The Hillman's in Dubai

The Language Barrier

2009-10-07T20:39:00.001+04:00

As there are very few Emerati people in the workplace, most of the working population is made up of ex-pats. A lot of people in the service industries are from the Indian sub-continent. Many are heavily accented and there are times when it can be tricky to understand them. Here’s an example from yesterday. I was trying to send a package with FedEx to Moscow.

“What country you sending package?” (them)
”Russia” (me)
”Al Barsha?” (a local place in Dubai)
”No, Russia” (me)
”Yes, Barsha?” (them)
”No, Russia -the USSR” (me)
”ah, the USA madam?” (them)
”NO” (me)

Oh Lordy . . . . it went on for a while, we got there in the end . . . . nothing quite like the English language!

Ramadan 2009

2009-09-16T16:06:00.001+04:00

So, here we are again with another Ramadan. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured; from dawn until sunset.

From what I can understand from a lot of my friends who have lived in other countries, Dubai is one of the strictest that they have encountered. Apparently in Egypt, the Muslims fast, while the other religions carry on in a normal fashion. Yet here in Dubai, during daylight hours, when you wander the great malls, all of the food or coffee outlets are closed, with all of the chairs stacked up on the tables. Malls can be a very gloomy affair in Ramadan – in my view, the very soul is sucked out of Dubai and it’s a very solemn place to be during the day.

We live here and have chosen to live here, so we have to abide by the rules and not eat in public in the daytime. That’s fine by me – however, hard it may be. But one thing I don’t understand – even for Muslims, little children are exempt – so when I let my children (under 6) eat something in public, I feel that everyone is staring at me and that I’ve done something wrong. I know that I haven’t, but there feels as though there is a tension in the air.

There are a few places which bend the rules and open during the daytime. The rule which they bend is that they have to be unseen and unheard from the outside, so dark curtains are pulled all around the cafe or the windows are papered over. When westerners go inside the few treasures that are still open, the place is humming with activity and people eating and drinking without a care in the world!

Given that Dubai is a very relaxed country in the Middle East, where we are allowed to drink alcohol (in certain places) and where there is a great deal more freedom than in many others, Ramadan feels like such the opposite. I am sure that others will feel differently, but it’s just my view.

Perhaps a very strict Ramadan is the deliberate price we pay for an otherwise very flexible and liberal Arab country.

Moving into our New Place

2009-09-07T11:26:00.001+04:00

We’re now moved into our new place and slowly finding our feet. It’s in Dubai Sports City and whilst our particular development is quite nice, we are back on a building site. There are bus loads of builders shipped in and out each day to both finish our development and also to continue to build the remainder of Sports City. There has been a lot of recent publicity about the plight of these workers, mainly from the Indian subcontinent, and whatever the real story of these folk, I hope they are living somewhere decent and looked after fairly by their employers.

So far, I’m not too keen on living in our particular development. We’ve had a couple of petty security issues – a few things have been stolen from outside our villa (one from our covered carport and another from an outside cupboard) and a man was also found in our garden doing something to himself that should only be done in private. I will go no further, suffice to say that I’m happy my children were not there to witness it. It’s my job to protect them from any weird people out there.

In the UK, it would be rather foolish to leave items in a carport, but Dubai isn’t the UK and it’s quite normal, given that there is no loft space and most garages don’t have doors. I’ve always felt secure here, and whilst I do still have a sense of personal security, I am now always making sure that the garden gate is completely locked and we are now paying for landscapers to come into our garden and install high trees and obscure any view through the gate.

There’s a chance that people out there will think that I’m over-reacting, but this development was sold to us as a gated establishment, but I guess it was just handed over too soon. They can’t possibly deliver a “secure” gated compound when it’s not fully built yet. I’m also not trying to see that we are living in some dreadful place – incidents like this happen in every town throughout the world – sadly, it’s just a few individuals who spoil things for the rest of us.

This is probably my first blog where I have felt rather low and disappointed with my time in Dubai, but I need to be honest. This blog has to have the good times and also the less good – I need to make it real and what it’s really like for me. I am still very happy to be here and would still choose to live here rather than the UK, but it’s just been a bit of a shame.

I am sure things will get better.

Moving out of the Rental House

2009-07-12T12:37:00.001+04:00

My world has been completely taken over of late, with moving out of our rental house. Only 12 months late, our newly mortgaged, freshly built house is ready for occupation! It was a shame to see the other place go, but at the same time, we were looking forward to getting into our “own” place and painting the walls red, if that’s what we wanted to do (we don’t want to by the way)!

Our (Indian) landlord, who was if you recall, was an utter pig to us when we moved in, had softened of late, and one day even turned up with a basket of whole-nut chocolates for the children (although given that O has a nut allergy, maybe it wasn’t such a nice move!), but any bad experiences we had experienced so far from him, was nothing compared to moving out.

Firstly, given that we are in a depressed rental market, he managed to secure a tenant as soon as we moved out. Well, in fact, BEFORE we even moved out! Jammy man – only he could do this.

Our house rental was ours and paid for up until 23.59 on Thursday 2 July and the new (very nice) lady’s rental period started on 00.01 on Thursday 2 July. Can you sense a problem brewing???

Oh yes – from 9am onwards on this day, both T and I were consistently being hounded by the landlord, asking when we would be out. The reply was always the same – as soon as the removal people take the stuff out of the house! We agreed that we would try to hurry them as best we could, but given that they were packing up my best crystal and all my worldly goods and putting it onto the back of an open truck (which was subsequently going to be driven down a 7 lane highway), I wasn’t going to hurry them too much . . . !

The one thing about Dubai is that it is rather in the dark ages in terms of public services. In order for us to disconnect our water and electricity, T had to physically drive to their offices about a half hour away, take a ticket and wait his turn to be seen. DEWA (the government owned electricity and water company) is on a nice little earner. When you get connected for the first time, you have to hand over a nice not-so-little deposit of 2000AED per villa (about £335). Apartments give a deposit of 1000AED as their bills are likely to be lower. This protects them should you decide to skip the country and not pay your bill. Multiply this deposit by the number of households in Dubai, and you’ve got a nice not-so-little annual interest payment going on . . . . !!!

So, Tim gets to the front of the line and says that we are moving out. He gives them an approximate final meter reading. The chap behind the desk informs him that they will send out another chap to do an official reading, checks his postal address, and confirms that the final bill will be in the post once the “official” meter reading has taken place! Fine, perfect, although being able to do this over the phone or the internet would have been sooo much easier.

Tim then tries to connect our new house to DEWA and tries to set up a new account. He has with him, his passport, his residence visa and proof of ownership of our house, but he has done one dreadful thing, he has forgotten some other paperwork that is apparently vital for the connection of our services. He is told to go away and to come back with the correct paperwork! (Paperwork in Dubai, by the way, is crucial and getting most things done is often excruciatingly painful – you can’t even buy a SIM card for your mobile phone without a passport.)

Tim comes back to the old house and here starts the standoff with the landlord. The new tenant has arrived with all of her stuff and we still have a couple more truck loads needed to transport all of our belongings! We talk to the lady – she is very nice and understands. We try and move our stuff to one side of the house so that she can start her unloading process. All fine and dandy.

Then, the landlord opens his mouth.

He refused to give us our security deposit until we prove to him that we have paid the final DEWA bill. Now we are in a loop. You CAN’T pay the final DEWA bill until the official man has come to read the meter. But to most rational people, that’s not an issue, because remember that DEWA have a 2000AED deposit against the house (so the landlord of the electricity company are rarely out of pocket). Summer monthly bills are normally in the region of 1800AED, so this more than covers our projected bill. Add to that the fact that if you don’t pay a bill, you’re flung in prison anyway, is enough of a deterrent to most people!

So, darling landlord is asking us to prove that we have paid a bill that we physically are unable to do until the final bill comes through. He knows this really. So, Tim gets into an argument with him and refuses to hand over the house keys until we get our (previously agreed) security deposit back. But, don’t forget the nice lady waiting to move in . . . . . the landlord then threatens Tim with the police. Nice move.

I get a call at the new place to get back to the old place to help. Whilst I’m driving there, I call a real estate (and Dubai regulated) friend of mine for clarification. She confirms that it is illegal for him to do this and in addition, he is also not allowed by law, to hold two security deposits against the same house, which he is doing. She recommends that we call the police to sort the landlord out!!! Perfect, some ammunition.

I get there and start “talking” to him with Tim. We tell him that if he doesn’t return our security deposit, we will call the police. He murmurs and moans a bit, and clearly the threat works as he eventually agrees that he will hand over our security deposit (which by the way is nearly £2000 so worth fighting for). Victory, but we got absolutely no pleasure out of it whatsoever. Clearly £40,000 rent per year for a 3 bedroom/2 reception roomed house wasn’t quite enough for him.

It’s people like him – greedy when it comes to money – that give a lot of other people a bad name.

We managed to get all of our belongings out of the house by 10pm that night – a complete nightmare of a day, all conducted on a summers day in the Middle East. Nice (and sweaty)!

However, Tim still had to go back to DEWA to connect us to the new house . . . . . another story for another day!

Flights – Costs from Dubai

2009-06-22T17:51:00.001+04:00

This is a particular bug-bear of mine . . . . why oh why are flights to varying international locations more expensive from Dubai than from London?

There could be a logical argument – in that Dubai might be further away than London. I appreciate that Heathrow is the busiest airport in the world, and it’s landing charges are lower than most European counterparts, but I don’t believe it explains fully how flights originating in Dubai are so very expensive. (Apparently Dubai has very low landing fees in relation to most European countries too.)

Let me give you an example – I thought it might be interesting to go to Cape Town. The cheapest flight from Dubai the equivalent is £700 on Emirates Airways. Flying from London, on exactly the same dates, via Dubai, on Emirates is a staggeringly cheap £387. So, £300ish more to fly 7 hours less.

Similarly to fly to the UK in June from Dubai is £401.50 with one stop. From the UK to Dubai in June on exactly the same days (which is lower season) the cheapest flight is £252.90, using the same airline and the same planes. Absolutely crackers!

Can anyone explain this?

School Fee Increases

2009-05-24T15:41:00.001+04:00

I’m cross. I really am. Let’s think for a minute about the credit crunch, the huge global monetary meltdown, the crashing prices of pretty much everything, INCLUDING here in Dubai, pay rise freezes - - - and what do we get . . . ?

A 12% increase in school fees.

The school got graded this last term and as it did well, they decided to apply for 12% school fees – and they got authorisation from the KHDA. I am furious.

It is a GEMS school in Dubai, who already have one of the highest school fees in the country – and yet they seem to find it appropriate to set this price hike. To justify it in the letter to parents, they said they would be giving us more science labs, extended art room and more classrooms (which in turn will generate more fees at 12% higher than this year). My kids are in primary – what do they get? Nada.

Every business that I know (and yes, the GEMS chain of school is a business and not a charity) is having to make-do and stretch their resources even further in times of financial hardship. Now is not the time to build more science labs, especially as the school is only 3 years old and already has a wealth of facilities. They can wait, like the rest of the world, until the worldwide economy picks up.

Right, I’ve said it! Ranting over – now I need to find out how to pay for the 12% increase!!!

Afternoon Tea at the Burj-al-Arab

2009-05-24T12:38:00.001+04:00

Despite driving past the Burj-al-Arab at least once a day for the last 18 months, we finally went inside! You can’t just stroll in – you have to have either a hotel reservation, a restaurant booking or be invited!

We had family in town, including Great-Grannie, so really couldn’t think of anywhere more appropriate and more refined for such a lady.

We booked afternoon tea!

Why hadn’t we been in before? Well, at 375Dhs a person (£70 per person), it has to be for something pretty special. But fortunately, we had collected enough points through previous stays at its sister hotel, to get the whole lot for free! That always makes me smile!

So, here are some photographs of the inside and some facts about the building itself. Named Burj-al-Arab, meaning Tower of the Arabs in Arabic, it stands on an artificial island 280m out from Jumeirah Beach. It is connected to the mainland by a private curving bridge – you have to go through security before being allowed to cross the bridge.

Needless to say, it’s rather expensive to stay here – I think that rooms start at the US$1000 a night, which probably suits some people’s budget, but not mine!

Inside, it’s all rather brash with a lot of gold and swirly patterns. Not really very restful and tranquil in my view, although I’m sure some would disagree! You can see here in the picture of the atrium looking towards the top, the garish decor. Here is the fountain in the lobby.

The tea itself was very nice. 7 courses in all, which includes a glass of champagne, sandwiches, salmon-en-croute, scones, sorbet, fruit, followed by French pastries and petits fours/chocolates. Here’s where I get rather picky – I was looking forward to a French pastry, but I got a stick of shortbread that resembled the size of a Cadbury’s chocolate finger. Since when is shortbread a French pastry? I was expecting an éclair or a tartlet . . . . I was specifically served one piece of shortbread, by a delightful lady with a platter and serving tongs! No more, just one! When the chocolates arrived, there were four of them for four of us. Shockingly tight. Yes, we had eaten “enough” but at £70 a head, I want the works – and if that means two French pastries, then I would like them. Similarly, a plate of chocolates would have been appropriate, rather than the stingy four . . . The service was good and attentive, but staff seem to have forgotten, or were never taught, the etiquette of serving from the left and taking away from the right. Yes, I know this is really extreme, but in a self-awarded 7* hotel, I expect the very best.

After the tea, we took the glass lift right to the top of the hotel to look at the view. On one side, there was the most amazing view of The Palm Jumeirah – we were so high up that it resembled more of a pop-up book!

Similarly, the marina was pretty impressive from a distance. Hard to believe that when we first came to Dubai 10 years ago for a holiday, the marina or The Palm didn’t even exist!

So, my afternoon at the Burj-al-Arab . . . . . did I enjoy it? Yes, very much so, but that was probably more for the company than the “exquisite culinary delights”. I enjoyed being nosy and finally going in the place. I’m especially more happy since I didn’t have to pay for it. Had we parted with nearly £300 for the four of us, I suspect it might have stung a little . . . !!!!!

St George’s Day in Dubai

2009-05-24T11:10:00.001+04:00

I am very aware that the Patron Saint of England is St George, but when someone asked me when St George’s Day was, I am ashamed to say that I stumbled . . . . “April the something”, was about as far as I got.

It is, in fact, April 23rd.

So, why, as a fully fledged relatively patriotic Brit, do I not know this date? Probably because no-one I know actually celebrates the day. To my knowledge (and apologies to my parents if we used to celebrate it as a child) I do not ever remember celebrating St George’s Day. Why not? The Irish always celebrate St Patricks Day and the Aussie's have their ANZAC day.

However, my second year in Dubai provided something rather special to commemorate the day.

We were invited to attend a picnic in the grounds of the British Embassy, to watch and listen to the Royal Marines Band, and what a treat it was.

We arrived, the staunch British, with passports in our hands, ready to go through the metal detectors which would allow us into the Embassy grounds. Temperatures were around 38 degrees that day, yet that did not deter us. We lugged our picnic hampers, coolers, chairs and picnic blankets onto the lawns and set up for the afternoon. How lovely it was – there were lots of sandwiches, strawberries, Pimms and ”tally-ho” British accents in attendance. Little girls called Arabella and boys called Tarquin ran around waving English flags having a fine time – happy to just run around in the grass, while their parents read The Times.

The band struck up with their opening tune – the theme tune to Star Wars. Not quite so British, but Oliver loved it (Star Wars and Indiana Jones being the hot topics in our house). It wasn’t long before we were singing along to Land of Hope and Glory – I felt as though I were transported back 40 years into a scene of England past. The band started marching around the grounds, while the children revelled in it, following them and playing tambourines and pretending to be soldiers. Nothing relating to modern England existed in
this little pocket of Dubai for these three magical hours.

Click here for a little clip of the afternoon.

It was such a fantastic day – I was proud to be British!

Fujairah – a weekend away!

2009-05-08T09:35:00.001+04:00

I have neglected this blog of mine of late. We have been supremely busy with me collapsing on the sofa at the end of each day. I will do better!

We recently headed out of the Dubai Emirate for a weekend break. Fujairah is one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE and is situated on the Eastern side of the peninsula overlooking the Gulf of Oman, rather than the Persian Gulf.

It takes nearly 2 hours to drive there, through the mountains and is a really very lovely drive. Easy roads, once you negotiate the typical bad driving which is inevitable on the roads out here!

What was really interesting is the country when you get outside Dubai. I don’t mean the scenery, I mean the way of life. Everyone thinks that the UAE (with Dubai and Abu Dhabi) is this glitzy modern place, but that is so wrong – once you get outside the city, you find dusty little desert towns, with old men on bicycles and little markets selling – well, anything!

This particular shop sold loads of inflatables (why and to whom?) and fruit! Other sold carpets and this one had some beautiful plants in it (which I will remember when it’s time to plant things in the garden). No glitzy stuff here.

But for the most part, the countryside is just desolate and harsh and gets more mountainous the further north and east you go.

We were heading for a place called Dibba, a coastal town and we spent a good hour surrounded by this beautiful scenery – the start of the Hajjar Mountains which continue into Oman. (Hajjar Mountain means stone mountain in Arabic.)

About 1 hour 45 minutes from Dubai, we arrived at our destination, the JAL Hotel. Very nice indeed. Rooms were nice and spacious with plenty of space for the 2 children’s beds, but why waste time indoors – the sun was shining so we hit the beach!

We’d gone with some friends, so the children ran off to play in the freezing cold swimming pool. Why they hadn’t heated it I really don’t know, but apparently in a month it will be beautifully warm (ironically before it gets far too warm to swim in, when summer hits)!

We had a great night – sitting around with a gorgeous barbecue – as always, we ate too much. But with great weather, food and great company, it’s hard not to! There was a band, which the kids jigged along to, up on stage!

One of the fun things about this hotel is that they have inflatables in the sea – inflatable slides, trampolines – great fun. Good old-fashioned pedalo’s were also available – the children loved those – but probably because the grown ups did all the hard work!

There was enough for the children to do and frankly, if the children are happy, then so are we! The children spent hours playing fooz-ball! But even if you don’t have children, it’s a very nice place to go for a cheapish weekend out of Dubai!

Camping in Oman

2009-03-31T11:38:00.001+04:00

This month, before it got really really hot, we tried something new. Something that I haven’t really wanted to try in the last 20-odd years. We went camping!

Camping is HUGE over here – the desert near Dubai and in neighbouring Oman has some beautiful places to camp and in the spirit of new experiences, it was something that we just HAD to do. Not only is it a good experience, it’s cheap and camping has moved on a lot since I last went. In the “old” days, I remember a separate groundsheet and many many bugs coming to visit me in the night – to be met with the end of a mallet! Not only that, in the UK always seemed to rain when I was under canvas, so everything got that wet, muddy smell!

So – our experience…… Tim and I went to Carrefour to buy all of our kit. We bought an 8-man tent (no separate groundsheet here), thick blow up mattresses, a portable barbecue and some lanterns – all for less than 500Dhs (£100).

We loaded up the car with all of our purchases, and a cool box stuffed full of goodies and off we went. We went with another family who had been before, so they could show us the ropes. We drove an hour towards Hatta and then turned off-road into Oman, where we drove for about another 45 minutes, eventually driving up a dried up Wadi (river bed) to our home for the night. It was a bone-shaker of a ride along rocks and stone and I’m glad The Beast (aka my car) got there in one piece!

We made our campsite home, complete with chairs, tables, a camp fire, duvets, pillows and teddy bears for the children. As you can see from the photographs below, we certainly made it feel like home! We had pretty much everything we needed at our disposal! Thank goodness for very large cars, in which to lug it all!

The scenery was gorgeous and we all took off for a few hikes in the mountains including some quite steep climbs. We all had such a great time – even me, and I’m not really a “hiking” person! Here are a load of photographs – they speak for themselves:

Night fell, and we lit the BBQ for our dinner and the camp fire. The kids had a great time with their torches trying to find “things”. I am not sure what they would have done had they found “things”, but they didn’t and they had fun, which is the main thing. The adults settled down with some wine and watched the sky, which was full to the brim with bright stars without any light pollution at all.

Quite simply – gorgeous.

I was happy – we were safely zipped into our tent, which was clear of anything with more than two legs. We pulled our duvets up around us – despite being about 35 degrees in the daytime, at night it was surprisingly cold. I don’t know how cold it got, but we were fully dressed under duvets and we were just about ok!

We woke with the sun, and all thoughts of cold vanished. The sun was fierce and it got hot again quickly. Mugs of tea, croissants (but no jam – shame on you Charlotte!) and juice put us all in a good mood before we had to start packing up all of our stuff and try and get it back into the car. It all fitted – just – including our bags of rubbish.

We left only our footprints, ready for another time . . .

You be the judge

2009-03-17T10:48:00.001+04:00

I rarely get involved in the politics of living here. Ultimately, our family has decided to live here and it is our duty to respect the country and its laws. I would expect nothing less from anyone moving to the UK.

There is a truly terrible story which is clearly in the British press right now and it relates to a British lady apparently having been adulterous . . . . she is now in prison and will be deported.

However, she has two children who will remain in Dubai with their Muslim father . . . as she will be deported, it is unlikely that she will see them. Unless of course, the father does the right thing for his children and encourages contact and visitation away from the UAE. I doubt she will care that she is in jail, but will be always thinking of her children.

I have put a link into one of the newspaper articles – you can find it here. Forget the words of The Sun, should you wish (it’s not my favourite paper either), but the photo will be etched in my mind for a very long time. Personally, having children of the same age, it practically ripped my heart out just to see the picture.

But you be the judge.

James Blunt at the Dubai Jazz Festival

2009-03-17T10:30:00.001+04:00

We have just been to our second jazz festival. Last year saw Courtney Pine and Robin Gibb perform (not together) and this year we went to see James Blunt.

The jazz festival is held in an amphitheatre in Dubai’s Media City, which is where Tim works. The lovely thing about this place is that it is right between a load of skyscrapers, surrounded by palm trees, so at night, it’s beautifully lit and you can really appreciate where you are. And, it’s a licensed event too – nothing like a glass or two of something whilst listening to the music on a balmy evening.

I stress that I went under relative duress. Tim is a fan, but I wasn’t that bothered. The tickets were quite expensive, but Tim has suffered by me dragging him along to enough things, that I thought I should be the darling wife and go with him.

I was wrong. James Blunt was fantastic and I realised that I knew far more of his music than I initially thought I did. It did get rather melancholy in the middle when he sang beautifully tracks like “Goodbye my Lover” and “Carry you home” – if you listen to the words, they are rather sombre, BUT it perked up afterwards and I didn’t feel quite so suicidal!!! He was great with the audience and at one point, jumped off the stage and into the crowd. I am sure that his management would have had a heart attack at that one, but Dubai audiences are rather gentle so he was safe!

For those fans out there, here is a link to some video that we found online of his Dubai performance.

Enjoy.

Rental Renewal – in hard times

2009-02-15T18:16:00.001+04:00

We’ve done our year – and a couple of weeks ago, our rental agreement was up for renewal. Given that we are (still) waiting for our house to be handed over to us, we have had to extend our rental on this place for just that little bit longer.

Tim went off to sort the contract with our landlord. Given that the whole world appears to be in financial turmoil – Dubai being absolutely no exception (house prices have tumbled because few banks are lending any money and surprisingly, rents have also decreased to their Q1, 2008 level), you would have thought that it would be relatively easy to renew our rent for 3 months. Oh no. Despite Sheikh Mohammed issuing a decree that there were to be no rent increases in 2009, our darling landlord demanded a 5% increase. He also wrote an amendment to the contract stating that when we move out on 30 April, we are contract bound to leave the “garden infrastructure”. In simple terms, we are to leave the patio, the garden sprinkler system, the water tank etc – all that we installed! What a cheeky man. In all honesty, we weren’t going to rip up the patio or take out the sprinkler system anyway, but that’s not the point. He is a greedy greedy little man, with no compassion. If we do need to extend our rental agreement, he has assured us that we will not be able to and that he will take us to the rent courts. Such a pleasure to deal with!

What I am secretly hoping is that rents will decrease again, so that he doesn’t get as much from his next tenants.

I will keep you updated with updates on our new house – when it is finished!

Black Points

2009-02-09T09:59:00.001+04:00

I have referred to the terrible driving in Dubai many times before. There are countless stupid drivers on the road – mostly from the Indian sub-continent who just weave in and out of traffic as if it were Mumbai . . . . Abu Dhabi drivers also leave a great deal to be desired and frankly, just drive too fast.

Regularly on the front covers of the newspapers out here are photographs of cars smashed out of all recognition with the title – Speed Kills. I quite agree.

In the UK, you get points for speeding or doing anything wrong on the roads – the same is true of Dubai. You are “allowed” 24 black points in a year before you lose your licence. Black points can be awarded for anything – from driving without licence plates (24 points) to opening the left door or a taxi (traffic side) which gets you 3 points.

You also get informed of any traffic violations via email or text. As Tim is the registered owner of our cars, he is the one who gets the notifications.

I was horrified the other day when Tim received a text and email to say that my car had been fined for parking with wheels up on the pavement. I had incurred a fine, but it was a “special” kind of fine because I had to present myself to the fines department and was not able to pay online. We were informed that if I did not “present” myself, when the car’s registration was due for renewal, my car would be confiscated for a month! (Yes, I swear this is true.)

I bumbled on down to the fines department with my heart hammering away to find out the detail of what I had “done”. My crime was to park my car with two wheels up on the pavement. My defence is that my car is so wide, I believed I was being considerate in letting cars still pass me. So very naive.

Not only did I have to pay a fine (£40), I received a 10Dhs fine (£2) called a Knowledge Fee, which I can only assume is that now know I must never be considerate to other drivers again. I, to my horror, received TWO BLACK POINTS!! Now, in theory, I have absolutely no problem with being punished for my crime – black points included – but I then referred back to the black points list. It appears that I could be driving up to 50km/h over the speed limit with bald tyres and not receive black points. In a country where the police admit that speeding is a major problem – this is utterly crazy and disproportionate.

So, I handed over my licence – and my money – and in return I was handed a sheet of paper to sign (one in Arabic and one in English) which basically stated that I was terribly sorry for my crime, I did know better, I respected the laws of Dubai and would not do it again . . . . . As I presented myself, my car will not be impounded upon re-registration.

Tim and I drove away from the fines building and got onto the motorway – only to be stunned to find a motorist, who had taken the wrong turning, reversing down the motorway as he had missed his turning (sadly, something you see quite a lot here). A police car happened to be behind me so I was quite interested to see what they would do – guess what – the police car just drove on by . . . . .

That’s Dubai.

Ski Dubai

2009-02-04T19:33:00.001+04:00

I thought this entry should be all about the cold, given that the UK is currently experiencing the worst snowfalls for about 20 years. Whether that is true or not, most of you guys are experiencing a harsh winter.

In solidarity, we decided to take a trip to Ski Dubai - a man made indoor ski-slope with real snow and its very own snow park where there are a few children’s snow rides and a great toboggan ride - and general snow activities. We arrived, and were handed our clothes for the session - long ski trousers, a heavy jacket and snuggly snow boots. The children got helmets too. On top of the shorts and t-shirts went all these layers, along with extra hats, gloves and scarves. It felt rather strange, but lovely and cosy.

Through the turnstile we went and re-discovered what -6 degrees felt like. Chilly chilly chilly.

The kids had a great time on the rides and in the snow, even though Ella thought snow was more for eating than for playing in! But, I have to confess that we only lasted in that cold for about 1.5 hours – by that time, our feet were freezing and it just wasn’t fun any more!

Maybe next time, the adults will go back on their own to do some real skiing!

The Dubai Mall Aquarium

2009-01-12T20:11:00.001+04:00

Last week, we visited one of the largest Malls in the world. As always, out here, it just has to be the biggest or break some sort of world record . . . shame though that half of the retail space is still empty. I can honestly say that I have never seen such a concentration of coffee shops in my entire life! It is huge though and you really do need a map to navigate your way around.

The children were moaning about going "shopping" - clearly the dullest thing to do in their world - Ella was stropping and refused to walk. I cajoled and ultimately started to drag her and when we rounded the corner, funnily enough she came to life!

She saw the Dubai Mall Aquarium! It is enormous and fantastic. The acrylic panel is about 38m wide and about 8m high. It's huge! Behind it are some 80 species or marine life including sharks, stingray, beautiful (and ugly) fish! Initially, the children were actually quite scared - some of the fish are quite big and I suppose for a small person, this could be quite threatening. But, given a bit of time, they started to inch closer to the glass and see what they could discover.

Here are some photographs of the children at the aquarium - which is free to view by the way - always a bonus! I have also tried to put together a couple of photographs which show just how large this aquarium is!

Interestingly enough, E had a nightmare that night – apparently a shark was trying to get through her bedroom window!! Who would have thought it would have brought on a bad dream!!

Happy Moon

2009-01-03T12:00:00.001+04:00

We thought we were being a bit stupid the other day when we looked at the moon and it looked totally different from the UK. Then we realised that we weren’t being stupid, but after 30-odd years of looking at a crescent moon from one angle, given the different latitude and longitude on which we now live, we saw it very differently.

Here is last night’s Dubai moon – a little happy smiling face in the sky!

New Year . . . Dubai Style

2009-01-03T11:31:00.001+04:00

We are notoriously rather quiet at New Year. Generally speaking, New Year’s Eve is a night where everyone is expected to go out and be happy – generally to a UK pub whilst the designated driver (usually me) drinks far too many diet cokes and has a sense of humour failure whilst listening to the drunkards slurring and repeatedly repeating themselves! Sometimes, I’m just not in the mood and fancy an early night, especially as the children will always wake up sometime between 6and 7am!

Now, before you think I’m such a misery, I don’t believe myself to be so, I just think that NYE is so often better for drinkers than non-drinkers! Last year however, we spent a lovely night with our UK friends, just before embarking on this adventure – and I wasn’t the designated driver!

So, how would Dubai compare? Well, fortunately, we have found some lovely people here in Dubai and we were invited to New Year at their villa. They live so wonderfully close to the Jumeirah Beach Hotel that we were planning to go their villa for a party and then go up to their roof to watch the inevitable fantastic fireworks display at midnight. A good plan!

However, it was not meant to be. On 31 December, the Sheikh decreed that Dubai would cancel the regular festivities out of respect for the Palestinians. Outdoor music was to be cancelled with definitely no fireworks. Whilst it is clearly applaudable to think of others in dire need, I was looking forward to Dubai fireworks, especially as we had slept through the Atlantis fireworks earlier in the year! But this year, it was just not meant to be and I don’t have any glorious photographs to post.

We continued as planned and had a lovely night with our friends. Incidentally, at around 10pm, a thick wet fog descended upon Dubai, where visibility was about 20m, so had the fireworks been allowed, no-one would have seen a thing anyway!!

I have decided (although we still have to work out the logistics – both financial and otherwise), that I have to travel to Sydney to see their new year firework display on the harbour – and I am posting a photograph of Sydney Harbour below! It’s on my “things to do before I die” list.

On that happy note, a Happy New Year to all.

What is it really like here . . . . Christmas?

2008-12-27T10:02:00.001+04:00

I had no idea what to expect - Christmas in an Islamic Country. It’s one thing coming on holiday here and having your Christmas on a beach in a five star hotel, but can Christmas be just like home here?

For the last 10 years or so, with the odd exception, we have had the traditional Christmas in the UK. Running around like crazy doing the final food shopping, church on Christmas morning, followed by hours in the kitchen preparing the Christmas meal and then taking about a half hour to eat it. We would then inevitably watch the Queen and settle down in front of a movie and fall asleep! Would this year be any different?

The UAE is a very tolerant country and enables us to celebrate Christmas freely. There are Christmas trees and decorations up in the malls (see picture), occasional festive songs on the radio, Christmas trees in the shops, and mince pies imported (albeit the ones without alcohol and working out at 60p each) from the UK! All of the hotels, without exception, offer a Christmas lunch/brunch menu, and you can even order a Christmas dinner (feeds 10 people for about £120) from the hotel which will be delivered directly to your door on the day itself. How’s that for service?!

So, what did we do?

I decided to do things a little differently this year. You may know that last year, Tim and I cooked for about 15 people for the final farewells before we left the UK. We spent hours in the kitchen preparing all manner of food and had a great, but very busy, day. We were kindly invited to party with friends, but we declined as we wanted the spend the day solely with the children.

So, after Tim got home from work on Christmas Eve, we tucked in to our roast dinner, with most of the trimmings, including home made pork, sage and onion stuffing, which you just can’t buy ready-made over here! We had a lovely meal and then got into the mood by putting all of our presents under the Christmas Tree.

We watched Santa working his way around the world on the NASA website (fabulous website where by satellite imagery, you can see exactly what part of the world Father Christmas and his reindeer are delivering presents at that precise moment – see picture). After putting out the mince pie and reindeer food for the greedy man, we all went to bed, in preparation for the big day!

After a false start at 2am, when Oliver decided it was time to get up, but the children didn’t do too badly and made it until 6.30am before piling in on top of us! We did a bit of present opening before breakfast and valiantly tried to save some presents for the afternoon.

I had made the brave/stupid decision that I wasn’t going to cook on Christmas Day, so we had strawberries and croissants for breakfast and then for lunch, we got in the car and drove to the Marina for lunch, where there are piles of restaurants. The weather was in the mid-20s under blue skies, so it was beautiful to sit outside. We had our pick of eateries – most were 80% empty, so we had a relaxed lunch sitting out in the sunshine next to the boats and we all ate a slap up lunch for about £37. Admittedly not turkey, but we’d had that the night before. Perfect! The children had a run around and it was then back for more presents!

The afternoon continued as it does all over the world – the Queen is available to view on You Tube from 3pm on Christmas Day (for us foreigners), so tradition can continue. Then, the over indulged parents had a traditional snooze on the sofa, while the children watch a Disney movie. We phoned the family back in Blighty and had fun talking to people. Supper was a few baked sausage rolls (oh no, I COOKED!) and some Boursin on crusty bread. Perfect!

Whilst we clearly missed our family and friends, we had a lovely time. It was incredibly liberating not having to spend hours in the kitchen – for once, it was MY Christmas day too and I could join in with everyone! I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone!

It felt just like being on holiday!!!

Nad-Al-Sheba Horse Racing

2008-12-21T14:43:00.001+04:00

At the beginning of November the horse racing calendar starts in Dubai, with racing every Thursday evening and on other special occasions (such as Boxing Day and New Year's Day). The season culminates with the Dubai World Cup in March (which is the world's richest horse race with an estimated $6m purse).

Many of you will probably know this, but gambling is illegal here in the UAE, which does make the atmosphere at the horse racing a little flat . . . but interestingly enough, you can still make "guesses"!

On arrival at the racing club, you pass next to a desk, where you are handed a booklet with information on the night's racing - horses, owners, jockeys, previous form etc, and you are also handed a free "guessing" form, where you place your guesses for which horse will come first, second and third in each race that night. You fill in the form and then hand it in, prior to the first race starting.

Of course, this is a little bit of fun in a non-gambling country, but for some it is BIG business. The racing is free to enter and therefore hundreds of the poorer people come along, both for a social gathering, something to watch, and the chance to "guess" correctly. For the lucky people who guess best, there is a pot of 15,000 Dirhams (£2,800) to be won. For them, where the average monthly income is around 1500 Dirhams, if they win, they do get a chance to win a year's salary, which is amazing!

With the exception of watching the horses, there is little else to do at ground level, but the grandstand is full of paying hospitality bars and restaurants for those who wish to partake in some drinking (yes, alcohol) and fine dining.

We paid about £15 entry fee to get us into the Gainsborough lounge, which is set in the grandstand. There, you can freely buy booze and snack food, in addition to getting into another "guessing game" for prizes.

It was a great night - and I did very well with my "guessing" - which in my case it truly was! I came in 7th place, with our friend John coming 5th. Those who came first, second and third received a prize of about £1000, which would have been very nice indeed! Sadly, it was not to be, but we had good fun!

This last Thursday night, we decided to return with the children as they had been badgering us to take them. We had had a shamal that week and the temperatures had dropped. It was freezing and we were all wearing fleeces and wearing scarves. But the children had good fun, cheering on the horses and guessing which ones were going to win!

Dubai Rugby 7s

2008-12-03T11:28:00.000+04:00

We tried something new last weekend - taking the children to a "family day" at the Dubai Rugby 7s . . . . . we have both been to rugby matches in the past but had no idea how the children would fare - given that their attention spans regularly leave a lot to be desired!

We went with another family who have three children and settled ourselves in the family stand. The "family stand" was part of the grandstand, which fortunately was in the shade for most of the day (a nice touch), where only families with children were allowed. No alcohol was allowed in this section - there was a nice fun atmosphere too. (Strangely enough, there was alcohol being sold everywhere and most of the hardened rugby followers were drinking heavily. Normally you can only buy alcohol where it is attached to an international hotel with a liquor license, but this event took place in a stadium a half hour into the desert, so I have no idea how alcohol was allowed . . . odd.)

I had gone prepared - colouring books for the children and Nintendo DS's on standby. What I hadn't realised was that there was lots of fabulous music and dancing in between the matches. Everyone was having a great time, including our little girl, who turned into a bit of a rocker, dancing the day away.

We were supporting Wales - or England, depending on who was playing. Our friends were a mixture of Australian and Irish. I don't think the children really knew who they were supporting after a while! It was great fun though.

We got there before lunch and left after a cracking match between New Zealand and Australia at 7pm. Totally exhausted!

From an adult perspective, every time I have watched rugby in the UK, I have been wrapped up to the nines in coats, hats and scarves. How great it was to be sitting on the sidelines in a t-shirt!

The kids are now asking whether they can now go to the World Rugby 7s, which Dubai is hosting in March.

Fantastic!

I should be so lucky . .

2008-11-23T18:39:00.001+04:00

The Dubai Winter Season is upon us and that brings with it plenty of outdoor entertainment as the weather is truly lovely (sorry everyone out there where it's raining or snowing).

The Atlantis resort on The Palm had its formal opening last Friday which hit the worldwide press. I’m sure you will have seen the amazing firework show which lit up Dubai . . . . if not, you can view it here:

http://www.atlantisthepalm.com/grandopening.aspx

Did we see it. No. Dubai and it's beaches were pretty much on lockdown from 4pm that afternoon. Some lucky folks viewed it from the high floors of neighbouring hotels! Residents of The Palm were told that they were not allowed to use their private beaches and that they were not allowed out between 4pm and 2am. All down to security we believe – and the huge amount of pyrotechnics that would have been everywhere! Needless to say, I had an early night and was asleep by 10pm. But what a shame. It was incredible to see, albeit on a video clip!

However, Friday night we went to see Kylie Minogue onstage here . . . . it was great! It was a very civilised affair with only about 20,000 in attendance. Well behaved, despite there being free flowing alcohol. Despite it being an Islamic country, the “venue” was next door to one of the big hotels, so it managed to get a liquor license through the hotel . . . . . strange!

There were those of us who were quite old – and by that, I mean those of us who remember her from her Neighbours days, and there were also those young ones present who know her current music. It was very funny when she played an “old” song and all us oldies were jumping and clapping whilst the “young” ones looked on in amazement! I felt my age many-a-time!!!

We got quite close to the stage and had a laugh.

Next up I think is George Michael who plays in a couple of weeks in Abu Dhabi and Sting a week after that. But before that, we have the Dubai Rugby 7s which is this weekend. We are taking the children for “family day” – not entirely sure what that is, but we are assured they will enjoy it. Let’s hope so – I can’t imagine my two wanting to sit still enough to watch a whole day of rugby!!! We will keep you posted!

It's Party Time . . .

2008-11-11T18:42:00.001+04:00

We’ve been threatening it for ages . . .

We moved into our house in February and said “we must have a party” – time marched on and we didn’t. Then we thought about it again and the weather was just too hot. We have finally – just 10 months after moving into our house – thrown a housewarming party (combined with our birthday party). About time!

We had an amazing time, although it is really hard hosting a party for a lot of people! We invited a fair few people – our friends from schools, friends from work, friends from all over really – everyone is very social here . . . . How lovely that we had a headcount of about 60-70 (including children) turn up last Friday.

We had decided to do something a little bit special. We hired a “Shawarma Man” to do the catering. Shawarma is a Middle Eastern style sandwich typically filled with chicken.

The classic shawarma combination is arabic bread (a thinner type of pitta bread), filled with tomato, pickles, cucumber, chicken.

Shawarma is simple fare, but when prepared well, is gloriously mouth-watering – this was no exception, although I was too busy talking to people that I only had one! I have to thank my fellow blogger, The Englishman in Dubai for the introduction to his shawarma man.

We hired a magician and a bouncy castle for the children – to keep them amused while the grown-ups knocked back a few, and knocked back a few we did. The stragglers left at about midnight and that's when we resumed our roles as parents and put the children to bed!

Next year is a "big number birthday" - that's all I'm saying . . . . . what will we do then . . . ??

Appropriate or Inappropriate?

2008-11-09T20:07:00.001+04:00

Anyone who is living in Dubai - or perhaps a Daily Mail reader - will have seen this photograph before.

My reason for posting the picture on my blog is simple . . . . I LOVE IT!!! This photo has been used whenever a disparaging article is written about foreigners (probably the British) not respecting the local traditions and culture.

This picture was apparently taken at the Dubai World Cup last year and clearly shows a "westerner" in rather skimpy clothing next to a more suitably dressed (for the region) Arabic lady.

My question is . . . . do you really think that the lady in black is thinking "what a terrible outfit - how dare she wear something like this in my country" . . . . . or is she thinking "what lovely hair and a very pretty dress"???

Meanwhile, her husband is most probably thinking, "look at the legs on that!"

Quad Biking

2008-11-09T19:53:00.001+04:00

We have recently had another family from the UK out to join us for a week's holiday and what a blast we had . . . .

Apart from being absolutely exhausted from all of the activities we did with them, the boys decided to go quad biking. We went to one of the quad biking places at Big Red, only to find that there was a bit of ruckus going on between some customers and the owners. Something about the bike being damaged and the owners demanding payment . . . we are not sure, but there was another place across the road, which was not drawing a crowd, so we went there instead!

Apparently, the helmets were not really up to much and the lads felt that one bang on the helmet would make it fall apart, but the boys weren't up for going really mad, so they went with it!

(I sadly was stuck in the car with the exhausted children, so I didn't get to go on the bikes.)

Apparently there were some ladies on the quad bikes with their abaya's on. That I would love to have seen. Brilliant!

It was approaching sunset and they had a fantastic time - they came back though looking rather windswept and sandy. Perhaps not a great activities for some of the "oldies" to do when they are out here, but for those adventurous enough to try, a great end to a great day!

It's my turn next time . . . !

Telephone Culture

2008-11-09T17:21:00.001+04:00

There are many of you out there who will laugh at me when you read this admission . . . .

When I lived in the UK, I pretty much refused to use my mobile phone – I did carry one for emergencies, but for the most part, my attitude was “if people want to get hold of me, they can leave a message on my machine at home”.

I didn’t know what my number was and I turned the thing on, maybe once a week – if I remembered! It wasn’t that I was a techno-phobe, I just couldn’t be bothered with it all . . . some people did get a bit cross with me.

However, the culture here is very different. No-one really phones anyone at home – I’m not even sure that everyone has a land line! Dubai’s social scene seems to exist on phoning/texting people’s mobiles. Heaven help me if I lost my contacts list – every number I need for my life is stored in it!! I now send hundreds of texts every month and my phone is rarely far from sight. Similarly, my family and friends from the UK do send me loads of e-mails and I spend a huge amount of time on the computer. I rarely surf the net these days as I don’t have time – I simply send and receive a good amount of mail from those far away – which I love sending and receiving (keep them coming)! I was completely gutted when my mail server went down, somewhere on the other side of the world, for the best part of a week, which meant couldn’t get any of my mails. . . . my world nearly stopped turning. How very sad.

For my birthday – Tim bought me a BlackBerry. An all-singing, all dancing machine (a smart-phone I think it is called) which is not only my phone but offers me permanent access to my e-mail. It is wonderful! It now pings when I get an e-mail, bleeps when I get a text message and rings when I get a phone call. I can even have MSN Messenger conversations on it – that is, if I learn to type fast enough on the little QWERTY keyboard! All my contacts are now synchronized with my e-mail! Even better, it is programmed to turn off at 10pm and to switch on again at 6am Dubai time (a girl always needs her 8 hours).

How things have changed – in a good way? Or I am I just a sad, desperate person who can’t bear to be on her own and out of contact with people?

The answer – my family and friends rock my world and given that I am so far from so many of them, it makes the world feel that little bit smaller!

Cash on Wheels

2008-10-22T21:05:00.001+04:00

I couldn't believe my eyes the other day. What did I see?

A lorry, with it's back rolled up and inside - two fully operational ATM's in the back. There's even a chair to sit on if you're feeling a bit tired and need a rest. No major security - just a couple of regular guys in the front!

It turns out that they move these ATM's in their lorry to various large events around Dubai - so that everyone as full access to their cash. Brilliant!

I wonder how long they would last in the UK . . . . or would someone just drive it away!!!

Oh, I do like to be beside the seaside . . .

2008-10-22T20:57:00.001+04:00

It's October and it's cooling down . . . . still hot though - just about hot enough to still use hot water from the outside pipes, but the mercury is no longer in the 40's. It's still a little uncomfortable to be in direct sunlight for too long in the daytime, but we decided to brave it with some friends of ours and hit the beach!

I do like the beach, but sometimes traipsing down to the shore with all my paraphernalia can be a bit irritating . . . and as you can see from the photo's - there's a lot of stuff!

However, we have found a piece of land in between the summer palaces in Jumeirah that has not yet been built on, and we can drive straight onto the sand - put the car in 4x4 mode to drive across the 100 metres or so of beach - and open the car right next to the shore! We did forget that the tide was coming in though, so we had to keep moving the car!!!

The best bit about it? It's OCTOBER!!!!!

And this is one of the reasons we moved to Dubai!

What a job!

2008-10-06T16:56:00.001+04:00

We have just had a batch (3) of public holidays here in Dubai to celebrate Eid al Fitr, which is the official end of Ramadan (hooray)! And it's all to do with when the new moon is spotted.

According to the Dubai Astronomy Group, “The Islamic month is tied to the moon. This way, God made it easy for humanity. No calendar, no counting days, just follow the moon."

There are a group of people called the UAE Moon Sighting Committee and the committee meets if there is the slightest chance of a sighting because, by tradition, when the new moon can be seen by the naked eye, a new month has begun.

This time, they were looking for the Shawwal moon - which is the 10th month of the Islamic calendar. Once the moon is spotted, the committee members extend congratulations to the country's rulers, the people of the UAE and Muslims around the world.

The down-side this year (and I honestly don't know if it's the same every year) but Eid al Fitr was announced really late in the evening, and we were quite lucky to know about it - we just stumbled upon it on the internet. I have many friends who still got up, got dressed and drove to work - only to find that the office was shut for a few days.

I appreciate that moon sighting is steeped in tradition, but I do think that being part of the Moon Sighting Committee is a cracking job to have!

Iftar Supper

2008-10-06T16:36:00.001+04:00

I mentioned in my "Ramadan" posting, that we were going to attend an Iftar. An Iftar is the evening meal for breaking the daily fast during the Islamic month of Ramadan. Each day it is at a different time, depending on the time of the sun setting (Maghrib). The Maghrib time is announced on the radio each day.

It turns out that an Iftar can be anywhere - there are traditional tents which pop up at the city's large hotels, but one of Tim's Arabic colleagues celebrated Iftar at TGI Fridays. Even KFC have a special Iftar supper for under GBP3.

We went to two - one was arranged by Tim's work - for all of their employees, Arabic or otherwise. We all sat on low sofas and celebrated with traditional juices and then moved on to a spectacular arabic buffet.

For those of you not too familiar with Arabic food, traditional foods on the buffet are mixed grills, kebabs, sharwarma (chicken in wrap), along with houmous, arabic (flat) bread, halloumi (sort of like goat's cheese) etc. Very nice indeed.

It is common out here for a great deal of Shisha smoking (a glass water pipe with flavoured tobacco) in the evening and at Iftar, everyone appears to be smoking the shisha pipe.

Despite the fact that the regular smoking of cigarettes is banned in restaurants and malls, the shisha is still allowed! You can see the smoke in the air!

Overall, we had a great time in the Iftar tents, but I'm quite looking forward to regular tables and chairs again.

Earthquake!

2008-09-23T16:52:00.001+04:00

As many of you will know, I am freaked out by the thought of either an earthquake, a volcano, a tsunami . . . .

Whilst I am pleased to say that this does not affect me on a day to day basis, what I can guarantee you is this is the reason why I would never move to the western USA for example. When Tim went to Seattle with work, I admit that I am enough of a muppet to check whether Seattle is in danger from the San Andreas fault and resulting tsunamis . . . !

(I can't quite believe that I am airing my neuroses in public, but don't hold it against me!)

According to Wikipedia - Dubai is in a very stable zone — the nearest seismic fault line, the Zargos Fault, is 120 km from the UAE and is unlikely to have any seismic impact on Dubai.Experts also predict that the possibility of a tsunami in the region is also minimal because the Persian Gulf waters are not deep enough to trigger a tsunami.

If this is the case, then why was there an earthquake here earlier this month? Not huge perhaps, but enough for the tall buildings to be evacuated!!!! The epicentre was in Iran and reached 6.1 on the Richter scale.

I didn't feel a thing . . !!! I was in a children's play centre at the time - but Tim felt it at his desk. His building is only 3 stories tall, so I don't believe they bothered to get out!

However, given that the world's tallest building is currently being built in Dubai, it begs the question - will it be safe?

Guess what? . . . . . . I did some research!!

Here are some facts about Burj Dubai - soon to be the tallest tower in the world:

1 - it is built from heavy duty concrete, which (apparently) should not cause it to collapse (like the twin towers which were steel framed)

2 - Safety features include reinforced 'refuge rooms' on every 25 floors, complete with independent air supplies, plus extra staircases and luminous paint on all escape routes.

3 - The supporting pillars have been designed with a 'long-wave' effect to absorb any earthquake activity along the Iran/Iraq fault-line (see above).

4 - The foundations drop 150ft (46m) below ground and the three-pronged 'footprint' of the building replicates the design of a desert flower.

The exact height has not yet been revealed but it has been confirmed that there will be an observation deck on 124th floor . . . . . . . . will I get up there? Not a chance!

Ramadan

2008-09-15T18:45:00.001+04:00

We have returned from the UK to Dubai and now find ourselves in the middle of Ramadan. So, here's the educational bit (after which you will find out what it's really like for us western expatriates):

The Educational Bit: "Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic Lunar calendar and the holiest of the four holy months. It begins with the sighting of the new moon after which all physically mature and healthy Muslims are obliged to abstain from all food, drink, gum chewing, any kind of tobacco use, and any kind of sexual contact between dawn and sunset. However, that is merely the physical component of the fast; the spiritual aspects of the fast include refraining from gossiping, lying, slandering and all traits of bad character. All obscene and irreligious sights and sounds are to be avoided. Purity of thought and action is paramount. Ordained in the Quran, the fast is an exacting act of deeply personal worship in which Muslims seek a raised level of God-consciousness. The act of fasting redirects the hearts away from worldly activities, towards The Divine.

The month of Ramadan is a time for spiritual reflection, prayer, doing good deeds and spending time with family and friends. The fasting is intended to help teach Muslims self-discipline, self-restraint and generosity. It also reminds them of the suffering of the poor, who may rarely get to eat well. It is common to have one meal (known as the Suhoor), just before sunrise and another (known as the Iftar), directly after sunset. This meal will commonly consist of dates, following the example of the Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon Him. Because Ramadan is a time to spend with friends and family, the fast will often be broken by different Muslim families coming together to share in an evening meal."

So, what's it really like . . . . rather weird actually. Normally, I leave the house in the morning, drop the children off, potter around a little bit, doing jobs, meeting people and the like, before picking up the children, having play-dates and then going home for dinner time. Within that schedule, I will always have at least one bottle of water in my handbag and probably some fruit or a sandwich - not only is it scorching outside still (40 degrees+) but the air conditioning is very drying so I feel as though I am always drinking . . . . but no, not now. Out of respect for the country that I am delighted to be in, I have to go through my day WITHOUT the bottle of water in my handbag - all coffee shops are closed, McDonalds and other fast food chains are shut until sunset. If I want to drink or eat ANYTHING, I need to bring any food and drink with me from home and then I need to find somewhere to eat or drink in complete and utter secrecy. I know people who have had something to eat in the bathroom - the other day I had to have a drink practically lying on the floor in the car so that I wouldn't be seen. I have a friend who was opening a juice box in the car for her child and had a sneaky sip from the straw - unfortunately she was spied and received some rather nasty hand gestures.

Tim isn't having too much of a bad time at work. He is allowed to eat and drink in the pantry in his office, but that's it. He is also supposed to have a shorter day. Government and UAE offices have different working hours in Ramadan - usually 9-3pm or something similar. Despite this though, I haven't really seen Tim that much earlier home than usual. Shame really. The children get a shorter day at school - 2 hours less than usual, but they are largely unaffected by Ramadan - they can eat and drink as usual.

At about 6pm, it is then mad-panic for people to go to their final prayers before Iftar. Then, most people go to restaurants or other people's houses, eat and party the night away, before it all starts again the next day.

We are going to an Iftar on Thursday night - I will make sure that I take some pictures and post them so that you can see what it is like!

The traffic on the roads though is something to be seen. I don't know whether there are more people on the roads at the time that I am, but the traffic congestion is unbelievable in Ramadan. A journey that was supposed to take me 25 minutes yesterday took me 80 . . . . during that time, I was nearly taken out a few times, but primarily by Arabic women . . . . . . Today, admittedly via the supermarket for milk and the petrol station, my journey home took me 2 hours and 30 minutes! Fortunately, I have a DVD player and screens in my car - thank goodness I do or my journey would be even worse with the children screeching in the back!

It's the traffic congestion, if it continues like this, that will bring me home . . .

Overnight Flights - I'm getting too old . . !

2008-09-01T21:40:00.001+04:00

We are now back in Dubai after an horrendous night flight home. I was travelling on my own with the children as hubby had come back the previous week. The children, for a change, were fantastic - thanks courtesy to their Nintendo DS and the in-flight entertainment system.

However, I do have to publicly criticise Virgin Atlantic and their approach to an overnight flight. Imagine if you will:

a 6.5 hour flight departing at 9pm and arriving local time at 6.30am;
we take off on time and the pre-dinner drinks service starts at 10pm (1am local time);
evening meal follows at around 10.30pm (1.30am)
trays are cleared away at approximately midnight (3am) and we have "clearance" to recline our seats;
lights go down for sleep;
2 hours later (5am local time), the lights come back on again for breakfast; and
1.5 hours later, we land.

I have to ask - what is the point? Who wants a full meal that late at night, followed by breakfast 2 hours later . . .?? I have respect for the cabin crew and honestly, it could be the easiest shift in history if they just give passengers what is sensible - in my eyes, it is the following:

a good quality packet of sandwiches and mug of hot chocolate (or nightcap) once in the air;
lights down for sleep pretty much straight-away (after all, there are individual lights if someone wants to read)
a banana and box of orange juice as we prepare to land.

Wouldn't that be better for everyone - both passengers and crew? In fairness to Virgin, Emirates are no different - oh, except that they tried to feed the children curry!)

My children didn't sleep much - perhaps that was because their dinner consisted of (good quality) chicken nuggets, mashed potatoes and vegetables (good) a bottle of sugary "Fruit Shoot" and a massive gingerbread man (Virgin - have a brain - children - sugar - night flight . . !). E finally went to sleep as the wheels went down for landing, leaving me to carry a child, handbag, hand luggage and duty free off the plane, whilst also guiding a very sleepy 5 year old.

I have come to the conclusion that, like nightclubbing, I am far too old for overnight flights.

Great British Traditions

2008-08-31T15:35:00.001+04:00

Yes, we have had rubbish weather in England, but I'm going to gloss over that and talk about great British traditions - most of which I think we experienced this holiday.

Fish and Chips, eaten out of the paper, at the seaside.

Pick your own fruit
We all had such a good time picking strawberries at the farm. We tried not to eat too many!

Tramping around a muddy Farm
We held rats, bunnies and fed goats and sheep. It just has to be done - the kids enjoy it!

Pub Lunch
We had a few of these! You can't beat ploughmans and a pint!

A Picnic (rain optional)
Ours was in the rain - but it was great nevertheless - probably had something to do with the great company we had!

The Beach
This time it was Eastbourne beach, on a fairly good day.

A day at a Castle
Ours was Windsor Castle - with the folks!

We also had a great time meeting up with all of our old friends and family - am not sure if there was anyone we didn't catch up with at least once. Thanks for everyone's hospitality!!!

Back to Blighty

2008-08-06T20:42:00.001+04:00

After 7 months of what sometimes feels like a bit of a holiday, we have returned to the UK for a month to visit friends and family, and also to escape the Dubai heat for a little while during the school holidays.

I have had mixed feelings on coming "home" - where indeed is home?

Having now been back for a few days, I am now referring to Dubai as home! Yet the familiarity of the UK is very warming and relaxing - Dubai seems another world away.

Heathrow airport, as always, is miserable. We hired a car, so once we had completed the formalities at the car-desk, we then had to wait 15 minutes for a bus to drive us for another 25 minutes to their compound. What a palaver - especially with two tired children and heavy suitcases. Once on-the-road though, it was pleasant to be amongst far more civilised driving, rather than the unreliable hair-raising drivers in Dubai.

The day we landed, it was glorious sunshine and England looked beautiful - even driving along the M4. It was green and lush and the sunshine was streaming through the windscreen. Quite lovely. However, since that first day, it has mostly rained.

One thing that is making me cross - given how unreliable the British weather is, why oh why are there so few things for little children to do indoors? When staying with friends last weekend, we were getting desperate - the children needed to run and let off some steam. We could have gone to one of the indoor playgrounds, but none of us could face the grubbiness of the place and also the fact that it would be heaving. We thought about bowling, but it was fully booked and the cinema just wasn't the right place for the kids. In the end, we took our chances and went to a local farm. It was throwing it down, but we stuck it out and eventually had a relatively dry day . . . lucky! Why can't there be more things indoors to do . . . ???

Come on England, let's try and make more things for families to do when it's rubbish outside!

Swimming

2008-07-26T19:37:00.001+04:00

The children are doing very well with their swimming. It's fair to say that they were both non-swimmers when we came out here, but after 6 months of swimming a few times a week in our pool, they are now quite proficient.

They have very little technique, apart from what comes naturally, but they have the confidence to now dive in and out of the pool - and with a snorkel, they can both swim under water for a length.

Here's them saying hello!

Fun City, Dubai

2008-07-21T14:33:00.001+04:00

Last week, Tim had a well-earned day off, so we decided to take the children to Fun City. We had heard that it was worth going to, yet we couldn't really find any details on what it actually was! Internet sites here in Dubai are not that great - even for common attractions. So, off we set on a very hot dusty day for Airport Expo (the exhibition centre where it was being held in the summer season).

We paid about £2.50 to get in, which was a good start - and we walked through the doors. All I can say is . . . . . . "what do you go for a fairground in Dubai when it's too hot to be outside" . . . . simple answer . . . . you build one indoors! And that, in a nutshell is Fun City. It is themed around an Arabic character called Modhesh - who is the Dubai Summer mascot. Our children think he's great!

We spent time on the fairground attractions, along with indoor playgrounds, Playstations, bumper-cars - then having lunch at the international food-court.

All in all it was a most enjoyable day - the children loved it and for those parents out there, you will know that if the kids are happy, generally the adults are happy!

A great day out.

Big People

2008-07-21T14:15:00.001+04:00

It has emerged in the last week, that my daughter has a pathological fear of big people. No, I don’t mean overweight or those who are particularly tall – I mean the people who dress up in outfits – life-size cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse or Spongebob Squarepants!

Last week when we were at the exhibition centre, three such characters appeared – Dora the Explorer, Spongebob Squarepants and some jellyfish that I’m not familiar with. Oliver was terribly excited and shook their hands and tentacles, but when I looked around for Ella, she had vanished. We looked everywhere that we could think of and I was starting to panic. Dubai is pretty safe when it comes to child safety and there are relatively few weird people here, but nonetheless, it only takes one person . . . . .

About five minutes later, when the panic was clearly in my throat, I heard this distraught screaming and crying – my daughter was being carried towards me by a lady – the closer Ella got to me, the more she screamed and tried to get away. It must have looked pretty strange to the lady trying to return her to her mother. I grabbed Ella who was practically hysterical by this point – “get me out of here”, “get me out of here” she kept screaming, tears streaming down her face with a look of blind panic on her face. She tried to run to the outside door.

It was then that we realized what the problem was – behind me was a full-size grown up version of Spongebob who was getting closer and closer to Ella. She was utterly terrified.

We moved as far away as we could and sat her down on the floor trying to calm her down – she eventually stopped trembling, but her eyes were constantly scanning the exhibition centre searching for these characters. The strange thing is that she really wants to see these people and talks about them non-stop . . . that is, until the moment they appear and then she runs away, as fast as her little legs will carry her.

I know where this all started and I really thought that now she is 4, the problem would have gone away. When Ella was 2, we visited Disneyland – we were sitting in a restaurant and Ella had her back to the inner part of the room. Without warning, a lifesize Baloo (of Jungle Book fame) came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She literally jumped out of the chair and you could physically see the panic in her eyes. For the remainder of the Disneyland experience, she stayed as far away as she could possibly be from any of the large characters, although after about 3 days she started to tentatively wave to them – albeit from a safe distance of about 10 metres. Even in this photo of us with Goofy, she wouldn't open her eyes and remained rigid in Tim's arms

She is adamant that she still wants to go to Disneyland next year – despite us telling her that there will be lots of big characters there . . . now that she is bigger, she can run faster and further away. We have tried to explain that she mustn’t run away or she will be lost, but when the faced with her fears, any rational ability she may have, will understandably desert her and she will just run.

Whoever thought that a trip to Disneyland would scar a child for life!

Friday Brunch

2008-07-18T10:07:00.001+04:00

Friday in Dubai is the rest of the western world's Sunday. So Sunday lunch is transferred in Dubai to Friday brunch and it is big business out here.

In the international press, you will probably have read about a foolish young lady drinking far too much champagne at one of these affairs and getting into some serious trouble with the Dubai Police. But for the rest of us, we do manage to get up and stagger home without incident.

Dubai brunches range in price and nearly all of them take place at one of the large international hotels in the city and along the coast. I don't know exactly how much the most expensive one is, but we were invited to one at Al Qasr (a hotel on Jumeirah Beach) and it was a staggering 385 Dirhams per person (US$104) - albeit including alcohol. Children are charged at half price - even my four year old - but in my view, chicken nuggets, a few chips and a scoop of ice-cream isn't worth $52 (£26) and there's only so much booze you can drink when you have to look after young children without being interviewed by social services. Our family would have paid £158 for the privilege of eating there. We declined the invitation.

However, we have stumbled on a real beauty and that is the brunch at Le Meridien Mina Seyahi - right on Jumeirah Beach. For £20, you can sit in their delightful restaurant overlooking the beach, palm trees and the sea. You then move from food station to food station - everything from breads, sushi, salad, smoked and poached salmon, roast meats, curry, pasta and even more before finally committing to the chocolate fountain, miniature desserts, ice cream, fresh fruit and finally a cheese-board. What makes it even better is that food for the under 6's is free. The cherry on top is that once the children have finished their lunch, they can be booked into the children's club and be looked after and play while the adults are still munching (and drinking).

Perfect!

So perfect in fact, that we have a booking for 16 people next month - our brunch will probably take 4-5 hours out of Friday's crazy schedule of eating and swimming. It's such a social thing to do - even with the children!

Having said all that, when we return to the UK for our holidays in August, we have requested meals out in the great British institution - the pub! Ploughman's and a pint please!

It's getting hot out here . . .

2008-07-14T17:09:00.001+04:00

Today, temperatures his 46 degrees C and my sunglasses steamed up the moment I stepped outside the house or out of the car. It's the first day this summer 2008 in Dubai where the temps have hit this number.

They will probably start to climb even higher as we approach August, but in Dubai, the temperature never hits 50 degrees. The reason - because that's when all the hotel and construction workers have to down tools and stop working.

To give you an idea of what 46 degrees is, the following ideas simulate the current climate:

1 - turn on your hairdryer and stand in the blast; or

2 - turn on the hand-dryer in your local public conveniences;

3 - open the oven door.

Fortunately, we have working air-conditioning in the house and car, but spare a thought for my friend today who had her hair cut and blow dried in a salon . . . where the air con wasn't working.

That's just not funny.

I'm off to jump in the pool . . . the only way to survive!

We've bought a house . . . !

2008-07-11T09:25:00.001+04:00

It has taken us months. Months of worry and months sitting in the front of the computer looking at numbers, but we have finally done it. We are back on the property ladder . . . !

When we arrived, we became acutely aware of rising prices in Dubai. Not only on the rental market, but also in the buying of properties too. Houses that we looked at six months before had shot up nearly £100,000, leaving us well and truly behind. Doing a search on real estate agencies web-sites were relatively useless, as by the time we called them about a property, it had already been sold.

We hit the phone - maybe this would be easier. Not really. We were met with "what's your budget?" we replied. "Mmm", they said, "I don't think we can help you". Crazy stuff, when an agent tells you that you are unable to buy anything with your budget - and we thought our budget was quite good . . . . but not by Dubai standards.

We soldiered on, and we happened to stumble upon a new development just around the corner from us in Dubai Sports City. There we found a town-house for within our budget (just). Out here, there is an incredible shortage of villas, driving the price up even more. Dubai is expanding both in terms of residents and building. You will all know that it is probably the building capital of the world.

Therefore, the majority of houses are sold off-plan. Basically, the developer has found the plot of land, put together a master plan and then sells the houses. They are usually sold out within days of release. This particular house has been bought and sold twice - we are the third owners (the previous two owners have each sold at an amazing profit), and I don't believe many bricks have even been laid. The original price of our house 2 years ago when the plans were released was under £100,000.

The buying system out here is terrible. In order to secure a house (built or un-built) you have to immediately part with 10% deposit. You are then given a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) which enables you to approach a bank for a mortgage. Each house is mortgaged by a particular bank . . . . in the UK you find your house and then can apply to any bank for a mortgage on that property. Here, you are told which bank to go to. We were told where to go (bank-wise) and duly put in the application forms. It was approved and we signed all of the mortgage paperwork. We just had to take a photograph of all of the paperwork as I don't think I've ever seen so much paperwork for one transaction. In the land of no direct-debts, Tim has had to write out cheques for three years worth of mortgage payments, as well as a six-month payment cheque, a twelve month payment cheque and also a cheque for the full amount. Another 3 cheques for 3 years insurance payments and a forward payment cheque - which is the amount we are paying to the bank until the house is built.

Ouch.

In the UK you are not allowed to complete on a property which is not built and ready. Something unusual over here is that you have to pay for the house to be built. We have paid about 90% for the house right now and will pay the final 10% when it is built and handed over to us, which should be sometime within the next six months . . . or not.

We were then given a date by the real-estate agent for completion (2 months away).

The two months came, with us getting more and more twitchy by the day. We were getting worried because we could see prices spiralling upwards around us and a deal is not done until all of the paperwork is signed. We were eventually given a time to all pitch up at the developer's office. Off we went, and a rather old-fashioned transaction took place. Sat around the table was the seller, the buyers (us), the realtor, the representative from the bank and the representative from the builder. We all signed our documents in turn and that constituted "completion".

The real-estate agent then turned around to us and said that - if we wanted to - she could sell the house for us again at a higher price. In three months (from start to finish) our house has increased by nearly £45,000 in value . . . . . we declined! The house should theoretically increase in value a lot when it is ready for occupation. We will decide what to do then.

Here is a builder's picture of our house when it is built. It isn't big, in fact it is quite small by Dubai standards (2,250 sq ft), but the most important thing is that it's ours!

Hot tap, cold tap . . . . which tap?

2008-07-01T15:10:00.001+04:00

I can tell that the weather is hotting up here without even going out of the house . . . . and that is by having a shower!

In the house, we have water tanks above each bathroom which are heated by a kind of immersion heater. Tim gets a bit freaked out at the cost of running 5 full tanks (one for each bathroom and one for the kitchen) but it's just the way things are here.

Anyway, the water in the shower has been getting increasingly warm in recent days. So, as logic tells me, I've been turning the shower on, using only the cold tap, which is nice and tepid. Today though it was too hot for comfort. Not scalding or anything, but just a little bit warm for me. But considering that only the cold tap was on, there wasn't a huge amount I could do. The same applied to cold tap when I was brushing my teeth. It's kind of strange brushing teeth with warm water.

I didn't think any more of it until I spoke to a friend today (a friend who has been here for about 5 years so knows all about these things). "Oh, she said . . . what you need to do is to turn off your water heater and then turn the tap to hot when you have a shower."

"O-k-a-y", I thought, thinking she had just got things muddled, but no. It appears that the water that is kept in the hot water tank, which when not switched on, is cold. It is kept cold by the air-conditioning in the house. If that water is too cold to shower in, then you turn on the cold tap and mix it together. The cold tap brings in water stored in the pipes under the ground . . . . which are hot because it's 40+ degrees outside.

Confused? Makes sense when you think about it, but not when I'm all bleary at 6am.

What is it really like here . . . Socially?

2008-06-25T19:14:00.001+04:00

Moving to a new place where you know only 2 other adults is hard work. You have to immediately put on your happy and interested face and, in simple terms, put yourself out there!

The first six weeks were quite stressful - in all honesty, we were too busy with sorting out the basics to really be in the right frame of mind to meet anyone. But I guess that when we moved into our house and the kids were in school, that's when things started to change. When the children started at school, they were both in classes that were slowly being filled up with children as they moved to the city. O for example, started out as the fourth member of his class - now they are full at 15. Ella's class was similar and for some reason, Ella's class seem to have the more chatty and sociable mums and that's where it all started! It wasn't long before I set up a monthly mum's dinner!

One thing that has struck me with living overseas is that most people have a very interesting past. I have met so many interesting people:

1 - a British lady who left for Australia on her own about 15 years ago to continue her career. Is now an Australian passport holder. She met and married an Irishman, had three children and now has moved to Dubai to live near her brother.
2 - an Iranian family, somehow related to the Iranian royal family (not sure of the connection), who left Persia pre the revolution and moved to London and now Dubai.
3 - a Korean lady, married to a British chap, who lived in London, before moving to Singapore for a few years to have her children and now Dubai.
4 - a British lady, married to a British man, who lived in Paris and then Jamaica for years before stopping off in Dubai for a couple of years while their Australian residency visas are processed and approved.
5 - a Lebanese family who would prefer to be living back in Lebanon, but chose to have their family living here - just in case. (They are going back to Lebanon for the summer but have back up plans in place, in case the airport shuts and there are bombs - at that point, they drive to Syria and fly back here from there.) It's another world from the one I'm used to.

Everyone has a story to tell.

Making new friends from scratch is a bit like dating. You will inevitably meet loads of people: some of whom you just don't like the look of (sounds brutal, but it's true); some you don't agree with on many levels; and then there will be a gem that is worth plucking out of the crowd and getting to know better. Tim I think has found this aspect quite hard, but as I can have quite a good time talking to a brick wall, it's been easier for me.

I have met other people through various introductions (like at the Polo we went to in February) and the friendship circle is now widening very well. We have friends from all over the globe - Australia, South Africa, Germany, France, Malaysia . . . Birmingham!! Socially, we have a cracking time. Most weekends we are out at somebody's house for dinner and a swim. We now have to put the kids back to bed at lunchtime for a couple of hours as most of the socialising (because of the heat) takes place in the early evening. Every now and then, we go out for Friday brunch with some other people which is a big deal here in Dubai and most of the big hotels vie for your money to get you to eat in their place. For a set price, you eat for hours with all kinds of food available - there are usually children's playrooms attached so that the adults can have a leisurely time while the kids are entertained. You then stagger home and don't eat for a week! There are also the inevitable round of children's parties, which is as much of an excuse for the adults to get together and chat, as it is for the celebration of the child's birthday!

Now that we have a housemaid and a built-in babysitter, we are also able to go out in the evenings. Sometimes it's the cinema which is big business here as it's a very popular past-time. Tickets are 30 Dhs each, which is about 4.50, but if you pay with an HSBC credit card, it is a welcome BOGOF (buy one, get one free) so it's a cheap thing to do in the evenings. We also go out for dinner with friends - if we want alcohol then we have no option but to go to one of the big (and expensive) hotels, but if we are willing to forego the booze, there are many, many delightful places.

Before I started work, I would also meet people for coffee or lunch during the week. Whoever said that housewives out here have a tough time out here are lying . . . . . last week alone was very busy - along with root canal treatment (ouch) I also had many lovely coffees, lunches and breakfasts with my friends. It's all very civilised, but can get expensive if you're not careful! I needed more money to be social so have a job. Now I have the job but less time - a vicious circle!!! However, I still have that one day a week to cram it all in!

It is fair to say that we are working - and playing - hard.

In the summer though, everything changes. The expat community start to move out in early July, to return in late August. Ourselves included - we are back to Blighty to meet up with family and our other set of, equally valuable, friends there.

Rain? Surely Not

2008-06-08T21:09:00.001+04:00

Last month, the strangest thing happened.

Tim had taken the children to school as usual and phoned me to tell me that it was absolutely chucking it down with rain. "Strange", we both thought - most notably because it was May and we live in the desert with no rain at this time of year. I looked out of the window and indeed, the weather was very cloudy, but I was about 15km away from Tim at this point, but having nothing better to do that morning, I decided to keep a look out.

About 15 minutes later, I could see that the sky was getting very stormy and the wind was whipping up a storm. I went outside - got an eyeful of sand and to my surprise, I also felt huge spots of rain . . . . . but because of the wind and where we live in the desert, I was feeling great splodges of wet sand land on me. Delightful. It didn't last particularly long though - maybe about ten minutes in total.

I took these photos to show you how the visibility changed - you could be forgiven for thinking this is mist, but it's pure sandy rain!

The following day on the radio, I heard the guy talking about "artificial rain". Now, this guy is normally a bit of a joker, so I did a double take on the date to make sure it wasn't April Fool's Day. It wasn't, so I decided to get on-line!

Imagine my surprise when I read - officially in the Gulf papers - that the UAE was experimenting for the first time in the history of the region - with artificial rain! It was true!

Using the latest technology, the rainmaking effort brought moderate rain. According to experts, artificial rainfall will help plants grow, increase the level in reservoirs, and add water to the barren soil in the country. Although it has rained much more frequently this year, the precipitation remains below average.

In the rainmaking operation last week, experts allegedly used a hydrogen bomb. According to scientists, the plastic hydrogen bomb uses electricity to break apart water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen. Then, it uses a spark of electricity to explosively recombine the gases into a high pressure steam, which propels a stream of water high into the air.

In the UAE and several countries of the region, there are often clouds, but no rain. This is because of a phenomenon called supercooling. The temperature of the cloud might be close to zero and there might even be crystals of ice in it. The water vapour in the cloud does not condense into liquid water. The super cooling gets disturbed by spraying the cloud with special substances, using a small plane for the purpose.

I understand, since doing my research, that "cloud seeding" is relatively common, with Australia, the US and China being advocates of the process. Personally, I had never heard of it before, but given that the water table in this region is reducing at an alarming rate, maybe it's the thing to do . . . . . not quite sure how environmental it is though . . . !

Domestic Help

2008-06-08T17:25:00.001+04:00

Well, we have gone and done it . . . . . . . we have resisted long enough. This last weekend we have employed a full-time, live-in maid!

What used to be Tim's office (on the other side of the kitchen), has now been converted into a maid's room, complete with bed, TV, DVD player, fridge and stove. Nadeka (from Sri Lanka) also has her own bathroom and it is completely separate from our side of the house. She even has her own entrance. It was completely her choice to have cooking things in her room - she said "my cooking is too smelly for your kitchen madam". Her husband is also living with her - we were a little unsure at first, but frankly, we never see him and she is kept company in the evenings as he is there. He has also said he will mow the lawn for us and clean our cars for a little pocket money, which means that we no longer have need for a separate gardener.

Now, before you think we have gone all posh on you and are rolling in loot, I need to tell you that we pay a ridiculous amount to have full time help - the equivalent per week of about 4 hours of a cleaner at home. For our money, we get our house cleaned top to bottom daily, laundry washed and ironed, the garden swept and washed, help with the cooking and clearing up after us AND two nights' babysitting every week . . . . When we left the UK, we were paying a babysitter £6 an hour, so for marginally more than a night's weekly babysitting in the UK, we can get so much help.

It can feel a bit mean paying so little, but it is quite common here for housemaids to come to Dubai from either the Philippines, India or Sri Lanka. They live sparsely when they are here and send their money back home to pay for their children's education or supplement the income back home. Believe it or not, the money they earn here goes a very long way in their home country and for the most part, they want to be here. Nadeka gets one day off a week and we fly her home for one month a year with full pay, when she can see her 18 month old son, who is currently being cared for by her in-laws in Sri Lanka. (Oh, how lucky we all are, even if we think we are not.)

It would also be nice to bring her to the UK with us in the summer so that she could do more of the same . . . . but I don’t think we’d get away with putting her in a tent in the garden!!!

The children seem to like her and it's nice for me, as I get to play with the children an awful lot more than I did. Right now (although I am on the PC), dinner is finished and being cleared away and the washing up done and the children are happily playing with Playmobil . . . . . I'm going to go join them . . . .

Having said all of the above though, there is so little for me to do about the house . . . . . . I might have to go and get a part-time job within school hours . . . . . . . . Tim will be pleased!

What do I miss/like/dislike . . . ??

2008-06-08T16:24:00.001+04:00

I have had this entry on the go now for quite some time - to add to when I find something I particularly like or dislike . . .. the time has come for me to just publish it!

What do I miss?

Family
Friends
Green fields (yes, there are green spaces around us - including our garden, but make mo mistake, water is about double the price as in the UK. Our water bill is about £100 per month)
Sliced White bread - it's just not the same here (oh, and the kids miss custard)!!!
Decent TV & the BBC (see previous blog entry)
A corner shop to pick up a pint of milk - here, it's a 30 min round trip for forgotten groceries

What I don't think I will ever miss from the UK . . .

Paying tax
The prices of everything (from groceries to petrol)
The weather
The newspapers - or content of. Here it is much more factual and censored.

What I really like here . . .

The generally happy people (maybe it's the sunshine) and can-do attitude
Good service (if you can make yourself understood with the differing languages)
Being pampered - be it through never having to fill up the car with petrol or maid service at home. All help comes at a very reasonable price and with a smile.
The lifestyle - more outdoors things to see and do.
The education that the children are getting - so far it seems very good!

What do I not like here?

The craziness on the roads - unbelievably stupid driving from the majority
Driving about 100 km a day in such craziness!
Roundabouts suddenly in the middle of motorways!
The fact that deaths on the roads are reported in every paper on every day - it makes me drive even slower much to Tim's disgust!
The lack of protection within the law. Jail and deportation is common. Drinking (even one glass) and driving - immediate jail time; accidentally killing or hurting someone on the road - immediate jail time; not that I ever intend to do these things, but I feel a little unprotected should I ever find myself in these situations!
The censorship, which appears random. Even "Friends" is heavily censored and is generally reduced to about 15 minutes in length as they just cut out so many scenes! Yet violent films (e.g. Kill Bill) is shown at 2 o'clock in the afternoon without many scenes removed!
The dust - but given that we live in the desert, Tim just tells me to "get over it"!

I've also been making a list of some of the things I need to bring back with me in the summer. So far, I have:

Bird's powdered custard
Jelly cubes (am sure it's here somewhere, but I can't find it)
Books for me (very expensive here)
Smoke Detectors!

Jumeirah Mosque

2008-06-01T20:54:00.001+04:00

A little while ago, we chose to expand our knowledge of Islam. We took a trip to the Jumeirah Mosque, which is the only mosque in Dubai open to non-muslims and one of only two open to non-Muslins in the UAE. (The other is in Abu Dhabi.) They do guided tours a few times a week which I would highly recommend.

The Jumeirah Mosque is built in medieval Fatimid style in 1978 and is a beautiful white stone structure with towering twin minarets framing a large central dome.

Our English guide explained the origins of the religion and its central tenets, the five pillars of Islam:

declaration of faith (shahada),
prayer (salah)
alms giving (zakah)
fasting (saum) during the month of Ramadan
pilgrimage (hajj).

Once all of our shoes were off, we entered the mosque and were really surprised and the tranquility and beauty inside. The children were allowed in, provided they were able to behave and we all had to dress modestly, with all women wearing a headscarf.

It was beautifully air-conditioned inside and we sat on the carpet in the centre and believe it or not, the children behaved impeccably (a first). The atmosphere was very calming and we had all of our questions answered about Islam and Islamic society.

By the time the tour was over, both children were dozy and practically asleep. Quite incredible really. On the way out, an elderly man with a very long beard was about to enter.

Oliver looked at him and asked "who is that mummy?" - I don't know I replied.

Oliver looked thoughtful and said "maybe it's God".

Emirates News

2008-05-19T21:27:00.001+04:00

We have a channel here - Dubai One - which is a very popular mainstream channel, rather than an obscure satellite channel. Perhaps it could be the region's BBC1. Every night, we sit down to watch Emirates News - a half hour round up of the day's headlines.

I have to include this as a separate entry on my blog, as Emirates News consistently provides and equal amount of entertainment and frustration for Tim and I.

I am providing you with tonight's stories - the programme is 30 mins long and these are the stories that were reported on - I have left nothing out. These are in order of being reported:

The President of the UAE is heading to Saudi Arabia tomorrow to participate in a meeting of government officials of GCC
Vice president of the UAE (and Ruler of Dubai) is off to France tomorrow to meet President Sarkozy
Vice president of the UAE today received US Secretary of Education
Dubai customs today announced recommendations “to reinforce war against counterfeiting and piracy”
Dubai construction companies are warned to follow midday break rules – 2 hour break at heat of the day for all employees
Bakery fined 1000 Dirhams (£140) for an insect in the bread (incidentally it didn't say whether it was a mosquito or a beetle)
A study has been published on human trafficking in the UAE – the ultimate result being that there is no evidence of trafficking in the UAE. However, there is a Human Rights office in Dubai to support and repatriate any possible human trafficking victims . . (but they must be really quiet because officially it doesn’t exist, right?)
Ajman (a northern Emirate) is cracking down on tobacco products – there is now a ban on import and sale of all kinds of chewing tobacco and tobacco products – penalties are 10,000 (£1400) if violated
Bird-strikes. How is the UAE going to cope with the anticipated threat of bird-strikes and the increasing air-traffic within the UAE
Watersports in the Dubai – watch out for strong winds and waves
Today’s market and currency prices (yes, the dollar is still weak)
Weather outlook for tomorrow: go on, I dare you, have a guess . . !

So, the crisis in China, or Burma . . . not a bean . . . absolutely nothing worldwide at all - just happy, jolly, Emirates News!

What is it really like here . . . Cost of Living?

2008-05-19T20:54:00.001+04:00

I look at Sky News each day and most days I see that costs appear to be rising out of control in the UK (or is it that the tabloid newspapers are out of control?). Fuel costs are rising, food costs are rising and petrol is simply crazy. It makes me honestly wonder how long we could have kept going in the UK with costs as they appear to be.

So, is it any different here? Well, if you have followed our journey you will know that the major cost here is that of housing, which is extortionate. However, as someone pointed out to me the other day, if we were renting this house in the middle of London, it would probably be more expensive. Yes, I agree.

Cars are relatively cheap over here - most are US imports and you lease them on 5 year plans so they are much cheaper than in the UK. I think I am paying about the same amount per month here for my massive wagon than I was at home for my Ford Focus. Petrol - and I am cringing as I am writing this, because I know it has to be such a sore subject with all of you guys - costs a ridiculous 19 pence a litre. People here though are rather cross about the price of petrol - it has doubled in the last few years. Still laughably cheap though. If it makes you feel any better, my car insurance is about triple my UK premium, but if you see the way people drive here, I guess it makes sense!

I did the supermarket shop yesterday and managed to buy all of my weekly groceries for about £50. Quite how they manage to sell me an apple, imported from Australia for 12p, I have no idea; equally, banana are about 8 pence each. There are quite a few manufacturing plants here - the Coca Cola company has a factory, so I can buy 12 cans of Diet Coke for about £1.50. 24 bottles of water costs around £1.50. Similarly a Mars bar costs 23p (not that I eat any of course - just pure research). Meat is cheaper too and generally of good quality - a lovely joint of fresh lamb - cost £4.90. HOWEVER, and there has to be one doesn't there - it has to be that over here there are very few reliable "sell by" dates! They are more likely to have production dates on the label and yes, there are occasions where I have got home and my yoghurt with a good sell by date is curdled and when my meat smells off (it happens a fair bit, despite carting everything home in cool boxes). I think it's fair to say that things aren't transported here well so I find that I am always at the grocery store trying to find fresh ingredients - even bananas here only seem to last about 2 days! Eggs- now this I find rather strange. The sell-by date in the UK is usually about two weeks after they hit the shelves - here, it is a whopping three months. Chickens to my knowledge lay the same eggs worldwide, so are mine really safe to eat three months after they have emerged? Who knows! Generally, I would say, groceries are about 25% cheaper than in the UK.

Going out is probably a major difference that we have seen. We eat out a lot - nowhere flashy but a local steakhouse or similar. For a family of 4 it probably costs us about £25 which I think is pretty good. I remember being in Pizza Express in the UK and paying nearly £40 for the family. Days out are also cheaper - a day in the water park for all of us is about £50. No, not cheap - but compared to nearly £120 for Legoland Windsor last summer, it's much better value.

I think it's fair to say that we have a better standard of living here, but let's be honest, we're not paying any tax or NI, which has certainly helped us considerably! They're thinking of introducing VAT here though, which will probably change things quite a lot. There's also talk of income tax in the future . . . oh dear . . . we may be home sooner than we think!!!!

What is it really like here . . . . TV & Radio

2008-05-08T16:19:00.001+04:00

So, here we are, living in a foreign country and I am asked so many different questions by different people that I thought I would jot down some answers. Here is the first:

What's the TV like?

TV is complete and utter rubbish. We have a few English channels for our cable subscription of about £15 a month. One of which is BBC Prime.

I am actually a huge fan of the BBC in general - I think they make some of the best TV programmes out there - especially dramas and historical dramas. In theory, some of them should be on BBC Prime? Well, so you would think.

The BBC should be ashamed of themselves exporting the kind of rubbish we pay to see. Peak time programming (from 7pm tonight) is Next of Kin (last aired in the UK in 1997), Keeping up Appearances Episode 1 (first showed in the UK in 1991), Staying Put (a home improvement show that I have never heard of), and Trading Up (a property show allegedly shown in 2001).

The children are happy - they get the range of Disney Channels ranging from cartoon channels to the movie channels and to be honest, I like them too. Before you think I have regressed into my childhood because of the pitiful adult programming, I haven't really. I love Disney for two reasons:
1 - it keeps children children for longer - sweet, mostly innocent stuff (OK, let's forget that The Lion King's father was murdered, that Bambi suffered a terrible ordeal and Cruella cut up little puppies for their fur) - Mickey Mouse, however, captivates the little ones!
2 - there is NO advertising! We realised the other day that we had no idea what to buy the kids for their birthdays and the simple reason is that they don't see anything advertised so they have stopped demanding anything. Believe it or not, they are actually using the toys they already have, the favourite being Lego.

We also get Emirates News . . . . well, this will deserve it's own separate blog entry - let's just say for the time being that the news is heavily censored here and if it weren't for the Internet (oh, and The Sun being imported) I wouldn't really know what was going on in the outside world. (I am perhaps being unfair, we do get BBC World, which is marginally more interesting than BBC Prime!)

So, Tim and I exist on the good old fashioned art of conversation - and when that runs dry, we stick on a DVD or boot up the PC.

Don't, whatever you do, come here for the TV!

What about the Radio?

The radio is actually pretty good - there are pile of local (Dubai) English speaking FM radio stations - it does feel as though they are always playing tracks from the same old records - you can almost tell when one of them gets a new CD!

We have a Dubai "chatting" radio station - a bit like London's LBC radio, which is generally OK, albeit a little slow, but it covers a whole range of Dubai news, such as property but never politics.

Radio in our house is a different matter though - before we left we bought a Roberts radio from John Lewis (I so miss that shop) which picks up a signal from the internet. Quite how it works I really have no idea, but you can listen to any radio station in the world. Ours is tuned to BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, London's Capital Radio and some Sri Lankan radio station for our maid, Sujartha!

One thing Tim is really getting into over here - primarily I think because he is stuck in so many traffic jams - is texting the local station. So far, he has won a pile of books on Dubai and a Nokia phone (all in the last month). The children are getting into it too - the breakfast show is hosted by Catboy & Jordybird - a husband and wife team from the UK who do provide a British sense of humour to an otherwise boring 7am traffic jam. Oliver regularly quotes the text number to me and the kids have already had a few of their comments read out on the radio. The current topic is in relation to the radio station giving out a large Mother's Day prize . . . . children have to text in with the reason why their mum should have the prize.
So far, Tim has texted in the following suggestions from our children - all read out live on air by the way:
From Oliver, age 5 "because my mummy is warm and cuddly" (yes, it's 40 degrees outside and mummy is still trying to lose weight) and
From Ella, age 3 "because I love her" (ah)

We didn't win!

Family

2008-04-27T07:18:00.001+04:00

Apologies for the lack of writing this diary of mine, but we have all been so busy recently, with the school holidays and then most importantly with the arrival of Tim's mother Sarah and her partner Reg. They stayed with us for a lovely two weeks and it reminded us how lovely it is to have family nearby.

Sarah and Reg threw themselves into the sightseeing within hours. They went on the Big Bus Tour (the same company that runs the Bus Tour in London), which took them all over Dubai via all of the major sights. They did a dhow cruise along the creek,walked for hours in the dust and hot sun and thoroughly enjoyed themselves, we believe. They explored parts of Dubai that Tim and I have yet to see. Ashamed as I am to admit it, I haven't been into Deira since we have moved here (although I have been when on holiday here). Deira is the old part of Dubai, the original part of Dubai next to the creek. My world of school runs, supermarket shopping and everyday life doesn't really take me that far into the city. I have, however visited the Gold Souk (see above) - purely for my own gain! They managed the lot!

Sadly, for most of the trip, the children were at school and Tim was working, but Tim did take a morning off in order to go deep sea fishing. They had to get up at 4am and drive north for 90 minutes where they had to visit the police station to effectively register themselves as going off-shore - presumably so they could be allowed back in again! Apparently, Tim was completely relaxed and chilled, which is a far cry from daily life here.

The sea, as you can see, is perfectly still with no waves whatsoever. The trip even managed to produce 5 good sized fish, which were gutted by Reg and cooked by Tim on the BBQ. Apparently, they were rather tasty, although they really stank the house out!! Tim is quite keen to go again and to take the children.

Tim also took Reg & Sarah out on a Dune Desert Safari - in short, you are picked up in a 4x4 vehicle and driven into the desert, where they were thrown around rather, as they whizzed up and down and slid down a pile of sand dunes. They had a blast!

In short, I think we all had a whale of a time while they were here. Sarah & Reg certainly had the energy of teenagers - in fact, one night, they pitched up after a night out - clubbing - at 3am. The oldies surprised the kids once again - they still have it in them!!!

We were sorry to see them go! However, we're off to get some rest - we can't keep up the pace!

Until next time x

Burj Al Arab

2008-03-31T15:11:00.001+04:00

The Burj-Al-Arab (The Arabic Tower in Arabic) is a iconic structure in Dubai - it likes to be known as the world's only 7-star hotel and allegedly, it caters to the whims and fantasies of the rich. It costs from about £800 per night! As you can see from the photo, it's built on its own little man-made island, a hundred metres or so from the mainland - accessed by a little causeway. This causeway is guarded and is a hotel that you cannot just go into - security will not let you in!

It is HUGE and is significantly taller than it appears to the eye. It is nearly the height of the Empire State Building in New York. I am not trying to give you a lesson but this sets the scene of some photos I am about to show you.

Dubai loves to go a little overboard - in so many ways. As a publicity stunt for a tennis tournament here a couple of years ago, they turned the helipad at the top of the Burj into a tennis court, where Andre Agassi and Roger Federer played a game. In the photo above, you can just about see the helipad - the circular structure at the top right of the building. (I think the helicopter transfer is about £1,400 from the airport.)

These photos just freak me out! The view from the photo shows just how far up this helipad is!

The water and buildings you can see in this picture (above) are mostly hotels and restaurants.

Can you imagine if one of them ran just that little too far in order to return a shot - it makes me giddy just thinking about it!

Similarly, for a golf promotion, Tiger Woods hit some balls off the helipad too.

The photo below shows another hotel - this is the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, shaped like a wave.

When we were here last year, we were lucky enough to go on a boat trip with some friends who had a yacht! What we found astonishing is the view of the Burj-al-Arab from the back (from the sea looking towards the shore). This is what we saw:

Put simply, we saw the largest cross (the Christian symbol) in the Middle East!! It is apparently widely disputed, whether the British architects made it intentionally, or whether it is a harmless coincidence. The UAE is an Islamic country and this symbol surely would not make the locals happy, as the Burj-al-Arab is the iconic tower representing the dream of the modern Dubai.

You have to wonder. . . it made us chuckle!

Our Garden

2008-03-30T13:18:00.001+04:00

Our garden is now finished!

As with so many things her in Dubai, actually getting it landscaped was a bit of a palava. Not in terms of trying to find someone to do it - in fact, they were practically knocking the door down, but because we are tenants!

Emaar are the builders of our house, so we had to approach them for permission to turn out giant sandpit into a habitable garden. Tim had to go their offices, join the queue with a number and wait for his turn. He had to bring - wait for it - our passports and resident visas, our tenancy agreement, a letter from our landlord stating it was OK to do the garden, a plan of the proposed garden, oh and 5000 Dhs (nearly £700) deposit, in case the gardeners made a mess in the common areas of the development which required sorting out. Once Tim submitted all the paperwork, approval would take about 2 weeks.

We got all of this approval - honestly, it's a little overboard as surely ANYTHING would be better than pure desert sand?

Here is how they did it:

Picture 1 - the sand remains underneath the garden. So it is made completely wet and flattened - all manually.

Pictures 2 & 3 - the sand is then compacted

Picture 4 & 5 - interlock is then laid - they are the cheapest materials to use, and let's face it, it's not our house so we had to spend the minimum amount possible!

The will be the lounging area (4) - the pipes sticking up are for the irrigation system which is imperative here. Grass will die within about 2 days if not irrigated properly. Fortunately, the system can be installed quickly and cheaply in the sane!

This picture (number 5) is of the area where the dining table will be. Again, you can see the pipework surrounding this area - we are having a border of grass around the dining area.

Picture 6 - starting to come together a little bit more. These squares are for our plants as we're not appreciating the value of darling landlord's house too much by spending too much money on plants.

Pictures 7, 8, 9, 10

The completed project -

Picture 11 - the house and garden - our home!

The Booze Run

2008-03-30T11:38:00.001+04:00

Here in Dubai, there is no alcohol for sale in any of the super/hypermarkets nor in many of the restaurants. If you want to buy an alcoholic drink with your meal, you need to dine at one of the international hotels, which stock alcohol by the bucketload – with prices to match.

Non-muslims can, however, apply for an alcohol licence, which allows you to both have alcohol in your house and to buy booze from the local stockists (phone 800-BOOZE locally for details!!). Anyway, our application form for alcohol has to be stamped by Tim’s company. I have the paperwork here but I keep forgetting to process it! One of the major alcohol chains out here is called “A & E”. I always have a chuckle at the title, but it really stands for African & Eastern. In the background of this photo, you can just about see the lorry with “Thirsty?” written on the side – that is the A&E truck!

The A&E shops here are really funny – it took me ages to find one. They’re always accessed by a side door, well away from the rest of the shops in the centre. It looks a little like a porn shop – literally one grey door “in” and one grey door “out” with no window displays or advertising. Terribly amusing! Prices are high – an average bottle of wine is likely to cost about £7, with 30% in tax added on top. It makes it a pricey glass of wine – certainly not for sloshing into casseroles! There are two ways around this – one perfectly legal, the other not.

The first is to bring in duty free from the airport – you are allowed on arrival at Dubai to buy varying quantities of alcohol, up to about 4 bottles of wine per adult or 2 bottles of wine and case of beer . . . . we brought a pile in when we arrived, so we do have a bottle of scotch, gin and pimms here in the house. When my friend Janine came, she also used her allowance and brought in 2 bottles of wine and a case of beer, which was much appreciated. Anyone care to visit???

The other way is to do the “booze run” as it is commonly known. In one of the northern emirates, Umm Al Quwain, there is a shop called Barracuda, which is located right in the middle of nowhere next to a water park. We happened to visit the water park with friends and had a really good time. Loads of fun rides for the children to do – and quite a few for the grown-up daredevils too. Ella turned into a water-park demon – she LOVED it and went down quite a few of the faster rides with Tim. Oliver was quaking in his swim-shorts and went down the little chutes instead.

The reason why it’s illegal to go to the booze shop next to the park is that in order to get back from Umm Al Quwain, you have to drive through Sharjah to get back to Dubai (Sharjah, Umm Al Quwain and Dubai are three of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates) and the really fun part about Sharjah is that it is completely dry – even possession of alcohol is illegal in this emirate. The booze shop is amazing – two massive rooms full to the brim of every possible bottle of booze you can imagine.

The place was full of ex-pats filling up their trolleys with cases of beer, wine, champagne . . . . who then loaded into their cars and covered the loot with blankets and towels. Apparently, Sharjah police occasionally set up roadblocks and randomly search vehicles. Similarly, if you have a car crash – you have to call the traffic police (another story for another day, but you can’t get your car fixed by a garage without the traffic police report) which again could cause trouble if they find you in possession of alcohol.

I couldn’t possibly tell you whether we bought any contraband or smuggled it through Sharjah . . . . .

Good deals and the art of haggling . .

2008-03-25T20:50:00.001+04:00

Here in Dubai we have regular malls where the items are all of a fixed price, and also areas where a bit of haggling is expected. I find myself regularly in an area called Satwa - it is near the children's school and Ella and I regularly while away the odd hour while waiting for Oliver to finish school.

Our experiences of haggling are varied - sometimes successful, sometimes not. I went to the "pot shop" the other day to buy some plant pots (no, not the smoking variety!) and came away having spent £50 on two very large plant pots. I was fairly pleased with myself - I felt I had haggled relatively well (down from £75) and was happy with my purchase. I then returned home, where him indoors got a bit annoyed that I had spent so much on pots . . . . however lovely they may have been.

"You have to remember", I said "I'm walking into their shop, driving a very large new car and am accompanied by a little English girl in a private school uniform. There is only so much discount they are going to give me." Tim nodded in agreement, probably wishing he had gone instead!

On a different occasion, Tim then went to buy some plants on the same street - he walked away with some cracking house plants for about £20. We were very pleased, so a few days later, I thought I would go back for some more. It didn't matter how much I pleaded, cajoled, flirted even, I couldn't get the same plants for less than £30. This was getting frustrating.

The final straw for me was going to get keys cut. This time, I thought I would keep Ella hidden, so I parked the car outside the shop with her inside, made myself look as scruffy as possible and sauntered into the key cutting shop. "Hello, how much to have keys cut please" I asked . . . . . "madame", came the response, "normally they are 5 Dirhams each, but for you, your keys are special you see . . . . . . . the price will be 10 Dirhams each"

It appears that I just don't have the face for or the knack of haggling! Tim can do the shopping from now on!

Polo

2008-03-12T16:31:00.001+04:00

Last week, we were invited to watch the polo at the Dubai Polo & Equestrian Club, which incidentally is about a 200 yard walk from our house. This event was a charity event, inviting people to bring picnics and watch the polo.

We drove up, next to our friends cars, with our boot full of loot - from sunshades and rugs to picnic hampers, drinks, chairs and bean bags!

It was not remotely a "posh" affair - everyone there was very normal with lots of laughter and talking.

We had a great day - much alcohol was consumed by most. Strangely, for a dry country, it was absolutely fine (and the order of the day) for most parties to have bottles of wine sticking out from their cool boxes. The kids had a great time running around with other children and a ball, coming back to feast on yet another cookie!

We managed to keep the kids occupied until we all finally flaked out by about 8.30pm. Admittedly, once it got dark, we did occupy the kids with a DVD in the car, but ultimately, it bought us a bit more time out and about with the grown-ups!

The next polo match is in a few weeks . . . . can't wait!

Crazy . . .

2008-03-12T16:04:00.001+04:00

One of the things that I fear out here the most, is a car accident. Because most of the roads are fast, you are pretty much guaranteed to be shaken up pretty badly if you find yourself in a crash. Sadly, drivers out here do not help themselves - fast cars weave in and out of traffic. Forget the three second rule that we have in the UK, cars tailgate each other here, even at 100kph. Today for example, I was driving down the highway at about 100kph, looked in my mirror and saw a seriously fast car coming down the outside lane to my left. I travel on this road multiple times a day and I happen to know that 50 yards on from where I was driving, the lane disappears and merges . . . . . Fortunately, I was able to move out of the way and as the lane merged, he swerved in front of me, only to manoeuvre his car 2 more lanes to the right on to the hard shoulder as the traffic just wasn't moving fast enough to cater for his speed. He continued on the hard shoulder for a couple of seconds before swerving back out into the fast lane.

I spoke to Tim later and he said that a Mercedes driver nearly took his bumper off on a different highway . . . . apparently the motto is "when" you have a car accident, rather than "if" . . . . (can you see why we have big cars?!)

Yesterday was a really foggy day - Tim tells me that it gets foggy around this time of year and it was pretty bad - visibility was really low, but did this stop the bad driving? Not a chance - drivers drove as fast as ever . . . .

Whilst 99.9% of the time, I blame the driver, here's the strange thing - cars do not have rear fog lights over here . . . . it is remarkably odd. My car - a 2008 Ford - is imported from the US, and I have massive front fog lights on the front of the car, so it's not difficult for people to see me coming . . . . but they do not exist on the back, which leaves me a sitting target in reduced visibility. Tim's car is the same . . . .

Last night, the news was full of a 200 car pile up on the Dubai - Abu Dhabi road. 5 dead, 300-odd injured and 92 cars caught fire. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Whilst I'm sure that everyone was driving both too fast and too close for the conditions, one has to ask . . . . surely fog lights on the back of cars should be mandatory out here?

Our First Visitor

2008-03-03T17:11:00.001+04:00

Before we left the UK, my best friend Janine and I were regularly in tears in anticipation of my departure . . . . so much so that her lovely husband decided to buy her a flight to Dubai. He even bought it before we left, so that we both had something to look forward to! What a star . . . .!!

Anyway, this was the weekend when she came. Janine arrived on Friday morning, following a 7 hour overnight flight, to much squealing and squeaking from me at the airport, whilst the kids just about muttered a "hello" - that was the start of an appalling day's behaviour from them . . . .

Janine decided it was easier to just keep going rather than coming home to bed, so we went to the beach. When we first got there, we witnessed a bit of do . . . the police were on the beach trying to round up a lady. There was a large crowd so we couldn't really see a great deal, but it appears that the "lady" was Russian and rather drunk at 9.40am! She had allegedly had a warning, which she clearly ignored, so the police were called. I was told by the deck-chair man, that she will be "taken to prison until she is normal and then they will wait for an explanation". The inference was that this lady would certainly serve some time . . . . quite how much I don't know, but methinks that a Dubai jail will sober her up fast!

The beach is a strange place here - now, I'm not a personal fan of publishing photos of me on the net, but there is a significance of this photo. Firstly, you will see people like me dressed normally for a beach, but it's very common to see other nationalities on the beach in their black stuff, which incidentally stays on, whether they are just standing on the beach or swimming in the sea!

If you look at the ladies on the right - they turned into quite an annoyance . . .These ladies were part of a larger group - maybe 10 or so in total, and for some reason they decided that they wanted to take photos of our kids. This is quite common here - it bugs the heck out of us, but it happens each time we are at the beach or park. Suddenly, you will see one of our children, smiling away at a camera, with an adult next to them . . . . I even found Ella at the airport talking into a mobile phone of some random person - they thought she was fascinating. Now, before you say we should keep a closer eye on them, people can come and sit next to the kids in a flash of an eye and this is a very non-threatening society - I have talked to numerous people about this behaviour and each time I have been told that it's purely because people love children. But frankly, it annoys us and may cause a problem one day, especially when we return to the UK. Tim told the people to stop and moved the children - the adults then positioned themselves so that they could still get our children in the picture . . . . . he told them to stop again . . . eventually, Tim just moved the kids out of the way of the lens, but he was cross.

We left the beach after a few hours - the children couldn't stop moaning and whining - maybe they were tired, or showing off - but they were just plain horrible! We came back home, via the petrol station, where the man from Costa Coffee comes running out of his little shop to serve you in the comfort of your own car, while of course the petrol attendants are filling your car up with petrol and cleaning your windscreen . . . . it's fabulous being so lazy.

After a swim in our pool, believe it or not, Janine was still up and had some energy, so we went off for dinner. We went to an area called Madinat (a kind of market with loads of restaurants set within hotel district, with waterways running around it) - which is on the coast, close to the famous Dubai icon "The Burj Al-Arab" - seen here in the background.

It was lovely - a bit blowy and chilly still, but we ate outside (not bad for February) and had a lovely view of the area. However, by 10pm, I could see that J was about to fall asleep into her dinner! We came home soon after that.

Incidentally, I did manage to get the guest room sorted out - most of the boxes frankly, have just been moved to my room! However, here is a taster of our spare room should you wish to come and visit - and we hope you will!

The next day, we decided to travel inland to Hatta. Hatta is approximately 100km from Dubai and is in the mountains. We passed some spectacular scenery - moving from dusty Dubai, into spectacular desert scenery to the mountains.

This particular place is called "Big Red" - a very large sand dune over 300 feet high. Its red glow, which is eerie or delightful depending on your point of view, comes from the iron oxide in the sand. Sometimes it seems that the UAE motto is: "if it's sandy, drive up it," and Big Red is no exception to this rule - we saw loads of places renting out quad bikes and you can go up this dune by either bike or 4x4. Next time perhaps.

We made it to Hatta - apparently one of the oldest villages in the emirate of Dubai, and we found it delightful . . . . so far removed from the glitz and madness of Dubai.

We hung about at the pool for the day, indulging in a lovely barbeque for lunch. The kids were even adventurous enough to go on a camel!!!

You can see from the scenery, that it really is a lovely place to be . . . . we will certainly be back.

Cramming all that we could into 48 crazy hours, Janine and I then went to the Dubai Jazz Festival - an annual affair, set outside in an amphitheatre. We saw Courtney Pine (jazz saxophonist) and then Robin Gibb (of Bee Gees fame) - it was rather surreal . . . . for one of the acts, everyone lounged around on bean-bags drinking wine, beer or coffee. The picture above is apparently from the Robin Gibb show. I have to confess that we were absolutely exhausted and didn't stay to the end. Janine was flying home the next morning, which meant a 6am start!

We can put on a pretty good show for those people who wish to visit . . . . . just give us a call . . . . .

The Weather

2008-02-24T07:28:00.000+04:00

I have to touch on this subject, as it really is the average British person's favourite subject! Count how many times in a week you talk about the weather . . . !!

When you say you live in Dubai, everyone expects the weather to be hot for the vast majority of the time. Myself included. When we arrived in January, even coming from nearly freezing temperatures, it was cold here. The thermometer showed that it was about 19 degrees, which on paper sounds quite pleasant, but combined with the wind and the sand blowing, it really was weather you didn't want to be out in. Follow that with January's "it never rains like this" comments . . . . and it appears that global warming is apparent in this part of the world too.

Environmentalists would be up-in-arms at the lives and habits of Dubai residents. Tim and I (shockingly) both drive monsters of cars - more out of safety than anything else, but at £10 to fill up the tank, there's hardly an incentive to drive a small car.

You can see in the picture that Oliver doesn't even come up to the top of the bonnet on my car (lets hope he never gets hit by such a beast). On the plus side, it does seat 8 people, so if anyone wants to come and stay . . . . . we have plenty of bed and car space.

Similarly, there are few recycling facilities - we did find one, 16km away, which strangely enough does not recycle glass. Perhaps its because there is so much sand around us (picture 2 is our sandy garden) that they feel they can't be bothered. The amount of plastic bottles we throw away is criminal. I heard on the radio that the UAE's carbon footprint per capita is the highest in the world - even higher than the USA's. I am ashamed to be throwing away all of this recyclable stuff each day.

Now that we are in February, a mixed month in terms of weather, we have now experienced a shamal and the expected beautiful weather. A shamal is major sandstorm and incidentally, the one that we experienced in early February has been noted on Wikipedia as a notably massive sandstorm, thousands of feet deep, extending from Somalia to Mumbai in India (with Dubai in the middle) with gusts of up to 49mph. I appreciate that this doesn't sound very much compared to the gale force winds we regularly get back at home, but throw a pile of sand in the air, wait for the wind to blow and it hurts to be out in one of these storms - air travel is disrupted and ground travel is strange to say the least. Apparently, some sandstorms have been known to strip paint off cars! The only way to describe it is that it's like yellow fog. You look up into the air and you can see yellow with visibility at about 200m. This was the view driving along the road with sand blowing.

We made the mistake of opening one of our doors at home - you should have seen the mess - I had a complete meltdown - dust is the devil over here.

Contrary to this strange phenomenon, we have also had some cracking days in the last month - last Friday was also the hottest day in February in history, when it hit 30 degrees. It was rather lovely, so we went to the beach. Most of Dubai's beaches are private beaches - although all still owned by the Sheikh, they are primarily reserved for the large 5* hotels, which mere mortals can't set foot upon, unless you pay the £300 a night price. However, there are a few public ones to be found. They are quite basic in terms of facilities, but there are bathrooms, changing rooms, and the occasional refreshment centre. They are also fully attended by lifeguards. The beach was swarming with people - by the time we left (mid afternoon) it rivaled Brighton beach (but not the nude one) on a summers day.

Ultimately, the weather is better and can be gorgeous - the children are already starting to acclimatise. In temperatures of about 23 degrees yesterday, Ella put on a long-sleeved t-shirt and a jumper. Oliver complained of his legs feeling cold in his shorts. Tim got his fleece out to go to the pool. I suppose we have to as temperatures will get into the 30's shortly, and post June, we will be indoors most of the time. We have a fabulous air-conditioning system in the house - we tested it the other day - but I didn't like the look in Tim's eyes when he saw the electricity meter whirring around fast . . . . something tells me I'm going to need to buy more anti-perspirant before that air-con goes on full time!

Our House . . . .

2008-02-17T16:38:00.000+04:00

Firstly, apologies for the lack of communication. We had our house, then the container arrived, and frankly, I got stern looks from the man of the house when I picked up the computer, rather than sorting through our belongings and sorting the house! We are now in a "not too bad" state and have taken some photos to show you the kind of house we are in!

This is (clearly) the lounge - one photo from one and then the other from the other!!! The house kind of runs left to right - the left hand door in the first photo is the door to the kitchen. The doorway you can see in the second photo is the door to the dining room. Clearly, we have no curtains nor rug yet - they are due in about a week. The children are also oblivious to the photos being taken around them - for the initiated among you, you will probably identify Lazytown on the TV - not a chance in capturing their attention.

We have nice high ceilings - I think about 10-11 feet and air conditioning vents in all rooms, which is so needed. It's been hot for the last few days (well, about 26 degrees C and quite muggy) and only February!!!

This is the dining room - it looks a bit dark, but I think it's just the sun streaming through the window. For the eagle-eyed of you,you will notice our glorious picnic chairs taking pride of place - proper chairs are due to arrive this week!!!

Next up is the kitchen - it's quite basic and really the quality is not great. Dark wood and marble counters are really not my cup of tea!! The rental market here also means that we have to provide all of our white goods too - the landlord does NOTHING!!!! It's fairly spacious - there are units behind me too so I have loads of space to put all my china - which incidentally all arrived completely intact, despite all of the boxes being upended in the container! A miracle happened there.

Downstairs we also have a maids room (tiny box-room to you and me), two bathrooms and also a laundry area which gets BOILING hot as there's no air-con in that area - and yes, bonkers as I may be, I have bought a tumble dryer!!!

Upstairs we have 3 really good sized bedrooms and 2 further bathrooms. Here is the children's room - they decided they wanted to share, and given that Ella's current desire is to be a boy, the colour blue for their room was an acceptable choice to both of them!! As you can see, their room gives them loads of space to move about and a good amount of storage for their toys too (they have far too many)!!

I haven't taken a photo of the second bedroom as it is such a complete pig-sty!!! It's high on my priority list though as I have my great friend Janine coming over next week and it's where she will sleep!!!! Perhaps I had better get off the computer then!! Finally, we have our bedroom which is really quite big - that's a super-king size bed, so it gives you a good idea of the space we have. As you can see, we have done virtually nothing to this room apart from to buy a bed and have piles of stuff in the corner. Again - a job for this week!

The final photo is why we fought for this house . . . . . this is the view from our balcony. You can see on the left that there is a children's playground right across the road. What you can't quite see in the photo on the far right is the community swimming pool. It is lifeguarded from 7am until 10.30pm and there's a kids pool too. There is also a basketball court and a tennis court. Having this right across the road means that it is so easy for the kids to have a run and jump and swim if and when they want to, rather than a more planned outing to the pool in the car (in the summer, you don't want to walk outside for more than minute if you don't have to - at 45 degrees, you really would pass out)!!

That's about it for now folks! I will write more again soon!

OK . . . . we are in!

2008-02-01T19:56:00.000+04:00

Well, after a great deal of negotiating, we are finally in our house. We still did not know until 10am yesterday (20 minutes before the container arrived) whether we actually had the house. DL turned up to hand over the keys and sign the contracts – when he saw the contracts, there was unfortunately a spelling mistake on his name, so he refused to sign the contracts. He wanted us to hand over a cheque for £30k and then after his appointment (which he was desperate to go to) he would sign the contracts and then give us the keys. There were times when I fully expected a camera crew to be hovering nearby, with Rogue Traders filming him, but we were told to trust him . . . . . Needless to say we felt a little twitchy about handing over our cheque without anything in return, but after a great deal of cajoling, he finally agreed to leave us with the keys – all 42 of them. Every door in the house, be it a cupboard or a bedroom or a bathroom has a key and can be locked!

We were nearly there . . . . he then went off to his urgent meeting, and after a promise to sign the contracts by 1pm, we got into the house to wait for the container.

The container arrived, duly on time, looking far more rusty than it had when it left UK shores. Customs had opened the container and apparently had checked about 10 boxes for contraband. Now, we really don’t quite know what happened, but this is what we saw when the container was opened:

This was a far cry from the beautifully packed container we had left in Basingstoke. We were told it had fallen over. No . . . . ! Did that mean that the container had fallen over? Was it just the boxes that had fallen over? Who knows, but we were a bit worried and thanked our lucky stars that we had paid for tip-top insurance to protect our possessions.

The guys started unloading – every box has a number, which you then tick off on a sheet and tell them which room you want the box in. I cannot tell you the muscles and strength on these guys. One of them sauntered in with a 40” TV box perched on his shoulder . . . . a box which had taken 2 people at the other end to lift, if for nothing else but its size! Incredible.

Then, Tim’s mobile rang . . . . it was the bank. They wanted to know whether we had issued a cheque for £30k and was it OK for it to be cashed. The bloody DL’s urgent appointment at 10am was with the bank to cash our cheque!!! Many adjectives and expletives were used between us when Tim had finished the call . . . . . but we had to still hope that he would sign the contracts.

But they were still coming with boxes and packages of all shapes and sizes. We had no more time to fret – we had to just get this stuff in the house. They unloaded the van within about an hour and a half, at which point, they stopped for a break and Tim went to pick up the kids from school. I started to explore and unwrap presents – oh, the excitement, but let’s not forget, we still had no contract to actually be there . . . .

At 1pm, the call came – DL had signed . . . . . oh the relief that the man’s word was as true as he assured us it would be! We were legally OK – all of the time and energy it had taken to get this “deal” sorted.

The time has come to now open all of the boxes, so as you can imagine, things are rather messy – we are trying to ascertain damage (if any)! I will send some more photos in a few days.

Take care everyone!

Alice, Tim, Oliver & Ella

xxxx

Renting a House . .. (or trying to)

2008-01-30T20:06:00.000+04:00

I thought I would share with you our nightmare of trying to rent a house.

The process has been unbelievable. I will try and explain simply how the process for us has worked (or not worked):

Firstly, we had to wait for Tim’s residence visa to come through as you are not allowed to rent a house without one. Within the first 10 days or so, his visa came through and you will remember that we saw a house that we liked – the one with the big garden/sandpit! Well, thought about it for a couple of days and by the time we decided we did want it, we had lost it. We decided that these things happen but confirmed in our heads that it was a house that we wanted (as opposed to an apartment) and that the style (called Palmera) was the one we wanted. We had to wait for one to become available on the rental market, which they apparently do quite regularly.

Sure enough, about a week later, I had a call at 2pm. There was one house available on Palmera, it was opposite the community centre (swimming pool and playground) but I had to go and see it within about an hour or it would go to someone else. I picked up Oliver from school and hoofed it on over there! We got there and within about a half hour, had decided that we would go for this one, so set the wheels in motion.

Now, bear in mind that we’ve only been here 23 days and we saw the first house about 2 weeks ago, the rental price 14 days ago for a Palmera house was 195,000 Dirham (£26,645), by the time we found this next house (exactly the same), the rental price had increased to AED 200,000 (£27,330), although we were told by the agent that the landscaping of the garden would be included in that figure. That is the market out here – the houses are exactly the same, brand new and never lived in – but that’s the way things are. Housing markets are moving so fast and there is such demand for housing, that this is what happens. A 2.5% raise in 14 days . . . bonkers and quite frankly, getting a bit unmanageable!

A bit of background for you - out here, your rent is calculated annually and you pay 6 or 12 months in advance (nice if you can get it eh?). The landlord also doesn’t have a huge amount of power once you are in the house renting the property. Once you are in, you are not allowed a rent increase until 2 years have passed. And after this time, it was decreed recently that the rise could only be a maximum of 5%. It’s very difficult for your landlord to get you out and the tenant is covered legally in case of a problem with the landlord. In the case of our house, rent was to be paid in two cheques – 6 months apart. The first problem – Tim’s cheque book hadn’t been delivered by the bank. We got cash out from the bank with our cashpoint card and put down a cash deposit. One good thing here is that you aren’t limited to withdrawing £250 a day! Problem solved (we thought). Contracts were to be raised and we assumed it would be a straight-forward process.

Yesterday I went to measure the kitchen in order to buy appliances and met the dear landlord then. He is an Indian guy, complete with turban and hairgrips in his beard to keep it neat. Seemed quite gentle and polite. About 2 hours later, I received a phone call from him, asking me how long we were going to stay in the house for – one year, two years or more. I told him I didn’t know and when pressed for an answer, I decided to adopt the Middle Eastern approach of “I couldn’t possibly tell you without discussing it with my husband first – he is the boss after all”. I also asked him why he wanted to know. He clearly stated to me that he “wanted me to sign a separate contract with him” stating exactly how long we wanted to stay. Alarm bells rang so I contacted our transition team (i.e. the people who help us get set up) and they told me not to talk to him again, he shouldn’t be doing that and that they would sort it out. They duly did, but more problems were to pass our way . . . .

We found out that the agent had got it all wrong; it was in fact 200,000 Dirhams annually without dear landlord parting with any cash to turn the sandpit into a garden. We also found out the rent was to be paid in one cheque and not two (I tell you, it’s a good job that we sold our house to move here – because it’s quite hard finding £30,000 up front for your house rent, especially as it takes about 5 working days for money from our UK account to reach our UAE account). We negotiated (well, our transition team did) but to no avail. A day passed and we still hadn’t got any further with the landlord and the process. However, some good news – Tim’s cheque book arrived, so we could at least issue the rent cheques). The next day, we heard that the landlord had sacked the agent . . . . strange. More bad news – he decided to put the price up to 210,000 Dirhams. Also, he wanted to put a separate clause into our contract (illegal, by the way) to increase our rent by 5% after 12 months.

Now, by this stage, Tim and I were getting really annoyed (well, much stronger than that actually, but there are all different kinds of people reading this e-mail so I can’t possibly write the words that I want to), so we said – stuff it, we’ll go for another house. Bad news – there are no more Palmera’s on the rental market, oh, and the rent has risen to about 220,000 Dirhams. If we moved to a different area, we would pay about the same money but lose about 1000 square feet off the house . . . no go then.

Another day of negotiating – every time we think we are near getting the keys, another spanner comes our way. Because we can only give him two cheques (rather than the one that he wanted), we had to get a letter from Tim’s work to state that he would pay the next cheque and they had to confirm his employment and that he got a housing allowance etc etc. Our transition team have also been asked for a written guarantee that we will pay the money. We got these letters without a hitch – apparently this is all too common.

Darling landlord (henceforth to be referred to as DL), this afternoon also requested a letter from us (Tim and me) stating that we will “move out peacefully” whenever we choose to move. I have to admit that I completely lost the plot on being told that one. I can (sort of) understand the greedy little bugger wanting more money in a rapidly rising market, but requesting such a letter is nothing short of insulting. We have been told that we can send that letter once we are in the house, but I’m telling you now, I’m not writing it out of principle.

So, as things stand now:

1 – our container is due to arrive at the house tomorrow at 10am to unload

2 – it is now 7.45pm the night before and DL has still not given us the keys

3 – I am beginning to seriously panic

4 – the grass is most definitely not greener on the other side

I will keep you updated on progress – maybe tomorrow I will be unpacking a container stinking of fish, or maybe I will be sitting here on my bed fuming.

I don't like it here . . .

2008-01-29T18:40:00.000+04:00

"I-I-I don't li-li-like it here-here" sobbed my little girl tonight. Her little arms were wrapped so tightly around my neck and her body shook with the ferocity of her tears. Her words completely broke my heart and when I looked up over her sobbing head and saw Tim, I could feel his pain too.

Are they the words of a little girl who got told off and sent to the naughty corner for being rude? Is it her mastering the art of being manipulative to make me forget she has been naughty? or are they the words of a baby who truly is unhappy? I really do not know.

It doesn't help that I told the international packers that it was OK to ship Pooh Bear - a soft toy that I honestly had no idea was so important to her. Two more sleeps just doesn't seem to pacify her - "I just can't wait that long" she sobs even more. Maybe it's now tiredness? She did fall out of bed last night and then get up at 6am for school.

I feel like a bona-fide member of the bad mummies club.

It's strange really - when telling all my friends and family about moving here, they asked how I felt it may affect the children. "Oh, they'll be fine" I answered. "Ella at 3 is too young - I think she will be fine as long as the rest of us are here. Oliver perhaps, the more sensitive one, may find it a little more traumatic as he's grown very attached to some people." How wrong I have turned out to be. Oliver is having a whale of a time. He has a lovely friend, Nur Sofia, and seems to be making other friends by the day - his appetite is enormous, he loves school and his teacher is a wonderful lady - energetic, efficient and very caring. He also seems to be growing up more each day and for the most part, really looks after his little sister who bosses him around without a second thought. But Ella . . . . who knows quite what is going on inside that little head of hers?

As I type, she has passed out in bed - asleep with, hopefully, not a care in the world. Having said that, I still haven't had an apology for her being so rude before all of this started. Maybe, just maybe, she diverted me enough to feel sorry for her, that I let her get away with her rotten behaviour.

Oh dear, looks like I need to pay for another year's membership to the afore-mentioned club . . . .

Grocery Shopping Dubai Style

2008-01-23T16:24:00.000+04:00

I've known it for most of my life, but now I have official confirmation - shopping is a pleasure!

I needed to go the supermarket today - the one nearest us on the marina - Spinneys, which I think caters mostly to expats rather than the locals. It's full of Waitrose products and high end groceries.

Anyway, I pulled up right outside at 8.30am and got my cart and proceeded to the aisles. Firstly, the meat counter where I learned they had no minced beef on the shelves. I asked one of the assistants if they had any - he asked me what weight I was looking for. I told him - he then proceeded to go out back to his mincer and prepared me some straight away. I also rather excitedly found the "pork" area - it is set in a slightly separate area of the store (am sure there must be a good reason why) but I pounced on the cumberland sausages with a squeal of delight! I found everything that I needed - Heinz beans are about 70% of the cost of those in the UK and for the most part, food is cheaper - even in this particular supermarket. I bought two of the most amazing rump steaks for £2 - quite how they can be imported from Australia for that price, I have no idea. The only thing I can't get is non-biological laundry detergent - it doesn't seem to exist, but whether Oliver's eczema will flare up without it, we will soon find out!

Anyway, before I bore you senseless, this is the exciting bit - I got to the checkout and a checkout guy emptied my trolley for me - loaded it onto the conveyor belt, packed it and then put it back in my trolley. Thank you, I said, thinking that was the end of the service . . . . . but no, there was more. He proceeded to push the trolley out to the car, opened the boot and piled my shopping into the car for me, nodded his head and went off with my trolley, leaving me nothing else to do but adjust my sunglasses and get into the car.

Could this experience get any better?

I then drove another 500 yards back to our apartments, to pull up outside the door. I got out and the bell-boy gave me a ticket, asked for my car key and said he would valet park the car. Another chap meanwhile was emptying the contents of my boot onto a gold trolley in order to bring it to our rooms! I walked up the steps, pressed the button for the lift and went upstairs to wait for the delivery. Sure enough, 5 minutes later, there it all was. It was carried into the kitchen, but not unpacked (gee, a girl has to do something!) and all for a small tip of about £1.

Beats Tesco hands down . . . .

I fully appreciate the fact that my time here in the apartment is numbered - less than 2 weeks before we venture out into the wide world where bell-boys and valet parking do not exist at my front door, but hopefully they still will at the grocery store!

PS - before you think that I'm just crowing about it over here and the grass is greener on the other side, it is NOT. I will write another entry soon with a lot of the cons of living here.

Let's Play Chicken

2008-01-19T10:49:00.000+04:00

The main road in Dubai is the Sheikh Zayed Road, running north to south from Dubai to Abu Dhabi. It runs the length of Dubai. In some places it is 7 lanes on each side with an alleged speed limit of 100kph. I was on this road yesterday and was astonished to see a taxi stopped by the side of the highway with about 5 Indians on the kerb - had they broken down? No, the taxi had dropped them off and they were trying to CROSS THE ROAD!!

I honestly couldn't believe my eyes - the traffic was steady - there was no way on earth that these people could cross the road safely and realistically, there was no safe way for them to get to the other side, except for getting back in the cab, going to the next interchange and coming back the other way. There are no foot-bridges here.

However, worse was to come. I was told that if you hit a pedestrian who is trying to cross the road, you - the driver - is culpable. The driver is expected to miss any pedestrians, regardless of whether that person is trying to cross the equivalent of a motorway . . . as well as concentrating on 7 lanes of highway where under-taking is the order of the day! Now, in the UK, I think I am right in thinking that if you hit someone on a dual carriageway who frankly, shouldn't be stupid or deranged enough to be there in the first place, providing you're not drunk or speeding, you are not responsible. Here, not only do you have to deal with the horror of ploughing someone down at a relatively high speed, but you are also flung in jail until you pay the deceased's family their blood money. It really happens.

Bloody money is set at about AED200,000, which is about £28,000 to me and you. I think that there are some car insurances that you buy which may include that as part of your premium, but certainly not all. In addition to that, if you, the driver are at fault - perhaps going one kph over the speed limit or having had one drink - your insurance money wouldn't pay. You are in jail until that money is found.

I was trying to find the words to express my disbelief at this, but honestly, couldn't. An eye for an eye - it could only happen here in the Middle East.

However, some reassuring news - Tim seems to think that he read somewhere in the paper last week that they were thinking of changing the law. He thinks that drivers are now only responsible if they hit someone on a road which has a speed limit of less than 80kph. Oh, that's all right then . . . . .

It rains here too

2008-01-15T15:55:00.000+04:00

Well, today has apparently caused chaos on the roads - and to my boots might I add. It is now raining heavily for the third day in a row and everyone is finding it "unbelievable" and saying things like "we never have rain like this in Dubai".

Well, perhaps we have brought the British weather with us - however, we have certainly not brought the British approach. I was desperate to go out this afternoon - the kids needed walking so to speak, and we also needed milk! Fortunately, we had all brought our coats with us. When we were at Heathrow, I was cursing the coats - there were 4 more things to carry and I just wondered whether we should bin them as we weren't going to need them in "hot" Dubai, but for fear of causing a security alert and closing the whole of the airport down, we stumbled onto the plane with them.

Boy, am I glad we did - in my venture out to get milk, which is perhaps a 5 minute walk away, I was told by the staff here "don't go ma'am - it's too wet" - I even had a boy trying to follow me with a golfing umbrella. But no, raincoat on and the kids with their hoods up, off we went. The worst bit was getting onto the pavement - the buggy got stuck in the waterlogged sand and poor Oliver was up to his mid-calf in rainwater. We kept on going. Meanwhile the bell-boys from the hotel were standing there staring at us open-mouthed, thinking we were just bonkers. Once we had got on the pavement, we were absolutely fine - yes, it was raining hard, but frankly I've done a worse school run . . . . .

I'm not knocking the locals - the roads really are dreadful - they just aren't equipped to deal with any water - they absorb no water and there is no camber, so the rain just sits on the road. Schools are closed today and there are reports of roads being closed. Frankly, I'm glad some of the roads are closed - the speed demons here in the cars can just about stop on the dry roads, but I'm not sure they have even heard of the word aquaplane . . . . !

View from the Top!

2008-01-15T11:13:00.000+04:00

I’ve been asked loads of times what the view is like from our apartment – so here goes.

Firstly, I would like to point out what a big deal it is that you have these photos . . . . you will know that I hate edges. Tim laughs at me about this, but I’m OK with heights unless I look right over the edge, which is what really sends me loopy. In order to get these pictures, I had to kind of hang my arms and shoulders out of the window in the apartment. I have been very brave . . . . . (for me)!

Weather is really rubbish. It wasn’t too bad for the first few days but since the weekend, it has turned really rainy and stormy. Tim said that on his way to work this morning, some of the roundabouts were a foot high with water! Because they don’t get rain very often (allegedly a few days a year) there is no drainage on the roads so the water just hangs about in massive pools until the sun or atmosphere soaks it all up again. Apparently, some schools are shut because of the rain. Funny isn’t it! I have therefore tried to take decent pictures out of our windows, but a) the windows are filthy because of all these storms and the building dirt; and b) it’s so dull outside, they’re a bit dark and grotty.

The first is facing left towards the mouth of the marina, the second is straight on (the Grosvenor House Hotel) and the third is looking right to Jumeirah Beach (the Habtoor Grand hotel and the Royal Meridien you can just about see, which is where the beach club access is for here). Tim no doubt would have stitched them up better, but you get the drift! You can see that the marina is still under construction and what

you see in the photos here of the waterways is about a quarter of it – it’s huge. Some blocks are finished – some are clearly still being done. Interestingly enough, the apartment we invested in last year, is partially built on the other side of this building – so it does exist after all!!

The marina itself has loads of housing and hotels – as you can see. What you can’t see from these photo’s is a lovely walkway and restaurants which are near the boats (photo 1). We were there the other day for dinner and it’s a very relaxed atmosphere with kids running about and people having coffee or dinner. That’s where our local supermarket is too.

Will update you more as we do more . . . .

Dubya Day!

2008-01-15T09:15:00.000+04:00

On Sunday, George W Bush was in Abu Dhabi for part of his Middle East tour. His next day was to be spent in Dubai, which I thought was quite exciting - to my knowledge, I have not been in such close proximity (5 miles or so) to a US president. Perhaps we would see him - or more likely his motorcade - from the dizzy heights of our skyscraper?

Anyway, we returned from our house-hunting mission to a telephone message to say that as George was in town, the following day had been announced as a Public Holiday (it was due to be Tim's first day at work too)! A lot of the main roads were to be closed for the day, which would make it difficult for the city to get about, so the easiest option was to decree an extra day off!

How fantastic!

I am fascinated by the mere fact that word of mouth (plus of course the media) reached everyone in Dubai in the space of a short few hours. I wonder how many people didn't actually find out in time and pitched up for work as normal . . . . judging by the roads, which were empty, I suspect the number was few.

It got me thinking though . . . . . would that ever happen in the UK? I'm not expecting that the UK would come to a halt because a president was in town - our country is a lot bigger for a start and has many more hundreds of roads, but how long have campaigners been requesting an additional Bank Holiday in the UK? Certainly, I can remember it being talked about for the last few years.

There's no way it would ever happen overnight . . . . . even if Gordon Brown did make an announcement, how many of us would really think it were real and not some sort of April fool . . . . . . !

Search for a house . . . .

2008-01-13T21:36:00.000+04:00

Well, today we went looking at houses. We looked at some yesterday, but discounted them as they were too small, but this one has piqued our interest and we thought we would share it with you.

In order to get the size house that we were looking for (a good sized 3 bedroom), we have had to go to Palmera in Arabian Ranches – about 20 minutes from the city centre by one of the highways. The houses closer to the city were much smaller with small gardens - one of the reasons for moving here was that we would try and get the kids (and us) outside more and therefore we figured we would try to get as good value as we can with a good garden. This particular house you can see below:

This is the view from the back of the house – it’s linked on the other side. In this house you get 3 good sized double bedrooms upstairs + 2 bathrooms. Downstairs, there is a good sized kitchen, lounge dining room, playroom/other room, bathroom and maids room – a study for us probably. But what makes this particular house special is the garden . . . . . . our expectations were low, but this completely blew us away. In the first photo, I am standing just outside the middle of the house (by the sloping roof at the LHS of the above picture) looking right, and in the second photo, I am standing in the same place, looking left. Tim reckons it must be about 80 feet from side to side and about 15 feet in depth.

You can see from the first picture, that this house backs on to the desert. I have to say that it would be quite nice to see the horizon – on the other side, we are clearly surrounded by more houses with about a 5 foot wall going all of the way round. You will also notice that the garden is made of SAND (all these houses are built on desert sand, which you see all around you at the city limits)!!!!! Apparently because it is a brand new house, until they find tenants, they won’t consider putting a garden in as it will require maintaining and more importantly. . . . . water. When we decide whether we would like the house, then we start to work out the garden with the landlord. For the most part, it will probably be paved or block paving with a small amount of grass and shrubbery. The kids are quite gutted about the fact that the sand will go – they quite fancy the idea of living in a giant sand-pit.

Water is very expensive here, for obvious reasons – and sometimes, you can run out of water for a couple of days . . . . . it happens apparently! You have your large tank of fresh-water, under the concrete of your garage which provides a bit of back up, but then you just have to wait for a tanker of fresh water to come and top up the tanks!!! Quite something really.

The photo underneath is taken from me standing right at the end of the garden looking back . . . . unfortunately, I have no pictures of the inside – I completely forgot to take pictures, but will next time!!

We haven’t yet decided whether this is the house for us or not, but we will tell you when we do decide!!!

Where are we?

2008-01-11T09:30:00.000+04:00

Thought we would show you where we are living right now. We are in serviced apartments, which will act as a base for one month until we are more settled.

Tim’s firm pay for one month’s accommodation in this place until a) our stuff arrives here on the ship and b) until our visa’s are all in place. So, we have until 5^th February to get everything sorted out. We are in a 2-bedroom apartment, which has in total – a lounge, dining room, kitchen, laundry cupboard, maids room (no maid though), twin bedroom for the kids, master bedroom and 3 bathrooms. It’s cleaned for us twice daily, but they won’t do our washing up or laundry!!!! Fair enough really.

1 - This is the lounge with Tim on the computer. We have a pretty good view onto the other buildings on the marina, but right now, it looks like more of a building site as there are so many buildings being built. We can vouch for the fact that they are working 24 hours a day – don’t think we’ve had a decent night’s sleep since we’ve been here, but I think that’s because of everything else going on in our world!

2 - Dining room – it never takes long for stuff to appear on the table does it!!

3 - This is the kids room – already with soft toys in place. A really good amount of space here, but right in the middle, you can see that window which opens . . . . . why, oh why, did they put that there???? And I can’t lock it . . . . . but at least we don’t have a balcony like some of the apartments here.

4 – Master bedroom – massive bed, which unfortunately the children regularly set up camp in (bit messy already but you get the drift)!

5 - The kitchen has everything we need – massive oven and hob, dishwasher, toaster, microwave, coffee maker etc. Well furnished, but we just need to find the supermarket!

Along with the pool and gym here, we also get unlimited access to a Beach Club, which is so lovely! Loads of fun pools, grassy areas and the beach. I took the kids down there the other day while Tim was trying to get parts of his visa sorted, and to their credit they got in the pool. There was an evil wind blowing and it was freezing. The pool was heated to a reasonable 30 degrees, but the moment you got out, the wind just got you. We walked down to the beach and the children were so cold that they had to run about to get the blood pumping and then they flopped down onto a sun-lounger and buried themselves in towels as a makeshift bed. Once that wind dies down (known as a shamal wind), things will feel warmer. We have seen the odd sandstorm though – not that exciting, but remember to wear your sunglasses or goggles at worst as the sand in your eyes is rather brutal!

Until later . . xx

Heathrow Airport

2008-01-07T20:45:00.000+04:00

Yesterday, we travelled to Heathrow airport for our journey out to Dubai. I have always hated Heathrow airport as I feel it sums up the UK completely: cramped and overcrowded, filled with miserable and stressed people, grubby and in need of a facelift! I've always thought this - whether I've been arriving back in London or leaving it. I just don't think it's a very good advert for visitors to this country as it's the first thing they see!

This time, we arrived, with what seemed like a million other people, in the drizzle and precariously balanced all of our stuff (4 suitcases, 4 wheelie cases, 1 buggy and 2 car seats) on the trolley (which incidentally only steered left) whilst trying to hold 2 sleepy children's hands!

However, on the flip side, the one thing which is absolutely cracking at LHR has to be the departure lounge. It is a shoppers paradise - filled with so many shops (luxury and regular) that if you are not careful, you can find yourself staggering to the plane laden with carrier bags full of loot. Gone are the days when you pick up a bottle of whisky and then you are on your way! Yesterday, I stocked up on books (books are pricey in the UAE), Oliver got a new game for his Nintendo and Ella bought . . . oh yes . . . . another cuddly toy.

Tim and I also stocked up on . . . . alcohol! We don't really drink much I have to say, but it's nice to have the odd glass of Pimms in the sun. Buying alcohol here in Dubai is apparently difficult - you need your residence visa (which we haven't got yet) and a place to live before you will be allowed to buy your "alcohol permit" (yes, welcome to the world of no tax where nothing is free). No, don't gasp in horror! You can buy alcohol quite freely in hotels and bars here in Dubai - but personal consumption in your own home appears to be something different . . . .

So, what will we miss from the UK . . . .
1 - family and friends;
2 - familiarity (with everything from how to buy a house, to how to drive on the left);
3 - British TV - especially the Sky+ box; and
4 - internet shopping (for Alice)!

What will we be glad to leave behind . . . . ?
1 - 40% tax;
2 - the weather; and
3 - internet shopping (Tim has to pay the bills)

Family and Friends

2008-01-07T17:53:00.000+04:00

I think one of the hardest things about moving overseas, has to be without a doubt, saying farewell to our friends and family. Leaving just after Christmas has left us with memories of a wonderful time, but also a very difficult time in that we knew it would be the last time we would see them for a while. I think nearly all of our family came to visit at some point in December and it was just wonderful. It was, in fact, the first time that Tim and his sister Rachel have had Christmas together in the last 12 years - had we not been going overseas, I'm sure it wouldn't have happened!

Once the festivities were over, it was time to get down to the hard graft of saying goodbye - explaining to the children has been quite a challenge. I think 5 year old Oliver kind of understands that he's not going to see people for a while. Saying goodbye to his best friend Adam saw Clair (his mum) and me dissolve into floods of tears and then hearing Oliver sobbing the whole way home really made me question whether we were doing the right thing. Ella, on the other hand at three, is far less aware of what is going on and with the exception of her best friend Tom, I think will adjust fairly quickly, as long as Mickey Mouse (her favourite toy) accompanies her!

As to the parents - well, we have the added advantage of being able to write and will rely heavily on e-mail and the Internet. I remember 20 years ago (gulp) when I went travelling around the world and my folks had to rely on a weekly postcard from wherever I was in the world. Firstly, how dreadful for them if the post got delayed and secondly, quite why they let me do it, I'm still not sure! In any case, the world has moved on and there is now no excuse.

We've had some great times recently with our friends and family and will keep the memories with us until we see you next (should be in August we think when it will be far too hot to venture too far in Dubai).

Hey - that's our stuff!

2008-01-06T01:25:00.001+04:00

Well - it's started! A whole day of boxing up our life, followed on the second day by picking up the last bits and pieces. It's amazing how you can reduce everything in to a load of boxes!

Everything was packed meticulously, even a 10p frame bought from Oliver's school fete was wrapped, double wrapped and triple wrapped in paper. They packed so fast that before their tea had got cold, they had already packed the broadband router!

The team of 4 (all members of the same family - father, two sons and a grandson) whirled around the house, telling us that the best thing we could do was "keep out of the way"...! It's going to be like Christmas when it arrives at the other end as everything (and I mean everything) is wrapped rather than being just chucked in a box - even the hoover now resembles a mini-brown-paper-wigwam!

When the container arrived, a funny thing happened. The whole family decided to get into the container and shut the doors . . . we thought it was only a problem with people trying to get into the UK rather than out! It turns out that you have to get in to check that there are no holes in the container. So, they went in, checked they could see no daylight, and then the container was certified fit for purpose! Personally I'd have quite liked a container that was a bit cleaner and one that didn't smell of the sea and a bit of old fish, but I guess that's why everything is wrapped! Then the putting together of the jigsaw started. All of the boxes were meticulously put together so that there was no space between them where it could all bang together and potentially break. When everything was in, the container was locked and sealed and ready to balance precariously on the top of a ship, which hopefully won't get stuck on a sandbank in the middle of the Channel.

Just one question...where did we put the passports?