Tony's Tales: End of (Northern) Year Report

OK, so it's been almost two full months since the last blog (but it was a good blog and, frankly, no-one else in this normally opinionated family stepped up to the keyboard). Apologies but we were all busy attending to the day-to-day of life and a single event didn't jump up and scream "write me!".

Well it sort of feels like end of year here in Dubai as the school year has finished (Northern hemisphere) and the LOOOOONG summer vacation has commenced. When you add to that the facts that the heat has started early this year (we are in our mid-40s C already and the hot month is August) and holy month of Ramadan is August-September this year then it feels like a "long hot summer" before it even starts. But first, a few steps back to close out May and June.

Sarah and Alexander both finished school last week -- Grades 6 and 4 respectively. We are very proud of both of them as they have settled in well in Dubai and have both stepped up their results in the second half over their already great first half efforts. Sarah picked up an armful of awards and Alexander really impressed with his efforts on his spelling and writing challenges.

Sarah also completed her LAMDA (The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art) examination which is internationally recognized and can be carried with one around the world. The performance exam was conducted in Dubai and Sarah passed with a Merit grade for Level Three.

And to close out the school year Sarah attended her first school dinner event -- see the photo (courtesy of a friend).

Melissa has also finished her exams for her latest semester of her Behavioural Science degree course (that's five semesters down and seven to go). There's a rumour going around that by the end of it she will have an understanding of the psychological workings of the author, but that is perhaps too much to ask.

Tony continues to grapple with the beast that is the proposed JV between Dow and Saudi Aramco. Good news is that there has been a lot less travel of late, and much of it has been in the local region. To be clear, the people, culture and region are great -- it is the project itself that makes things interesting.

As the vacation period started we took a day trip down to Abu Dhabi to see Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance -- great music and dancing albeit mostly to a western expat crowd. Worth a look if you haven't before had this Irish experience.

To continue the stage theme, in June Sarah tried out for the summer performances of both Fame and Hairspray, and she received a call for the latter this week, so she is off for two weeks of rehearsals ahead of the July 13-17 production. Break a leg Sarah !

Well that's it for June. We'll check in again in July before we head Downunder for some R&R.