Dubai Municipality Nursery and Indoor plants

Peter and I have been fostering dogs, collecting them from Warsan, out in the desert and we came across the Municipality Gardens Nursery. These aren't photos of the actual place as it is government owned and the laws on publishing photo's are a bit hazy, so I've posted pictures of the independent nursery's next door.

You can buy just about anything here, from bedding plants at 40p and fully grown palm tress in pots. It's close to where I work and I intend to call on a regular basis.

 My indoor plants have done rather well, I'm surprised by the basil, but I still have a few empty pots that need filling.

My son bought me an orchid, I've been advised to give it an ice cube once a week so I don't over water it, it seems to be doing ok for now.

I'm running a gardening group as an after school activity and during my research I've found an organic farm, that I need to go and visit, fortunately it's near where I work also, so I'll hopefully be able to pop in during the week.

I've been doing some research on cut flowers, they are very expensive to buy in Dubai and typically only last a few days. Two of my favourite cut flowers are roses and hydrangeas and I learnt these tips that I'm going to try out. I'll let you know how I got on.

How to Hydrate Hydrangeas.

Place each bloom face down in room temperature water and leave to soak for 20 minutes, shake gently and remove any loose foliage.

How to Shock Roses into drinking water.

Wrap the flowers in brown paper, then snip a 1/4 inch off the stems and place them into an inch of boiling hot water. The Shock forces the air out of the stems, leave in the water until it cools, give the stems a fresh cut and transfer to cool water.

Pets in Dubai

Having arrived in Dubai in december we were handed quite a lot of paperwork from the pet relocation company, which to be honest with you was filed until we had our visa's in place. It was then forgotten about.

However a conversation with 2 friends over the last 2 days prompted me to read through the paperwork and it is a requirement to register your pets with the municipality and for them to wear their tags all the time.

I called the local vets who said they had tags in stock. The tags cost AED 50 each. I had to record their chip number, date of vaccines and our details.

I asked the vet what was the worse that could happen and she replied 'they (the police) can take your animal from you and *draws finger across throat*

How to...change the the water and electricity when you move house, in South Africa

By now you should know where your municipality department is. You will have gone there to set up your utility accounts and wasted days of your life in the queues to query a bill on more than one occassion.

I visited the offices last week to ask what to do and how to do it.

Here is what happened.

HER: Fill this form in (walks off)

ME: mmmmm excuse me

HER: if you wnat to cancel your contract, fill this in (walks off)

ME: (finger on buzzer) I don't want to cancel I want to transfer to new address

HER: you have to cancel (walks off)

ME: (finger on buzzer)

HER: (pokes head round door, pokes head back inside door)

ME: (finger still on buzzer, new woman comes out) excuse me I'm moving house next week I don't know what to do, can you help me please?

HER: you have to cancel old contract, fill in that form, then open new account (gives me new form) and pay new deposit

ME: what do I need?

HER: Just your ID

ME: it's in hubbies name, what do i need?

HER: just your ID, copy of contract for house and copy of hubbies ID

And sorted????

So I return a few days later, forms have been filled in and hubby has signed them (ahem) I have a certified copy of the rental agreement, certified copy of hubbies ID (in colour) my ID and copy, letter from company to say we are the tenants of the property, cash for the new deposit in case the card machines aren't working.

Sign in at desk, sit and wait, called after an hour, existing contract cancelled, what's left of deposit will be refunded after last months bil has been deducted (holds breath) and here comes the next problem.

HER: we need a copy of your husbands bosses ID

ME: frantic emails sent, phone calls made to disturb meeting, colour ID sent, forwarded on (free wifi)

HER: gives me statement to make payment of new deposit

ME: stand in queue for an hour (card machine working) return to waiting room, sit for a further hour as I'm now back of the queue...

I still have meter readings to take and submit on the moving day, which will invole another visit (don't get me started on the email and telephone process) trust me it's quicker to visit in person, even if it does involve 2 visits and a 3 hour wait.