An Impromptu Visit to Dubai....

Often I complain that we get no visitors and I tell family and friends, "even if you are passing through Dubai...I can get there easily."  Little was I to know that one week prior to our 10 week summer vacation two of my ducks would line up, and most seamlessly at that!

Tony, having an affinity with discussion and developments in metabolic disorders, along with (as I didn't discover until after reading and discussing with anyone willing to listen to my banter) being an author in the recent Lancent paper of May 29, 2014: Global, regional, and national prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adults during 1980–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013, was invited to speak at a conference in Dubai and asked if we were busy! Of course we weren't so I got busy making some bookings.

Then From the dark recesses of my mind, I hauled the details of my friend Janette's travels, and discovered that she and family were also going to be in Dubai that weekend enroute north - what a line up we had!

Below is a short video of our time in Dubai, day one was with Tony and day two was lunch with Edward where both Teagan and Edward reverted to hyped up individuals needing to be brutally prised apart at the finish.

As an end note: whoop whoop, Doha has an airport that is not an overstuffed, outdated henhouse with every living body scrabbling for the slim peekings....the new Hamad International Airport 'seems' to have been worth waiting for (we shall see on Friday night when Doha departs for cooler climes).

20140618 Dubai from Kirsty Merriman on Vimeo.

It is a tad too hot too early....

A tad too hot too early

It is merely May and it is a tad on the warm side.  When my mother refers to a "hot day" in Dunedin, she speaks in reference to a temperature of around 20 - 25 deg C....I daresay, I am therefore justified in describing the outside temperature here in Doha as incinerating!

Yesterday I picked children up from school with a recorded temperature of 51 deg C.  Fortunately for Teagan, I had been kind and made her a lovely rich hot mid-day meal of lamb shank and mash - I am not sure who was more stewed!  But the heat was only to get worse....following gymnastics in a residential area away from the Corniche (water front), my car was unable to record a temperature.  Driving towards the water front helped and finally the air had cooled enough for the car to record 55 deg C.  Needless to say, within 15 mins both mother and daughter were in the chilled swimming pool thankful there was no dinner to prepare.

51 deg C at 1:20 pm school pick-up time

A hot kid 

And 55 deg C when the car could record temperature again

A cooked kid!

The Uber Travel Planner meets her match...

The Uber Planner come Travel Hacker

Very recently I discovered that I could be described as a "Travel Hacker".  Personally, I don't think I fit into the category but it is a good modern description that could be used to describe a person that plans and books travel themselves obtaining cheaper and heavily discounted fares/prices by teaching themselves to "be in the know".  Note, a true travel hacker uses all means legal and less legal to travel on the cheap or for free and use no intermediaries at all; clearly this does not relate to me at all.

Over the past 14 months I have slowly been putting together a travel plan in conjunction with my mother.  Our upcoming meander involves a near global circumnavigation of the globe over 52 days.  Mum, Teagan and I meet in Canada and then via land and sea we make our way down the USA, across the Atlantic and down through Europe via train  to Turkey before splitting up to return to our respective countries.  Through a variety of online tools, networks and extensive research, I was able to drop the cost of our TransAtlantic Crossing by nearly 50% and get super low priced train travel by working out the best day and time to book.

The early planning stage document - for choosing the most appropriate route.

Currently I am in the process of booking the route via Vienna to Istanbul.  Most of the journey has now been booked and we will begin the cross checking and packing ready for departure late in June.

She meets her match and grips on for dear life!

With confidence, good knowledge and a small travellers network, I suggested to Ross that we could consider an exciting trip for our 20th wedding anniversary in the summer of 2015.  Silly me!  With scottish roots bolstering my scrooge like tendancies we came up with a great travel idea meeting the three of our needs: A Northern European Disney Cruise over eleven nights.  For Ross and me, it is a higher-end cruise line with superb facilities for both adults and children, and an itinerary to tick off a lot of our bucket list countries and continents.  For Teagan, well what else could a young girl ask for other than a Disney Cruise venturing into Norway (the Pixar movie FROZEN) and Iceland with a touch of BRAVE in Scotland. 

My scrooge like tendencies required me to sit on the itinerary for a while investigating reviews and booking options.  Little did I know that those Americans really "in the know" and experienced with Disney Cruise Line (DCL) were first off the block in reserving their places. Three weeks post initial bookings opening, I was paying 20% extra and getting about the last stateroom available in our category.  The ship is nearly now sold out 13 months out!

Worse was to come.  As I sat back and planned the upcoming trip, the DCL experts were busy getting their bookings in for land tours in the north sea.  Not to be left behind, I got on the telephone and after discovering that all rental cars in our key destination are booked and many of the tour companies were full, I scored a private tour and have paid our deposit (a town of 8,500 residents is welcoming a cruise ship of 2,400 eager tourists).  DCL will provide their own tour options and we would have no trouble getting in on these (and paying their hugely, extremely, inflated prices).  However, can anyone imagine my darling husband being happy with a large group tour full of children?  No!  

My next issue is reconciling the cost of being beaten to the lowest prices!  But at least we have something super special to treat ourselves to for our wedding anniversary.

Teagie and Greenie hit Greece...

Living within a near stone's throw of Europe is one of the main benefits for us living in Doha.  It seems that every term school holiday has a travel plan attached to it (currently we are planned out until August 2015).

Currently we are having "spring break" or "Easter break" as the end of the second of three school terms.  Greece was the "call" this time.  Actually, Qatar Airways called us to it.  Initially we were hesitant about travelling anywhere as there has been a bit too much travelling lately.  Teagan seems to prefer time at home.  However, Qatar Airways (usually very expensive) sometimes have very very very good deals, enough to attract Mrs Scrooge - afterall, who can turn down a direct flight into one of the world's great cities at around NZD600 per adult?

Another change we have made is getting Teagan to produce a video diary using iMovie and quite a bit of adult technical input.  So the following video has been produced by none other than Teagie herself with extensive input from her chief technical assistant.

For reference: Greenie is Teagan's MicroMaxi scooter (a true friend with a personality now) and Tom Bihn refers to the brand of luggage that we have been using for the past year or two as carry-on luggage travellers.

Video length: the total video length is about 11 min 35 seconds, so it isn't a quick watch!  I have not permitted downloading.

Internet streaming problems and a video: what a surprise, YEAH RIGHT!

Fibre Optic

We have had broadband internet in our villa for maybe around two years now.  Naturally, One would expect superfast internet, however, muggins here just paid more to get "up to" 50 mbps in speed.  Okay, so somedays it might work well and other days I would employ my dubious patience.  Until, well, the last day of my dubious patience!

I am still no IT expert but now I can nagivate my MAC addresses and get into my control box and muck around with settings using the suppliers not so secret, secret passwords and I can find things.  The net outcome is that a certain irate customer called up the SAID supplier and was evidently proven correct!

Outcome, a superb Pakistani IT expert on my doorstep within 75 minutes, connections adjusted and me resetting up the network - SUPERB live streaming again.

To celebrate, I am loading my current most favourite VIMEO iMovie.  This was Teagan's first slightly intrepid trip (OK so the UK doesn't qualify) involving lightweight and interesting journeying.  Mum, Teagan and I will be joining in another trip this coming July and August - somewhat more extensive though and hopefully just as exciting!

Please note that normally my videos are unsearchable and password protected.  In this instance, this video is not password protected but I have not allowed downloading or anyone to link it to their own playlists etc.  If by any chance you (someone I know) do want to download a copy, please let me know by direct email or Facebook and I can set you up for a download.

201007_Paris to Spiggie and Back from Kirsty Merriman on Vimeo.

It is not often we have visitors

Unlce Tony visits enroute to a conference

As an estimate we have guests once a year.  Rather, Janette visits once per year, so having another guest is a major event for us.  Seemingly, Doha is a less desirable tourist destination (I never would have guessed!), and is rather difficult for Kiwis to stop-off in enroute to Europe, so we were utterly delighted to have my big brother to stay enroute to some genetics conference in Paris.

Rather than embed a large number of photos, we have created a video just for the cousins!

20140309 Uncle Tony visits Doha from Kirsty Merriman on Vimeo.

As I get ready to update our short Dubai trip....

A short break in Dubai

As I get ready to update our short Dubai trip, I am listening to the french lesson taking place in my dining area - three little voices are speaking french rather rapidly and I can barely follow any of it!

If you remember in a previous post, I had said that I was going to become more "digitally organised".  Happily, I am reporting that (touch wood), to date, I have been making quite a bit of progress.  Several of our trips have been "iMovied", more cloud space has been purchased, and security improved.

Rather than post a set of photos for this blog, I have embedded one of my Vimeo movies on Dubai.  It is short (which is far better) and has no password in this instance, so enjoy.

Dubai - a trip summary

Schools here seem to benefit from a considerable amount of holidays.  In reality, the days off are the same as in New Zealand for secondary students and the school days are extended somewhat (7:20 am until 1:10 pm with only two half hour breaks).  The school year is broken into three terms and luckily for us, they fit in with the English school year.  Last October, Ross and Teagan finally managed to drag me to Dubai for five nights.  Quite honestly, a Middle Eastern shopping and entertainment metropolis was not enticing for me in any way, shape, or form.  Following the trip, I cannot say that my opinion has changed.  That said, I did enjoy myself!

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