A drive up Jebel Hafeet.......

Yestuerday we decided to take a drive to Al Ain for a look around, we stopped at the Palace museum and then on to the Hili gardens and then to watch the sunset we drove to the top of Jebel Hafeet which is the highest point in the UAE.

Jebel Hafeet abruptly rises out of the desert and is totally dominating, it is a 9 km drive to the top. At 1,180m high it is very inpressive but I for the first time in many years found my fear of hights kick in with vengance and spent the drive up with white nuckle fever looking directly at the dashboard till we reached the top where I got out of the car in a flash and made a huge sigh of relief. So there are no pics of the journey up only pics from the viewing spot at the top.

Kalin was official Photographer...........

The following photo is my fav with the two driggers looking so precariously placed,

small and insignificant to the mountain that they are purched on.



And last of all the moon rising over Oman just as we were heading down.

The trip down was much better than the one up!!

Hope you all have a wonderful day, HUGZ

lets have some fun.........

Ok lets play spot the mobile phone tower..........

I just love the fake date palm complete with fake dates!!!!!


Kalin has got himself a girlfriend! A cutie named Katie who is on holidays for the week from Scotland visiting her Aunt who lives in the same building as us. These two have hit it off from day one and yesterday we took Katie with us to have an abra ride and icecream at the Shangri la Souq, they look so cute together!!

Isn't it romantic!!

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And here is Erin giving us her best super model pose.

Have a great day, HUGZ

Todays photo pick is......

I have found myself drawn to photographing Mosques especially there domes and minarets, as there is an abumdance of Mosques I have lots of choice from the very plain to more elaborate, so today I wish to share one with you........

The loud speaker that you see on the minaret sounds the call to prayer.

The entrance to the Mosque,

you can just see the boxes where they put their shoes before entering.

In Abu Dhabi city all the Mosques are at angles to the city blocks,

as the Mosques are built to face Mecca.

Seeya tomorrow, HUGZ

This one is for all the scrappers........

A couple of months ago I meet a man from Iran selling traditionally printed cloth, the printing was done by hand with wooden stamps that were also hand carved he had some on display but I did not think that they were for sale, though later I thought the next time I see him I will ask. Then about a 2 weeks ago while Cam's Aunty Fay was visiting we found some in an antique shop, not as may as the man from Iran had but still they were amazing. One of the stamps took my eye so I got it, this ones from Kashmere not Iran.

You can see the chisel marks.

I need to find a better way to ink this stamp.

And a bit of watercolor.

Cam said there will be a suitcase of these going back to Oz, he might just be right!!

HUGZ

Salam to all.......

Life here is challenging and I'm not sure if I am the right person for it! I find myself swaying between anger to hopeless frustration almost daily and this is just not me, I like the simple low stress life with good people and a community around me that is just so hard to find here.

Don't get me wrong there are groups like Aussies Abroad that do an amazing job of organizing events but I just find the cost gets to high for all 5 of us to do them.

What I need to do is focas on something other, so I'm going to try my photography as I have even put that aside of late and share my pics here with you and maybe I will start to lighten up a bit about being here.

This is a photo of the western area of Abu Dhabi.

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The camels of this area are traditionally dark in colour.

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Traditional woven camel blankets and decorations.

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Camel in competition.

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and some other traditional items.

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I will post photos of the things that catch my eye daily from now on so please help keep me motivated in doing so.......

HUGZ

Well I'm here again........

Yeah this is getting utterly rediculous!!!!

I lost my net and lost the want to scrap or photograph anything but get my net back and I'm straight into it.......... Here are some new layouts.....

Scrapjack....

And this layout is for this months scrapjack blog challenge, I really wanted to go for a more chabby chic look but I had no papers in that style in my stash. I used a page out of a promotional book I got for free the other week, didn't like the text that was showing so I stamped over it and was very happy with the way it look.



Hope you are all doing well, and look out 4 me on skype

HUGZ.........

Enough is enough..........

I have had it, they went and turned of our internet because we did not answer the phone when they call ....... to make things worse they were ringing the wrong bloody number!!!!! I live is an alternate universe where nothing is as it should be, its called Abu Dhabi!!!!!!

Have reapplied for the third time so please wish us lots of luck ...........

I did this layout the other day was going to upload but you know why I didn't.........

A self portrait of Erin that she took just after her birthday.......

Ok better run the puter battery will die soon,

HUGZ.........