Dubai Dispatches

On the eve of Tory's flight home to Australia for her sister's wedding it is timely to reflect on what on what we have achieved during our first 3 months in the UAE. We touched down during the hottest part of the summer and soon experienced daily temperatures reaching 50 degrees celcius. In that kind of heat it is impossible to function outside of air-conditioning, but since September we have noticed the weather become much milder and we are now regulars at the beach and pool.

While we were accommodated by Doug's employer for the first month, Tory began looking for a place to live straight away and stumbled across a little place called Jumeirah Beach Residences, Dubai Marina (little meaning 48 towers in the one development). When we moved in the developer Dubai Properties had just handed the keys over to the new owners so there was only 5% occupancy and in true Dubai style the promise of the pool, landscaping, gym, beach club all coming along in the "next month or so". Turns out we got the pool but the rest is "still coming along" something you have get used to. We chose to live at the Marina do to its close promixity to Doug's work in Dubai Media City, it is also right next to the beach and surrounded by amazing 5 star hotels and all the necessary amenities. Rental accommodation in Dubai is like an empty canvas, no white goods, oven or anything is included in the price so our weekends since have been spent trawling the plentiful shopping malls trying to fill in a few gaps of our two bedroom apartment. Thankfully in recent weeks furniture shopping has been substituted by watching of the rugby world cup.

Tory managed to score a job with a well established Australian property finance company that have recently opened their first overseas office in Dubai. There is a small team of 14 including the founding MD and some senior names to give the start up some instant credibility. Working with an Australian organisation certainly has it perks. One of those was made clear by our first experience of Ramadan the holy month of Islam. No food, beverage or loud music is permittedin public during daylight hours during this month. I got to eat at my desk where as Doug had to eat in private due to the Muselim employees at his work. No restaurants, bars, cafes can be seen to be operating before sunset - or as the locals call it *Iftar.

Making friends in Dubai has been a slow process, after wading through the piles of paper work associated with the relocation we have found little time to go out of the town. However we have managed to catch up for a few *brunches with an old work colleague of Tory's and some friends or friends. We also love a local bar called Barasti which is close by and only last night we stumbled across a new one the Cabana Bar at a hotel in front of our apartment. Right on the beach the place is "cheeze" deluxe, an out dated family hotel (for Dubai standards) however it ticks all the boxes as a convenient local for a cold beverage by the beach.

We bought a car recently (4 x 4), there was a few key criteria when thinking about what kind of vehicle we wanted. The UAE is reported to be the third most dangerous country in the world to drive after Saudi Arabia and Iran and the common theme here is the bigger the better. Hummers are in abundance, so it is clear that Climate Change is not really at the forfront of people's minds. We do feel safer being in a larger vehicle and luckily fuel is at bargin prices due to the location of the oil rigs only 90 nortical miles off shore and the rest of the Middle East production. The other key factor was our desire to get out of town on the weekends. The desert is only 25 mins drive, the border of Oman is 1.5hours away and there are some fantastic sights and beach camping within the UAE.

That is all for now,
Lots of Love,
Tory x