The bed in the spare room wasn’t even cold before our next house guest arrived. One of our good friends came to stay to get some longed for sunshine, after the grim, snowy cold of the UK winter. Alas… Mother Nature had a whole different set of plans set aside. I went to the airport to collect him and parked my car on a balmy, warm evening. He landed, collected his bags and we walked outside and into a savage sandstorm, the likes of which I’d never seen here before. By the time we’d dashed to the car and loaded it up, I felt like I’d spent weeks on a beach. If I’d much hair left it would have looked like a surfer’s after a few days of serious saltwater treatment. I was tipping sand out of my ears for days afterwards. Don't even mention exfoliation...
The weather continued to misbehave; the sandstorms were cleared away by torrential rain and amazing thunderstorms. All fairly unusual for a desert climate in March. In the week that he stayed here, our sun-seeking guest had only 2 mornings of sunshine. Ironically, as soon as he left the sun returned and the heat hit us like a sledge-hammer.
We’ve been traipsing backward and forward to Dubai so often at weekends - to take visitors and to meet friends - that we decided we might as well just give in and move there. The last few weekends have been spent exploring apartments and we’ve found one we really like. There are a few minor hurdles to be cleared with our current apartment – hopefully they won’t become major ones and prevent us from moving. I can’t wait. I’ve always liked Dubai. It’s lively, brassy and has more going on. Someone described it as Las Vegas on steroids. It kind of is. Hopefully we’ll be living at the marina which means we’ll be by the sea and I’ll be able to see it from every window. That alone will make me incredibly happy.
We’ve been traipsing backward and forward to Dubai so often at weekends - to take visitors and to meet friends - that we decided we might as well just give in and move there. The last few weekends have been spent exploring apartments and we’ve found one we really like. There are a few minor hurdles to be cleared with our current apartment – hopefully they won’t become major ones and prevent us from moving. I can’t wait. I’ve always liked Dubai. It’s lively, brassy and has more going on. Someone described it as Las Vegas on steroids. It kind of is. Hopefully we’ll be living at the marina which means we’ll be by the sea and I’ll be able to see it from every window. That alone will make me incredibly happy.
We just need a big van and someone to help lug our stuff about so that we can move for the fourth time in 7 months. Sheesh…
p.s. the pic is how the marina and the Palm Jumeira looked a few years ago before work really started. It's nearly finished now. The building I'll be living in isn't even on the picture but is on the far right of the marina where there are some boats. We'll have views of the sea, the palm and the marina. Opinion is divided on the whole project. Whatever you think, you can't deny that it's a major feat of engineering. None of it is natural. I love a bit of tat so I'm very much looking forward to living in a area of such hilarious campery!