Birthday Weekend

What a great birthday weekend!  God has blessed me with amazing friends here in Al Ain and in Dubai.  It would have been wonderful to spend the day with my family (I do miss celebrating with them even though we did talk via Skype and phone), but second best would be my friends.

After the thoroughly over planned surprise party at school Deborah and I went out for dinner.  She took me to an Indian restaurant in the middle of nowhere.  It was really good.  I had some Indian chicken and bryiani rice with naan (the best bread in the world, in my opinion!).  It was a nice night so we ate outside.  It's great to be able to do that now that the weather is getting cooler.  We enjoyed chatting and getting to know each other better.



Dinner was followed with drinks and shisha (I just had a bit, it still makes me gag) at Leisure - a different restaurant.  Leisure was packed!  We had no idea there was going to be a Lebanese singer/dancer there.  Luckily we found parking across the street so we were able to enjoy the night and "concert".   It was a nice birthday night.



Left: Vanny, Jane, Kristie, Miranda, Lizah, Jeriel
Right: Ronnie, Me, Cherise, Tony



Friday morning I headed to Dubai in my dress.  Yes, I had to wear a dress.  Kristie texted me Thursday and told me that I needed to wear a dress.  Based on that, I knew she had something planned, I just didn't know what.  What she planned was a "surprise" lunch.  I typically have lunch with her, Vanny, and Jeriel after church but this included other friends as well.  We went to Mall of the Emirates and had lunch at Chili's.  Vanny and Kristie even arranged for the waiters and waitresses to sing!  How embarrassing!  We all had a great time and laughed a lot.  It was tons of fun.  I love my friends!  They made me feel really special and loved as they all shared their "wish" for me for the year.  Very touching. 

Ronnie and Lizah were attending the Redeemer Members' Meeting and I ended up taking them there.  Driving to the Redeemer Villa in Mirdif wasn't an issue.  Although I did try to find a metro station to drop them off at, but I couldn't get to any of them and neither of my passengers could help me out so I just took them all the way.  No problem.  The issue came after that.  Kristie and I were going to go to Dubai Creek Park and meet up with the rest of the gang and it took us about 50 minutes to get there.  I think it should have only taken us about 20.  The thing is we were having a deep discussion and I was trying to listen to Freida (my GPS) at the same time.  It wasn't going over too well.  We were both too focused on our conversation to fully listen to and comprehend the directions.  All in all it turned out fine.  Kristie and I were able to have some alone time and we made it to the creek to spend more time with the rest of the gang. 

Once we got to the creek we had to find parking.  That was a challenge.  As the weather gets cooler everyone heads to parks and the Dubai Creek Park is a popular destination.  We ended up having to park across the street.  We got in the park and ended up taking a "taxi" to find where Jeriel and the rest were.  Quite privileged!  Once we found them Jeriel, the photographer, stared taking pictures of Kristie and me.  It was a nice night for that, well until it got too dark.  Then Kristie entertained us with her dancing on the "beach."  We all had a good laugh!  Seriously though she is a good dancer.  What a nice way to end a great day!

88 degrees at 5:00pm