Spending a weekend day at the beach has become a habit in the past few weeks.  The weather has cooled; the humidity evaporated.  Dubai life moves from inside the malls and play areas to the pools, beaches and parks.  Each weekend is anticipated with the excitement of an annual holiday in the sun.  Friday morning comes and by 9am, the car is stuffed with an amount of ‘luggage’ comparable to what we take on a week’s holiday, and the kids are asking ‘are we nearly there?’ by the time we drive around the first corner!

Unloading the car at the beach, the kids leave a laden-down-with-beach-paraphenalia Mummy and Daddy to trudge through the sand, as they make kids made a beeline for the sea – ‘Gerrrrooonnnnnniiimmmmooooo’ rings out and all 3 sprint through the sand, and compete to make the biggest splash in the water!

Today, there were so many fish flitting through the salty, shallow ripples.  The kids’ excitement levels went through the roof. Well, two out of our three munckins got excited.  DS2 ran out of the water with a look of terror on his face that suggested he had seen Jaws!  Meanwhile DS1 and DD duckdived under the water to get a closer look.

Once DH and I had set up camp in the sand, we joined our budding scuba divers who, at this stage, were desperately trying to catch the fish….with their bare hands!  Sightings of a small school were heralded with squeals of delight from 2 kids who thrashed through the water causing a mini tsunami for these poor creatures!!!!!  I commented to DH that primitive man and remote tribes which live off the land, spend years learning how to catch a fish with their bare hands, or even a spear!  To think DD and DS1 thought they could do it without any training or understanding of how ‘jittery’ fish are!

Then DS1 stood upright, hands on hips, his scrunched up face belying his frustration.  He was thinking about how to outwit the little beggars of the sea.  He wanted to catch one at all costs.  As he turned to me, he whipped off his black and red baseball cap.  He beamed with delight: ‘Mummy, I know, if I take off my baseball cap, they won’t recognise me because I am blond’.

‘Clever idea, honey.  Try that’ I replied with pride (and trying not to giggle).  Thinking outside the box…that’s my boy!

With that he disappeared under the gentle ripples to execute his new plan.

DH waded towards me with a very puzzled look on his face!

I explained, ‘I think he means that if he removes his black and red cap the fish would not see him.  Being blond, his colouring blends in better with the marine environment.’

He’s learning!  The element of surprise often involves camouflage!  Now, to work on a less terrifyingly splashy way to try to sneak up on the fish!