Hatta Fort Hotel

The 4 star Hatta Fort Hotel is an exclusive Mountain Retreat offering the ultimate in relaxation and seclusion from the city’s hustle and bustle. Set in 80 acres of manicured gardens, surrounded by the majestic Hajar Mountain range

3 car loads of us went to Hatta on Friday where they do a buffet lunch and use of the pool, we had a great time.

The buffet was good and varied, and the kids enjoyed the pool, there was a covered area so we didn't have to sit in he blistering sun all afternoon.

This type of offer seems to be the norm lately I have been told, so we will go again.

 

When will they learn

Yesterday Abu Dhabi / Dubai saw the worst multi- car accident in their history

Abu Dhabi is an hour away from Dubai so many people work in one Emirate but live in another so need to travel each day along the motorway.

It was on the motor way between Abu Dhabi and Dubai heading towards Dubai.

120 cars in one pile up, 17 dead and 76 people seriously injured countless others injured and the death toll is expected to rise over the next few hours.

All caused by 2 speeding cars in fog so thick there was almost nil visibility.

To top it all, as well, in the opposite direction another 20 car pile up happened also caused by speed.

When will they learn that a car is not a camel and it will not go around things if it comes to an obstacle.

Speed kills, seems to be a misnomer here, it will not happen to me, seems to be the attitude of the young Arab drivers.

It is nothing for these people to have thousands of dollars outstanding in speeding fines...why won't the authorities wake up and see what is going on.

The driving schools here are run by a leading family and students are taught by people of the same mind as the ones they are teaching, I am not infallible, or indestructible seems to be what they learn.

We see the instructors driving their cars around the city and they drive in the same way, so what does this teach the young drivers

A person or two dies every day here in Dubai in a car smash or more if a bus is involved also countless serious injuries occur daily in bangs between cars...the road toll is so great that garages and bodyshops have 6 months of cars waiting for repairs...one thing I will not miss when we return to New Zealand is the road carnage here.

This also made the world new this morning so may be you have already seen the pictures where you live.

This week in Dubai, Riyadh and Bahrain

This week we have been travelling.....

Eric to Riyadh in Saudi for a few days working and myself to Bahrain on what we call a "Visa Run"

This means when you enter Dubai they give you 60 days to stay .... if you do not have a residence visa you have to leave and come back in again. I had been in the allotted time so had to leave .... Bahrian was the ideal place to go......was great to go and stay with a couple of girls I made friends with during our time there.

JODY

Verna and Jody, it was both their birthdays while I was there and we seemed to eat copious amounts of birthday cake, we went along to the American Womens Assoc. craft group , which I also attended back in my time there, met up with the ladies nice to hear all their news. I left a few ideas for crafts for them to do, ready for their April Craft Fair.

VERNA

There is no Quilting group in Bahrain and two of the girls Valerie and Judy are starting one which gets off the ground this coming Sunday morning with eight new quilters... Good luck ladies you will enjoy it.

Jody lives in a complex that is so cute, now you say how can "Cute"be a word to discrible a complex, well the central swimming pool area and surroundings look like Disney Land all the area is covered in cute ducks and animals with water spouting mushrooms, I am not sure this photo shows every thing as it was but nice picture anyway.

Eric had a good time in Riyadh, drinking coffee of course as no beer etc allowed. Although he was taken to a club where ladies are free to dress as they wish and mix with other men, he found this quite amazing of course.

Now we are both home and it is very pleasant at this time in Dubai 25 / 30 degrees by day and cools off by night time which is nice for sleeping with no AC having to be on.

Today we are on a Beer Run.... we have to drive to a place 3/4 hour from here to buy 20 cases of beer for the Hash, an odd thing to do you may say, but it is so much cheaper at "Baracuda" where we have to go, than here in Dubai.

 

Great News

Last evening we received the news that Steve had proposed to Kathryn....she said yes,
No photo with out the children so Ben has to be in the act

So we have another wedding in the family ......could be April or September, they still have to finalise the date.

They will get married in Hamilton NZ, where they live, not far away from their home is the most beautiful gardens.

Called Yeah! you guessed "Hamilton Gardens" which is one of those delightful and enormous public parks and arboretums that astound you when you visit in every season.

I believe she wants to use the greenhouse for the ceremony so here is a couple of lovely

pictures of it.

Update from us

Well ! life is great but we returned from the camping weekend and both went down with the Flu-like symptoms raging through the Emirates.......you are really out of fashion if you have not had it, so for once in our lives we are up there with everyone else.

Eric has finally been accepted as a resident, but my visa will not be issued until his has finalised which means I still have to take a trip to Bahrain for a couple of days on what we call here
" A Visa Run" but that is okay, as I will get to visit with the lovely ladies I met there, while living there albeit a short while.

We have here cheap airfares around the gulf, just like other places in the world.....so we booked a flight for me on Jazeera Airways ( off shoot of Kuwait Air ) 69 dhs each way...final bill 479 dhs.
The taxes were more than the flight, so on 4th March I am off on a jolly by myself to Bahrain.

Helen, a friend from Jordan days and now living back in UK is arriving on Friday for a weeks Break and some sunshine, we have the sun, but it is sand storm season and one is forcast for today Wednesday lets hope it clears before she arrives.
We have also booked to go to the " Welsh Ball" ...I know we are not Welsh ...but it is a good night out, so have to look for a leek and some red jewellery to brighten up the black outfit.
Eric even bought a new dinner suit so he will wear a red bow tie,
I have been looking for some fabric with dragons on it but nothing so far, if I found any I would have made him a bow tie.
I am hoping to find a baby leek so I can make a corsage with it for myself...got to get into the spirt of the evening.

Hopefully some photo's after the event

Camping weekend

Camping in Hatta with Desert Hash House Harriers

Today we came back from 3 glorious days on a farm.

The Hash went on it's away weekend to "Little Mo's" farm in Hatta about 2 hours from Dubai.

"Little Mo" or Mohammed Saifan to give him his real handle is a local Emirati.

He bought this farm about 10acres in late 1970's it is completely walled in, it does not actually grow anything that would make him a living, so he runs a construction company on the side which contributes to him being a very rich man indeed.

Although he grows dates which I would guess he sells , he also has a few mangos, there are turkeys and chickens, goats and rabbits, a Peacock and a few other animals which they do not eat as they are pets.

The place is worked by immigrant workers of which we saw 4 over the weekend, bet they thought they had died and gone to heaven, what a cushy job they have, accommodation and all found plus the house staff.

So the farm is a family country house with swimming pool and room for at least 10 guests in various buildings.


A lot of the land is terraced so camping was easy, 70 people in all went and 9 of these were children.

The main reason for the actual date we went was it was Little Mo's 1,000th run with the Desert Hash, that is the equivilent of 20 yrs of hashing every week with out fail, although it took him

25yrs to accomplish it.

Happy campers ......

The garage which served as the dining room could hold at least eight cars.

This picture was taken at 7.30am so only a few early risers.

A Half Marathon

Last weekend Eric and a team of 3 others ran a relay Half Marathon in Ras Al Khaimah ( one of the Emirates).

They did an amazing time of 1 hour 43 minutes, they were eighth in the team finalists of 75

and the final runner Scott Jarvis ran 6.1kms in 23 minutes ....well done everyone even if some of you are getting a little long in the tooth.

We had to get up at 4.45am to get to R.A.K in time to check in and we were on our way back by 12 noon...after a real english breakfast of bacon, eggs, beans and toast at the local golf course...that breakfast went down a real treat I can tell you.

Quiet Period in Dubai

There has not been a lot of excitment in the Breadmore household, we have just been doing the regular things...

RUNNING

Eric is still running on Hash and he is now the GM it has a meaning I believe Grand Master but could also be call the Great Mouth as they seem to have to shout well , above the mele' of other folks trying to talk at the same time.

He ran the Bahrain Relay with a team of 16, they managed a 4 hours 23 seconds doing 50 kms.

Next Friday he is running the Ras Al Khaimah half maraton in a team of 4......so watch this space.

CAMPING

We hope to go camping on the 14th February in Hatta UAE about 2 hours away. One of the Hashers a local named "Little Mo" has a farm there and this is a regular winter activity for the hash........we are looking forward to it......so far 35 people have signed up for it so should be a good weekend. This weekend is also special for Little Mo as he will run his 1,000th run with the Desert Hash House harriers.

We have bought a small tent and some airbeds for comfort, the tent was an amazing bargan at $28 now that is a bargain and it is suppose to sleep 5, yeah ! migets or dwarfs. I think we will be okay but just hope it does not rain as it has a mesh window with no cover over it.

So it is going to be an interesting weekend ...plus all the food is going to be catered from breakfast to evening meals.....another watch this space

QUILTING

I have been doing a fair amount of quilting with classes on a few different technics and also running a class myself, it is a long story...... I like to make pin cushions and needlecases of which I have loads and loads that I give away, if you have not received one drop me a line, will see what I can do for you....mean while after attending many meetings and classes with my various needlecases that I use everyone kept asking " where did you buy them" after explaining I made them they all wanted some.

So the idea entered my little brain run a class and they can make their own. So I made a sample as per picture and so far 6 people belonging to my Quilting Bee have made a set and I have another class for 8 ladies next Tuesday.

On top of that we have a guild table just like Rotorua Embroidery Guild and I have made 6 sets for sale.....a new business you may well ask?

We have also been making Charity quilts for a womens refuge here in Dubai, we have tried something different after making the "Top" we made it into a duvet bag and used a very thin duvet as the inner and have tied the quilts, an interesting finished quilt, very cuddly and some lovely quilts from the 12 inch blocks made by the guild members so far we have enough blocks for about 20 quilts but we have promised 32 as that is the number of beds at the refuge. Photo's at a later date.