Australia Day Picnic in Safa Park

Australia Day produced a perfect winters day here in Dubai and our gathering of mainly Australian expat friends took the opportunity to meet up for a picnic and an afternoon of games in the park. The highlight was a game of cricket which everyone enjoyed. Tory was a complete natural, smacking the ball all over the park as shown by the picture to the left. In the background is the Burj Dubai (the world's tallest builing). Click on the link below to see some more photos. Cheers, D&T.

http://picasaweb.google.com/victoria.j.waller/AustraliaDayPicnic2009?authkey=Gv1sRgCNj-9OLZhImp1wE&feat=directlink

Ski Leb Feb

After hearing much about the great skiing in Lebanon and as we want to see more of the Middle East than just the UAE and Oman, in February we snuck a way for a romantic long weekend of skiing in Myzaar just 45 minutes out of Beirut. The snow was plentiful, the sun was shining and the pistes were pretty clear of skiers which made for a very enjoyable few days on the mountain. As a former French colony the Lebanese are very stylish and in some ways more European than Arabic (at least those that are Christian). The apres ski at the Intercontinental Hotel was a real scene to behold which we named 'Shisha on Snow'. Some photos and video are linked below....Cheers D&T.

http://picasaweb.google.com/victoria.j.waller/Lebanon?authkey=Gv1sRgCJvJ8c-Dmb-HiAE&feat=directlink

Gold Coast Christmas, Brisbane Boxing Day Babies & Singaporean NYE

We had a lovely stay with the Waller family at the Gold Coast over Christmas and were very grateful to the Macmillans for letting us stay in their beautiful beachfront home. Everyday was a relaxing procession of good food and drink starting with lunch at midday and resuming with pre-dinner drinks at 6pm. It was great to have Rich and Stu fly up from Sydney for 24 hours over Christmas Day. Click on the link below to view some photos.....

http://picasaweb.google.com/victoria.j.waller/ChristmasAtMainBeachMacMillanSDecember2008?authkey=Gv1sRgCIXapI35g8u6ZA&feat=directlink

Our niece Alice, was born on during the early hours of Boxing Day, so we raced back to Brisbane to meet her and to continue the flow of bubbles...

http://picasaweb.google.com/victoria.j.waller/AliceAnneYuilleBornBoxingDay2008?authkey=Gv1sRgCIaWo9qZ1uyP8wE&feat=directlink

After the a great stay at the beach and the excitement of a new born in the family, we headed up to Montville to spend some time with the Neale family....

http://picasaweb.google.com/victoria.j.waller/TheShuteMontvilleDecember2008?authkey=Gv1sRgCPyS2J7hvNzdcg&feat=directlink

We ended our Christmas holidays with a stop-over in Singapore for New Year staying with the Burkes, getting to sample a different kind of expat lifestyle and falling in love with Singapore's signature dish 'Chilli Crab'....

http://picasaweb.google.com/victoria.j.waller/SingaporeNY20082009?authkey=Gv1sRgCKuS98TV-KeSlgE&feat=directlink

All in all the best trip home to Australia that we have made yet.... Cheers, D&T.