Exhausted after night of running and dancing
Eid Mubarak!
The Dhabi is gearing up (pun intended) for Formula One with a series of concerts. The really big ones are at the arena on neighborhing Yas Island (Prince, Guns N Roses, Linkin Park, Kanye West, Jonas Brothers, Nelly Furtado, etc), but our Corniche (a block and a half away, right on the Persian Gulf) has a few big nights of concerts too. It's called Beats on the Beach, and unlike the big stuff out on Yas Island, these concerts are all free.
A week ago, we were there for the Brazilian parade and a concert by a Colombian rock band. This weekend, the fun continues. Wednesday night, I (this is Randy) took Anastasia to the beach, and we enjoyed Kelly Rowland (of Destiny's Child fame) along with a really good Lebanese singer named Melissa (a nickname) and Clarita de Quiroz (part Filipino, part Spanish, part Irish, raised in Scotland--she's quite a mix, but her music was good--very talented at the piano). Anastasia danced and ran around the park; she had a great time. She has this one dance move where she squats and shakes her bootie...A few people videotaped her doing that...she had an audience! Probably on Youtube somewhere.
Thursday night, Christine and Talula joined Anastasia and me. We caught the end of a local ska band called Sh9? (yes, punctuation is part of their name), plus two Lebanese musicians (Rola Saad and Melheim Zein), UK soul/reggae/pop guru The Beat, and dancehall/reggae big name Sean Paul from Jamaica ("Shake that thing" and "Gimme the light" being two of his hits). We ended up spending time with a Syrian family who were enjoying the concert there. Anastasia and Talula are great ways to meet new people!
Last night, Anastasia and I returned to Beats on the Beach for just a short while. We saw Dubai's favorite rock band, Beat Antenna (made up of British expats) and British pop star Sophie Ellis-Bextor; both were good. Anastasia made friends with an Indian couple at first, and then a little later, she joined up with two couples from Iraq. They didn't speak much English, but they invited me to sit with them. They gave us juice and Anastasia ate all their popcorn. It was a fun night.
There's more tonight, including two big American names, Easy Star All Stars and Kelis (of "Milkshake" fame), but I don't think Anastasia needs to spend four late nights out in a row. Or, maybe I should say, I don't think I should spend four late nights out in a row.
We have time to recuperate, though. It's Eid! We don't have school this week (it's the second Eid holiday of the year--the first one celebrates the end of Ramadan, and this one is when Muslims perform the Hajj to Mekkah). This time around, we're not traveling anywhere. Just trying to relax, get a little work done, finish Christmas cards, etc...
Then we (well, not Christine; after Eid, she still has another week off for mat leave) have just a few weeks before Christmas break. Have I mentioned how nice it is to be in a country that gives you time off for Islamic AND Christian holidays? I guess we could get some Jewish time off as well if we lived in Israel.
Talula is doing all right...she gets fussy sometimes. It's hard to wake up, and it's hard to go to sleep. That seems to be her biggest fussy times...Anastasia still loves the baby...says "Baby" and "Sistah" a lot. She has tried to say Talula, but it comes out "Tee Ta."
During her mat leave, Christine has been spending lots of quality time with the girls, working on an online class "Differentiation and Assessment," and making a quilt for Talula. "Talula's Kaledioscope" (yes, quilts get names) is finished; next up is a charm quilt for Anastasia.
"Talula's Kaledioscope" (on top of a rug)
Anastasia petting Talula
