My parents would go on (and on) about how I should never ever stick posters (or anything) on my bedroom wall using prestik (known to most of you as blu-tack). I would imagine this rule would also have applied to double-sided tape (although this was a less common item in our household when I was growing up), and if it didn’t it certainly should have. I can safely reiterate you should never-ever stick anything to the wall using double-sided tape. And now why would I say this? Well last weekend, as mentioned, we moved into our new villa to discover, amongst some other annoyances, at least 100 pieces of double sided tape stuck to the walls and cupboard doors in the main bedroom and even the mirrors in the main bathroom. Now I know that the previous tenant had a lot of pictures stuck up because I had seen them, but I honestly had not remembered that many. So apart from spending my day last Thursday scrubbing walls, cleaning cupboards, cleaning the fridge and another oven I also tackled said tape with a chisel and thinners. And yes I did have help on the cleaning, two very hard working girls in fact, and no it wasn’t THAT dirty I am just a wee bit pedantic (OK stop nodding). Removing the tape was no fun, no fun at all. Nor is rehanging Roman blinds incidentally, getting the string equally taught so that they open evenly is clearly a skill I have not yet mastered. I did the best I could, at least they are up!
Once the move was over, and trust me we will never use fly-by-night cheap and cheerful contacts of anyone here again, the unpacking and sorting began. We discovered a burst water pipe in the main bathroom, a leaking water heater in the kitchen, a faulty outlet pipe in the laundry and a few other odds and ends. Oh and the fridge we had bought from the previous tenants packed up the day after we moved in 🙂 Whilst unpacking our boxes I discovered why these guys had charged us so little. Not only had they used regular newspaper to wrap everything (and boy oh boy does it make a mess of white crockery) and used boxes that seemed to come from some-one’s corner café, but the unwritten and common-sense rule of putting the heaviest items (i.e. the kenwood mixer, ice-cream machine or magimix) at the bottom of the box seems to have escaped them. Happily the only thing damaged was the egg-boiler thing we bought a while back. After the unpacking marathon on Saturday we had to sort out the broadband, the plumbing, the TV and I had two weeks of laundry to catch up with. Happily I can now say everything is done and things are back to normal, well whatever is normal for Dubai that is.
This past weekend we had guests, it was lovely to have our first set of visitors in our new home. This is the other reason that I haven’t written in a while, as they arrived just after the internet was reconnected at home and so I really haven’t had much time to be honest. So on Thursday evening we met for dinner at Jumeirah Beach Hotel for pizza at La Veranda. The pizza was OK but I would recommend the pizza lounge at Bussola instead, sadly when I tried to book there I was told they were “fully closed”!? It was a warm evening but not unbearable, well not at least for Stu and I, but our guests did seem to be wilting before us. Friday evening we went to friends for a braai and then on Saturday Jerome, who is in Grade 8, insisted we take him to Wild Wadi (me and my big mouth) so Nats and I agreed. I even bowed to peer pressure and wore my costume just in case they convinced me to go on one or two of the rides. Well after paying the entrance fee I decided there was no way I was spending that amount of money to sit around and watch everyone else have all the fun, so Nats and I went on most of the rides (except the really tall scary one which seemed a little ambitious in a bikini) on a two seater tube. It was great fun, but I would advise ladies NOT to go there on their own. A husband or partner is a non-negotiable accessory as is a full bathing suit and shorts, esp if you don’t want to be ogled and harassed. I will certainly take advantage of the Thursday ladies night in future if Stu can’t make it again.
Happily this Sunday is a public holiday here – it is Al Isra Wal Miraj or the anniversary of the Ascension of Prophet Mohammed. Its going to be so nice to have a proper Sunday, not to mention a long weekend!