More practice!

Finally had a chance to play on the other Troon golf course out here - Saadiyat Beach Golf Club.  So pretty out here!  And it's so cool having Springboks running around!

I wonder what will happen if I "accidentally" hit one?

There's a hole out here called Dolphin Cove.  I haven't seen any dolphins yet but supposedly they are visible out in that gulf!

Soft sandy beaches.  We actually have to drive across the hotel property that you see to the right on this photo. It's huge!

And another hotel is being built as we speak.  How many cranes do they need??!

And did I mention there's a lot of bunkers on this golf course?  I mean A LOT especially on the back-nine and guess who found most of them?

Just kidding, honey! Oh, what's that? Mommy wins! :-P

Getting ready for Sime Darby LPGA Qualifier

So, okay... I've already returned from the Sime Darby LPGA qualifier but I didn't get a chance to post some of these pics during prep-time.

Out practicing with hubby:

New leg sleeves from Zensah.  Thank you for awesome prints!

Action cam!

I really like the argyle ones!

Quite a few funny remarks with the big hat and leg sleeves, but that doesn't matter anymore - I made it to the Sime Darby LPGA in Malaysia!  So excited!!! :-)

Why is it they always have to refer to me as the "full-time mum" now and also expose my age!

Now that I'm in a little better shape and along with a "new" golf swing, I'm really looking forward to putting together 4 rounds of better golf. Wish me luck!

Charlie dancing

I think the video says it all.  Charlie loves to dance!  Check out his moves :-)

Mummenshanz at Emirates Palace

Bobby was really excited when he heard that Mummenshanz was coming into town.  I wasn't really sure what it was about.   It's basically a swiss-based theatre troupe that uses different masks and props in their choreography. Well, the boys were just as excited but nap first for Charlie!

The buildings in Abu Dhabi are quite impressive.  The ones to the left are the Jumeirah at Etihad Towers which was featured in the FAST & FURIOUS 7 movie.

The Emirates Palace is also very impressive.  Perhaps not so much from this photo, but trust me. It's quite something!

Here's another view of some of the building across from the Emirate Palace.  The Jumeirah at Etihad Towers in the 3 mirrored ones in the back.

Once parked, Charlie is still napping.

Inside the Emirates Palace - Charlie is still completely out!

Looking up from the center of the hotel:

And here's the infamous Gold machine.  Most of the 15 karat pendants are being sold at Dhs1,000 each (just a little over USD270).  There was a nice "Mother's Day" one - Hint! Hint!

On the way down to the theater, I noticed this rug that was hanging on the wall.  It's of the Emirate Palace and is probably the largest wall-hanging rug that I've ever come across!

Photo op! Still so hard to get good photos of the boys together!

We made our way closer to the theater and there was food available.  Pop-corn for Charlie and nachos with cheese for Graham - except there was no place to sit!  So we opted for the floor.

Graham and Charlie didn't seem to mind the floor at all.  Some of the staff found it quite amusing actually.  Hopefully they will figure a better solution instead of high tables for next year's show:

The stage was quite impressive with the UAE crest right above:

Thankfully we were able to bring our pop-corn into the theater:

And the nachos too, but without the cheese.

While waiting, Graham was just running up and down the stairs:

Finally, the show is starting!

There was some spectator participation and Graham was really hoping to be able to participate!

There were quite some interesting acts and some that were just ok.  But overall, it was two-thumbs up!

It was unfortunate though that there were so many empty seats.  Perhaps the experience would have been different with a theater full of kids.  Anyhow, we decided to try out a Chinese restaurant at the Palace after the show.  Free drinks with the set menu.  Yummy in the tummy for Mommy! :-)

Looks like Graham found the camera again:

Somehow this is looking rather familiar!

Like father, like son!

Yummy scones

I finally discovered that I had misread the directions for a scone recipe.  Instead of just using 2 tbsp of a beaten egg, I was throwing in the entire egg into the batter.  No wonder the dough was so wet!  Well, I think I nailed it this time:

Thumbs up from the boys!

Not quite the same consensus with the recent fritata though.  Somehow or rather, it took a lot longer in the oven compared to what was written in the recipe book.

It was quite a good idea though using pita bread for the crust.  It did come out nice and crunchy!

That sort of sparked the idea of making pita chips.  Unfortunately, the boys were not as enthusiastic as I was.  Probably because the chips were a little bit plain.

Well, the discovery of new food and recipe continues! :-)

Golf bag mishap

I suppose the lesson learnt here is "Don't leave food in your golf bag!".  Well, that's going to be tough because I'm constantly hungry on the golf course.  Well, here's the little mishap:

Time to perform "surgery"!

I actually took the golf bag to a seamstress but they recommended a cobbler instead.  That meant 1) Having to find one and 2) Going into the city.  So, that was a pretty quick NO.  Anyhow, I think the patch job was decent:

But obviously, it was still rather unpresentable and I needed to make the damaged area of the bag waterproof again.  I was shopping around for some iron-on patches.  Although not waterproof but at least it was better looking than the raw stitching!  And after looking around for a while, I found a shower cap.  Light bulb!!!

I was trying my best to figure out how to patch things up and not make it look too silly, if you know what I mean.  I think I was already halfway there when I bought a pink color shower cap! But then I thought, "Why not cut out the little fruits?"

Not too shabby!  Arranging the little fruits to see how they will look like when put together was a little tricky so sewing them on was probably even trickier.  So that only left me with one and onlyl one solution - kragle! (in reference to Krazy Glue in the Lego movie :-)

Ta da!!!  Hopefully it doesn't look too silly.  I think Bob was actually quite impressed! Especially after seeing that pink shower cap, he was probably quite pleased the pink didn't transfer to the golf bag as well.  And I suppose the patch job is on the bottom bit of the golf bag so it's not too noticeable.

The golf club did offer to replace my golf bag but it would have taken too long as I wanted a specific one from the US. Shipping would have been tricky and very expensive too! At first, I did pick one out - a white one (what was I thinking - in dusty and sandy Abu Dhabi??!) so which is why I returned it.  And once the patch job was completed and I didn't feel too embarrassed owning my bag again, I requested to receive credit instead in the golf shop.  So happy with the new shirts and sun sleeves!

Glad the management at the club were very cooperative and nice.  Quite funny though how this whole mishap happened because now I have some new gear for the upcoming golf qualifier!  The staff in the golf shop did wonder if the boys were gnawing on my bag :-) as it was the only golf bag damaged in the entire storage room. Go figure!

Back to school!

Can't believe the summer is all over now.  Well, summer break I should probably say because the summer is here.  It is still so HOT!!!

If you haven't spotted it yet, the car thermometer says 49C outside. That's 120.2F!!!  And now that school is back in session, it's been a sweaty one getting the boys in and out of the vehicle and in and out of their schools because of the humidity too.  Check out all this condensation on our sliding doors in our living room since we have our air conditioning on most of the time here. YIKES!

But if there's any consolation, the boys are really enjoying school again.  Graham started his new school earlier this week.  He was so excited!

And excited about his new backpack and lunch bag too:

Labels on everything so I had to test my embroidery skills on his backpack:

Speaking of lunch bag, it actually just contains lots of snacks, milk and/or juice.  He has a morning snack, then lunch, and then an afternoon snack.  We have given Graham the option to get lunch at the school canteen.  We had lunch there during orientation the other day.  The food was actually quite decent, which we were very happy about.

I was told by the teacher though that Graham got really upset when they put veggies on his plate during lunch.  Ha ha!

As for Charlie, he only goes to school 3x a week. So on his off days, he's been watching lots of TV on the couch:

Spending some time at the playground:

Time in the sand (wearing Graham's red hat.  Shhhh... don't tell Graham!):

Getting all sweaty but still happy!

Having breakfast with Mommy and being so good with his coloring book at the table (instead of running around with his brother!):

Charlie had his first day of school yesterday.  He is back at the same nursery from last year.  A new classroom and new teachers and thankfully, a great day!  He did have a pout when I dropped him off but he found some new toys to play with in the corner. When I picked him up yesterday, he said that he "had a fun day today", which is such good news!  Well, he was actually fast asleep when I walked into his class:

Too cute!  I insisted on nap-time and his teacher agreed as well for kids his age. So more to pack for school - a pillow, blanket, and sheets.  My embroidery skills were tested again for his personalized pillow case :-)

It was quite tough waking Charlie up from his nap and once I did, his first words to me were... "I'm hungry, Mommy".  Too funny!  Well, at least he is not asleep when I get to Graham's school.  Instead, he's really happy to move to the front seat with his snack while waiting for the school gate to open:

So on a day when all of us have to go to school and I have to go to "work", it's quite challenging to get everyone AND everything to the elevator and to the car!

I wish we had brought along our John Deere wagon from Tulsa!  That was a nice one. Sigh...!