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Zadok's parents Jack and Lesa made the long trek from Tasmania to Dubai to visit us in the first few weeks of April, got a few nice pics so I'll blog them.

Typical first day photo!!! April weather in Dubai is beautiful, the week before we had a storm but this week was perfect holiday weather... Maybe a little hot!

This photo is taken on the new side of Dubai Marina. The Marina is a major development area of Dubai (I say this but the whole of Dubai is currently under construction).

A few years ago there was absolutely nothing here, now there are about 200 high rise buildings completed, under construction or about to come out of the ground.

Jumeirah Beach Residence runs along the waterfront, it is the largest development of it's kind in the world with 36 buildings, nearly all of which are residential.

I've not posted about Karama before, it's a souq (market) that sells 'Real fake Rolex' and pashminas and rip off t-shirts.... Anything dodgy really. Karama is mostly famous for it's handbags, when you wwalk through the central passage the guys from the shops all yell at you to try and get you interested, we all got a few good bargains, it's quite the experience!

And of course we sent them into Ski Dubai to experience snow in the desert, throw snowballs at each other and have a o on the taboggon... They didn't last long!

Got lots more... Might put them on we will see. I am back at school for term 3. 9 weeks til summer, 3 reports written!

SMOKE ON!!!

You may recall last year we headed off to Abu Dhabi to watch the Red Bull Air Race, but it didn't go ahead due to the VERY gusty winds. This year Zadok and I headed down again and thankfully it was a glorious day.

We got a great spot sitting on the beach with our toes in the sand with a perfect view of all but one of the chicannes (gate things the planes fly through).

The planes fly round a course attempting to fly through the middle of the chicannes. The blue they fly through horizontally and the red ones they have to be vertical. If they clip them on the way throught they get penalty seconds and also if they fly too high through.

The photos don't really do it any justice as the planes were right overhead and coming straight towards it, it was really worth going to see.

Check out the website for a better look

Red Bull Air Race

We walked under this pedestrian underpass and it had these beautiful intricate mosaics. Dubai has similar things in the underpasses but nowhere near as detailed.

Jack and Lesa (the inlaws) have arrived safe and sound after a very long trip! We are just about to head out to start the sightseeing!

HOLIDAY!

So we have all survived another term arriving in the 'Spring' holidays with just a few bruises and squashed toes. The last day of term is always a half day for us, we finish at 12.30 pm (I do get to school early, 6 hours is not really a half day if you ask me!) The year 2 team headed off to Cactus Cantina for lunch and drinks. In true Dubai tradition all the drinks were free for women for 5 hours, I never can quite understand how they can do that!

This is Sara who works in Year 2 (she doesn't always have a 'come hither' look) and my Lovely new TA Sheila, she is making my life a lot easier! She is very organised and really loves kids.

After we'd been at Cactus Cantina (the food was good by the way, it's an inerestin spot, in Rydges Plaza on the Satwa round about. Worth popping in and they have lots of promotions) we went downstairs to Aussie Legends, which I have to say is just like a dodgy Australian bar.

The only reason I mention it is they were also serving free drinks. I think they were just trying to use uo this awful blue dye someone must have over ordered!

So that was the end of term celebration! Yesterday Zadok and I headed out to have a sticky beak at the Jumeirah Palm, the manmade island jutting out from Dubai's coastline. The JP is the smallest and most developed of 3 palms, Jebel Ali and Deira being the other 2. The Deira Palm, when completed, will be home to 1,000,000 people would you believe, twice the population of Tassie! Anyway we found you can drive out onto the JP now, just the trunk part. The outer fronds are still havin work done on them. There are people living all up the trunk already!

I am sure the apartments on the outside are very pleasant with their sea views. On models we have seen the trunk of the palm looks narrow, but there are 6 lanes on this road and as you can see 2 rows of apartment blocks. All built on artificial island, crazy stuff!