Hash Event

This weeks Hash event was the 1500 th run for the Desert Hash.

There was approx. 65 people there all sporting their new teeshirts.

The main event at the meeting was to change over the Mis-management Team this comprises of a Grand Master the one with the big mouth and Hare-raiser the one who gets the run setters, Social organiser and the important Hash Cash person who looks after the dosh. There are more but can't remember them at this minute in time.

Now the big news is Eric has been made Grand Master, so he is in charge, so a couple of pictures of the occasion. A warning new shoes are a NO NO on hash, turn up in them and you have to drink your beer from them be warned.

Updated picture

This an updated picture of the plants at one end of the balcony, taken at night so may be not the best picture we could have taken.

Saturday Trip to the Plant Market

Our Balcony is becoming a jungle with plants.

It all started a few months ago.

We went to a friend Malcolm's "60 something"

birthday party in Abu Dabi, where on his balcony he was growing every thing you can imagine from flowers to trees and fruit and vegetables, Eric was so impressed with what you could achieve on just a balcony he vowed there and then to do the same.

Now Malcolm has been in his apartment for 7 yrs so we have some catching up to do.

So with no more ado when we got back to Dubai we made a purchase of our first plant a lilac coloured Bougainvillea, over the months we have gained more and more we now have them all shapes and colours.

We gave tomatoes a try but they just got burnt out of the pots, we may try another in a month or so when it is cooler. One of our latest plants is a 3ft high Gardenia we guess it may be white or cream coloured when it finally flowers
 

Today's purchase was 24 marigold plants and a dozen others that we have no idea of the name of, so we are going to bring back a garden book from NZ in November.

Plus some liquid manure there does not seem to be any here and the plants must need feeding, we have a few stick tomato food we found, so we have tried giving a stick of it to the bougainvillea, we are not sure it is the right thing to give them, but we guess some food is better than no food, and they are flowering well

The balcony garden gets watered every day if not twice a day, we must be impressing the neighbours as a couple of them now have plants on their balconies. The other nice thing is that they are so cheap to buy, so if they do pop off we can replace them. The 24 marigolds cost us about $8 or $9 a small price for the enjoyment they are bringing.

So what happened this weekend

Another weekend over.

The weather is beginning to cool off now only 34/35 degrees most days and dropping to 25 at night almost winter like. But it is making it just nice to sit on the balcony in the evening, so with a glass of wine and some nibbles this is where we will be found after 7pm most evenings.

We had a hectic weekend one way and another. Thursday saw us sitting on the balcony for an hour and then we wandered to the local Indian Restaurant where they do a weekend buffet, we partook of this and while we were eating we had a text to visit Phil and Tika for a drink so we meandered to their house and sat outside till 12.45am just passing the time talking and drinking, so civilised.

Friday we hosed off the balcony and got rid of some of the sand, which did me no good at all as I started a slight asthma attack so a couple of puffs on the inhaler was called for....

The company Eric is associated with here...who act as their agent were celebrating 25 yrs of being in Dubai. So in the afternoon we were invited to a Desert Safari, you go out into the desert and ride buggies and things in the sand and generally play around, after there is a dining area with cushions and low tables where you dine and drink while watching Belly dancers. Now...you would be correct in thinking the dancers would be Arab ladies, yes!! No!! the Arab ladies don't like to do it any more so this girl was Russian...someone has to do it we guess.

So, because of the nature of the event in the sand, after my attack in the morning I made the decision I would not partake of this event so stayed home, the sand is causing me a few problems with the breathing on occasions. Eric went off with 80 Indian Bachelors and a few Indian ladies who were wives of managers, Plus the Big Boss Gurgit and his wife Pria. Although he said it was totally boring, it was also interesting. Seems the Indian Ladies don't dance and only the men get up and dance very erotic dancing to the Disco music, all the women stay seated and watch them. The food was Yes! you guessed Indian and the drink flowed well so I think he had a good time, besides being bored. But it was a long evening 4pm...11pm rather to long he thinks.

BOM Quilt and the head aches

As published in the past, I am doing BOM( block of the month) for Dubai Quilters this year.

It is amazing how many people can look at the same instructions and read something totally different. I have just had 2 days of sorting through emails that commented on instructions......these were read by people and each came up with a different problem from them. I assumed because so many were finding snags that there must be some.
After almost a partially sleepless night and best part of worried day that I had done something totally stupid............ I spent 4 hours today going through something that was correct in the first place....but it is amazing how other peoples views can change your own until you no longer believe in yourself.
It finally was an instruction written by the person who designed the original pattern that was at fault. I also assumed that the designer would have got it right.

The moral of this missive..."Never ever assume anything"

Bahrain Marathon Relay

While we were in Bahrain last year Eric ran on the Marathon Relay, doing two legs for different teams.

Now we are here in Dubai he has got a team from Desert Hash to compete in Bahrain.

There are 16 of them going for the weekend on 23rd November, the race takes place in the desert at and around the area of the Formula 1 circuit.

Here is Photo of some of the team, and we will update you with the results etc after the event.

A Busy week

It seems a long time since I updated but we have a really good excuse.

We had a visit here in Dubai from some very old friends...now that is not that they are old..just that we worked out we have been friends for 31yrs.

Geoff and Yvonne are from Shrewsbury in Shropshire UK ( originally from Birmingham and not lost the accent either) Yvonne is a sun worshipper so where else could she go...but visit us here in the Middle East, where we could almost 100% guarantee her sunshine, and we did. It even became to hot and she had to retreat inside, now where has she been before that that has happend.

We had a great time showing them the "building site" Dubai really is, plus also the fabulous buildings the like of never seen before, including the tallest building in the world, standing at 157 floors. We ate at some of the best Hotels and local cafes. The only down fall if there was one was it has been Ramadan while they were here, which meant no eating and drinking during the day out of the home....but on the other hand think of the hundreds of Dirhams and inches on the hips saved, not buying all the coffee and yummy cakes in all the millions of coffee shops here.

They got to swim in the Gulf and attend a Hash House Harriers run, plus a birthday party of a hasher that they did not know...but there that is Dubai for you. They took a Abra ride across the creek and a BIG BUS tour of the city, plus every thing else we could cram into 8 days.

We even orderd an immense sand storm just to show the other side of the Middle East.

So today we packed them off to the airport to catch an Emirates flight back to Birminham, we hope with fond memories of their trip to Dubai. So just as a reminder here is the ceiling of the Persian court of Ibn Buttuta Mall. Also the Elephant from the Indain Court.

One positions goes and another comes in it's place

This morning was committee meeting for Dubai Quilters Guild.
I was pleased to report that BOM went well and that there was just 4 kits left and I know of at least one person who wants one when she returns to Dubai in a couple of weeks...
So my job is almost complete just a case of hand out the monthly instructions until February, which really can be done by anybody.
So I sat back and listened to everyone'ss reports, resting on my laurels...then wham!! a wake up call.
The Dubai Quilt show came up on the agenda which is held in May 2008, and before I could say yeah! or nay! I seemed to have the job as Show Team Leader /coordinator. So another big learning curve coming up... But at least it keeps me off the streets, keeps my mind active and holds the Alzheimer at bay. So if you have any knowledge of setting up shows and exhibitions

please get in touch with me......

This picture has nothing to do with Dubai, it is Rainbow Quilters Rotorua NZ handing over the children's quilts made for the Children's ward of Rotorua Hospital last year.

I had a hand in making various blocks included in some of these quilts.

Block of the Month

BOM as it is known in the quilting world...

A few months ago I was at a meeting of Dubai Quilters Guild...nice morning met lots of lovely ladies all nationalities, saw some beautiful work...now some how it seems I volunteered to do the BOM for the coming year..

Oh well !! I am up to this, so after months of shopping and searching for fabric, threads and embroidery rings and Pellon, I finally produced a BOM.

Yesterday was launch day..we actually sold 20 of the 24 kits so someone liked it. I produced it in 2 combination of colours. Creams, browns and flowered orange/purple with a Dark green,

also in lighter greens, lilac and a flowered green and lilac so 2 completely different looks.

The quilt you see in the picture is just a variation of a theme just to show the embroidery on panels to the guild this colour way was not a choice.

So I am waiting with bated breath to see the first few blocks at Guild next month