What do you mean you've never heard of the Gulf Cup?

It wasn't quite the same as seeing several thousand beered up, overweight, loud English football hooligans destroying the town squares of Germany, but when the UAE won football's Gulf Cup (a big thing regionally, but probably of no greater significance to English Premiership fans than Rushden & Diamonds winning the Conference) by beating Oman 1-0 last night, a sizeable party was had. On every street of the UAE it seemed.

The problem was that without alcohol, the next best thing that young Emiraties can use as a catalyst for unleashing their testosterone is their cars. Their large and expensive, noisy 4x4 cars. And so it was that from approximately 7.30pm until about 2am, all you could hear in Abu Dhabi was the sound of horns blaring, tyres screeching, engines over-revving and then back-firing in protest at the abuse they were being forced to take, coupled with the growing smell of burnt rubber and oil. Far from taking pride in their prized vehicles, the locals were taking pride in their country at the expense of their vehicles. I have never seen so many people, sometimes 8 or more to a car, bursting through all windows and sunroofs clutching their flags and soft drinks (bless), so determined to use their cars not to transport themselves to the Corniche (which seemed to be the unofficial meeting point for these mad folk) so much as to thrash their cars in order to have them make as much noise as possible. Add to that the sound of fireworks, firecrackers and, I wouldn't wonder, the occasional round of gunfire, and sleeping was going to be a luxury.

After a couple of hours, I would have happily handed out lagers all round in the hopeful expectation that at least after a few beers they would all fall down comatose somewhere and awake in the morning seeking the solace of somewhere peaceful and quiet for the few hours. But it was not to be...

Jack, of course, somehow slept through the lot.

Springing into Spring in the Springs

Well, after many weekends of treking backwards and forwards between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, we have finally found our new house. A lovely villa, about a year old, on a well-known Dubai estate called the Springs. Has swimming pool, gym and shops all within about 3 mins (count 'em!) walk, and a small garden with a view over a beautiful lake. Perfect. You can get a (sort of) idea about what it is like here (villa type 2 Middle, if you're interested!).

Although I must admit that it was getting to the point where we getting ready to say we'd live anywhere if only it meant we didn't have to spend another weekend going up to Dubai (90 mins each way, driving through... well, nothing much but sand) to house hunt. Needless to say, Jack made plain his disapproval with having spent the best part of another weekend in the car.

But nevermind, the money is paid now and the contract will be signed tomorrow. Can move in as quickly as this weekend but will most likely be sometime in March. Had to sign up there and then for fear of losing the property as things move quickly here in the property world. Shame the same can't be said for anything else (bureacracy, traffic, etc).

Now all we need to do is buy all the furniture...

No news is bad news

Happy New Year to all readers (both of you!).

After a most enjoyable trip back to the UK, we have now all returned back to Abu Dhabi for the final stretch before our move to Dubai. And have been immediately reminded of the terrible service that we get from our television provider, particularly since they have now removed Sky News from our contracted network without prior notice or reimbursement of the already extortionate fee they charged us. Whilst I was not the biggest fan of Sky News in the first place, it was at least a little piece of home and an opportunity for us to sit and gloat over just how cold it is in England in the winter (plus the occasional stories about public transport failings, tax increases, etc.). Now that that source of enjoyment has been removed and replaced with some channel called "Euronews", at least we will be able to keep abreast of the exciting developments in Luxembourg's local elections.

Anyway, at least we have been able to catch up on the Christmas telly that we taped while we were home. Of particular note (and apparently contrary to the British press) we quite enjoyed the This Life + 10 episode. We also caught the nostalgic trip through 30 years of Saturday morning kids TV which was quite fun.

But not a patch on the inescapable daily lifestyle shows (Cash in the Attic, Escape to the Country, etc) that we have now returned to of course...