…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...
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