the update, part 2

the weather was pretty much horrendous for the 2nd half of mom's trip here. it rained basically from thursday, march 26 until the following thursday. of course, when it got nice, i wanted to be dead, so that didn't help. oh well.

on monday the 30th, we went to the mom's coffee at sara's house. mom got to meet sara's mother-in-law, estelle, who was very nice. she met a lot of the moms (i should say "mums" since they are all pretty much british) and got to see what we do here. 

on tuesday the 31st, we ventured again into dubai, this time to the madinat jumeirah souk. it is a huge souk that is indoor/outdoor with lots of waterfront restaurants and artisans. i've written about it before, i think in january. anyway, we decided to eat at a casual restaurant. julian was presented with the largest bowl of french fries and fish nuggets i have ever seen for a child. and do you know that he managed to eat almost the entire thing? it was insane. packed it away.

we didn't purchase anything there either, because a lot of stuff is expensive and we didn't see anything that really caught our eye. that's not really true, but i stop looking really because otherwise i'll be pining for some outrageously expensive piece of furniture that we'll never buy. easier just not to focus too much on what's in the shops.

we had wanted to go to have a drink at the burj al arab (sailboat-shaped hotel), but as i pulled into the security guarded parking lot, i knew we were in trouble. "do you have a reservation?" i was like, "for a drink we need a reservation?" and he goes, "it's no trouble. i can have you connected immediately to get a reservation for tea." but we didn't want to have the afternoon tea, we just wanted A beverage. ("i don't even own A gun, let alone many guns that would necessitate an entire rack." thank you wayne.) we declined, as we probably would have blown a lot of cash for something we didn't want. next time, we'll reserve for the tea and do it up proper.

since we couldn't get refreshment there, we gave the finger to the guard and peeled out of the parking lot. JUST KIDDING. did you know that you can be deported for giving someone the finger? i've been good, don't worry. ever since some jerk accused me of giving the finger to someone last year at our doctor's office (i was waving her to pull out - i think the people behind me were giving the finger because they were PISSED that i was blocking traffic to be courteous to someone trying to exit a parking lot), i have not been using it. it's always nice when bystanders who have no idea what's going on try to tell you what you did and then pass judgement on you. that still irks me. he was like, "nice of you to give the finger when your child is in the back seat." i mean a) i didn't give the finger. b) it's none of his business c) the child is rear-facing anyway and d) who the hell are you to tell me i'm not being a good parent. give me a break. what a weirdo.

that was a tangent. ah yes, so we were in search of refreshment. we took the beach road to the end and then headed home, where we stopped at the al hamra fort hotel to have a look around for mom and a cappuccino. lovely day!