The road from The Beach to Bluewaters - Dubai. 6 years apart.

My first visit to Dubai was January 2014. The rocky outcrop I'm sat on was the harbour wall for the Marina. It's now the half way point and bridge support to Bluewaters Island. I can only access this spot now from the bridge 30ft above as in the second photo.

Directly behind me (to my right) is the Sheraton Hotel where these photos of Bluewaters land being built in the sea were taken from and Ain Dubai.

January 2014

January 2020

Close up of the differences. 

2014

2020

How many did you find?

You can see the harbour wall from The Beach, where both photos were taken from. This photo was taken from the Sheraton.

Looking back from Bluewaters to The Beach.

 

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

My ever changing view from the balcony in Dubai

This was the view from the garden in January 2018.

The top photo was taken from the balcony August 2018

This photo was taken August 2020

As the crow flies from our balcony:

Metro station is 600 meters

The new building is 5.13 kms

The Dubai Eye Wheel is 6 kms

I've been documenting the construction of buildings in Dubai and construction projects around the world as well as photographing and research unusual building designs. 

You can see more photos of other building projects by clicking here Construction Photography

HDYGG Gardening in Dubai

I found some time to finally get round to planting some seeds that I've been collecting. In typical 'Suzanne' style I haven't labelled anything, threw the empty packets out and I have no idea what will come up, where or when.

 I was totally amazed to see the lettuce and cress sprouting the following day. These are inside the house, the tray outdoors took 5 days to sprout.

There was a trip or two to the garden centre and I'm loving all the Christmas decorations.

The weather is cooling, but it's not consistent. At 4.38 on Tuesday it was 26c and on Friday at 7.11am it was 19c. It makes me laugh that the weather app on my phone says 'mostly sunny'

We've been spending as much time as we can outdoors. Dubai is simply stunning, this picture was taken after work at Costa Coffee.

 The new Dubai Water Canal is now officially opened. The skyline has changed dramatically. I'm looking forward to Safa Park being fully restored.

Dubai Ferry trip

There are several routes available, travel along the coast  or take a look at The Palm from the sea, or just pop to one of the fabulous beaches in Jumeriah away from the tourists.

For up to date information on times, locations and costs visit the RTA website

Catching the ferry from either Dubai Marina or Al Ghubaiba, Deira Creek is a must do if visiting Dubai. The trip costs AED 50 and lasts for 90 minutes. After a brief safety demo, the ferry sets off out the harbour.

We started our trip from the Creek, catching the bus from our house on the Al Wasl Road, on our arrival at the Marina, we travelled home on the tram, train and bus. 

Food and snacks were served on the ferry and you were free to walk around talking as many photos as you wanted, which of course my son and I did in abundance.

The ferry travels approximately 1km from the shore line and the views are simply stunning. On this day I had a headache so stayed mainly indoors, so please excuse the reflection in the windows. To be able to see all of Dubai in one go is astounding.

We can see the Burj Al Arab from the beach near our house, but when approaching from the Mairina area by road you can only see the top half of the building and despite the sail looking very close to the Al Arab there is now such much building going on around the area you can only see this iconic view now from the air or sea.

The last part of the journey is entering Dubai Marina, again the shore line is simply stunning.

Dubai Marina Mall, final destination from where you can get the tram, tube or a taxi back to your hotel or home. After a spot of lunch and shopping of course.

Week 97 - My Sunday Photo. Dubai Water Canal.

The ever changing skyline of Dubai.

October 3rd 2016

November 3rd 2016

This is what happened in a week in Dubai. I went to the UK for a week and when I came back, this happened.

It's part of the Dubai Water Canal Project started in September 2013 and now filled with water. Next is the construction of hotels, shops and restaurants as well as completing cycle, foot and jogging paths.

Week 34 - My Sunday Photo

Drinking coffee with a view of the Burj Khalifa and the Dubai skyline in Starbucks. 

Can't wait now till winter when I can sit outside and enjoy the view rather than looking through a piece of tinted glass sat under the air conditioning.