One Daily Positive - Week 3 After the rain and the Abu Dhabi Golf

We had 150mm of water fall per hour for 3 hours here in Dubai over the weekend, the worse weather in 24 years. No big deal I hear you say, but we have very little drainage, the area we live in Jebal Ali and Discovery Gardens was the worse hit and on Sunday roads were still closed while they pumped the water away and abandoned cars littered the roads.

12 Sunday Off to Ibn Battuta around midday, mum did the ironing and I did more washing and some tidying up. In the evening after dinner we watched The Prestige. Mum is moaning that the TV here is rubbish, we have films, sport or netflex, TBH we don't watch a lot of TV.

The new road system will be opened soon and some of the buildings are now occupied.

13 Monday We headed out to Dubai Mall for the day, coffee, lunch, some shopping and exploration. I sent mum and child 5 ahead of me to the car with the supermarket trolley, they got lost, were no where near where child 5 messaged me from to say 'help, come and get us' and they giggled all the way home when I called them idiots. My mum said I was the idiot for expecting them to find their own way back. I walked round the 1st floor before spotting them down below on the ground floor grrrrrrr. We had a BBQ in the evening, but ran out of gas so Peter had to finish cooking under the grill.

14 Tuesday Off to Dubai Marina for a walk round. In the afternoon we visited the outlet village.

Sunset over the desert/building site

15 Wednesday Mum and I went to Mall of the Emirates, child 5 was out when we got home. I spent the afternoon in bed, I'm exhausted.

I bought myself the feathered rucksack, it has a built in hood, handy for my move to the UK.

I'm working as a marshal at the golf in Abu Dhabi, it's an hours drive each way, the speed limit is 140km/p/h. Dubai is 120km/p/h and my car is from Dubai and is fitted with a regulator that beeps, none stop when I go over 120, so I have the radio on full blast to drown the noise out.

This is part of the European Tour and the Rolex Series. There is some serious prize money up for grabs US$7,000000.

It's been chilly in the mornings, but lovely and warm in the afternoon with a cool wind (not so good for the golfers) I've topped up my tan nicely, taken over 45,000 steps and also walked the dog twice a day. Met up with friends from previous golfing events and it's been nice to catch up with everyone. Quite a lot of the volunteers fly in for their annual holiday.

16 Thursday First day of the golf in Abu Dhabi. I'm a walking marshal, I walked round the course with on a Marquee Match with Matt Wallace, Victor Perez and Danny Willet who won The Masters in 2016 and The Open in 2019.  Danny's mum and Matt's girlfriend walked with us, 2 very nice women.

It's difficult to take photos when marshalling as you never know when a camera crew will turn up.

17 Friday Out walking today with Andy Sullivan, Jason Scrivener and Scott Jamieson. Peter brought Mum and child 5 up for the afternoon, they went off to visit the Mosque afterwards and I got home at 7pm.

My most difficult crowd control moment.

18 Saturday Another day at the golf this time with Romain Langasque, Mike Lorenzo-Vera and Ashley Chesters.

A well deserved break and a chance to actually watch some golfers play.

Last day tomorrow. 3 days off then it's time for the Omega Desert Classic back in Dubai.

On the blog this week:

We're getting our house ready for the relocation at the end of the month, pop over and have a look at how we got our family home back after 9 years

I'm co hosting Post Comment Love #PoCoLo with Stephanie @lifeat139a, you can link up any blog post written this week, do pop over and take a look and a bit of support would be lovely, thank you.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Post Comment Love - 17th - 19th January 2020

It's the HSBC Championship this week, part of the European Golf Tour in Abu Dhabi and I'm working as a marshal at the event. I don't play golf, I just enjoy being out and about, meeting people and volunteering.

Yesterday I went out with Danny Willet, Matthew Wallace and Victor Perez. This is the view of the first tee half way down the fairway where I was ball marking for the players.

My mum and child 5 are visiting, they had to entertain themselves on Thursday and Peter is bringing them along to the golf today and tomorrow they're off on a road trip.

My mother needs supervising with her purchases, she thinks I can pack everything she buys into her 25kg suitcase allowance each trip.

We'd love to hear more about you also. Do pop over to our Blogger Showcase answer the questions to be featured on future #PoCoLo posts.

Come and join in with #PoCoLo with Stephanie and I and link up a blog post you've written this week.

If you'd like a weekly reminder leave your twitter name in the comments below

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Post Comment Love #PoCoLo Linky

Post Comment Love or PoCoLo is a weekly linky that was co-hosted each week with Stephanie and Morgan since 2016 following in Vicky's footsteps. Morgan moved away from blogging the end of 2019 and I've stepped in to replace her.

It's a friendly linky that Stephanie and I both hope you'll join in and become part of our community.

So what can I link to #PoCoLo?

It is one of the easiest linkys as you can link any of your posts. You know the blog post that you're proud of, the one that's perhaps not getting seen by as many people as you thought. That post can be personal, sponsored, a photo, a review, a competition - yes whatever you like.

You'll be able to add your link to either of our sites every Friday and between us we'll comment on every post in the week that follows.

Please remember these three rules:

1. To comment on at least two of the other posts and help us spread the #PoCoLo word on Twitter - you can find us on twitter here: Stephanie - @LifeAt139a and Suzanne - @ChickenRuby
2. Your post has to have been written in the last week.
3. Please include the PoCoLo badge on your post.

#BloggerShowcase

Stephanie and I also host a Blogger Showcase feature as part of PoCoLo. We've recently added some questions for you to answer, any blogger can take part and if you'd like to be featured then please get in touch.

The #BloggerShowcase Questions

1. Who are you? (a short introduction)
2. How did you discover blogs/blogging?
3. Why did you start blogging?
4. What do you find most challenging?
5. What is your favourite topic to write about?
6. Are you blogging for fun or do you have goals?
7. What is your favourite thing about blogging?
8. Have you ever attended a blogging conference and if so, what did you think?
9. What are your 3 best posts?
10. Describe yourself in three words!
11. Are you a tea and biscuits or coffee and cake person?
12. What's your idea of a perfect night out?
13. Your perfect night in?
14. What would your best friend/OH/mum or kids say is your best quality?

Sorting out our family home in the UK

We've had tenants in our family home for the past 9 years. We've had really bad tenants who trashed our house and we've had really good tenants. Our first agent really let us down and was paying our rent from his own account as the tenants were late and missed payments, then when he could no longer manage this he told us, we issued a section 21a, he messed up their eviction and in total with lost rent, mortgage payments, replacing stolen items and repairing the house, along with court and bailiff fees, we suffered badly. We also had to sort out their debts and utility bills also.
Our current agents have been brilliant, mediating payments and finding us 3 sets of good tenants over 8 years.

Our current tenants vacated the property on time, but asked to keep the keys for a further 6 days to allow them time to clean and remove the rubbish. The agents agreed, but billed them for the extra days.

I was back in the UK early December, the house needs quite a bit of work doing to it, the locks have been changed, utilities switched over, the contents from the flat are now in the house so I can live in it until our furniture arrives in May/June and the flat is being rented out to fund the running costs of the house.

I'll be writing separate blog posts on the renovations.

But for now here are some pictures of the work we need to do to return the house to an acceptable standard. The tenants are liable for redecoration, repairs, new doors, carpets, rubbish removal and the cleaning, but their deposit will only cover just over 60% of the total costs.

Fire automatic door closures were removed

A whole door is missing

What doors remain are damaged

Window handles broken

Sky cabling just lying loose over the conservatory

Sky cables everywhere

 Broken furniture and waste left behind

Pull cords and light fittings damaged so I can only shower during daylight hours

Steam mop purchased as normal cleaning won't suffice

I only cleaned 10 tiles so I could take delivery of a fridge freezer

Boxes glued to the walls, along with 101+ nails and screws removed

Damaged flooring

Broken bathroom tiles

Carpet is beyond cleaning

Oven needs cleaning as does extractor fan and cupboards are covered in grease. Hob is badly scratched.

Neighbours have been written to about their plants, shrubs over growing my property and damaging the fence

Neighbours shed has collapsed, breaking my fence, until their shed is repaired and garden cut back, we are unable to replace the fence panels.

There are several jobs we want to do also but for the meantime I've requested additional quotes for complete redecoration, new carpets, bathroom, tiling, matching all the internal doors and a new kitchen.

We're currently in arbitration with the tenants claiming this damage is where and tear or not their responsibility. The 6 new doors that need replacing, due to damage, well actually 1 door is missing all together is apparently my fault as the automatic door closures for fire safety requirements as per building regs and insurance were all damaged by the wind blowing them shut, the carpet is wear and tear, the mess in the garden is due to it being winter and that's how gardens looks, they cleaned just not to my levels of perfection and the junk left behind was furniture I left in the house in the first place and it obviously just broke.

One Daily Positive - Week 2 Rain in Dubai

Getting really fed up of the UK media with its click bait articles, you just don't know who to believe these days. Anyway at the time of writing we're perfectly safe here in Dubai, there has been no warnings from the government either here or in the UK and if you check the UK government travel site you'll see there is more risk of terrorism in the UK than in Dubai.

It was very windy at the start of the week, which usually indicates rain is on the way, it is forecast for Monday and Friday but who knows? Everything in the garden is now covered in a fine layer of sand and I'll be back to constant sweeping and taking the soft furnishings in and out everyday. So far we've had 2 uninterrupted weeks of lovely weather.

5 Sunday Updated all the memory sticks and hard drives from last year. Slow cooker on and took Bob for a walk, it's quite chilly outside and windy. Off to the local mall for coffee and buy rice crispies and powdered coffee for my mums arrival in the early hours. Did some tidying up and sat outside updating blog posts. After dinner we continued watching don't f**k with cats on Netflix. Off to the airport at midnight to collect mum, she couldn't believe it was raining on her arrival.

Scared the life out of me when I came to pack away the table settings outside.

6 Monday Bed around 3am, had a lie in then pottered around before going out for a coffee, afternoon at home then off to Global Village in the evening and met up with Peter to show mum the last of the Christmas lights.

7 Tuesday A visit to Ikea in the morning, can't believe mum has flown 3000 miles and wants to go here lol, did a food shop, batch cooked and evening spent at home in the garden and an early night.

Bob was agitated most of the afternoon, he knows the rain is coming. 

8 Wednesday Off to Dubai Creek to the souks/markets to purchase material for outdoor seating. Mum did her souvenir shopping, coffee at the Souk Madinat on the way home, they were taking down the last of the Christmas decorations. Had a roast dinner, watched TV and bed.

9 Thursday Mum made herself a pack lunch and a flask of coffee and was dispatched over the road to the pool for the day. I spent the day catching up with some housework, blogging and resting. It rained during the night and throughout the day.

The only photo I took today and it's a screen shot

10 Friday Off to Abu Dhabi for a meeting in preparation for the HSBC Championship Golf next week, then off to Dragon Mart. Child 5 started his journey to Dubai. Thunder storms and torrential rain throughout the night.

11 Saturday An early start to collect child 5 from the airport, our journey was hampered by the flooding and his plane was put in a holding pattern for 90 mins due to surface water on the runway and finding a none flooded bay to park in. We then went out to brunch at 1pm, taxi's and cars were unable to get through the floods, but we have a 4x4, our only problem was our routes were cut off due to people having to abandon their vehicles in the flood water. The afternoon/evening just vegging out in front of the TV.

On the blog this week:

Our year 2019 and plans for 2020. Linked to #PoCoLo 

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Post Comment Love 10-12th January 2020

Welcome back to Post Comment Love #PoCoLo and Happy New Year, finally in the '20s, makes it so much easier to refer back to. Hope you all had a good Christmas.

We had a quiet Christmas in Dubai, we went out for Brunch with friends. Otherwise work for Peter just carried on as normal. Mum is here visiting for a few weeks and our youngest child, who is 21 this year, joins us this weekend.

We spent New Year on the Palm with one of Peter's colleagues, we had an amazing view of the city and the fireworks.

Then it's all change. At the end of this month I'm relocating back to the UK, into our former family home we've owned since 2002 and left to move abroad in 2011. Hopefully all the work needed doing after our last lot of tenants has been completed in my absence since I changed the locks. The deposit doesn't cover the cost though and it is being fiercely argued and denied. I have photographic evidence from an independent entry and exit report and the agents are managing that as well as the repairs, although we're paying the costs, I doubt we'll get back more than the deposit, which will only cover 1/3rd of the cost of repairs. Peter is staying in Dubai for another 2-3 years, but we'll both be popping back and forth and seeing as much of our families as possible, including another visit to child 3 in Australia.

Come join Stephanie @lifeat139a and I and link up any post you've written this week.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

What 2019 held for us and the year ahead.

Lots of travel this year. January was the only month I didn't get on a plane. In total I've clocked up 132 hours of flying time to the UK, Dubai, Sydney and South Africa. I've lost track of the hours spent in taxi's and airport lounges.

January
I started the year on a roof top in Dubai, having watched the New Year Eve's fireworks, with my mum and Peter. After mum went home, I marshalled at the HSBC Championships and the Omega Desert Classic golf as part of the European Tour.

February
Child 2 and 2a came out for a visit, it was our Daughter in Laws first trip to our home. Great excitement a few days later after the holiday when they phoned to say they were having a baby.

I started the lengthy, painful and expensive dental surgery to have dental implants. It was a huge decision to make as I had to have a front tooth removed and wear a plate for several months until the implants took and I could have a permanent tooth fitted. I had 3 implants in total and I'm saving up for another 3 hopefully in October 2020.

March

There was a trip to the UK and sadly during this visit my Uncle died and I extended my stay to take Mum up to Blackpool for his funeral.

April
Our youngest child turned 20 and we were no longer parents to a teenager. Peter and I made another
trip to the UK to renew his passport.

May
I went over to South Africa to stay with friends and work with a couple of charities.

June
A trip to Ireland for a week with a friend, then to visit our daughter in law to be and her family. Child 4 was away with work. Met my great nephew for the first time at 16 days old.

July and August
A visit to see child 3 in Australia. I flew to Sydney for 3 weeks and road tripped to Melbourne with my son child 3 who has been living over there for 2 years.

Our great niece Thing 4 was born.

September
Off to the UK for the arrival of our first grandchild, a little girl and the wedding of child 4 and 4a. Dental surgery complete. An endoscope revealed I have a wheat allergy, that was causing internal bleeding in my small intestine causing the iron deficiency anaemia and still no explanation to a high white blood cell count. Signed off from the oncologist.

October
Busy with the new baby, Peter had joined me for the wedding, then spent 2 weeks with our granddaughter. Decided to evict our tenants from our family home. We started our repatriation journey.

November
The Race to Dubai was on and I marshalled again for the 2nd year. Then a quick trip to the UK to get our house back, to say the last lot of tenants hasn't treated it well is an understatement.

December
Booked a last minute trip to South Africa for a week, whilst Peter is working out there. Obtained my Transfer of Residency and cat, dog and furniture move is booked and all paperwork is in place to get moving in 2020. I was also diagnosed with Generalised Anxiety Disorder.

2020

January
Mum and child 5 visiting. HSBC and Omega golf marshalling, flying back to the UK. Need to sell the car. Repairs and redecorating being carried out on UK home repairing damage after the tenants.

February
Cat and dog arrive in the UK, Peter visiting for a week.

Everything after the 14th of February is open to change.
I'm back in Dubai for a week or two in March as we have friends visiting, I also need to:

• Sell the garden
• Find an apartment for Peter to move into in May