Tony's Tales: January 2010

Well we couldn't let January pass without a blog now could we? It's been a month of extremes, starting out very busy and then a relaxing second half which was exactly what the Frencham family needed.

We started with our home visit to Melbourne and the delight which is visiting our family and friends. It was great to be back in Oz with the long drought seemingly breaking and the weather there wonderful for our entire stay. The global recession forgot to come to Australia (but Santa didn't) and spirit was fabulous. Cricket with the guys at the 'G was perfect, and the beach at the Grove was a blast. While I'm on this dinkum bent I bumped into the following poem at Mum's and repeat here for all to enjoy (author: R.H. Croll):

When God knocked off one night, said He -
"This Earth's a rotten failure;
How to improve it? Let me see...
Next day He made Australia."

Lot's of fun with friends as we toured around. Went to Healesville Sanctuary with friends from Hong Kong and had a memorable day -- including a leaping Koala! Folks, you could have knocked us over. The Koalas were doing the normal blob on a tree routine when one of them extracted him(?)self and hung from a branch to stretch out. He then swung on one arm and leapt to another trunk (see photo jost prior to launch). Boy, did that get the tourists excited!

Family and friends were wonderful as always, and great to ground the kids after the merry-go-round of expat life. Sarah is now taller than both my parents and closing on Melissa's Mum, with Alexander a steady pass behind that. Their cousins are all growing into real little people and lot's of fun (as you can see in the photo).

Back to Dubai just in time to see the launch of the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. We can see it from our villa -- but then frankly practically everyone within a 100kms can. It truly is a wonderful design and it's not until you are nearby and try and take a photo that you can grasp the enormity of this tower (of course the problem now is I have to write more blog as the picture goes on and on!).

With less travel and some family time to ourselves, it was time for some R&R. We all finally took in Avatar in 3D -- some of will say we are soooooo late, but for the rest of you simply must see it. Also had a great day at the Aquaventure water park at the Atlantis resort on The Palm (yes, that's the series of islands that looks like a palm tree from above). Fun all round, although our hard marking kids claim that Wild Wadi (another water park here -- see our March 2009 blog) is way better.

Well we closed out the month with a dinner with friends from Europe and a slightly delayed Australia Day BBQ at our place where it unfortunately degenerated into the ladies (?) bursting into a rendition of Meatloaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light". Oh well.