2007 Dubai 7's

The last time Andre was able to attend the 7's was a couple of years ago. Each year he signs up to go and ref and has to bail at the last minute due to work commitments.
This year would have been the same situation so he decided to not even sign up. Close to last minute though it looked like he would be able to make it. Rather than mess with appoinments that had already been worked out, he decided he'd play instead. Mmmm wife was not too happy with this as at the moment its just for fun, the odd game here and there, and we've had enough injuries just on the fun level ! This was going to be an entire weekend !
And then came an email looking for applicants to serve as IRB Anti-Doping Chaperones. Andre was accepted and so a compromise was reached. Andre'd play the first day and then be a chaperone for the remainder of the weekend.
So off he went.... Dubai is a fabulous venue for the tournament, so much going on. He had a wonderful weekend. The chaperoning was very interesting....Collect your player from the field, and stay with them until they give their sample. They can warm-down, they can even take a shower. Sadly though they MUST be watched at all times - just in case they "lose" some sample hehehe So guess who got to see a player or two in the shower !? What fun ..........

The SkiDubai Pro-Photos

Okay so I finally got the photos we bought at SkiDubai scanned.
They are VERY ready to snap photos for you - which of course is great if you're wanting group shots AND my camera didn't exactly loooooove the cold hehehe.

So here are the ones we chose from the many many many that they took. At 60Dirrhams a pop, this was as many as we decided was reasonable hehehe

SkiDubai

Well on our way back from South Africa we stopped in Dubai for a few days.
Major reasons for the stop was flight availability AND taking the girls to the snow.
We finally got to the hotel we had reservations for at around 6am, only to discover they didn't have rooms for us and none would be available until the afternoon :grrr:
They agreed to give us a single room which was probably only about 10m². We crashed until about 10am. We woke up determined to get another hotel. Thankfully managed a hasty checkout from The Dream Palace Hotel (never stay here !!), we jumped in the taxi and sped off to Ramee Guest Apartments.
What a difference, this was an apartment with kitchen, main ensuite, 2nd bathroom, lounge (with foldout couch for the girls) and dining area - and all this for only 100Dirhams more !
We headed out to Ikea and made a few tiny purchases :)
After that we decided to go to Mall of the Emirates to check out what we'd need for SkiDubai. They supply EVERYTHING (jackets, pants, socks, boots) - except gloves and hats ! Of course the girls needed to pose next to some of the very nice vehicles we saw while waiting for our very ordinary taxi hehehe.
Off pretty early the following morning to arrive for opening. We had a ball ! Super cold but excellent fun. Snow angels, tobogganing, a bobsled ride, tube riding, snow-turtle building and more ! The only real drawback is that once you're in, you're in, if you want out to use the bathroom or eat, thats it, you're done. No worries we enjoyed ourselves and it was well worth the trip. Before going back to the hotel, we took a walk past the Burj for a photo op - can't visit Dubai without at least seeing the famous hotel now could we :) Of course Aimee managed to lose her Table Mountain red fleece jacket coming home the one night :( Oh well whatya gonna do, that's life isn't it ?!

Outside Ikea (a seriously favorite store) with some of the Festival City animals :)

Mall of the Emirates - waiting for a taxi - sadly we won't be going home in one of these !



SkiDubai !



The Burj

Andrè and Waisale Serevi at Dubai 7's 2004

As promised, found the photo of my man with Serevi. Andrè thoroughly enjoyed reffing at the 7's and plans to do so again this year if work commitments aren't a problem for us like they were last year.