Christmas Eve Dinner

For the 3rd year in a row, we hosted a traditional Southern Italian-style seafood dinner. This year, our guests were Amy & Jerome (Amy was my librarian at CESL/UA but now works at HCT in Dubai), Moe from Abu Dhabi, and for dessert and the gift-swap game, Ahmed & Marwan from Cairo, Egypt and Dewa from Kerala, India. Whoever said Christmas was just for Christians? Bah Humbug! (Though we still maintained majority! HA HA) Hope everyone had a safe & happy Christmas. We are leaving for Crete tomorrow and will try to blog from there. If not, Happy New Year 2012 to all!!!

X-Factor Christmas Lunch

After watching the show religiously for MONTHS, we got together with Mike, Susan, Oliver and Georgina Busby for a results show party. It was a great way to spend an afternoon, especially since Melanie won!

Holiday Decorations Around Dubai

Well All, Christmas has come and gone for us here in the UAE. People always ask what it's like here at this time of the year, so we went around to a few places & took some holiday pics. The top set of pics are from Italian-themed Mercato Center, while the bottom set of pics are from Wafi Mall across the street from our house, where they also have a nightly holiday music and light show. We went with Moe from Abu Dhabi.

Istanbul COOL Pics

From the TOP: Cisterns, Hagia Sofia Dome, Blue Mosque and Dolmabahce Palace. Thx Paul!

Galata Tower and Asian side of Istanbul

Istanbul

Here are some great shots of the Hagia Sofia as well as the old city walls and the Bosphorous.

İstiklal Avenue in the Beyoğlu district of Istanbul

Spent an evening here with Ayfer & her cousin Najla. Great food, live music and of course, great company!

Istanbul & Other News

I have to admit that Turkey is now my favorite country to visit. In early November, while Ingrid was visiting family in Florida, Paul Barney (Al Ain Men's College/CESL/UA) & I decided to hop over to Istanbul for a few days. It was too cold some days (50s) and at night (40) for my liking, but the city is AMAZING. We visited the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia Museum, city walls, cisterns, Galata Tower, Dolmabahce Palace and were fortunate enough to spend an evening in true Turkish style with 1 of my favorite former colleagues, Ayfer, and then took a ferry to spend the day exploring the Asian side of the city with Peggy, our Oxford book rep and her husband Cem. (I've been unable to access this blog for a while, so I have lotsa pictures to add.) We cooked our 1st turkey for 10 on 25 November. Great success! Other news: I gave my 6-month notice 2 weeks ago, so I can return to the U of A to finish my dissertation (big sigh of relief heard frm the committee!) and become Dr. Bob once and for all. We will be off for 3 weeks starting 16 December. We'll spend Christmas here but just booked a last-minute trip to Crete for New Year's. SO lots more great pics to come...

My Moon Bar/Restaurant Gumbet Turkey

We spent every other night here partying with the bar workers from Kurdistan who dance for you, wait on you and treat you like family. Needless to say, Ingrid was the Queen of the Ball!

Traditional Turkish Meal

We can't remember what this was called, but it's beef, chicken or lamb (you choose) with veggies cooked in a clay pot and served tableside still flaming. It was delicious!

Pamukkale

A trip here to the calcium/limetsone and chalk travertines and hot springs was by far the most interesting and impressive thing we did in Turkey. It is also the site of the ancient city of Hierapolis, so if you are short on time, it makes more sense to go here for 2 days and skip Efus. There are the travertines, which you can walk on, Cleopatra's thermal pool to swim in, the ruins, a museum filled with marble statues and amazing views every where you look. We spent the night in a hotel nearby that had a thermal pool with HOT (110F+) red waters filled with iron - good for the skin but WOW, was it hot. You can see the steam coming off the water in the photo with Ingrid and the rooster - symbolic bird of this part of Anatolia. The only thing that worried me was if the ground is this thermally active, earthquakes are very common.