MERRY CHRISTMAS 2016

Dear all

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2016

'Tis the season for another annual update from #TeamEllis ho ho ho! 

Several hours later, and I've only managed to check the email list. My Christmas spirit (plus the beer fridge) has reduced by about 50%. Each year I get some emails that bounce back and I have to hunt around to update the list. Keeping an up to date email list is an incredible bore to be honest, and unfortunately some people drop off the list as I no longer have a valid email. I'd love to use the speed of Facebook instead but as I have discovered, a lot of you don't use Facebook (really)! 

Anyway, I may use both. If you don't receive both, then you are missing off one of my lists. If you don't receive either, then you are not even reading this (some of you are wishing this was you by now).

Well, it has been a good year (I think). It started out in New Zealand and in last year's email we talked about a potential move there, 12 months later and everything is set. We all go to New Zealand on 12 January (eek!). If everything goes to plan, the kids will be starting new schools in February, then just I will be coming back to Dubai for a few months (double eek!). I have given work advance notice of my leaving, but I won't formally resign until later, as I will finish my ten years with the company first. Hopefully, I will be back in New Zealand by the end of May or maybe June. 

It is a bit scary to be honest (for all of us). The kids have been generally OK, but definitely had some wobbles, as things have come to an end (school, playgroup, football training, swimming lessons etc). Daisy has been at Repton for over seven years. We have had kids at Lisa's playgroup for over eight years. Expat life is all very transient most of the time and we are used to losing friends every year, but you cannot help making long term connections if you stay somewhere for a while. 

The scariest part (for me at least) is entering the job market again after ten years with the same company. After working for 25 years for only three employers, I've spent very little time job hunting. Just to make it easier, another new country and a probable change of sector beckons (yippee!).

We will miss Dubai, especially our friends and the weather (mostly). The kids have grown up here, so it will always be a special place for us and them. However, we are ready to go. Dubai has felt like a bit of an expat bubble and not part of the "real" world. Very nice when the kids are young, but we've never wanted them to spend all their childhood here. Time to take the red pill, and see how deep the rabbit hole goes! (?!?) Hopefully, the kids won't hate us (too much) for wrenching them from their cozy expat life, and dumping them at the (arse) end of the world!

The kids have all had a good year. Max is adorable but he can be a truculent little mister at times. All the boys are really enjoying their football, and Zach was voted the players' player of the year for his team at the end of last season. Sebastian's football has improved dramatically this year, and he is very capable now. Both Zach and Sebastian dropped rugby (boo!) but Daisy has still been enjoying it. The rugby club network and junior tournaments have been a fantastic part of our Dubai experience, and I hope the kids can get a similar experience in New Zealand, especially Max, who hasn't really been old enough in Dubai.

Daisy is still loving acting, and it was a very exciting moment at the cinema when we spotted her as an extra in Star Trek Beyond. It was a fleeting glimpse, but she looked great as a pink alien. Unfortunately, Zach's scenes did not make the final cut. 

All the kids have been doing really well in school and their school reports are simply amazing. Bec is very quick to tell them that kids inherit their intelligence from their mother (whatever!) but hopefully they will inherit my sparkling wit (er.....)! 

Dubai has been a bit down this year. Unfortunately, there has been lots of redundancies and the overall economy is still struggling. My company is doing incredible well though (steady financial management probably!). However, we have reduced our exposure to live events, as it has become very difficult to make them work financially, and this has had a knock on impact on the number of concerts we have attended this year. In fact, we've had a pretty quiet year re going out etc. 

Our main holiday in the summer was in Croatia and the UK. We flew to Zagreb and did a pleasant three hour drive to Rovinj, to meet up with family and friends. Rovinj is simply wonderful and it was a great holiday. The villa we hired was perfect and we loved the setting. After a nice one night stay in Zagreb, we flew to London and had a great few days hanging out on the South Bank, before Bec has some girl time in Bath, and I took the kids up to Yorkshire to see grandparents and Uncle Steve. Unfortunately, my Dad's health has deteriorated quite severely this year. He needs oxygen regularly and cannot get around too well, but it was lovely for the kids to see them in (sunny) Rotherham for a change.

Right, that's about enough of me wittering on (hurrah, you all say!).

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!

Lots of love from 

Ellis Inc x

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2015

Dear all

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2015

Well, we are in New Zealand, and in our new holiday home in sunny Wakefield. Actually, it was bloody freezing when we got here to be honest, but it has warmed up a bit. The (proper) locals were still mooching around in their bare feet whilst we quickly nipped to the shops to buy dressing gowns and slippers. Nipping to the shops has become a major component of the trip (especially for Bec) as we try to kit out the house, and deal with Christmas. I bought a hat.

It has been a big year, I guess. Buying our house in NZ was the biggest bit. We've been looking at houses in Nelson for a long time, and talked about whether we should buy something. Lots of reasons really. The Middle East is a bit of a mess at the moment, and we liked the idea of having somewhere to escape to, should the Saudis (close and populous) start to kick off as well. House prices have been increasing in Auckland, and we thought Nelson prices may eventually get dragged up. However, we are starting to think about a move back to NZ in a few years, hence the main reason was to help with the transition, and have somewhere that the kids can identify as ours, so that the move may be a little easier. That move is a while off yet though, but we are really pleased with the house!

There have been no major incidents in Dubai, but there has been heightened security this past year. The UAE has been an active participant in the war in Yemen as well, hence there is a slightly different feel to previous years. The economy is a bit patchy. Lots of doom and gloom due to low oil prices, and declining real estate prices, but the company I work for is still growing very strongly. Good in many ways, but it does mean that work is forever busy.

The kids are doing much of the same as last year, hence our spare time is still filled with rugby, football and drama (sorry, acting!). Daisy and Zach had a fantastic experience filming as extras for the latest Star Trek movie. They basically got to spend about 12 hours hanging with the stars, with Zach giving Chris Pine high fives etc. We don't know if they will make the final cut, but if you see a young pink alien girl in the movie, it will probably be Daisy as they spent a long time digitally recording her so that they can use her in any scene. 

Max has probably changed the most during the year, and has become a feisty little fella. Sebastian is growing up to be the daredevil in the family, and now sports a yellow belt in Karate, ha-ya! 

All the kids are doing well in school, with fantastic reports all round. Max is always creating havoc at playgroup (Lisa's School), but it will be a sad moment when he eventually leaves, as all of our kids have spent two wonderful years with Lisa before starting school. 

Bec started the year with a holiday in NZ, but our main summer holiday was in Switzerland again, seeing the Kackies. Great times and the kids really did not want to leave their cousins behind. Europa Park was one of the highlights, but we loved exploring the castles and countryside around Basel. 

Loads of concerts as always. We were lucky to get to see a private show by Prince at the start of the year. Literally feet away, so awesome and we (or at least I) have also got to see The Script, Bastille, Iggy Azelea, James Blunt, Sting, Ed Sheeran, One Direction, Kasabian, Spandau Ballet, Bon Jovi, Dave Matthews Band (who?), Take That (oh dear), and The Stereophonics! We are going to have to get used to missing all this, boo!

There is probably lots of other stuff I should be mentioning, but it is Christmas already (1am in NZ), and it is time to go to bed so that Santa can work his magic.

We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year!

Lots of love from 

Ellis Inc x

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2014

Dear all

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2014

I've decided to break with tradition and add some Dubai friends to my annual Christmas email. It was originally intended as an update for family and friends overseas, but so many Dubai friends have now left and become overseas friends, that the distinction between Dubai and overseas friends is becoming somewhat blurred.

The email normally follows a similar structure. Lame joke, quick summary of the year, holidays, concerts, update on the kids, Dubai news, maybe a glimpse of the future, another lame joke (if you are lucky), steep decline in narrative quality (more likely), waffle (if you are unlucky), copy paste ending (as the beer reduces my creativity, and the lure of the couch becomes too great)!

So this year, I thought I'd do something different. Maybe an insightful commentary on the conflicts of celebrating Christmas in a Muslim country. Or maybe not...

To be honest, we celebrate Christmas pretty well in Dubai. The tree is up and it is suitably propped up with presents. Ikea exists and sells Christmas lights. We've been playing festive tunes on the iPod for the whole of December and are only starting to go slightly mad as a result. In fact, I got told off for putting Journey on in the garden this afternoon (bad Andy, I'll be cooking up some crack next!).

If anything, we seem to celebrate Christmas even more. We love Christmas carols in the desert, even if we do get stuck and need rescuing by a friend with a jeep and some jolly fine young chaps. We've bought Christmas jumpers (I actually quite like mine).

So there you go, pretty much like Christmas everywhere else, apart from the sun, fake snow, lack of holidays and the occasional religious zealot demanding that some poor bugger refers to winter holidays instead of Christmas.

We've had a pretty good year I guess, as good as anyone could have with four young children. There has been a lot of shouting and crying and mess, but a lot of joy as well. Bec has fond distant memories of undisturbed sleep. All the boys have taken their time to sleep properly through the night, and Max has been no exception. He is better now, but usually wakes earlier than the rest. And sod's law demands that if he has a good night, at least one of the others will cough throughout, or have a nightmare, or just fall out of bed!

The kids are all doing well. Great school reports, although school just seems to take over all our lives, with the stupidly early starts, homework and activities. It is very tiring for all the kids and us. The boys love their football on Thursday evenings, and all three of the eldest now play rugby on Saturdays at Arabian Knights. Daisy is probably the keenest, which we are pleasantly surprised about, although rugby is starting to take over our weekends if there is one of the many tournaments on. Max is more of a handful than all of the others were, and he loves to get into everything and throw stuff around. He is so cute and loving and funny, but looking for trouble at every opportunity.

We took the kids back to the UK in the summer for the first time in a while. In fact, Sebastian and Max had never been. It was lovely to be back in London, especially as the weather followed us from Dubai and it was glorious throughout. The kids did not want to leave!

There has been the usual run of concerts this year. Plenty of big heritage acts such as Rolling Stones, The Who, Eric Clapton and Black Sabbath, plus Human League, Pet Shop Boys, Neil Finn, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake and Kings of Leon. My company launched two new music festivals, Red Fest and Blended, hence lots of smaller festival acts as well.   

The annual trip to the London Double Header at Twickenham is now a firm fixture, and I was lucky to see Kasabian again the night before at the iTunes Festival, who were absolutely fantastic!

Bec is off to New Zealand tomorrow night to catch up with friends (ie get drunk) so I will be in charge of parenting for nine days (ie get drunk even earlier than normal). Thankfully, my parents are coming out to distract the kids. Hopefully, Max won't be too sad!

So there we are. The email actually turned out pretty much the same as normal. Why spoil a winning formula I hear you all say (or more likely not)!

Due to the scourge of Facebook, our blog is looking a bit bare, but we occasionally do post something on http://blog.becandy.com/ so you can still check what we are up to (very intermittently) there. Otherwise, please come and see us in Dubai.   

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very happy New Year.

Lots of love from 

Ellis Inc x

Nearly walking!

We have just come back from London, where Max stood up on his own for the first time. Luckily, he then repeated it for the camera, hence here is the video. Next - walking!

Zach - Rugby U6

Zach recently finished his second year of rugby (under 6's), which was the first year of playing competitions. 

It was a fantastic year of rugby. It is not his favourite sport, football is, but Arabian Knights is a great rugby club and the other kids / parents make it special.

The first tournament was held in the national stadium in Abu Dhabi, and it was all a bit of a shock.

I volunteered to help coach, and as we had a big squad, we entered three teams of seven. I took charge of Zach's team, with no real idea what I was doing, and a very loose understanding of the rules for U6 tag rugby. I was most nervous about being asked to referee, which thankfully didn't happen.

It was very hot, but the kids were great, and we actually managed to win most of our first games, including knocking out both the other Knights teams in the knock out stage, to reach the final.

Unfortunately, the Dubai Exiles pipped us in the final, but Zach did really well, including scoring a couple of tries.

Coaching was fun but hard work, however the tournaments were really intense experiences. We had a few in Dubai, plus one in Al Ain, and towards the end of the season we traveled to Doha, in Qatar.

The top Knights team came second in most of the tournaments, but Zach was normally playing in the middle team. However, we only took one team to Doha, and after a fantastic day, his team managed to win the tournament, which was such a great experience for him and his little rugby mates.

To end a great year, Zach won a 'U6 Most Improved Player' award, which was one of seven awards given to the squad of nearly 40 kids. 

Max is 1!

A big balloon and big presents for a little boy!

The siblings were close by to lend a hand.

All for me?!

Fun at The Farm.

Roast chicken and vegetables for birthday dinner.

The cake was Max' first and the flavour was 'healthy'.

Success! A cake fan in the making.

We've had a wonderful first year with our adorable Maxi. I still can't quite believe that he made it here safe and sound. He's not walking or crawling but is a very enthusiastic bum shuffler and has an impressive top speed. He got his first tooth at 5 months and had the full set by 10 months, there was one popping through every week at one stage - and with very little drama thank goodness. He is a great little eater and would eat fish pie every meal given the chance. He is known about town as the smiliest baby in Dubai and smiles all the time, at anyone and anything. He is a very happy little boy although not quite so much on Sundays of misery when Andy goes back to work and the other kids go back to school. He loves the school run and checking out all the action at Repton. On the not quite so cheery side he is not the best sleeper in the world. He fed every two hours around the clock until he was seven months old and still feeds several times a night, I know it won't last forever but am soooo tired. It's all worth it though, Max is totally delicious and the best way ever to complete our family.

We didn't have a party for Max but we went out for a family breakfast to The Farm then the Roses' came over for a birthday dinner in the afternoon.

Height: Forgot to measure him, oops.

Weight: 9.6kgs

Colour: Blue

Singer: Eminem

Song: Ice Ice Baby

Thing to do at the weekend: See his family

Food: Fish pie

Drink: Milk

Book: Googlies

Movie: Not interested yet.

What makes Max most happy: Having all his family around.

Bx

Sebastian is 4!

Starting the day with birthday cuddles. School hols so a birthday lie in, woohoo!

Presents!

The brotherly love doesn't extend to sharing presents.

Chocolate waffles and fruit for breakfast.

We had a birthday visit to the Nad Al Sheba bike park with the Hoggards.

The cake, banana choc chip (obv). Can't believe I didn't get a birthday dinner photo. It was spag bol.

Cheeky Monkey parties kept us sane again.

Cake time. I emptied the supermarket of kit kats and smarties.

Happy birthday to our gorgeous Bastie.

Cuddly lovable Sebastian is 4! It's been great year for Sebastian. He has retained his gorgeous cuddly cuteness despite starting school, result! He always makes us laugh and has an impressive sense of logic and way with words. He is not afraid to stand his ground and loves a good debate. All in all, a born lawyer. He started school in September and is loving it although gets very tired which is tough. He hasn't seemed to have been fazed by being displaced as the baby of the family and often covers Max in kisses. He is increasingly getting up to boy mischief with Zach and it's lovely watching them grow closer. He is such a sweet little boy and so easy to love and we enjoy every minute with him.

Sebastian's party was on 28 February. It was the usual 48 children chaos so it was all hands on deck and not much time for photos. Everyone had a great time and collapsed afterwards.

Sebastian's party was

Height: 103cms

Weight: 14.9kgs

Colour: Green

Singer: Justin Bieber
Song: Sandstorm - Darude

Thing to do at the weekend: Go to the mall and buy things

Food: Hommous

Drink: 7up

Book: Dinosaur

Movie: Despicable Me 2

What makes Sebastian most happy: Trash Packs.

Bx

Daisy is 8!

A great haul of presents then off to school.

Daisy's birthday dinner was fish, chips and vegetables.

Another banana choc chip cake.

Party Day!

Daisy walks the catwalk then strikes a pose at her fashion themed party.

There was a lot of posing going on.

Yep, some more posing.

There was also some excellent dancing.

More fish and chips.

Cake!

A great party topped off with a disco and sleepover with Hannah.

I can't believe how fast Daisy is hurtling towards double figures! She continues to be fabulous, just all in all a really good girl. She has a great teacher who often reminds me how wonderful Daisy is. She continues to do very well in school and puts in a great effort with her school work. She isn't particularly interested in sport but is still enjoying swimming and gymnastics and has taken up tennis which she loves for the social aspect. She takes her responsibility as a big sister very seriously and is a great help with Max who adores her. She reads reads and reads some more and flies through books faster than I can buy them. I often have to tell her to put the book down and get outside, she would read 24/7 if I let her! Daisy is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside and we are so lucky to have her.

Daisy's party was on 2 February and was a fashion party. The girls had a great time and loved all the strutting about and posing.

Height: 130cms

Weight: 23.7kgs

Colour: Light blue

Singer: Selena Gomez, Brtiney, Katy Perry
Song: Roar - Katy Perry

Thing to do at the weekend: Meet friends

Food: Mummy's banana choc chip cake

Drink: Water

Book: Too many to list, loves so many books!

Movie: Frozen

What makes Daisy most happy: Her family.

Bx