Did they just build this place yesterday?

The kids had a week off from school in mid February.  We had planned a cultural trip to Cairo, Egypt to see the pyramids and the Egyptian Museum, but unfortunately a little revolution got in the way.  So we changed our plans and visited Dubai instead for 4 days.

Dubai is one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).  It is located south of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula.

Picture from the airplane's television - we had to fly
over Baghdad to get to Dubai!

Although Dubai's economy was built on the oil industry, today it drives its economy mainly from tourism, real estate, and financial services.  Oil and natural gas revenues only account for 6% of Dubai’s GDP.   Everything in Dubai looks like it was built yesterday (and that’s almost true) and all the buildings are really "over the top".

Dubai City

Our massive hotel, Atlantis, ahead

Atlantis sits at the very top of the man-made "island" called The Palm

View of The Palm and the city skyline from our hotel

The diversity of people we saw in Dubai was incredible.  The few Americans we ran into were mainly other expat families from London that we know from school.  Only about 17% of the 1.8 million population is made up of UAE nationals. The remainder come mainly from India, Pakistan, Bangledesh and the Philippines. 


Although Arabic is the official language, English is very widely spoken by residents.  We had no trouble at all communicating with people.  The official state religion is Islam, but many other religions practice freely. The Islamic dress code is not required.  Most local males wear a kandura, an ankle-length white shirt woven from wool or cotton, and most local women wear an abaya, a black over-garment covering most parts of the body.  However, most often you see Western-style clothing because of the large expat population.  We left with the strong impression that their society is quite progressive in comparison to other Muslim countries.

A local man wearing a kandura and a backwards baseball cap,
ordering ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery

Dubai is the 8th most visited city in the world.  It has been called the "shopping capital of the Middle East" with more than 70 shopping malls, including the world's largest shopping mall, Dubai Mall.

The Dubai Mall is a big as 50 football fields

Do you think these men shop at the Forever 21?

ATMs in the mall dispense gold bullion

Probably the most impressive part of Dubai was its rich collection of buildings and structures of various architectural styles.  The innovation was astounding.  It boasts the world’s tallest skyline with the crowning achievement Burj Khalifa (Khalifa Tower) - by far the world's tallest building at 2,716 feet (over 1/2 a mile!) completed in 2010.

Burj Khalifa

View from the observation deck
 - you feel like you are looking down from an airplane

Our hotel, Atlantis Dubai, was also very impressive, both in size and amenities.  We had a terrific vacation enjoying the waterslides, aquariums, restaurants and the nightclub (for Mommy and Daddy only).   We enjoyed spending time with another London family that lives in Walton that have become our good friends.

The aquariums at Atlantis

Noah feeds a cow-nosed ray

Noah and Zoe loved watching the fish every day

Noah on the waterslide with his schoolmate

Dubai lies directly within the Arabian Desert.  The sand in the south consists mostly of crushed shell and coral and is fine, clean and white. In the Eastern part of Dubai, the dunes grow larger and are tinged red with iron oxide.  We went on a Desert Safari in the Eastern part of the desert for some “dune bashing”, camel riding and dinner.  It was terrific fun.

Our drivers took us over the dunes for a 30 minute roller coaster ride

Noah, Zoe and friends from school running down the dunes

We were so happy to feel the warm sun

Video of Dune Bashing

Everyone loved the camel rides - Noah with a friend

Linda and Dan

Zoe with a friend

Sunset in the desert

So, although it was not the trip we had originally planned, we had a wonderful time.  We would definitely go back to visit again.

Linda

Timber

As many of you are aware, the East coast experienced high winds yesterday.  We received several frantic calls in the afternoon that our neighbor's massive tree had fallen into our yard and damaged our house. Pictures speak a thousand words...


Our backyard before...

Our backyard today...

Neighbor's 100 foot + Tulip tree fell directly into our yard - the entire
block is still without electricity

It looks like a bomb went off in our backyard

The covered porch is totally destroyed, the bay window is damaged
and the upstairs bathroom window was blown out

At least the Weber grill survived undamaged

There is some damage in the house - this is the breakfast
room.  There are also about 12 holes in our attic roof, one
in our bedroom and one in the library

Most importantly, my Mom, Dad and the dogs are all fine.   Mom was in the house, but in an area that was not damaged.  Thanks to our friends in the neighborhood, our insurance broker Charlie Spencer and our contractors, Mariotz Construction, who all rushed over to immediately help.  You're the best!!


No doubt we will be dealing remotely from London, as well as Mom and Dad on site, with the reconstruction over the next few months.


Linda

London Markets

One of my favorite hobbies is visiting the markets in and around London.  

Markets in London have their origins in the middle ages.  Originally, they were set up in the city of London. but with an expanding metropolis in the 18th and 19th centuries, they extended to the suburbs.  With modern traffic emerging on the streets of London, former street markets were moved into neighbouring side streets or new covered markets.

A Market Town is a legal term for a town that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city. Kingston-Upon Thames is a market town about 15 minutes from our house that I visit frequently.  They sell vegetables, meat, fish, cheese, candy, flowers and other household goods in the stalls. 

Kingston Upon Thames market

The Sunbury market starts bright and early
at 6:30am - flashlights are a must!

Another type of market that I enjoy visiting are the antique markets.  About 10 minutes from our house is the Sunbury Antiques Market, held at the Kempton horse race track.  Every two weeks, it has about 700 stallholders offering a variety of furniture, silverware, paintings, ceramics and other knick-knackery.

Half the fun is watching what other people buy - this woman is looking for desks for her new business

The sun rises over the race track

Pretty knick-knackery

This is where you would come to buy
a seven foot wooden giraffe

Push toys for the little ones

Linda bringing home one of her purchases
in the Mini convertible with the top down
- yes, it was snowing

What fun!!

Linda

How is the weather?

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces up, snow is exhilarating; there is no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. 
John Ruskin


So you ask, how is the weather in London?  Britian is famous for its poor weather. However, as many of you know, I dislike the weather extremes we have in the Philadelphia area.  Too hot in July and August and too cold and snowy in the winter.


As such, I actually like the weather in London.  It has a temperate marine climate, which means it is out of the ordinary for temperatures to dip below freezing and highs rarely exceed 80 degrees.  But yes it rains a lot...

This was a very rainy day - even the birds try to
escape the rain by taking cover

We did have a bit of snow and cold in December.  It only snowed about 5 inches, but the whole country shut down for several days.  The country does not invest in snow removal equipment, so you just have to wait for it to melt.  I didn't see a single person with a snow shovel.  Their philosophy is if you shovel and then someone falls on your sidewalk, you are at fault.  But if you don't shovel and they fall, it is an act of God.  With no one on the roads, it was an incredibly peaceful scene.

Snowfall in Walton

During January and early February, the weather has been fairly mild, in the 40s to low 50s.  The downside is the grey - many days are cloudy.  People say the weather begins to change at the end of March, when the sun reappears and spring is sprung.


Even so, most mornings we get a beautiful present.  Even if it ends up being a cloudy day, often times we view a beautiful morning sunrise outside our kitchen window. Here are some of our favorite sunrises.

Linda