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!!