Bab Al Shams....

...and my birthday week

The month of August has come and gone already which means, I have become wiser and another year older.  

The majority of Ramadan fell within August again, however thankfully for me my birthday weekend fell during Eid, which became a nice long weekend for us, with 5 days (including the weekend) off work.  Pretty good considering even though I'm only a temp at the moment I still got paid during the time off.  But as with all Ramdan/Eid holidays the holiday dates are only officially confirmed at the sighting of the moon, which meant some last minute planning for a long weekend away.

Nevertheless Mark managed to get everything organised, but not before the final car shop (my first ever brand new car...the Nissan Armada should be arriving soon), a delicious dinner at the fancy Okku on the evening of my birthday (albeit no sashimi and sushi for me) and some tea and cakes with a very special couple the next day.  

 

 

Then we headed off to Bab Al Shams for two nights away (which is just outside of Dubai, well a out 40 min from where we live), literally in the middle of the desert, making sure our weekend away was as relaxing as possible.

 

Being the middle of summer, it also meant the temperatures will still rather high, so our 2 nights away consisted pretty much of chilling in the pool and eating...everything was buffet...(and my puffy feet finally unpuffed for the first time in a while).  The hotel was beautiful and very unique, and one of the pools was an infinity pool that overlooked the desert (a first we have seen).  Bliss!  The perfect birthday weekend away and another 'baby moon' just in case we don't get another chance before our little man's arrival.

The Busy Little Housewife

…ok, maybe not so 'little', but very very busy

Back from our hols to London and New York, the big task for me was to find us a place to stay.  So for the first time, not having a job actually worked in our favour.  Giving me the much needed time during the days to find somewhere nice, as well as everything else that goes with a new house. 

Numerous viewings later, some of complete and utter rubbish and some rather nice (but out of our price range), we ended up going back a few more times to a villa we had seen before we left on holiday, which luckily for us was still available.  It ticked all the boxes (and there were a fair few requirements between Mark and I to be ticked).  After much consideration, including that it was little more than we had wanted to spend and far too big for just the two and a half of us, we nevertheless decided to put down the deposit and sign the lease.

  

    

  

 

Whilst Mark settled into his new job, the next 2 weeks for me, pretty much consisted of agency interviews, arranging DEWA (Dubai Water and Electricity), cable TV, a medical for my new visa, doctor’s appointments and shopping, till I literally almost dropped some days, for appliances (as most apartments/villas in Dubai do not come with the mandatory ‘white’ goods) and other necessary bits and bobs.  Being on your feet all day in the malls and in and out of the car in the heat, is probably not the smartest thing to do when you 5 going on 6 months pregnant and after awhile the feet started to protest, by swelling, to let me know they were not best pleased with this new arrangement (even although they had gotten quite abused on holiday and should have been used to walking all day everyday).  But it all paid off in the end, we had found a lovely villa, got some really nice appliances (and some were even on really good deals considering it was the Dubai Summer Shopping Festival) and as an added bonus I managed to get a 2 month temp role with UBS (starting as luck would have it, the Sunday after the weekend we moved into our new villa) – which also meant it was necessary to shop for some new maternity work clothes. 

We took possession of the new villa and as it turned out, we were very thankful that we had a bit of a crossover with both the old and new place.  Firstly, we had been promised the villa had been professionally cleaned, but by the time it came to moving in, I wasn’t too happy with the state of it and took it upon myself to give it a clean before all our new and old goods started to arrive.  Again, learning from past experience we had asked that the air conditioners to be cleaned and re-gassed before moving in, and one would have just assumed that meant ‘working’ too.  So you can imagine how impressed I was when I had to mop the floors and clean out the cupboards in 40 degree heat.  Over the course of the next few days our appliances were delivered one by one…a good thing you would think…but as things go in ‘The Woods household’, this proved to be rather  ‘entertaining’ instead, and by the end of it the sense of humour had started to wear very thin. 

Firstly, the fridge arrived and all was good there (apart from the fact that we somehow we had ended up choosing one with the freezer part at the top, instead of at the bottom… which is taking some getting used to, but something we can deal with).  Then the dishwasher and the cooker arrived.  The dishwasher seemed fine, however the cooker was all gas, instead of a gas hob and an electric oven we had ordered…so that got sent back (only to have a further week delay before the next one would arrive).  The dishwasher went on to shock us every time we opened it after it finished a cycle and resulted in a subsequent few visits from the technician, but it turned out to be the wall socket fault which has since been fixed.  The washer/dryer arrived and apart from being a lot noisier than advertised has worked just fine and shock free, so we happy with that. 

Our stuff we had brought previously in Dubai arrived from storage and I spent a day unpacking with the movers…who as you can imagine were not at all impressed to have to work in the 40 degree heat, considering the aircon was still being ‘fixed’. But things were finally starting to take shape and starting to look a little homier, although considering the size of the villa in comparison to our last villa, we still have a fair amount of furniture to buy, before it would start to look less empty. 

The weekend arrived for our ‘official’ move and I’m pleased to report that the aircon was finally fixed and even gave the place a chance to cool down for a day before we arrived.  The weekend was spent doing the last of the unpacking and settling in (although a month later and there is still plenty to do and get, before we can call it a proper home).  We finally decided and agreed on some couches which arrived too…albeit with scratches and marks on the leather, so two of the 3 were sent back again resulting in a further week until new ones could be delivered.  Fun times, as always!!

All moved in, meant the new job was due to start, so before I knew it my 'housewife' life was over… and I can honestly say I was surprised at how excited I was to start work again (and just be off my feet for most of the day).  Only 1 more week left on the job now (yes that's how long it's taken to write this post), I can honestly say, the job has been great… it’s similar to the Deloitte culture, but on a much smaller scale, which makes me realize just how much I missed out on, having been at Hastie for so long!!  The other girls in the office have been very welcoming, inviting me to join in with them for Iftars (considering most of my time there has been during Ramadan) and in the first 3 weeks I went to 3 Iftars (the breaking of the fast during Ramadan).  

Our stuff from the UK also finally arrived...and almost 3 years later, we finally got to unpack our wedding presents!! It was like Christmas all over again!  It has also meant a lot more unpacking has been taking place and there still a fair few things to go, but we are getting there and the new place is starting to look more like a home yet!  

 

 

The picture results of the unpacking will follow...