Spot the difference. One year on in Dubai.

                                               

                       

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

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4th - 6th September 2020 - Post Comment Love

My last week in Dubai before I return to the UK on Tuesday. The last time I left Dubai was in March and had no idea how long it would be before I returned. This time I'm planning to come back in November for the winter.

I've lined pet sitters up and will need to finalise the dates with them on my return. 3 months is a long time for someone to look after our cat and dog and live in our house. 

I've had two pet sitters for this trip, a friend of a friend who was stranded in the UK due to covid and our youngest son (aged 21) who took a week off work and I had to ask 2 friends to collect him and take him home and a friend and neighbour who is covering the last few days.

The first half of my trip to Dubai was super busy selling my car, closing bank accounts, drs, dentists and opticians and organising a shipping company. This week has been more relaxed and I feel like I've had a proper holiday and rested.

Stephanie and I would love to know what you've been up to this week.

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My garden in August 2020 - The UK and Dubai

I seem to have spent the whole summer just gardening.

The UK garden was in an awful state after years of neglect by tenants, however we've been tenants abroad for the same length of time and we've looked after the outsides of the properties we've rented as much as the insides.

Even though it's summer in Dubai, don't be fooled with it being too hot for anything to grow, the humidity keeps everything moist and it's too hot to work outside so it just turns into a jungle and needs cutting back for Autumn.

Our garden in Dubai was created from scratch, you can see the photos here.

You can also see before and after photos of the UK garden here.

I've been growing veg from seeds and have had some successful crops of peas, beans, cucumber, tomatoes and herbs all from seed.

My friend gave me this green house for my birthday back in June and I sowed more peas and beans that I was able to plant out early August, so looking forward to another crop on my return to the UK.

My friend also dropped a load of rocks off for me to make new borders in the front garden, We also made a new frame work for the bin store and have climbing plants to grow up it.

I'd put off tackling the front garden as the ground was like rock. I'm not a neat and tidy worker.

These rocks were going spare, welcome to the 1970's look.

Peter came for a visit and with isolating for 2 weeks we got a lot of work done in the house and garden, including re panelling the side and front of the shed. It was cheaper to buy new wood and do the job ourselves. On my return I have to finish painting it inside and out and sand the other two sides down for painting also.

Looking forward to seeing how the pumpkins have grown, although sadly the snails keep getting to them. Hopefully one or two will survive as there have been multiple flowers.

Hopefully there will be some tomatoes left when I get back.

Cucumber grown from seed.

Hopefully I'll return home to more cucumbers.

Dubai

The cactus just keeps on growing.

The garden was very over grown.

And very sandy.

All the Aloe has died, which is a shame.

My potted palm tree grown from a cutting looks rather forlorn.

The only remaining house plant, which had to be salvaged as ants had made a nest in there.

Early mornings at 6am are the only time to garden in Dubai.

I seem to spend most of my gardening time in Dubai sweeping sand so I can enjoy the garden.

When I moved the cactus on the balcony to sweep the sand, these bits dropped off. Previous pieces in the pot have rooted, so I'm hopeful these pieces will take also.

I was surprised to find this birds nest when I cut back the tree.

I'm hopeful the grass will recover.

All sorted now and I still have a few days left in which to enjoy sitting out in the garden in the early mornings, before I return to the UK next week and no doubt have to sort the garden out there as well.

 

A visit to Charlecote Park, National Park - Day out with my dog

I took out membership with the National Trust during lockdown to give me a few more options of places Bob and I could visit and meet up with friends for a day out.

On this visit Peter was in the UK so we met up with Mary and her son from Over40andamumtoone blog at Charlecote Park in Warwickshire

Bob is just happy to be out, he has no preference to where and he's not even bothered by the weather, which is a good job as it rained for most of our visit.

Charlecote Park has deer and sheep, Bob is really confused by sheep, thankfully he didn't spot the deer, not a clue what he would've done if he'd seen them.

I kept Bob on a short lead new the water, as he likes to swim and I didn't have a towel to dry him off.

I also have a lead extension to allow him to wander a little bit further but still under control. bob has NO recall whatsoever and we've spent many an hour in South Africa and in the desert in Dubai just patiently waiting for him to come back.

The house was closed, but the coffee shop open.

If you've visited any dog friendly places recently, I'd like it if you'd share some of them with me.

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