National Day Celebrations

This week end the UAE is celebrating its 40th anniversary. Today at our college we had some celebrations to mark the occasion.

The staff dress up in traditional dress and the whole college is decorated in the national colours. We have traditional dancing, games, a photographic exhibition, a competition for the most adorable child and the best decorated car.

It all started at 10AM this morning and will culminate at 7PM this evening, when the RAK Crown Prince will help release balloons in the national colours into the air.

 I've included a few pictures to give you some idea of what happened.

Even the houses in our street have been decorated.

Jan & her class

Me and my class

Jan & I in National dress.

Our lovely decorated college.

The UAE flag made from balloons.

Jan & I with one of the adorable children.

Me and one of Jan's students with his children.

Traditional dancing

 It was a fun day and congratulations to the UAE on its 40th anniversary. They have come a long way since 1971!

Pam & Keith in the UAE

Last Thursday, Jan's sister Pam and her husband Keith, arrived in the UAE en route from Jordan to South Africa. They had one night in RAK before we whisked them off back to Dubai for the weekend. Jan & Pam were booked into a photographic workshop for the Friday & Saturday, and Keith & Ron were looking forward to a bit of R&R.

The girls had a great time taking pictures out in the dessert on the Friday and then on Saturday it was buildings. Then they learned some Photoshop techniques to 'tidy up' their photos.


I've included a few of Jan's photos here so that you can see what they were up to.

A quick trip to South Korea!!

We knew the Eid holiday was coming up and the calendar said it would be three days. But in the past HCT have extended it to to a whole week and so we decided to bite the bullet and book a holiday for the week.

As Jan has been very actively involved of late with a group of teachers from the Men's & Women's colleges in teaching them how to make hanji products (see Jan's blog), we decided to go to South Korea and make contact with some shops that she bought some materials from recently and renew our acquaintances with the Andong paper factory.

We nearly didn't make it because we were told that the holiday was definitely only going to be three days!!! However, at the last minute we got an e-mail to say that they had decided to give all the colleges the whole week off. Hooray!!!

We flew out of Dubai on Cathay Pacific on the Friday afternoon, and after a few hours stop-over in Hong Kong, arrived in Seoul late on the Saturday evening. The hotel that Jan had picked from Booking.com was really great. Our room had a 42" 3D TV (complete with 5.1 surround sound), 2 PCs with unlimited Internet access, free wi-fi, a/c, ondol (heated flooring) , an O2 generator, steam room/shower, jacuzzi and an all singing all dancing toilet seat that squirted and blow dried every private part (both male and female)!!!!!

We had a great time shopping in Seoul, got to the paper factory in Andong and manged to squeeze in a quick trip to the DMZ. We pigged out on Korean food and really had a fabulous relaxing week. Our suitcases were much fuller on the way home and Jan can't wait to go back again next April, hopefully with one or two of her hanji group.

Check out the pictures in the Photo Albums.

Another week goes by.

Just a quick update on the week's happenings before I tell you more about our summer holiday (is that a cue for a song?).


Last Thursday HCT and Cambridge University hosted a joint conference for ESOL teachers at Dubai Men's College. HCT has decided that it would be a good idea to use the CEFR (Common European Framework of Reference) as a guideline to describe the achievements of both Arabic & English learners in the UAE. In this way, it will be easier for teachers and employers alike to compare qualifications and see how they relate to one another. This maybe gobbledigook to many of you, but it's an important step for education in the UAE. The Minister of Education gave the opening address and then presented a cheque to Cambridge.

His Highness Sheikh Nahayan addressing the delegates.

Later in the afternoon, Jan & I went to Mirdif City Centre, one of our more moderate shopping malls, for coffee and cake and a quick bit of shopping before heading back to RAK. The mall currently has a promotion where you can enter in a draw to win a limited edition gold plated ipad 2! Jan & I put in an entry each, but goodness knows what will happen if I win it?

Jan taking a picture of the aforementioned ipad with her iphone.

One of our colleagues has suggested that we could melt it down! Maybe not.

Brussels: July 2011

Now, where was I?
Oh, that's right, we were about to board a train bound for Brussels after having spent a very enjoyable few days in Paris. As we were staying at different hotels, we arranged to meet Heather & Neil the following morning at the station to catch our train to Brussels.

It was a very pleasant, albeit short trip, and we were soon speeding through the streets of Brussels towards the Dominican hotel where we were to spend the next few days. The hotel had been built on the site of an old abbey, hence the name. Heather and Neil had stayed here before, but it was our first visit to Brussels.

We were all pretty excited because before leaving Australia, Heather had booked us all tickets to see the Ommegang festival, a once a year spectacular (Jan had also thought about booking tickets and when she rang Heather to tell her about it, Heather had to tell her that she'd already booked the tickets and it was going to be a surprise!!) . Here in the Grand Place in Brussels the ghosts of Charles the Fifth and his nobles would pay a visit to the splendidly plumed magistrates.  But that was in a couple of days and there was lots to do before then.

As most people would know, Brussels is famous for two things: beer and chocolate. It was our intention to sample both! We did a city tour and got to see how chocolate pralines are made and obviously we bought some to take home. Some made it home to the UAE, some didn't!

We had some great meals and Neil did his very best to introduce me to as many Belgian beers as he could.

We went to a musical instrument museum that was amazing and couldn't help but think that Jan's dad would have loved it. We did quite a bit of walking and often found ourselves in some quaint little back street. We had decided not to eat breakfast in the hotel (I'm not a great lover of hotel buffet breakfasts) but to get out and have breakfast with the locals. Well we found a nice little cafe the first morning in a beautiful mall just off the Grand Place, and subsequently went back there for breakfast every morning. There is just something about orange juice, croissant, cheese, jam and coffee!

One day we decided to take the train to Bruges. So we headed down to the station, and while Jan & Heather bought our tickets, I bought some pastries to eat on the way. When we arrived in Bruges we took a taxi to the town centre as it was market day. But first we needed breakfast as we'd left Brussels early and so hadn't eaten. Unfortunately it started to rain and it just got heavier and heavier. None of us had bought raincoats or umbrellas. It was summer wasn't it! Breakfast over and still raining we thought it can't last so we'll go for a walk round the market which was held in the town square, to see what was on offer.

It continued to rain and we were getting pretty cold so we found a department store and bought a coat and an umbrella each. Luckily by the time lunchtime came, the rain had cleared up and we were able to enjoy the rest of the day. A ride on a horse and buggy, a beer in a local bar to soak up the atmosphere, a nice walk around the back streets, lunch, another chocolate shop, another beer and then we caught the bus back to the station and then the train back to Brussels. An exhausting but fun day despite the rain.

See the photo albums for more photos of Brussels and Bruges.

Look out for The Atomium, a monument built in 1958 for the Brussels World's Fair exhibition. It was designed by André Waterkeyn in the shape of a metal molecule which when magnified 165 billon times will look the Atomium structure. The entire structure is made of 9 interconnected steel spheres that tower at 102 meters tall. It weighs a massive 2400 tones. All the spheres are exhibition halls.

 Eventually of course, all good things must come to an end. Heather and Neil were staying on for a few more days but Jan & I had a train to catch back to London and Darius and Kristi's new house.

See you back in England.

Jazzing the Gulf

Last Friday night, Jan & I had the unique opportunity to experience the first visit to the Gulf Region of the German Youth Jazz Orchestra. The concert was entitled "Jazzing the Gulf".

From the information brochure

They were in Abu Dhabi last week and then in Dubai last Friday. We travelled down to Dubai late Friday morning, called in to the brand new Jones the Grocer for a fantastic lunch (there's even one in Adelaide!), went to the Mall of the Emirates (where that famous ski slope is) to pick up the tickets and then checked into the Media Rotana Hotel where we had decided to spend the night instead of travelling back to RAK as we had done last week.

After a bit of a rest we got dressed and headed over to the Mall and the DUCTAC theatre for what proved to be a great concert. The band members are all aged between 17 & 24 and they had three conductors who took turns in conducting. A short video of part of the performance follows:

Slept in on Saturday morning, did a bit of shopping, and arrived home late afternoon. All in all a great weekend. The Blues Brothers are coming up next in a few weeks so stay tuned for more updates.

Oh, and I haven't finished telling you about our holidays yet.

Now back to the last holiday.

We were very lucky again this last summer holiday, in that Jan's sister was also going to be in Europe part of the time that we were there. So we arranged to meet up first in Paris and then go on to Brussels. We would also see them later in London, but that's another story.

After spending a lovely few days with Darius, Kristi and Lucian in their Belsize Park apartment, we caught the early morning Eurostar train to Paris. And what a lovely trip that was. Speeding through the English countryside as the sun came up and then before you knew it, we'd gone under the English Channel and we were in France. It was then just a short trip to Paris. Before leaving the UK we'd bought a three day Paris Metro pass so that we wouldn't have to worry about trying to buy tickets once we were there. My French is practically non-existant so I didn't want to chance it. As we were going back to the UK after our little side trip, we left some of cases with Darius & Kristi and so we didn't have too many to carry on the train. The Paris Metro was really good (once we'd worked out which train to catch) and Jan had picked a hotel very close to a Metro station so we didn't have too far to walk.

Our hotel was in an area called Trocadero and wasn't very far from the Eiffel Tower and the Seine.

The Eiffel Tower

Lots of cafes to choose from!

There were lots of cafes and we could sit and have breakfast, lunch or dinner with the Eiffel Tower in the background. The Seine was only a few minutes walk away and so we took a trip on a boat and lazed away as we took in the sights on the river.

Ron enjoying the sights!

We had one day to ourselves and then Heather and Neil arrived the next day. We were then able to take in the shops and sights with them and share a few meals and the odd glass of French wine. We went to Fauchon and sampled their fare and checked out the amazing ceiling in Galeries Lafayette.

Lunch at Fauchon

That amazing ceiling built in 1912

Jan and some locals enjoying the sun

One last look at the Eiffel Tower, a walk round the Arc de Triomphe and it was on the train to Brussels.

Ron, Heather & Neil

OK, I came back.

Well, I bet that surprised you! I'm going to do things a little out of order today because I want to tell you where Jan & I went last Thursday evening first.

Jan had seen an advertisement during the week for a concert that was on at the theatre in Madinat Jumeriah (a modern version of a traditional Arabic souk), Dubai. It was a guy that we didn't know, but he was doing the music of Queen. Jan thought it might be fun and promptly booked two tickets for Thursday. It meant going down to Dubai after work and probably getting back pretty late. But hey, Friday is the week end for us and we could sleep in.

So we drove down straight from work, had some dinner first and then went for a walk around the souk. In one of the shops I saw this globe and instantly fell in love with it. So I bought it. It's now sitting on the desk in our study.

Then we went to the concert. It was fantastic!! We were five rows from the front and he was just great in our opinion. He had the whole theatre (which was packed) rocking in the aisles, literally. We stopped off for coffee on the way home and got to bed a little after midnight. Don't ask what time we got up on Friday though. No, I said don't ask!