Happy Thanksgiving!!

Hmmm... last post was in July and now it's November.  I guess it has been a while...

This year Ramadan began on the 20th of July.  I think I flew out sometime around the 23rd to go to Dubai to visit my friend Robin from high school.  (Her company was flying her out there for a few days for work.)  Dubai during Ramadan of all times would probably not have been the safest choice for us to meet up again for the first time in over 20 years but I must say that we both behaved ourselves quite nicely, and neither of us were arrested for any reason.

I flew into Dubai at around 11:30 PM and arrived at the hotel at 12:30 AM and it was crazy humid there.  Everyone wanted to see my abaya, (a very common occurrence when I go home) and then they all wanted to try it on... which is not so common an occurrence. (This may have had something to do with drinking... but who knows for sure?)

 I'm sexy and I know it!

 But those chin snaps don't look good on anybody!

We mostly went to malls and stuff but this is one of the beaches off the Palm.  You have to know someone to get onto this beach!!  Yeah, Robin knows the important people!

Good times!  There were other pictures... some of which should be destroyed... but she has them and she never sent them to me so.... that was Dubai.

Then I went home (to the US) and Matt arrived about a week later because we were supposed to buy a condo which was supposed to close on August 2nd.  While we got a lot of stuff done, and we managed to move our stuff out of storage in Sacramento to the general vicinity of the new condo, we didn't end up closing until much later in August.  Weeks later!  The dates are all fuzzy now.  But at least we finally closed!  So then I was super busy trying to get all the furniture moved in and get locks changed and all that sort of stuff.

But it wasn't all work because my other friend, from my other high school, bravely came down to visit me in the new condo.  And in between appointments with AC guys, and garage door opener guys and such, we managed to have a pretty good time!

Red Rock Canyon is only about 15 minutes away from our new place! I am so going running there!!

And speaking of running..... I returned to Saudi the day before the first race of the season.  It was a 5K and it was at 4:30 in the afternoon.  When we left the compound at around 3, the thermometer said 43C which is about 109 degrees and believe me it felt like it.  Having just arrived the day before I was a bit jet lagged but I still survived. Barely.  It took me just over 30 minutes to complete it and afterwards I had to sit down.  Yikes!

The second race was a five miler (which turned out to be about 4.7 miles) and while it was still freaking hot, it was at least in the AM so it wasn't unbearable.  My official time was 43:05.  Not bad for the beginning of the season.

The third race was a 10K, but I was losing my voice and was feeling like I was coming down with something so I decided not to run.  Probably a good idea, but evidently it didn't help because two days later I came down with a full blown flu and was completely out of everything for about 2 weeks.  After about 10 days I was able to do a walk on the treadmill but felt exhausted afterwards.  

As a result, by the time the first 10 miler of the season came up (2 laps of 5 miles each) I was only able to complete one lap and my time was terrible! (52:52) I managed to jog another couple of miles afterwards but it was very hot that morning and shade was limited so I called it quits.  But Matt finished! 

The second 5 miler was 2 weeks later and I managed a time of 45:37 and I was really pushing it. Since my training had really taken a downturn I was perfectly happy with it especially since I managed to beat Matt at the very last second!  

After that, I decided to ramp the training back up and I was doing really well until (in addition to a full week of classes) I did a 10 miler.  The next day I was exhausted and took a rest.  Then I got sick again! What the heck??  So I finally gave in and gave up all classes for a week and only did 1 maintenance run that week.  When I felt better I did an easy 4 miler.  Then yesterday I did 8.  We have another 10 miler coming up tomorrow so I am hoping to finish it this time!  All in all, I feel much better but still not 100 percent.  Any plans I had of completing a marathon this calendar year have been tossed!  It is simply not going to happen.  And I think I am OK with that.  

But I did manage to get a half-marathon in with Andrea over the summer.  We did the America's Finest City half-marathon, and even though it it was in San Diego it was still HOT!!! And crowded!! But fun!

At this point we had already been up for about 3 hours and we still hadn't even started! I think it was about 89 degrees for the majority of the race.  Such fun!

And that is what I have been up to.  Happy Thanksgiving!!!!  We went to the American Embassy for Thanksgiving brunch and the food was very good.  Although it didn't really feel like Thanksgiving.  Perhaps that's because my mom doesn't usually blast Gangnam Style during dinner.  But who knows.  There's still time!!

Completely Random Stuff

Currently it is about 10 PM here on Sunday and I have plumbers outside my back door clearing a clog in the sewer line.  Matt came home around a quarter till 9 and went upstairs to take a shower.  While he was up there, I noticed that the water was coming up in the kitchen sink and it smelled funny.  (Not good.) So I ran upstairs and suggested he make it a short one which he did.  The water went down and we forgot about it.  Of course, I had just gotten back from my circuit training class and so I was a bit on the smelly side and badly in need of a shower myself.  So, I said keep an eye on sink, I'm going to take my shower now.  Which I did and after a few minutes he came upstairs to say that water was coming out from under the sink now.  So I plugged up the drain and finished rinsing off and went downstairs to survey the damage.  Not too bad, but we clearly would need a plumber first thing in the morning.  The real problem came about five minutes later when I flushed the toilet and then once again water started pouring out from underneath the sink.  Not good.  So I called reception, because they are the only ones around after hours, and they called (or perhaps woke up) the plumber and 15 minutes later there was a plumber at my door.

Evidently the clog in the line caused everything to back up.  They brought in some machine and they cleared it out, problem solved in less than an hour.  I flushed the toilet again and everything worked fine.  I let the water drain out of the tub and it all worked as it was supposed to.  You just gotta love living on the compound.  Where else are you going to have a plumber show up at 10PM to fix a problem?

Anyway, plumbers are gone now but I'm still up.  I have been staying up a bit later these days and sleeping in a bit more.  It's a bit hard not too since it is so hot here during the day.  Also, I have been trying to get my running done outside because I am signed up to do a half marathon in August with my friend Andrea down in San Diego.  I had managed to get up to 8 miles and then my knee pretty much stopped hurting after that.  I am soooo thankful! You have no idea!  I'm not sure if it is the circuit training or what but my legs feel pretty good.  So the other day, when I had a long run of 10 miles scheduled and it was 102 degrees out at night, I just went ahead and did it.  At halfway I felt pretty tired, but once you get past halfway, it just seems to get easier.  And I wanted to be sure that I would be able to complete the half with no problems.  Once I get home I will only have about 2 weeks to train before the half, so I needed to get in a good long run before I leave.  But seriously, it is too hot to do that again.  I felt a bit sick once I was finished.  I just had to lay down for a bit.  Then I filled up the tub because I was too tired to stand up in the shower.  But I survived and am none the worse for the wear!

I have no idea how I will do on the half-marathon because it is my first one since I got the ITBS.  I feel rather slow, but I think that a lot of that has to be from the heat, although my treadmill runs aren't much better.  It took me an hour and 55 minutes to complete the 10 miles outside.  Not that I was trying to go all that fast.  I think I will have a better idea of what to expect once I get home and can run outside properly in temperatures that are not trying to cook me from the inside out.

So other than that, not much is going on here.  Ramadan is coming up, so many people are leaving or have already left.  On my way home, I am stopping over in Dubai again where I am going to get to hang out for a couple of days with an old friend from high school.  I am SUPER EXCITED!!

But, I really haven't gone anywhere all that interesting lately, so I am just going to post some random pictures now.

This is an ice skating rink in a mall.  The arrows point to which side you are supposed to line up on depending upon your gender of course. I don't know why they bothered because it appeared to be only men and boys.

Back home this would be a Carl's Junior.  Here, it is called Hardee's.  Still haven't gone in but every time look at it I think... That's Carl's Junior!!  Do they perhaps call them Hardee's back east? Anyone?

Yet another mall in Riyadh.

There are deer around there too.

Back home we call these persimmons.  But you never know, Kaka Fruit could catch on...

They sell monkeys in the pet stores here! I have seen them in more than one pet store.

And while there is no alcohol here, it is always nice to have mixers I suppose.

(Imported from the USA!) Virgin Pina Colada anyone?

 And here is the pool at the Ritz Carlton Riyadh.

Looks refreshing but sadly, ladies can only look! (Whilst the pool is closed that is.) Men only!

And apparently you can have your Burger King delivered here!  I've never had it delivered, but hey, twenty minutes in the car can only improve it right?

So those are just some things that ended up on my camera.  Just thought I would stick those in randomly.

Dubai

The day after the Madonna concert we had been planning to rent a car and drive out to Dubai.  Luckily, however, in our usual laid back, lazy fashion, we had neglected to bother renting the aforementioned car.  I say luckily because the next day we were both EXHAUSTED!  We barely got up on time to make it to the 10:30 AM cutoff for the breakfast buffet.

Part of the reason we were so tired was because after the concert it was impossible to get a taxi out of there.  If you could find a taxi, they wouldn't let you in the cab because they were all looking for fares back to Dubai.

There were, however, a bunch of guys in regular cars offering rides to people (for an elevated price of course) in their own cars.  After about 40 minutes of walking around trying to find a taxi we ended up getting in the car with some dodgy looking guy who said he would take us back to our hotel for 100 dirham.  (This is about $27 US and about 45 dirham more than a taxi.)  Fine, whatever!  We got in.

The only problem was that he kept driving up and down the strip trying to get more people to get in so he could make more money.  When it became clear that he wasn't going anywhere until he got more people in the car we started to become a bit more concerned.  Especially since every time he got someone even remotely interested in getting in, he would tell them some ridiculous price.  (Like 300 dirham.)  Naturally they would wave him away.

Eventually, he got 3 young women to get into the car with us.  Obviously the only reason they got in, was because we were already in there and we looked pretty normal.  Unlike everyone else though, they didn't ask the price.  They told us they were teachers living in Abu Dhabi and they lived near where our hotel was.  While we were driving down the street I mentioned to the one sitting next to me that they might want to establish a price with the guy before we got on the road.  I told her that we had agreed to pay 100 dirham.  So they asked the price and the guy wanted each of them to pay 200 dirham apiece, which was ridiculous.  So they laughed and insisted that he let them out, which he did very reluctantly. Then he proceeded again to drive around very slowly yelling at people to get into the car.  (Picture some greasy looking guy yelling "Come.... COME! ... COOOOOME!!!" at people and you can see why no one went anywhere near that guy.)  So at this point we had been in the back of his car for at least 20 minutes and we decided we had better get out.  So we demanded he let us out. Which he very reluctantly did... eventually, and then proceeded to follow us along the street trying to convince us to get back in.  Finally we yelled something like "GET THE ---- AWAY FROM US!" and he finally drove off in a huff leaving the many people still milling around wondering (and asking) "What the heck happened?"

Then we saw an empty cab so we ran up and asked if he would take us to our hotel.  Again, he said "No!" and then he drove off.  So I said to Matt, "You know, I think we are going about this the wrong way.  We need to say, we will give you $100 dirham if you take us to our hotel."  So we tried this with the next cab we saw and the guy did a quick tabulation in his head, and said, "OK."  And that is the story of how we finally made it back to our hotel and how we are not always all that smart when we are traveling and tired.

So the next day we lazed around the beach and pool all day and did absolutely nothing except rest, eat, and swim.  The following day we felt ready to visit Dubai.  So we rented a car and drove off.

Dubai is about 80 kilometers away from Abu Dhabi and it took us about an hour and a half to get there.   We had also rented a GPS so that we wouldn't waste time getting lost.  First stop, the Burj Khalifa, which is currently the tallest building in the world.  It is 160 floors and 828 meters tall.  I must say that it was quite impressive.  Much more impressive than Taipei 101. (A previous tallest building.)

I couldn't fit the whole thing into a picture so here is a quick video.

As with pretty much everything in the middle east, it is attached to a mall.  So we went in to make an appointment to go up.  Unfortunately, all the appointments for the day were taken and they only had immediate entry available.  (This means about 4 times the usual price.)  But, what is the point of going without going up?  (Tip- Call ahead and make an appointment if you want to see it!!)

So up we went.  Here are some views of downtown Dubai from the top of the Burj Khalifa.

All in all I would say the Burj Khalifa is a must see if you are ever in Dubai.  In fact, my friend's son has a blog that is all about the Burj Khalifa and legos.  So if you want some more Burj Khalifa facts check out his blog. (Or if you really like Legos.) It's called:
Burj Khalego

After our trip up to the top we had lunch at PF Changs, followed by a stroll around the attached mall where we came across this HUGE aquarium inside the mall! I love a good aquarium.

You can see the shops on the other side of the aquarium through the glass.

It had a tunnel that you could walk through (for a price) and also you could go diving inside.  It was really cool.

After that mall, we went off to another mall because I wanted to see the indoor ski slopes that I had heard about.  Yes, you can go skiing in Dubai!

So first off, here is what it looks like from the outside.

The metal thing at the top is the ski slope.

Here is another view from the highway.

Clearly this isn't a double diamond run but it is kinda cool. 

Inside it looks like this:

 Basically the ski slope is up above and down below are other activities.

My apologies for the bad pictures.  There is some glare off the windows as we didn't go inside, we just looked through the windows.  

The whole area is surrounded by restaurants so you can eat and look in at the skiing and sledding going on.  We stopped and had a coffee outside the ski area and this was the view:

And, some more views from all around:

Also, somewhere in there are some penguins.  We didn't pay to see them but I'm sure that kids would love this place.  And all inside a mall.

After that we drove out to the palm, but unless you are in a huge tall building looking down on it, or cruising above in an airplane, (a la Flo Rida) there is really not much to see.  This is a building at the tip of the palm.  Everyone else was taking pictures of it so I did too.

Then the sun went down and we went back to Abu Dhabi.  A very good day indeed!

Also if you want to see some much better pictures of Dubai that I didn't take you can look here:
http://totallycoolpix.com/2012/01/dubai-from-above/

Madonna in Abu Dhabi!!!

We got back to Saudi at the end of April and we pretty much spent the month of May here in Saudi doing the same old thing.  But, since both of our birthdays are in May we planned a trip to Abu Dhabi to go and see Madonna at the Du Arena on Yas Island.  She was playing on the 3rd and 4th of June.

Neither of us had been to Abu Dhabi so we decided to make a very long weekend of it and we went for 5 nights. We arrived the day before the concert.  The flight from Saudi is less than 2 hours.  It was such a nice change from the usual 24 hours it usually takes me to get home!

When we purchased the tickets back in March, there were three sections.  General admission, Golden Circle, and Grandstand seating (which was way at the back of the stadium.)  Both the general admission and the golden circle were standing room only.  The problem was that even though we bought the tickets the day after they announced a second date for Madonna, they were sold out of the basic Golden Circle tickets so if we wanted Golden Circle we had to purchase a special package which was twice the price and basically the only extra thing that we got was early entry.  We decided to call it our birthday presents and an anniversary present and we spent the extra money to get the better seats. (Or area rather, since there were no seats to speak of.)  

We really couldn't have cared less about early entry (especially since Madonna showed up totally late) but we went early anyway so we could get our special "extras" which came with the package.  (It was a really crappy watch... Nicole... guess what mommy is bringing you home!!)  Anyway, while we were waiting to get let in, we would occasionally hear people in line start to cheer and we couldn't figure out why.  About every ten minutes or so, someone would scream and clap and we would look and we couldn't figure out what they were getting so excited about.  

Eventually, we saw this woman with an iPad going down the line.  She was having everyone in the line touch this button on it and she would either say yes or no.  Usually no.  Everyone seemed to want to touch this iPad.  So, naturally... I wanted to touch it too.  So I walked down the line to where she was and where everyone was gathering around shoving their fingers toward her.  Touch, no, touch, no, touch no... and eventually it was my turn and I touched it and she said, "You got it!" And I cheered! And I had no idea what I was cheering about but I figured it must be good!  Then she asked me who I came with and I pointed down the line to where my husband was standing and she said that he should come up and then this guy gave us both wristbands that he said would get us into the Golden Triangle and we would get super close to Madonna.  Needless to say, I was super excited!!

If there was ever a concert I would want to see up close and personal it would be Madonna! And you would not believe how close we were!!! We ended up actually inside the stage!!

The Golden Triangle is actually inside that triangle thing on main stage!!

 This is where you walk in and everyone would walk in, look left, and say... 

Oh my God, that's the stage!!!

And once you are in, you realize that you just walked under part of the stage! And she was going to walk down those stairs and all along the outside of the triangle.

Yes, this is a crappy picture because there wasn't enough light, but that is the stage right behind us!!

So then we waited for a couple more hours and finally she came out! And my pictures totally suck... but there are a couple where you can actually see Madonna so here they are...

And yes, my pictures are pretty bad but I was taking them with my iPod and I was RIGHT THERE!! I took some video and while the picture is decent, the sound is horrible.  But someone else posted some much better footage on YouTube using an actual camera so here is a link if you want to see it.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thmV3KVTjZc

There are definitely better videos but this one was short and you can see how close we were.  She was freaking touching people!! 

That was the closest that I have ever been at a concert and it was Madonna!!  Can you believe how freaking lucky I am??? You can't buy those tickets!!!!!!  Happy Birthday to ME!!

Bermuda

Wow! How lazy have I been with the blog?  I guess... very.  I could claim to have been very busy... but that is probably not completely true.  But, since the last blog post was at the beginning of March... I guess, I need to catch up.

At the end of March I went back home for a quick visit and a vacation.  It all seemed so hurried and I barely got to see anybody.  But, I did manage to get in a quick race in Carlsbad.  It was only a 5K since at that point I was still having difficulty with the (now officially diagnosed) ITBS.  We did the Carlsbad 5000.  It really hurt, but I finished in just under 30 minutes.  Not my best time, but considering I had to stop a few times to shake out my leg, I was OK with it.

Andrea on the other hand did really well.  Notice that she is wearing a medal in the picture!

Way to go Andrea!!

After that, Matt came and we headed off to Bermuda via New York.  I must say Bermuda was one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen!  When we got in it was dark so we really couldn't see anything, but once I woke up, I went out onto the deck and this was the view.  

Amazing, I tell you.  We ate breakfast out on the deck every morning for a week and it never got old.  

 The whole island was just beautiful everywhere we went.  But the hotel/ resort was just amazing.

 This was the family pool.

 This was where our hotel room was.  We had the top corner room... hence the amazing view.

This was the pool and part of the golf course... not that we golfed... but we did swim every day.

 And this was the beach club.

 And the beach.

 That's Matt in the red shorts.  He went in.  The beach water was COLD.

 But the beach club had a heated pool if the ocean was too cold!

Freaking amazing I tell you! I have never seen anything like it.  

And while we were there we did leave the hotel and head into town.  You can't rent a car there but there are plenty of taxi's and you can rent a scooter which we did for a  couple of days.  

 Here is Matt with the scooter.

 I think he looks a little bit like this guy from the Flintstones.  I believe they called him the Great Gazoo.

 We took the scooter to see this lighthouse.  

 This is the view from the top.

 This was the city of Hamilton.  We went there quite a bit.  It's right in the center of the island.

 We also went to see some caves.

 It was 100% humidity inside there.   Can you tell??

And that was our trip to Bermuda.  It was gorgeous and I had a great time... but I really don't feel any need to ever go back there again.  But you never do know!!