it's that special time of year again

so my husband and i had "the talk". anyone residing in the uae (or anywhere in the gulf) knows exactly what i'm talking about because they have the same conversation with their significant others... this is the conversation where you formally decide to no longer turn on the water heater because the water coming from out side is plenty hot enough. we are now at 44 C (111F) 44! forty four!!! and it isn't even officially summer yet! this is why our water heaters have light switches.

water heater on

and now water heater off

it is literally SO hot outside that we don't need to waist energy on heating more water. in fact the water heater will now act as a water cooler. yup, you read me right. the water heater, when turned off, actually keeps the water cooler than the water outside because well it's not in direct sunlight and we keep the house at a cooler temperature thus cooling the water

everything is becoming unbearable... the thought of walking outside in the afternoon is just painful. it's immediately burning hot and you start to sweat (which is just oh so lovely). in fact check out what happend to my husband's concert pass when he left it in the car for a couple days

see the one on the top? it's all melted and wrinkled, while the one on the bottom is what they started out looking like.

the bonus of the heat however, is that the sea is warm... like a nice warm (but not too hot) bath tub and you really cant argue with how blue the water is. the other day i saw 4 crab swimming together in the water! who knew they could swim? i just thought they wandered around the bottom

it's my liiiiiife! it's now or never

my hubby and i went to see Bon Jovi last tuesday at Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi... and it was fantastic. they were great live! not like some bands where you love their cd but are completely disappointed when you hear them live with out a sound studio or they start changing the way the song goes. i hate that! :::cough::: Dixi Chicks! :::cough:::
but Bon Jovi was great they sounded better then their cd! and i gotta say Jon is quite the handsome guy ; ) although someone should have advised him against the shiny shirt AND shiny pants

did i mention we had really good tickets!

anyhow it was great fun and Emirates Palace is a great location for a concert... the only thing not great is the traffic getting out along the Corniche but that's to be expected when 15000 people are trying to leave one place at the same time! hehehe

the BIG week

my family started arriving in Dubai the sunday before the wedding... we packed in a much fun as possible in the days leading up to it!

first thing we did was to go to Mall of the Emirates of course, because where else do you take people who have just gotten off a 20 hour flight?
the next day we went to Madinat Jumeirah to walk around before going to dinner at Burj Al Arab. oh yeah i had to show them the Burj


tuesday was a lounge-at-the-pool-and-sleep-in day so the following day we went to a place where i have never been before.... the Gold and Diamond Souk. there was so much gold and so many diamonds that i actually got tired of looking at them after a while! can you believe it?? i can't! but now i understand why my husband has never gotten around to taking me there before

they had ginormous diamonds in there. like 7 karats! yes seven! do they really sell them? are they even real? and why don't they have more security?

after the Souk we went to Karama... it was it's usual Karama self. here are my two tips for visiting both Karama and the Gold Souk. 1) drive to Burjuman Mall and park (and get necessary Starbucks from inside) then take a taxi to both the Gold Souk and Karama as parking is non existent and that is IF you can find the places in the first place. 2) DON'T go to Karama when it is NOT busy. yes you heard (read) me correctly. since there is no one to distract the shop owners/clerks they all focus on you! yelling at you to stop in their shop and following you down the side walk. oh and bonus tip don't be afraid to haggle on the prices ; )

after that was another beach day! we stayed at Le Royal Meridien in Jumeriah. they sported three pools (two with water bars) and the beach front! we just couldn't get enough. it made me realize that i live in this beautiful resort destination and i never take advantage of that. we never go to the beach or even just buy admittance in to the hotel beaches (both the Hilton in Dubai and the Hilton in Abu Dhabi offer this i believe). too bad it's like 120 degrees outside already

then on thursday we did big Mall of the Emirates day. my family was fascinated by Carrefour (the french version of Fred Meyer that we have around here) and of course the famous Ski Dubai.


friday we went out on a desert safari with Desert Rangers... this was sort of our rehearsal dinner (although i don't recall any rehearsing) so we had both families together. we had so much fun and it was a great way for everyone to bond over fear of a car flipping good food, belly dancing (by a professional, not me!) and camel rides!
insert "whhhooooooaaaaa" here
and "AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" here
"awwww real camels!"

but even after all that fun and excitement i still made it down the isle...



can you believe it's already been three weeks?? i can't!

I'M MARRIED!!!

i had the best time over the last two weeks. both our families came out to Dubai for the wedding and we were able to show them around and had a lot of fun... and now i'm just plain exhausted so i cant post much tonight

i know you mostly just want to see a pic from the wedding so here you go!!



i'm going to post more photos (don't worry) but this week i have been working like mad to get caught up at work... so this weekend i'll try to post some pics from our wedding adventure of dinners, souks, safaris and of course more of the big day at the One & only Royal Mirage in Dubai!