A fly bye catch up...

to the Big Smoke…

Holiday time had arrived…and as a drastic change from the Dubai heat, we were greeted with a usual London summer’s day…grey, cold and wet.  We picked up our rental car and headed to the Stephenson’s home in Henley-upon-Thames, where we would spend our first evening catching up with Mel and Bruce over a lovely dinner courteousy of Chef Bruce.  Isabelle and Hugo, who had seen us not so long before on holiday in SA seemed to still be 'used' to us and weren't shy to play with Uncle Mark and Aunty Lu.  After a lovely chilled evening, the heavy eyes from the long day travelling, started to take their toll and it was time for bed.

The next morning after a hearty breakfast was served, we headed back into London for our catch up lunch with those friends who were in town.  As on our last London trip a year or so before, the Leather Bottle was our location of choose, and the sun graced us with its presence later that afternoon.  It was lovely to see all the familiar and friendly faces and how some of the little ones had grown, not to mention some new additions, as well as baby bumps.

 

That evening the Blake’s home became our next pit stop for the evening, for some more catching up and a good old braai with some of the others who had not been able to make the lunch earlier in the day.  

Sunday morning, consisted of some much needed practice... babysitting Michaela for a few hours.  Again a false sense of what is to come was given, as she was good as gold.  After a spot of shopping for me at the good old faithful Primark, we headed to our familiar stomping ground…Amity Grove in Raynes Park, for a catch up lunch with Amy, Nick and the Molly Mouse.  

Besides aging a little, Molly hasn’t changed one bit!  How we miss that little fur ball of attitude (although not so much all that fur).  Regardless of her protesting, I just had to scoop her off her comfy spot on the couch for a good old squeeze, to which the claws came out, with her not quite having the same appreciation for the hug as me.  I can’t say she was best pleased to see me, but with Mark she was happy to settle on his lap in no time at all, just re-confirming nothing has really changed.   Her adoptive parents, Amy and Nick have kindly consented to continue the adoption for longer.  Whilst Mark and I are finally all set to stay in Dubai for a few years, we feel at this stage in her life, it would just be too cruel to uproot her to a place with such a different climate, not to mention the stress of flying her on an aeroplane and being caged up for so many hours.  It was quite a difficult and sad decision to make…as I know just how much our house in Dubai would feel more like home, if it could have her in it.  But we have to think of her too and know this is the best decision possible for her (and knowing just how spoilt and loved she is by her adoptive parents helped a bit too).

The next morning, I headed into the City to meet up with my old boss, David at Deloitte and to catch up with a couple of familiar faces there.  The journey into the City was eventful as always…because of the foul weather the trains were delayed, which meant I got to stand the whole way into to London Waterloo.  I’m still not sure whether I should feel flattered at the fact nobody offered me a seat?  Things were still pretty much the same at Deloitte, apart from the fact that David has since gone on to become the proud pops of a gorgeous little girl, Georgiana Elanor Grace (born 1 April 2012).

Making my way back to Stoneleigh after my Deloitte visit, on the familiar bus and train route, travelled so frequently before, I was quite impressed when I managed to find my way back to the Blake house (I had gone with Ian that morning and hadn’t quite paid any attention to the route taken, and considering we had driven it all seemed a little different on foot) in time for a spot of lunch before our drive out to Bristol to see Mark’s family.

The next two nights were spent at Aunty Angela and Uncle Phil’s and as always we were treated to some fantastic food and hospitality.  We paid a visit to Grandma and Grandad the next day for some tea and cakes, where we spent the afternoon catching up with them and hearing them reminisce about their own trip to New York a number of years ago.  They got to see our baby bump and hear the new 'Team Blue' news first hand. 

 

 

It was an early start the next morning, to get to London Heathrow from Bristol in time for our flight to NYC.  Our fly bye visit to the Big Smoke already over, completing the first leg of our holiday, but not before we were able to make some precious and lasting memories…as it turned out this was unfortunately the last time we would see Grandad Cooper, who sadly passed away on 8 July 2012. 

The Hastie Saga...

…and upcoming holidays

After much deliberation, our next holiday and what would be our final ‘long’ holiday together as a couple was booked, before the arrival of Twiglet and what going forwards would  be considered ‘family’ holidays.

The destinations of choice was a fly-bye catch up in London and Bristol, with friends, family, Molly and the houses, before heading on to the much anticipated Big Apple, somewhere both Mark and I have always wanted to go…

As I mentioned in my last post, all was on the up for Mark and I.  After 1.5 years of uncertainty and not really being able to put roots down in Dubai as yet, things were finally coming together.  Mark had a new job to come back to and I was continuing to ride out my time at Hastie before I would head off on maternity leave in about 4 months.  But…there always has to be one…continuing what seemed to have become a tradition within my company… every time I go away some big changes seem to take place…it was unsurprising that this occasion was no different.  The changes that took place however, occurred somewhere between our last holiday to Jordan and just before we were ready to head off to London and NYC….

The company had been in a bad way financially for some time, but new management had come into power a few months before and were trying to rectify the situation.  But unbeknown to me and the rest of the staff, time was running out far more quickly than anticipated, with no improvement…

So one day we all came into work to find a memo from our (new-ish) Head in Australia, announcing that the company had gone into administration.  Most of the Senior Management of the Dubai office, had all left/fled the country to avoid becoming personally liable for the AED ‘000,000’s of dishonoured cheques that were about to be cashed by irate suppliers. 

The law in the UAE makes you personally liable for any cheques you have signed that become dishonoured, whether they company or personal cheques.  So as to avoid jail, they all fled, leaving the company and its employees in a bit of a sticky situation.  Thankfully we had just been paid until the end of the month (May, yes this is how old this post is), and the Administrator that had been brought in from Hong Kong, told the staff that we were under no obligation to stay, as the company had no money to pay us anything further.  Loyalty for some reason remained and many people worked (including myself) until the end of the month and some even beyond the end of the month of May, regardless of the fact that they wouldn’t be getting paid for it. 

The saga continued (as we headed off on our holiday) and the story made the local paper here in Dubai, as well as the Australian headlines (considering the company was headquartered in Australia), together with stories of money being transferred from the Dubai company to the Australian company the day before it was announced to the public (and staff) that the company would be going administration.  Stories circulated both within the company and the paper that two of the Management Team in Dubai had taken a substantial amount money each from the safe in the Dubai office for their own personal use to get out of the country…  Scandaal!!

To cut a long story short, the remaining Management (i.e. generally those who weren’t accountable for any signed cheques) thankfully remained to try and close off and end what they could as amicably as possible, between, clients, staff, contractors, suppliers etc. Thankfully this eventually resulted in a final months pay and part of the gratuity owed to the staff, which we received over a month or so later (outstanding medical claims, expenses and the rest still pending).

Whilst it wasn’t the best time to loose my job (is there ever a good time?), being so close to going on maternity leave… things could still have been a lot worse.  So we reminded ourselves that there were those in a far worse situation than us and we still needed to be thankful that Mark had secured his new job (not even 2 weeks before the announcement was made).

Not quite being ready to become a housewife as yet, I was a little worried about who would take on a pregnant lady for a 3 month contract role (which is all I would need by the time we got back from holiday), the fact temping is not really a big thing here in the UAE and not to mention that I had also lost my medical cover with the job, (not great when you 4 or so months pregnant) which meant I would be without medical for a couple of weeks until Mark was up and running in his new job (and even then it was uncertain as to whether his new medical company would take me on so far in my pregnancy).  

Having said all that, we still had a wonderful holiday to look forward too…where we could put reality, out of sight and out of mind (at least for a little while longer anyway).

A day of remembrance…

Grandad Cooper…

Today is an unforgettable one, marking a sad but memorable day of Grandad Cooper’s funeral.  Our thoughts are with the extended Cooper family today, and we wish we could have been there to pay our own respects.

We hear that the sun took the time, from what has been a miserable British Summer, to pay its own respects by providing a beautiful and warm day for all those in attendance.  

Grandad Cooper you will be missed!  Sending lots of love to all the family today.