Hanging's Tough!

Matt: Took another adventure trip this past weekend, I coerced Fiona into joining me as I knew she'd be the only one I could persuade!! and sure enough, she came, not really knowing what she was in for!

We took the long drive down to Muscat and then on to Bandar Khayran, ok that makes it sound straight forward and simple, there was the border to contend with which was hellishly busy and then there was the fun and games when we realised we'd left the maps behind..which in turn lead to us driving around Ruwi, Muscat for about 2 hours trying to find a turn off next to nonexistent 'Live Chickens' sign! But eventually we made it to our destination.

We setup camp on the Beach at Bandar Khayran with Anita, a fellow explorer. After a sleepless night due to noisy neighbours the sun rose over the impressive fjords of our bay, we woke ourselves up with a dip in the, millpond like, India Ocean before our guides arrived!! Whereupon we set about sorting the equipment and loading the Kayaks ready for our journey to the island an hours paddle across the bay.

We beached the Kayaks and the kitted up, donning our harnesses, gloves and helmets before trekking up to the plateau and across the island to the start of today's adventure.. Via Feratta!! Which roughly translate from Italian to 'Iron Path'..

The idea here is to traverse along the towering cliff faces, clinging to the rock face 40 metres above the ocean and rocks below! Whilst being safely clipped to a cable, just-in-case..

It was exhilarating, tiring and thrilling all at once! In some place the rock face was so steep and sheer we were virtually hanging from the cable with our hands with our feet braced against the drop! It took us about 2 hours to traverse the route to the point where the cable had snapped and we could go no further. To be honest by this point we were pretty knackered and still had to kayak back to the mainland and then face the 5 hour drive home to Dubai.

It was a great weekend which I throughly enjoyed, I think Fiona is realising that saying yes to my suggestion will always lead to a bit of an adventure!! Considering the difficulty of some of this adventure and the fact she was just coming through a cold, she did amazingly well and conquered some fears along the way!! :)

Full Selection of Photos Here


Here's Wising you all a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS - Love to all!

Congratulations

Matt: Andreas and Ruta have become, Mr. and Mrs. Vocale. Congratulations guys. It was a really small wedding here in Dubai as the main wedding will be held in Italy next year. They both looked really great and really happy! It was a real honour to be there.

In other news, I've been managing to make the most of the weekends, took a trip to Musandam last weekend, it was a 6 nations trip (Croatia, Germany, Switzerland, US, Canada and Britain)..We camped out on the beach amongst the fjords and the following day took a Dhow trip, which was very chilled. The scenery up there is really impressive, high jagged cliffs, still blue seas - amazing!! I was invited on this trip by Angelica (The Croatian of the 6) who I met the week before through a mutual friend. We had a really good time, saw Dolphins, Shooting Stars and got repeatedly stung by Jellyfish and sang songs round the camp fire, all ideal :)


Also that weekend, we did a little dune bashing and had a couple of BBQs. Overall it was a very social weekend, with a little stress and work thrown into the mix too. This past weekend involved, the 2007 Ultimate Frisbee Charity Tournament, which nearly killed my shins. We had a good team and ended up getting 3rd place - close guys, next year!!! and if that wasn't enough leg exercise for one weekend I then went on a 6 hour, tough hike on the Saturday. This was another, 6 nations trip (Croatia, US, France, South Africa, Lebanon, Britain), with only myself and the lovely Angelica having been on the previous trip. I really enjoy spending time with different nationalities - it's too easy to gravitate towards your own people whilst away from home. It's amazing how different peoples lives have been to your own and you can learn so much from them. It goes to show what a cosmopolitan city Dubai really is, it's a mixing pot and that's a good thing.

Busy Month

Matt: It's been a very busy month, I've had visitors for the past three weeks and work has been a little crazy!! Lesley and Sandra came out to visit - and we had a great time swanning around! The above pic was taken at 360, a 360 picture at 360 - I like it!! :) Spot the usual suspects!

Then for the last fortnight, my Sister, Claire and her family, Brian and Kalani, have been out visiting! It was really great to see them and show them around. Ok I was a little busy with work and couldn't spend as much time as I'd like with them, but they seemed to enjoy themselves, what with Snowboarding, Scuba Diving, Wild Wadi, Dune Bashing, Camping, Tethered Balloon ride, Dhow Trip and more.. I think I showed them a few things! Although there was still more to do - next time hey? :)

Thank to Alessia for these great pics:
Claire and Kalani: On the Dhow
Brian and Kalani: In the deep blue

Of course I managed to teach my nephew a few new tricks to entertain the ladies, bless him, he's such a cute kid and a babe magnet, I could use him as a wingman any day - just look at that cute cheeky grin in the above photo! It was great to have you all come to stay: Love you and Miss you already.

Other news: For the first time I lead a trip into the desert for a dune bashing session, a 4 car convoy, it was great fun, a few peeps got stuck but I managed to rescue them all. Well done to Becs for being the only one not to get stuck.

Retracing our steps..

On the approach to the village.


Matt: Lenny (John Lane, you figure it out) and I decided to kick start the Autumn activities this weekend. A hike, we thought, but where? we considered the options and both had the same thought. Why not go back and do the original '60 Metres of Rope' Hike to the plateau where we replenished with rain water? So we did.

We set off early Friday morning and drove up to RAK and Wadi-Bih. We let Fiona (She was gutted not to be able to join us) know where we were heading, as she knew the route and could guide anyone searching for us there with relative ease (should the need arise).

With 3 litres of water each, a reasonable stash of food and plenty of emergency gear to keep us warm and hydrated we set off. It was probably a little too tough for the first hike of the season, the first 2 hours are intense climbing and scrambling over huge, sharp rocks and boulders that got the heart pounding in your places that don't normally pound. We made good time on the initial ascent and exited the first wadi after a little over 2 hours.

The rest of the way to the plantation/plateau was easy by comparison with only a little climbing involved. As we ascended the second Wadi, we spotted some locals high on the cliff side above us. They called down inviting us up. Wanting to complete our goal we decided to continue to the top and then double back along the escarpment to join them, so as not to offend. We also wanted to take the opportunity to find out what was going on in this area, what the rock shacks were used for and who made use of them.

We made our goal after about three and a half hours and join the locals in this strange mountain-top village shortly after.

We made our way along the top of the escarpment and approached the deserted looking village, not really knowing what kind of welcome we would receive. The Emirati's spotted us as we made our way through the of rock walls and shacks. We were greeted by 4 young Arabs from RAK (Ras Al Khaimah) they bid us to join them. Only one of them spoke any English, Mohammed, which accentuated our ignorance and limited use of the Arabic language. We chatted with them a while, shared our dates with them and they offered us water and somewhere to rest.

It turns out the mountain top area was once used for farming and to growing wheat for bread, but is now merely used as a place of escape and solitude. Locals use the shacks now as little stores and getaways. We could completely understand why. The peace and simplicity of the mountains is such a welcome contrast to the chaos of the cities. It was nice to see 4 friends far from technology and distractions, with only each others company and a pack of cards. We shared stories and backgrounds with Mohammed and his friends and then bid them farewell, they showed us a easy root back down from the plateau, which was far from easy - but safer that our original decent plan.

We felt enlightened and it was surprisingly rewarding to go back here, knowing what to expect. We'll definitely go back again and camp out. Maybe even venture further and find the fateful place where we huddled together under single foil blanket to fend off the cold of the Arabian night.

Lenny at the top of the first Wadi.
The steep decent, spot the car at the bottom there. yep - we're heading straight down that gully!

Busy times

Matt: Things are cooling down at the same time as they are hotting up!! The weather is great now, you can actually step outside without sweating within seconds the fabulous middle-east winter is fast approaching, so the activities and fun are about to begin! Starting this coming weekend with a desert camping trip and dune bashing session!

Work on the other hand is getting busy,Matt Wilson design is taking on new clients and projects all over, I'm even having to draft some help, which is great.

I know I left you on a bit of a cliff hanger last time I wrote, well i'm in the process of exploring some other business opportunities and I just don't want to put the kiss of death on things yet, so stay tuned!

Other than that business as usual.. Wake boarding at the weekend with some crazy guys, snowboarding last night and I'm trying my hand at water polo, now I'm not a great swimmer so the idea here is to improve my swimming and swimming fitness - I think I'm a long way from being able to tread water for a full 45 minute game yet, but all good fun! (even if the team is made up of 16 year old kids that put my fitness to shame, drowning them is my tactical technique)

We did go scuba diving the other weekend again which was good, Leny and I went for a trip around snoopy, just the 2 of us (no not in a romantic way, Morwenna might be reading this)

Been a while

Matt: I'm rubbish, I know.. It's been a long time since I last updated. There has been a lot going on (just to make a change). We had a great diving trip last weekend, although one of the days was a little bit rough on the boat (green). I borrowed Fiona's new underwater Camera to test out, as sadly she had to fly to the UK. Got some great shots though. The visibility was great on day one. We saw turtles and sharks as well as the usual plethora of aquatic life.


Take a little look!
Work wise, I took a trip to Qatar to have a meeting with a potential client, which was nice, especially with afternoon tea in the Ritz! Doha, Qatar is like a sleepy, more chilled, less westernised version of Dubai. I imagine it's how Dubai was 15-20 years ago, it's up and coming though and give it a few more years and it will also be a business hub and tourist destination!

Thursday saw the start of Ramadan, a Muslim observance, so in true Ex-Pat style we had a pool party. Aimee hosted a rather splendid party with lots of fun, food and frolics in the pool. Thanks Aimathon! Then Saturday we headed to Dreamlands water park.. but that's a story for another time :)

Keep an eye out for more news from the middle-east.. could be exciting things happening here soon! out!!

Abu Dhabi (No not north Wales)

Matt: I'm currently sat, with the lovely, sleepy Fiona, enjoying a Latte at Starbucks in the Abu Dhabi Marina Mall. Having spent the weekend in the UAEs capital. We came down on Thursday evening joined by John and Morwenna and met up with a number of Dhabi based friends. Dinner at Bice (Be-Che that is John) in the Hilton on Thusrday evening with the Dhabi crew and then we spent Friday on the Beach and wake boarding. Aimee and Fran came down to join us for the day as Aimees friend Emma was arriving Friday night, coming to live in the emirate. So we used the opportunity to introduce her to a few people and have a few days fun with change of scenery.

Fiona wake-boarding in front of the Emirates Palace. Carving up the wake nicely! Boat could have been a little faster me thinks!!
Aimee looking very happy about being in Trader Vics awaiting the arrival of her friend Emma. Love the cheese balls don't we iAimee!!

Fran trying to look pleased about the cocktail Morwenna ordered for her: " Do I drink it or swim in it?"



Arhhh Love in Rock Bottom: Not sure why it looks so painful John! Where are your hands Morwenna? :)

Thanks for the wonderful Hospitality Justin and Emily. It was great to see all the Abu Dhabi crew again.

Blue Steel

Matt:“Modeling always came quite easily to me from an early age… It’s a gift…”

James' nephew Cole starting to take after his father and uncle, posing at such an early age. Classic..

(For those of you out of touch, Watch Zoolander starring Ben Stiller)

Wake-Up

Matt: So to past week saw a great deal of work and an equal amount of play, I had a busy week working on 2 very interesting projects for a client and although it was a lot of hours that I put in, both myself and the client were very pleased with the outcome. With regards to play, I'll give you the whistle-stop list.. Golf, Climbing, Driving Range, Cinema, Snowboarding, Party, Wake-boarding.. That's how a social calendar should look. I was also babysitting Lindsey's brother Chris, who was up for most of the activities - may have worn him out while James and Lindsey were away though as he opted out a couple of nights! Wimp!! :), but all-in-all, a great week.
Alison, was over on vacation too - so it was great to see here and have a few days fun with her.

Wake-boarding at Jazira beach Resort! I managed to get up!! Wahhoo! I successfully rode the wake, carved my way around and also face-planted with style. Was basically my first real attempt and I think my snowboarding helped a little... Gnarly!! Fiona, Naomi, Annalisa and Mark, all being professional wake-boarders showed me up no end though!

2 years of life

Matt: It's been a little while since I update so I just want to back track a little and wish my Nephew, Kalani, a very happy second birthday!! What a great age to be! Such a vast world to experience and explore, an bottomless vassal to fill with knowledge and teachings. Already showing so much individual character without being able to string a sentence together, make you realise how amazing we, as humans beings, really are. And bias I may be, but he is such a cute kid..


Yesterday, his mummy, My dear sister, Claire, celebrated her birthday too. Happy Birthday Sis, couldn't have hoped for a better sis as a role model while I was growing up. I love and miss you so very much..

Mobile again

Matt: Arhh life becomes a little easier when you have a laptop, I went an bought me a nice new MacBook Pro.. So now I can sit in Costa with a nice cup of coffee and not feel guilty for neglecting my work, I can check email and design stuff remotely.. Excellent.. Can easily sync it with my mobile and it's sweet to use - So far, very pleased.

40 feet down, 40 feet up

Matt: We had a great couple of days this weekend, Thursday night we went to Ramie and Doina's for a Sri Lankan curry night, with chocolate fountain for afters.. lovely! Was a nice evening and great to see Sami and Vanda.. Most entertaining was watching Fiona beat the brown out of Andrea on Wii boxing, such great entertainment.

We headed to Fujierah on friday morning, Fiona and JQ were doing their first two sea dives for their Open Water qualification. So Celine and I joined in the underwater fun.. It was good practice for me diving in familiar sub-aqua territory. Joining us was Annalisa who proved to be great fun. Annalisa, Celine and I dove together while the other did their skills etc.
Towards the end of the second dive as I was running low on air, I have a tendency to suck it dry pretty quick, I spotted movement in the near distance, visibility wasn't brilliant, but it was something big. I headed towards it and sure enough there was a Black Tip Reef Shark, it must have been about 1.5 - 2 metres in length. I hurriedly pointed to the others, but it was right at the extent of my sight, about 6 metres away, and I was in front of them. I made the shark signal - imitating a fin on the head - and gave chase, pointing all the while so the others knew roughly where to look. Amusingly, the shark lead us round in a circle, I was getting closer, but the girls still hadn't sighted it. They thought I was having a laugh. Then the little bugger swam out from the coral and over the sandy sea bed, where it stood out against the light. Finally, they saw it. Thank the lord. Celine tried to get a photo, but sharky was a little too far away. Then we had to surface as I was bordering the red! Was great though.

Saturday, Fiona and I spent the day on the ropes - with John and Ameena, John was teaching us how to ascend a rope safely and switch equipment halfway up, to safely descend again.. It was hard work but started to feel much more comfortable dangling of a line. Soon we'll be ready for the real thing...

All in all, that's my idea of a great weekend - adventure and learning new skills!
Now if I could just get paid loads of money to do all that, life would be very peachy!!

you've got me climbing the walls

Matt: and what fun it was too. We hit Wafi City's Pharaohs club this weekend, JQ, Celine, Fiona and I, for a little on the wall action. They have a 50 foot indoor climbing wall, with a number of different climbs varying in difficulty as well as a bouldering section.
JQ turns up with all his own gear, harness, boots even chalk, show off - there's me in shorts and a t-shirt with the worst pair of trainers I could have chosen, they looked good but turns out, as they are running trainings the tread ran in completely the wrong direction giving no grip whatsoever.. Soon ditched them and climbed barefoot.

It's great exercise and after a few climbs your forearms really start to feel it. Fiona did well to conquer her fear of heights, it is pretty scary getting up near the top and realising you're only supporting your own weight on small hand and foot holds.

When I first arrived I was a little nervous as the instructor, a nice Filipino lady, was about 5 foot and couldn't have weighed more than 40kgs and this was who was going to be belaying me? I swear, had I fallen she would have hit the roof, literally! But thankfully as I approached to have my turn, she tethered herself to an anchor point at the base of another wall.. Phew!!

We progressed through a selection of climbs which grew increasingly difficult, not solely due to their technical nature, but you have the added disadvantage that you are getting weaker by the minute, clinging to even the largest grips became a struggle after a few climbs. It was really good fun though and we'll certainly try and make it a regular activity!!

Balderdash!?!? in the wrong footwear..

Fiona triumphs



JQ makes it look easy..
Only the red and yellow? You're kidding right?

Note: Chief Photographer and Crash-Mat loafer, Celine Parle!! a valuable role..

Schwingers!

Matt: A fab weekend has passed us by again, This one saw a great birthday celebration for the lovely Pinaz at Spice Island. It's actually her Birthday today(15th) but she is winging her way to London as we speak.
Happy Birthday Pinaz. Above photo: Scott, Pinaz and Myself.

We also had a good go at Golf and had a lot of fun. Naomi, Fiona, Scott and I went for a round on the par 3, which in this heat is currently my limit. I think we are all improving considerably, I can almost make contact with the ball every time now! Just gotta focus on getting it off the ground and in the right direction now!

Tiger better watch out...


OK a complaint!! What is it with Golf dress code? It's nut and makes no sense at all. Once I was told wear a collared shirt, so I did!! but alas it had buttons all the way down, Bad in the world of golf apparently!! "too many buttons sir!" Grrr So next time I wear a collared t-shirt ya know the fashion kind, slightly open necked (akin to the one I'm wearing in the top photo with Scott and Pinz). No No..BAD!! " No buttons sir, must have buttons!!" For the love of ... Too many buttons, not enough buttons. what the?? So I have bought myself a couple of polo shirts - daggy fashion styleee.. what I don't get is they never even mentioned the fact that on both occasions I was wearing combat style camo pattern shorts - not exactly the smartest shorts in the world - redic!!! It puts normal people off playing golf with this elitist attitude.. Still give me a few months and I'll manage to perfect the attitude I'm sure "How dare they allow such rabble onto my golf course"... *sigh*

Matt vs The Deep Blue

Matt: So I conquered the oppressive deep blue this weekend. I completed my PADI Open Water training course allowing me to Scuba dive pretty much anywhere in the world up to 18 Metres deep. What a great weekend it was too.

This weekend was the climax of several weeks of training in the pool and classroom lectures. We did 4 sea dives over on the east coast, staying at the Sandy Beach Hotel. It was a great experiences and I highly recommend it, Jumping of a boat and the following the anchor-line down to the bottom of the ocean is pretty thrilling, especially when you first submerge and all you can see is blackness below..

Thinking back it's very surreal, almost like it wasn't or couldn't have been real - but it was.. fining along a coral covered rock face with a multitude of brightly coloured fish all around is a great feeling.

Naomi and Mari-Ann came along for a pleasure dive or 2, now we can start to plan diving holidays! Great!! :)

Meet Uruvia

Matt: Some of you may have heard of a trilogy of books called "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman. A great read if you ever get a chance, in the world of Lyra, the main character from the books, everybody has a Daemon, A manifestation, if you like, of thier personality in the form of an animal companion..It's an interesting idea and one I'm sure many of us would like to be true.

Meet my Daemon...



They are making a film of the books, which I am very much looking forward to - you can find out who your Daemon is at the movies website Click Here You'll discover your Daemon by answering a series of questions about yourself.

Spooky thing is, I've always wanted a monkey companion!! Although Uruvia wouldn't have been my first choice of name.. :S

I got high...

Matt: It was a hot day in Dubai, with temperatures reaching 38 to 40 degrees, the humidity was right up there too and there was virtually no wind, normally no wind would have been a bad thing but today.. it's Good!!

It maybe 3 weeks late, but for my birthday treat from Cris, she let me drive north to Um Al Quwain...fun!! you might think.. but once there I donned my headset, clambered into the cockpit and took to the skies!! I flew a Utility FH9 prop, fixed wing!! Wicked!!

From entering the cockpit to climbing out at the end the pilot let me do just about everything.. I ruddered the plane during taxiing down the airfield and I even took off, as soon as we hit 80kph I pulled up on the stick and took us soaring in to the air. We climbed to around 1000 feet and cruised around the Ras Al Khaima skies. Cris was taken up in another craft shortly after I took off. We could chat to each other on the radios and we flew in tandem at one point.

The slightest movement of the control stick had a dramatic effect on these little craft, and the rudder would slew you also. Banking steeply was pretty awesome, my pilot took over at one point to perform a sharp maneuver that bought us round 180 to pull up to Cris's 6. You can really feel the Gs when pulling hard on the stick.

The noise was immense outside the headset, you really do need them that is until the pilot say things like, you're doing really well - you can attempt the landing!! What the???? I turn to look at him - he's serious! "Ok - if you're confident, I'm game!" I said, please bare in mind that I have only ever flown a plane in MS FlightSim 2004 - and i did that pretty badly. But what the hell, the dual control are right there - what can go wrong? right?...

Thankfully, nothing! My approach was a little erratic as the slightest correction sent me way off course, but as I suspected my instructor confidently had a grip on his controls just in case. Left to me - I'm sure I would have got us down on the tarmac, it just would have been a little messy and there would have been incident reports and transporting the body costs ya-de-yah-de-yahh. So thankfully he took most of 70% control and guided us in beautifully.. What a buzz...

Only had the mobile on me - but click here for the pics. :) Thanks Crissy - Next stop a boeing!!! x

Second Phase

Matt: Off I went with my negative buoyancy to Dubai country club for the next Scuba installment. We're being taught in a small group which is great and we all get on really well. Wendy, our instructor, knows her stuff and is very friendly and helpful. Cris and JQ have joined me on this underwater discovery adventure - which currently is confined to the pool and lectures - but we'll be in open water by the end of the month! Great!!

Look out fishies, here we come...

Underwater Golf

Matt: Golf is very popular in the Gulf, lots of people seem to play golf out here - and not just 50 year old businessmen as part of their corporate flirting ritual - younger people, girls too, even some of my friends.. So I figured that it was about time I donned my chequered pants and gave it a go.

Andrea, one of the Italian crew, has been playing now for a couple of years and is getting good, He and his lovely girlfriend Ruta, from 'bent over the front of a cop car' fame, play on a regular basis and they offered to take Cris and I out for a round. So off we went to Emirates golf course, host of the internationally renowned, Desert Classic Tournament, for a hit around.

We started off on the driving range, clubbing balls (pardon the pun) with little finesse and once we were in the swing of things (oops there's another), we progressed onto the Wadi course. It was a fun way to spend a couple of hours, ok we weren't great at it but we enjoyed it and it was our first time.

The only thing that did frustrate me more that my inability to find the hole, was the dress code, no t-shirts, collared shirts only, oh but not a fully buttoned collared shirt, god forbid you have more that 3 buttons! What are they afraid of? littering the course with pinged shirt buttons? And it must be tucked in, who these days tucks a shirt in unless their at a board meeting? it's not like it's a safety hazard to have your shirt untucked, when was the last time you heard of somebody getting injured on a golf course by a loose flapping shirt? or is it a distraction for other golfers when the wind picks up? do they mistake you for the flag on the 9th? ok ok.. I'll stop now!! But come on, move with the times Golf world..

All in all we both really enjoyed it. Arhhh you're wondering what the underwater part in the title has to do with this right? Well we also went for our introduction to Scuba diving and have signed up for the PADI course.. Our first lecture is this coming Wednesday, for me it's been a long time coming. I went on a try dive with Mark Dew about 7 years ago at some random school on the outskirts of Bristol, I may have sucked the tank dry in about 5 minutes, but I wanted to get qualified from that day, but we never got round to it.

Location Mos Eisley, UAE

Matt: A long time ago in a galaxy far far away...

well, yesterday and about 20 minutes drive actually!....Having heard about a recluse outside of Dubai that is fast becoming a popular hang out for those wishing to escape the 7 stars of average Dubai, Cris and I decided to go check out the Jahzir Resort and Spa this weekend.

Having been given directions, by a fan and now member, Fiona, we arrived at the front gates of this haven some 30k outside of Dubai along the coast towards Abu Dhabi. After a rather confusing conversation with the female security guard whose English wasn't the best, but then our Sinhalease is worse, we managed to convince her we were guests of a Member and only had to pay 50aed (£7) for our 75aed entry ticket, we were met with a facade of strange 70's SciFi looking chalets, all facing the beach. If it wasn't for the palm trees and golf carts around the facilities it would have been akin to walking into Mos Eisley from Lucas' 77 Film Star wars: A new hope - minus a few moisture vaporators..

Once we were parked, we hit the beach, a half a kilometre stretch of white sand with a still bay of water defended by large sea breaks at either end. A barasti stands at one end of the beach serving drinks and snack and provisioning for the array of water sports on offer. There's a volley ball court, a small beach football area, a floating iceberg to climb (yes I got to the top), a collection of power boats and jet skis bobbing in the wake and a handful of people spread along the sand - it was very peaceful. We picked our spot and enjoyed the sun and sea. There is even a chilled pool and pool bar for when the water of the sea just won't refresh you in the summer.

We ate lunch at the pool bar, where there was the expected selection of bar meals, the food was decidedly average, but edible and not too expensive. Apparently you are free to take your own food and even a Bar-b-Que and you do feel like you are far from the bubble of Dubai and her traffic. A nice little retreat.

Weeding Days

Matt: I suppose a wedding is a little like weeding, after all, you've picked through all the rough to find the rose!! Anyhooo I've finally got round to uploading the photos from Julia and Tims wedding, I've uploaded them to facebook in 2 separate album, as there's quite a few.

Album 1 Album 2

Enjoy!!

Living it up as you're going down

Matt: Aerosmith continue the second leg of thier world tour tonight, here in Dubai and Steve and the boys invited me along.


Well I say invited me, they put tickets up for sale and I bought one, but I consider this a personal invite!! Let the music lead the way... see you on the other side!

Explain yourself...

Matt: So you may be a little confused by the last post, so I best explain what went on.

I arranged and planned a scavenger hunt with the main focus being capturing your team on camera doing a number of tasks.
for example: Driving a Hummer, In a Police car, at the top of something high, etc etc
The teams also had to collect items and bring them back, like a 5AED taxi reciept (that's about 70 pence), a randsom note, a cinema ticket from the night before - both list were quite long and the teams had 4 hours and 1 car per team to do it..

Fun and antics ensued.

The points were totaled and then in the evening at the Party and Bar-B we had a fun quiz hosted by the lovely AliB, where the teams could win additional points.

Was a great day and everyone had lots of fun.. Click Here for more photos .

Thanks to Everyone who made the effort, Special thanks to Ali for the MATT themed quiz, you all made the day very special and congratulations to the BLUE TEAM: Steve, Alessia, Cris, Christian and the additional help they had in the Quiz.

Birthday Madness

Matt: I reached the grand old age of 33 (see told you I'd make it Sir) and we celebrated in a different way..

with some good times..

with some challenging times..

with some laughs...

with some fear..

and with some tears...


More info and photo's to follow..

Down with the Muscat Massive..

Matt: I finally bit the bullet and took the long drive into Oman and down the coast to Muscat this past weekend!
Cris, Holly and I drove down on Thursday night, we left a little after 5:30pm and arrived at about midnight - trials and tribulations at the border held us up and hour or so. Boy was I moody after that..

We spent most of the weekend on yachts and boats or in the sea snorkeling. Was great we saw Dolphins, turles and all sorts of sea life. Swimming underwater with a Turtle within arms reach is pretty amazing.

Fun time Frankly

Matt: Going back home to the UK is always a little strange after being away for so long especially as I'm only visiting. I did have a fun week though and it was great to see everyone.

Congratulations to Tim and Julia, They did it!! They got married on the 5th May and it was a perfect day for it. Quaint village affair with great weather. Well done to everyone that added to the day with their help.


Aside from the wedding I went down to the Eden Project in Cornwall with Lesley, The Eden Project is a series of Biome conservatories containing plants from the rainforests and the warm temperate regions of the world, check here. We had a very cool day out. We didn't spend all day there, we also visited the beach at Fowley, the Jamaica Inn, a legendary coaching house which was immortalised in Daphne du Maurier's novel of the same name, it's stood high on Bodmin Moor for over four centuries and the Nobody Inn, a Free house that serves a billion different whiskeys and great food, I was there for the food obviously!! Navigating through the narrow Cornish country lanes can be rather amusing. Sadly Castle Drogo was closed when we got there - but it did lead to some interesting route choices!



I also went for a country stroll and roast dinner with Claire, Brain and Kalani - my Sister, Brother-In-Law and nephew. It was nice to be out in clement weather and greenery. The walk had impressive views of the somerset levels and was through an AONB!!


Thank to everyone for entertaining me, thanks to Mum and Dad for looking after me so well. I came back fed at least! Sorry for treating the place like a hotel.. (I'm sure I've said that before sometime ago..)

Homeward Bound

Matt: The flight is booked and I'm heading back to the UK for 10 days at the end of this week. My vacation will see the continuation of a saga that started here in Dubai. A year an a half ago Tim proposed to Julia at the unforgettable Burj Al Arab - Followed by champayne on the beach.. And now they are getting married. Should be a great day.

Second to that I wanted to congratulate my very good friends Garry and Michelle - and welcome Baby boy Turner to the World. A healthy lad was born on the 19th of April, 7lb 1oz - bang on time! I would have expected nothing less knowing Garry was involved.

Had a party weekend this weekend just gone. Naomi and I decided we hadn't been out dancing for a while, so we gathered the troops and hit the town, and the dodgy bars/clubs. Was a lot of fun - Rock Bottom was it's usual stick floored self.. It's not all posh hotels and valet parking you know??

Too Slack of late

Matt: Sorry!!! It's been a while as I've been busy. So here's the news in brief.

Week Past:
A group of us gathered together with growling engines eager to chew up the Dunes of the desert. Yep we went Dune bashing and camping again, it was an eventful trip. We had a couple of newbies so the going was slow, but after a few mishaps and a bit of training we were enjoying rolling through the desert in convoy. Sadly within 15 minutes of entering the dunes we had a casualty, One of the group was driving along a dune and lost traction, sliding sideways down the drift the tyre came of the rim. Arrgh! Ordinarily you can pump the tyre back up and force it to 'pop' back on, but this time the tyre was even off the valve, so no chance. Changing a wheel on sand is not the simplest task - but luckily I had a thick plank of wood for the camp fire which was perfect for the job. So we eventually carried on - much fun was had and all drivers did great. We set up camp at the back of eccles ridge, a high escarpment awkwardly jutting up from the dunes. The wind was high when we set down, making tent erection fun! But soon we had a fire blazing and food on the go...lovely!
Next morning we were up early and after cooking breakfast and breaking camp we headed to the dunes again to return back to Dubai. There few a few instances again where 4x4s were pushed, pulled or dragged free but we made good time.. until disaster stuck again - to avoid a collision on a sand ridge I had to pull my trust Paj into a severe ditch loosing the tyre in the process!! What rotten luck, this time not only was the Paj in a really difficult position but again the tyre was completely off the rim, there was a sand storm scouring us as we work and we didn't have a substantial plank of wood having burnt it all on the campfire.. (note to self, keep plank in car).
We finally managed to jack the car up and get out of there. Thanks to everyones efforts.




Last weekend:
Cris and I threw supplies in the Paj and headed for Fujierah, we hunted for a spot on the beach where we could set up the tent and chilled in the sun. It was an interesting site we found, amongst old ruined shacks just off the beach. The sun woke us early on saturday morning and I managed to snap some cool photos. Enjoy the pics.