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...