FORTY

March 5th saw me reach a significant number.  And I have to say, it was one of my best birthdays ever.  

Special flowers from my Big Sis & her life partner, in the UK

I'm not into parties.  I'm not into being the 'centre of attention', a party of any kind was never on the cards.  MrL suggested a couple of weeks beforehand that we could all perhaps spend the night at a hotel.  I quite liked that idea.  So he went ahead and booked a room at The Shangri-La on the Marina in Cairns.  

The weather might have taken a bad turn that afternoon....

We had a big storm in the afternoon of my birthday.

...but it didn't worry me.

The view from our room was just beautiful.  I've said it before and I will say it again, I love me a marina.

A nice champagne was the order of the afternoon for me.

MrL and the girls bought me a lovely bangle for my 40th.

The girls had a great time in the pool and convinced MrL to get in there too...

...whilst I sipped a cocktail or two.

We had a sensational dinner eating at The Salt House, which is part of the Yacht Club at the Marina.

The next day it was great to get up early, enjoy the view and have a family swim in the massive rooftop pool at the Hotel.  We walked along the Esplanade to a popular Cairns restaurant for breakfast before biding MrL on his way off to work.

Monet still had school to attend so after packing up our room (who knew that four bodies could make so much mess over the course of one night) Lily and I went home via school.

The Marina view at 6am

Breakfast view

A fantastic birthday.  Definitely what I wanted and definitely one to remember.  Awesome.

A Two Night Getaway

A few weeks back it was a 'Cairns' long weekend.  Instead of us going stir crazy in our apartment MrL suggested we go and stay up at Port Douglas (a 45 minute drive north from our place) for a couple of nights.  We found some cheap accommodation (cheap by Port Douglas standards) in a fabulous spot, opposite 4 Mile Beach and just off the main shopping strip.  

We got up to Port a bit too early so I suggested to go up to the 'Lookout'.  The view up there is stunning.  Below is a photo of the 4 Mile Beach....

After lunch and finally being able to check into our apartment, the girls could not wait to get themselves down to the beach.  They had a fun time running about, paddling and playing in the sand.  It was a bit too windy though and the wind did get the better of us so we left after an hour or so...

Saturday morning we took a walk around the main part of Port Douglas.  It is a very photogenic place to visit, if you enjoy taking photos...

This boat is off to the Great Barrier Reef

I think I have mentioned time and time again on this blog, how I love a Marina.  This one is no exception.  

In the afternoon we ventured to the beach again.  It was windy again.

In typical Melody and MrL style, Sunday morning saw us all set and packed to leave early.

It is always pleasant to visit Port Douglas and we are fortunate that it is a short (very scenic) drive from our place.  It was nice to go and stay somewhere else for a couple of nights and the girls had a blast.

Yas Hotel

Last week I took my parents over to Yas Hotel, located in the center of the Yas Marina Formula One circuit. It is (another) one of those buildings that you have to see to believe. It is a beautiful hotel and takes less than 10 minutes from where we live to there. I see the building practically every day and *still* love it.

Up close it is an amazing hotel/building to look at.  Clean, rounded lines and lots of white.

The couches are even white...well until a certain 2 year old put her Smartie-laced fingers on a pillow or two.  ;P

My mother announced she could have stayed sitting on the lounges all day and said that it would be one of her favourite places in Abu Dhabi.  I know what she means.

Doesn't sound like a bad idea actually, lounging on a couch and being waited on, in this beautiful mild weather we are having.

Staying In Barcelona

In Barcelona, we managed to get ourselves another apartment that catered for our needs. This one, I am pretty sure, we were the first occupants in it.  It wast newly renovated. This I know, as because when we were walking in with the keys in hand, a builder was coming out and in broken English, explained he just had a couple of things that he was still doing which he promptly finished. We were more than impressed with how modern and clean the place was.

This apartment was in a residential block, with a teeny tiny lift, which we could either all just squeeze into, or if we had the stroller, it took two turns. And we were up on the top level, so it was never a quick relay.

The front door to the complex looked very typical of the area we were in;

Beautiful hey?  Inside, as I mentioned before, was clean and modern and we had a little balcony which over looked typical Spanish residences...

I loved the fact that we looked out onto the creeper on that wall.  As we currently live in a country surrounded by sand, anything green is usually welcome!

Imagine my surprise when MrL returned from a little walk after settling in and telling me to go up the stairs on the right, outside our apartment door.  "You're going to like what you see", he said.  He was dead right.

The stairs led up to the rooftop of the apartment complex.  The view was magnificent and made me feel very excited that I was in Spain and in Barcelona.

And when I saw just how close I was to Gaudi's final masterpiece, I could hardly contain myself.  (The photograph below is zoomed in a little)

I just knew I was going to love this city....

Checkpoint Charlie

One thing about planning, budgeting and then booking your own holiday, is that you're never 100% sure what they place you've booked will be like. It is daunting enough (but also exciting) visiting a foreign city, let alone choosing a hotel/apartment/bed. Being a family of four there is no way we could have all of us in. one. room (ie. like a hotel) so we usually budget for an apartment.

The next thing you have to decide when on after you choose what type of accommodation is what area you are going to stay in. In the city centre? In an inner suburb? Close to all the hot spots?

After umming and ahhing about Berlin, we settled on Checkpoint Charlie Apartments.

Checkpoint Charlie Apartments, the grey building.  Our apartment was on the right hand side, four windows up.

The Apartments weren't called Checkpoint Charlie for nothing.  It was literally around the corner from this;

Thanks for MrL for this pic he took on his camera...

That's the now-kitschy, Checkpoint Charlie, awash with tourists.  (Us included.)  For those of you unsure what exactly this is, it has to do with the Berlin Wall.  Shortly after the wall was erected, US President Kennedy ordered three border control points along the wall.  Checkpoint Charlie became the most famous as it was the only one designated for foreigners, diplomats and members of the Allied Forces.

There isn't much left of the original point.  In it's place is a small gate house (I doubt it is original), a row of sandbags and some actors posing as US Military, whom you can get a photo taken with, at a price of course!

We actually saw a guy 'planking' on those sandbags. =)

It is pretty impressive to see and to remember the Cold War. There is huge murals near the Point explaining facts about the Berlin Wall and of Checkpoint Charlie itself. Quite Educational.

MrL and I did have a giggle at one point as we were looking at a map of what we were looking at. As we were looking at the marker point which read 'You Are Here', Monet became quite confused. "How does the map know we are here?" Maybe you had to be there but that had MrL and I quite close to tears.

Lunch Date

Lyndon and I went out for lunch yesterday, alone, to celebrate our first anniversary.  Our lovely neighbour Karen took Monet for a couple of hours whilst Lyndon and I went to the Shangri-La for our lunch.  

It was so nice there, visiting on a day where it had been raining and everything looked so fresh and clean.  We figured the rain had washed away the sand from the dreadful sand storms we've been getting from Saudi Arabia over the past couple of weeks.

We couldn't make up our mind between the Al-la-Carte Menu or the Buffet.  We decided on the buffet so we got to sample a lot of foods; Asian, Italian, Indian, Middle Eastern cuisines.  Nice.  And I couldn't miss out on dessert now could I?

We returned home a couple of hours later and I collected Monet from a few doors down.  I was greeted with a big hug from her, apparently I was 'missed', but missed quite happily mind you.  

Monet returned home with me soon after and then put on her delightful little dress from our wedding last year and paraded around, showing the neighbours.  Looked rather special with her new shoes I bought her last week...  (sorry, no pic available of her dressing up)

Time for a Catch-Up on...not much really!

The title says it all.

...In the past week I have secured Monet's place a the Nursery School with the registration fee, only to have another Nursery School ring up on the same day to tell me they had a position available for Monet!  (Isn't that *always* the way.  Tried for months to get her into somewhere and then it rains offers!)

...I went grocery shopping with out Lyndon for the first time since being here.  I'll tell you what, having my UAE driver's license has been a God-send.  

...We went to the Le Meridian Hotel on Friday for lunch.  My lunch was delightful. (I swear they were the best wedges I have ever had!)

Lyndon had a couple of pints and I drove home, late Friday afternoon, through city traffic.  Lyndon thought that was wonderful.  (Don't blame him!)

...Spent the last few days  having a swim at the pool.  The water has been rather refreshing and Monet has been enjoying herself swimming around.  

...Took Monet into a Park in the cit yesterday for a bit of a play.  Was rather pretty in there, after finally finding the gate to enter the park.

...Have an old girlfriend from High School and her husband coming here tomorrow for an early lunch.  Both come from my hometown and I haven't seen them both for at least 15 years.  He is a chef who works in Dubai and she is a nurse and is nursing in Al Ain (both in the UAE).  Will be interesting to see them both.

...And finally I will leave you with a drawing Monet did yesterday of her mum and dad.  She was so proud!  Isn't Monet adorable in this photo?  Well I think so, but I am biased. 

Hope you've all had a good week.

A Dubai Weekend

We decided on Friday morning to head north to Dubai for the weekend (remembering the working week here runs from Sunday to Thursday.)  We booked a room at the Premier Inn and off we went.  Monet was very excited - for her the prospect of a night away in a hotel is like Christmas for her!  (She's very hotel savvy, let me tell you!)

But before the hotel room beckoned, we had decided to visit Dubai Mall, which lies underneath the Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world.  The Mall itself is home to over 2000 shops and restaurants and is one of the largest shopping malls in the world.  It seriously was an amazing place.  The below photo was taken before the crowds hit.

Where else could you find one of the world's biggest bookshops? (It kept going on and on and on....)

An ice rink?

An indoor waterfall?

An aquarium? (Now, that was amazing!)

It honestly blew us away but it is so big it is actually too big.  There is still a lot of shops to be opened in the near future so honestly, if you can't find what you were looking for here, you must have your eyes shut.  

By the time we had lunch (in the most amazing food court ever!), walked around, did a touch of shopping (not much but I did buy a couple of good cookbooks!) and on our way to find our hotel, it was past 4:30pm.  

Dubai roads seem to be a series of ring roads, on and off ramps, bridges and roundabouts.  After (finally) finding ourselves heading in the right direction I caught this snap of the Burj Tower from a distance with the sun setting...

The Premier Inn was great (we'll stay there again down the track I am sure).  It was relatively inexpensive, had a great little bar and a restaurant there and a coffee shop.  The room was not too dissimilar from the one we stayed at in London (which gave us good feeling - same prints on the walls and everything Lol!!) 

After breakfast in the morning we headed to the Emirates Mall for a wander around there.  We left a little while later to head home.  (Over shopping, but surprisingly, shoppers didn't annoy me, which usually happens!) 

Next time we head to Dubai, we have decided we'll go out onto Palm Island and explore some of the amazing architecture on foot, rather than doing drive-bys.