Could have been the long awaited sequel to the cult movie....Aric had to rebuild his memory and the evening prior, slowly, piece by piece. As it was, I flew back from London early to make sure I was well rested for a night out with friends and family on the 22nd. Instead, to my dismay - the "guys" had planned a night out on Friday the 21st, to celebrate Aric and convinced me to join. 9pm started a long and entertaining night which kicked off at the Observatory, a splendid bar on the 52nd floor of the Harbour Hotel (now Mariott) our old residence when first arriving in Dubai. Views of Dubai and The Palm are normally unobstructed. Aric's view was obviously obstructed by several Vodka/Cranberry cocktails and his memory started fading at the time we left the bar for Frankie's. Frankies is generally the last place you hit on a night out on town. Owned and named by and after Frankie Dettori, the Italian jockey known for winning several Ascot races, it's an "over 50's; drinks are spiked; don't leave the place alone" piano bar with a seedy clientele ranging from Russian ladies of the night to Bin Laden's "black sheep of the family" brother! Yep, we always have a blast when we go to Frankie's but we don't always remember how we got home!
As it turns out, Lorraine, Peter and 6 other of our Swedish / Emirati friends were there for dinner. We joined their group and when the clock hit midnight, we enjoyed several bottles of Moet to cheer Aric's 40-something. It went downhill from there! Leaving Frankies (after closing the place down around 2am) I should have been sensible and taken Aric home. Instead we went to Lorraine and Peter's house on the Palm and continued the party. While the guys were silly and started doing shots (oh they so paid for that later) - the 4 gals had serious talks about life in Dubai and being married to a local Emirati: Andrea (British) is married to Rany (Emirati), and she shared the pros and cons...obviously mostly pros, given the designer clothes, boots, jewelry and bling-bling she owns. They are both sweet though so who is judging ;-)
Around 4am Aric thought it might be a good idea to go home. I couldn't agree more after seeing him hang on all the guys, saying "I love you man" over and over again. He doesn't remember going home - or even being at their house for that matter! The next day, my mom, brother, his wife, their daughter, Hunter and I, sang Happy Birthday as loud as we could while throwing the gifts on top of Aric in the bed :) He spent the entire day in bed and was not a very happy camper.
On the rest of the family front, our oldest son has graced us with admission into Arizona State University, in the Industrial Design program. He starts in the fall and will be coming back to Dubai in May before heading to Tempe for his orientation June 21. We are immensely proud because this was his number one choice and it is one of the top 10 schools for Industrial Design in the US. It sounds as if he is ready to start tomorrow...he has had enough of working in a bar for a living, but will stay on Thursday Island until March 24, when we head to Sydney to visit him.
As you all know, the Aults tend to live on the edge - Aidan being no exception as he narrowly escaped the floods in Brisbane, where so many have lost their lives and homes.
Aric played 18 holes in a charity golf game yesterday, to support the victims in Queensland and they raised quite a substantial amount of money.
My mom arrived the 19th and is loving that both Mark and I live here so she can visit both in turns. Josefine has been accepted at a great local school and is friends with several other Danish children. Hunter tutors her in English so she can catch up and follow along in the classes; when he taught her the entire English alphabet, she proudly announced that now she "knows all the numbers"! She is a happy little girl and Mark, Tina and her are settling well here in their new surroundings.
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