy Island, yes it's something to do with the cartoon character and the rock looking like Snoopy lying on his back

A totally lovely day with the other people snorkelling and generally just having a merry good time, especially when we found out that we could in fact have a drink or two on the beach, which off course also greatly influenced the decision on staying over LOL!!

The view from our room's balcony and in the second picture a rare shot of some locals also enjoying the beach.

And because I'm such a curios person and because I didn't want to miss out on anything, I decided to try my hand at this snorkel-thing too. And because we all looked so cute in our wet suites, I asked for a family portrait, Gideon Schoeman obliged, thanks dude!

 

And that was it, now I'm hooked and Gids will in the very near future have to take me shopping, for gear off course. What an experience!! It felt like I was watching a National Geographic show, only I was IN it, totally awesomely brilliant experience! And with Gids & Chantel's help, I think I did ok for a rookie. A truly awesome moment was when I wanted to get slightly panicky, 'cause I didn't know where we were going, I reached out to Gideon's side and there he was, ready with a guiding hand, holding on to me, until I was ready to let go. It helps to do these things with someone you share a brain cell with LOL!!

And just to show, the village helping to raise Kaydin, Gideon & Chantel Schoeman our housemates and very dear friends:

here's to the new year

May it be blessed and exceed all our expectations. We had a rather quiet braai with friends on new years eve.

New years day brought with it some awesome weather and I hauled out the K-man's new water toy, he had fun the thing that kept him amused no end was the little fountain, he kept on pushing his face into it, too funny.

We subsequently had the best impromptu weekend away. More later, I'm still processing the pictures

Kaydin has a girlfriend

Really. And the boy has taste too, here's her bio:

she's 16 months old, I think it's quite interesting that he would choose an older woman, but hey, whatever makes him happy.

she has brown hair

the sweetest smile ever

Her name is Taia, isn't it beautiful?

She lives in  Ottowa, Canada

They haven't yet met, but her mother and I are great friends, we met online, how modern is that? heheee.

Meet Taia, blowing kisses at Kaydin, while watching the video in the previous post, I'm just ooohhhing and aaahing here.

Dearest Jo - Thanks so much for sharing, HUGE HUGS

Desert Challenge 2007, Liwa

So Diederik & Louise came to visit and we took them up to Liwa, there where the big dunes are. Luckily this coincided with the UAE Desert Challenge which is sort of like a test run for the guys that will be doing the Paris to Dakar rally. I'm so glad we went, what a sight! We were early and parked on a dune to wait for the riders to come through and have breakfast, some things that happened while we waited:

base camp:

the k-man:

Gideon then decided we weren't at the right place, so we took off to find where the bikes will come past and we were just in time. Taken VERY quickly out of the car window:

And here's some more from the better vantage point where we eventually parked:

and then the trucks came!!!

and THEN the police came to say hallo, how cool is this shot? Gids took the camera up the hill and just as he was coming back down he saw the chopper and snapped away

 

Totally cool!! So, if anyone's interested, round about October next year we're going camping at Liwa to watch the whole race, it's still a bit warm that time of year but it should be quite an experience.

We had a lovely visit with Diederik and Louise and she decided to discover that she's pregnant, while with us! So special! So we have a new pregnant fairy in the family and as far as I know she and baba is doing quite well (HINT HINT you two, LOL!)

We then had a small breather, before Chantel's parents arrived for their visit over christmas. More later, I still need to process those pictures, but I can tell you, I got spoiled rotten and the K-man quite enjoyed his first christmas too. I'm now thinking of what to do for his birthday, which is only EIGHT days away!!!! I can't actually believe how the time flew. He's growing up really fast now and does something new everyday, the latest is to stick his tongue out, rather hysterical :)

Here's a video of him the other day, giggling away at Gideon making funny noises.

 

much love to all

back online!

whhooooopi kaaayyyyyeeeeah!

right, get coffee or your beverage of choice, this might just turn into a long post :-)

moving ...

You wouldn't think that this could be a whole topic on it's own. Then again, maybe you would. So the big day arrived and the packers and the boxes found each other, sometimes more successfully than other times and it took them three trips to get everything at the new house.

Way before that happy moment though we had a couple of incidents, don't we always? At about lunch time they all trooped out of the door with a friendly wave and said bye-bye, going for lunch back in a bit. No problem we say, thankful for the breather. Until we noticed that they went for lunch using the moving truck as their means of transport, which in itself is not a problem. When you realise however, that they left for lunch in the moving truck which is halfway packed with your boxes and furniture, it becomes slightly concerning ... Gideon made a moderately frantic phone call to the manager who ensured him the people and the truck and our belongings will all return. Very well said Gideon, but we don't know what they've packed in there and we must find just one little screw missing when we unpack and there will be some serious uncomfortable moments for certain people that are supposed to be in charge. The manager person ensured Gideon that we really shouldn't panic. Sure enough, about an hour later half of the troops returned. I noticed they were back and waited with great anticipation for them to start packing the rest of the house. I waited some more and a little bit more and by 20 minutes later with absolutely no activity went looking for them. Here they were calmly sitting on the front stoep, playing with cell phones, talking and joking and generally having a merry good time. When I asked why in the [bleep] were they not packing I got some incoherent answer in stupid-English. I asked again, this time also using stupid-English, hoping that my question will be understood ... hhmmmm, not so much but after much frustration and hand signals I managed to understand. They were waiting for their colleagues to return and the lunch hour wasn't over yet. My response was something to the effect of: "Then why in allah's name do you bother to return before the time and confuse the madam entirely?" Keeping in mind that I was by this time in no mood for any excuse whatsoever and was generally just a smidgen irritated. I did manage to not [bleep] them. They eventually got their asses into gear and continued the work.

When it was finally time for me to go to the new house with Kaydin and our assorted paraphernalia, Gideon very kindly called with a warning. The people that were supposed to have moved out of the majilis and the maids room, haven't. We were moving into an occupied house ... ! That was almost the last straw, in tears, exhausted from a very long day and totally not amused, I arrived here and Gideon was not kidding, not even a little bit! The dude's stuff was all over the place! The majilis, the kitchen, the stoep and the maids room, his stuff was everywhere! At least Gideon and Gideon moved it out of the room and onto the stoep so that we could move our furniture in. As you can imagine, It was just a little bit chaotic.

I spent the rest of the week cleaning the kitchen and unpacking boxes. We're almost completely settled just a few more things like curtains and pictures to sort out.

Oh, and we watched the rugby final at the new house! Some seriously nice people over at showtime came to install the dish through all the chaos of the move and that night, Gids and I parked our very tired bodies on the couches, we placed the cooler box with the beers for Gideon and wine for me in between us and we didn't move. I thought we were quite organised :-)

the news in pictures ...

There are a couple of people here that want to convince me that I really should take photo's professionally. They even paid me money to take photo's of their kids and to make it into Christmas cards! The mind boggles but does not complain :-) Here are a couple of samples:

Thanks for the opportunity ladies and for putting your trust in me :-)

the kaydin kronikles

the K-man is crawling like a champ and standing up against everything and everyone. We still only have 7 teeth though the grumpy-level indicates that we might have more on the way. I was convinced I saw the eye-teeth the other day, but nope not yet. Here then some eye-candy. Promise to post more soon.

early morning:

helping daddy wash the car

HA! found the exhaust pipe:

and then he had to get shoes because by now he scraped some skin off his little toe :-)) Gia, do they look familiar? :))

Right, that's it for now. Promise I won't make you wait so long before I post again :-))

 

much love to all