New House

While I was in Australia Nick moved into a new villa (in preparation for when I leave to go to Saudi)  He is sharing with another couple but the place is so huge there is plenty of room for everyone.   There is four bedrooms each with its own bathroom, plus there is also maids quarters, and another lounge room upstairs.  There are 11 air conditioners in the house.

These are the villas from the outside

The swimming pool - there is also a gym, sauna, restaurant, internet cafe and tennis courts.  We are usually the only ones at the pool as no-one else is stupid enough to sit outside in 42 degrees!!

The backyard of the villa

Nice big kitchen

Our bedroom

And this is Bomber!!!  Never known a dog to make so much noise.

Elite Marquees

My brother Matt and his partner Kirsty own this marquee business and these are some pictures of a couple of weddings that they have just done in Sydney.

http://www.elitemarquees.com.au/

Lightening Strike - Dubai

A friend from Qatar sent me these pictures from a storm that hit Dubai the other night - this the the new Burj Dubai Tower being struck by lightening.

World Superbikes Losail Qatar 2009

These are a selection of pictures from a recent world superbike event @ Losail

Riyadh Sandstorm

A friend of mine sent me these pictures of a sandstorm that hit the city of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia yesterday - they are quite amazing.

This is the city where I lived in 2002 and will be starting my next adventure mid 2009.

This building is the Kingdom Tower - it is a shopping centre and also has restaurants and a hotel. You can actually walk along the skybridge at the top.

Rolls Royce/Bentley Arabian Adventure Lunch

Nicks company has been involved in the Rolls Royce/Bentley Arabian Adventure. Rolls and Bentley's from all over the world have come to the middle east to take part in rally which starts in Doha. Nick is accompanying the convoy over the Saudi Arabian Boarder to the Abu Dhabi boarder.

We were invited to the company owners Farm for lunch along with all the drivers of the cars (you don't often get invited to the locals homes - so this was a great opportunity.

The drive to the farm was about 1hr and it was in the middle of nowhere.

As you can see it really is in the middle of nowhere - the trees boarder the property.

I took these videos of some of the cars arriving at the property - in total there were 70 cars.

Nick in his official gear and with the car he will be driving

The entrance to the farm

Waiting outside the farm for all the cars to arrive - it was quite windy and very hot

Driving into the property

This is just one of the houses on the property - this one belongs to one of his sons - apparently there is a house for each of his children - but they only spend the weekends here.

This is where we were served drinks - it had several rooms off a courtyard, the toilet alone was amazing, with a selection of beautiful perfumes, it was quite funny as everyone who came out of the toilet smelt lovely....even me (had to sample)

The marquee where we had lunch - the food was amazing - typical arabic food. Different animals served on a plate with rice - animal carcass and head included!! (could put you off meat forever) There was even camel - hump and all!!! Very yummy though.

To the right of the entrance was a shawarma stand (kebab) all the other food was inside. There was whole spice stuffed fish also. So much food.

This was one of the rooms off the courtyard where drinks were served

Tea Set

This table was actually an old door - it was beautiful.

Cute garden statue

After lunch we were offered a drive around the farm - I had the pleasure of being in a Bentley, the farm had all sorts of animals - zebras, ostrich, deer, goats, rabbits, donkeys. It was an amazing property - this is another of the houses on the property.

On the way back to Doha - the drivers had the opportunity to drive a couple of laps around Losail International Race Circuit (MotoGp will be here in April) I hitched a ride with the most down to earth man - Terry from the UK in his Bentley and he burned some serious rubber round the track - we followed the safety car for the first lap and then we were let loose for one lap - and Terry came third - it was an amazing experience. This was us driving up to the starting grid.

This is the Bentley that I was in - beautiful car.

All the cars lining up - only about half of the cars took up the opportunity to drive the circuit.

Waiting for the checkered flag.

And we're off!!!

Heading round the track - It was just the most amazing experience.