New Years Resolutions- 2007

So here are my New Years Resolutions for 2007.

And after last years main disaster I will think very, very carefully of the consequences this year! A close few know exactly what I mean there!

No.1 – I will start writing my book. I may not finish it in the year, but I will at least start the first chapter. Mmm what will my new pseudo name be?

No.2 – I will be nicer to the opposite sex when I’m out drinking. They deserve at least 15 seconds of my time whether they are good, bad or ugly. (but hopefully they will all be good looking and over 35 and under 45). I must smile a lot and at least be kind. Unless they grope my bum and then they will still get a growl and a slap.

No.3 – I will make sure that this year will be more exciting than last year. Stuff I can get ideas from and write about in my book. Hopefully naughty enough to be censored from my blog but anything goes in a book when you are under an alias…..

No.4 – I will learn a new skill by the end of the year. One that will benefit me in the long term either personally or professionally, spiritually or mentally.

No.5 – I will face one fear before the end of the year. Either the singing in public or the jumping from a great height thing. Or maybe even a boat thing. Maybe…..

No.6 – I will not drink any shots or any bull frogs this year. Zero tolerance.

No.7 – I will visit at least one country I have not been to before. (This is a recurring resolution for every year from now on).

7 is a very strange number of resolutions to have. 9 is my lucky number and 10 is a nice even number. Mmm may have to think about another 3.

Any ideas?

Starting as I mean to go on....

It was a great night, but I missed the DJ/MC geeing up all through the night and then the countdown to the bells.

The fireworks were spectacular though. Well worth going to see. And they lasted for about 15 minutes.

But once they were over that was it. Just back inside for another night in the pub. Mental note to go somewhere with a DJ or band and lots of dancing next year. In Barcelona of course.

Cally, her Dad and Paul left at about 1230pm which left me, her 23 year old brother Rob and our new friend Tim.

There wasn’t much happening at Left Bank so Rob suggested we went to IBO as it was open until 4pm. It seemed like a plan as it was only 2pm and we would miss the rush home from here and also get a couple hours dancing and drinking in before sun up.

So Rob, Tim and I said our goodbyes to the few we knew left and off we skipped to our next New Years destination.

That was before Tim had to collect his rucksack and wet suit.

Yep, wet suit.

Apparently its very cold in Bahrain and so he can’t swim in the pool and he thought a wet suit would protect his cold bits.

Nice.

Our skipping soon came to a grinding halt when we got outside and saw thousands of other people who had also hoped to miss the 3am rush.

For as far as the eye could see there were nose to tail cars and literally hundreds of people wandering around not knowing which way to go.

It was 2am and it looked like we were going to have to walk all the way to IBO.

We headed down the beach road at least walking in the right direction towards home and/or IBO. High heel boots are not made for walking. However fortunately with a male crutch on each arm I was sorted. Actually, not sure who was holding who up but at least we were all going in the same direction.

The traffic jam was really bad and of course once we passed the Jumeirah Beach Hotel there were then hundreds more spilling out from there looking for taxis. Rob took charge and decided we had to get to Al Wasl Road.

So we headed for Al Wasl. As the crows fly. Straight through the villas and sand pits until we found a road. It was an empty road but at least we had left the madding crowd behind so any cabs that did pass had our name on it.

We merrily skipped along our newfound road with minimal excitement other than nearly being run over by a lorry.

Laughing and joking and moaning about high heel boots we made good progress along the way.

Until disaster struck.

Tim fell off the pavement, obviously with the weight of his wet suit he was carrying, and twisted his ankle.

Two young boys came over to help as Tim rolled around in the sand in agony. We were trying to sort him out when the next thing we knew was the boys in green arrived in their monster patrol car with flashing lights and a wee siren effect to scare us and pulled up onto the kerb beside us.

Actually they were in yellow with their night time luminous vests on not green.

They must have thought that we were fighting but we soon managed to charm them over with my basic Arabic. Which of course is always better when i have had a few drams.

Once we ruled out the need for an ambulance we managed to persuade them to give us a lift to Al Wasl Road to get a taxi. Well Tim couldn’t walk and there was no way one would come to where we were with all the other thousands looking for a cab.

Luckily they agreed. I actually tried to get them to take us to IBO but he politely told me not to push my luck so I didn’t.

So they whizzed us past the mob and stationery cards all the way to Al Wasl road and then flagged down a taxi to take us to the airport.

Well I couldn’t tell them we were going to IBO, I had to say we had a plane to catch.

How cool is that. 2 ½ hours into 2007 and I find myself in the back of a police car.

Well I did say that I wanted my life to be more exciting this year and its definitely started with a bang.

So we arrived at IBO with sore feet but as high as kites from our adventures and ready for a boogie and a bevy.

It was like walking into a school disco. Bearing in mind I was all dolled up to the nines, in my velvet trousers, silky bask thing and full length crocheted cardigan jacket thingie, all jeans and cotton topped clad young teenage looking girls heads turned my way.

Which was good coz that gave me a quick opportunity to suss that they were all also only in their 20’s. Not a problem, I wasn’t there to pull, just drink vodka and dance. Anyway I had our new friend Tim joined to my hip by this time and he must have been 30 something too. I think.

So Rob was in his element with all his young uns to play with and Tim and I just took over the dance floor and showed them how it was done. The bairns watched in awe as we showed them how it was done.

A few very drunk under agers tried to muscle in on the action but although I was flattered (I think) I had to remind myself I was old enough to be their mother and concentrated on the music instead.

New Years resolutions aside, if I am not totally on one, there always comes a time when it’s just that time of night for me to get the vodka scooter home.

So off I went with my homing beacon in full glow. Not a taxi in sight outside but after a few silent prayers to my vodka scooter angel and woo hoo, lo and behold one came round the corner with my name on it.

Got home safely and delicious home made soup in the pot ready waiting for me and its only 1230 back home so time to call everyone and wish them a happy New Year.

Wicked start to 2007.

HOGMANAY

i.e. Sunday 31st January if you are not Scottish.

Went to work but in all honesty didn’t do much! There were only three cars in the car park and the lights were not even on in my corridor there were so many offices closed. The silence was spooky. Even the phones were not ringing.

So left early and went to visit Debs on the way home. Gave her a Buddha for Xmas which is now sitting pride of place on top of her drinks cabinet at the entrance to her flat.

Very appropriate.

Then home for a wee sleep before the revelry of the evening.

Well that was the plan but my sleep angel was obviously off partying already so tossed and turned a few times then gave up and got up.

Cooked some nice dinner to line the tummy, shit, shaved, showered and shampoo'd, put the glad rags on and then off to the Madinat.

Met Cally, Rob, Ron, Nick, Omar, Kelly and Tony. It was just like another Thursday evening to be honest. We are spoiled here, every weekend is a big celebration so the New Year is actually not much different.

We got ribbons for free Champaign from 11pm, which I swiftly kept giving away for fear of another Champaign hang over from hell.

Just beside us there was a guy bopping away on his own all night so being the good peeps we are Cally and I sent Rob off to invite him to join us.

Tim was here for 2 days from Bahrain. Chatty and interesting he soon became one of our gang.

Boxing Day

I only found out what Boxing Day meant last year when one of my Arabic friends asked me.

And I had to ask my mum!

So if you don't know you have to guess and I will take great pleasure in telling you if you are correct or not.

Anyway, in most places of the world the most common translation of Boxing Day is simple"SALES DAY"!

So of course we all went out shopping.

I spent a small fortune and although very pleased with my bargains, very guiltily hung everything up knowing I could now easily clothe a small country.

I could probably feed them with the food that was left over too.

Oh well, its just an accident of birth.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Monday 25th December 2006

HO HO HO - MERRY XMAS!!

Up and at em in early morning with NO hangover. Woo hoo. Great.

But what the hell do I do until 4pm when the brown mafia come over for dinner?

All the chopping was done. All I had to do was put the roast in, carve the turkey and wait.

and wait.....

Waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.

And waited until 6pm when they finally arrived.

We had a lovely dinner and then watched a crap Xmas movie. Wicked.

Next year I will be in Barcelona hopefully with lots of family and friends and won’t be chopping veggies and twiddling my thumbs all day waiting for something exciting to happen, when it never really does when you don't have kids around you.

At least here in Dubai its not the frantic manic panic pandemonium mental shopping that seems to escalate more each year back at home.

People truly lose the plot spending money at Xmas at home.

Its just another day here.

Sigh. Good food, good company and no worries.

What more could a girl ask for?

Well I did ask Santa for that but he doesn't deliver door to door in Dubai.

Apparently I have to go out and collect it, but I am too full and too lazy to bother.

His loss.

Xmas Eve

Actually put a tree up this year. Although I didn't put it up sideways like the picture!

Well thought I had better as I was having dinner at my house. Thought I would hate it, but as you can see, it was quite a creation.

And as I didn't want to get sick again i actually stayed in and chopped veggies and laid the table for tomorrow.

Aw, bless me being domestic on Xmas eve. Oh my God, does this mean I am actually starting to act my age.

Well we will soon sort that out soon as I feel better again.

Extremely bored, there is not even any Xmas telly on here.

But with a wee bit of colour back in my cheeks and starting to feel human again, I went to bed early like a good wee girl should and without so much as a sniff of a vodka.

Sniff.

On the mend - ho, ho, cough, ho.

Saturday 23rd Dec

I finally started to feel better today. I have literally been in bed for a week and slept for most of it. Read silly girlie books in between fevers and sleep. Brain cells not capable of much more.

Getting house fever now though. Claire has gone home for Xmas and I’m feeling very sorry for myself.

So went to the supermarket to buy stuff for Xmas dinner tomorrow.

Woo hoo, my first trip outside since Tuesday. Sad but true, I was excited about going to Spinneys.

Not so exited when I got to the check out and saw how much it cost me. Trolley was overflowing with goodies, guess it because I had not eaten anything tasty for a week and needed to compensate badly.

That’s my excuse anyway and I’m sticking to it.

Well hey, the diet doesn’t start until the 1st Jan.

Is there a doctor in the hoose?

Tuesday 19th December

Ok this is not a hangover. On a sickness scale of 1 to 10 I am a 9 ½.

10 being the stage I call an ambulance.

My head hurts so badly I can’t move. My fever is so bad I could ring out my mattress. It was an effort to sit up and drink water or get up and go to the bathroom. I was completely done in.

Time for a doctor. I haven’t been to a doctor for well over a year. Since I stopped smoking actually. The effort it took to get up and dressed nearly killed me.

And I had no car. It was still at the Country Club. Just as well, I wasn’t fit to drive anyway. Worried I might have glandular fever again. I have had it twice before and really knocks you for six for a couple months after.

Weird how the wee things in your body that you never normally pay any attention to ie glands, can cause so much disruption when they don’t work.

And your heart is a weird thing too. It’s an organ that keeps you alive but you never think about it or notice it until it starts palpitating and fluttering strangely. Scary.

So called a cab and managed to drag my sorry ass to the hospital. Still thinking I had some sort of virus and not calling anyone coz I didn’t want them to catch the lurgy.

I had an appointment but had to wait for nearly 30 mins. By the time I went in I was nearly collapsing.

After a very brief and actually quite intimidating examination by a female doctor who obviously had better things to do with her life and was wishing she was anywhere else but there, the diagnosis was not fatal.
Thankfully I do not have glandular fever. Unthankfully I have bronchitis. Which is a total bitch considering I haven’t had a fag for 15 months!

Anyway a few antibiotics the size of horse pills and a ventolin inhaler later I was outside waiting for a cab home to go back to bed.

Well that was after I had to pay 75 Dhs at the cardio department to get taught how to take the inhaler…..!

Nice mannie showed me how to use the inhaler and who was very tickled and took grat pleasure in telling me that there are three other Nicola Wilson’s in Dubai. One of whom he know and also works in the American Hospital.

I couldn’t give a shit. I just wanted to get home to bed.

Oh and the heart palpitations is from the Clarinase I was taking. They are decongestants and apparently cause heart palpitations in lots of people. You always get that big long list of side effects inside, but who actually reads them?? Guess I will be from now on.

They are in the bin now and I won’t be buying them again.

Always check the label!