Sharon and Jacques’ Excellent Blog

Last night Jacques and I were left with James and Scott for the evening.  James is 14 and a very bright young man who has a keen interest in sailing and rugby.  Scott is his 11 year old brother who is full of energy and has moments of silliness that are hysterical.

Their mom and dad had an obligation so we decided to head off to the Mall of the Emirates with the kids and have dinner and hang out.  The Mall of the Emirates is the one with an actual ski hill in it.  It is incredibly large, but will soon be dwarfed by another mall coming soon.  In fact, the biggest here is short lived as there is always something more spectacular coming along.

We gave the kids a choice of where they would like to eat and they picked the food court.  Good enough.  Three of us opted for Thai while one went for good old Mickey D’s.  After dinner, I voted for ice cream sundaes and there was no objection from the crew.  We then decided to walk around the mall.

Strangely enough, Scotty and I suffered from a sugar high which was not shared by Jacques and James.  We were bouncing off the walls having a great time making up stupid rhymes.  J & J decided we were morons and tried to maintain some respectable distance. 

Jacques decided that since we were close to Carrefour, he was in dire need of biltong.  For the uninitiated, biltong is kind of like beef jerky.  It is high on the list of South African staples, and he can eat through kilos of it given the opportunity.  Now walking around a grocery store does not need to be a boring affair.  Scott and I discovered that when following Jacques, if you walk like a duck, you can entertain yourself and others with great ease.  We figured since he was a bird watcher, he would appreciate our imitations.  There is also a special check out line for ladies only.  I suggested that we go through that since I was a lady, but Scott decided Jacques was too hairy to get away with it.  A smoldering look followed which kept us quiet - for about three seconds.

We then went into Virgin looking for the latest James Blunt CD.  Virgin had hopping music happening, and well, we just had to dance!  Scotty and I were moving and grooving, while J & J were trying to weave their way around the aisles to avoid us.  Now I ask you…why play dance music unless you want people to dance? 

We bopped to the music checking out all the cool things.  We found swarovski crystal head phones that were very bling.  They were quite the fashion accessory.  There were also crystal memory sticks for your computer.  We kept bopping until Scott bopped right into a very large man.  This guy was about 7 ft tall.  Scott looked up and said “Whoa, basketball player!”  At least he had an appreciation for our dancing moves!

We grabbed a taxi home and despites Jacques’ attempt to sell us to the taxi driver, we had a fun time. 

The best part of being over 40 and acting like and 11 year old – you have an early bed time!