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Some arabic I have learnt...
Pronounced: Al a bora butagaluc / Translation: The doors are closing

I can hardly believe it, but it's coming up for our 1 month mark in Dubai already and as you can see I am already fluent in arabic! :)
(I have heard this practically every day, and about 100 times a day on my numerous metro adventures...)

It's been an interesting month and I can honestly say that my first impressions about the culture and their treatment of woman has changed. I think my first experiences were just unlucky as since then I have noticed the treatment of woman in a positive light...while they still not quite equal, they definitely are looked after. There are mixed carriages on the metro, but then there are also woman only carriages, the front of the buses are only for woman or families, there are woman only taxis and woman only queues at the supermarket. When I went to get my visitors visa extended, there was a woman's only entrance at the typing office, where regardless of how many men were already waiting to be served, when I walked in I was served first...I could definitely get used to this.


My view of the queing system remains the same however...there is none...people just push their way onto the metro, instead of standing to the side to let those off first. People push in, in queues and get served first...and somehow this is OK. I clearly am going to need to learn to be just a bit more pushy!

The month itself has been filled with all sorts of things, mainly me looking for a place to stay, furniture, cars and a couple of dinners out here and there. There are special offers on all the time...and in fact most of January and February is actually the Dubai Shopping Festival, when everywhere has sales and specials...and thank goodness for these specials as contrary to popular belief this place is EXPENSIVE! The first special we made use of was for our first dinner out...I chose the Movenpick Hotel, where there was a buffet starter, and a choice of either lobster or steak for mains, with a further buffet selection of desserts and cheeses and wines all for a reasonable price. I of course chose the lobster and Mark chose the steak. After dinner we joined Carol and her Emirates colleagues at a club for a bit of dancing.




What amazed me here was that there is no smoking ban in the clubs. Smoking here seems to be very acceptable...yet most of the the restaurants don't have liquer licences (apart from hotels). Cigarette cartons are available for sale in supermarkets, yet no alchohol is available to be bought in the supermarkets - not to mention the consumption of alchohol in your own home requires you to have a liquor licence, yet somehow you are still able to bring in 4 litres when you arrive at the airport?



I have come to realise that Dubai pretty much has a bit of everything...South African products in the shops (Mark has already found a South African place in the Mall of Emirates that sells the most divinest biltong and droe wors for a lot cheaper than it was in London), UK shops (H&M, New Look, Waitrose etc), American shops (Forever 21, Banana Republic etc) and I'm sure many other countries goods too. Their main originality (well to me anyway) comes in with their Emirati traditional dress and of course their religious prayers being broadcast throughout the day (although I'm sure this happens in other countries too), otherwise it's pretty much like everywhere else and just as worldly and if not more, with everyone driving the biggest and fanciest cars and having the latest gizmos and gadgets...



I am pleased to say we have found a place to stay, a lovely villa in The Lakes area, in Emirates Hills. It's a 3 bedroom villa, with a study and maids room (so plenty of room for visitors) and is not even 1 minute away from the pool, park and children's play area in Zulal section of The Lakes. It's about a 2 minute drive away from The Lakes Community Centre and Club House, which has another pool, gym, restaurant and bar, children's play area, bbq areas, a local shop and schools, with easy access to Sheikh Zayed Road (which is the main highway and gets you to all areas of Dubai). I move in tomorrow! :)








We have hired a car and since I am still on a visitor visa (Mark now having his residence visa), and us both still having our UK drivers licences, I am the only one who can drive it. Now I'm not the most confident driver on a highway at the best of times...so I was very apprehensive about driving in Dubai for the first time...since everywhere is basically a highway. Not to mention they drive on the wrong side of the road, with left hand drive cars (which I have never driven before) and as I have mentioned before they all drive like crazy people. So my first driving experience was nerve wracking to say the least, and to add to it, it was dark, rush hour and the TomTom decided to take us on an extra little adventure instead of where we were supposed to be going. I'm pleased to say we got there in the end and only 10 minutes late...so not bad going! :) The next day however I decided the trains were a better option again and the car remained in the parking lot.

Other than that...not much else to report...besides the fact that as Murphy would have it, I am currently a lonely little housewife - my husband has jetsetted off to Johannesburg for a work conference and my friend Carol has jetsetted off on her first flight as an official Emirates Air Hostess, to Beijing.

Congratulations Carol!

Another congratulations, goes to the new Mr and Mrs Christie, who got married on the 22nd January in the lovely PE! Congratulations Jan and Daine - wish we could have been there to celebrate with you! But I'm looking forward to hearing all about it on my trip to London and of course seeing the pics.

Next up for me, a trip to London to get our stuff shipped and most importantly to fetch the Molster!!

Good-Bye London Town and 2010

Hello Dubai and 2011...
A new year, a new country, a new city, a new culture, a new apartment, a new job (well for Mark anyway), a new lifestyle (for us both, but very much me), and just pretty much everything else NEW too. It's a very strange feeling, and somewhat different to the feeling I had over 8 years ago when first arriving in London. It's our 4th day here and yet it still doesn't quite feel real...although it's Mark's first day in the office, so it might start feeling very real to him now...I on the otherhand have just finished a gym session and a couple of laps in the pool! A New Years Resolution (although not quite a new one, as it's the same one I have every year...but hopefully this time I will stick to it!) :)

A catch up since Christmas Eve...
The last few days in London consisted mainly of packing...Boxing Day was a good day for it and we pretty much finished the most of it.

We fitted in a small farewell lunch at the Crooked Billet in Wimbledon Common (although the lunch turned into a marathon 12 hour session...), in which the boys decided to drink the pub almost completley dry of their Guinness, while the girls decided to take part in the Pub Quiz, which I'm pleased to say we didn't come last in! :)

We had Mark's cousins, Russell and Miriam round for lunch where Sarah and Daniel kept us entertained with a couple of games of hide and seek. Mark was again quite a hit with the kiddies.

We also had newlyweds Bron and Luke round, (Molly's new 'temporary' parents) to show them the ropes of their new home and how to take care of the demanding Molster....who very much to our dismay, but delight as well, proceeded to make herself quite comfortable on Luke within a few minutes... On our last night Molly decided to give us the cold shoulder and for the first time since moving into our new house, slept almost all of the night downstairs in the lounge instead of nestled under my chin. So unfortunately her stalking around the empty rooms over the last few days meant she had a pretty good idea of what was happening by the end of it.

Before we new it our taxi had arrived and we were en route to the airport. I was on the phone pretty much the whole way and had a strange calmness about me (a first for me since I normally check my bag for the passports, itinerary's etc a million times). As we were flying business class (highly recommended...of course) we didn't have to wait in a queue to check in. We were allowed 40kgs of luggage, and if you can believe it we were about 10 kgs under weight (another first). We then did a a little duty free shopping, before heading to the business class lounge. What bliss! There is free food, drinks, magazines, comfy lounge chairs, you name it.... and we could see our plane on the tarmac right outside the window. The gate through which we would board was also only a few paces away! Once on board, we were treated to fabulous service and food...who knew you actually got proper stainless steel knives and forks, not to mention china plates, and real glasses on a plane? We have seriously been missing out! We watched a couple of movies, received a toiletry bag with....wait for it...Bvlgari products in it and then proceeded to stretch out flat in our seats for a lovely comfortable (for an aeroplane) sleep! DIVINE!

Once we arrived in Dubai, an Emirates car took us to what would be our new home for the next month...an apartment at Chelsea Towers. We were taken up to our room on the 22nd floor, where we were pleasantly surprised with 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and some awesome views (we had expected a 1 bed apartment ).
We went straight to bed, considering it was 4.30am Dubai time (just after midnight in the UK) but not before we heard, what would be the first of many, muslim prayers...blasted forth on the loudspeaker somewhere nearby. I have yet to count, but I think they pray at least 6 or more times a day.

On our first day, our first adventure was to get to the Dubai Mall (one of the biggest in the world) which is only about a 5 min drive from our apartment. We had only taken a few steps upon entering the mall and I saw someone I knew...Janine Roos from school, who now lives in Iran and was out here on hols with her husband and daughter. A very small world indeed...

We did our first grocery shop at Waitrose (a London shop, if you can believe), and got highly ripped off... Regardless of that fact it was nice to see so many familiar South African, as well as London products in the store.

...Old Year / New Year's eve
We headed to the mall again, this time to sort out a sim card (since had had left our passports at home the day before). It was here that I experienced the importance of male company...firstly there is no queue system - you can wait in line as much as you like, but at least 3 or more people will just push in front of you anyway. Males are generally served first, even if you are already in the process of being served, should a male come along they will still be served. Nevermind...

We then came 'home' to chill by the pool where Carol (yes, my Aussie Bridesmaid is here too...she has taken a job with Emirates to become an Air Hostess and luckily for me will be based in Dubai...it's so nice to have at least one friend here) joined us.

For the New Years celebrations we headed down to Jumeirah Beach, for an awesome Beach party at Barasti...it was like St Francis, but bigger (and better), although a lot more expensive too... They had a live band on one stage, at the pool area and a DJ on the stage at the beach. At midnight we were treated to some awesome fireworks from the Atlantis Hotel at the end of the Jumeirah Palm Island, to celebrate the start of 2011.

What a great start to what will hopefully be an awesome and exciting year!

Happy New Year All! I hope your 2011 is even better than your 2010. Wishing you all lots of love, happiness and health for the year ahead.

A lot of 'lasts'...

happened yesterday...(well at least for 3 months)

The last time I woke to an alarm to get me up for work, the last commute into work on trains and buses, the last day in the office, the last time I had to wait for delayed train on the way home, the last time I had to use my oyster card, the last time we hosted a dinner at our place.

Shona, Stephanie (her mom), Amy and Nick came over for dinner...it was another bitterly cold day, and we decided to use what ingredients we still had in the cupboard, so I came up with a sausage hot pot to warm the cockels of our hearts.




It still doesn't quite feel real that we will be leaving London in 5 days...and in my attempt to try and not get too sad and teary eyed...I shall concentrate on enjoying the last few days and start looking forward to the load of 'first' times we will be experiencing real soon!

Happy Christmas Eve All!

Happy Anniversary to us...

...1 year already!

Today is our 1 year wedding anniversary...I can't believe how the last year has flown! It has been one of our busiest years...in a nutshell...we got married, it snowed in the UK, 2 courses for my degree (overlapping each other), our honeymoon, a Gordan Ramsay at Claridges experience, an SA trip for Ian and Helen's wedding, our first god-daughter, Kayla, my mom's visit to the UK, my 1st exam, a holiday to Greece with my mom, assignments galore, my 30th birthday (and many others), a trip to Amsterdam with Mark, buying a new house, completely renovating it, moving in (builders in toe), Mark's trip to Dubai, for a job, getting offered the job and accepting it, another exam, loads and loads of birthday parties, a weekend to Bristol to see the family, Molly going through numerous injections for her pet passport, deciding to take a 3 month sabbatical from work, more snow in the UK, a holiday to Zanzibar for Steven and Ilze's wedding, numerous work Christmas lunches, even more snow, packing up the house and getting ready to move to Dubai.

Definitely quite a jam packed year and one to be remembered! Lets hope the next year together is a bit more relaxed, but just as much fun (a lot warmer)!

Morning / Afternoon / Early evening



Happy Anniversary Mark! I love you lots and look forward to many more happy years with you!

Jambo Jambo

...a Zanzibar hello.

We left a cold and snowy London on Saturday, 4th December, and arrived in Zanzibar on Sunday, to the complete opposite weather extreme...32 degrees heat and lots of humidity! We weren't even there more than half an hour and we were in our cossies and in the pool, which was more like a bath! The first day pretty much consisted of relaxing around the pool, in between swims and sleeps and lots of eating! Bliss!




The next day, we had an early start...breakfast at 07h30, before being fetched for our dives at 08h00. Mark's way of kickstarting his holiday...no time for lie ins. The tide levels in Zanzibar are quite extreme and generally it seemed to be low tide in the mornings, which also happened to be the best time to go diving. So our ride to the dive centre, not to mention the beach turned out to be quite an interesting excursion that even the best 4x4's would find it difficult to make the journey completely comfortable, and lets face it, very few 3rd world countries would have the best 4x4's to choose from. Nevertheless we made it to the beach and once we had completed the hike out to the boat, the sea , even although it too was quite warm, was very welcoming. The dives went off well, spotting stingrays, lion fish, moray eels and many other fish.



We got back to the hotel with an hour to spare before the wedding bus was leaving...
Dressed and showered in good time, we boarded the wedding bus and headed to the ruins near Stone Town where Steven and Ilze were married, in a lovely (and bi-lingual) ceremony. Everyone was in white, from bride, wedding party and the guests...with the bridesmaids dresses adding a bit of colour in the form of a blue sash or blue flower and blue parasols. The family photos were down on the steps of the ruins before moveing down to a nearby beach. The bus returned to collect the guests and take them to the reception venue, which was on the beach at a restaurant owned by a South African couple. The setting was gorgeous (and still exteremly hot). The bride and groom (and a couple of others) arrived by Dow (the type of boats used in Zanzibar) and were welcomed by some traditional Zanzibar dances and music. The reception got underway with Raul and Penny as the MCs for the evening...once the speeches were done and food was eaten, the entertainment for the evening began with a Zanzibar band providing the music. Before we knew it, the bus arrived to take us back to the hotel, which bought and end to a lovely day.



The day after the wedding consisted of more relaxing by the pool, amongst swims, sleeps and food. The Wednesday was another early start with almost all of the wedding guests, who were up early to get another bus for the days planned snorkelling trip, Safari Blue that had been organised by Verimaak and James Bond (some of the locals on the beach who organise tours separate from the hotels for a more reasonable rate). First stop was a large sandbank, where we saw an assortment of fish. We then headed to a little island for lunch, which consisted of lots and lots of seafood, including lobster and crayfish (which was a first for us). From there we headed to a mangroves patch, where the water was incredibly salty and some who have yet to be able to float before enjoyed a session of chilling and floating in the sea. That night we headed to the pizza restaurant on the beach which was part of the hotel for a wedding party meal, which also happened to be Marius birthday.




Thursday it was time for Aunty Angela and Uncle Phil to head back to London, so we spent the day at the hotel chilling and relaxing some more.

The Friday most of the wedding party headed out for a day trip excursion to Stone Town, Prison Island with large and old tortisous as well as a Spice Island tour. Since we had done somethng similar in Sri Lanka, Mark and I decided to do some more diving instead of joining the tour, and would make our own way to Stone Town later in the afternoon. The dives went off well again, where we saw yet more stingrays, moray eels, lion fish and a couple of crocodile fish. Back at the hotel we got ready for our trip into Stone Town on the Dalla Dalla (Zanzibar's answer to the Sri Lanka's tuk tuk and South Africa's black taxis). One pulled up just as we got to the road at the end of the hotel driveway...perfect timing. The cost was 1500 Tanzanian shillings (which amounts to just over $1). Onlyone local onboard could speak English and he informed us it would take 45min to 1 hour to get to Stone Town. Normally he would be going into Stone Town, however not that day. A couple of stops later he left us, nerve wrackingly enough with a 'good luck' message. The journey started off well, and were were about the 5th people onboard...however as the journey progressed the more passengers it picked up. Mark and I were the butt of many a joke from the locals onboard, as we were obviously sitting in the worst position, which got more and more uncomfortable as the number of passengers increased...bum room was great, but leg room was another story. At one point I counted 23 people inside, with 5 hanging off the back...parcels inside by our feet and not to mention on top of ceiling. An hour later (pretty spot on if you ask me) we arrived on the main strip in Stone Town...where we were greeted by an unbelievable stench, of old fish and food lying rotting on the ground. A friendly local saw us tourists and offered to show us to an atm machine, where we could draw some money...the first 3 atms we went to were broken. The 4th thankfully worked...next point of call was a foreign exchange. Again our local yocal took us to a foreign exchange, which for some reason had absolutely no American dollars, so off we headed to another. Once our money was changed up, our friendly local proceeded to show us round the main parts of Stone Town, pointing out some of the most beautiful carved doors, all of which had a story behind them. We kept an eye on the time as our friendly local in the Dalla Dalla had warned us on the way into town to make sure we were on our return journey before 6pm. So come 17h30 we were back where we started and our friendly guide for the day made sure we got back on the right Dalla Dalla to head back to our hotel. Again Mark and I got the bad seats, but the further we progressed in the more the tried to move our way to one of the better seats...not before we were again the butt of some of the locals jokes. And just when I thought not another bum could fit...a big mamma got on and proceeded to put her bum in my face before squeezing it into the smallest space you have ever seen, which then obviously encroached upon my already non existent space. Regardless of having to travel this way, for at least an hour each way, the locals were extremely pleasant and happy, laughing and joking and the children are taken care of by each and everyone on the Dalla Dalla showing their humbleness, which was really amazing. We made it back to the hotel safe and sound... after quite an adventure filled day and one that we are very glad we got to experience...in time to have one last dinner with the family before they all left the following day.





Mark and I, having arrived a day after everything in the beginning, had a further day to enjoy relaxing by the pool, before our very early 4am start on the Sunday morning, making our way back to the freezing cold London...but not before experiencing our real African adventure...Dar Es Salaam airport!