Home in the UK now. The flight felt super long because Tobie decided the middle of the night was the best time to stay awake despite how tired he was.

Didn't get a chance before I left to say what an epeepaganza Sunday was. Went into town to meet up with (e:Springfaerie) for coffee, popped over to 7 Eleven to grab water and snacks and ran into (e:Drew), met up with (e:Theecarey) and other folks to watch the last show of Hamlet at Shakespeare in the park and while there saw (e:Enknot). Crazy day!

I've got a few pics of my lovely trip home. Had a great time relaxing with family and letting Tobie get to know his grandparents. I didn't like having to come back, it felt too soon.....

I'm coming home for a nice long visit with the little monkey. (Rory will join us for a few weeks). If you'd like to meet up get in touch :)

We're still waiting for Spring to arrive over here, but at least when the sun is out you can pretend! Here is Tobie marveling at the ocean on his first seaside outing.

Flying out today :( Too short of a visit, there's never enough time these days. Said good-bye to one nephew today sending him off on his bus to school. Poor guy thinks we'll be home when he gets back. Couldn't say a proper good-bye because he's going to be horribly upset. We went shopping just the other day and said 'bye', he thought we were leaving for good and started to cry. We thought maybe it would sting less if we just let him go off to school happy.

So it's off to London and 3 more weeks of work, then I start maternity leave. We'll officially move into our new house the weekend of Nov. 25th.

Thanks again (e:Springfaerie) and (e:Dimartiste) for the awesome handmade baby blankets! Thanks (e:Theecarey) for the cats and dogs coverall and watermelon onsie! Thank you (e:jbeatty) for sophie the giraffe and the krinkle toy. They MUST be good ones, not just because your Emily loves them, but my nephew was like 'ooooh this is fun'...and he's 5! Lastly, thank you SO MUCH (e:Metalpeter) for the gdiapers, burp pads and thermometer! You're so kind and the sustainable diaper system is something that was really important to us, so thanks for getting us started!

Til next time peeps....

I'm a little late getting this posted, but here are a few pics from our trek to Jordan.


a quantum physics experiment perhaps?




walking the valley of the crescent moon


the first peek you get of the treasury (we had a guide for part of our trek, he made Rory close his eyes for a minute and then told him to turn around to see the view - while he played Indiana Jones from his cell phone. It was kind of funny.


the treasury (no, there are no transformers hiding there, i checked)


it's hard to imagine people actually living in these little caves


then we drove 2,000 feet below sea level to the dead sea (the water bottles in the car were actually crushed from the pressure change!)


the salt content is so intense it's actually hard to stay 'standing'...but you don't want your face near the water because the tiniest drop of your lip burns like a son of a pup!


once i found my 'balance' i managed to stand up...this is in 10 feet of water, 'standing' completely still


and of course we played in the famed mud

Goa was amazing! I've got other photos to share, but for now here are some underwater shots that I took on my photography course. Had I known the conditions, I most certainly would not have taken this specialty course in this location, because visibility was shit and the surge was out of control - I felt like I was fighting to stay vertical in a washing machine! It was DIFFICULT to say the least! But then, diving in supreme conditions I should now be able to take decent photos! I think' peak buoyancy' might be my next course, or I'll just start on adventure diver; I really want to do some wrecks!

I had a most interesting visit to the Indian Embassy this morning. For starters, the map they had on their website was wrong. We drove around neighborhoods for a while to no avail, then just happened to run into an Indian man on the street who knew where it was! He lead the way in his car - thanks man!

I did all my homework online to find out exactly what I needed to get the visa. Fill out tourist form V-1, bring proof of your return plane ticket, and hotel confirmation. Great! So we did all that. Didn't have a glue stick at home so had to paper clip our photos on the pages.

Got to the window and the guy starts ticking off all the unfilled areas - which indicate on the form only need to be filled in when you qualify for those conditions. For example, "Sign here as a tesatment that if you are entering India for 1 year or more, you will leave if you find out you have AIDS". So, I didn't sign because I won't be there for a year. But we had to sign anyway. Several areas like this follow.

THEN...you also have to fill out 'this' form, in duplicate. WTF!! Why wasn't that form, or that information ON THE WEBSITE under visa requirements??? So we had to fill those out in a last minute scramble. He also screamed we couldn't affix the photo with paper clip. I'm like, great - I don't have GLUE on me do I? So, I chewed a piece of gum and used little bits like glue strips. Quite genius really, and it worked.

With all the ado about those forms, we finally get a ticket to the window to apply - only to find out we're also supposed to have a photo copy of our passport and work permit. Which seems odd considering I was about to HAND OVER MY ACTUAL PASSPORT. Isn't the original more proof than a copy? So, Rory had to push his way back in a huddle of men to get photo copies at 30 cents each.

Then at the cashier's window, the woman charge me and my female co-worker an extra 10QR, for no apparent reason. We already got charged an extra 75QR for being Americans. Gotta love it.

So, off to India next weekend for Rory's big 3-0!!!! Going diving in Goa, woohoo!!!

Rory and I went to Atlantis in Dubai this weekend for what we have now nicknamed our 3rd honeymoon. It was freaking awesome! I always wanted to go to Atlantis since they opened the original in the Bahamas but could never afford to actually GO.

We got to play in the water park all day the first day which was great fun, minus the huge purple bruise on my rear end from one of the rides. At some point on one of the rides we actually managed to fall out of our two person inner tube, which kind of hurt - but the best part was when the next set of folks came rushing down the slide after us. I got whopped in the head by some feet just before their tube hit, which knocked Rory clean off his feet and into the tube as we shot down the remaining portion of the ride. We couldn't stop laughing.

The best part of that day was playing with Piphali!! We participated in a deep water interaction with a dolphin and it ROCKED! She kissed us, danced with us, we gave her hugs, she spun us in circles, and my favorite part - she gave us a ride on her belly! I couldn't believe how soft and warm she was. I just expected something a little tougher and colder, but now I know!

That night we went through The Lost Chambers, which is the coolest aquarium I've ever been in. I loved the imagination they used in creating ruins of an ancient advanced civilization (photos on that tomorrow). It was also the largest tank in the world, which had a WHALE SHARK in it! Granted I think it was a very young one, but huge nonetheless.

The next day we rode the new metro system they just opened up. It's not entirely finished, but some of the major stops are running, such as Mall of the Emirates, which is ridiculously huge. We stopped at Dubai Mall as well because it was right next to Burj Khalifa, which is now the world's tallest building. We wanted to go up to the observation deck but seems they are experiencing technical issues with their elevators and weren't allowing people up. We'll have to do it next time.

Now, meet Piphali!


twirlies!


dancing!


belly ride!


kisses!

I made it down to Disney. The flight was uneventful until we were just about to land in Orlando. Either we had a mechanical issue or we were about to run into another plane. We had to abort our landing. We were really close to the ground about to land when suddenly we accelerated into what felt like mach 5 and made a sharp climbing turn. Jeepers!

So here I am at Disney. Seems like we'll have a lot of free time with this conference so today Mohammed and I went to Epcot. The rides aren't so great, but it's really cool meeting and talking with the staff. They come from all over the world and of course that floats my boat.

Most pleasing of all, I finally got to have a video chat with Rory this morning. The time difference is so wrong it makes it very difficult to communicate 'live'. I was just pleased as punch to get to spend an hour with him, hear his sexy accent, see his face. In all my life and experiences I've never felt 'homesick' the way I am when I'm so far away from him.

I'll get some photos up when I get back home in Qatar. Sorry if I didn't get a chance to see you, talk to you, or meet you while I was home. It's an exhausting trip and there's only so much catering I can do considering how far and long I had to travel to get there. So, hopefully next year! Because I won't be home for a year. But next time hopefully I'll have Rory in tow and you can meet the fabulous man in my life :) Ciao peeps.

I'm here!

As I was flying business class I got to check out Doha's new 'premium terminal' for business and first class only. Yah. They built an entire terminal JUST for the elite traveler. It was very lush. A bell hop takes your things from the car, then you sit in big leather seats until it's your turn to check-in, in which you get to sit in another big leather seat. Then you can enjoy the lounge. I got a buffet breakfast with a latte. The bathrooms were crazy fancy and set up like a spa. They even had showers. Sadly, the more I travel this way the more difficult it becomes to cram my ass in coach for a long flight. Of course, now it takes a flight to be over 6 hours for me to even consider it to be getting 'long'. Amazing how perspective changes when you start doing these 2/3 day marathon flights.

Anyway, when I landed in DC I was supposed to have a 3.5 hour layover. This turned into 8.5 hours. My flight was delayed because of all the storms. Well, everyone's flights. There were tons of cancellations and delays. By 11pm I was confident I'd be spending the night in the airport. I could hardly keep my eyes open to stay updated since I'd been awake for some 30 hours at that point (I don't really sleep on planes). But in the end, the Buffalo flight crew really wanted to get home so we flew out at 1:20am and got into Buffalo at 2:30am. My poor parents had to pick me up, I felt bad. I would have just rented a car but I could barely walk let alone safely drive a car for 1 hour.

So here I am, trying to acclimate to the time. No way would I ever be up at 5am! Except that my body thinks it's 12 noon. So dear peeps...looks like my weekend is probably committed to familial events, but I'd like to see ya'll during the week. Perhaps a little dinner? Lunch? Playing frisbee? Has Shakespeare in the Park started yet? Give me a shout, sooner than later. Time flies and I only have a few days :)
Ciao, LC