Life without friends, I couldn't do it.

My friends the past few months have been a lifeline for me after my dad died and I found myself 1000's of miles from my home in Dubai trying to juggle my emotions with dealing with his sudden death, clearing out a life times collection of his stuff that had little value or worth to others, helping mum sell the house and purchase a new flat, one son emigrating to Australia, another being deployed to the Middle East, the teen leaving school, my health, a scare with cancer and a diagnosis of pneumonia, as well as the general day to day issues. Whilst hubby stayed in Dubai keeping our lives afloat financially and everyone else around me, despite their grief, apart from mum, still had their own homes, families and day to day lives to return to, some normality.

I'm a very social person, I'll chat with anyone, anywhere. I've made friends in the town where my parents and family live. I've never lived there. I'm known in the coffee shop, with the only question they need to ask is whether I'm drinking in or out that day. I know all the neighbours where we bought a flat last year and we chat. The woman in the post office asks about my son in the Middle East when I post a BFPO box out to him and enquires about the other kids and their girlfriends as various, random packages are sent to different locations. In the pub, they know my drink and even make me a cup of tea, if I just fancy some company and not alcohol. I've been offered the use of a car, lifts to the airport, my phone book list has grown. I've met my Mums neighbours, I pop round for a drink, met lovely baby twins that have melted my heart, their Mum was so kind to me and the teen the night my dad died and now probably a life long friend in the making.

I’m still in touch with school friends from when I was 5 in primary school and from secondary school aged 11+. We will meet occasionally, as in once a year or even less, but we chat maybe once every few months or so on face book.

I have another set of friends that come and go more frequently in my life, where we can go a couple of years without seeing one another, but keep in regular contact online and via mail, in fact I have a couple of friends I have regular contact with with that I've never actually met. These friends have shared happy and sad times with me, not necessarily at the same time or same events, important events in both our lives, our partners and our children.

I also have friends that have come and gone, been there for big events in one another lives and for day to day stuff also that I no longer have contact with, we've drifted apart through life experiences, fall outs or just grown apart for whatever reason.

I have day to day friends, acquaintances, people I meet up with when I'm in Dubai or the UK, but we're not involved in one another lives to share emotions, thoughts and feelings, just day to day stuff, say hi and hang out with from time to time.

I have another set of friends who have featured prominently in mine and my children’s lives and me in theirs also for a very long time. Three friends I've known for 24, 19 and 15 years. These 3 friends don't do social media, but their children do. Keeping in touch has been harder, especially when we lived in South Africa and the postal system was less reliable, but since moving to Dubai 3 years ago and with more frequent visits to the UK, the friendship has become closer, we've shared births, marriages, divorces, children leaving home, in one case the arrival of grandchildren. Our partners get on well, our kids grew up together, we've babysat one another kids, their kids looked after ours, our kids are now looking after their kids, we've all moved houses, lost a parent (or two) recently. We all know one another, we all ask after the others, everyone knows how important these friends are in my life. The kids are in contact with the adults, with the children, both through me and independently.

These 3 friends in particular are my lifeline, they keep me going, they are part of me. Everyone I met holds some significance in my life, be it on a short journey or for a lifetime, in real life or online. There's always someone around that just has the right words at the right time, even if it's just a random stranger asking if I'm ok in a supermarket like they did last week, when something triggered my upset about my Dads death.

My Sunday Photo - Week 152. Y is for Yule

We’re often under the misconception that things cost more in Dubai due to import costs and exchange rates, but hubby and I had a bit of a shock last week when playing a game of ‘let’s go to Waitrose and do a price comparison’

Hubby will WhatsApp me from our local store in Dubai and I’ll check the nearest one out to where I am when I’m in the UK. 

This time we were looking at Christmas decorations. Hubby spotted these crackers priced at AED 144.00 that’s almost £30 for 6 crackers. 

Challenge accepted and look what I found.

You’ll notice in both photos they are priced in £. Waitrose in the UK were offering them for sale with 50% off. No doubt they’ll come down in price in Dubai also but seriously at £5 per cracker and with the standard contents just made out of metal rather than plastic we won’t be buying them in either country.

Apart from putting up my tree in the flat for the teen and sending all my Christmas cards and playing Santa with nephews and nieces and friends, Christmas for me is done in the UK. 

Birmingham airport provided me with my last glimpse of Christmas in the UK on Wednesday afternoon. Give me chance to move house this week, get my decorations up and get out and about in Dubai and I’ll show you how we do Christmas over here.

One daily Positive - Week 47

Another week of 2 halves, this time starting in the UK and ending in Dubai. Why is it that the day I leave more paperwork arrives for mum, this time for the purchase of her new home. Hopefully with her new phone and the solicitors sending everything to me electronically it'll all be a lot easier than when we dealt with the paperwork for the house sale.

I keep thinking how strange it is to be back after so long, but I was here for just over 2 weeks in November to sort out our house move and now I'm back again ready for the actual event.

323 Sunday I love
Pottered around in the day, pleased to see local volunteers cleaning up the old NatWest Carpark of rubbish, shame the bank can't sort it and that dreadful graffiti. Met friends and 2 and 2a for late lunch in the local pub for the afternoon/early evening.

324 Monday Frame within a frame
Mum and I headed off early to catch the train from Newport to London for a fashion shoot with a National Newspaper for an article on Mums, daughters and grandchildren living in different countries and coping in a crisis. We've had our fair share of drama this year for sure. I met friends for dinner in the evening.

325 Tuesday Old
Lots of last minute racing around to visit 3 of my oldest friends, to say goodbye until February. none of them do Social Media

326 Wednesday Planning
Up early and off to Malvern to catch the train to Birmingham Airport, I drove then Mum pottered around the retail park. It was an uneventful trip home, no fire alarms, the flight was full so no sleeping, a long queue for a taxi on arrival and home to an empty house.

327 Thursday Shop
A busy day, unpacked, collected cat and dog, had water and electricity connected at the new house and off to Mall of the Emirates and purchased some new winter shoes, had lunch out and an early night.

328 Friday Skyline
Peter arrived home in the early hours and we headed off to a local mall for coffee and cake and then went to Dubai Mall for a late lunch, spent the evening just chilling out and watching TV.

329 Saturday Fur
I boxed up my glass ornaments, the cat is NOT a fan of sellotape and runs for the hills when she hears it. The dog will just go into panic overdrive.

On the blog this week:

My Sunday Photo - Z is for Zip. I won't miss the UK weather.
Triumphant Tales, Tweens Teens Beyond - Spending quality time with Mum, a day out in London on a photo shoot.
PoCoLo - Moving Home in Dubai Part 2 and hidden costs after a relocation.

Moving House in Dubai Part 2 and Hidden costs after a relocation

We're on the move again, but this time just down the road, not a different country. We've been in this property for almost 3 years and I suspect there will be a few new purchases to be made when we move in to our new home. 

We are moving into a new build property, complete with appliances and our only costs will be to block pave the sandpit and erect a fence. 

However it won't be as expensive as it has been when we've relocated overseas, because this move we can take everything with us, including the contents of our fridge.

I had 3 companies quote for moving, some companies have included insurance, others have had to be chased up for it. All companies will pack and part of the insurance is a requirement that they unpack everything on the day they move you, but not back into cupboards, just onto surfaces to make sure nothing is broken so you can't make a claim further down the line that can be disputed. This is a pain in the backside as it means you don't get time to rest and on our last move to Dubai, we couldn't find several kitchen items for a week afterwards until we had the oven connected. 

For this move though I have found a company who will pack, move, unpack us and put everything away and remove all the packaging on the same day. But they will not pack and transport, valuables such as jewelry or alcohol and I have to pack all fragile ornaments.

When you move house, you pack your food up and take it with you, all of it, maybe not the milk and you've probably run the freezer down, but I bet you take herbs and dried goods and probably the sauces.

At least with this move we don't have to throw a big party to consume all our alcohol as that can't be packed when moving overseas.

But when you relocate from one country to another you have to start over, from fresh and I mean everything.

You can't pack half opened jars of spices or packet mixes. You can't take the salt and pepper grinders unless emptied and cleaned. You can't take cleaning materials and laundry detergents either.

The packers are responsible for what goes in your container. Every single item has to be declared and a value given, if you try sneaking something in and your container is checked at customs, not only will the item be confiscated, but you'd be fined and it will seriously delay the delivery of your belongings.

But when you've just relocated from one country to another and you've had to give away or sell at a loss so many other things that are banned on entry, such as outdoor and garden furniture and bikes, unless steam cleaned with a certificate when moving from the UK to South Africa or you're told DVD's and books declared on the inventory when moving to Dubai can seriously hold your container up so you give them all away with a few favourites in your checked luggage.

The last you thing you want to do or can even afford to do is restock all your cupboards from scratch, knowing at some point you'll be on the move again and have to start over once more.

Spending quality time with Mum

With living abroad and being a mother of 5 myself, life is busy and hectic.
Over the past 7 years traveling back to the UK has been limited, trying to spread myself around the kids, parents, in laws, extended family, friends.

When we lived in South Africa it was two visits a year, since moving to Dubai it’s been 3 visits a year, but with the kids being scattered around the UK, most of my time has been spread thinly and all visits have been a rush starting with a round of hello’s merging quickly into goodbyes. With 2 of the children spreading their wings and moving further a field, this task has become harder.

The kids do come out to visit and my mum came to Dubai last year and we get some quality time together, but I was working last year and the time felt rushed.

So last year Peter and I decided to invest in a property in the UK where I’d have a base and be able to invite family and friends to visit to enable us to have more quality time with everyone.

It has worked and it hasn’t worked. Where the kids have been able to visit and stay, it’s a 1 bed flat and it’s been packed, I haven’t had my own space to chill out in as planned and when Peter has joined me, we’ve had limited space as it’s been used as a dumping ground by everyone, storing belongings for child 3 who has since moved to Australia and it’s Now home to an 18 year old who due to family issues this summer with the death of my father and his paternal grandmothers ill health has seen him finish 4 years in boarding school and was overlooked when it came to supporting him with finding a job.

But despite all of this, I’ve actually had some of the best times this year with my family, the time we’ve spent together, although tinged with great sadness with the loss of a husband, father, granddad and great granddad, has been wonderful.

We’ve created so many new memories, our relationships have changed, new roles have been adapted, gaps have been filled and new adventures taken up.

Mum and I had the opportunity to travel to London this week for a mother and daughter photo shoot with a National Newspaper for an article on Mothers, Daughters and Grandchildren living in different countries and how we manage.

It’s not something Mum and I would normally do together, Dad would be laughing his socks off at us, once he’d finished telling us how ricidulous we were being, but he’d have looked forward to buying the paper next week. It’ll be online also. I’ll post a link if you’re really THAT interested.

My Sunday Photo - Week 151 Z is for Zip

I've now seen all 4 seasons in the UK, starting with a short trip in Spring and a visit to Northern Ireland before cutting my visit short to fly out to Hong Hong to the Rugby 7s for a long weekend and then returning to the UK with Peter for a week for our youngest Childs 18th birthday.

I was then back in Summer where the temps were somewhat better, arriving in the week where temps topped 30c and still here in Autumn where everyone was moaning how they'd had a crap summer weather wise in the UK, how short are some people's memories.

I left the UK on October the 19th and returned to Dubai until November 6th. The weather was still quite mild in the UK when I left, however since my return it's been cold, wet and dark by mid afternoon and definitely winter here now.

It's quite a challenge to know how to dress each day, plenty of layers to combat the cold of the mornings, plus the rain, my boots aren't waterproof anymore, I'm damp all the time, my hair is frizzy from the moisture and my skin is drying out from the heating and the cold. My chill blains are back in my fingers and hands and so far I've managed to misplace 2 umbrellas.

As much as I miss having weather, living out in Dubai, I certainly don't miss the UK winter. Mind you the summer in Dubai isn't pleasant either when temps reach high 40s.

I need to plan better for next year, at least I can leave all my winter gear in the UK and my summer clothes in Dubai and travel light.

One Daily Positive - Week 46

There have been a couple of trips to the pub, to see friends, lots of walks and bike rides and plenty of lie in’s this week. I’ve started on a course of steroids and I'm feeling much better, although I've now started to feel sick when I lie down at night.

316 Sunday Poppy
I joined in with Remembrance Sunday service in town. Disappointed with a handful of women who talked through the two minute silence, Lords Prayer and National Anthem. Feeling worse health wise, shortness of breath now and constant coughing, antibiotics finished and started a course of steroids. Watched TV and had a sleep after lunch and late afternoon I walked to mums to collect her car for the morning.

317 Monday Silhoutte
Off to Gloucester with child 2 and 2a to visit child 1.

318 Tuesday Beauty
Posted the last parcel to child 4 in the Middle East and to 4a for Christmas. Sent of a box of goodies to 3 and 3a out in Australia and a few bits and pieces to friends in the UK. I had an upset in Waitrose thinking about my Dad when I realised I won't be doing any Christmas shopping for him this year, a few kind words from a stranger who recognised my struggles was much appreciated and prevented further tears. Spent the evening with a friend.

319 Wednesday Happy
Had a lovely lie in and Mum phoned she had cabin fever and wanted to pop out for a bit so we went to Abergavenny for a spot of shopping and lunch. I fixed one of dads bikes up and cycled back to the flat. Child 1 was taken to hospital after being unable to weight bare, X-rays showed nothing broken but a worrying few hours while we waited for news.

320 Thursday Muse
Christmas cards and letters written, made several phone calls to sort out Mum's flat purchase and helped friends out with some advice. A new neighbour moved in, he's very noisy at 6.30am in the morning, what is it with people unable to walk upstairs without clanging the rails with their shopping and inability to close their flat door quietly?

321 Friday Nature
Coffee in town with Mum, more phone calls and paperwork then over to mums for a family party. I cycled over and took the car back dropping off a bay and olive tree for my friend to look after when Mum moves.

322 Saturday Colour
I had a lie in and wandered into town for a coffee and post the last of my Christmas cards, I then spent the afternoon in the flat, blogging and catching up with the week's linkys and popped out to visit a friend, before having a long soak in the bath and an early night.

On the blog this week:

My Sunday Photo - R is for Rain. I was only away from the UK for just under 3 weeks, it appears I've returned to winter now.

TriumphantTales TweensTeensBeyond PoCoLo Mother of the Groom. Child 2 and 2a are getting married in June 2018. What the hell am I going to wear?

AnimalTales and linking up with Z is for Zoo. Dubai Zoo closes it's doors after 50 years.  and Bobs pre school assessment. Day care for Bob the Dog.

Mother of the Groom

I need help and lots of it. On a normal day, it's no make up and hair scrapped up in a ponytail. This photo however was taken after a couple of hours with a make up artist, hairdresser, a professional photographer and with excellent lightening and probably some editing as it was for a national newspaper.

I can do dressed up, I love having my nails done, not such a big fan with my hair and make up as I can never recreate the look, but don’t do too bad by myself.

Next year Peter is best man at a friends wedding. I bought a dress, have shoes, jacket and a bag and wasn’t bothering with a hat. I made a hair appointment for the morning and I was good to go.

But now child 2 and 2a have announced they’re getting married in June 2018. I’ve gone into meltdown, there’s so much to do. I need a hat, my dress is lovely but it’s NOT Mother of the Groom, it’s Wife of the Best Man.

I’m chilled out about any help, guidance, support that the Bride and Groom want or need. I’ve been shown the guest list, been asked for my input into the cake, wedding dress, photographer,  bridesmaids etc although these decisions will mainly be decided upon by the Bride and her family.

I’ll appreciate any and all help/advice please that you have for me and my choice of outfit, including where to shop and recommendations on what I should avoid wearing (other than a full on white dress of course)

One Daily Positive - Week 45

I started the week in Dubai and I've been having my fair share of Michael Macintyre moments so far this week. I watched 'the best of' on youtube on Sunday morning and realised how much my life mimics his comedy.

I totally relate to leaving the house in Dubai in the middle of the day and was wondering if I could cook Sunday dinner just by leaving it outside, but I did try frying an egg here in the middle of summer and it's not possible, something to do with evaporation. I also stood at the crossroads for two turns with another woman waiting for our turn to cross the road and realised neither of us had pressed the button and I was phased on a few occasions with the sensors on the taps in the public bathrooms and went all karate style trying to get the water and air to flow and had to seek assistance. This isn't a first for me, I've had to ask how a tap works here before in Dubai. I also did that thing at the airport where I opted to walk  at the same speed as those on the travelator.

My week ended in the UK still on the same theme, wondering if I can be overwhelmed and underwhelmed, why I can't just be whlemed somedays, my kind of normal.

309 Sunday Bonfire. Putting the kettle on is the closest I get to any fire in Dubai.
Dropped Bob at pre school, had the car valeted and popped to the beach for 5 minutes for this weeks My Sunday Photo, had my nails done, hospital appointment with the Pulmologisit and called in at Home Affairs to check the status of the teens visa, quick hoover, collected Bob, walked friends dogs and fed them while their owners are away, dinner, packed and early night.

310 Monday Rule of Thirds. 3 seats to myself for the flight.
Up early and off to airport for my flight to the UK. It was an uneventful journey and I was collected by a friend for the drive back to South Wales.

311 Tuesday Looking Up
Not feeling well so took it easy with a stroll into town and a coffee and a catch up with the UK post. Mum popped round in the afternoon.

312 Wednesday Street
Off to mums to box up the last of dads stuff, one last chance to look through all his things before they go to auction.

313 Thursday Blue
Auction house arrived, with driver only, so the task of loading the van fell to my sister and I and getting a 6ft pool table down the stairs was not an easy task. It was a bitter sweet day.

314 Friday Graffiti
Mum and I went to Cwmbran for some Christmas shopping, to get 2 parcels sorted and out to the Middle East and Australia to 2 of the kids. In the afternoon I met friends for a drink and in the evening off to see another. Mum's car wouldn't start, so calling on a 3rd friend to collect me, I left the car for the night to deal with in the morning.

315 Saturday Unbalanced
Sister took me and mum to rescue the car, we ended up in Gloucester having a new battery fitted and stoped out for lunch, she dropped me at a friends on the way home and I walked back to the flat in the rain and was asleep in bed by 8pm.

I can't believe the difference in the weather since I was here only 3 weeks ago, it's now winter and I'm so done with this rain already. My health isn't improving, despite finishing yet another course of antibiotics. I've had enough now

In the blog this week:

My Sunday Photo - Week 149 S is for Sun. On the beach in Dubai.
TriumphantTales TweenTeensBeyond PoCoLo Bob's preschool assessment. Bob the Dog goes to day care.

My Sunday Photo - Week 150 R is for Rain.

So last week I was back home in Dubai with S is for Sun. This week I’m back in Wales with R is for Rain.

When I left the UK mid October the weather was still quite mild, 2 and a half weeks later, despite the odd sunny day, it's now cold, dark and very damp.

Bobs Pre School Assessment.

As a mother of 5 kids ranging in ages between 18 and 29 it came as a bit of a surprise when Bob came into our lives.

We opted to do things differently this time and chose to home school Bob, but he is now 7 and we've come to realise that he needs to spend more time with others, despite him having good social and communication skills. He is a little clingy towards me and with me having to spend so much time away, he has been having anxiety issues that my husband has found difficult to deal with on his own. So my hand has been forced and I've had to go through the process of selecting a school for him to attend.

I had already visited several schools and done my research carefully over the past 3 years, knowing this day would come and we have of course used some of the holiday facilities in the past, but I'd never left him on his own. So last week, I made the decision to book him into a school near where we are relocating to at the end of the month for his pre school assessment.

I must confess I hadn't done much preparation in regards to discussing this with Bob, I really didn't want to put my anxieties and worries onto him. So the night before we packed his day bag, with a drink and snacks and a familiar toy and made sure we had an early night.

In the car on the way there in the morning I told Bob about where we were going and what was going to happen, how they were going to assess him and that I would be back after lunch time to collect him. I filled in all the paper work on arrival and then Bob was led off into the school, without glancing back once. I then asked what I was to do and they said I could go home and return at 1pm.

I didn't want to go home, what if there was a problem? It was a 30 minute drive each way, so having not done this for a good few years, I turned to Social Media for advice and was told to go find a coffee shop near by, buy a magazine and keep an eye on the phone, this is after all a very stressful situation for any parent and was a natural response to be worried and concerned.

I couldn't wait for 4 hours, so I arrived back an hour early and was told Bob had been fine, he'd passed the assessment with flying colours and had been accepted into their day care facility and I was welcome to go and see him at play and view the facilities.

Bob was extremely happy to see me and show me around and introduce me to his new friends. He seems happy there and the staff were welcoming and friendly and I'll be more than happy for Bob to attend regular sessions from now on. Bob was shattered when we got home so it was Macdonald's for tea all round and another early night as we had Halloween to prepare for the following day.

Oh just one thing........Did I mention Bob is a dog?

My Sunday Photo - Week 149 S is for Sun

I'm returning to the UK tomorrow so I thought I'd make most of the my last day of living near the beach, as when I return to Dubai at the end of the month, we're moving further inland to a brand new, smaller and much cheaper property. As much as I love living near the beach, it's too hot to visit most of the year, and whilst I love swimming and there is a life guard, there are also rip tides that worry me and the new house has a gym with pool near by and we can always drive down to the beach on the weekends anyway.

My plans to spend time on the beach were scuppered by a last minute hospital appointment at midday the other side of the city, but I managed to pop down for this photo while my car was being valeted.

One Daily Positive - Week 44

I may also have been a little curt and not my usual cheerful happy self this week, but sod it. I'm fed up of smiling and saying I don't mind when inside I'm sobbing and wondering why I tolerate things so much, it's certainly not for an easy life. We're all sorted now with our current tenancy contract so we'll hopefully be signing for a new place before I return to the UK next week, which takes a lot of pressure off me.

No clock change here, but that means we're now 4 hours ahead of the UK which makes communicating back home more difficult.

I'm feeling a lot better, I don't know if you've ever had pneumonia? I had it in 2007 and was hospitalised with it for over 2 weeks. It took me several months to recover. I have been diagnosed with 'walking' pneumonia, which means I don't realise how ill I actually am. I get my blood tests back this week that will show the strain, but the doctor suspects it's where I'm run down from the summer in the UK, a chest infection that I was probably unaware of, that has been left untreated since June when my white blood cells were sky high but any infection I had, had been masked by a 9 day migraine and the identification of a lesion on my brain as well as tests to rule out leukaemia. Yes, I ignored the cough, especially after my dad died in July.

Anyway on with the week.

302 Sunday Warm. Seeing as I'm not sleeping past 3am, I made the most of the night time weather and cleared out the sheds ready for moving, caught up with a ton of paperwork, realised if anything happened to me, hubby would have no clue how to access our online accounts so made a secret, password protected file stored online. He chose the password. Walked to the local shops for coffee to stop myself sleeping during the day and dropped hubby at the airport for an overnight trip to Saudi. I was exhausted by 6pm.

303 Monday Scare. Took Bob for an assessment at a play park, it lasted 4 hours, I stayed for a bit then went off to look around the area to see if it's somewhere we'd consider living. Got my car sorted in the afternoon, needed a new battery. Driving is challenging in Dubai, if you want to turn left you have to do a you turn, unless you're at a major intersection. Today's route involved 2 x 16 lane highways, I entered from the left slowly, everyone was trying to exit right at speed. I visited a Halloween store in the evening and bought inflatable balloons and spoke with the neighbour for the 5th time in 3 years, didn't know she'd had another child.

304 Tuesday Halloween. Hubby arrived home in the early hours. Food shopped, carved a melon, it was cheaper than a pumpkin, baked some cakes for the neighbourhood kids and decorated the outside of the house. I then took Bob to a Howl O Ween party, it's at the place where he boards and he loves it there, came away with a goodie bag full of treats. Got back to hand out treats to the neighbourhood kids and ran out in an hour, tidied up and went to bed early. I may have over done it today.

305 Wednesday First. The whole day was spent house hunting, considering we have to move out at the end of the month, you'd think we'd have something sorted by now, but no, that's not how Dubai works. There are loads of places we like it's just all about location.

306 Thursday Must. Doctors appointment first thing. White Blood Cells still high, in fact they've gone up again so more bloods taken and a bit B injection in my bum. Hubby dropped me off, we had coffee and afterwards I tried to catch the bus home, but my travel card was empty so I walked to the shops and got a taxi. 2 companies came to quote for packing and moving us. Such a wonderful view from the bus stop outside the Doctors.

307 Friday Self Portrait. More house viewing, everything looks the same, everything is the same. Took Bob to a new play place in the afternoon Paw Parking, he chewed through all their tennis balls and took home a goodie bag full of treats.

308 Saturday Fireworks. Can't find any bonfire events anywhere. Found a house to rent, deposit paid and contract signed, just trying to get something in writing to confirm dogs are allowed. The front looks exactly like Day 305 but in a different location as in that location there is no shade at all.

On the blog this week:

My Sunday Photo - Z is for Zoo.

Triumphant Tales - I get really frustrated that companies assume everyone has access to the internet and knows how to use it. How to get things done without the internet?

PoCoLo - It iratates me when people tell me what I can and can't do in Dubai, especially when they don't live here and only go by what they read in the media. This week we did Halloween.

TweenTeensBeyond - Parents, Teens and Alcohol. Did you allow your kids to drink?