9

It is hard to believe, but Kel and I are celebrating 9 years of marriage this April! We really haven't done anything big the past few years, so I decided to surprise him with a night at The Address near Burj Dubai and a set of golf lessons from Claude Harmon III at the Els Club. My plan was for us to head out Thursday afternoon to the hotel and spend some time hanging out at the pool or checking out Dubai Mall since he hadn't been there yet. Then we were going to have dinner at the Souk next door and then head up to the bar on the 63rd floor where we would meet our friends. Friday morning I was going to surprise him with the golf lesson since I booked his first one for that Friday afternoon. Well, that WAS the plan.

Here's what really happened.

In preparation I just told him that we had plans Thursday night and Friday morning. I was elusive and I'm sure he knew something was up, but he didn't say anything. I also purchased the lessons the week before and had a gift certificate printed up. I lined up my good friend Shannon to brave the night and next morning with Dylan (almost 2) and her son (18 months) by herself! I emailed all of our friends to meet us in our room for a drink before we headed up to the bar and reminded them that it was all a surprise. Everyone kept it quiet and things were going according to PLAN. And, then, like a bad movie, everything went horribly wrong!

Everthing seemed to be lining up well until the Tuesday before we were supposed to go. When I purchased Kel's lessons, I used our credit card in the states. It was a new card (the old ones had expired) and I had to call and get the purchase approved since it was overseas. I told the CC company that were in Dubai and would be here for the next few months, so they shouldn't block any purchases. While I was on the phone with them, I approved a few purchases Kel had made while traveling in Singapore. Apparently my phone call did no good. Kel was trying to renew his xbox live subscription and our card was not going through. The Dubai and Singapore charges had us frozen. So, he had to call in to the card and while he was on the phone the very helpful CS rep went through all the recent purchases with him to ensure that they were correct. Obviously, I knew that the golf lessons charge was going to pop up. Then I hear him say "well, the Els charge is definitely bogus" and I tell him "no, it's your surprise anniversary gift". After the call, he told me that I have to tell him about stuff like this and I had to explain to him how a surprise really works.

At this point I realized that Thursday might not go as well as I imagined.

Thursday afternoon I had my stuff packed, Shannon was at the house, and Kel told me he would be home around 3. I hadn't worked out exactly what I would tell him when he got to the house, but figured I would just ask him to pack what he was going to wear that night and an outfit for the next day. But not really tell him what was going on.

Well, 3 came and went. Then 4, and at 5:30 he pops in. Upstairs he changes and I tell him to pack a few things. He asks why. I tell him to just pack for what he's going out in that night. Then he says he doesn't know what to pack because he doesn't know what we're doing. After being difficult for a bit, he finally follows directions. But, I have to tell him that we're spending a night away without the baby.

No more surprises for Kelly.

We check in at the hotel and things are much better (aside from the fact that our timetable is off). The hotel room is perfect and we have a nice little welcome gift waiting.

Since we're running a bit late, we decide to jump in the shower and head to Dubai Mall to grab a bite to eat. I turn on the water and wait for it to warm up. Five minutes later I'm still waiting. Every bathroom here has a water heater switch and for some reason ours was off. We flipped the switch and waited again. Not even a hint of warmth. Kel gets on the phone to the front desk and a maintenance worker is sent up. He spends a few minutes adjusting the temperature and says we will have hot water "soon". "How long?" Only 15 minutes madame! Ha. It's 7:30 now and we haven't gotten ready or eaten and people were supposed to be in our room in 2 hours.

After 15 minutes the water was surprisingly not at all hot. Kel made another call to the front desk and this time two maintenance workers and a ladder showed up! This time they fiddled with the water heater above the kitchen and said we'd have hot water "soon". "How long?" You guessed it - only 15 minutes madame! Right.

20 minutes later the water was tolerable - not anywhere near comfortable. At this point I'm upset that so much has gone wrong and that we're going to have to rush through dinner and Kel is pretty angry. He decides to go downstairs and talk to the front desk and get our room switched or tell them that we are checking out.

When he comes up he tells me that they are going to switch our room and that they will get us a quick dinner in the restaurant downstairs. I pack everything up and we head down for dinner. The dinner was amazing! We had excellent sushi and the sushi chef came to our table to grate fresh wasabi for us (on a sharkskin board made especially for grating wasabi) and to explain all the dishes that we ordered. One of the rolls we ordered was wrapped in seaweed, then finely shaved turnip! Great texture and nice flavor. While we ate, the concierge came up and gave us our new room keys and let us know that our luggage was moved and the room was ready.

It's 9:30 now and we rush through the rest of dinner and ask for the check. When it comes we are shocked that only our two drinks are on the bill! I think to myself that Kel must have done a pretty good job with the manager. We decide to check out our room and then meet everybody up at the bar. Our first room had a glorious view of the construction on Al Khail Road and 71. This was the view from our new room.

The large building near the right top is Burj Dubai! And, we had been upgraded to an apartment!

The full kitchen

View from the entry (dining and living rooms)

The love nest :)

We finally make it up to the bar around 10:30ish and everyone was there and somehow our awesome friends, Niki and J, had wrangled a fabulous table in the corner with an outstanding view of the fountains at the base of Burj Dubai!

And yesterday, Kel came home with this!

A diamond and sapphire bracelet!! And, it matches the ring he gave me for Christmas.

Happy anniversary!