Wendy's first blog post!

Hello! Rea and I have been here in the lovely Dubai for a few days. We arrrived late on Tuesday after a long but relaxing trip here. We have been thoroughly enjoying all that Villa 29, Frond E has to offer. We went to the mall yestereday, which Sarah already spoke of. We came home and had a lovely dinner and retired early.

Today, we woke up early and went to the Jumeira Mosque. They offer a tour and an explanation of the Muslim faith. It was quite interesting, very peaceful, and I got to wear an Abaya. We then hit the local Starbucks for ice Coffee refreshments (yes, there are starbucks everywhere here too). As it was 40 degrees celcius today, and of course sunny, we opted not to go down to the old Souks. Yeah, we are wimps! So, we went to what I call the "fake souk", which is actually called the Madinat Jumeira. It is actually a hotel complex with 875 rooms, and a full indoor souk (or at least stalls designed to look like a souk). The prices were fairly reasonable, and there was great selection. We bought jewellry, pashmina scarves and a variety of things. The complex also has a fantastic collection of restaurants. We chose a persian restaurant, and had a fantastic lunch of beef kebobs and saffron prawns. Rea took a shot at making pita bread as well. We then took an abra ride around the canals. This hotel is created over an inlet of the persian gulf, so that all the rooms are only accessable by boat. So any guests of the hotel take the abras anywhere they have to go. We took the tour, about 15 minutes, through the canals. It was lovely and I got some great photos (I will post them if I figure out how to).

We then jumped in a cab, came home to villa 29, greeted by our gracious host at the door. We showed Terry all of our purchases, had a cold beer, then jumped in the water. We went for the frond first (man, you can sure float easily in the Pursian Gulf). We then randomly opened a bottle of champagne (completing one of my "10 things to do before I die) and had champagne and lays potato chips. A nice walk around the frond judging all the other gardens (ours wins!)was followed by a jump in the pool. All in all a great day. Terry is grilling us some burgers, as we prepare for the arrival of the Mathelows this evening.