Concert Time

As the calendar year draws to an end, the kids had a series of concerts to finish with a flourish.

First off was Sarah with her Kids' Theater Works team members as they showcased their song and dance performances in Kids Kabaret! 2011.  It was a great performance held this year in the big theatre (~500 people) and the whole KTW did a fantastic job.  

Then Sarah and Alexander's school (Jumeirah Baccalaureate) finished with their Winter Concert, all performed by the High School students.  Alexander and his 6B class performed Runaway Train by Soul Asylum, and later Sarah and her 8B class performed Promises Promises by Incubus.  Sarah then did a solo on piano and sang Sweet Caroline by Neil Diamond (which had all the parents and teachers humming along!).

This is the last blog for 2011 as the FrenchamFamily is off to Australia tomorrow on vacation and we intend to have too much fun to be able to pause and blog.  Stay tuned and we will update you all in January.  Meanwhile best wishes of the Season to you and yours. 

A Knight, a few Days, a Tree and a Pole

As the festive season approaches, it is time to reflect upon November.  The last couple of weeks have been busy.

In November the Formula One circus came to Abu Dhabi and Tony was hosting guests (tough job!).  He and few guests chose to stay for the after-race concert with Sir Paul who at 69 was absolutely awesome.  He has a reputation for doing 2 hour gigs but he was clearly having too much fun and ran to 2 hours 40 minutes that evening.  A terrific combination of Beatles, Wings, solo stuff and tributes to John and George.

Thanks to everyone for Melissa’s birthday wishes. She had a great day. Melissa’s birthday was celebrated on the 25th rather than the 24th due to the fact that the whole family were returning from trips on the 24th.  On the 24th, Tony was traveling and arrived home very late in the evening and Sarah and Alexander returned from camp in the afternoon. Melissa, wasn’t home by herself however, she helped out at camp! She really enjoyed herself and did not embarrass Sarah and Alexander by being there. Also, it was the first time for 22 years that over 85 people sang “Happy Birthday” to her.

Sarah and Alexander had a great few days at camp. They both participated in their grade level team building activities. Alexander’s highlight of the camp was rock-climbing and Sarah’s was sliding (on a slide) off the back of a double decker boat into the water near the mangroves. The camp (link) was help in Umm al-Quwain, which is one of the seven emirates of the UAE.

Over the weekend, Sarah and Alexander did a great job of putting up the Christmas tree. It looks fantastic! They had a lot of fun digging out some of the ornaments they made when they were little and reminiscing about the “old days”.

In the coming weeks there is the school “winter” concert, Sarah’s musical theatre class has a performance and Alexander’s drama class has an open-day.

Tony is on his last long trip for 2011 and it takes a lot to get him excited about flying.  However on this trip the 'normal' long-haul flight from Dubai to the US over Europe took a new route and went over the North Pole (which at this time of year is pitch black all day and so it wasn't like he could see much).  But since flying over the top of the world is unique, here is the Flight Map for all to see.  Yes, there was still six and half hours to go at that point -- a LONG flight.