1-1-11

Ohh err, spooky date!

It is the second anniversary of me writing this blog. So much has happened in this time it is really quite unbelievable. We are in our fourth home, Caroline has starting her own work venture and we have visited some amazing places. Here's to another eventful year!

Just so nobody bothers asking - no, we had a crap new year's eve!

We had already decided to have a quiet night in, but Caz wasn't feeling great and I had a fever with a chesty cough. We were tucked up in bed watching a film Caz wanted to watch by 10.30pm - a lovely cheery story with Julie Walters going through an assisted suicide. Great way to see the new year in!

We decided to pull ourselves out of bed to go and see the fireworks on Yas Island from our balcony at midnight. We couldn't see them. We could hear them though. So as midnight came we just, well, listened to the fireworks, then went back to bed to watch the final moments of Julie Walters' life.........

Today was a better day though, well what we saw of it. I think we finally surfaced just after 1pm. We went to the Abu Dhabi World Tennis Championship and watched Rafa Nadal beat Roger Federer 7-6 7-6 in the final. A very civilized way to pass the afternoon of new year's day.

I commented to Caz on the way back that we are fortunate that Abu Dhabi does manage to attract world class sports and other entertainment, the venues for which are mostly less than 15 mins from our house - Yas (F1, Concerts), Zayed Sport City (Tennis, Concerts), Abu Dhabi Golf Club (European Tour Championship in a couple of weeks time). If we wanted to go and see these sort of events at home, they would normally be quite a trek.

Best news of the day though.... Watford vs. Portsmouth live on Al Jazira Sports tonight! Yes, get in there! So I am off to watch my team live from Watford, in Abu Dhabi - doesn't get any better!

Capitala Tennis Championship

Yesterday evening we went to the final day of the tennis championship in Abu Dhabi. It's the second year they have run this, with Andy Murray winning last years tournament. It's a knockout, winner-takes-all competition between 6 top players. On the final day we saw Federer vs Ferrer and Soderling vs Nadal. Federer walked his match to take 3rd place with the final being a much more competitive match which Nadal won in the end.

The tennis stadium is very good. It's quite a "tight" stadium with everyone pretty close to the action and getting a good view. The weather hasn't been great lately and last night I actually felt pretty cold sat outdoors watching the tennis. Here's a picture of some of the crowd, most of whom had sensibly brought jumpers and jackets!

The spectacle wasn't too much of a draw for the VVIPs. The front row didn't bother to turn up at all and most of the others quickly got bored and left!

One thing that always irritates me about Nadal is the way he is constantly picking his pants out of his bum! Surely he could have shorts/pants made that would fit properly and not end up being chewed between his arse crack! It doesn't make for pleasant viewing.....and just so you can share the unpleasantness, here's a little montage of him doing it!

For the rest of my pictures take a look at the album below.

Capitala Tennis Championship