t-minus-0: goodbye jozi

So I admit that I have been somewhat, yes OK very, remiss in updating this blog since I arrived in Dubai which is rather a shoddy effort I know as the whole point of this blog was to record my thoughts and impressions about Dubai. I don’t really have a good excuse except to say that I had no connectivity to anything for the first week, and for the last few days I have had a laptop etc but no internet connection at home. So today is the first day I have had both together along with a few spare minutes.

I left Jozi on the 28th July after (barely) managing to get everything finally packed, chucked, donated, stored and shipped where necessary without having a nervous breakdown. Thanks so much to Mom, Chris, Marcel, David, Terri and Mandy for keeping me sane and helping me out! After the final push to get everything into my 3 bags (yes well that didn’t happen and 2 more boxes were left to be shipped later) I was an emotional wreck. All the goodbyes in the preceding week had really taken it out of me and poor Chris & Rosa dropped a rather teary-eyed Cat at the airport. Thank goodness we had upgraded me to business class (those air miles finally came in handy) as I could get some rest. I was immensely grateful that we had decided to send the cats ahead as dealing with that as well would have been the last straw. And yes they arrived in one piece, rather unimpressed as you can imagine after being in their boxes for almost 24 hours, but unharmed.

I arrived safely and had a very quick and painless trip through Dubai airport, my residence visa was ready for collection so I sailed through passport control, collected my bags and was out before Stu had finished his coffee. I was very glad to see him. We headed home in a taxi, about a 30 minute drive before we arrived in our villa. Villa sounds rather glamorous but in reality it’s a 2 bedroom duplex with a little garden, fully air-conditioned and tiled throughout. I had a lovely welcome from 3 happy cats, showered, unpacked and then we went out for some shopping and for lunch.

We had lunch at the MOST divine bread shop in the Jumeirah Beach Residence called “Le Pain Quotidien” (the daily bread), as you walk in you are greeted with a selection of delicious pastries and french-style organic sourdough bread. They make awesome sandwiches and salads, truly yummy! I had a labaneh (cheese), tomato, cucumber and mint sandwich, and took a lemon meringue tartlet home for tea..

30 July (39°): Dad’s birthday.. Today it was time for my medical, which is basically a blood test (HIV) and a chest xray (TB). Fail either one and you don’t get your permanent visa. And until you get your visa you can do nothing, can’t get your license converted, can’t join the gym, can’t work. After getting that out of the way Stu and I drove through to Abu Dhabi where he had a meeting. Its a very nice city, more established than Dubai which means less construction and less dust but also more trees and greenery, and it is also a few degrees cooler apparently. The humidity today in Dubai is 80%, unbearable but also not great for any hairstyle you may wish to maintain, going to have to either grow my hair so I can tie it back or cut it short. Hmmm neither option really that great. The other problem is when you get out of the car your sunglasses fog up so they you either take them off and get blinded by the sun, or leave them on and risk being run over by a taxi as you can’t see anything!

We had lunch at an arabic restaurant (I forget the name) in Abu Dhabi, delicious hummus and bread, Mozza would love it! Had to rush back for my first pilates lesson, I found a very nice teacher on the internet. Lesson was hard but good. At least I can keep that up!

First impressions: the heat is sapping, and its dusty. Getting things done here are a challenge and no one takes ownership of anything, and there is little integrity or proper communication. Mandy CM would love it, NOT!

31 July (43° and dusty): I had a fairly decent night’s sleep (well better than the first night anyway) and woke up bright and early, thanks mainly to the fact that we have no curtains yet and the sun is up at 5h50. Sunset right now is around 18h55 so a nice long day. Breakfast would not have been out of place at the UN – free range eggs from Australia, French butter, German rye bread, bacon from SA (good old renown can you believe), UAE milk and coffee from the UK. And the toilet paper is from Italy.. Last night at the supermarket (Spinneys) we found they had unpacked a new shipment of South African meat, so we bought a rack of lamb and some steak, Stu was very excited indeed. Have also spotted a Huis Genoot in the magazine rack here, not to mention Charka braai briquettes and numerous Cadac items 🙂

Bizarrely enough it actually rained this evening around 18h30 (okay a few spots is all). We bought a TV cabinet at a lovely shop called the Marina. Had dinner at “The Peacock” restaurant at the Sheraton Jumeirah Beach, very very nice chinese food.

1 August: Had brunch with Stu’s boss and his wife, and another couple Bevan and Caroline (Bevan and Stu work together and have been here the same amount of time) at the Sheraton (yes again). Not sure why its called brunch but its a big tradition here on a Friday, its really a lunch time buffet that the hotels do, great spread of food that’s for sure. We ate ourselves to a standstill.

2 August (38°): Today we checked out the gym we are looking at joining, they have 3 branches in the area where we live, not huge but all the equipment that we need. We had to take the water cooler we bought back so had breakfast at “GoOrient!” at Times Square. Nice.

3 August (45°): Day one at the new job, am rather nervous I must say. When I got to the office everything was ready for me, so I signed all the paperwork and contracts, got given an Explorer Complete Residents’ Guide to Dubai (very useful) and a temporary laptop. No desk yet as the office is a little overfull. Today was very windy and dusty.

4 August (45°): Very hot today. Was given my postpaid SIM, bought my phone, ordered our broadband and my new car today (the brand new 2009 Suzuki Grand Vitara 3 door in pearl white, lovely). However, sadly it seems no sms’s from MTN are getting through to me on this new number which is annoying, sorry folks I am not ignoring you on purpose.

5 August (46° and dusty): Met the rest of my team today at work, my boss is based in Lebanon along with Paul, Roshen is from Pakistan and Liliane (whom I am replacing) is also from Lebanon. Had a long day of handover and “training” on the tools I will be using. We then went for dinner at Carters in the Wafi Mall. I had salmon, was delicious.

6 August (38°): Finalised my paperwork with the bank so that I can get my car finance approved so that I can get my car. Taking taxis is really starting to take is toll especially as the one I had booked this morning was 30 minutes late, and the one I booked this evening from the office never arrived. Thank goodness there is a hotel nearby and the cabs are always hanging about there.

7 August: Stu took me to hire a car this morning so I can get around until my car comes. Managed to get myself in to the office in one piece without getting lost or hitting anything (and let me tell you with the way they drive here that is no mean feat, esp on the wrong side of the road). I did however get lost on the way home, my delusions of grandeur had me end up on the road to the Palm Jumeirah which doesn’t actually go anywhere so I had to turn around and come back. But at least I didn’t go too badly wrong. Our landline and broadband were installed today, yippee. Also finalised tickets to the UK, we will all be heading up there for the baby’s baptism.

8 August (today): Bevan and Caroline collected us this morning and we did a desert run out to the Barracuda Beach Resort which is a legend around here. Out in the middle of nowhere is this liquor store where you can buy anything you like at basically duty free prices, a liter of Jamies is 85 dirhams or 170 odd ZAR. Bargain. After loading up the car with whiskey and red wine we headed back for Brunch, at the Hilton Jumeirah Beach this time. Cheaper than the Sheraton and I think a better selection.

Impressions after almost 2 weeks: The driving is manic, two sets of rules operate here, one set for the locals and one set for everyone else. The nice thing is that on the road I use to work trucks are not allowed so the traffic flows nicely, luckily I am also going against the traffic both ways which is fine. Service here is non-existent, and if you lose your temper no one cares so it doesn’t help. Still amazed at the selection of stuff there is to buy here, probably a good thing I don’t yet have my own credit card.