My parents are here!

Mum and dad arrived last week for their very first visit to Dubai :) So far we've been to at least four shopping malls (!!), done a Big Bus Tour around Dubai, visited the Dubai Museum and Al Karama Markets, and checked out all the supermarkets in the local area - lol! My dad loves supermarket shopping ... actually any kind of shopping!! He's one of those rare males that enjoys a good dose of retail therapy on a regular basis :)

We've crammed a lot into their first week (with a lot more to come!) so not a lot of stitching has been happening but I did manage to kit up Small Things during one shopping trip - lol! Not sure when I'll start this but I'm sure it will be soon! I also managed to put in a few stitches into Fire (yes, I gave in to my urge to start something new!!) over the last couple of days but nothing major.


We gave the kids the day off school today so we could get up early and drive to the Hatta Fort Hotel for breakfast :) It's about an hour's drive away heading towards the UAE/Oman border, and is a popular place on Fridays and public holidays for brunch. It was a bit chilly so we did a quick photo shoot after breakfast and then jumped back into the truck and headed home.
After an hour or so's pit stop at home in order to get ourselves tizzied up, we headed to the seafood restaurant at the Burj al Arab for lunch!!! (Mum and dad are treating themselves to a couple of nights there - only way we get to go in otherwise!)

Wow! Is that place spectacular or what!! Truly amazing :) Lunch was delicious - Ken and I shared a hot seafood platter between us and I reckon it would have feed all six of us! I'm glad I didn't have a starter :)


You enter the restaurant via a simulated submarine ride which was pretty cool. In the centre of the main dining area of the restaurant is a large ceiling to floor aquarium - every table has a view of it. There are smaller private rooms leading off this main area each with their own aquariums.

Yes, there is a diver in the tank :) He was in there cleaning the glass! I'm sure he's used to people waving to him and taking his photo but he was a very cool guy and happily posed for our photos as you can see :)

Tomorrow should be a quiet day! It's a public holiday for the Islamic New Year so Ken and the kids will be home (they are getting an extra extra long weekend!). Mum and dad are going to have a leisurely day wandering around the Burj and surrounding area and just generally relaxing as there are a couple of busy days coming up!

Thursday we will meet mum and dad for lunch and then bring them back home. We will probably have a couple of hours at home before we head off to the races at the Nad al Sheba Race Course. I'm not particularly into horse racing but mum and dad are (they are in a race horse syndicate) and with the Dubai International Racing Festival being on at the moment it should be a good night. Gambling is not allowed here but you still choose which horses you think will win and then you go into a draw to win prizes. It's a bit like a raffle except no money is exchanged :) Ken went to the Dubai World Cup last year and had a great time.

We had to pick up the tickets/badges for Thursday night's outing this afternoon from the race club and we had to give way to a few camel trains. There is also a camel race track nearby and we arrived at the end of a training session :)

Friday afternoon we are planning to go into the old Souk area and then jump on an abra (water taxi) and head across the creek to the Gold Souk!! All that gold hurts my head so I usually only last five minutes in there but even if you don't buy anything it's certainly worth going to see :)

Saturday the kids will have another day off school as we are going wadi bashing - lol! I bought Ken the UAE Off-Road Explorer book a week or so ago so he is keen to go on one of the trips :) We'll probably head to Al Ain which is up in the mountains and is a trip we can do in a day.

I think that will do for tonight - I'm going to see if I can put a few more stitches into something without nodding off :)

Before I go however I'd just like to thank those who leave me comments! I appreciate them all :)