Saturday 7 December 2019

One Daily Positive - Week 49. Back to Dubai

I had a lovely last few days in the UK catching up with family and friends as well as finishing off the house, ready for the professionals to do their magic. Back in the UK in January with the cat and dog and the furniture isn't arriving until June, to give us time to finish all the jobs.

335 Sunday Had a day off from the house and the flat and spent the day with child 1 and child 5 in Gloucester, took child 5 back to Cirencester where he lives then joined Mum of 3 World at the Panto in Tewkesbury that her daughter is performing in. It's been 10 years since I've been in the UK around Christmas and fancied doing something Chritmassy

336 Monday Back to South Wales to clean the flat and meet the agent. I met mum, my niece with Thing 3 &4 and child 2, his wife 2a and our granddaughter 2b for lunch. Thing 3 really didn't like seeing me with my granddaughter. I'm his Aunty Suzanne and he hid under the table from the 2's. He came back to the flat with me to help hoover, child 2 did some repair jobs and 2a transferred everything out to my car.

337 Tuesday Last day and off for coffee, sort post and change of address, purchase a stair gate and hand keys to the agent. They're doing the arbitration for the repairs, identified as tenant liability, which currently stand around £2,500, as the deposit is £900 less I'm guessing we'll be out of pocket. Returned the car hire, had dinner and a beer at the airport, was asleep for take off, woken for food and a G&T, back to sleep, woken for breakfast.

Rediscovered this family picture Thing 1 drew for me back in October.

338 Wednesday Fell back asleep during landing. Peter collected me and I went back to sleep for 4 hours, got up, had lunch, a bath and back to sleep for another 4 hours. So unlike me to get this much sleep but I obviously needed it.

Last year the cat ate all her advent calendar in one go, this year it's hidden in the cupboard, the lure of the cat nip is too strong.

339 Thursday Took the cat to the vets for her final jab before her move to the UK and get vet books up to date. Grabbed a coffee and posted Peter's postal vote, mine hasn't arrived and doubtful Peter's will get back in time either. There has to be a better way for Brits abroad to be able to vote. Most other countries allow you to vote at your embassy, not the UK. Afternoon spent on paperwork online.

340 Friday Awake at 4am, caught up with blogs and writing posts. We went out for breakfast to the Creek and had a lovely long walk. Afternoon spent tidying the garden and we started Christmas off with the ultimate Christmas movie 'yippee ki yay'

341 Saturday Had a lie in and we went out Christmas shopping, I had to try my present on, but Peter selected the style and colour. Home to wash the dog and all the bedding and rugs. Peter cooked dinner and I had a little wine induced nap. Starting my packing for our trip to South Africa next week. Originally only Peter was going with work and rather than leave me at home alone, we booked a flight for me also.

On the blog this week:

Differences I notice between the UK and Dubai as an expat

I forgot to link up week 47 and week 48, so if you're interested in how the rest of the golf went and the house repossession went, do take a look.

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24 comments:

  1. Sounds like a lovely week, Suzanne, seeing a panto in the UK, meeting Sarah and all the extended family kids, plus your children. Glad to read that you were able to sleep for longer, your body must have needed it. What a palaver with the voting papers not arriving in time. We have voted already, as with my DH's frequents travels, he is never sure whether he's in or out of the country.

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    1. It was a lovely week and always good to catch up with family and friends

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  2. How lovely that you got to go and see the panto!
    That is rubbish about being out of pocket becuase of the repairs.
    hehehe! The cat and her calendar did make me chuckle. My girls get like that with their chocolate one's.
    Good on you for at least trying to vote. You're in a different country at the moment and care, I bet there is a lot of people here in the UK which won't even bother. x

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    1. Sarah doesn't live too far from where I will be based in the UK, the panto is literally half way between us.

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  3. Wow that's an impressive family picture. Annoying about the tenant costs. Glad you got to see the panto.

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  4. Thank you so much for going to the panto, it was lovely to see you. Poor Thing 3 being jealous of your granddaughter! I love the family picture, it must have taken ages to draw. How annoying that your postal votes might not make it back in time.

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    1. the panto was slow going in the first half, but once i got into it i really enjoyed it. Loved the singing and dancing of course

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  5. Glad you enjoyed the panto. You must have been really tired to sleep so much on the way back home. Not long now till your South Africa trip.

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    1. Too much alcohol and stress, could do nothing else other than sleep

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  6. oh dear a touch of jealousy from thing 3 is it?
    Nice to meet up with Sarah and see her daughter in action.
    Makes the flight go quicker if you can sleep.
    Oh dear at being so much out of pocket, thats a lot of damage.

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  7. Lovely that you got to see the panto and to see your friends in SA before Christmas. Blimey, that's so much damage! #365

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    1. it sure is and now the tenants are disputing it all, so another 4-5 weeks before I find out how much, if any we get back to cover some of their costs

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  8. Sounds like another busy week for you!

    Such a shame about the damage and the deposit won't cover it all! There needs to be more protection for landlords.

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    1. there sure does, I now have to get the work done at our expense and wait for arbitration to argue it all out

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  9. Thing 3 is adorable. Thing 1 made a very intricate family diagram. I hope shifting has been easy.
    I sleep that long too during flights. idk flights always tend to make me fall asleep even before take off. I guess your cat loves to live life unpredictably. Voting abroad for Pakistanis has only now improved with the new government at the moment otherwise locals living abroad couldn't vote either.

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    1. I've slept better on the plane than i have in my own bed.

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  10. It sounds like such a wonderful week. Shame about the damage, that's not good. xx

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    1. we were pre warned about the damage and after a previous experience we had a lumps um put away to cover things like this

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  11. How lovely that you were able to go to the panto with a fellow 356er! Love the family picture, I think you should get it framed! #project365

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    1. the picture has already been framed, just to decide where to hang it

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  12. Sounds like a busy week, sorry to hear about the flat damage hope there is something you can do. Love the hand drawn picture definitely one for a frame.

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    1. the picture has been framed already, just waiting for the decorators to sort the house out for us then it'll go up on the wall

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