Ultimate Season

Matt: The Ultimate Season has started once again, We played last night for one and a half hours, sprinting and running like loons. It's been a while and we all realised how unfit we are. Was good to get back into it though and "The Shirts" Triumph!! result!! Coming back in the second game from 8-2 down to win 10-9..

more sweat than you can possibly imagine...Nice!!

Bend me, Stretch me...

Matt: After a busy week entertaining with too many late night, early starts and working everyday I'm shattered, so I thought I'd join some friends and try out Yoga for the first time. Ohhh... Arrrhhhg... Ouch...
After stiffling a fit of laughter when the lights dimmed, the candles were lit and our host Nelson began chanting "Relaxssssssssssss... Relaxssssssssss..." like Gollum trying to chill Sam Gamgee out, we managed to compose ourselves and begin. It was very good, lying in a darkened room with an Indian incantation melodically lulling you in the background whilst we bent and stretched into numerous unnatural positions and poses and tried to control our breathing.
It really was surreal and it bought a few things home to me. Here I was, in Dubai with the Burj Al Arab all lit up just outside the window, some really great freinds around me, i'm fit and healthy with a whole life ahead of me... Even with all the stresses of work - life is really good!!!

So, will I go again? hell yeah, it was great and in combination with my other fitness activities I imagine it's gonna be very complimentary. James, Lindsey, Naomi and Fabiola all had lots of fun too, I think we might make it a regular thing... Join us if ya wanna try something a little different!!

Back in Dubai

Matt: A well spent wet week in the UK has passed. It was really great to see everyone and a shame to have missed a few people. A massive thanks to those who provided the Wilson Private Taxi service, it really helped and was very much appreciated. You know who you are!! A very special thanks to the lovely Verity for fetching from Gatwick and dropping me back to Heathrow... You're a star!! xx

While home, it was my little nephews first birthday, Happy Birthday Kalani!! Such a happy smiley kid. A real little charmer.

Trying to go home

Matt: The plan is to fly back to the UK tonight for a visit. But in light of the foiled terrorist plot at Heathrow, I'm thinking things might go a bit fruit-shaped. Luckily my flight is to Gatwick, but there is bound to be a knock on effect, from diverted flights and paranoia.
If I do make it back in the next 48 hours, I look forward to catching up with you all over the next week.
(now if only I kept my parachure from last weekend, this trip could have been a lot easier)

Just go ahead and jump...

Matt: My beautiful housemate, Naomi, in her infinite wisdom and thirst for life experience, decided that for her birthday she'd like to throw herself out of a plane!! Naomi roped a few of us in to do it with her..
Arrhhhhhhhggggg - Why did I say yes??

Why? Because it's amazing..

A daredevil troop of 5 of us, Jumping Jo Raybould, Free-falling Fiona McDougall, Mad for It Maria Crellin, No Fear Naomi Moore and myself, crammed into Maria's Prado and took flight (literally) from Dubai and drove to Um Al Quain.
The tension was pretty high as we chewed up the kilometers of road before us, the sign for 35km came into sight and the car went silent, as all our thoughts turned inwards, one and all questioning the decisions we'd made weeks before when Naomi casually asked if we'd like to do a Tandem Sky Dive.

The dusty Um Al Quain Airfield eventually came into sight, nervous laughter and silly jokes abound. After completing the insurance waiver, that mentioned "chance of death" far too many times for my liking, we were guided across the tarmac to the hangar and packing room, where our brief training commenced.

We were then taken up in a small prop-plane one-by-one to jump from 10,000 feet, 6,000 of which was in freefall. What an amazing experience!! I highly recommend it. The sheer thrill of hanging out of an open door on a small plane when the ground below you seems like looking at ordinance survey map, with the wind racing past you is enough of a rush for anyone, but then tipping yourself over the edge and falling into the void kicks your adrenalin to an incredible level!! At over 200 km per hour, you start to appreciate speed, 6000 feet in about 30 secs..WOW!!!
enjoy the pics..
Fiona practices freefall...

Naomi all geared up and ready to go, Our first Victim - Well she was the birthday girl

Yes it's time, Yes you have to get in the plane

She did it..

Jo, so brave!!! Nice suit too

Maria's turn

Our taxi to the sky

Awaiting my turn.. I was voted to go last.. GREAT!!! NOT!

Decided against the clown outfit.Getting strapped up!

Walking the line

I did it!!! It was incredible - such a rush...

Thanks to our support team: Christian, Ben, Andy and Leanne who came with supplies and cake for the Birthday Girl. Also thanks to all those who met us at Apres for a great meal after the Sky Diving - it was really appreciated and great to know we have such a good crowd of friends.

Happy Birthday Naomi - That's one not to be forgotten, Loads of Love Always.

Open the Box

Matt: Thanks to my friend Tanya, I discovered a very interesting online radio station the other day. Panadora allows you to select songs that you like and then constructs a personalised radio station around song of a similiar theme or genre. You can confirm if you like the songs it plays or not while they are playing to keep them in the 'playlist' or remove them. It's very clever, very good and free.
Go check it out and get listening.

Happy Birthday Karen

Matt: It is lovely Karen's Birthday on Tuesday, but we decided to celebrate on Thursday with a cocktail party. After arriving at the party Ramie and I were sent into deepest darkest Mirdif to stock up on ingredients. It was bizarre indeed, the shop assistances were most helpful, I think in all we had 5 maybe 6 of them help us find things by the time we left, at one point we had 4 with us searching an aisle. The party was good fun though, god knows what went into some of those drinks, needless to say lots of colourful concoctions were consumed. Sometimes I am so greatful I don't drink.

The rest of the weekend was good fun too. Up early for run on Friday morning with James, we did 7k in the heat which was pretty good going, considering I had 5.5 hours sleep and there was a shamal. Ali will be pleased to hear I finally managed to see Superman Returns, it was entertaining, but felt it could have been better. Maybe the next one will improve upon the good foundations they've now set in place.
Vanda is back safe and sound from her 3 weeks home to Portugal, she's come back suitable tanned too. I was really nice to see her, Sami is most pleased to have his sweetheart back - bless!! She bought me some really nice prints of Portugal as a present, they will be going up in "Villa Moore Wilson" very soon. Thanks V. x

Free straight from the top of my dome..

Matt: Scott, Sami and I went snowboarding last night, it was "freestyle night". They open up the slope, remove the netting and open all the jumps and rails. Helmets are required.
We had a great time jumping and generally larking around! Damn I'm glad i was wearing a Helmet though, wiped out a number of times on the big jump, one particular fall smacked my head into the hard packed snow (verging on ice), Thank you Red Helmets, you saved me.


Scott and I, Larking around on the ski lift


Show me your boarder angst!!



Check out Sami's Blog for the blow-by-blow coverage!!

Blog Crazy

Matt: It's seems this blogging thing is really catching on, people are starting Blog for anything and everything. More interestingly some of my close friends are starting to get the fever, Naomi started one (Hmmmm dried up a little rapidly), Now Sämi has started one, I say one but I think he has actually started 3 so far!! Crazy, slightly unhinged Swiss Dude that he is! But a great friend! I've added the link under my useful links section!! Check it out.

Off topic: The lovely Alison 'V' Methven appears in the Gulf News supplement, Tabloid, today. Cause she is the biggest Superman fan I know..she's 'special' in more ways than one!! Click Here

Feeling Hot

Matt: Temperatures are rising fast here in Dubai, it hit 46 degrees at the weekend. So you would have thought the sensible thing to do would be to stay inside, in the Air Conditioning.. No!! James, Naomi, Sami and I decided a great start to the weekend would be to go for a run on the beach at stupid o'clock on Friday morning! Well it ended up being 9am that we started, as didn't get home the night before till 3, and the heat was ready for us. 5k, without sufficient water prior to running and deciding to leave the water we had with us in the car so it didn't interfere with our running, wasn't a good plan. Needless to say running on the sand in the heat was pretty exhausting and probably a bit stupid, So we're doing it again next week!! Maybe a little earlier this time though!

Snowboarding, proved fun again!! Declined the competition invite once more!! I'm sure they'll force me to do it and probably kill myself soon though!

Jeremy and Helen are leaving Dubai to start a new life in Doha on Friday, so we took them out to Asha's restaurant for a nice Indian meal. Remember "Cornershop: A brim full of Asha" the record? Well Asha's is Asha Bhosle restaurant , the lady the song is about, a south Asian singer famous for her amazing voice and her versatility, she sung over 900 playback songs (voice over singing) for Bollywood film. Anyway, we had a great evening was nice food and perfect company. It will be very sad to she J&H leave us. Good luck in Doha guys!!

My endurance was tested for a second time over the weekend, Naomi and I went shopping. The girl needed some new clothes and I wouldn't stand in her way - it was a fun day actually even though we started at 11:30 am and didn't leave the Mall until 6:30 pm (See? Endurance). Sami joined us for lunch as did Tanya (James' sister) so the shopping was broken up considerably. Still not sure how I walked out of there without having bought a thing. Hopefully Naomi was satisfied with her many purchases!!
A much needed rest during the shopping.
Brokeback Island: The boys entertain themselves in River Island.


Alessia has left us!! She left this morning to head back to Roma. We went out to Bar 44 last night for a few drinks to say farewell. We're hoping she sorts out things back in Italy and returns to us soon! I hope everything goes ok Babe, in bocca al lupo.

Well another week has started, I'm gonna try and catch up on sleep this week as I seem to have been out late too much recently! Luhimba plans progress also check that blog too!

Fair Comment

Matt: Vanity Fair have published an article on the 9/11 Conspiracy theories, it's an interesting read. They don't try to discount them or back them up, but just bring the theories to peoples attention! Click Here

Other news: Congratulations to Amanda for getting offered a new job, an executive PA position for a large international company!! Well Done Poppet.

Next Stop Luhimba

Matt: Plans are underway for the next adventure. You'll find a link on the right of the page, to another blog I have started. Go there and see what's happening or click here.

Other than that, had a good weekend, although frustrations of Dubai reared their head. Sometime getting what you what in Dubai proves to be tricky, I went shopping on Friday and Saturday in the hope of finding some snowboard boots, but alas, no joy! The ones I want in my size aren't available. Can we order them? Hell no! The next stock should come in September and there are no guarantees what will be in this shipment!!

Online shopping here isn't much fun either as nobody delivers here without an extortionate price tag. Hmmm what was plan C again?...

Share the knowledge

Matt: As I'm sure lots of you have been to see United 93, the film about the 911 flight that allegedly didn't reach its intended target, I thought I'd put this out there for you! Loose Change www.loosechange911.com is a conspiracy theory documentary, about 911. It raises a lot of questions and is well worth watching. I'm not saying you should believe everything they are saying, but I am saying have an open mind and question some of the details about this tragedy that we are fed. Too much evidence is controlled. Just watch and question it all.

Another very interesting documentary for you to see in "Invisible Children" it is a brilliantly film documentary by 3 US college kids, who went to the Sudan with no plan but they wanted to find a story in this war torn region, boy did they find one! Why we, the public, never hear of these things happening in our world amazes me. We think we are an informed civilisation but all we really know is what the media let us know. So much more is happening beyond media coverage!! The civilian death toll of the Sudanese Civil war is one of the highest of any war since 1945. We are talking over 2 million lives and 4 million who have fled their homes. Yet how many of us even know details of this conflict? Just check the website www.invisiblechildren.com, if you want a copy of the DVD let me know and I will get one to you!!
Even letting others know, is doing something to help..

So Fast

Matt: The weeks just fly by out here, already Amanda has been and gone, but lots of fun was had by all. Was great to see you Darby! See you in London soon.

Had a slightly less active week this week, working hard but still getting out and about socially!
We went for Friday Brunch at Yulumba, which was really nice and lots for fun. I've included a few photos.


Jo and Fiona: The Pout Queens strike a pose.

Ladies (at this point) drinking Champagne

Boys turn to pose.

The Hardcore croud, who made it to the end.

Fun Weekend

Matt: Amanda is back YEY!! and it shows in my eyes!! Miss Darby has come back to Dubai for a vacation. Say goodbye to sleep!
That being said, only one of my late nights has been her responsibility, so far!

Had a great week though - I was just off out Snowboarding after my last post, so I have enclosed a picture!! Starting to get the hang of it now!

Sami turned 32 and Vanda turned 21 (again)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEEPS!!

So we celebrated with a big party on Thursday night (which was really nice) and we also went out for something good to eat last night (Sunday). Added to the birthday list was Chris, we went Go Karting to celebrate his, which was lots of fun! Lindsey is a very determined driver and good too!

Jeremy, Helen and little Tom are packing up thier lifes to move to Doha, so we had a leaving bash at thiers on Friday night, Wishing you guys lots of luck out there. You're gonna be missed!

Also went to Wild Wadi for the day, with Andrea, Giuseppe and Alessia. Climbing with Mark, Chris and Aimee.. So another eventful weekend! Back to work for a rest...

Normality

Matt: Back to reality! It's been a while since I got back from Sri Lanka now and life has pretty much returned to normal. I haven't posted in a while as I figure you had enough to read with my babblings about Sri Lanka.
This last week has been, different! Work has been good, very productive, although one of my good friends at work is leaving, Helen, which is sad!! She'll be missed! She was a great girl to work with!

The weekend has been very busy so far. Thursday: Went out with James, Lindsey, Sami, Vanda and Lindsey's brotherr and his Girlfriend who are over on holiday at the moment!! We had a nice meal at Al fresco an Italian joint in the Crown Plaza then headed to Emirates towers for a few drinks and onto Harry Ghatto's *smirk* has to be seen!!
Friday: Was eventful - had a late morning as didn't get in till gone 2am. Then went for brunch with a bunch of friends from work, 12hours eat as much as you like!!! :S
Only stayed for 3 hours though as I was heading to a beach party with Naomi and the Italian crew. Then we skipped on from there to join another party our friend was having!! Geez another late one.. Today: I've been to the gym and chilled by the pool for a few hours, now I'm heading out to go snowboarding and then the Italian crew have invited me over for an proper home cooked Italiann meal - Result!! Can't wait! Hope all is well with you all.. the slopes are calling, going from 44 degs to -1.. Shocker!!

Alessia meditating in the back of a Wrangler...

Naomi, Me and the Italian Crew..

Sri Lanka - Naomi and Matt's Adventure

Matt: Here's a basic flyby of the trip; Hold tight!!
Day 1: Arrive in Sri Lanka at 3:45am, get picked up and driven to Kandy, where quickly settle into our guest house. Drive to Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage to watch the Elephants bathing in the river. Move on to Millennium Elephant Foundation, where we go for a ride through the paddy fields on an Elephant and then help wash them in the river. Return to Kandy , head to watch Kandian Dancers perform traditional dances and then a demonstration of fire eating and walking. Visit the Temple of the Tooth, a sacred Buddhest temple in the middle of Kandy. Crashed for the night, exhausted.





Day 2: Up early, drive 2.5 hours to Sigiriya, a huge monolithic rock north of Kandy, Which was the site of a 5th century rock citadel. Now a World heritage site: Explored the ruins of the temple and citadel, A hard climb up stairs clinging precariously to the side of the rock to the top for amazing views. Then we drove to Dumbulla to visit the Cave Temple, climb yet more stairs to and impressive Temple built into a large rock and a series of caves. 48 Statues of Lord Buddha grace the largest of the caves.
























Day 3: Catch the early train from Kandy to Hatton, rattling along through an impressive landscape of Hill Country, tea plantations, paddy Fields and forests for 3 hours. Then take an hours Tuk-Tuk ride to the quiet town of Delhouse. Off season this place is a bit of a ghost town. After exporing the town we relaxed for the afternoon and took an early night, for this is the base camp for Adam's Peak (Sri Padda), [Info] A mountain, whose peak reaches into the cloud canopy, which must be climbed at night to reach the summit for an amazing sunrise where the mountain casts a shadow of a near perfect triangle over the surrounding terrain. It's another sacred site but this time to the followers of the world's four major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam and has attained a legendary status as a mystic pilgrimage destination.
























Day 4: Warning: This climb is not for the unfit or fainthearted. During the pilgrimage season it can take people up to 12 hours to reach the summit, it's basically 7 miles climbing up stairs!!! Really tough..we had no idea how tough this was going to be, no one had enlightened us! We left the comforts of the guest house at 2 am, very dark and cold, giving ourselves about 4 hours to get to the top before dawn. A couple of dogs from the village decided to accompany us, the company was welcomed for this was a lonely and eerie walk, We named them 'Captain' and 'Bullseye'.. Don't Ask!! It didn't take long to realise we had completely underestimated this walk, we'd climb a flight of stairs hoping for a reprieve only to be confronted by another stone stairway leading off beyond our torch light. As we got higher the air got thinner, the fog and cold got thicker, was this rain as well or just a product of being inside a cloud. With the impenetrable darkness added to the fog this was a very surreal and spooky experience. The silence was eerie, the occasional break of Captain or Bullseye rushing off the path in search of something their superior hearing had picked up!! They would rustle through the undergrowth or the trees and disappear completely into the black, only to join us again a little while later, creeping silently up behind us. At irregular intervals there we'd come across abandoned stalls and shops, now looking like some kind of skeletal remains, frames of bamboo strung together with cord or vines, the Blair witch project often sprung to mind! We seemed to be the ones foolhardy enough to be attempting climbing this peak.. How much further? Became the often muttered rhetoric, there appeared to be no end to the perpetual stairway to heaven.. and neither of us had the answer to this question. We just trudged on, breaking occasionally because our legs could barely step up another crumbling stone stair. Eventually we reached a better constructed stairway with a handrail; this gave us new hope that we weren't far off!! But the new found vigour was soon eradicated as our hands froze on the metal handrail or slipped where the mist and rain made the rails wet, the ground here was soaked too so sitting to rest wasn't comfortable and we needed rest, the end still wasn’t coming. Even our canine escort were lying down to rest now when we did pause to catch our breath. By this time we were soaked to the skin, or was it From the skin?? You couldn't tell whether the wetness came from the wind billowing the mist all around us or from the sweat that covered us from head to toe, resting for too long just gave you a chill, so the breaks were few and far between. Looking up, we could see dark shapes looming out of the fog a little way above us, more stalls? or was this the summit? We pushed on.. Never has a ramshackled hovel of a building been such a welcome sight, we'd made it!! A series of stone buildings clung to the tight pinnacle, looking like they might slide down the shear sides at any moment, the shutters were battened down, and it looked like no body was home.. Then through the fog came the bay of dogs, not Captain or Bullseye, they were with us. As we climbed on, we were greeted by 5 or 6 dogs, it was like we were entering a small strange town in the middle of the night which was ruled by dogs, they came out of alleyways and from behind crates to greet us. It was just gone 4am; the intense climb had taken us about 2 hours. We were pretty pleased with our time, but this thick mist did not bode well for the sunrise spectacle. We set about trying to find somewhere to shelter from the biting wind and to eat our meagre breakfast of sandwiches and cake. As we unpacked we became aware of voices from below. Another couple and their guide had made it to the top. The guide ushered us into one of the shacks, where 2 other Sinhalese men slept, these were the keepers of the peak. How they lived in such squalor and so remotely I will never know. But they welcomed us in and at least it was shelter for us to sit and wait for the dawn to break. But alas, when it did the mist was still thick about us, we could barely see to the other side of the peak let alone over the edge to the vista below. So, a little disappointed, we started to make our way back down. This was still pretty hard going on the knees, but a lot easier on the heart!! As we dropped below the blanket of cloud, the early morning views were pretty spectacular. We didn't really get to see what we came for, but we both felt we had achieved something pretty amazing and we did it alone (Well with a little help from Captain and Bullseye). We returned our guest house before breakfast, ate heartily and then planned the next stop. A Tuk-Tuk came at 11am and took us the one hour bone shaking jouney back to Hatton train station, where we caught the train to Ella. Again great countryside views all the way, 4 hours later we arrived in Ella, and stupidly walked
to out guest house.. Called Hill Top (as if we hadn't walked enough that day). Great views from the guest house through Ella gap, a valley between Ella Rock and Little Adam's Peak (Another one not half the sized of big one).



























Day 5: Up and out before breakfast, we headed along the train tracks on foot making our way to Ella rock, local use the railways as a walking route a lot and we were greeted by their smiles every step of the way. A pretty and tough walk to Ella rock, over the top of a water fall and climbing up through woods and tea plantations. It was almost as hard as Adam's Peak, but I think the daytime heat made it seem tougher than it was. The view from the top was brilliant. We made it back down in time for lunch. Then we jumped in a Taxi and drove 5 hours to Deniyaya. Our base for the trek into the Sinharaja Rain Forest.





Day 6: Sinharajah Rain Forest another World Heritage site, located in the south-west of Sri Lanka; Our host, Bandulla, guided us here, telling us all about the local flora and fauna, many of which in endemic to Sri Lanka. Leeches, Snakes, Lizards, Butterflies, Giant Millipedes, Spiders, Birds.. it was great. We even swam in the pools at the base of the Kekuna Ella waterfall, in the rain. Amazing adventure. The leeches are pretty nasty though – leech Watch every 5 minutes!! Mid afternoon we were back out of the forest, Then we got a driver to take us further south to the coast and to Unawatuna, just outside Galle. Upon arrival, we dumped our stuff and took a Tuk-Tuk to Galle, to walk around the walls of the old Dutch fort with the locals at sunset.





Day 7: We walked to the beach, 2 minutes walk, for breakfast. Then rather than relaxing on the beach 2 minutes away, which after the week we'd had so far most people would do. We decided (thanks Naomi) to walk to Jungle beach, so called because we virtually had to hack our way through a jungle for an hour or so to find the place Yes it was up hill and down hill again!! Not as idyllic as we expected, we didn’t spend too long there and trudged back, getting a little lost this time, once back then took a Tuk-Tuk to a Turtle hatchery, and paddled a local catamaran on the inland lagoon, to Cinnamon Island, watched how cinnamon is harvested, drank cinnamon tea and then rowed back. That evening we ate at a nice restaurant right on the beach, literally metres from the breaking waves and then strolled along the beach home by the light of the moon.




Day 8: 6:45 am; Tuk-Tuk to Galle to catch the train to Colombo, then fought our way through the busy streets of Colombo to the Bus station and caught a bus to Negombo, our last stop before the flight home. We made it to Negombo by mid day, where we stayed at the Ice Bear Hotel, a quaint little place run by a Swiss guy. We did actually relax here, played boulle on the beach, flu the kite, rested and feasted. Before getting up at 2am the next day, to catch our flight back the UAE.

Day 9: Fly home...from an Awesome holiday..

Full Selection of Photographs...