Week 14 One Daily Positive and Project 365 - Dubai

We had a fab week in Dubai, staying at the Hilton at Jumeriah Beach. The weather was perfect and it was nice to be back. We visited our old neighbourhood and I took lots of photos for my construction posts to show the ever changing skyline since we left there in June 2021. 

It was the first flight I've taken without any covid restrictions and there were also big changes with Ramadan as there were no restrictions in place for eating and drinking in public during daylight hours, which we found very strange. I'll be posting about that next week.

My Achilles heel has been hurting for a couple of weeks, now really painful and by Monday I had a lump on the back and I'm struggling to walk as it's so painful.

92 Sunday Walked Bob to the coffee shop and picked up this evenings dinner. Rest of the day spent tidying and cleaning ready for our holiday.

No restrictions for the first time for us since March 2020.

93 Monday Walked Bob to collect prescription and for a coffee. I did several loads of washing and ironing while Peter packed. We set off for Heathrow at 1pm and flew at 8pm. The flight was awful, they were so slow with the dinner service that by the time it finished we only had 2 hours of dimmed lights to try to sleep before breakfast service started.

Our first mask free flight.

94 Tuesday Landed on time and got a taxi to our hotel for an early check in and an upgrade to a suite. Had breakfast, rested for a couple of hours, walked to the Marina for coffee and went to the beach, grabbed some salad from local supermarket, watched a couple of movies and bed by 9pm local time.

View from the hotel.

95 Wednesday Woke at 8am, had breakfast and caught the train to the Creek for a couple of hours wandering the Souks. Video call with grandchild and out for dinner, another early night.

96 Thursday Up early, had breakfast and whilst Peter met a friend for coffee I had a leisurely morning. We then went to Dubai Mall by taxi. Back in the hotel bay 4pm a couple of hours on the beach, changed, had dinner and bed.

Dubai Mall.

97 Friday Visited our old neighbourhood then off to Ibn Battuta. Peter left mid afternoon and went to the beach then had dinner out with friends. I got the tram to the beach and took a stroll at sunset. I treated myself to a mani and pedi and a haircut. Peter arrived back at the hotel the same time as me.

Dubai Marina.

98 Saturday Morning spent on the beach, train to Mall of the Emirates mid afternoon and taxi to the Souk Madinat for dinner and drinks. 

Burj Al Arab.

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What I'm reading in April 2023

My challenge for 2023 is to read a book a week. 

I'm still ploughing my way through Don Quixote which make take a couple of reads and there is a lot of google searching going on to explore things further. I'm really enjoying the book.

I've selected 4 books this month from the supply on the book shelf in the spare room. A mixture of childhood books, biographies, educational books and a variety of charity shop books that are swopped regular with a few friends and my mum so my supply is endless. I've read one of them already, I plan to finish the other 3 whilst on holiday this week and next.

The student I support in school is a 6th former studying English Literature, next up for reading are The Great Gatsby and Shakespeare's King Lear.

So far this year I've read the following:

January

Lord of the Flies - William Golding. Re read from O level days

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee. One of those books everyone should read

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens. Re read from O level days

Off Mice and Men - John Steinbeck. Re read from O level days

Macbeth - Shakespeare. Re read from O level days

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood. Never watched the TV series, but the book was brillant

A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams. One we all think we know till we read it.

Frankenstein - Mary Shelly. The hardest book I've read to date, takes ages to get going through a series of letters.

February

Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K Jerome. Loved this book so much, a travel guide to the Thames.

Good Eggs - Rebecca Hardiman. Light and easy read.

March

Pippi Longstockings - Astrid Lindgren. A childhood favourite.

Five on a Treasure Island - Enid Blyton. A childhood favourite.

The Tempest - Shakespeare. Read the summary first to get an understanding of the plot, characters came to life.

Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson. A bit boring, had to persevere.

April

Agatha Raisin Terrible Tourist - M. C. Beaton. Quick read in a day.

Anything Could Happen - Lucy Diamond. 

Home Truths - Susan Lewis

The Wild Roses - D.B. Carter

Week 13 2023 - One Daily Positive and Project 365

Although I spend a lot of time at the Doctors and local hospital, it's not of my doing. I keep getting called back for unusual blood results. I have a bone marrow disorder that means I need blood tests every 3 months and something new gets thrown up, this time I have no Vitamin D. If I go to the Doctors it's usually day 3+ of a migraine where meds aren't working, more often than not they send me to A&E. This week I'm off to the Doctors with something new, I have horrendous pain in my thumb joints, left Achilles  and despite sleeping 8-11 hours every night, I find myself falling asleep during the day, which is a struggle when I'm in work. 

85 Sunday Day out with child 2 and family to Bourton on the Water, we walked round in the rain, had lunch and ate too many sweets. Flowers and vase for Mother's Day.

86 Monday After work Peter dropped Bob with me for us to walk home. Peter drove down to the Forest of Dean to collect a cement mixer he is borrowing from DILs family. I spent the afternoon and evening packing my case for our trip to Dubai, bogging and sorting through memory sticks.

Love seeing and smelling spring as I step through the front door.

87 Tuesday After work I popped into Worcester to pick up some bits and pieces for our grandchild visit on Thursday. Stopped for coffee and onto the Doctors. Home to watch TV.

I'll be glad when it starts getting dryer and warmer outside, dog prints everywhere.

88 Wednesday Off to youth club for the evening after work, we did some tie dye.

Entertaining the neighbours kids while their mum fitted a car seat for me.

89 Thursday Popped out of work for an hour for yet another blood test. Collected DIL and Grandson from Birmingham airport, they were delayed by an hour.

Happy 14th Birthday Pushkins.

90 Friday  Child 4's promotion ceremony in Chepstow, followed by a visit to see the two great grandparents, granddaughter and DIL.

91 Saturday Off to the airport to return DIL and Grandson. They were delayed by 3 hours. Afternoon and evening spent packing for our trip to Dubai.

Grandson loves helping

On the blog this week:

What I pack in my hand luggage. London to Dubai.

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Post Comment Love 31st March - 2nd April 2023

Welcome back to #pocolo with Stephanie from Lifeat139a and I.

We're taking a break for the Easter Holidays, we'll be back on the 21st April and will tweet out a reminder as usual.

Hope you all have a good break. We'll be travelling and spending time in Dubai and Brighton. Are you up to anything nice?

Post Comment Love #PoCoLo is a friendly weekly linky where you can link up any blog post you've written this week and all we ask is that you leave a comment on either mine or Stephanie's post which you linked up through and at least one other post. We'd also love it if you could RT us on Twitter when we tag you to help us reach a wider audience.

I'll be catching up with reading your posts, sharing and commenting over the weekend.

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What's in my hand luggage - London to Dubai

Despite it being a 7 hour over night flight, this is a route my husband and I have travelled on a regular basis between December 2015 and June 2022. A route we've considered just a 'hop' away between our two homes for 7 years.

My hand luggage packing is quite simple and I've often travelled this route without a suitcase, mainly over winter time as with having two homes, we've been able to keep winter clothes in the UK. It doesn't tend to differ much.

This trip I don't require endless paperwork, I'm not taking post over with me and I'm not returning with gifts either way.

Contents of hand luggage:

Wallet - Coach with passport, copy of insurance, boarding passes and hotel booking.

Leather back pack - Fossil

Laptop and chargers/headphones

Reading and sun glasses

Medication 

Spare underwear

Change of top

Deodorant

Make up remover and cotton pads

Face cloth

Face cream

Book

Pen

Snacks

Reusable coffee cup

Foldable shopping bag - to put fleece and waterproof in for return trip.

I'm wearing jeans, trainers, fleece and foldable rain Mac for warmth to Heathrow and the return journey.

It's nice to be travelling with light weight hand luggage. Our next trip is Australia and we'll certainly not be travelling as light for 21 hours of flying time.

Week 12 One Daily Positive and Project 365 2023.

Disappointed that for the 3rd year running the staff at child 1s care home haven't bothered with me for Mothers Day or my birthday and Christmas has been just a tin of biscuits. I rarely get a card. They go all out for Peter though. I guess being her step mum for 24 years counts for nothing in their eyes.

I decided to rearrange the loft rooms. They are full sized rooms we converted when we had 5 kids living at home. I was using the larger room for my crafting, but the smaller room was so full that I was finding it difficult to sort through what we had, so I've swopped the use of the rooms around and can now access suitcases, Christmas decorations and camping gear with ease and I've enough room, with a table to use, to finish sorting through my dads stamps and go through all the kids stuff and things left over from the kitchen. My new crafting room is also better organised and I can access everything with ease.

I've had an issue with a teacher at work who has taken great offence and has insinuated that I lack training and knowledge to be in a 6th form lesson, it's all resolved now but the audacity of the woman to corner me was unfair. I haven't taken offence, she has no idea about my background and experiences and I have nothing to prove to her or to the senior staff who have backed me.

78 Sunday Early morning walk with Bob to the coffee shop, a food shop, then home to do some sewing, put several loads of washing on, bath the dog, iron, bake some cakes and watch TV. Phone call with child 3 in Australia to plan our trip there this summer.

The hills are such a fantastic backdrop

79 Monday Home from work, popped to the supermarket to get tea, afternoon and evening spent in front of the TV, bath and bed by 9pm.

Hmmmmmm

80 Tuesday Home from work and afternoon/evening spent in the loft rooms, swopping the storage room and my craft room round. I've moved my craft/sewing etc into the smaller room so I can actually use the larger room to sort through things and have space to store all my material and sewing machines.

Can't wait till we can actually use this room.

81 Wednesday Peter brought Bob to work at 3pm, then went home. Bob and I walked into town, had a coffee then home. More time spent rearranging the loft.

Post box George VII

82 Thursday School in the morning and after lunch we had a UCAS meeting. Home at the normal time, spent the evening finishing off the loft rooms.

Blue skies

83 Friday Work and home, time spent in craft room and house tidied in preparation of chips and wine with friend in the evening.

Rainbow outside work

84 Saturday Popped into Ross-on-Wye for a wander and a coffee. Peter continued in the garden in the afternoon with the patio he's been working on all week. I watched some TV, walked the dog and wrote some letters.

On the blog this week:

We've got the builders in

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Post Comment Love 24th-26th March 2023 Ramadan Kareem

Welcome back to #pocolo with Stephanie from Lifeat139a and I.

Ramadan Kareem to all my Muslim Friends around the World. Having lived in Dubai for 7 years, we've observed Ramadan and I've been keeping an eye out the past two nights for the crescent moon. Although we're in the UK now and Ramadan does not affect our day to day life, it did have a huge impact on us whilst we were in Dubai in regards to being able to eat and drink in public during the day. We're in Dubai over the UK Easter Holidays and much has changed since we lived there, it will be interesting to see how things have changed for non muslims in regards to coffee shops and food courts going from being closed in the day when we first arrived to being screened. Our last Ramadan in Dubai in 2021 we noticed more and more places open and lots of screening removed.

Peter has been working hard outside levelling and preparing the ground to lay the patio, including a path around the new extension. Hoping for some more dry weather as the lawn is a quagmire and the dog is leaving muddy prints on the kitchen floor.

Post Comment Love #PoCoLo is a friendly weekly linky where you can link up any blog post you've written this week and all we ask is that you leave a comment on either mine or Stephanie's post which you linked up through and at least one other post. We'd also love it if you could RT us on Twitter when we tag you to help us reach a wider audience.

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We've got the builders in.

We decided on our return to the UK that we'd stay in our former family home until the time comes for us to downsize and possible do away with stairs and a garden.

We love living in Malvern and our location is perfect, we looked around at other properties and even put an offer in one one place, but then we looked a the costs of solicitors, removal firms, stamp duty, estate agent fees plus all the work we'd want to do to personalise the new place. So we decided to stay put.

We had a new kitchen fitted last year, the guttering, drain pipes and fascias have all been replaced. We've done a couple of other repairs and we're having a single story extension built.

Before

After

Back in 2005 we converted the garage to a dining room and converted the loft to make an extra 2 bedrooms. But we've never had enough downstairs space. The conservatory was off the lounge and as the garden is North facing, it never got any sun and was too cold in the winter to use, so it's come down, a new room is off the dining room and outside the lounge doors (which are being replaced also) there will be a covered seating area.

We found these builders at a trade stand at The 3 Counties Autumn Fair in 2022. We paid £500 for plans and drawings up front and the rest is due upon completion around 4 weeks after the build starts.

Before

View from inside

View from outside

The work started while we were away, we came home to this 3 days after the work started.

We then went away for another two days and came home to this:

This was Monday.

This was Tuesday - one week on.

The work went really quickly after that, with two fitters, two plasterers and 2 electricians and on day 13 they were gone. I made the payment over the phone at 4pm, all the rubbish tidied and the skip was collected on the Monday morning.

Now the hard work begins. The plaster and the floor is still drying. Peter is in the middle of laying a new patio. The lawn has dried up a little, then it's painting, tiling the floor and moving the furniture in.

I received no compensation for the post, just want to sign post you to Dunraven for a job well done.

Week 11 2023 Project 365 and One Daily Positive

Before we left the UK in January 2011 we closed down several bank accounts, credit cards and paid off phone contracts etc. Randomly we keep getting letters about outstanding balances, always around £5, that we either owe them or they owe us. 

Peter has spent the week in the garden digging down to lay the new patio, thankfully he is now working under cover, but it is hard work. 

We've been binge watching The Gold and Twelve on player and thoroughly enjoyed both programmes. 

71 Sunday After a late night I slept in till 8.30am. then over breakfast and several cups of tea friend and I resumed comedic escapades to one another that have occurred since our last get together. Her's includes getting an Alsatian puppy that howls and likes to run off with your sock while your foot is still inside it. Into town to meet up with another friend for Sunday lunch, home by 4pm and chilled out.

Monmouth.

72 Monday I got a lift home from work, then Peter dropped me and Bob in town, I went for a coffee and walked home over the common. Had dinner, a bath and watched the soaps and in bed by 9.30pm. I've lost some paperwork, its for a council tax refund and I've filled in my bank details, there's also a 'to do' list and a short story I wrote for my grandchildren. I've looked EVERYWHERE.

73 Tuesday Woke feeling under the weather, sore throat and aching all over, struggled through work. Late afternoon spent with the neighbour.

Dressing up fun.

74 Wednesday Strike day. My student was in as they are in 6th form. I had to sit an  invigilators test online. In the evening I volunteered at the local youth club.

I made a macramé key chain at the Youth Club.

75 Thursday Strike day, but I wasn't in school, not feeling too well. I spent most of the day in bed, but did change the sheets and did some washing. 

Gorgeous flowers from child 4 and family.

76 Friday No work again, throat still sore. Chips and wine (I drink tea) night is back on after 3 weeks. Friend was amazed to see the new extension, last time they were here, we still had the conservatory up. Most of the day spent in bed, I'm so tired all the time.

77 Saturday Collected child 1 from Gloucester on our way to Bristol to visit MIL for Mothers Day. We visited a local retail park for coffee and cake and some shopping. Home by 6pm, TV and bed.

On the blog this week:

What I'm reading in March 

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Post Comment Love 17th-19th March 2023

Welcome back to #pocolo with Stephanie from Lifeat139a and I.

I spent last weekend with friends in Monmouth, it was nice to catch up, when we lived abroad, Monmouth was our UK base. I miss visiting there, it's about a 90 minute drive, too far to just pop into.

This weekend we're collecting child 1 and visiting my MIL for the day, that is assuming this cold has gone that has had me off work for two days.

Post Comment Love #PoCoLo is a friendly weekly linky where you can link up any blog post you've written this week and all we ask is that you leave a comment on either mine or Stephanie's post which you linked up through and at least one other post. We'd also love it if you could RT us on Twitter when we tag you to help us reach a wider audience.

I'll be catching up with reading your posts, sharing and commenting over the weekend.

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What I'm reading in March

I've set myself a challenge for 2023 to read a book per week. I've fallen behind in February and I'm struggling with Don Quixote. I've decided to mix it up with other books this month and I'm revisiting two of my childhood favourites.

So far this year I've read the following:

January

Lord of the Flies - William Golding

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee

A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens

Off Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

Macbeth - Shakespeare 

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood

A Streetcar Named Desire - Tennessee Williams

Frankenstein - Mary Shelly

February

Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K Jerome 

Good Eggs - Rebecca Hardiman

Week 10 2023 Project 365 and One Daily Positive

Lots of coffee shop visits, dog walks and time with friends. The double yellow lines have been painted. We still having one parking space outside our house, but there's a battle in the mornings with parents and staff. At the moment, we're parking there over night to save a space for various builders vans, skips etc.

The snow this week looks beautiful, not really settling, but the extra water in the back garden has turned it into a quagmire and Bob isn't liking all the paw cleaning when he comes in.

64 Sunday Off to the coffee shop with Bob, we were out for two hours, home to read while Peter made dinner then I spent the afternoon and early evening in my craft room and Peter went to the pub to watch the football. Day ended with a hot bath and an early night. Head hurting.

65 Monday Managed to get to midday before I had to come home and sleep for the rest of the day.

66 Tuesday Off to the post office after work and stopped for a coffee and read. Peter met me after work with Bob and we walked home via a coffee stop. In the evening I argued with the over locker and lost.

67 Wednesday Woke to snow, it wasn't settling, but it looks so pretty. I can't see the Malvern Hills at the moment due to the snow, I'll try and grab a photo if I can. Popped round to the neighbours and finally won the battle with the over locker. We sorted some finances out and spent hours on the phone to banks, tax office etc.

Look at the state of our garden! The 2 sheds on the left will be coming down soon.

68 Thursday Awake at 5am, snowing quite heavily, took Bob out for an hours walk in the fresh snow. Left early for work to ensure I got in on time, arrived to discover school closed and message had been sent while I was on route. Moved the furniture in the dining room to the other side to allow access for new build, had hospital appointment mid afternoon, raining by then. Evening spent in my craft room shouting at the over locker.

69 Friday Home from work and straight out with Bob and we walked home via a coffee stop. Builders have finished, tidied up and left site, payment made. I finished my easter gifts ready for delivery tomorrow.

We've got to wait for the floor and plaster to dry before we can use the room and need to relay the patio.

70 Saturday Early morning visit to mums with her Mothers Day gift then onto Grandchild then friends, before arriving in Monmouth where I'm staying the night.

On the blog this week:

What I wore to the Theatre

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