The Bed...

And still I am putting together Brooke's bed.  I worked on it last night for about 3hrs and got through alot.  The problem is now I have reached a point where I think I need a second person to hold up the bed frame on the top of the wardrobe / desk so that I can drill in the appropriate screws.  I was playing around at nearly midnight last night getting flustered by it and decided to put it away for the night.  Having said that I think I might have another way of doing this or I can rig up some sort of 6' tall shelf to hold the bed up whilst I drill it in place.  I refuse to be beaten by this thing ;-)

On other news, I have hired my first employee this week when an English guy accepted an offer for one of my roles... in addition, I have two other roles out with recruiting agents and I am interviewing three people tomorrow and the next day for one of them.  Its a double edged sword when you have to hire people to assist you because you need the assistance but it takes so much of your time to do so!  The new guy will start in 2-3 weeks...

Also, we're starting to wrap things up at home and its unfortunate that alot of companies refuse to deal with Niki, my wife of nearly 14yrs, to make changes to, for example, my NRMA membership.  I have to ring up in person apparently!

Getting ready...

Getting ready for alot of things...

Niki and the girls arriving and I am still trying to get stuff set up.  Kate's bed arrived and was promptly installed in less than an hour... I in turn have been labouring away on Brookes bed which is bunk bed, stair case to top bunk, wardrobe, desk and drawers all wrapped into one unit.  It has 70 odd pieces of timber and I think a lazy 300+ screws, bolts and dowels.  At present the stair case and wardrobe are done....

I also bought a lounge suite which arrives on Wednesday, so at least the family will have somewhere to sit.

We also found out today that our furniture will be arriving on 24 June, some 20 days after Niki arrives so we will have to get by without things.  A seemingly small, but big issue is the kids' toys.  With everything packed, the kids have no tangible things to play with and Niki has pulled out my old Lego collection and the girls are dancing around the house using the empty rooms as a concert hall, its still tough.  Lucky though its school time and they're not on holidays.

In addition, I am flying to London on Sunday for a bit less than a week worth of work and things are busy here because of that.  I have also hired today my first staff member so things will start to improve on my stress levels as well!!

Its pretty busy all round!  At least on the weekend I managed to get to the pool for a bit of a swim and I finished reading a Bill Bryson book...

More Travel...

Amongst the hurly burly of life here, I am off on another business trip to London on Sunday week... it was going to take in Zurich as well, but that has been changed with my Swiss contacts meeting me in London to save the added plane trips.

A week in London will be good as it will take a chunk out of my time here in 'limbo' waiting for Niki and the girls... I am getting to the point now that living alone is becoming tiresome and I want to do something else other than work, cook badly and then sleep.  So the trip is timely in that I can get a bit of a holiday away from it so to speak.

On life outside of work, I am going out to the once a month social club drinks tonight but I wont stay long as I am pretty knackered... and I have made email contact with some D&D players looking for a game... one is an Irishman I think and the other 2 are English.  We're tentatively scheduling a beer and a chat about running a game before the end of the month.  So that sounds promising from a gaming point of view.

On top of that, I am having Kate's bed delivered this weekend and I promised myself I would build Brookes as well (its currently in 70+ pieces plus associated screws, the whole thing scares me!).  I still need to buy a dishwasher and I am being held up with my transfer to my parent company which is stopping me taking out a company loan to buy a family car...

Getting there... slowly!

Going at a hundred miles an hour...

This driving thing in the UAE is now no longer a big deal... left hand drive, left hand lane... I now "cruise" to and from work sitting on 160km/h.  There are some stretches that you have to slow down (radar goes off at 140km/h) and other sections that are loooong and straaaaight that are not radar'd and hence I have looked down to find my little Nissan Tiida doing 180km/h on occaision.  Its hardly noticeable now and when I am sitting on 120km/h in traffic, I feel like getting out and walking.

But despite this, you still see some things on the roads... this morning, I am cruising on the freeway.  Its 4 lanes and I am in the fastest lane on 160.  90% of the time its no bother but every now and then I get a flash of high beam in my rear view as some local is bundling through at a faster speed.  Flashing high beam is not rude or aggressive here, its pretty much the norm and I do it to... when I am on 160 and am catching up to someone doing say 140, then I will give a bit of a flash with enough notice and they pull over.

So anyway, today though was different.  I am cruising at 160 in the left lane (the fast lane) and over my iPod I hear something behind me.  Nothing in the rear view so it must be something in the Hamish & Andy podcast I am listening to.  Then I see something in the corner of my eye and !bam!  Flashing past me in the "slow" lane, 4 lanes away comes a hotted up Mustang and he is flying.  Equate it to you're doing 60km/h and someone passes you at 120.  The speed difference to me was alot and he went past and was followed by a maroon car, equally hotted up.

These two guys proceed to weave in and out of traffic in front of me going incredibly fast.  UAE highways are pretty straight and flat so I get a good view and I swear the two guys nudged each other.  Racing each other, weaving between cars they were swerving all over the place and even drove on the side of the road (the verge?) and one clipped the other one.

They didnt spin out but there was a loud bang and I am now guessing it wasnt the first hit because thats what I heard over the iPod.

But they sped off out of sight doing I would say easily 220km/h.

I take it they were young Emirati guys with too much cash who had just watched the new Fast & Furious movie...

Nutters I thought as I crawled along at a mere 160...

Emotional Day at Home

Well, I have been blogging about me and my life in Dubai, but a big day was had today at home with the furniture removalists coming in and packing up our stuff for shipping.

From my chats to Niki and the girls, its a big day emotionally as it crystallizes the fact that yes, they are moving to Dubai and all their stuff was packed into a truck.  Also, we were struggling to find a home for our pet rabbit Muffy and he was taken fortunately by one of the removalists for his kids.  That's a relief but the girls took it hard that they had to say good bye to their bunny.

So for them, their life will be like mine was but in reverse... they will be living like "campers" in the house waiting for the flights here whereas I started as a camper and have slowly built up some furniture to be barely comfortable.  They will be living out of Woolworths canvas bags and sleeping on the floor for about 4 weeks and that will be really hard.

Its a big thing this relocation business and to make it worse, Niki wont have use of the PC (its now on a ship) and will be "borrowing" peoples broadband when she visits.

So, to Niki and the girls (who can't read this post now), I love you and I am thinking of you and it will all be over soon!

A big weekend...

Well, went to the cricket on Friday and saw Australia win the series against Pakistan with a game in hand.

It was a great day and I watched the game from one of the boxes for 1000Dhs (or "Dizzers" as I have since heard other Aussie expats describe them in traditional Aussie slang).  I got the ticket after an Aussie here in the office sent an email calling for interest because his mate had outlayed 22,000 Dhs for the box and was not looking for a further 21 bodies to fill it.

The promise was alcohol would be available and a meal between innings.

All very weird though when I volunteered, as I didn't know the guy and I wouldn't know anyone else, but I guess thats what meeting people is all about.  It was good though because the 22 people who gathered at the Shangri-La bar before hand didn't know each other and it was basically a few mates of mates who knew someone 2nd hand and found themselves with a ticket.  Amongst the group were 2 Aussie guys from Brisbane who had their dad in town visiting and they brought a mate of theirs as well; an English couple who seemed to know one other guy who were keen on a "good days cricket" and few aussie golfing buddies who had also answered the email from a mate and then there was a South African who was there who brought his Aussie girlfriend.

So, we made our way to the ground, found the nirvana of a muslim country with beer on tap and samosas and sandwiches in the box.  Needless to say we went hard early and after about 30 overs of play, when we asked for more beer it turned out that it was all gone!  With most of the boxes occupied by Aussies, it was easy to see why and the Champagne then spirits came out.

The funny thing though was that we werent allowed to drink on the balcony of the box and it was decided to circumvent this by drinking our illicit beverages using tea cups!  There were many calls for "More Twinings anyone?" and lots of pinkies out...

The meal was a typical Middle Eastern buffet with lots of salad and hommous, meats of all types (except pork of course!) and cooked in a variety of Arabic and Indian styles.  There was a dessert bar as well, but I never made it to that!

The evening innings seemed to go very quick and the chanting was going on back and forth between us in the boxes, the Aussies below us in the concourse and the neighbouring Pakistan fans got really good with even the Pakis giving an "Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi" chant.  We sang the National Anthem, Waltzing Matilda and other Aussie songs.

By the end of it, I found myself with 2 guys I had met that day, at midnight in neighbouring Khalifa City ordering a dodgy Spicy Chicken Burger and chips, an Aussie flag around my neck regaling the Indian workers there about how we smashed the Pakis and that India was going down next time we played them...

A good day!!

Summer is a'coming...

Here we have switches on all the walls of the kitchen and bathrooms to turn on the hot water heaters.  So early on here, I was turning them off in the day and turning them on at night to ensure hot water for the shower.  On occaision I would forget and have a cold shower and decided that the damn heaters can be on all the time...

However, I have now found the reason for the heaters....

In summer here, the temps get so hot that the water in the pipes heats up to be warm enough to bathe and shower in.  The cold water tap becomes very warm water.  When this happens, you turn OFF the heaters and the water from the hot water tank, in a shaded part of the house, becomes your cold water.  So in effect, you hot and cold taps reverse!

Guess what happened this morning.... I went to brush my teeth and the water was warm.  Summer is here!