Saturday, January 30, 2010

Dubai Birthday Party

Famke's friend Libbi turned 7 last week and all her friends were invited to a party.  We were asked to be at the school at 2 pm.  Imagine the girls' surprise when a Hummer limo turned up and they were driven to the party location to ride ponies!!!





Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Women drivers...

Just something I read in the newspaper here in Dubai.  Not sure if you would get away with an article like this in Holland....


Floortje 4!

Floortje 4!  She had a wonderful day with nice presents and lots of friends!  Rainbow was the theme she chose so the cake was made accordingly.  Lots of M&M's and marshmallows so that was very much to Floortje's taste.


  

Burj Dubai now known as Burj Khalifa!


Bit late but here some pictures of the fireworks of the opening of the Burj Dubai, whose name was changed during the opening to Burj Khalifa.  The official height is 828m (10m higher than everyone expected it to be!!).  The fireworks were amazing, you can find videos on YouTube (of course!)


 



Monday, January 4, 2010

Burj Dubai to open today!








Tower's timeline


September 21, 2004
Emaar contractors begin construction of Burj Dubai.


February 2007
Burj Dubai surpasses the Sears Tower as the building with the most floors.

May 13, 2007 
Burj Dubai makes construction history when it breaks the record for vertical concrete pumping, by pushing concrete upward to 452m, surpassing the 449.2m to which concrete was pumped during a skyscraper construction which took place in Taiwan.

July 20, 2007
Burj Dubai becomes the world’s tallest building, surpassing Taipei 101 in Taiwan, which stands at a height of 509.2m.
The head of the organisation that confirms the height of skyscrapers, the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, accepts that the Burj is taller than Taipei 101 in Taiwan.
However, he warns that it will not count until the Burj is complete, clad and open for business.

September 12, 2007 
At 555.3m Burj Dubai becomes the world’s tallest freestanding structure, surpassing the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada.

July 12, 2008 
Two base-jumping parachute enthusiasts are fined after posing as engineers to climb 650m up the Burj, left. One Brit jumped off and was arrested on the ground after he landed following the stunt in April. A French companion was arrested before he jumped. Both were fined dhs2,000 and are ordered to pay compensation.

February 5, 2009
Photographer Darren Bell told 7DAYS what it was like to be on top of the world when he took his favourite paper up there for a read, left. He was the first photographer to climb the tower after the final section was added in January.

April 5, 2009
7DAYS reports that fearless climber Frenchman Alain Robert plans to climb the structure when it opens, right. Robert, who has climbed some of the world’s most iconic buildings, said it will take him two hours to complete.

January 4, 2010
After postponing the opening a number of times the Burj Dubai is set to be unveiled by HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum on the fourth anniversary of when he took office as the Ruler of Dubai.


The numbers
6 degrees cooler at the top than the bottom
12,000 the number of people it is expected to hold
868 lights illuminating the tower at the launch tonight
1,044 residential apartments
28,261 glass panels on the exterior of the building

Saturday, January 2, 2010

'Gooische Vrouwen' New Year's Eve

New Year's Eve we celebrated with friends.  The theme of the party was 'Gooische Vrouwen' (for non-dutchies:  Desperate Housewives).  Below you can see how we made a fool of ourselves.
Happy 2010 to all!