Bird market in Hong Kong with Animal Tales

Catching the train from Admiralty station in Hong Kong over to to Prince Edward station in Kowloon  on the mainland, it's a short walk to the Bird market, set inside a small park next to Hong Kong Stadium.

My expectations of the market were that I wasn't going to like being there and on entering my thoughts were confirmed, there were lots of tourists purchasing the lovely handcrafted wooden cages, empty of course, but as lovely as they were I didn't want to support the trade, so after taking a few photo's (with permission) we left.

Afterwards we briefly visited the fish market, and decided to give the animal market a miss, I didn't feel the need to cause myself any further distress.

My Sunday Photo Week 119 H is for Hong Kong

 

The closing ceremony at the Hong Kong Rugby 7's. We've had an amazing trip, still don't know who paid for us to be here, so can't thank them publically. 

One Daily Positive - Week 14. South Wales, Dubai to Hong Kong

I am absolutely shattered, I have no idea what day or time it is, I'm sleeping when I'm tired and eating when I'm hungry.

Peter and I are in Hong Kong for the Rugby 7's. I won a competition. I received notification via a telephone call, a week later and 10 hours before we flew I received the official email from a PR company with flight, hotel, ticket and Limo details and that was it. I have no idea who is actually paying for this trip, but we're having a great time.

Sunday - coffee with friends in newport and a visit to my see my Aunt, before returning to the flat to cook a Sunday roast for me and the teen and chill out for the evening.
92/365 Like

Monday - I met most of the new neighbours, popped to the coffee shop, dry cleaners, supermarket, local council office, post office and walked up to see the castle. The teen spent the evening explaining the difference between vlogging and you tubing.
93/365 Flower

Tuesday - off to Gloucester with the teen to visit Stephanie, we did some shopping first, then spent a couple of hours with her in her own home. We both struggled last week to take her out. The evening was spent with friends for dinner.
94/365 Blue

Wednesday - I started my journey back to Dubai, leaving South Wales at 10am, returning car hire and a direct flight with Emirates. With the time difference I was back in Dubai at 2am, straight to bed.
95/365 Look up

Thursday - I woke at 7am and after Peter went to work I went back to bed at 9am till 12pm. I washed Bob, drove him over to Jelly's where he's staying, took the cat to the vets where she is staying, went to the bank, unpacked and repacked and washed the pet bedding. I was back at the airport with Peter by 7pm, we had dinner and then caught our flight to Hong Kong at 11pm.
96/365 I'm Eating

Friday - We arrived in Hong Kong at 9.30am, having lost 4 hours of time, collected tickets for the Rugby 7's, driven to the hotel in a Limo and opted to wait till the official check in time to have a bath in the room as well as a shower, we explored the local area. In the evening we caught the MTR to Causeway Bay and followed the crowd to the 7's, watching the Women's final, opening ceremony and the first set of matches.
97/365 Love

Saturday - We booked a tour to explore the island. We visited Man Mo Temple, rode the 125 year old tram to Victoria Peak, visited Sky Terrace, Aberdeen Fishing Village, had lunch at Jumbo Restaurant the World's Largest Floating Restaurant, Stanley Market and a visit to a jewellery factory. In the evening we explored Hollywood Road bars and restaurants.
98/365 Sparkle

On the blog this week:

My Sunday Photo - Travel and Ikea furniture assembly
Parenting, Triumphant Tales, Tween Teens and Beyond and PoCoLo - Coping with a disabled adult child

Coping with a disabled adult child.

It's been 6 months since I last saw my step daughter, child 1 of 5. I live in Dubai, she lives in a care home in Gloucester.

The teen, child 5 of 5, and I took her out on Friday for the afternoon. Nothing too adventurous, a trip to the local supermarket, for lunch and a bit of shopping.

We were both shattered and badly bruised. Despite the teens best efforts, she managed to reach out and jab me in the ribs while I was driving, I received an elbow in the chest and a punch to the stomach. She rammed everyone and everything with the trolley, grabbed hold of other peoples trolleys as they walked past and actually went off with one woman. The glass spice jars narrowly escaped crashing to the floor, she refused to eat her lunch and lobbed her drinks bottle across the café.

We weren't out long enough to battle a nappy change, thankfully. The staff in the café exclaimed 'ooh she's not usually this lively, are you new members of staff?'

3 hours, that was all and we were both physically and mentally shattered.

We're visiting again tomorrow, we've decided to stay and play with her in her own home and take her for a walk around the neighbourhood.

As much as I'm getting older and find it difficult to get her in and out the car, the kids are all adults now, over 6ft tall and more than willing to help mum with their sister and spend time with her, but I don't allow them to do any of her personal care, apart from helping with outer clothing and shoes on and off. Sadly I think the last time I ever take her out on my own has now been and gone.

It's not easy admitting you can't cope any more, difficult to admit to yourself, battling with self imposed guilt that you can no longer take her days out on your own, and just a simple trip is hard work.

Peter is joining me in the UK in 2 weeks time, so we'll try again, no agenda, just keep it local and simple and keep the visits short and try not to feel guilty about being able to do more.

My Sunday Photo Week 118 E is for excitement.

 

I'm flying back to Dubai on Wednesday and flying out to Hong Kong on Thursday with Peter on an all expenses paid trip to watch the Rugby 7's. I'll be back in the UK on the 13th. 

One Daily Positive - Week 13 Travel and Ikea furniture assembly

I'm back in the UK, and arrived to lovely weather, unlike the wet, damp and windy Dubai. I had thought it would be the other way round, it is however a little cold.

Apologies for not having read and commented on last weeks posts, I will get round to that on Sunday as well as a million and one other things I've fallen behind with this week.

Finally 36 hours before I flew Turkish Airlines issued information on their website for flying to the UK with electronic items.

I opted to leave my laptop at home and have purchased another one to leave here, I'm in the UK till Wednesday then off to the Rugby 7's in Hong Kong, back to the UK till the end of April and back again mid June for 8-12 weeks, I can watch TV on it as I've purchased a UK TV licence for the apartment and I carried a hard drive with me with my pictures and things I'm working on at the moment.

Sunday I went onto the desert with Bob at 7am, stopping for a coffee on route, we got home at 10am and I took my papers for my Police Clearance Certificate from South Africa Police to the post office to courier to a friend who will submit and collect papers for me. I had to pick up cat food and bought a new pole for an indoor climber plant and re potted it. I then hoovered and mopped and spent the afternoon on the laptop and reading. We went out for dinner and I was at the airport at 11pm ready for my 2am flight, allowing additional time for the extra security measures.

Monday and the flight to Istanbul went well. I may have had some sleep in-between watching movies and reading my book. My flight to the UK was cancelled and I spent 8 hours at Istanbul airport. On arrival in the UK at 4pm and after collecting my luggage, I collected car hire and drove down to South Wales, meeting my sister to collect the keys for our apartment. I dropped my case off, had coffee. I stayed at my parents for the night.

Tuesday morning I unpacked all the Ikea furniture. In the afternoon I picked up some bedding and did a basic shop. I spent the 2nd night at my parents. I sorted out issues with the solicitors and estate agents.

Wednesday I took my parents to see the apartment and met my twitter friend Pat at her house and we took the dogs for a long walk around the fields. I unpacked everything in the apartment, my nephew in law came round and assembled the bed for me.

Thursday morning with my sister and mother we visited Newport retail park and purchased a mirror, clothes horse and a photo frame. I collected the teen from boarding school for the Easter holidays, and after enlisting my sister's help to move a table from my mums to the apartment at 9pm, the teen and I assembled the Ikea sofa bed, which I'll be sleeping till he goes back to school, end of April.

Friday morning the teen and I went to Gloucester to collect Stephanie and took her out for lunch and to do some shopping, she battered the pair of us black and blue in the car, refused to eat her lunch, it was lovely to see her, despite it being hard work, I don't think I could manage her on my own anymore. We went round my parents house in the evening for my sister's birthday tea with all the little ones and we had dinner out and a few drinks, once the oldies and the little ones had gone to bed.

Saturday I woke up and walked the short distance (90 seconds) into town for a coffee and wifi, finally set up the utility accounts online, purchased a TV licence, paid the management committee, collected recycling bags and took a walk along the river and watched a dog agility event from afar. The teen and I assembled the last piece of Ikea furniture a chest of drawers and finally managed to get everything tidied away. My sister and niece visited for an hour and I went to see my friend and her children for tea.
85/365 Mum

 86/365 Relax

 87/365 Food

 88/365 Amaze

 89/365 Lesson

 90/365 Spring

 91/365 You Got Me

On the blog this week:

My Sunday Photo - E is for Earth Hour
Parenting and PoCoLo - How practical is practical parenting advice?
Animal Tales - John's Giraffe
How Does Your Garden Grow? - In The Night Garden
Travel and Monday Escapes - New travel regulations to the UK with Turkish Airlines

I've also linked up with:

Spectrum Sunday - Planning a trip with a disabled young adult
Triumphant Tales - Supporting Adults and Vulnerable Children in South Africa
Tween, Teens and Beyond - Despite the kids leaving home I still do these things

John's Giraffe

 Meet Raffy I never met John, but he was my son's friend, who sadly lost his battle in life with cancer last year, aged 18. 

Raffy was donated to the school where John was head boy in his memory. 

I had to look twice to work out what I was seeing as nothing surprises me anymore. 

 

Traveling with electronics to the UK with Turkish Airlines via Istanbul Airport

I travelled to the UK on Monday from Dubai, via Istanbul with Turkish Airlines. 

I opted to leave my laptop at home and took my camera in my hand luggage. 

The additional security was managed by the airline and our plane took off on time.

Usual screening took place in Dubai and on transfer in Istanbul. No information was available at check in on what the procedure would be in Turkey and Turkish Airlines were slow to update their website with information.

The gate number was annnounced at 12.55pm, 1 hour before take off for boarding as normal, but after presenting passports and boarding passes, we had to queue for bag, explosive swabbing and external body search (pat down)  Every non British passport holder was asked to show their travel documents, boarding passes for earlier flight if in transit and photographs of their exit stamp from earlier flights was taken. 

A variety of electronic items were removed from passengers, including games consoles as well as laptops, iPads, kindles and a computer monitor. Everything was bubble wrapped, bar coded and packed in suitcases to be manually put in the hold. Each passenger received a ticket and was required to sign and list the contents.

 

I handed over my entire camera bag and listed the lenses, tripod etc, other passengers just handed over the main body of the camera, prior to boarding. 

We were informed our items would be handed back to us on arrival to in Birmingham and on exiting the plane, clearing passport and entering the baggage hall, there was a stand for Turkish Airlines, where receipts and goods were passed over in exchange for a signature.

Despite the process being relatively simple, there was no information available at the airport and very little information online, which caused quite a bit of concern amongst passengers and slowed the process down due to passengers asking endless questions when it wasn't necessary if announcements were made.

The whole process could've been a lot simpler and less stressful if entry to the boarding area had started earlier, information given at check in and updated online as cameras were excluded from the cabin ban for the UK, but with the process being new, I wasn't allowed to take it in the cabin. 

I'm hoping they have established a better system in Birmingham, by the next time I travel in June, it was fortunate that arrivals was exceptionally quiet, the young man who was returning electronics to passengers made the process more complicated than it needed to be and it was time consuming and didn't take into account passengers who may have been in transit, maybe the airline knew this in Istanbul or maybe there were passengers who didn't get reunited with their belongings. 

In general I'm more than happy to go through the extra security, I don't use my laptop during the flight and passengers can use their electronic items right up until boarding is announced. I was happier knowing my camera was taken on and off the plane manually, rather than packing it in my suitcase risking theft and mishandling. 

I did have one minor wobble when the airline forced the lid closed on a case and did point out that they needed to be more careful as kneeling on the lid of a suitcase containing laptops was not a good idea. 

How practical is practical parenting advice?

How practical is practical parenting advice?

I stopped looking for help and guidance with my children a long time before the internet became the ‘go to’ place to go, in fact I didn’t own a mobile phone or have an email address until after my last son was born and that was in 1999, as he was the 3^rd boy I’d gone past the stage of needing advice on changing nappies, sleeping arrangements and weaning, However when we did start to have issues, I didn’t turn to friends, family or the internet, I went straight to the professionals and followed their guidance and help.

It’s what led me to my choice of career, although now redundant as I'm currently a ‘lady who lunches’ or in other words an expat, it became my job to be the person who advised and issued the guidelines on how to parent, where to go to to get support, help and advice and what was normal childhood within any and every situation. I didn’t make it my mission to learn everything and tell you it all, I made it my job to help you implement the latest guidance and advice into your day to day life. I also trained NVQ 3 students in Childcare and Education in a variety of settings and supported work experience students. As well as 2 years as a child welfare officer training and supporting volunteers, coaches and others involved in grassroots football, and working with multi agencies. 

I can very easily sit here and tell you how to manage any situation either from a personal, work or friends experience or I can google search something straight away, tell you what and how to do it, but leave you feeling inadequate because the solution doesn’t fit your family needs.

It's all well and good advising a parent on how to deal with a problem child, a child with disabilities, a child who is being bullied, or is the bully. A child who is a picky eater or just doesn't sleep or wets the bed, or is drinking alcohol or taking drugs, child who is excelling in school but just not being stretched enough or a child that is slow to read or write or just can't grasp a maths concept, but it's not always practical to implement.

I've pretty much either dealt with a lot of these things with my own family or I've been on training courses or worked in a particular area of expertise.

I appreciate every family environment is different and that some of the advice may not be relevant or work for you. Finances may be an issue, you could be a single parent, you could be in an abusive relationship, you could have 1 child or 10. You have food shopping, washing, ironing and cleaning to do, school runs in all weathers in a car or on foot, a partner who works irregular hours, you could be a stay at home parent or part time or full time working parent or parents.

My last child turns 18 in April, all 5 have survived into adulthood and beyond. I hope by sharing experiences I've had as a mother that I can help you by guiding you in the right direction, offering tips on what worked for us, how issues were resolved and that in the long run, everything did work out ok.

Where do you turn for support and advice?

My Sunday Photo - Week 117 E is for Earth Hour, Dubai

Whilst I understand the need for safety and that they build 24/7 and safety lights need to be left on for low flying aircraft, I am very disappointed with Dubai's effort for this years Earth Hour. I'm sure quite a few more buildings and businesses could've switched off a few more lights, maybe the arch could've been turned off also, as there is plenty of light on the footbridge for the handful of people out tonight in the rain.

One Daily Positive - Week 12 So much to do.

I arrive in the UK on Monday. I'm flying with Turkish Airlines, via Istanbul. The last two weeks crept up on me and I had two weeks of plans to cram into one.

I started the week with a plan.

On top of all the usual stuff I have quite a few extra things I need to get done before I go away. Collect glasses from opticians, book car hire, repack suitcase and remove 3kg, gardening, nail bar and hair cut, The Green Planet, Desert trip with Bob, visit Rory, Quiz night, sew dog beds, make dog biscuits, take Rory to an adoption day, finish cleaning and put everything back in the maid's room

Peter will be joining me in the UK over Easter so I also needed to get the stuff together for the cat and dog, ready for him to take to the cattery and Bob to a friend's.

I also have to visit the South African embassy to find out if I can get my finger prints for my police clearance check completed here or whether I have to visit the embassy in Trafalgar Square, no one is answering emails, so I thought I'd just try to start the process and see what happens.

I finished gardening around 10.30pm on Saturday night, so that was one less job to do. I also managed to unpack 4kg of extra luggage and Peter will bring it with him when he comes over at Easter. My son and his girlfriend are coming to visit and arrive in Dubai the day before I get back. Peter will be back by then so I also had to prepare their room before I left.

Sunday, I had a lie in, then headed off for a coffee and a food shop, I finished cleaning out the maids room and tidied the garden up and the garden shed. I set up the outdoor cushions and enjoyed lunch outside. I then fetched our glasses and took myself to the beach for an hour, I had a swim and read my book. In the evening I baked dog biscuits. I got all the things ready for the cat and dog for when Peter joins me in the UK.

Monday and another lie in. I caught the metro to Burjuman and went to the South African Embassy. I didn't have much luck so off to London it is. I spent the afternoon and evening sorting and cleaning all the camping gear and putting it back in the maids room, we've not used it since we've been in Dubai, maybe next year. I still have a lot of the kids stuff to sort out but that and the tool and bike shed, wait until after my UK trip, but at least I can get my car back in the garage. I also sewed up 4 dog beds ready to be stuffed. After washing all the picnic stuff I decided to pop out for a coffee. I also booked my car hire. I collapsed in bed at 10pm after a shower and read my book till I fell asleep.

Tuesday's plans to go on a bike ride and sit on the beach were put on hold as I woke up to a heavy downpour. All the cushions in the garden were soaked, so after cleaning the lounge and hallway and closing the door on it for the rest of the week, I visited City Walk and had lunch for one, bought a ticket for one to The Green Planet, Rain Forest and later had coffee on my own, as was helpfully pointed out everywhere 'you on your own?' I spent the early evening lying on the bed with the cat and dog, watching soaps, then hung up the cushions to dry and stuffed 4 dog beds, ready for Friday.

Wednesday I went for a manicure and pedicure and gel polish and got my hair cut. The adoption day for Rory on Friday was postponed due to the weather, thankfully I can freeze the dog biscuits I made. I sorted my South African Police clearance and started my disclosure and barring application in the UK. Due to the new airline regulations for flying with electronic devices I repacked my suitcase ready to put my laptop and camera in, although I'm in transit via Turkish airlines, I don't want to risk having them confiscated in Turkey. In  the evening I met one of my friends from Munich who I stayed with last summer and I met when we lived in South Africa.

Thursday morning and I took Bob to a new dog park, about an hours drive into the desert. We were the only ones there.The GPS didn't pick it up and I flagged down a guy who told me to follow him, he had to check on a camel first but would take me there, he set off at speed over sand dunes in his 4x4 with me following as quick as I could in my Peugeot, pointed to a fenced off area and left me. I was in the right place, but had no idea how to get out, I persuaded a worker to show me the way back. I took the car to be valeted, and did some banking, spending the rest of day. I bought McDonald's for the cat and dog for Pushkins 5th year living with us, she is about 8 years of age according to the vets. Peter came home at 10.30pm, he got a taxi, it's just too busy at that time of night on the roads.

Friday morning we woke up to heavy rain and thunder and lightening, we took Bob to the dog park, this time in Peter's 4 x 4, we found it straight away after driving over a couple of dunes. We had brunch at The Belgium Beer Cafe at The Souk Madinat, the rest of the day was written off.

Saturday and still raining from late yesterday evening, we have yesterday's brunch to recover from, tomorrow's flight to prepare for and thunder, lightening and rain storms today. We'll probably venture out later for coffee, food shop and dog walk, but not much else will be happening today.

78/365 Pamper

79/365 Book

 80/365 Tasty

81/365 Yellow

82/365 Words - There are no words to explain this.

83/365 Numbers

84/365 Me

My Sunday Photo and HDYGG? - Creating a garden in the desert
Spectrum Sunday and Send - Planning a trip with a disabled young adult
Family Life and PoCoLo - Why are women so mean?
Travel - 8 important questions to ask when booking car hire
Tween, Teen and Beyond - My life in a male oriented family
Triumphant Tales - Making a difference in South Africa

8 important questions to ask when booking car hire

We've often used a family members car when we've visited the UK, but as we usually fly into Heathrow or more often Birmingham, it's one heck of a trip getting to South Wales or Bath to collect the vehicle and with family and friends living all over the UK, it's been easier on our last few trips to book car hire.

We've used one of the larger search engines to find the best deals, but there have been a few hiccups and often the place where we've had to collect the car from has involved a train, bus trip or walk to reach it. Service has often been slow and poor and not fun when you've just got off a long haul flight, lugging a 30kg suitcase and hand luggage.

On both the last two occasions, when we returned the vehicles there was some minor damage to the paint work, scuff marks and stone chips.

We took out Collision Waiver Damage, CWD, which almost doubled the initial costs advertised on the website with the booking company.

CWD means that any accident, theft or damage to the vehicle is covered fully, but it also means you lose your deposit to the actual car hire company and then you have to provide receipts which you forward to the booking company for a full refund.

Having your car hire and insurance with different companies worked well for us the first time and the £400 deposit was returned to our credit card before the payment was due.

However on the last trip, the deposit was £1200 and was retained by the car hire company, for 2 stone chips and a scuff mark that could've easily T cut out had I had the car cleaned before returning it. Receipts were forwarded as before, but this time I waited 3 months before the deposit was refunded, meaning I had to pay the credit card bill off in full. I only got my deposit returned after I threatened the booking company with the ombudsman. The delay was due to the car hire company not providing evidence of the cost of repairs, meaning I had to wait for them to refund the difference between the repairs and the deposit then the booking company refunding the cost of the repairs.

As a result and the difficulties in sorting things like this out from another country, I've decided to investigate booking direct, with everything in one place. The car hire and the insurance together is almost double the price of booking with one of the low cost companies, but the excess is very high and to reduce it to £0 the cost of hire, the cost almost doubles again.

It's not always transparent at the time of booking the T&C's of car hire and these are important questions to answer before renting a car.

1. Do you return the car empty or full?
2. Is the mileage limited?
3. What is the cost for an additional driver?
4. Is there an additional charge for drop off at another location?
5. Is CWD included? Is it with the car hire company or an independent?
6. Breakdown?
7. What is the excess? How do you recover your costs from CWD?
8. Windscreen and wheel rim protection?

I also think there should be some wear and tear allowance to vehicles, yes I'm responsible for scuffs to body work and damage to the paint, but stone chips are a bit difficult to avoid.

So I've gone back to using search engines and found a different one to book through this time. However I still have to collect the car from the place where I had the problems on my last visit. I've decided I'd rather keep the costs down, as I need car hire for 4 weeks and again in June for approximately 12 weeks.

Who do you use for car hire? Have you experienced similar problems?

Why are women so mean?

I’m battling boredom and loneliness here in Dubai, I just about established some roots after 4 years in South Africa, made friends and found a purpose and it was gone over night as we relocated to Dubai, just over 2 years ago.

In South Africa we knew very few expats, in fact hardly any. We lived in an Afrikaans area, around Pretoria, with the children attending an English School. I was unable to work, due to visa restrictions and Peter worked in Johannesburg, which had a higher concentration of expats.

Peter’s colleagues were all South African as were our friends, even the few British people we met had been resident in South Africa for upwards of 10-20 years.

I went to every event I saw advertised, charities, golf do’s, accepted church invites, attended coffee mornings and events at the kids school. Unfortunately I would often be the only none Afrikaans speaking person there and I’d smile and nod along not knowing what was being said. But I persisited until I made friends and found a purpose.

I had upsets along the way such as when I met and English family who invited me to their home then forgot I was coming and I never heard from them again. Or arriving at an event to discover the only spare seat had a handbag sat on it and despite me asking if I could sit there, I was ignored. There were also loads of coffee dates that people would fail to turn up to, without messaging to say something had come up, only to discover being friends with the newbie wasn’t going to be beneficial to their husbands business or child’s development.

We got to know one couple whose children were in school in the UK and had been living in South Africa and other African countries for 2 decades, who were affectionately known as the ‘when we’s’ as in ‘When we lived in Keenya…….’ And were keen to make us feel like South Africa was just like living in the UK compared to their experiences. As time went on, I realized that one of their children had attended a school local to where we had lived in the UK, that we knew some of the same people and had been to events at various places, probably at the same time and the friendship turned sour.

Then one day we turned up to their house as arranged, they weren’t in and despite seeing them at the golf course they repeatedly ignored our existence until eventually one day, I walked over to talk to some other women I knew and upon this woman seeing me, she pulled her chair round and blocked me out the conversation.

I’ve had similar experiences also in Dubai and despite making a few friends through having worked here for a year and through walking Bob. Dubai is more transient and quite frankly can be very false. People posting endless pictures on facebook of them at brunch, relaxing at a spa or hiring a cabana on a private beach, the reality is often different and they are living in debt, up to their max on credit cards and generally living outside of their means. I’ve found a lot of women don’t want to discuss day to day life, they don’t have issues, worries, concerns they want to share. It's all about networking, who has been to the best brunches and had the best experiences.

It's sad really, people come for a few years, move back to the UK and spend the rest of their lives as 'when we's'

I know I'm sounding judgemental, but when you attend a coffee morning and all everyone is discussing is their latest designer bag or talking about their brunch experiences, it's hard not to be.

I walk into new environments now on edge, I'm asked my occupation, I don't have one. This can go either one way or another. If I'm meeting a group of people in a bar, it's usually because they're working and have nothing to say. If I'm meeting a group of people in a cafe, usually all women, they ask if I have children and what my husband does for a living. You can quickly see that a) I'm no use for play dates as my kids have left home and b) my husbands job can't benefit their networking aims.

Not all the women I meet are like this, but I often find a lot just aren't being their real selves. They too have been in a similar situation to me, where they've just not fitted in, but unlike me I refuse to play games and if I don't fit I just walk away, not change myself to be something I'm not.

It strikes me as being similar to the school playground. But in the playground, working life and in South Africa I finally found my 'place' and made good friends, I just think it's slightly harder in Dubai as it's so transient. 

Do you find it easy to make friends? 

Without children for play dates and not working it does get harder to meet people. 

How do you make friends?

In the night garden Week 116 My Sunday Photo and HDYGG? G is for Gardening

Raised sandpit at the front of the house.

We have outside access all round our villa, the front part is mostly block paved, but it features a raised sandpit. To the right of the villa there is a larger sandpit, at the end of the block paving. The back of the villa, is again block paved and it's where the washing gets hung out. To the left of the villa there is a small lawn and further block paving.

Larger sandpit to the right of the villa.

The villa is painted white and the gardens are walled around 5-6ft tall, there were only bougainvillaea planted in the garden when we moved in and little else.

The first year we were here I decided to experiment with the weather and growing plants directly into the sand and I managed to germinate and grow marigolds, tomatoes and a variety of other plants and vegetables.

Last year I didn't experiment as much, as I was working, but I did grow basil from seed and nasturtiums.

This year I've been more adventurous and I'm growing accidental potatoes. I attended a gardening demonstration and organic seeds were being handed out, I managed to germinate them, as well as squash and aubergines. I say 'accidental' as I had no idea what was in the packet I received. So far we've harvested 2 aubergines and had them for dinner on Friday night in a curry.

I've also grown this year, from seed, the following:

Tomatoes, peas, chillies, more basil, parsley, peppers, mint, nasturtiums, sweet peas and sunflowers.

March in Dubai is Plantation and Park month, celebrating the opening of 5 new public parks in Dubai and green spaces. To mark the 33rd year of this scheme, free plants were being handed out around parks in Dubai. I now have several trees, 2 of which will yield lemons, several shrubs, some strawberry plants, bedding and ground cover.

I spent Saturday from midday till 10.30pm levelling sand, digging, planting and watering. 

 Digging a hole in the sand was actually harder than you'd imagine, the sand is so fine it just kept refilling the hole.

I have no idea if what I've planted will take, I am unable to identify the trees but I was told that they each produce a different colour flower, red, yellow and white.

There was a lot of cleaning up to do afterwards, which I'm ashamed to say I left mainly to the gardener, well you can see from the 'before' pictures there really wasn't much for him to garden anyway. I washed the patio, walls, windows and got all the garden furniture set up as I intend to spend most of my week sitting in the garden, as it will be too hot to enjoy very soon.

This is the end result, I will be in the UK at the end of the week, so I'm hoping that between Peter and the gardener they will water the plants for me twice a day and I look forward to seeing the progress on my return at the end of April.

Left of the villa.

 Right of the villa.

Front of the villa.

Beans and chili

Rosemary, parsley and Lemon tree.

Do you have a garden or an allotment? What do you grow in it? Have you faced the challenge of gardening in the desert and planting directly into the sand?