Papa, waar ligt Houston?

Shade

I love this picture.  It is so typical of Dubai.  Everywhere you look you see that the workers find some shade. Even when you think there is no shade to be found, they will find it. 

Selling stuff in Dubai.....

At the moment we are trying to sell some things before we move.  Five and a half years is a long time in which you can collect a lot of rubbish!  Amazing what people will do and ask....

• I sold 2 IKEA stair-gates to someone for 40 dirhams (about 8 euros).  The next morning she calls back and asks if she can return them as they didn't fit!!! (the answer was: 'no')
• 20 year old Harman Kardon amplifiers sell within 3 minutes of putting the add online, as do old B&W speakers (maybe we should have asked more...)
• No, we cannot take 150 of the price and we certainly cannot deliver to Al Ain (1,5 hour drive) if the item is a sofa and a chair and I only want to get a few hundred dirhams for it!
• Korean lady takes 30 minutes to find our house (she was in a 1-mile radius), views my table and 3 chairs and wonders for 10 minutes how she can make that into a table and 4 chairs.
• Our old garden swing will have a new life in Turkey!

to be continued.....

by the way, let me know if you are interested in anything, we might be selling it :)

We're moving!

Maledives 'wet'

And here some pictures of our underwater 'adventures'.  The girls were amazing snorkelers!  We are so proud of them.

Thijs also had his share underwater as he achieved his first level of PADI certification.

The black-tip baby sharks and stingrays were swimming in the hotel lagoon. Beautiful to see.

Maledives 'dry'

The week before Easter we spent 8 days in paradise!  We stayed at the Anatara Dighu hotel in the South Male Athol and it was just amazing.  After arriving at the airport in Male we were quickly taken to a boat which took us to our special island in about 30 minutes.  We had a lovely little beach villa overlooking the sea and the neighboring island of Naaladhu (the island on the left of the picture is Dhigu). OUr days were filled with snorkeling, swimming, diving, kayaking, sunbathing, eating, drinking and relaxing. What a life!

Our outdoor bathroom

Sunset

Wine dinner on the beach of Naaladhu island with french winemaker Pascal Jolivet 

Dolphin trip

Relaxed! 

Dinner on Naaladhu beach with our girls

Lots of hermit crabs.  The girls even had a 'hermit crab race' one day with the kids from the 'kids club'

 

Children's Orange Party

 Yesterday the kids got a chance to celebrate the Queen's birthday.  For the first time we decided to take part in the 'vrijmarkt' (a chance for children to sell toys and other things they no longer play with).  It was hard to part with toys but when they realised they got to keep the money they made, it became a lot easier!  Poeze-oma was also here to help the girls sell their stuff.  The money they earned was quickly spent on new things.  Floortje managed to get 2 new pairs of shoes!!!  The girls made 150 dirhams (still had too much stuff to take back home though!)

Of course the Queen came by to say hello!

And all the children got a chance to participate in a play.  They had practiced this during dutch lessons through the week with a dutch theatre group that was flown over from Holland.

Flowers from our garden

Oranjebal!

Last Thursday we celebrated the birthday of the Dutch queen with a party at Emirates Golfclub.  1300 people dressed in orange came along to hear Guus Meeuwis (famous dutch singer) play his hits. Of course there was 'haring', 'bitterballen', 'frikandellen' and lots of Heineken beer!  Great evening!