Fender Bender

Was on my way to Bella’s last soccer game of the season when I got into my first Abu Dhabi Fender Bender.  I was driving up 30th (main road that takes you through town) and a car hit their brakes ahead of me.  I hit mine and could see the car coming up quickly behind me and NOT slowing down.  I held fast to my break and waited for impact.  She hit me hard enough to whip my head a little but not hard enough for my air bag to go off.  Cameron was sleeping in the back seat and didn’t even wake up!

We both put our flashers on and she called 999 (like 911 back home), while I called Brian at work.  The traffic people came quickly and directed us off the road to a small parking lot nearby.  They took picture of the slight damage to our cars and listened to what happened.  We had to wait for the police to get there.  There is actually a company that just handles traffic accidents and that’s who you see first. 

Eventually the embassy person got there (they are helpful since they understand the situation and are bilingual with arabic/english).  The cop prints you off a ticket and you have to sign (it’s completely in Arabic) so it’s helpful to know if you are signing that you are at fault or not.  The “bill” goes onto your car account somewhere and when you register your car you pay off any outstanding traffic/accident tickets that you have.  In this case, I wasn’t at fault so I didn’t have to pay anything but you’re supposed to take care of any car damage within 3 days (which I didn’t realize until after the 3 days were over).

The gal I hit was a local and spoke good English (most of them do).  She was friendly and we chatted a little while waiting for the officials.  All in all it was pretty painless and I was on my way in less than an hour.  I did have Brian come down and meet us and I did get seen by an ambulance.  If you don’t go to the doctor right away then you can’t claim that you have problems from the accident.  I wanted to see someone to be on the safe side and to have them look at Cameron.   I missed most of Bella’s soccer game but the accident could’ve been much worse so I was pretty lucky.

I ended up with a sore neck for a few days and had a chiropractic appointment within a couple weeks to get me back aligned.  All in all – got my first fender bender out of the way pretty painlessly!

Abu Dhabi Golf Tournament

One of the great things about living in a bigger city is all the fabulous events that happen.  One of the great things about being an American who, living in a bigger city overseas – is being able to attend these events up close and personal when locals could care less!

Brian, the kids and I spent a couple days at the Abu Dhabi Golf Tournament and saw all sorts of great golf pros up close.  We watched them drives balls far and putt up close (alright that’s it for my golf terms).  So it was still neat to be there…..

Even if you’re not big on golf (or tabloids about celebrity sex scandals), you should still recognize Tiger……

 

                            

Here’s the club.  It’s shaped like a falcon.

Tiger practicing putting.

              

                   

The kids enjoyed practicing golf too.

 

 

                   

 

 

The gigantic leaderboard that got updated throughout the day.

 

Masses of fans following the golfers from hole to hole.

A visit to the Royal Stables

Cameron’s preschool had a field trip to the Royal Stables today.  Brian was lucky enough to be able to take off work and attend.  The kids had a fantastic time and Cameron was so happy!

 

            

 

I’m not sure who this classmate is, but I LOVE this picture of Cam!

 

                        

                             

They even got to end with some fun playtime on the playground.

 

I have a girlfriend, Jess Simmons who is an illustrator and recently held a “Kickstarter” campaign to raise money towards putting out a book.  After donating to her fabulous cause (she’s quite talented) – she thanked me by doing an illustration of Cameron at the Royal Stables:

Visiting the Museum at the Sheikh Khalifa Park

We met a friend at a park to play and were originally going to enjoy the water park, until we found out that it doesn’t open until later in the afternoon.  So – we ended up taking the train around the park and stopping at a museum and aquarium.  The aquarium was pretty small, actually super-duper small.  But – the museum was fun for the kids.  They had a little ride that we hopped on board (we were the only ones there) and traveled along a track as we saw mock ups of the history of Abu Dhabi.

 

                 

                   

              

Riding along the beach

It was a beautiful day (I know, I know – it’s always a beautiful day here, right?  But soon it will be FREAKIN’ HOT and not quite as beautiful).

So, we decided to take Cameron up to the Corniche so he could ride his bike.  It was a little breezy, so he even wore a jacket.

 

           

           

Chevron Family Fun Night

Alexander had his first night baseball game tonight.  It was so much fun!  It’s sponsored by Chevron and a big truck drives the whole team onto the field and there are announcers and the kids play under the lights.

They had a blast!

 

        

Scissor Sisters Concert

My friend Tracy and I went to the Scissor Sisters Concert.  This is a gal I met online through this fantastic forum that I frequent (www.abudhabiwoman.com) and she was helpful with all sorts of questions and we would connect on FB but we hadn’t actually met yet!  So – when I put out a comment about winning free Scissor Sisters tickets and looking for someone to go with me (less than 24 hours notice), she responded.

We met at the Golf Club to eat first (great food by the way) and got to the concert SUPER-early.  In fact we ended up standing right up at the front, near the stage.  The music was fun (not what I typically listen to – but that’s okay) and they put on a great show.  The two singers have amazing chemistry and were fun to watch.