We moved to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates at the start of October 2007 for Tommy to begin work with the Arabian Construction Company (ACC). And we moved into our flat here 6 week later.

here are some pics to give an idea of what Abu Dhabi and UAE are really like.... so far

 

 

Looking back towards the Corniche

 

 

National Day was at the start of December, the Emiratees like to dress their cars up and cruise the town for 2 days!

 

The Emirates Palace - AD's 7 star hotel - and where Kirsty went to see Justin Timberlake!

Dubai Creek

Abra on the creek - they're open sided boats which ferry people across

fort in Umm al Quwain

hoopoe on the balcony of our friends apartment in Dubai

We had major sandstorms here in Feb 08 - difficult to catch the effect in a picture but given that we're actually about 40km from the desert, quite a lot of it came into town!!

An arabian bagpipe band!

Pots at the plant souk

 

 

Most of the UAE looks like this

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clouds from our apartment window one evening

 

 

 

 

The Corniche is a long promenade along the top of the island with fountains (which Saffron likes to play in), sitting areas and a beach

There are lots of beaches - this one looks towards an area called the Breakwater - which is opposite the Corniche, and where L and R pics above were taken from

 

 

Our living room done up for Christmas

If you search for Electra Street, Abu Dhabi on Google Earth - the search result "Sara Building" gives you the building next but 1 to ours! We're diagonally opposite the park, which is called Mosque Gardens - and yes, it has a noisy mosque in it - but it's almost impossible not to live within hearing of a mosque here!

Sheik Zayed mosque in Abu Dhabi - the second largest mosque in the world, with a capacity of 45,000 people, and being built by Tommy's company

Sheik Mohamed's House

lots of bling at the gold souk

Saffron outside our apartment block

Some of the horse owners

 

 

but in the middle there's a range of mountains which look like this

Pictures from the red bull air race. The planes had to weave in and out of the cones and fancy stuff like that!

 

We went to visit the Sheik Zayed Mosque - first time in a mosque for any of us

 

We were driving to Iftar one night and I snapped this whilst stopped at traffic lights - shame about the lamp posts, but what can you do... and no, I don't own photoshop!!

Tommy and Saffron jumping over the rocks at the beach at sunset one day.

 

It's true there are a LOT of sand dunes here!

You do see camels sitting atop sand dunes every now and then!

 

 

The Corniche

 

 

The Red Arrows put on a display for us too!

 

A bit of Saffron's bedroom in our new flat

goats on their way to be offered as sacrifices for Eid - there were people walking goats down the street everywhere in Sharjah!

mosque decoration, Sharjah

souk, Sharjah

children's paintings, art gallery, Sharjah

We went to the Arabian Horse championships, which was slightly odd and involved lots of prancing horses, and men in bowler hats!

 

Van of sheep being driven through town

 

 

 

in the Hajar mountains

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abeyas are so flattering!

prayer times

Little boy posing for his photo in national dress - very cute, but I can't believe they have kids posing with guns

Tommy and Saffy on the Corniche

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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