First Night in Dubai

Having been to Dubai in May 2012, Gary and I had already decided where we would celebrate our first night in Dubai, at PF Changs Chinese restaurant.

PF Changs has been a firm favourite of mine since my second hen do in Los Angeles in August 2011, when me and the other girlies headed there to celebrate. Gary sampled PF Changs on our holiday in Dubai and he was also sold of what is probably one of the best chinese meals we have ever had.

So here are some photos from our first night celebrations, including the cheeky bottle of champagne we bought from duty free at the airport (we definitely needed a drink after the chaos trying to get out of Doha).

Our final view of Doha airport as we were boarding the plane.

Gary, ready and waiting for his food. Honestly, just being in the restaurant made your mouth water, everything smelled so good!

Moi, absolutely starving and desperate to steal the food as it came past!

Unfortunately the drinks were alcohol free, but they were really yummy.

We had sesame chicken and kung po chicken with fried rice. I'm glad I took photos of the food at the beginning, because it didn't last long!

The Burj Khalifa, and the dancing fountains, were in full view on our short walk back from the Dubai Mall to the hotel.

My favourite champagne in the world! It tastes so much more delicious when you are celebrating in such a great city.

So, the first night in Dubai was a complete success, now we are just up against the clock to get ourselves sorted before heartbeat makes his/her appearance!

We are on the move.... again!

I know that most of you already know that we are no longer in Doha, but I wanted to post about our move, so I'm doing it in the order I should have posted in! 

Gary has decided that a move from the UK for Qatar in November 2011 was not quite enough, and has  been lucky enough to be offered a great job in a great new country, the United Arab Emirates, to be exact. 

We have headed out to Dubai to start our new life there, and not a moment too soon, we only just managed to leave the country before I was too heavily pregnant to fly. 

We had a complete fiasco at the airport in Doha when we tried to leave. The policy about how late I could fly when pregnant with you was not clear at all and the ground crew decided I was more pregnant than I was, and more pregnant than my doctors note said I was, and refused to allow me to get on the airplane. 

It took a lot of arguments, a trip to see the airline doctor (who refused to see me) and eventually a complete meltdown into tears from me before everything got sorted and we were put on the next available flight! It was lucky we weren't travelling anywhere obscure, with only one flight a day, or we'd have been stuck there. Definitely not good when the Qatari Government have cancelled your visas and legally you have to leave that day! 

However, we are now safely in Dubai, and Gary has begun working for Pepsico. 

As most of you know, Gary is fiercely loyal to the brands for the company he works for. I have spent the last few years being told off for buying anything from Tesco, instead of M&S (not that it happened very often... mmmm M&S Melt in the Middle Chocolate Puddings!). 

So, you will easily be able to guess that Coca Cola is banned from our household for the foreseeable future. Thankfully Pepsico also manufacture many other products, most of which I am a fan of. Here is part of the list of allowable produce, in case any of you want to join in with the loyalty scheme ;-)

• Pepsi
• Sierra Mist
• Tropicana
• Gatorade
• Ocean Spray
• Mountain Dew
• Aquafina
• Walkers/Lays Crisps
• Doritos
• Cheetos
• Wotsits and Quavers
• Quaker Oats

If you want to break Gary out into a sweat, offer him a can of Coca Cola.... 

Turtles in Doha

We were pretty lucky while in Doha that Kerry and Sy discovered that turtles hatch on one of the beaches nearby.

Unfortunately they didn't hatch while Kerry and Sy were with us, but we managed to catch a couple of them near to the end of the turtle hatching.

It was really amazing to watch these tiny little turtles come to life and then scuttle across the sand towards the sea. They start pretty far up the beach, but they seem to know which way the water is.

First Father's Day - 2012

Although heartbeat hasn't made his/her appearance yet, we decided that we should celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day in anticipation of heartbeat's arrival.

For Father's Day we headed to Doha's only revolving restaurant in the Torch Hotel for dinner. The view from our table was lovely and the food was pretty good too! Here are a couple of pics from our celebrations!

It's oh so quiet...

We've been so lucky this year that so many of our family and friends have flown all the way out to Doha to visit us.

We've been not so lucky in that we've managed to leave our camera in a taxi when we were on holiday in Dubai, and it has never been recovered. 

So I've had to steal photographs from our friends and family so that I can share our spring and summer visits with you! 

I don't think any of these photographs are mine, so thank you to everyone who provided them for me! 

Rach - I don't think we took any photos other than this one when you were over - we were probably too busy sunbathing in the rain! 

Then mum and Ian arrived - and took lots of photos - some of which I am stealing for a later blog post!

Now you may see this restaurant in multiple pictures! It's the Indian restaurant in Souq Waqif and it is really really good!

Then we head off to Sharq Hotel and Spa to Al Dana, their seafood restaurant, again, so so yummy!

Me, at 18 weeks pregnant, my my how things have changed!

 I'm not sure why Gary looks like he's singing God Save the Queen....


Then Joyce and Ernie arrived, followed by Lee and Carol:

We had a day of different cultures, first of all we went to the Museum of Islamic Art and then we went to the Souq to watch the football and drink Moroccan Tea... rather surreal!

This was the last BBQ of the summer, when it wasn't a million degrees and like 90% humidity. After that, it got so hot it was impossible to sit out in the back garden in the heat! 

Thanks to Gary's work contacts, we were able to go and see the show horses at Al Shaqab. Al Shaqab used to be the Emir's stables, but it now belongs to the Qatar Foundation. We visited their arab breeding programme. 

The horses were just amazing. They were in the cleanest stables I've ever been in, and every single stall was individually air conditioned, so the horses were perfectly temperature controlled. 

All the horses were extremely well behaved and quiet. It is so amazing to think that none of the horses have ever been ridden. They are show horses and are only shown using a bridle and lead round, rather than being ridden. 

Al Shaqab has three world champion Arabian Horses, and apparently they are flown all over the world so that they can be used as stud horses. Each one of the foals born at  Al Shaqab are estimated to be worth £50,000 on the day they are born (I dread to think how much a champion would set you back!)

Yes, we managed to find a Carluccios, even in Doha. Unfortunately you can't enjoy a glass of wine with your meal here, but the food is just as good! 

Our final guests for the summer were Neil and Mel and Kerry and Sy, they too managed to find themselves at Carluccios! 

And Wok Mee, which is an amazing chinese restaurant, the food was so good I think I have cravings for more!

Poor Sy was not impressed about being made to watch Euro 2012, again and again and again! 

We are now visitor free until after Heartbeat makes his or her appearance, and so for now.... it's oh so quiet!