A year of non expat life

Arriving home:

We arrived back in the UK a year ago on last Friday after almost 11 years abroad. Our return home was marred by 10 nights hotel quarantine due to covid and the restrictions that halted our plans to celebrate my 50th, Peter's retirement and our move. We also had huge delays with our container due to the back log and shortage of containers after the Evergreen ran aground, add to that the shortage of lorry drivers due to Brexit, it wasn't the best move we've had, but it was our last.

Here's my Tiktok video during quarantine

Home improvements:

We spent the first few months of our return deciding if we wanted to stay in our family home or move, but the rise in house prices and the costs to move are ridiculous so we've opted to stay put. We've since had a new kitchen, Peter is building a base for a new shed/summer house and if we can find a reliable builder, we'll be getting an extension done. There is also a lot of other home improvement plans in the making. I'll be sorting the garden out properly once the outdoor work is completed. 

Work:

I'm now working full time, term time only in a local secondary school. I go in for 8.30am and leave at 3pm and I have all the school holidays off. I'm loving it. I also signed with an agency and worked in a covid vaccination site and I've been offered more work on the European Golf Tour, although I've had to turn a lot down, due to location and working in the school where I can't have annual leave in term time. I'm, loving being back in work, everyone is really nice, but I don't feel I've particularly gelled with anyone, so I just do my job and go home, which is ok with me.

Family:

Our family has grown with the introduction of our grandson in November last year, they're a ferry crossing or a flight away. Our eldest grandchild is an hour away so lots of visits there.

Friends: 

Old and new, near and far. Lots of effort made by everyone to maintain these friendships now we're back.

Activities:

Dog walks, pub visits, cooking, holidays in the UK.

Future plans:

Apart from the building work our plans include Australia this summer, buying a camper van, exploring more of the UK and hopefully a trip to Vegas in October half term for our 20th wedding anniversary. We got engaged out there and haven't been back since October 2010 when we saw Cher at Caesars Palace. We don't have anything planned after that.

Life after expat life ends:

For Peter it's the change from working full time to retiring he's adjusting to. I'm not missing anything. I'm glad we had the experience, it's certainly been a fun packed 11 years in South Africa and Dubai, but I do like being home, in one place, family near(ish) by (apart from son in Australia) I'm back working, reconnected with old friends (missing the friends made abroad) but generally much happier just managing one life in one house, in one country.

Have you had to make any big adjustments to your life for whatever reason?

Life in the UK - 6 months on.

We moved to the UK in June 2021. Originally from the UK, we left in January 2011, 11 years ago for 4 years in South Africa and 7 years in Dubai.

We kept our house in the UK and rented it out, recovering it from tenants in December 2019. In 2016 we bought a flat in South Wales for somewhere to stay when we visited and I started spending more time in the UK, as the kids left home and school. 

Covid caused us to change our plans for our move to the UK. The plan had been for me to travel back and forth to Dubai or joining Peter on his travels, to have house/pet sitters until 2023. I relocated the cat and dog here in January 2020, made my first trip to Dubai in March 2020, then had a swift return to the UK as covid broke and borders closed.

By the time Peter visited the UK in September 2020, we made the decision to leave in June 2021 and for Peter to retire, 2 years early. 

Although we've returned to the same house we lived in before starting our expat journey, it is without kids, we have new neighbours, making new friends and keeping in touch with old ones. We can now spend more time with the ever growing family.

We haven't just moved back though, in many ways we've relocated, moved to a country that has changed in regards to the way things are done and whilst we've bought property, been landlords, kept UK sims, kept bank accounts, paid bills etc, the way in which things are done now are very different.

Also we've been used to doing things the Dubai way. From customer service, to buying and selling things as well us setting up utilities, paying bills. It's all done very differently. In Dubai, everything is paid up front, from house rent, buying a car, insurances, deposits for utilities and everything is linked to an ID card. 

Whilst we've been abroad we've continued to pay for everything up front in the UK, now we are back all the companies want us to have everything on direct debit. It's been easy to set things up as we've maintained a credit history and bank accounts here, plus we haven't required a visa to move here and have been able to buy a sim card in a local shop and not have to register it.

Here are some other things we find are different:

The UK is mostly self service, you pay for bags and no one packs them for you like they do in South Africa and Dubai.

The internet is consistent and you can make video calls freely through apps. Video calls were blocked in Dubai and internet was slow and limited in South Africa.

The TV freeview channels are great in the UK but it is expensive to watch the sport and movies. They were free on the basic TV package in Dubai. But British TV is driving me mad. The shows commissioned are very good for dramas and I do enjoy the soaps and quiz shows, however the amount of reality shows and shows with ordinary folk and minor celebs cooking, sewing, making pots, singing, dancing etc are driving me up the wall. Its lazy TV same format just a different topic. 

It is safer to drive on the roads in the UK, using your phone is illegal, seat belts are worn, no tail gating like you had in Dubai. Night time driving in Dubai was safer with everywhere lit up. In South Africa there was always the fear of being hijacked and driving at night was dangerous, mainly due to pot holes and animals wandering. Mind you I did a lot of damage to my car in the UK last year, when I hit a badger late at night. Car parking spaces are bigger in Dubai. South Africa had car guards who helped you park.

The weather is better in South Africa, not too hot, not too wet and not too cold. Dubai is too hot half the year and the UK is well...... you know.

Houses in Dubai are more expensive, houses in South Africa give you more for your money in terms of space but you have to pay for security. Houses in the UK are insulated, have small rooms, but easy to heat in the winter.

The post works in the UK and is delivered through your door. In Dubai you had to have a PO Box Number as there was no street delivery and in South Africa you'd be lucky if it didn't get stolen.

I don't have a preference in regards to where I live, although I did prefer South Africa to Dubai in regards to lifestyle and the weather. I'm just happy to be in one place for as long as we choose to be, our own home, no company in charge of visas, no flights to visit family (other than a son in Northern Ireland and one in Australia). 

We said once we returned to the UK, we'd decide if we were to stay in our family home or move somewhere else near by. We're having a new kitchen fitted and have plans for an extension in the spring as well as starting decorating. I don't see us moving for a good few years, if at all, as long as we can both manage the stairs as we get older.

Why I'm not prepared to travel anymore during covid.

The pandemic is not over and whilst more people are getting their booster (3rd) shots of the vaccine, many more people around the world aren't. This isn't just because they're just anti vaxxers, but because the vaccine isn't available to them, such as living in rural townships in Southern Africa, in environments where people don't have access to running water or electricity, can't socially distance due to overcrowding, yet travel into the towns and cities for work in shops, restaurants and people's homes.

When covid was first identified the end of 2019, we were planning our gradual relocation from Dubai to the UK, it started with moving the cat and dog over in February 2020, with me returning to Dubai in March for a month to entertain a friend and her husband and Peter's sister and friend who had booked visits out to see us before we relocated, the plan then was for me to fly back and forth month to month and Peter to come to the UK when work permitted. 

Covid scuppered those plans and after rescheduling a couple of cancelled flights with BA, I finally managed to get back to the UK, the last BA flight out of Dubai, the first day of lockdown. Dubai closed its borders behind me, but not after they'd had me sign a form to declare if I wanted to come back in the foreseeable future, I'd be required to enter mandatory quarantine at my own expense.

My MIL had been house and pet sitting and had to return to her home, so I had to leave Dubai. I didn't see Peter again until the start of August, when he was finally given permission to leave and return and I was given permission to re enter Dubai a few weeks later.

On arrival in the UK for me, Day 1 of the first lockdown, I arrived at Terminal 5 Heathrow, the queue for passports was long, all being manually checked and a leaflet handed out to me about how to isolate and for how long. On my flight I had to wear a mask, the plane was full. Some passengers wore full PPE as did the airline staff. Food and drinks were served as usual. I had no way of getting home, so a friend collected me, we wore masks, socially distanced and I stayed in her spare room. The following morning, she drove me to Watford train station. The trains were running but there were no ticket or platform staff, so with my case, I worked out to get to Northampton, changed to Birmingham then down to Malvern and a short walk home, where I dropped my case, picked up a shopping trolley and walked to Lidl to shop for the next 10 days. My friend called in to collect Bob for a daily walk, but no one checked up on me.

When Peter arrived in the UK in August, I'd then managed to purchase a car online, brand new from a garage in Birmingham. The garage were able to deliver because the receptionist drove down and had her sister follow on in her own car, because they lived together. They were allowed to travel further a field by then and it was their first day out and they were quite excited about the Starbucks drive thru now being open.

I drove to Heathrow T3 to collect Peter, to discover it was closed and re parked at T2. It was such a relief to see him after so long. We both had to quarantine for 10 days. He had to have a PCR test prior to leaving Dubai. Peter had to fill in a passenger locator form prior to departure from Dubai.

During his stay they introduced PCR testing for flying. The PCR tests had to be conducted with a certain lab and due to the timing of Peter's flight his options were Manchester or Belfast. He ended up with a NHS drive thru, which was accepted, but I had to drive home from Heathrow when I dropped him off via a lab in Bristol, at a cost of £150, before I flew out 3 days later.

On arrival in Dubai I had to have a PCR test and isolate at home until our results came through within 72 hours and had to download an app on the phone.

Getting PCR test in Dubai before leaving home was easier, booked online, turned up within an hours window and you stayed in the car to be tested, results came to your phone within 24 hours. The tests were throat and both nostrils. On arrival back in the UK, I collected my car from valet parking at T2 and drove home to isolate again for 10 days.

I travelled to Northern Ireland to stay with my son and his wife as my house sitters had arrived early and the wife was shielding, so I ended up with no where to stay. Birmingham and Belfast airports were like ghost towns

Travelling out for Christmas 2020 required the same procedure as above, however when I arrived, Peter was in Saudi and the borders closed on him over night, meaning he spent Christmas over there while I stayed in a hotel on the beach for a couple of nights. He was home for New Years and we walked to view the fireworks at the Marina, from near our house.

I worked for TV production with the European Tour in early December, we were required to mask wear and socially distance. As I went home at night, I was in a different bubble from everyone else. In January I joined the tour in Abu Dhabi where I had to PCR to cross the border and PCR on arrival and go to my hotel for 24 hours until the results came through. Then I had to stay in my bubble for 4 days on and off the course. I had to PCR test daily, which tied in with my flight to the UK 48 hours later. I left Peter in Dubai until my next trip and flew back to Birmingham, caught the train to Malvern and said goodbye to the house sitters who were waiting in their car, on the drive, for me to arrive. 

I had an exemption letter from isolating as I'd been in a bubble, filled in the passenger locator form and 2 days later my letter was revoked and I was told to isolate for 10 days, which I was doing anyway other than walking the dog. By this stage I'd had both vaccine does, 3 weeks apart.

I headed back out to Dubai in April, my son and his wife had travelled over from Northern Ireland to collect the dog and the neighbours looked after the cat. I flew 2 days after the last lockdown, via Terminal 2 and had to catch the train and spend the night before my flight in an airport hotel. I found a local testing lab to have my PCR done before flying. I also had to apply for permission to enter.

On arrival in Dubai another PCR on arrival and isolate until results came through. Then came the bad news. There were no flights between Dubai and the UK and Dubai was put on the red list. At this point, we'd moved out of our villa, had our furniture shipped and Peter had taken early retirement. We were homeless and stranded. We booked a hotel for 2 weeks in the Marina with the intention of having a couple of weeks fun time, but realised we were stuck there until June 14th at the earliest before the first flight out, which we were booked on. 

Then all of a sudden there was a flight to Birmingham via Amsterdam on June 3rd. So we booked, arranged PCR test, filled in passenger locator forms and booked and paid £2400 for mandatory hotel quarantine. 

We were concerned we might get stranded in Amsterdam, but it was costing us money to stay in Dubai anyway, so we either took this flight and risked not being allowed in or we stayed put for another 2 weeks minimum. It was 11th October before Dubai were removed from the red list.

At this point people were travelling via other countries before arrival in the UK and enjoying a 2 week holiday on a beach somewhere then just flying into the Uk for 10 days isolation from an amber country. In the meantime people were flying from the UK to the same destinations for their holidays and covid started spreading further, mutating more and more countries going on the red list and people started complaining about the extra costs that they hadn't factored into their trip. Dubai was on the red list due to it being a hub. At this point in time, Dubai had one of the highest vaccination rates in the world and lowest cases. We'd both been double vaccinated, my age group wasn't being offered the jab in the UK until June/July and Peter would've only had one vaccine by that point if we'd been in the UK and every trip we'd made to the UK was entering a country with the highest death rates from Covid in Europe and most of the world.

Our arrival at Birmingham airport was a traumatic experience. We identified ourselves in the red route with all our documents and were informed that we'd been identified as a risk to the UK, had to sign a form and agree to staying in the Crowne Plaza for the next 11 days or we would be arrested and fined.

Border control and Home Office staff acted despicably towards us, wouldn't answer questions, made a huge show of escorting us to the 'prison bus' wouldn't answer any questions, barked instructions at us and had me in tears even before I left the airport.

Hotel quarantine was depressing, 11 days in a small room. The food was good, but repetitive, hotel staff were kind. I spent every day in the room and managed 10.000 steps a day. Peter was collected daily by his handler for 15 mins in the exercise yard. Our security were dreadful and arrived for their shifts 5 in a car, no masks on, and took their fag and meal breaks in groups outside our window.

The irony was we were 4 hours unsupervised in Schipol airport, we flew with amber country passengers who only had to isolate on arrival. We received no support from track and trace, just a pile of paperwork to read through and eventually got through to someone from a volunteer group who was able to give me a listening ear because no one could answer any of our questions. We had mandatory PCR tests on day 2 and day 8.

We heard some horrendous stories of poor hotel accommodation and below standard food that was delivered cold, wasn't halal and just left outside hotel rooms and had to be eaten cold after sunset due to it being Ramadan. Also tests were going missing and people were being forced to stay in quarantine a further 11 days. Also people were stuck on buses for several hours and driven miles away from the airport then forced to find their own ways back to complete the rest of their journey.

We did get a call from track and trace informing us we'd had close contact with a passenger on our flight from Amsterdam who had since tested positive for covid and we were to return to our home and isolate for a further 6 days. We explained we were in mandatory quarantine in a hotel and were prevented from leaving for a further 6 days, at which point we were informed that if we failed to isolate the police would be involved. My response was 'bring it on' 

I've yet to write about the mandatory quarantine because a lot of people claimed we were attention seeking, that if we chose to travel we deserved what we got and just plain tough luck. I did physically write a diary, I may type up one day but for now, I'm still struggling with what was an illegal imprisonment in my opinion.

It's also why I won't be travelling again anytime soon. I've written this at the end of November, as the Red List is reintroduced and travel is banned from South Africa due to the new variant and other countries are introducing new measures. I'd hate to have to be finding somewhere that carries out PCR tests in a country where I don't speak the language. Portugal have declared a State of Calamity.

It has cost us 1000's of pounds on top of flights to travel just to see one another over a 15 month period. We missed out on being with our children, watching our first grandchild grow. Now with another grandchild and Peter now being retired, we can't afford to risk getting locked out of our own country again.

I've recently been travelling back and forth to Northern Ireland visiting my new grandson. I LFT test before and after. I'm desperate for Australia to reopen its borders to tourists so we can see our son who lives there, it's been almost 3 years since I last saw him and I need to visit Germany sometime soon to visit close friends, but until more people get vaccinated and infection rates fall, I won't be going anywhere. I turned down work opportunities in Dubai in November and have cancelled plans for more work in January. We'd even considered combining it with a trip to South Africa, our former home.

I know a lot of people who have grabbed the chance of a foreign holiday when they've been able to, they've arranged PCR tests and lateral flows on their return. A lot of these people are now complaining about the additional costs as from today December 6th. How their holiday was ruined with the sudden changes, the panic and costs of getting a negative PCR test, the fear of being stuck abroad at their own cost, missing time off work and having to 'cancel Christmas plans' as they didn't think the new rules would effect them and had to stay longer to wait for PCR results. I have NO sympathy for them. They've knew our story, they didn't think it would apply to them.

I've friends who have been separated from loved ones for 2 years or more now, who have taken the risk for a long weekend and I have every bit of empathy for them as they've travelled. At least they've had somewhere to stay should they not be able to get home.

Have you travelled during covid? Was it for work? To see loved ones? Or just for a holiday?

Expat life, repatriation and retirement. Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

I retired in January 2011, taking a 10 year career break to support my husband with his job abroad, I did work full time as a volunteer for 4 years in South Africa and up until March 2020 when covid hit, I went back several times a year. I also taught for 18 months in a school in Dubai, but that's it.

Since we both returned to the UK full time in June 2021, I've signed up with an agency and carried out some paid work with LFT's for back to school and a day at the T20 cricket and I've had an interview for the Commonwealth games as a volunteer in 2022. I'm also waiting to hear back from the local college about some volunteer work.

I will return to the work place some time next year, but for now I'm taking some time off with my husband as he settles into retirement, spending time with our grandchild, awaiting the birth of our 2nd grandchild (due any minute) and planning a trip to Australia early next year to see the middle child for 3 months as it's been 2 and a half years since I last saw him, almost 4 years for Peter.

In the meantime, what are we doing to fill our days? All my family and friends say I'm always so busy, what they don't realise is that I'm always looking for something to do, to occupy my time and make me feel fulfilled.

Days now are filled with doing lots of nothing. Although I've had the time to do things at my own leisure for the past 10 years, the last 6 years in Dubai have been quite lonely. The kids had left home, we didn't know our neighbours, had few friends and spent most of our lives indoors. I was always travelling between the UK and Dubai and felt that I couldn't ever commit to anything for more than a few months at a time, in either country. 

I started hobbies and crafts, joined a few places but was continually moving. People and places just moved on without me.

Now we're settled back in the UK, it's been great spending more time with the family, reconnecting with friends, getting to know the neighbours and being out and about more. long dog walks, stopping off for coffee or the occasional pint.

We get up late, we walk the dog, have leisurely breakfasts, cook from fresh every dinner time. Watch quiz and comedy shows, we do jobs around the house as and when needed. We share the tasks such as washing up, cooking and food shopping. We visit family and friends, Peter plays the occasional game of golf and is making items of furniture for the house, I'm crafting things for Christmas, writing letters, drinking coffee in the garden or the shed if it's raining. Reading books and watching movies.

It's so nice to be able to plan things and see them through, nothing has to be rushed. I can't plant seeds, be around to nurture and watch them grow and harvest, rather than starting something then having to get on a plane. 

It's hard to describe how nice it is to have everything in one place. I can just pick my handbag up and pop out. I'm not constantly looking for where I've left things, or realising I've forgotten something and it's now 3000 miles away.

It's not just being in one place that gives us more time, it's not having to manage 3 different properties, paying rent, insurances, managing tenants and property management fees. Whilst we still own 2 properties, just being able to pick up the phone to sort insurances and boiler services etc is no longer as stressful and expensive to be on hold for.

The bubble will burst, I'm sure. I'll be back in work then my time off will be limited, for visiting and travels. I'm sure employment will see my stress levels return, so I need to get the balance right of either part time work or if full time, a job with little stress/responsibility ie P/T Teaching or F/T Teaching Assistant. 

I want to work, for me, but I have nothing else left to prove. I craved my career thinking it defined who I was. But I am no longer an expat now, defined by what I do and judged on my salary and housing allowance. 

So yes, this is real life, now. The expat part was fantasy.

Why repatriating has been good for us

I hear so much negativity about repatriation, I can't help but think we've done it wrong and we're still waiting for the negativity to kick in or because it's different for us as we always planned to return to the UK when my husband retired.

Becoming expats was never our plan either and at the time of leaving the UK, my husband had 25 years service with the company so we weren't going on on contracts that could come to an abrupt end.

When we left the UK in January 2011 and headed off to South Africa, we honestly thought it was going to be for the inevitable future, but after 4 years, it was not to be with the government refusing to extend our visas, so not ready to move back to the UK, we went to Dubai, where I never thought we'd end up living for 6 years.

Our move to SA was based on a load of lies. Work for Peter wasn't too bad, other than dealing with different cultures and ways of working and pressure from abroad to work the same way as other countries did. If you've ever lived in SA you'll know that things are done very differently to back home. In fact EVERYTHING is done very differently to back home and it took me up to 18 months to settle in fully, after giving up the battle to be allowed to work or even study and I threw myself head first into volunteering and exploring such a wonderful country, with day trips and weekends away camping. We were adopted by a cat and adopted a dog.

Like our move to SA which was a huge adventure, we were only given 3 months notice to leave and after the rug was literally pulled from under our feet and we departed for Dubai, I never dreamt we'd be there for 6 years. I just envisioned we'd be moving on again soon, so I never put down any routes and although I was able to work, my return to teaching lasted only 18 months, I quit my job and was due to start another teaching post when my father died suddenly and I had to turn the job down in order to help my mother get her life sorted so I could return to Dubai to rejoin Peter.

In SA I was only in the UK for 2-3 weeks, once or twice a year. Then my father had a heart attack and we had dodgy tenants that took me 4 months to evict through the courts, so in 2016 we decided to purchase a flat in Wales to give us somewhere to stay for longer visits and for the youngest child to live in while he was applying for jobs after leaving school, for another to stay in on his visit back from his home in Australia and for our other son and his wife to stay when they visited the mainland from Northern Ireland.

I started to spend more time in the flat and just before covid hit, we'd already decided to get our house back from the current tenants and move the cat and dog to the UK, get house sitters and for me to travel back and forth to Dubai to see Peter whilst he finished his career over the next 2-3 years.

Having been locked out of Dubai for 4 months, we decided to bring his retirement forward to May 2021 and I spent lockdown getting the house ready for our permanent return and on a trip to Dubai in September 2020, we had most of the furniture and our belongings shipped, followed by the rest in May this year. This involved my son coming over to collect the dog for 2 months so I could return to Dubai, which turned into 3 months as Dubai was put onto the red list and there were no flights out. After an expensive and painful mandatory hotel quarantine in the UK, we were finally home, just to go to Belfast to collect the dog and unpack the rest of our belongings that arrived in July.

We're now settled back in the UK, unpacked and put away. We have a new kitchen and shed to look forward to and we're having an extension built at the back of the house to give us more downstairs space for when the family come to visit.

I only hear/read about the negatives of repatriation online and I can't be the only person who has planned our return and is happy to be back, can I?

2nd July 2021 - You've just repatriated, what next? with Post Comment Love

Welcome back to #PoCoLo and July with Stephanie at Lifeat139a and I.

As you know and are probably fed up of hearing, we're now back in the UK full time. The response from people has been mixed.

'Oh you're back then?' as if we were on some failed mission to Mars, is the common response and bizarrely 'did you have a nice time?' as if we've been on holiday and the last 11 years of blogging, tweeting and face to face conversations have been ignored, in particular the past few weeks with hotel quarantine and of course there's the just ignore the situation because they don't know what to make of it.

When we left the UK we had a child living locally (they still do) one in Germany (now living locally) one in Reading (now living in Australia) and took two kids with us, who then left home from South Africa and live in Northern Ireland and locally. We both had careers and now we are both retired, all the kids have left home and we have one grandchild and another on the way.

We're back in our family home. 6 beds with parking for 2 and a reasonable sized (on the small side) garden. It's next to a school, but it's also near the train station, the local shops, the town and the retail park. Less than an hour to Birmingham and the local kids are within a 45 min drive and can all be visited within one round trip of around 3 hours. We've been looking at other properties in the area, but there's nothing we like the look of so we're getting people to quote for an extension, new kitchen/bathrooms and landscaping the garden front and back.

Our container docks tomorrow and we'll find out by Monday when it'll be delivered then we can book ferry tickets to drive to Northern Ireland to visit our son and his wife who are expecting a baby in November and to collect our dog, Bob that they've been looking after for the past 3 months.

I'd love to read your blog posts you've written this week and linked up with. I'm keen to see more fashion blogs as now I've hit 50 and gained a bit of weight after stopping smoking, I'd love to see what everyone is wearing.

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18th-20th June Post Comment Love and being back home

Welcome back to this weeks Post Comment Love with Stephanie and I.

For those of you who link up on a regular basis, I'm hoping you'll notice a lot more calm in my life now we're back in the UK full time. However those of you who are new will possibly think who is this manic person?

We finished our Government Quarantine Hotel Stay at midnight on Sunday. The taxi collected us 15 mins later and took us home to Malvern.

That's it, we're no longer expats. Do we have a name now to describe us? Repats? 

Apparently repatriation is the hardest part of an expat journey, but not for us, not me anyway. We've planned this, we had an end date in mind, the plan went better than expected and Peter was able to retire 2 years earlier than anticipated without the need for me to return to work, although I may choose to work in the future.

For now though, it's time for family and friends and sorting out our family home. Although I spent most of lockdown working on it, all I've done is get it back to a state where Peter can turn it into our home. When we left it was a home for a family of 7, for 10 years it's been rented out and neglected, now we can repurpose it to suit our needs for the future. 

I love reading about other people's lives and what they get up to around the world, so feel free to link up with any blog post you've written this week and we hope to see you back again soon.

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11th -13th June Post Comment Love - Weekly round up

Welcome back to #PoCoLo with Stephanie from @lifeat139a and I.

I've been making a few changes to my blog, not the design but the content.

We are no longer expats, as my husband has retired after 35 years with the same company. Normal life for us hasn't started up yet as we're currently in a Government Quarantine Hotel being detained by the Home Office at our own personal expense.

Yes I know it sounds dramatic but we've not been on holiday, we've returned from living abroad after just over 10 years, we had to cancel our visas and we've been less than politely informed that if we leave the hotel (security outside our room) we will be arrested.

We're on Day 8, the taxi is booked for midnight on Sunday. You can read more with the post I've linked up with this week.

For the next few weeks we've a wedding and my 50th which involve more hotel stays, our shipping container arrives and a trip to Northern Ireland to collect our dog from child 4 and his pregnant wife, due in November our 2nd grandchild.

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UK Hotel Quarantine and Home Office Detention.

We've been living abroad for 10 years, my husband retired on Monday after 35 years with the company. Over the past few weeks we sold cars, shipped furniture, closed accounts, vacated our home and moved into an apartment and had a flight booked for June 15th.

On Tuesday last week we discovered we could fly home via Amsterdam so flight booked at the earliest date which was June 3rd.

Once we had our flights booked we checked on the KLM website, the UK government and followed the instructions that would enable us to fly.

We had considered staying in Dubai until it came off the red list, but flights had already been cancelled and pushed back and we could risk ending up staying in Dubai for longer, our visa had been cancelled and we had to leave within 30 days and still end up hotel quarantining regardless.

So we took the hit and paid the £2400 for an 11 day stay, arranged covid tests within 72 hours of travel at the cost of £60 and completed the passenger locator forms online.

And that was it, no further information, other than hotel quarantine confirmed with the name of hotel.

On arrival in Birmingham after a 4 hour stop over in Amsterdam, we left the plane and made our way to passport control where there was a divide of passengers for Red Country arrivals, which we followed and with all our paperwork which we presented to Border control.

This is where is went wrong. We were handed a piece of paper to sign stating we'd been identified as a risk and were to follow instructions or we'd be arrested. We identified ourselves, it was not a good start with the Home Office, all the issues we had were with them.

We were escorted to collect our bags and wait for the bus, there was a big drama made in the arrival hall of escorting us through an almost empty area announcing our arrival and stating they were Home Office. Our escort could sense the tension and he stood back, when he did speak to us he was very kind and explained what would be happening, he stated he was contracted with HMRC. The bus driver was very officious, making us sit in certain seats, which is fine and understandable but he spoke to us as if we were stupid and deserving of no civility at all. There were 5 of us in total on the flight, all British but from different ethnic backgrounds.

On arrival in the hotel a new security team greeted us, the bus driver again was short and rude and made a huge show of spraying down everything we'd been near, there was a crisp packet on the seat tray and food crumbs so he wasn't doing a good job anyway. Check in at the hotel felt rushed, we'd waited for someone in front of us to move to the 2nd window. There was no 'welcome to the hotel' it was difficult to take everything in. We were then passed to the 2nd window to a woman who read off a sheet, talked at us and made it quite clear she was struggling with having to deal with us. We later found out she was home office also. The staff who escorted us to our room helped with the cases and were friendly and polite.

We were given a pile of paperwork with do's and don'ts and most insultingly instructions on how to safely put on a mask and wash our hands.

The days have pretty much been a blur marked by food delivery to mark the passing of time. I've been walking 10,000 steps a day like a caged tiger in the room and Peter has been outside for 20 mins daily. I'm opting not to go out as it's farcical with clip boards, hi-vis jackets and walkie talkies 'room 241 approaching the lift' and 'room 241 come in, your time is up'

Day 1 The following morning the kitchen rang to ask about my wheat free diet as we'd had to fill in the menu sheet for the 10 days the previous night and despite me stating this at the time of booking it hadn't been passed onto the hotel. The kitchen have been fantastic and the food has been great. The staff who have delivered the food have been great also.

Day 2 went badly from the start, I didn't get much sleep, the sun was shining and we'd not heard a word from anyone, I felt caged, trapped, badly treated and wanted some answers. We tried calling the numbers on the information sheets we'd been given for support, but nothing, numbers rang out, directed to websites that just advised on how to isolate and keep yourself well physically and mentally, info on exercise, keep in touch with family and friends and ask for help are already known. I eventually got through to the local police station to ask for information on what would happen if I left the hotel and chose to return home to isolate and was informed rather rudely by Linda that I would be arrested and I would be forcibly taken back to the hotel to restart the 10 day isolation. At that point I released I had more questions to answer as I am currently being detained by the Home Office, I might as well be in a prison or jail. There are security stationed outside our rooms. 

The people doing the PCR tests were shouting about the time scale and to hurry up, just folding the bloody box was complicated then it was 2 hours before they collected the boxes anyway.

Day 3 I woke with a migraine after crying myself to sleep, day passed in a blur.

Day 4 Still got a migraine and now mouth ulcers. We requested housekeeping for fresh sheets and towels and every evening a trolley comes round with supplies of toiletries, loo roll, cleaning wipes, tea, sugar etc, bin bags. We can also have room service but we packed some wine and snacks in our suit cases. 

Home office came round to get our PCR results, just knocked on door and asked to see email. No 'Hi I'm from the Home Office' just a clip board and a demand.

Day 5 No idea what happened, probably in a bad mood. On Peter's daily exercise with his handler, he spoke to other guests/prisoners whose day 2 and day 8 tests had been lost, meaning they had to stay longer in the hotel at their own expense.

Day 6 We received a message from track and trace to state we'd been in contact with someone who had tested positive for covid. I rang down to the front desk and said that whilst I appreciate they can't give details and I didn't want names anyway, that if it was a guest or a staff member what were we to do and what measures were in place to ensure no further spread of the virus would occur. The response I got was 'we can't discuss this with you and tell you who it was' I said that's not what I'd asked for and was met with 'calm down madam, don't shout at me' someone has been on a training course about keeping safe in the work place. I dialled back to reception, spoke to a woman explained what had happened and she said 'sorry that was home office staff' I asked if she realised that it reflected on the hotel and she said she'd speak to the management team. I felt a lot better.

Day 7 We received our first track and trace call, it was ridiculous, read off a crib sheet and we're not self isolating it's completely different, which I explained to the man who phoned and he was more than happy to discuss this with me and feed back to his line managers. He also arranged a call from Here to help in Worcestershire for a friendly ear and some help with sourcing contacts. We discovered the person who tested positive was on the flight from Amsterdam to Birmingham and not someone who is quarantining with us, which begs the question as to why Amber flights are being allowed or why none residents are being allowed into the country at the moment and why we can't isolate at home instead of being locked up. We spent the rest of the day resetting Peter's apple account, just don't......

I'll let you know next week how the check out went and if there is any follow up from the complaints we have made.

Day 8 PCR tests taken today, we've been warned the test may be void and in which case we will have to stay until they get us another one. Even if the results come through in 24 hours, we still have to stay to Day 11. 

Day 9 Both PCR tests negative, yet we have to wait here till midnight tomorrow with no further testing, it feels like a pointless exercise now. Was told by the Home Office Staff on the front desk, they'll talk to us tomorrow between 2-4pm about our discharge time and protocol. According to the 'info' they gave us, we just have to show 2nd negative test to a hotel member of staff.

Day 10 Taxi booked for midnight. Yesterday when we asked what the process was to leave the hotel we were told the `Home Office people would call to arrange, when I asked why they copuldn't check the PCR paperwork so if anything was wrong we'd have time to sort they said they were too busy with checking out everyone else. Today when we asked around 2pm, we were told they're on their lunch and they'll call the room at 4pm. Too busy? Procedures changed overnight?

We were just hanging around all day, there is no reason for it, no one to ask questions from, no one to provide any guidance and support. The whole experience has been shocking, one I will never repeat and to all of you saying 'just get on with it' or 'I'd love a 10 night stay in a hotel' or 'be grateful you don't have kids with you' just know this:

Apparently No one else has complained, at all. A man could be heard shouting in the corridor last week, a woman was seen crying under the window and people are writing messages and claiming PCR tests have been lost.

This was an unlawful 10 night detention by the Home Office for people from certain countries, not holiday makers, not business people, but people who are British, have been living abroad and have made a very difficult decision and a huge financial input to return to their home country for a reason.

Week 22 - One Daily Positive - Back in the UK

It's been so humid here that the washing on the balcony in direct sunlight is still wringing wet at the end of the day.

I'm not sure I'll be doing project365 much longer and I might be giving up blogging and social media altogether. no particular reason other than I'm just not feeling it anymore. I find myself on twitter most days now, but it's not easy like the old days to gain new followers and find new people with similar interests, all the algorithms on SM seem to do is just keep showing the same things and the same types of people. It's like shopping on Amazon with the 'you bought a book, would you like to buy a book?' 

Peter says I should continue until at least the end of the year to keep the diary of our expat lives going till the end and including our repatriation.

149 Saturday Dropped the car hire back, no charges and full refund which makes a change, we did some shopping in Tesco, watched TV, had a sleep and went down for a swim in the pool. 

150 Sunday Off to the beach via the tram, had a coffee, went for a swim, walked back to the hotel, had to stop for another drink as it was too hot, some time by the pool then back to apartment for the rest of the day. In the evening we went round to a colleagues of Peter's for a drink.

151 Monday Off to the bank first thing and that's it, Peter's last day in work, although there is talk of some consultancy work in the future. Everything seemed to happen today, flights, quarantine hotel and PCR tests were all booked.

152 Tuesday PCR tests first thing then Peter returned his company laptop and phone to IT and I took myself off to the Ritz Carlton for the day, with Peter joining me in the afternoon. We packed and chilled out in the evening.

153 Wednesday Left the apartment in the Marina and checked into an airport hotel with pool and bar, had a relaxed chilled out day. Checked in for our flight at 9pm

154 Thursday Flight to UK with a 4 hour stop over in Amsterdam and then to our Quarantine hotel the Crowne Plaza in Birmingham for 11 days. 

155 Friday This is the last post in 365, we're back now in the UK. I'm going to carry on posting a daily photo, blogging and running PoCoLo weekly blog linky and joining in with My Sunday Photo.

4th - 6th June Back in the UK. Post Comment Love

Welcome back to #PoCoLo with Stephanie and I 

Yep, we're here, back in the UK.

Peter worked his last day after 35 years on Monday. 6 years in Dubai and 4 years in South Africa as well as the UK. Final payments and refunds were made on time and once we closed the bank account down, we booked flights, quarantine hotel, PCR tests and extra baggage.

We spent our last day in Dubai at the Ritz Carlton for a beach/pool day and the evening with friends for our last ever Dubai pub quiz and Starbucks finally spelt my name right.

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28th-31st May 2021 - Post Comment Love - Hanging around in Dubai.

Welcome back to Post Comment Love this week with Stephanie and I. I was hoping this was my last update from Dubai and that next week that we’d be in a Quarantine hotel in the UK somewhere. Sadly it's not to be. Earliest direct flight we can get is June 15th. We can get flights via another country in transit only, but there is always the worry of borders closing and that's happened to us several times since March 2020.

But until final payments are made and bank account closed, we're just literally hanging around. We've rented an apartment near the Marina, which is lovely and not a bad place to be hanging around in, but we just want to get home now and start the next stage of our lives.

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14 day countdown to the end of our expat journey

We're on a 14 day one month countdown to the end of our expat journey.

It's been a bit stressful trying to relocate during a pandemic, I'll be honest, upping sticks and moving thousands of miles is very stressful regardless of where you go and when.

We've both moved a lot in our lives and since we met in 2000 we sold both our homes and purchased one together in 2002 which we still own and is the home we are returning to.

We left the UK in January 2011 for South Africa, with a 20ft container, we then relocated to Dubai in December 2014 with a 40ft container and in September 2020 we sent approximately 10ft in groupage followed by a 20ft container this morning May 2021. We will follow on in a months time. Originally it was going to be June 2nd, however there are NO direct flights from Dubai to the UK, and with both of us having experienced being prevented from travelling and in the wrong country from where we had intended to be, neither of us fancy the prospect of being stuck in a 3rd country such as Egypt, Oman, Finland etc where we are permitted to fly through currently. Either way we still have to hotel quarantine on our arrival in the UK for 10 nights, as we will have been in the UAE in the past 10 days prior to arrival.

99% of the stress of an expat move is in the build up to the packing day itself, then you sit in a trance for several months in hotels, sorting documents, applying for visas, running around to get signatures the night before you're due to submit your paperwork because someone forgot to give you something. It's the fact finding, the arranging, the booking, the handing over over money, setting up phone and utilities, trying to find internet, somewhere to live, a car, school runs, new job, how to pay for parking, navigating medical aid and dealing with HR, 3rd party agents, via your husband, through his HR department because as a 'supporting spouse' you are given no consideration from your spouses company, despite being the one person who is jumping through all the hoops and digging up long lost relatives to obtain a DNA sample to prove who you are. 

Lots of people tell me to write a book, it's entertaining, that I'm good at stuff like this and I love a challenge. Well this is all you're getting a blog and trust me, I'm not good at stuff like this, I don't enjoy it and I'm really looking forward to a simple life with Peter, our adult kids and grandkids and time to cook, garden, walk the dog up the Malvern Hills and take up new hobbies and maybe return to the workplace.

7th-9th May 2021. Post Comment Love - Shipping costs

Welcome back to #PoCoLo with Stephanie and I, Time really is racing past in regards to the months rolling on, however I'm still doing a lot of hanging around waiting for things to happen.

Wow, the cost of shipping has increased. Unfortunately the quality of service doesn't look like it's improved too much.

18 months ago quotes were a quarter of the price and they've gone up again since last September also, it's almost double for the packing and loading.

Apparently it's due to the difficulties in obtaining containers, due to everyone relocating due to covid and then the Suez situation hasn't helped. However, all 6 companies that quoted (only one who came to the house has provided a written quote, only 2 came to the house to quote) are able to get a container and pack up our belongings in the next 2-3 weeks ready for shipping.

Shipping costs are similar to going on holiday at the same time as the schools are out, prices go up. It's costing us £6000 for a container and insurance. Back in September we paid £3000 for groupage/shared container and £500 was eventually refunded due to the company not obtaining the insurance. There were long delays due to shipping bills not being paid and the container was unloaded on a Sunday night at 7pm and the UK side of the contract wasn't fulfilled, such as unpacking, removal of packaging and a sofa was left in the neighbours garage for a few months.

It's our fourth International move in 10 years, each one has had its problems and added complications. It's just what it is sadly.

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Preparing to leave Dubai.

I arrived back in Dubai 2 weeks ago. Peter has been off work while we've planned our exit. We sold his car, made a claim to cancel the Insurance which can take up to 3 weeks. We've had quotes for shipping the rest of our furniture, advertised the garden for sale and made arrangements to have broken and old furniture removed. We've now hired a car until the end of May.

I sold my car and closed my bank account back in September, so we're confident of how that all works.

There's still quite a bit of stuff to do, unlike a move within the country in which you live, when you leave a country you have to close everything down before your current visa expires. However it's a lot easier this move as we don't need a visa to move to the UK. When we moved from South Africa to Dubai, we had to return to the UK to get our documents certified and get our cat and dog out to Dubai before our current visa expired, but we couldn't ship the furniture or air freight until our new visas were in place. 

We have two more payments due out on the credit card in the next 10 days then we can cancel the credit card, but need to keep the main account open to pay in cheques from the deposits for the house, utility bills and an investment that matures soon. Once that has all cleared we have to withdraw/transfer the account to a zero balance then apply for a completion certificate to close the account.

We had to get the UK credit card activated so we could use it to hire the car

I keep getting informed that we can of course pay someone to do all this for us, but from personal experience having been told this in the past and actually following the advice we have discovered that 9/10 these people aren't qualified experts and that actually they don't make the job any easier as basically you still do all the ground work and they just basically queue on your behalf to submit that paperwork that you still need to sign and sorry but there is no way we're giving ANYONE a signed letter to deal with our finances on our behalf.

We're vacating the Villa on May 24th, we don't have a hotel booked yet as we're waiting for confirmation from the UK Government in regards to our isolation/quarantine on our return. 

At the moment we're required to spend 11 days in a UK hotel at the cost of £1700 each, we've looked into flying home via Germany where we'd need to stay for 11 days before we would be allowed back into the UK and the isolate at home for 11 days. We're allowed to travel between the UK and Dubai as we have Citizenship and Residency. We've both had the full vaccine and are happy with regular PCR testing.

Dubai is a hub, but we're hopeful after May 17th it'll be off the red list, Dubai have currently suspended flights from India.

Thankfully this time we're not leaving one place and arriving into the unknown. We are returning to our former family home that I've spent the past 18 months restoring after tenants and setting up utilities, buying a car and sorting phones and internet which hasn't been as easy as it sounds because we've not lived in the UK for so long, have no 'no claims' for driving, need insurance that allows us to leave the house empty for more than 30 days and has involved changing all the landlord cover back into personal use, getting new quotes and at one point had me measuring the outside area of the house and working out the square footage for the top two floors for buildings insurance purposes (since when did that become a thing?) We moved the cat and dog back in February.

We're registered with the Dr's in the UK but need to find a new dentist and I need to add Peter to the council tax and change our voting options.

We need to close everything here in Dubai rather than risk letting it just expire when our visas run out. We plan to travel through Dubai in future years to visit one of our sons in Australia and don't want to risk arrest should we have anything outstanding. 

I'm not looking for help, guidance or advice on any of this, there is a time scale to follow for all of it, just not all the same time. We've done it many times before, we'll do it now as well. I just don't have the brain space to do anything else for myself, let alone anyone else right now. An International move is nothing like an internal move, trust me, I did both last year. We're not planning on doing any further moves, internal or external for a long time to come.

What can go wrong with an international move? Things you don't get told.

From experience anything that involves sub contracting around the world is doomed from the start. It doesn't matter if you have 3 quotes, get everything in writing, have a personal consultation, take a personal recommendation, if something can go wrong it will.

There's also an element of 'How do I know what I need to know?' which is my biggest issue when trying to do anything.

Moving between countries means forget how everything works where you are now and start again. And know what you don't know such as in general where the local council in the UK is called a Municipality in other countries and things like electricity and water are government run and to get a sim card you're required to have an attested copy of all your documents or a physical entry stamp on your visa or buy from the airport on arrival and the breakdown you've been having wasn't necessary.

I will say if you cut out the middle man, HR and a relocation company who just refuse to deal with the spouse, despite it being the spouse that orchestrates practically the whole move, then things do go a bit smoother. The issues still happen, but the timescale of resolving the issues is reduced greatly as is some of the stress, by being able to yell at people directly, rather than yelling at your spouse to yell at HR and Relocation company to find out a delivery date.

So despite having done 3 International moves, here's what I've learnt I needed to know after the packing had been done and invoice paid.

UK to South Africa - Insurance is an additional 3-5% of the value of your goods. The value of replacing those goods in a new country and must be itemised.

Not only are you responsible for costs if your container is picked at customs for a check but you'll pay the storage costs for the delay.

If custom checked you'll need to know your container number, which you'll be asked to confirm on delivery also.

You can't ship your container ahead of you until you have a visa, either in place before you move as in South Africa. However moving to Dubai, your container can be shipped but not released until your visa is in place. This also means any air freight will arrive after your shipping container so don't bother and save your money.

Check yourself exactly what you can and can't take. For example food, alcohol and tobacco is a NO. You'll also be told you can't take certain items such as bikes and out door equipment to South Africa and into Dubai you can't take Christmas Decorations or your family bible, you of course can.

Ask for the contact details of the receiving agent in the UK. Contact them and ask for their time scale from when the container arrives to their delivery times.

A new one for us with this move of things we needed to know that we didn't know about are......

How to obtain a BoL from the shipping company. What is a BoL? Bill of Lading. It is one of 3 crucial documents used in International Trade to ensure that exporters receive payment and importers receive the merchandise. In other words, along with proof of insurance and and invoice, these documents should be handed to the shipping company ( you'll need to know who they are also) who should, in theory, pass this on to the receiving agent to get your container released from the port, after customs clearance.

To obtain the BoL you'll need remarkable detective skills and the help of total strangers off of Twitter to make calls on your behalf and do the job you've paid someone else to do. Whilst doing this your packing agents, receiving agents and shipping company will all tell you it's not their fault or problem, stop answering their phones and replying to emails.

You'll get the money back from the Insurance after threatening the company with legal action and the police.

Your boxes will be delivered at 6pm on a Sunday night, your sofa left in the neighbours garage and no one wants to take responsibility for the fact you've paid the agent for a full unpacking and rubbish removal service and for the first time ever the packing is done so badly you actually have lots of things broken and no insurance to make a claim from.

I'm left with a room full of boxes and packing materials to get rid of.

This is how items were packed.

These glasses were wedged together and could not be separated.

Placed at the bottom of a box without any packaging under neath to protect it.

I have sent an invoice to the company in Dubai I had the contract with for 6 hours work by 2 people to unpack to surfaces, the cost of removing the uPVC door to put the sofa back inside the house from the neighbours garage and the cost of removing the packaging totalling £624/AED 3,130. I've also informed them they are clearly in breach of contract and as advised by Consumer Law in Dubai that I will make this a matter for the courts on my return.

Reflections on 10 years an expat

Facebook memories over winter revolve around moving. Either the chance of a move, visa applications or a physical house move, followed by trying to sort everything out on a tight timescale, budget and stress.

10 years ago this week we submitted our final visa application to move to South Africa. These things take months to do and every time you submit the application someone adds yet another piece of paperwork to the pile that needs to be filled in. The final piece of paperwork for our first move after numerous medical reports was a signed form from our GP stating we were of sound mind.

4 years later we had to return to the UK to submit papers for our move to Dubai

10 years on I question how sound our minds were at the time and over subsequent years as we've moved, home and country.

To be honest whilst our life style sounds complicated to some, it's just normal to me. I don't think I've ever had a normal life. Prior to leaving the UK I'd moved 17 times, with the longest stay in one house of 8 years where Peter and I raised a blended family for 8 years after getting married in 2002.

I crave being in one place, being in charge as much as the next person in regards to choosing when to move and where to move to. Of course we could've chosen not to have become expats, it wasn't a path we were searching for, just making the most of any opportunity that came our way.

The opportunities we've had as a family, especially for our children have been amazing. Although we only brought the 2 younger boys abroad with us, the eldest was already living in Germany with the army for 4 years, but the next child who left home at 18, just 3 months before we left the UK, packed his bags just over 3 years ago and announced his move to Australia as he wanted the same opportunities to live abroad also, like his siblings have had.

There have of course been numerous missed opportunities, difficulties with Education, lost work opportunities for me, missing family events and now not seeing our grandchild grow up. But we've tried to prioritise important events, we've been able to support our children, now all adults, in ways we couldn't have if we'd stayed in the UK.

We've lost family and friends along the way, these events would've happened regardless, we only know the life we have now, not the life we would've or could've had.

It's been difficult despite the sun shine continuously, it's also been a lot of fun, but regardless of location there is still work, washing, ironing, food shopping, cooking to be done.

I like to think we've kept our feet rooted firmly to the ground throughout this journey. We view our eventual move to the UK as another move, not as going back.

I saw the cross crossing woman near our old home in the UK on a visit. She said 'Oh you're back then?' as if we'd been been on some failed mission to Mars. It took a lot of control not to reply with 'You're still here then?'

Everything has to come to and end at some point, but it's not the end for us, it's yet another change, now with a grandchild to enjoy, a child living in Australia we can visit and whilst we've lost family members over the years, we've gained new ones in the form of in laws and it's an exciting chapter we look forward to being part of.

Paying agents to do a job, badly

I'm pissed off, totally, at the point of having a breakdown.

I'm pissed off because my container is delayed because the agents didn't submit the paperwork.

I'm pissed off with all the work I've had to do to our family home because the agents didn't manage the property and the tenants and submit the correct paperwork to the Deposit Protection Scheme.

I'm pissed off with paying agents/professionals to do a job that I am unqualified to do, which turns out that I am actually qualified to do as I'm the one who has to sort it out and draw on skills and intelligence I didn't know I actually had.

Let me tell you my shipping story.

It began in Dubai early September, I obtained 3 quotes, all the same price, all offering the same service. I did a google search, I asked on twitter. I made a decision.

I picked the one who said they could ship on September 10th.

The ship didn't sail till October 2nd. I spent from the day they packed until September the 22nd asking for the shipping details, until they finally said the container was loaded.

By then I was back in the UK, I googled shipping lines and discovered the ship didn't sail until October 2nd.

I also paid them nearly £500 for the shipping and breakage insurance, I filled in all the forms and sent them off and made payment on September the 9th.

I constantly chased them for the Insurance details until October 13th they informed me Insurance had been denied. I contacted the Insurance directly to be informed that the application hadn't been made until October 13th and therefore as the ship had already sailed I couldn't have insurance.

The company made out they were doing me a favour by refunding me the money. I'm still waiting for the refund.

My container was still at sea. During this time, an attempted hijack was reported off the Isle of Wight of a ship and a container fell off another ship near the coast of Weymouth.

There are many things I would be unable to replace such as photographs and the children's keepsakes, but should my container have been hijacked or fallen in the sea I wouldn't have been able to claim for loss of furniture etc.

My container arrived in Port on November 8th, with a customs clearing time of 5-12 days, after day 5 I am to be charged storage fees.

On November 6th I made yet another call to the UK agents who still hadn't responded to me to let me know the process. I explained I needed to get back to Dubai ASAP and they said they'd be in contact as soon as they were informed the container had been released. 

On November 17th I called the UK company, no response, finally they replied to my email on the 20th to say as soon as they heard they'd contact me.

On the 23rd, Monday this week. I phoned them up again, the container hadn't been released. It was now day 17, so I called the National Clearing Hub, the Port and UK Border Force who all informed me that my container had been cleared on the 17th November, so why hasn't it been collected?

I called the UAE company, no reply, I called the UK company, no reply. I sent emails and whatsapp messages and over the past 2 days I've had the UK agent tell me it's not her fault and she's working hard to resolve the issue. I contacted the shipping line to be informed the Bill of Lading, bascially the Inventory hasn't been sent to them.

Finally the UAE side replied, the agent was almost crying on the phone, I will do I promise, please let me sort this out. The receptionist sends me an email to tell me shipping company have received the Bill of Lading.

Shipping company email back this morning, they still don't have it. UK agent not answering phone or responding to emails. Call whatssapp number in Dubai, woman answers, she is agents and receptionists boss, she tells me Bill of Lading has been sent, it is the shipping lines fault, we argue, she patronises me with Lady, My Dear and Inshallah, she implies she was will sort the issue in 2 days, Inshallah, maybe a week. It's a 3 day National Holiday in Dubai next week, they're 4 hours ahead, the end of the working week is tomorrow, so to stand any chance of getting my container by Monday when I need to fly has to be resolved by 5am UK time tomorrow morning.

I tell her I have email from shipping company, all she has to do is reply to their request. She replies and copies me in. 

'We have long correspondence with your office here in Dubai asking them to submit to our agent at your end the original Bill of Lading.

For this shipment without success we even asked them during sailing of the cargo to release again sea express bill but no replies

& no action.'

She then gives the name of the person in Dubai and their contact details and asks the UK side to sort it out as she has had no luck.

I'm pissed off because the UK agent knows they should have this paperwork before they can collect the container, the shipping company because they know they have to present the paperwork to the UK side, the UAE agent for misleading me all the way through.

I'm pissed off for no one taking ownership of the problem.

I'm pissed off for people making out they're doing me a favour to resolve their mistakes.

I'm pissed off because if everything had gone to plan, my house sitters would've arrived October 22nd, the container would've been delivered and unpacked on the 48th day and I would've flown back out to Dubai to see my husband the first week of November and would no longer be stuck in the UK during Covid on my own. 

I'm pissed off but would've been less pissed off if the paperwork had been processed correctly as I would have flown back to Dubai the end of last week.

I won't have time to unpack now and I'll find out when I do in February if there is any damage and all the agents will be long gone by then and I won't be able to make any claim against them.

The only bonus is that I'm now staying with my son and his wife in Northern Ireland, that I haven't seen since February. 

UPDATE

Thursday 26th November. Shipping container cleared for collection. The Bill of Lading was finally supplied. To achieve this I enlisted the help of two random strangers from the internet who responded to my pleas for help, who worked together in both Dubai and the UK phoning my agents and the shipping line to get the matter sorted on my behalf, for which I am extremely grateful.

Friday 27th November 16.41 No response from UK agent with a delivery date. Yesterday they said delivery was booked for December 10th. Now that is a normal time frame after the container being cleared around 10-14 days. However as my container was actually ready on November 17th, it should be delivered Monday or Tuesday next week, which would be in time for me to fly back to Dubai as planned. They've said they'll do their best to get it sorted for then, but at this late stage of the day, when they're not answering my calls or reading the emails, I suspect it won't be happening.

In my opinion the agent in the UK should've realised that there was going to be an issue and not left it a week before finding out what was going on, in fact it was only because there were 13 of us calling her that eventually something was done, but it wasn't good enough. It wasn't them that sorted it, it was me and the online help i received. Basically the agents in Dubai didn't pay the seafaring bill, although they claimed they paid it on October 11th, yet on 24th November they emailed to say the shipping company hadn't invoiced them yet, a week after the ship docked in London.

I'll update further on the delivery date once I'm informed but I suspect I won't be going back to Dubai for a while yet.

Container being delivered Sunday 29th November. It arrived at 7pm and my sofa is in the neighbours garage until February when I return to the UK.