Our Plant Hunting Expedition

Attempting to make the new apartment more homey we set out on an adventure to get some plants. We could have just gone down the street to the huge plant store here in Dubai but, what fun would that be? We were told of some great deals at the Friday Market in Fujairah. So, with some sort of shifty directions we set out into the desert....

The view changes dramatically when you get into the next emirate. Mountains and date plantations for miles and miles.


Before getting the new plants for Burtie to chew up we drove out to the sea. This is the Gulf of Oman.






As always the self portrait... why is there never anyone around to take our picture when we need someone?

On to get the plants now.
Here's some shots of the Friday Market. It's in the middle of no where and is just a strip of stalls on each side of the road filled with plants, fruit stands, rugs, ceramic pots, plastic blow up toys and of course the men that sell them. You have to be prepared to barter for what you want which can be a good time.



Kenny... see any that you like?

Fruit stand

Kenny's newest friends. They thought that us taking their picture was great fun. Plus, I think that we spent way too much on the sweet melon and the mangos that we bought from them so they were all smiles. Probably thinking SUCKERS!

Heading home with our new plants we stopped to take a shot of the date plantation.

We got some good plants, some good deals and had a great day. Now, how are we going to keep the fat man from chewing them?

Fun Fridays with the Barnes

The Barnes Family have been kind enough to take us under their wing and show us some of the sights. We use our Fridays off to have some fun in the middle eastern sun.
We took off for the Dreamland Aqua Park. It's in Umm Al Quwain. 3 Emirates over from Dubai for a day of relaxing by the pool.
Kenny's ready to take on whatever the park can throw at him!

Caroline and baby Bella are keeping cool under the mushroom fountains.

Dave and Kenny enjoying the day off from The Coast.

See Kenny, she's not going to break if you hold her.

Cameron and I had a great time playing in the giant water fountain. You can tell that I am a bit water logged though... nice hair do!

The usual Friday involves a swim at the Barnes' pool, followed by a fantastic dinner that chef Dave whips up. Here are some of my favorite shots from those days.

Hey Cam! What's wrong?

Kenny! That's Cameron's Spiderman ball... let him have a turn!

You too Dave!

Forget Spiderman, it looks like he's all about Superman! I'm sure that the Man of Steel practiced his flying in the pool too while he was learning.

Bella, what do you think of all the fun and frolic in the pool? You seem quite happy to be chillin' in your floatie.

Kenny please give that back or she may cry too! Pink does look quite nice on you though. The Pooh Bear looks very manly on the front.

Inside The Barnes' house hold we have a good friend in Mabel. Although she isn't supposed to be on the couch she abandons that rule when we're there for our visits.

She obviously isn't fussy about who's showing her some love.

We love our Fridays in the Barnes' pool.

My Keratonics training movie

Neways has launched a new hair care line of products and I wanted to take the power point and make it into something easier to use so.... here is what I've created.

A Day at The Races

Dubai is a land of surprises... we travelled past this race course pretty much everyday and never saw anyone on it then, one day coming home from the beach we saw a bunch of cars, SUV's, people and Camels! We turned around (with some great effort and many cuss words) and raced up the side of the track with the other cars. Luckily we had the video camera with us and got this great experience captured.
We were invited (in Arabic and some sort of charade type gestures) on to the course, on to the camels and then after the race in the "back Stretch" or camel pens to see a young camel being purchased, to feed them and have tea with the owners of a team of racers.
Saeed was very generous and we've been told that we were very lucky to get the chance to do what we did that day. Kenny was a bit worried for his head (and keeping it attached to his shoulders) while we were being whisked away from the safety our car and witnesses to an empty stretch of sand that looked to lead nowhere with a stranger that spoke no english but, was a big Michael Jackson fan but, what we were getting to see was how proud he was of his camels and his family business.
We learned later that each of the camels that he has in the pens are worth at least $30,000 USD. More than that probably. It is an elitist sport here and only those with some big money are able to participate. Some camels are worth over $1 Million USD.
There are laws here that state how much money you would have to pay the family of the deceased if you had a car accident and killed someone based on nationality. Most of the time you would pay between 80,000 - 100, 000 Dirham ($22,000- $27,000 USD) but, if you hit a camel not only will you have to hope that you lived but, your car will be a total write off and you will pay 250,000 Dhr. ($68,000 USD)!
These camels racing along have little robots attached to their backs. These replaced the children that they used to put on them. The Sheikh passed a law about 18 months ago banning the Pakistani children from being the jockeys. I think that he was catching some flack from some childrens rights groups... wonder why?
The cars that you see racing down the track do that because there is no club house to watch the track from. That is how you watch the races... in an SUV cruising at about 35- 40 mph.
Just another part of our Middle Eastern Adventure. Hope you enjoy it!

The Wrath of Khor Fakkan!

I should have added these in earlier... sorry all! I forgot that I had taken them. Not sure how seeing that I got in trouble from the "port nazi" for taking them. I was told in a very stern voice that I needed to put the camera away while we were on the gas dock. Still not sure why but, hey when in Rome or Khor Fakkan.... Maybe I looked like a person that would try to bring the dock down later with some sinister plan! Move over 007!







Here is the link to see our video of the first dive we did in the UAE. Khor Kakkan the name of the small village that is part of another emirate, Fujayrah. It's on the other side of the peninsula. Dubai is on the Persian Gulf side and the dives that we did were on the Gulf of Oman side.
The rough seas were a bit of an issue and we chummed the waters for the next set of divers. Note to self "set up gear on the stable dock and not in the rocking boat!" Kenny's 15 year streak of no puking finally came to an end but, he had a good run while it lasted.
It was a great dive and we saw some things that were very different than the Cayman Islands. Apart from the crew we were all alone on the boat and on the sites. We unfortunately missed the whale shark that they saw the week previously but, we'll be back to try again soon. With some Gravol though!
Look for Nemo's family! Enjoy!

The Dubai Digs

Welcome to the new Al Adyiat Building in Al Barsha, Dubai.
New home of the Joneserbeeks.

Here are the before shots of the apartment....

Our entryway,

Our Living Room/ Dining room from the patio doors,

The same room just from another other vantage point,

The GUEST room (hint hint),

The hallway into the master bedroom,

The bedroom with it's giant windows (that no one makes blinds big enough for without special ordering. More on that later...)

The bathroom is just through there as well as the built in closets.

This is our big kitchen with the little wee sink. Not sure who the planners were but, they were a few bricks short of well, you know the rest.

Kenny enjoying his QJ (middle eastern version of mountain dew) and looking very happy with having to move yet again. What is this the 5th time in 7 months?

Our 75 Dirham table and chairs. That is roughly $21. USD. Needs some work though. With the all the knowledge of bargain hunting and painting everything that stands still long enough from my Mom I was ready to make this table look like new. It came in handy not just as a table but, as a ladder, a craft center, and as a sewing table. Good deal!

The chairs are in some dire need for a new look too...

My handy man.

Hey, didn't our lease agreement say that we couldn't drill any holes? Ooops!! A girl needs some storage in the bathroom!

Burtie, the big helper, was not a fan of the drilling noise and found a good place to hide out for his afternoon nap amongst Kenny's shorts.

The next task was adding some color to these bare walls. The bedroom got a jolt of jungle type fever happening.

It's a good thing that we like green

With the middle eastern morning sun shining directly on Kenny's face on his days off the massive windows needed to be covered. No one seemed to make blinds or curtains the right size so I took matters into my own hands and made roman blinds. Burtie was of course a huge help with the project.

"Hey Burtie, can you please make sure those pins are in straight? I don't want one side to be crooked. Thanks pal."

When he wasn't helping with the home improvement projects he was taking another nap, this time in the laundry hamper.

The living/ dining room is bigger than our whole place back in Reno I think. The white walls were making us feel like we should be wearing special jackets with buckles on the backs. Time to add a little flavor out here as well.

What did the agreement say about painting? No, oh well, not our deposit!

Here if you help then we are both to blame when the paint police come!

Much more us, don't you think?

What do you think Burtie? How's the new couch?

Now that the other side looked so good this one looked so bad. We would've need a huge piece of art to cover this wall so we put Kenny's art skills to work.

Standing on the table for another project. Best $21 we've spent yet! "Am I coloring in the lines?"

Much better and cheaper than even the IKEA art work!

Here's the way the apartment looks today....
Here's the entry way again. A little bit of paint and some magnets turned the ugly fuse box into a message board.

Our new Dining Room with the refinished table and chairs plus some hanging wall partitions.



The couch (Mitch is his name) is super comfy as you can see. I think that as far as time went into this move, the purchase of Mitch took the longest. If you want to know what every couch in this city feels like to sit on just ask Kenny. I think that he tried them all.

Here's the new living room.

The curtains in here that we bought were of course too short so thanks to a bit of crafty help we added another section on to them to get them the right length... thanks again Mom for passing the sewing knowledge on.



The entry way into the master bedroom. A much happier sort of view. Kind of forest like.

More holes in the wall behind the bed but, again, not my deposit! We have to feel at home here don't we?

Here's the finished roman blinds. Even with Burtie's help we managed to get them up straight. Kenny earned his sewing badge on these as well.

Another shot of them during the day with the hot sun shining in.

The guest room... not quite finished but, will be when the first group of adventures come to stay with us.

Look we're already getting dinner ready so you better get booking those tickets!

Now, we are home... for how long, you never know!