Leo and Robbie arrive

The email at home is not yet connected so I'm STILL using internet cafes, hence the lack of photos on the blog site. However we are in the Q-Tel queue now so I am hoping in a couple of weeks we will be posting lots of photos on the site and you will be able to really see what we have been up to.

The boys arrived over safe and sound after their big solo flying adventure. They looked pretty shattered when they arrived - Leo had five hours sleep on the flight and Robbie had two...They have bounced back pretty well.

They have started at a school called Park House English School. The school week, like the working week here is Sunday to Thursday, so they started school on a Sunday. Schooling is very very tight here - I have been quietly and pleasantly very persistent at a number of schools for the last month and even then regard it as a minor miracle that the boys have found a place. They had to sit an entrance test which was mostly English and Maths. The schools here seem to be divided along nationality lines - Park House has a high proportion of English, Aussie, Kiwi and South African kids amongst the 50 odd nationalities that attend. Right beside their school is a Pakistani school, an Iranian school and also Al Jazeera Academy which is attended by a high number of Arab kids as well as other nationalities. Just down the road is an Indian school, a Lebanese school, an American school etc etc. Park House is quite traditional - to their disgust the boys have to wear long trousers, a white shirt and even worse, a tie. Despite these atrocities they have settled in quickly and while they are missing home, are making friends fast and enjoying school. Robbie is at the primary school and Leo the secondary school - no intermediate schools here.

I'm getting used to driving like a maniac on the right hand side of the road, dodging Formula One Qatar Arab drivers, avoiding mad Pakistani drivers in pick ups and keeping a wary eye on the women who drive wearing full veils with very limited vision. No bingles in the car still....

I'm actually enjoying being at home as a medium term thang - I'll start looking for work after the long summer break in September. I am SOOO being the domestic goddess. In between running the kids to school, I go to the gym, visit the malls, visit girlfriends and do wee outings and plot the next adventures.

We've been out in the desert at a place called Mesaaid, where stony desert makes way for huge soft sand dunes. We went last weekend riding quad bikes up and down the sand dunes. There are no concerns at all about erosion. We each hired a quad bike - the boys had 60cc bikes and Ian and I had 180cc - the last of the easy riders. Robbie was a bit cautious to start with so I hung about with him while Leo and Ian hared off up the nearest dune. It didn't take long before we were all hooning around. I am officially the fastest quadbiker - try as they might none of the boys could catch me... he he he

We have also been snorkelling in the same area. No reefs to be seen and the beach is unfortunately covered with pastic but the water itself is clean enough and we saw a few fish. We will definitely try that again.

As well we seem to have been doing a lot of eating out - various birthdays etc etc - Robbie, Ian and I have birthdays within two weeks of each other so there's been a lot to celebrate.