Sassos in Surrey: I Like the Night Life, Baby!

Happy New Year's everyone! It was great to see all of our friends from home - but it was too brief! We are so sorry we couldn't spend more time socializing, but we are looking forward to catching up over the summer.

So, while we are very busily exposing the children to all kids of enriching cultural experiences and desert adventures, we would be remiss in not sharing with you one of the most dominant features of Dubai living. The NIGHTLIFE! Dubai is known for amazing nightlife - clubs, restaurants, parties...you name it. Interesting, given that alcohol is technically illegal and Muslims will not touch it. So, here is the grand tour of some of the NIGHT time adventures!

First, we need to re-introduce you to some very important people you will see playing a very prominent role in these pictures- Emily and Deric Bryant. We met the Bryant family on the first day of school at ASD - Caroline and Blake (their oldest daughter) are in the same classroom. They are wonderful genuine, hilarious, fun people. As you will learn below, they are our "after dark" conspirators and up for anything - and our life in Dubai just would not be nearly as rich without them!

So, many of our adventures are at the Atlantis Resort, which is right up the Palm and a quick 2 minute cab ride. Every Friday they open a club called Nasimi Beach - so named because it is literally on the sand. You can grab a cabana and watch the sunset, and stay as long as you can tolerate the inevitable techno music. Here we are with Deric and our friend Warren Sneedon from South Africa:

And then THIS happened:

Which led to this:

The ladies were much more calm - here I am behaving myself with Emily and Cathy.

I'll skip the part where I got lost going to the bathroom because that just wouldn't interest you.

It's my blog and I will incriminate only those that I see fit.

And sometimes we actually eat dinner. We love Nobu - the extravagance on the table is our giant dessert:

Tried out this club called Sanctuary - and then decided "We be old for this club" - although we did like the giant shoe ice sculpture:

And in yet another outside cabana club in Oman that I can't remember the name of. And NOT because I drank too much. I'm just old. Red Bull still gives me wings, though.

Here we are at the One and Only Royal Mirage - a beautiful resort at the base of the Palm:

This is a Lebanese themed bar and restaurant called Levantine. I must be having a Sprite:

This was a fun one - the Dubai International Golf Tournament. All I can tell you about the golf part is that they had to play the last hole 4 times because of a tie. And then some golfing guy who was not Tiger Woods won. But there was a nifty hospitality tent and a live band. And since I never fulfilled my lifelong ambition of being one of Barker's Beauties on The Price is Right, I decided to try out being a Greens Girl on the 10th Green:

We celebrated Emily's birthday at an Argentine restaurant on the 25th floor of the Jumeirah Beach Hotel with some other Texas Expats - Cathy, Amy and Sarah:

And the husbands!

Quite a view from the hotel's open air rooftop lounge:

And recently a new resort just opened on the Palm - The Zabeel Saray. It is done in a Turkish theme, and may very well be the single most elaborate and beautiful place I've ever seen. Here is a shot of the pool in the spa building: