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February pictures 2006

Constance, Annabel and Leonore in a cafe in Ibn Battuta Shopping Mall on their first day in Dubai	Ice cream from Marble Slab mixed with M&M's	- and with gummy bears
Day two we visited Dubai Museum	Today Peter joined us
The Wishing well	Leonore making a wish	this camel was stuffed - but looked pretty real
A Wind Tower in the summer accomodation	Standing right under the Wind Tower feeling the cool breeze	Wind Tower in a more permanent building
This exhibit shows the pearl diver seen from under the sea. Pearls were an important source of income to Dubai
The Fish Market	A jewellers workshop	Charlotte has a henna tatoo made in the museum. You still see Arab women wearing lots of henna-decorations on their hands and nails. The image will slowly fade over a couple of weeks.
Enjoying ice cream at the Basta Art Cafe	A satfety board by a building site in Bastakia- the constructionworkers, however, appeared not to read english as they did not take any of these precautions.	The building cranes at Defense Roundabout on the Sheik Zayed Road
Peter went to have his Dubai drivers license - and the girls got this brochure about child safety. Note the warning against storing your child in the boot of the car. But please be careful with these cartoons..........	Until recently child jockeys were used for camel races - these very young children (some as young as 5 yrs) were often bought from poor families in Yemen and other countries. Now this practise is thankfully illegal and a repatriation programme is trying to reunite the boys with their families. But what to do???? we must have races. Robots have been constructed to replace the boys and they are now in work on the racecourse dressed in jockeys colours to resemble "the real thing".
Day three at Emirates Golf Club - the pool bar	Leonore enjoying the sun -	and Constance sunbathing
	Dubai by night seen from the Golf Club
On thursday we went to the desert an hours drive from our house.	This is the first stop on the way where the local boys let off steam on their quad bikes.	They are dressed like something out the old TV-series "The A-'Team"

We came down the slope first -	- next in line braving the steep dune -	- he made it.
Leonore all alone in the world	Sand to be brought home to Leonores friend, Caroline, in Denmark	Local boys showing off
Annabel and Peter with the new companycar for Grangården. The stretch Humvee came in a close second with the luxury fitted Toyota Landcruiser we came in.	We visited a camel farm, where the camels are kept for their milk- this is the maternity ward.
	A must on a desert safari is the camel ride.
	The girls were allowed an extra ride after mum and dad got off (note the different colour on the camels cover)	Dinner was bbq bedouin style, seated round the big stage where the bellydancer appeared after dinner.
Both girls had henna tatoos. The henna stays on for half an hour, is rubbed off and the image stays on your skin for 1-2 weeks.
Thank you to the Joahnsson family who let us use their car for a drive to Wadi Bih and Fujeirah.	These terraced fields were built in the 13th and 14th centuries. Wheat and barley were grown here to support a growing population. The fields were built by hand and it took years of work for each field to silt up before beginning on the next terrace.
After Wadi Bih we drove through the greener Wadi Khab Al Shamis	The "forbidden" bag with -	- the lunch!!!!


Le Meridien Al Aqah Beach Resort in Fujeirah	The view from our balcony	- same view in the evening
Seconds later the water erased this happy message		Shisha (water pipe) tobacco in various fruity flavours
The shishas and the oven where the coals are kept hot	The MAKU dive center where we went snorkling. www.makudive.com The owners are Kurt and Margrit from Switzerland and they run a nice, relaxed diving center in Fujeirah. We went out in a small boat and saw both sea turtles, mobolas and sharks.
	Peter helping Constance - the sleeves needed a bit of folding to fit.	Leonore all ready to go in her wetsuit
The girls getting ready to jump in	Constance riding on Peters back	Looking for pretty shells
At Marina Walk the children play in the fountain.	- and after a while two little danish girls joined in the fun	Buildingsites here, there and everywhere
Mall of Emirates boasts the first indoor skislope in the desert.	Here you line up to receive your winterclothes before entering the -2C snowpark	The skilift inside the snowpark
Notice all the children are wearing helmets for protection in case they slip and fall.	The skislope seen from the outside	Peter on the phone by the Valentines Day display
Shopping for shoes	and groceries in Géant supermarket	Madinat Jumeira is a mall built to resemble an old arab town. Here you will find a theatre, restaurants and lots of little shops - most of them fairly expensive.
		Burj Al Arab can be seen in the background
Peter and the girls in front of Hard Rock Cafe	"If it's too loud - you're too old" it says on one of the t-shirts from hard Rock. Apparently Constance is too old..	Leonore getting ready to choose her t-shirt
Poul and Peter having their 10oz burgers	The waiters entertain every hour	Usually the dessert comes with spoons enough for the whole table, but Leonore managed on her own...
Constance trying to stop Peter from having his icecream - she was half asleep after having spent the whole day at the Lakes Club Pool with daddy.	Today our friends went exploring on their own and the first stop was the abra water taxi across the creek to see the Spice souq and the Gold souq (markets)	Traditonal Dhows transporting goods to the markets on the creek
Shaikha Maryam (sister to the late Shaikh Maktoum) apparently owns these two buildings. Apparently she is never seen but is renowned for her many contributions to charity.	.
Leonore checking out the shoesop in the textile souq on our side of the creek	The girls both got beautiful shoes to take home	Locals doing their shopping
The spice souq	Chilies and maybe dried rosebuds	Shisha and shampoo(?)
Powernapping	Leonore in the pool across the road. The pool has been closed by the municipality following a fatal drowning accident last year. Interestingly, only the pools in our area were closed pending improvements to safety. They have now reopened and have "poolsupervisors" - you would have thought they would want lifeguards able to perform CPR - but apparently a person standing by is enough. Tsk tsk	Anyway - these two enjoyed finally being able to just cross the road for a swim instead of having to go (all the long way) to The Lakes Club. Now it's back to cold and snowy Denmark for the family from Grangården after a (hopefully) relaxing holiday!
Tuesday 21st Feb: the newspaper is soaked after a shower. This morning there were 500 trafficincidents due to the rain.	And two days later the rains really came down. It was dark and a storm brewing when ti was supposed to be nice and sunny at 9am.	The pool is not terribly crowded this morning -
- but who needs a pool?
the wind was hard and a thunderstorm coming up.	Thankyou to Claudia for the next three photos... I didn't venture out in the streets
The children really enjoyed the new sensation of water in the streets	Just so that we don't forget where we are,..	On the last day of February Bente, Birgit, Claudia and I went to Bastakia again to visit a new gallery. This is view over the Creek from the first floor of Bastakia Heritage Restaurant (will check up on the name...). Old meets new!
Looking the ither way into the courtyard...	The Bastakia area dates back to the early 1900's when traders from the Bastak area in Iran were encouraged to setttle here by tax concessions granted by the then ruler of Dubai, Shaikh Maktoum bin Hashar.	The persian style mosque
The Eye Art Gallery exhibition of film posters from the 1960's. some of then quite daring.
We had coffee in a small courtyard restaurant supposedly in the old arabic style.	Bente, Claudia and Birgit	The radio certainly was old style...