Week 36 - One Daily Positive - Packing and shipping - Our expat journey.

So a brief run down for those of you not in the know, the rest of you can just skip a paragraph or two (I'm mainly talking to you Mary)

We left the UK in January 2011 to move to South Africa, we took all our worldly goods and our two youngest children with us. On leaving South Africa the kids had left home (youngest back to boarding school in the UK) and we had inherited a cat and dog. 5 years in Dubai and most of our furniture is being shipped back to the UK next week, why? Well it's a long story, how long have you got?

Our first tenants stopped paying rent for almost a year, destroyed our house and stole anything they could. Fast forward 8 years, several good tenants and then our last lot, trashed our house again, so we decided to reoccupy it as the quickest and cheapest way to get it back. So we brought our relocation plans for Peter's retirement forward 2 years.

The plan was to relocate a year before Peter retires and for me to set up home, find a job and Peter would then join me, we might move house, change towns or just stay put. So the house was reclaimed in December 2019, the pets flew over February 2020 and then I was to be in and out of the UK/Dubai and we had arranged for Peter to downsize to an apartment and I'd ship the rest of our furniture back to the UK. Covid hit, we were apart for 4 months. I got back to Dubai and we decided to ship anyway despite Peter still remaining in the Villa till at least May next year, then we'll re look at apartments.

I've now got two weeks back in the UK to isolate and will be finishing the decorating ready for our container to arrive mid October. I then have a couple of weeks to unpack, find a home for everything then I'll be back out to Dubai for 3 months over winter to finish sorting out this end (pet sitter permitting)

243 Sunday Packers arrived, I hung around all day (bored) as I'd separated the house into piles and needed to be at hand to answer a few questions about should they pack rugs, cushions etc. I spent the day blogging and trying to keep out the way, but needed to be around to make sure they didn't pack stuff that we were leaving in Dubai. Peter worked from the bedroom and cooked our dinner.

244 Monday Off to Dubai Mall for the day, I walked 5 miles over 4 hours, all with my mask on, inside and out, taking it off only to stop for lunch in the food court and have a coffee. The child in me always chuckles when you realise how these statues are attached to the wall.

245 Tuesday The day was spent rearranging the furniture and cleaning downstairs. I picked the wrong time to food shop, so busy and the staff always rush you. Not really sure what to do with this space now.

246 Wednesday Back to not sleeping and awake at 4am, I started work on the upstairs, had to stop due to needing to use the hoover so sat outside with my breakfast around 6.30am. Humidity is much lower at the moment and it's quite pleasant with the temp at 31c already. Mid morning I visited Park n Shop they stock a lot of British products, I want to see what Gluten Free products they sell (if any) otherwise I'll just be bringing a case of food with me next trip. I can get GF foods here in Waitrose and Carrefour but it really is limited stock. I'm happy with how this area now looks.

247 Thursday We headed out for an early morning walk then Peter was in the office all day so I spent my time finishing rearranging the bedrooms, did some washing, put the slow cooker on for dinner and just chilled out watching movies and doing the ironing.

I'm more than happy with how downstairs looks now.

248 Friday It's covid test day at City Walk, ahead of my flight on Tuesday. Appointment was at 11am, we joined the queue at 10am. Took some photos of the ever changing landscape and off to Festival City for lunch and coffee. Evening spent watching movies.

This is the new canal they created since we've been here. The buildings on the far right are new also.

249 Saturday Early morning walk around the neighbourhood to take more photos. leisurely breakfast then off to Outlet centre. Evening spent with a friend at the Marina.

We were full on sprayed/sanitised entering a mall today.

On the blog this week:

My Garden in August - The UK and Dubai

Day out with my dog - A visit to Charlecote Park National Trust

My ever changing balcony view with My Sunday Photo

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