Snowboarding in the desert

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As soon as i arrived back into Dubai i rang my mum to find out my sister had given birth to a healthy baby girl called Madison Alicia Smith, weighing in at 2.86kgs and arriving 3 and a half weeks early. I had booked leave for February hoping that i would be there with my sister for the birth.....but i guess you can't plan these things!!! I am dying to see her, i am a very clucky aunty!

Spent the afternoon snowboarding believe it or not. Still seems strange to actually be able to do that in the heart of the middle east. Went to Ski Dubai which is the new indoor ski slope recently opened inside a shopping mall known as Mall of the Emirates. Seemed strange walking in kitted out in my snowboarding pants, jacket and boots, snowboard in tow, whilst on the escalator with the locals wearing their traditional dish-dash all around me. Seems a far cry from my snowboarding days back in Canada.

Nevertheless i was quite impressed with the place. It was larger than i had expected and pretty damn cold inside, about -2 degC. They had one chairlift which you could get off at mid-station or continue to the top. They had a couple of slopes of varying difficulty, supposedly having the only indoor black run in the world, but i wouldn't go as far as to say that! They had a small terrain park with a couple of rails and a little tabletop. As skiing and snowboarding is a relatively new sport in Dubai it was nice to see people of all ages getting into it....as long as they make sure to keep out of my way!!!

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