Fabulous Friends and Great Events

Following on from my ‘Making new Friends’ Raffle prize 1post last week, here is the next part of the same story.

More new Friends

As I mentioned before, my new friend John Ayling had invited myself and Robert to the Lord’s Taveners gala dinner on the Friday night but since Robert would be travelling on business that day, I promised to go along on my own. I thought a couple of my handbags might go down well in the raffle so I said I would donate 2 prizes and on Friday night I duly turned up at the very posh Fairmont hotel on the Palm, Dubai. Luckily, I checked with Chris Tarrant’s partner, Jane about the dress code beforehand, so I didn’t go underdressed! The dinner was fabulous and very well organised at this beautiful new hotel. All my fellow diners were great and I made lots of new friends that night, especially John’s wife Lyn, who took me under her wing for the next few days!

Fundraising

As this was a charity event, after the dinner came an auction with ‘wow’ things to bid for if you have the money, like a holiday in Felix Francis’ Carribean holiday home and another holiday at Mike Gatting’s private villa in Barbados!  Emirates were sponsoring the whole event and other amazing trips included business class flights with Emirates to Cape Town and a stay at a famous winery nearby. Since I wasn’t bidding on anything, I totted up the takings and I think the whole evening must have raised over £25000. Not bad for a couple of hours of fundraising.

Anyone for Cricket?

The Lord’s Taveners charity is all about raising funds to give kids who might not otherwise get it, ‘A Sporting Chance’ so of course sport ranks highly on the list of weekend events. A golf tournament and 2 cricket matches were planned. The Lord’s Taveners cricket team consisted of 11 professional cricketers versus the Emirates team of keen amateurs, more commonly seen working at the airport as baggage handlers, airline crew and check in clerks. Not very surprisingly the Lord’s Taveners team won both matches but a great day out was had by all.

And the winners are

The winning team with silver Dhow trophy

Moving somewhere new?

So that was my amazing first weekend back in Dubai. A chance meeting on a plane leads to a fabulous party and lots of new friends. It reminded me that the most important thing to remember when moving to a new town is to just say yes to every invitation that comes your way. A while back I wrote about how to make friends in faraway places after I had moved out to Doha in Qatar. If you find yourself in a new place you just have to ‘go for it’ and get yourself out and about and meeting lots of people.

If you’ve ever had a similar experience I’d love to hear about it.

 

To receive our FREE newsletter, with details of our latest special offers, new collections and exclusive events, simply click here! I respect your privacy & will never share your information with anyone.

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.

Fabulous Friends and Great Events

Following on from my ‘Making new Friends’ Raffle prize 1post last week, here is the next part of the same story.

More new Friends

As I mentioned before, my new friend John Ayling had invited myself and Robert to the Lord’s Taveners gala dinner on the Friday night but since Robert would be travelling on business that day, I promised to go along on my own. I thought a couple of my handbags might go down well in the raffle so I said I would donate 2 prizes and on Friday night I duly turned up at the very posh Fairmont hotel on the Palm, Dubai. Luckily, I checked with Chris Tarrant’s partner, Jane about the dress code beforehand, so I didn’t go underdressed! The dinner was fabulous and very well organised at this beautiful new hotel. All my fellow diners were great and I made lots of new friends that night, especially John’s wife Lyn, who took me under her wing for the next few days!

Fundraising

As this was a charity event, after the dinner came an auction with ‘wow’ things to bid for if you have the money, like a holiday in Felix Francis’ Carribean holiday home and another holiday at Mike Gatting’s private villa in Barbados!  Emirates were sponsoring the whole event and other amazing trips included business class flights with Emirates to Cape Town and a stay at a famous winery nearby. Since I wasn’t bidding on anything, I totted up the takings and I think the whole evening must have raised over £25000. Not bad for a couple of hours of fundraising.

Anyone for Cricket?

The Lord’s Taveners charity is all about raising funds to give kids who might not otherwise get it, ‘A Sporting Chance’ so of course sport ranks highly on the list of weekend events. A golf tournament and 2 cricket matches were planned. The Lord’s Taveners cricket team consisted of 11 professional cricketers versus the Emirates team of keen amateurs, more commonly seen working at the airport as baggage handlers, airline crew and check in clerks. Not very surprisingly the Lord’s Taveners team won both matches but a great day out was had by all.

And the winners are

The winning team with silver Dhow trophy

Moving somewhere new?

So that was my amazing first weekend back in Dubai. A chance meeting on a plane leads to a fabulous party and lots of new friends. It reminded me that the most important thing to remember when moving to a new town is to just say yes to every invitation that comes your way. A while back I wrote about how to make friends in faraway places after I had moved out to Doha in Qatar. If you find yourself in a new place you just have to ‘go for it’ and get yourself out and about and meeting lots of people.

If you’ve ever had a similar experience I’d love to hear about it.

 

To receive our FREE newsletter, with details of our latest special offers, new collections and exclusive events, simply click here! I respect your privacy & will never share your information with anyone.

Sorry, comments are closed for this post.