Our "summer" holiday so far

It's been bloody raining. This bloody UK weather. We left Liverpool on Tues to drive up to Scotland and it's been dreech. Yeech. Our Connor loves the weather though, he's very comfy in his little hoodie and he gasps in delight each time the wind blows into his face.

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There was a quake in Indonesia? I didn't even know. We are staying with friends who do not seem to subscribe to a newspaper that has international news but plenty of farming news and we were out most of the time doing whirlwind tours of friends' homes so the first we heard of the quake was when Dear Hubby's office sms-ed him.

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Dubai was great! It was like living in a cosmopolitan oven, it was HOT. I was very impressed that a city like that existed. This is desert country which gets its water from desalination but it still managed to build a ski slope in a shopping mall. It's amazing.
I'm also amazed that everyone speaks such excellent English in Dubai. I was fully prepared for some language barriers but every sign I saw was in Arabic and English and everyone in the service industry spoke excellent English. They don't even speak that good English in the UK.
And I found out that I haven't lost my Jawi reading skills. *beams* I can still read the Jawi script used in Arabic but s-l-o-w-l-y.
What was best about our stopover in Dubai? Meeting our friends and their kids and pets again after so long... and Connor had zero jet lag. Bri-lliant.

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Connor got to practise social skills as most of our friends have young children. He also got to play with some new toys. In Dubai, Connor met his first dogs - Bailey and Bower. It was so funny because Connor was just THRILLED to have these new "toys" that could walk and make noise all by themselves. The dogs and kids generally spent time in the family room and I walked in once to find Connor had lain down on the sofa just so Bower could thump his tail against Connor's face. Too funny.

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Wonderful seeing the UK side of the family again. His Nan and Granddad were so excited to see him again. I feel kinda sad for both parties that they only get to see each other for a few weeks a year. I grew up with my grandparents around me and there's no better protection against a parent's wrath than a loving grandparent. Hehe. Various cousins pitched in, lending us car seats, toys and other baby gear for our stay. This certainly made it easier for us bec that meant we didn't have to lug a car seat around the airport or buy a whole bunch of new toys to amuse our little one. That's family for you.

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I got to shop in Asda, Sainsbury (twice!) and I bought not one, but two sausage rolls. Ooh, suit me ma'am.

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With all this fuss about swine flu, I forgot about other viruses. And Connor promptly picked up a tummy bug upon arrival in UK. He barfed over his Nan's carpet, went to Aunt Peggy's home and barfed there as well. There was runny poo running down his legs for 2 days before he recovered. The odd bit was that Connor was not the least bit distressed by it. Mummy was far more upset because he was not keeping anything down and had lost weight. Well now that he's recovered, it's fattening-up time again.

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Connor is 10 months old and walking. *beams with pride* His grandparents were just delighted when Connor stood up and toddled from the living room to the kitchen. He took his first few tentative steps just before we left Jakarta and about 10 days later, he's become very much better at it. No shoes for him until he's much steadier on his feet because he needs to grip the floor with his toes for balance. Granddad is already advising Dear Hubby to sign Connor up for athletics and Dear Hubby was like, "Dad... he's just toddling...."

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Over and out. More sunshine please for next week.