Happy New Year It's February 2015 already!

Christmas and New Year
I am disappointed in how slack I've been with this blog. A recap. Had a lovely Christmas and New Year's in Auckland NZ with my family. We were very lucky with the weather. Apparently it's the best summer Auckland has seen in a long time so we were blessed for sure. It was sunny days to no end the whole four weeks we were there. We had a good ol' "Kiwi Christmas Holiday". My Mum was there and all my sisters bio and step with all our children and two brothers-in-law:-)
Missed the bio brothers and their families... and the family tree keeps growing.
It was great having all the kids in one place to the point where there were fights here and there as they got on each others nerves! eek.
While we adults also go on each others nerves but we plodded along with lots of deep breathes and lots of omms oh and the wines now and again helped too! Thought after one big before NY I could hardly stay up for the count down. Yep great greeting of the New Year...can't even handle it...okay I have a toddler who I had to get up with at 6am every morning so yep that's my excuse and am sticking to it.

Sama-Sama Hotel KLIA
Annnyway travelled back to Muscat with my two boys and just love the stop over in KL. The beds and pillows at Sama-Sama hotel are just one of those that feels like you are sleeping in the clouds. Am not sure if it's the jet lag that clouds (pun intended!) my judgement but I always sleep well on this little layover. Of course this is after wrestling with the boys to bath and eat and then darkening the room to simulate night time. Can't exactly fall asleep and leave the wee ones to heir own device! yikes. Also totally appreciate the WIFI included in the rooms so we manage to skype the family we just left and hubby to inform them we were halfway home. 
We wake up a few hours later and do it all over again but managing to have at least 4 hours sleep on that layover is a God-send for any parent travelling alone with little kids. Yes I count the blessings all the way.

Dubai-Oman (border crossing)
Here we are in February already. We went to Dubai last weekend for Tau's rugby tournament and it was just fab. We drove there...thanks' to Dubai's new border building...flash building but you still have to hop out of your car and line up while the drive through ports were for GCC citizens only! I would think GCC residents could go through there but no such luck. The Oman border partrol was far better, quick and friendly whereas the other side was stiff upper lip compared. It took us 7 hours to get to the hotel in Dubai in Silicon Oasis! Coming back was a lot better. The Dubai side coming back was smoother this time as no one had to line up, they used their flash new drive through cubicles for everyone. 

My son's team won 3 and tied 1 in the tournament. Sadly a cheating referee were witnessed at one of his games. Either that or he had bad eyesight and couldn't count how many times the other team was tagged. He allowed 10 tags at one point it was terrible. Thankfully my son's coach stopped the game and had words with the referee. I was so glad to see an underdog go against the established brotherhood up there! And once the coach did so the ref got his act together. I find it incredibly sad when these things happen at children's tournaments. We all teach our children to play fair but it crushes them when the face of fairness(the referee) is the one making the unfair calls. Luckily this time it was rectified and our children came off happy that all was okay in the end. But less can be said for the other team whose coach was obviously letting his kids get away with bad play. 
Good night

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