Last Sunday morning. Making my way up to the top of British Camp in Malvern, UK.
This Sunday morning. On the beach in Dubai.
Showing posts with label beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label beach. Show all posts
Sunday, 18 April 2021
One week and 3000 miles apart
Last Sunday morning. Making my way up to the top of British Camp in Malvern, UK.
Sunday, 17 January 2021
The view from above. Dubai Water Canal.
The Arrows indicate where the two photos were taken from this weekend.
The photos of the canal in Spot the Difference were taken from the point next to the long strip of greenery in the top photo showing the before and after of the construction of Tolerance Bridge. You should be able to see Tolerance Bridge in both these pictures if you look hard enough.
Saturday, 9 November 2019
One Daily Positive - Week 45 Combating loneliness
Every time I think about the upcoming relocation, I get stressed out, so much to do, but apart from the paperwork and deciding on which relocation company we'll use, there's nothing that can be done until a week or so before the actual move.
I am decluttering, have some jobs lined up such as sorting through photo's and transferring old family videos. All the paperwork is up to date, the garden has been prepared for winter, all flights/trips booked and the week started with no house work to be done either.
I'm determined to enjoy the rest of the time we have living abroad, as I've spent the past 9 years waiting for the next move, next visitor, next trip away and not getting on with anything. The next 18 months are still uncertain for me, I'll be travelling between the UK and Dubai and renovating our UK home in preparation for Peter's retirement up to 3 years away.
I haven't been sleeping since Peter came home, but he's away again for 10 days. Every time I get into a routine with sleep, exercise, diet, it gets interrupted by Peter's job. despite living with constant change, it takes me a while to adapt to it. I fall asleep around 9pm and I wake around 3am, then I'm fighting sleep all afternoon, who cares when I sleep? so I often go back to bed around 2pm for an hour or two.
307 Sunday Was awake most of the night with a strange sensation in my bladder, pain in my left hip, my right eye was sore and my left jaw was aching. So got up at 4am and did the ironing and some blogging. Peter popped into work for a few hours and I went to the mall.
308 Monday Dropped Peter at the train for his trip to South Africa, he's back on the 15th. Relocation company came to do a quote. Can't remember what else I did today.
309 Tuesday Went out to the Mall to do a bit of shopping and then off to the dog park with Bob and to meet a friend, unfortunately her dog is over friendly and Bob gets frightened when he feels cornered so I ended up separating them and leaving earlier. Sorted out the toiletries in the bathrooms and had a lazy evening. Decided to sleep in the spare room to see if a change of bed helps with my neck pain.
310 Wednesday Woke with a stiff back at 3.45am, made tea and drifted back to sleep till 7am. Had coffee on the way to the Doctors, then down to Kite Beach to see the flag display from Flag day which commemorates the ascension of Sheikh Khalifa as President of the UAE. Off to the pub quiz in the evening.
311 Thursday Another relocation quote and then I took myself off to Dubai Mall to go iceskating, it's been over 30 years since I've been on the ice and I stayed on my feet for 45 mins and loved it, will be going back next week. Cooked myself a roast dinner.
312 Friday Walked Bob, did some washing and changed the beds and hit the beach at 8.30am for 2 hours, lots of swimming and started a new book. The rest of the day, like yesterday was spent filling time, I tided the garden and swept sand, brought all the cushions in as rain is forecast, walked Bob again, read some more of my book. Had a bath at 7pm and watched youtube and went to bed at 8pm.
313 Saturday I slept till 6am, repotted house plants, back to bed with my breakfast and catching up with soaps, did some blogging, dressed, walked Bob and headed off to the Marina at 9am to meet a friend for coffee. Had a walk along the beach front and took some more photos for my construction photography project. Afternoon spent pottering around and some ironing then off out to Jumeriah Golf Estates for a Marshall event meeting ready for the Race to Dubai starting in 10 days.
On the blog this week:
Repatriation Part 1 - Things we have to do
Christmas coffee cups and the banana - Too much waste
I am decluttering, have some jobs lined up such as sorting through photo's and transferring old family videos. All the paperwork is up to date, the garden has been prepared for winter, all flights/trips booked and the week started with no house work to be done either.
I'm determined to enjoy the rest of the time we have living abroad, as I've spent the past 9 years waiting for the next move, next visitor, next trip away and not getting on with anything. The next 18 months are still uncertain for me, I'll be travelling between the UK and Dubai and renovating our UK home in preparation for Peter's retirement up to 3 years away.
I haven't been sleeping since Peter came home, but he's away again for 10 days. Every time I get into a routine with sleep, exercise, diet, it gets interrupted by Peter's job. despite living with constant change, it takes me a while to adapt to it. I fall asleep around 9pm and I wake around 3am, then I'm fighting sleep all afternoon, who cares when I sleep? so I often go back to bed around 2pm for an hour or two.
307 Sunday Was awake most of the night with a strange sensation in my bladder, pain in my left hip, my right eye was sore and my left jaw was aching. So got up at 4am and did the ironing and some blogging. Peter popped into work for a few hours and I went to the mall.
The only time I can use video calls is when Peter is at home using the company video conferencing. However when he's away it makes for a very long and lonley time cut off from all my family and friends other than the typed/written word.
308 Monday Dropped Peter at the train for his trip to South Africa, he's back on the 15th. Relocation company came to do a quote. Can't remember what else I did today.
309 Tuesday Went out to the Mall to do a bit of shopping and then off to the dog park with Bob and to meet a friend, unfortunately her dog is over friendly and Bob gets frightened when he feels cornered so I ended up separating them and leaving earlier. Sorted out the toiletries in the bathrooms and had a lazy evening. Decided to sleep in the spare room to see if a change of bed helps with my neck pain.
310 Wednesday Woke with a stiff back at 3.45am, made tea and drifted back to sleep till 7am. Had coffee on the way to the Doctors, then down to Kite Beach to see the flag display from Flag day which commemorates the ascension of Sheikh Khalifa as President of the UAE. Off to the pub quiz in the evening.
311 Thursday Another relocation quote and then I took myself off to Dubai Mall to go iceskating, it's been over 30 years since I've been on the ice and I stayed on my feet for 45 mins and loved it, will be going back next week. Cooked myself a roast dinner.
312 Friday Walked Bob, did some washing and changed the beds and hit the beach at 8.30am for 2 hours, lots of swimming and started a new book. The rest of the day, like yesterday was spent filling time, I tided the garden and swept sand, brought all the cushions in as rain is forecast, walked Bob again, read some more of my book. Had a bath at 7pm and watched youtube and went to bed at 8pm.
313 Saturday I slept till 6am, repotted house plants, back to bed with my breakfast and catching up with soaps, did some blogging, dressed, walked Bob and headed off to the Marina at 9am to meet a friend for coffee. Had a walk along the beach front and took some more photos for my construction photography project. Afternoon spent pottering around and some ironing then off out to Jumeriah Golf Estates for a Marshall event meeting ready for the Race to Dubai starting in 10 days.
Repatriation Part 1 - Things we have to do
Christmas coffee cups and the banana - Too much waste
Monday, 9 September 2019
Australia 2019
I spent 3 weeks in Australia in July and August 2019 visiting my son who has lived there for 2 years. He was based in Sydney where I flew into from my home in Dubai, but was moving to Finley to work on a farm as part of his visa conditions, north of Melbourne.
We spent A long weekend in Sydney exploring the beaches and the mountains, before driving the coast road on Our trip from Sydney to Phillip Island stopping at Jervis Bay for a night then onto Phillip Island for 2 nights.
Next up we drove from Phillips Island to Port Fairy, stopping over night in Lorne and Warrnambool then from Port Fairy to Melbourne via the Grampians staying at Lake Fyans before ending up with A week in Melbourne.
Driving is on the left, so the wrong side of the road for me, but it didn't take long to work it out. I noticed that lanes merged a lot at junctions and the speed limit was slow, dropping to 50km in towns and villages and 40km during school hours. Whilst this is good as we were avoiding the toll routes, the planned journeys took longer than anticipated and we had to change our schedule more than once.
Combined we drove 3421km/2125 miles, walked 61km/37 miles and climbed the equivalent of
346 stair cases.
The Accommodation in Australia couldn't be faulted. The country side and Flora and Fauna in Australia was stunning.
Road Kill, kangaroo, it was over a week before I saw a live one
These Ibis are nicknamed Bin Chickens
There was a turkey scavenging on the beach
Here are a selection of random photos that caught my eye, that amused or puzzled me.
A boulder company making them look attractive
Whenever I parked I needed to google what I was to actually do
traffic lights had a fancy countdown on them although most of the road works were actually manned
Looking for a food/fuel/rest/overnight stop on route then I suggest you enter McDonalds into the GPS as they were found in all the bigger towns
Love some of the advertising, theres a store called Boating, camping and fishing. Their jingle is BC F'ing Good.
This slogan works well, I say little waste on my travels and there were plenty of recycling and waste opportunities
Love a drive through Bottle-O
Apparently cats are banned. My son informed me that many people actually take their cats as well as their dogs when they go on road trips.
We didn't see any snakes, but once you were outside the city there were lots of warnings
Winter so fire rating low
Didn't manage to catch any photos/video of kangaroo on the roads, but saw plenty and they don't half move
Didn't see any koala outside of parks
There had been a shark spotted at Manly only a few weeks earlier
Information about do's and dont's and what wildlife to expect
Animals and birds become aggressive towards humans if you feed them and it actually endangers their lives
The coast line was stunning, you're reminder just how powerful the ocean is
A lot of British names and twinning, but the geography of it confused me
Found this little souviener all the way from Tintern Abbey in Wales, just down the road from where we stay when we visit the UK
Of course no trip to Australia is complete without a visit to Bondi Beach to catch the surf
And a visit to Ramsey Street to see Neighbours
Tuesday, 3 September 2019
Flora and Fauna in Australia
The thing that strikes me the most about Australia is how colourful it is and the amount of wildlife, especially the birds.
We saw a lot of kangaroo and wombat road kill and it was actually over a week before I saw a live kangaroo, then they were everywhere, not many photos of them in the wild as they really do move fast.
It was winter time when I visited to see my son who lives out there. I've posted some random photos of the wildlife and in the sanctuary's we visited as well as views of the country side, the greenery and flowers.
An Ibis, affectionately known as a Bin Chicken
Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney at the wharf
The seagulls were small and beautifully clean everywhere
Sydney
A bird on the rocks on the beach
Succulents on the beach
The Blue Mountains
Cockatoo's in the wild, very friendly but also pestering people for food in the towns and cities
These Magpie Larks are also aggressive with food, in the parks there are signs warning people that they will dive bomb
Turkey on Manly beach
Open space and parks in Sydney
Not sure what this bird is called but it was very noisy
No bigger than a tea cup on the beach
Seaweed
Coast Road from Sydney to Melbourne
Shrub on the beach
Phillip Island Penguin homes
A Galah
Kookaburra
Unable to identify the mushrooms, but they were big and lots of them
Koala
Look at his little hands holding on
Rear end view
Front view
Cultivated plants at a farmstead
Sea bird
1st live kangaroo
Galah's
We visited a lot of waterfalls
Didn't spot any whales but we were informed some had been in the bays
Wallaby
Oyster Catchers
Greenery on the rocks
Walking through the bush
Open fields with kangaroos in the distance
Bird of prey, possible an eagle
No dogs, no picking flowers. But No Cats? Apparently people travel with their pets both cats and dogs
Emu at a wildlife park
Long necked turtle
Purple Swamphen
Brightly coloured parrots in the wild
Well camouflaged
Starfish
Jellyfish
Daffodils in the Botanical Gardens in Melbourne
Melbourne Botanical Gardens
Kanga and Roo
And finally a Fairy Penguin, hiding under the rocks on St Kilda Beach
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