This is What They've Been Training For!!

Today was the first day of the final 10 days of the camel racing season here in Abu Dhabi.  After spending hours at the track watching them train, I finally made it to a race today.  Shari and I headed out this morning and we were NOT DISAPPOINTED.

It was what I would call controlled chaos.  Check out the video footage below.  Imagine, 75-100 camels in a holding pen..behind the green gate..They open it and the camels then have to race for a good position at the starting line.  The guys leading the camels are wearing flack jackets and helmets because it's similar to running with the bulls without the horns.  After they get lined up at the starting line, the official lifts a net and they take off.  Meanwhile, the guys holding the camels, they have to jump, run and roll out of the way to not be trampled.

The Final Push

It's the end of the camel racing season so there is BIG BIG money to be won and lots of fancy cars and, of course, bragging rights.  The races are in Abu Dhabi, beginning this Sunday so everyone is bringing their camels to the track and getting them settled and tested for dope, etc.  It is "more camels than you can shake a stick at.." As you'll see below.

Who's in charge here?  We watched them wrestle and wrangle this camel for over 10 minutes..He did not want to go for a ride in that truck..When we left, he was still on the ground.

Hitchcock Would Have Loved This...

I came home from spinning today and sat down to check email.  While I was sitting peacefully eating my Banoffee Pie (More on that later)...I started to hear chirping and noise from upstairs.  I thought, hmmmm it sounds like there is a bird in the house.  Bravely, and making lots of noise I went upstairs toward Sam's room where I knew we had an open window.  It was so quiet.  Only the sound of the pump in the turtle tank..OH NO THE TURTLES, Do birds eat turtles?  Suddenly I had a vision of turtle carnage all over Sam's room and just then...In a flutter of wings and wild chirping out came a bird right at me!

I screamed and ran out of the house and to the guards.  "MOOOOOHAAAAAAAMMMMMMEEEEEEED!  I screamed through the compound as I raced on weak knees through the courtyard.  Mohamed had just been there when I drove in a minute ago and now he was gone..No english speaking guards were there.  I made hand motions..(The kind you would make if you were trying to do a shadow bird)  The guys laughed and got a net and followed me to the house.  As we approached, a little bird came out Sam's window.  Relief.  We all saw it.  But, before the high fives and hand shakes I wanted those guys to check the turtles and make sure there wasn't anything too gross and no more birds.  They went into Sam's room and carefully checked the room.  The turtles were fine.  Window shut, they went to leave...As we all turned to go, at the end of the hall sat 2 birds..inside the house on the hallway window sill.  I screamed, the birds got spooked and the men laughed.  I went in my room and stayed until the coast was clear.  

When I got my wits about me, all I could think about was, where is my camera?  I need to blog this!  So I grabbed my camera and when they gave me the all clear I came out and took a photo of my new hero for the day!

I'm Certified...I think!

I spent last weekend doing an indoor cycling certification course with Schwinn. The course is only available in Abu Dhabi once a year so I felt really fortunate to have it come around as soon as it did. It was intense 2 days of a lot of biking time and classroom time. They don't take this lightly. I haven't received final notification of my success yet. But did receive a text message that preliminary results were in and I had passed. Honestly, it was a huge relief because 1-2 people usually fail and there were only 8 in my class.

I feels great to have set this goal to become an instructor and to now have the credibility of the certification. Now, I just need to work on my instruction skills and I will be so satisfied.

I taught a class this morning for Molly. Brad came and we had a full class because Saturdays are a big attendance day, and Molly has a reputation for being such an awesome instructor. They were big shoes to fill, but..nobody walked out...Whew...

Twins Talking to Loved Ones Across the Ocean

The twins took turns talking to Sarah the other night. I thought it might be a nice idea to give you all an idea of our ideal method of cheap communication. We miss our family back home so much but have to appreciate the technology that keeps us connected. Now if we could just do something about the time zone issue!

We're Back in the Water...Winter is Over!

Liam and Jack jumping into the pool after a "dry spell". The water is still a bit cold but the outside temp is great!

Brownie Scout Camp Out at ACS Cramer Field

It was a new tent, large enough for 6 people..I pulled out the instructions to set it up just the right way. Most of you know, I am not an "instruction girl" but I was going to do this right! The first concern was the misspelling of the word "instructions"...Then step (1) Follow set up instructions carefully..There were NO SET UP instructions!..Welcome to the UAE. Luckily, it was quite easy to figure out and just taught me that taking time to read instructions is not something I have really been missing out on.

What's a campout without S'mores? Around here, graham crackers are not available but luckily Cairo's leader and second mother, Carol, Layla's Mom, works at the US Embassy and had shipped in graham crackers and Hershey bars..Yum! Cairo wanted to take a picture of me for the blog...so here it is...

The finished tent...with our comfy bed, including a comforter and two pillows each..We don't enjoy this kind of luxury camping in the desert so we took full advantage of the Cramer Field at ACS.

The Before picture..I took picture through the entire setting up process so when I took it down I could fold it up the correct way...My Dad will be so proud of that..

This is just a portion of the tents that were set up for the Brownie/Girl Scout camp out at ACS.

Cairo and some of her fun Brownie Scout friends..

Home Made Pizza on Flat Bread

The other night I stopped by the bread maker and asked him if he could make me some small size bread for the kids. He was delighted since he knows the kids now and thinks they are so fun. I brought the bread home and we had a family pizza making party using the flat bread as the crust. I pulled all the fresh veggies and some ham and pineapple and pepperoni out the fridge and everyone had a great time making and eating their own pizza. It was great to see how well they ate what they had made. You will notice Cairo made the "healthiest" pizza, using the most fresh veggies...even "cupecumbers" (as Charlie calls them.)

Charlie wasn't interested in making his own pizza so I overlooked taking a photo of him..my bad. He did eat a bit everyone elses. If any of you have trouble getting your kids to eat..I highly recommend having them make their own dinner from ingredients you choose. They seem to be so much more invested. It was a great night and pizzas were all delicious. Each pizza won an award of some kind. As I mentioned, Cairo won for the healtiest. Jack won for most colorful and Sam won for most traditional and most spicy.

The finished pizzas..hot out of the oven...I wish I had one of these right now!