Visit The Lost Chambers Aquarium, Atlantis Palm, Dubai.

I've visited the Aquarium at Dubai Mall on numerous occasions so thought I'd take my mother to explore The Lost Chambers Aquarium at the Atlantis on the Palm using the Entertainer 2 for 1 vouchers, when she visited in December. Entry to the Aquarium and the adjoining Aquaventure, water park, are free if you're a guest at the hotel, check their website out for offers, there's free entry to the water park during your birthday week.

We took a drive around the Palm to see the view, which is stunning, before entering the Aquarium. I really recommend you do this if you get the chance. Turn right at the top of The Palm to view the Marina.

 Whilst the aquarium was stunning, it had nothing on the one at the Dubai Mall and I was slightly disappointed with the lack of information on the type of fish we were looking at.

Whilst lots of photos were taken we weren't in there very long. We didn't do a behind the scenes tour which involved an additional cost, but from now on I'll get my fish fix elsewhere.

We finished the visit with a walk along the Broadwalk and had dinner at Bob's. Ironically a fish and chip bar. There are some fantastic restaurants and coffee shops inside

I find watching fish very relaxing, even the photo's. Don't you?

My Sunday Photo - Week 127. G is for Giving

It's Ramadan and the lovely people of Dubai are getting into the spirit of giving with the installation and filling up of street fridges.

You don't have to be a Muslim to participate in Ramadan, it's not just about fasting, it's also about giving.

Last year an initiative was set up to provide food and drinks for labourers and low-income workers with the Sharing Fridge. Anyone can set one up, there are approximately 70 in the city and you can find out more about how to get involved on their Facebook page.

The fridges are filled by the community and are available 24 hours a day. Each fridge is expected to be used by around 100 people per day. There are around 70 fridges across the city.

You are encouraged to fill the fridges with juice, water, fruit, vegetables, dates, biscuits, nuts and crisps. They do not encourage prepared food and ask that you check the expiry dates before filling the fridges. They are not designed for left over food, but for food and drink that can be consumed on the go so chop your carrots, slice the water melon etc.

People who use the fridges are asked in 7 languages to only take what they need, in the spirit of sharing with their brothers and sisters.

There is one in our street and another on the Al Wasl Road near the bus stop. It's an excellent initiative and I will be donating to the fridge on a weekly basis.

One Daily Positive - Week 22 Dr's appointments and migraine.

AHHHHHHHHHH

I seriously don't seem to EVER achieve anything, EVER, at all.

It's hot, humid and apart from walking from the house to car to mall and early 5am walks with Bob, there is no outdoor life to be had now it's summer in Dubai. As it's also Ramadan there are few places to eat and drink during the day unless you visit a hotel or one of the larger malls and use the food halls after 12pm. Despite there being plenty to do in Dubai, it all costs money.

After spending last week, deep cleaning the house, cupboards, windows, doors, as well as bathrooms,  hoovering and mopping, after a weekend of 3 adults in the house, eating crisps, meals in front of the TV, spilling coke, beer and wine as they walk with their over filled hands, the house needs bloody cleaning again.

I've deleted my face book account. I'm sick to death of seeing the same crap day after day, slagging other bloggers off in closed groups, criticising and launching attacks on people's political views and the back patting of how wonderful certain bloggers are.

As they say in Arabic 'Khalas' ENOUGH., STOP TALKING, I'M DONE.

148 Sunday. Perfect.
Had a lovely day with the teen at Dubai Mall, purchasing gadgets to improve internet and file sharing around the home. Discovered the new router can only be configured by our internet supplier. By accident I'd deleted the entire contents of my laptop. Apple Mac only allows you to restore files 1 by 1. I was up till midnight trying to move them all back.

149 Monday. Jewel.
I heard rumours that the Souk Madinat was open for food and drinks during Ramadan in the day. Most of the coffee shops are take out only, Starbucks was allowing dine ins and several of the restaurants were open from 12pm. The rest of the day was spent restoring my files.

150 Tuesday. Fly. Up and down the Al Wasl Road to the 3 different Doctors surgeries.
The entire day was filled up with the Doctors, I had appointments with the Neurologist, Ophthalmologist and physio, the teen had 3 appointments also. I've suffered with migraines since I was a baby, chronic neck pain for 23 years and had meningitis 17 years ago. My migraines have had me hospitalised numerous times over the years, so anything different from the norm sees me heading to the Doctors ASAP. By today I was on my 5th day of constant burning pain behind my left eye. I spent the late afternoon and early evening in bed, watching youtube.

151 Wednesday. Amaze. glasses steam up when you you OUTSIDE in Dubai.
Physio and X-rays first thing and by day by midday, every file/photo was restored. How come after 3 years I only just discovered I can enlarge the thumbnails on my MacBook Air? The evening was spent having dinner and enjoying the pub quiz, which we won, with friends. The eye pain is still here.

152 Thursday. Dance.
Dental appointment for the teen, a food shop and nothing much else was achieved other than washing Bob and all his bedding and there always seems to be paperwork to sort.

153 Friday. Hello.
Bob walked, breakfast eaten and the rest of the day spent in bed. My eye pain is getting worse, the migraine threatened to hit full force but dissipated, some exercises were done, but that was it. Peter spent the day watching movies and the teen appeared around 2pm to join him.

154 Saturday. Expand. Not 1 but 2 Ramadan Fridges near us, this year.
Woken at 5am by the cat demanding food, took Bob for a walk and drank tea till 8am when I woke everyone up for the teens physio and Peter's haircut. We did a food shop, bought take away coffee to drink at home and popped to Dubai Mall before it go too busy, just to get out the house for a few hours. Yes I still have the eye pain and headaches.

On the blog this week:

Expat Life - My Sunday Photo - R is for Ramadan.
Life Style - Triumphant Tales - Treat yourself to a make over.
Travel - PoCoLo - Should I cancel my UK trip in light of recent terrorism?
Gardening - My Summer Garden in the sand.

Creating a garden in the desert. Summer in the sand.

The garden is doing much better at this time of year than I thought it would be. Average temps are in the high 30s and with the sun being so high, it's on the sand pit for most of the day. There's some shade in the mornings outside the kitchen door, but by 10am the shade has all but gone.

I've been getting up at 5am to work in the garden, around sunrise, mainly to tackle the weeds. The squash I planted from seeds was flowering a few weeks ago and had grown, taking over the bean plants, which had died. I was really surprised to actually find a squash.

Sadly the aubergines had gone past their use by date under all the weeds. But I grew 3 from seed, so next year, now I know these types of vegetables do grow I will keep a closer eye on them on.

There has been an abundance of chillies, also grown from seed.

The street is also full of dates growing. The palm tree we have in the garden doesn't produce dates. We need to get someone in to sort our palm tree out.

There are still plenty of flowers in the garden and a rather unusual plant, that has grown from somewhere, looking a bit like a bulrush, but green. There isn't any water round here and I've no idea where it came from or what it is.

The best part about gardening in Dubai is that we employ a gardener. I use the term loosely as what he actually does is chase the leaves, petals around the garden with a hose pipe and mows the lawn randomly. So I give him something to do, which is cleaning up behind me.

The house plants are doing well, as with the garden, they actually need less watering in the summer. I need to sort the climber out in the corner, it's just growing and growing. The Christmas tree doesn't look like it's going to make it.

Fresh cut flowers are imported and are quite expensive, almost 3 times the cost of buying a bunch in a UK supermarket.

I'm also surprised at how much colour there is in Dubai at the moment. These Delonix regina - Royal Poinciana, Flame of the Forest trees are producing a lovely orange flower and look stunning at the moment.

There are two areas of the garden I need to do some work on and plan more carefully and introduce some ground cover in the 2nd photo.

How's your summer garden?