Saturday, 27 January 2018

One Daily Positive Week 4 and a tour of Dubai.

Last week I told you a little bit about myself, this week I'll introduce the children. As the year goes on they'll all feature in the blog and you'll be left wondering where these 'adults' have come from.

Child 1 and 2 are my step children, but we've all lived together since May 2000. Initially in 2 houses until Peter and I married in 2002. They consider themselves to have 3 brothers and 1 sister and refer to us as 'the parents' although the youngest calls me Suzanne, which seems to be a family trait as I always called my father by his first name and no one has any idea why.

Child 1 has profound learning disabilities, is 30 next month and she lives in a care home in the UK. Child 2 is 28 and 2a are getting married in June. Child 3 is 25 and 3a moved to Australia mid 2017 and are currently traveling and working their way around, they should be passing through Dubai in October. Child 4 is 23, joined the army and left home 4 years ago, leaving me with empty nest syndrome and a huge gap to fill. He's in the British Army and lives with 4a, when he's not deployed out in the Middle East. His medal parade takes place in March. Child 5, aged 18, lives in our flat in South Wales and finished his education in boarding school in the UK from the age of 13. He is waiting for security clearance on his first job offer.

I've included an extra photo this week so you know which one is which.
Top left Child 2 Andrew.
Top right Child 3 Jamie.
Middle right. Child 5, aka the teen, Alex.
Bottom right Child 4 Dan, 22.
Bottom left Child 1 Stephanie 30.


21 Sunday I've pretty much done all the jobs for January, was going to clean the balconies today but it's very windy, so pointless sweeping sand around. I sorted through some family photo's, tidied the rubbish from the garden, read blogs and commented and headed off to the Marina to take some up to date photo's for my theme of buildings 'now and then' for My Sunday Photo for next week.

22 Monday I had a coffee date with an instagram friend, after ironing, changing the beds, emptying the dishwasher, walking Bob, watering the garden and getting the car cleaned.

23 Tuesday Child 4 turned 24 today, there was a virtual birthday cake sent by photo and money deposited into his bank and a quick phone call. Sadly still no Skype in Dubai, it's at times like this I get upset. Peter's car needed servicing so he took mine to work and I hung around for the day, catching the train into Old Dubai and the Mall of Emirates until it was ready for collection at 5pm.

24 Wednesday I spent the day cleaning the house and some time in the garden blogging. I've been letting the cat out on a lead, she gets spooked easily with the traffic and runs back inside. I went to the pub for dinner at 7pm then some friends joined me for the pub quiz which we won.

25 Thursday I took Bob to the dog park and he went swimming after an hour of me throwing and him chasing the ball. Popped out to Ibn Battuta Mall to buy some warmer clothing for the evenings as I left all my winter clothing in the UK. In the evening we went out for dinner at The Beach and watched the fireworks that they've held every weekend for January for the Dubai Shopping Festival which comes to an end on Saturday.

26 Friday Intended to go to the beach this morning but woke up to heavy fog and Peter had arranged to spend time with a colleague who is moving to Dubai, so I joined them looking on a sightseeing tour of potential living areas. Went to Dubai Mall in the afternoon. Had invited friends to join us for a BBQ but they never replied to the message.

27 Saturday Had a call to go to the Doctors the other side of town for repeat WBC counts and was early so drank my coffee on the beach to complete the full tour of Dubai for the week. Spent the rest of the day in the garden. Peter decided we should test the garden out fully and we had a BBQ. 

On the blog this week:

My Sunday Photo - Dubai Frame
Tweens Teens Beyond and Triumphant Tales - Why do i share so much stuff online?






28 comments:

  1. Some lovely photos, Dubai architecture is amazing #365

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    1. it amazes me what they are capable of building

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  2. The garden is really coming together and hopefully the cat will get used to the noises in the garden. Love the architectural shots #365

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    1. thanks, the cat coined the phrase 'scaredy cat' i think

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  3. The old boat is such a contrast to all the modern skyscrapers. Is all the fencing job for your garden now finished? BBQ in January sounds great.

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    1. yep, fencing and garden complete, now time to join it, before it gets too hot

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  4. Some fabulous views of Dubai this week. The weather looks perfect at the moment, I do like the sound of a barbecue.

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    1. thanks, it's a little chilly in the mornings, but the days are perfect

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  5. Gorgeous photos! I have just had to show my teen. She is fascinated by Dubai.

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  6. Gosh the architecture out there is out of this world isn't it. It was nice having a wee line up of your kids too! #365

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    1. the kids will feature heavily throughout the year, so thought i'd best introduce them so no one wondered where they came from lol

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  7. Why did you beer repeat wbc counts? Did the first lot of results come back unclear? Not having Skype must be so frustrating. Does whatsapp video call work for you? I've been using it to call my dad in India and it works relatively well!

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    1. all VOiP is banned in Dubai, although it works wonderfully around the rest of the world

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  8. Some stunning pictures this week. Hope the wbc counts come out ok this time. It must be difficult without skype, hopefully it will be restored or there will be an alternative soon.

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    1. there is an alternative to Skype but on a subscriptiotion service and it relies on others downloading the app also and uses data not wifi, so in effect one pays twice for it

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  9. It's lovely where you live - shame about Skype though! It was nice to know more about your children #365

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    1. thank you, i do enjoy living here sometimes, other times i yearn for life back in the UK

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  10. The garden is really coming together, it looks fab. Hope the cat will get used it the noise. Love the photos x #365

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    1. the cat's job is purely to wind me up, do all this for both her and the dog and they're still complaining lol

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  11. Lovely tour of Dubai, the architecture is really interesting, fun to see some of the older buildings this week alongside the new. Love the shot of the boat with the skyscrapers behind.

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    1. I was actually disappointed a first that the boat was in my shot, but on reflection i rather like it now

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  12. Love that first picture of Dubai. I was so amazed by some of their buildings when we came! The garden looks great and hope the cat gets used to the noise soon!

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    1. the cat really did coin the phrase scary cat

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  13. Lovely to see a photo of all the children as I have seen you mention them lots during the last few years but not seen many pics! Thats a great idea for the cat when she gets spooked. Love the idea of fireworks in January, we have them here for each week of the summer holidays, but we have to wait until very late for them to look anything.

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    1. i do need to lengthen the cats lead you can only just make it back inside the door

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  14. So much blue sky! Very jealous as we have mostly grey clouds here! Love the different building designs. #project365

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    1. it's starting to get too hot here now, won't be long before i'm stuck indoors under the zircon

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