A fan from the Dominion of Cananda

If you think we made a typo, we're not the only ones...

Over the weekend we attended the Emirates Dubai Rugby Sevens. We had a great time, Allison had fun picking crumbs out of the bleachers, making noise, and reclining on dad.  We thought the spelling was a little suspicious, given the childish spat between Emirates Airline and Air Canada that escalated into a real tension between these two countries.  

National Day

On December 1 declared a public holiday to commemorate it's 40th Anniversary.  To celebrate we went to the beach - a beach trip in the dead of winter is pretty novel for Canadians - but to add to the experience there was a planned parade of 100 hot air balloons, in typical Dubai fashion the parade failed to materialize, but there was a parade of unplanned parade of jet boats.

Allison had fun at the beach, but the water was a little cold for her taste. The sand & seashells tasted just fine though.

Allison's incredibly complex 'baby sign' Part II

When I am at the grocery store I usually have to hand Allison something to keep her occupied - today it happened to be a double bag of mini snickers bars... 

So keeping up with the Jones' is a little harder over here...

Two-story SpongeBob slide - check
Carnival rides - check
Garden seating for 200 - check
Getting one up on the neighbors - double check!


Disclaimer: This is not our house, and this is not a party that we threw for Allison, just something we saw down the street.  

Allison's incredibly complex 'baby sign'

So we were walking through the mall and noticed Allison doing this:

The snack tray was empty, but we got the message.  

Fattening up in Prague

One of the highlights of our recent trip to Prague was the food.  It was great.  Here are a few of the high points:

The Choco Cafe, where the hot chocolate eats like a meal.  This was a small cafe near the Bethlehem Chapel in a maze of side streets between the Old Town Square, and Charles Bridge.  They had about 40 different kinds of hot chocolate with different cocoa contents, and additions like sea salt, of chilies.  It was more closely related to fondue though, a croissant became a necessary hot chocolate delivery device.    

We ate in what we thought was a small Italian place under the foundation of Tyn Church.  It was difficult to get down the irregular stone steps that lead to the dining room, but the food was worth the effort.  Turns out that it was the rough equivalent of Boston Pizza.  The name, and awning was unique, but the menu was identical to every other Italian place that we saw.  

Here's Allison eating a piece of chicken schnitzel.  She seemed to like it quite a bit.  We found this place under Charles Bridge, and the food was great, but the service staff didn't speak English.  This lead to a bit of confusion, and one mistaken meal.  Three of us ordered wiener schnitzel, and one of us ordered the inferior Pork Schnitzel.  As I bit into my dinner I realized that I had been given the pork, not what I had ordered.  Unfortunately everyone else had already started, and so I didn't bother trading.  It wasn't worth trying to sort out with a waitress who didn't speak any English.  As I 'suffered' through the admittedly delicious meal I took consolation in the excellent roasted potatoes, and the bread dumpling.  It was a very heavy and very satisfying meal.  I didn't think any more of it until later that night when the veal eaters were hit with a violent case of schnitzel poisoning.  I've never been so grateful for a language barrier. 

Prague, the most beautiful city in the world? Maybe.

One of the advantages living somewhere with a great airport, and accumulating lot's of miles through business travel, is that you can get away for an extended weekend without much trouble (or expense).  For Eid, at the beginning of November, we took a short trip up to Prague.  This was our first family trip into Eastern Europe, and we were highly impressed.  Prague is well known for it's architecture, gothic and otherwise.  We think it's a serious contendor for 'The Most Beutiful City in the World'.


We arrived on a Thursday and checked into our renaissance era hotel.  We were less than a block off of the old town square.  We spend the next few days wandering Old Town, crossing Charles Bridge, and touring the Prague Castle.  We had some great food, and appreciated the cooler (but not cold) weather. 



We're part embarrassed and part smug that Allison has no idea what a mitten is.  Finding cold weather gear in Dubai was easier than we expected it to be.  Right now it's easier to find a toque than a sun-hat.  You can't find shorts anywhere.  The temperatures were around 10C at the high point, and they didn't drop below 0C.  We're told that it was an unseasonably warm fall in Prague, we loved it.






Our hotel was right off the Old Town Square.  We walked through a tunnel and came out at the Astronomical Clock, with a gorgeous view of Tyn Church.  





Charles Bridge was another highlight.  The bridge connects the Old Town with the Prague Castle.  It's a popular tourist trap, and was supposedly built mortar that used eggs as a binding agent.  Seems to have worked, it's been standing for over 600 years.  We were lucky enough to have the Anderson's along with us on this trip.  They're the good looking ones in the picture.

Every day they have a set of trumpeters in full medieval costume connecting the Prague Castle to Old Town via a series of towers.  They play a quick standard, and wave an 'all's clear ' to the next tower.  It would be quite an ego massage for a high school band student to be applauded day after day by a crowd of strangers.

The waterwheel was a beautiful reminder how old some of the 'regular' buildings are.  Maybe it's someone's backup generator.


Walking across Charles Bridge from Old Town it's hard to miss Prague Castle dominating the skyline.  The castle doesn't look much like a castle, it's made up of St. Vitus Cathedral and a series of palaces and squares around it.  It is walled, but the fortifications are less military than what you'd imagine.

We've heard Prague called the city of a hundred spires, and the city of a thousand spires.  We think that the 'thousand is a little closer to the mark.  Walking around on the hill you could see most of them poking through the golden mist.  The light there was different from anywhere else we've been.  We hate to wear out the word, but it really was beautiful, maybe the most beautiful city in the world.  

Allison - The Friendly Ghost

Allison enjoyed her second Halloween - this one was a little warmer than her first.  Halloween isn't as popular here as it is in Canada, but you could tell who was handing out candy, some of the decorations were pretty impressive.  Allison is too young for candy but we went walking around with some friends.  Allison had fun watching the other kids and despite not eating any candy seemed to spend the rest of the night on a sugar high.  

This is what we fondly refer to as Allison's 'crazy face'... 

Allison trying to eat her one chocolate bar - I had to take it away, it was melted - A problem we have never encountered in Canada.... (and I just remembered it is still in the freezer...maybe I will have a little treat tonight!) 

It started with a song and ended with a bath.

 So our little baby turned 1 yesterday.  And in accordance with tradition she was allowed to treat a piece of cake in a way that she will never be allowed to again.

All Done!

Sandstorm is the new snowstorm.

So, driving home from work I look to the right and see this blowing in from the desert...

Seconds later I'm driving through this...

And thinking that with the light colored stuff blowing across the road and the low visibility sandstorms are the new snowstorms...

Just seems completely inconsistent with the palm trees in the neighborhood...

Think your job is bad?

The other day we were driving down the highway and we saw this.

First we noticed the guy standing in the back (it was about 44 degrees celcius outside) and then we noticed  the 4 or 5 camels...