Coffee Anyone?

It’s been 4 days since my last post and much has transpired since then. I have found that being as the weekend here starts on Thursday evenings, it is best to make Fridays and Saturday ‘home days’ with the exception of Friday morning, which I hear is great for driving practice. Apparently, most all things are closed, so no one is on the road and it is a good time to learn they lay of the land… that is, when we get a car.

Saturday was a quiet day here at home; I made some jewelry, and did some laundry… and Sunday followed suit until we had a delivery of the missing desks. First the guys that delivered it smelled awful, so once they left I had the lovely task of de-odorizing the areas they occupied. After that I was able to make short work of some rearranging to set up a proper office. We have three bedrooms in the apartment, and they all go along one stretch of hall. Each one has its own bath and cabinet like closets, and a large wall to wall window. However the second bedroom has a bit of an eye sore. There is a large tubular structure that diagonally crosses the window, but from the outside of the building the tube is not only providing actual structural support but it also serves as a patterned esthetic. So this is the room I’ve chosen to use as an office, it also has the most free space because there is only a twin bed in there. John uses this room as a dressing room as well, in the morning he can get up from our sleeping quarters and shower, dress and ready himself without disturbing his sleeping beauty (I’d like to think that what he is thinking… but really I set it up this way because I honestly don’t care to wake up at 5am.) So we each have our own place to get ready. I have no idea why we haven’t done this before…separate baths and closets make so much sense. He is messy and I am not… he has an unorthodox way of hanging clothes and I have my way… we have never been able to agree, so why make it a point of contention. My bath shows my identity… blues and whites… of course and John wanted RED. So, this separation eliminates conflict and provides some individual personality. The master bedroom has only one function… sleep. It’s plain and simple… we store all of our boxes and excess luggage in those closets leaving free space for our own personal items. Not that we have many.

I totally lost track of where I was going with this story… but none the less… I go on. Dave, who was in our interview group arrive this week, so he came over and we went to Le Meridian Hotel to a restaurant called Barasti. It’s an upscale Inlet Harbor… if you know what I’m referring to. We ate outside, and because they don’t have a smoking ban, we could smell the shisha in the air. Now, if you don’t know what sisha is, I suggest you look it up. But it’s not good for you, even though it smells good. I especially like the way Grape shisha smells…reminds of when I was child for some reason. For the record, I haven’t smoked it… and I don’t plan on it. However, they say it is rude to refuse shisha if it is offered by a local. We feasted on Lamb and Hommus and we had some pizza, Italian and French… it was a wonderful meal, but it was getting quite hot and I was quickly fading. We walked down by the end of the pier; the gulf was calm with the exception of cranes and bulldozers across the way. We headed back and went for dessert at Mokarabia, the coffee shop in our building. Very tasty. Gelato just the way I like it. It reminds me of the trip I took with my family to Italy in 97. Maybe that’s why I like it so much.

Yesterday was jam packed with errands and pleasant surprises. First we walked to the medical clinic… where I had to have my next round of vaccinations. NOT COOL. I don’t like shots and because we walked, I was rather grumpy. Do you blame me? I had just showered and done my hair… plus it is dusty walking around in our area due to all the construction. After our clinic appointment, we went to HQ and our first stop was to make arrangements for our high-speed installation, hopefully it will be connected by my next post. Then we had to pick up my passport which is now sporting my residency stamp, then, John had to go to the Pilot’s clinic for his yellow fever shot…. One I fear he is now feeling the effects of. Once that was done we had to make application for my driver's license. Finally we lunched, and might I say that is was delicious! To complete the driver’s license process you must get your eyes tested… so we went to city center mall to do. They made me read one line, and boom I was done… the RTA which it’s the governing authority over DLs is also in that mall, so next stop picture, pay and done. I can officially drive in the UAE. However, it doesn’t matter much, as we haven’t got a car. So for now, taxis are the means by which we travel the city. After that, we went to the training center… where John had to sign some papers... then we WALKED, AGAIN! Note to self: when John says around the corner, he is lying. Again hot and grumpy we arrived at the land rover dealership… where I got to check out some nice vehicles. But we still haven’t decided. From there we got a taxi, although, this driver was a bit unnerving. I had to close my eyes! We had to pick up our EPC card which gives us discounts at various places around the city. Still not feeling well, we made our last destination the Mercato. Finally, a shopping center I can work with! They have a grocery store called Spinney’s... it's as close to Publix as I will ever get. It's a regular sized market, which I am SOOOO grateful to finally find. The Hypermarkets are far too crowded. I found out today that Mercato is fashioned after the Galleria in Milan. Lots of smaller boutique shops as well as some high end designer, but the crowning jewel for me was Spinney’s.

Today I went back to Mercato to meet with a group of expats. They are part of an association called Expat Woman, a wonderful thing! They have ‘coffees’ around the city on various days of the week… each group is a bit different and the ladies are from all over. Today’s group was mostly Brits, lovely ladies they all were. So full of useful information not to mention they were chock full of stimulating conversation. I loved it and I can’t wait until the next one!

Tonight I plan on cooking lamb. They have a lot of that here and I’ve acquired a taste for it… So if you have any good recipes, please send them my way. I’ve found that I can locate pretty much any western food item I like. The hypermarkets are for big shopping… so I won’t be using them much. My next goal is to find some textiles and recover our sofas… I’m excited to see where that will lead me.

Costa Coffee, which is similar to Starbucks, is fantastic, and it is everywhere! I think there are more branches of coffee shops here in Dubai. The nationals LOVE coffee and sweets... they are very social and love to sit with coffee and ice cream. Sweets in general are very abundant here, although I’m really only fond of the gelato! I’ve been good! Really I have. Only two scoops since I’ve been here! I still plan to lose some ‘stone’ before I have children, the ladies at coffee use that term instead of pounds… Pounds (weight), pounds (money)… I can see why, it can get confusing.

I had a Physio appointment today. She treated my very sore neck and gave me some daily stretches. Not anything I didn’t already know, but having someone else work on your neck and back is fantastic. She prescribed some water exercises… so that’s where I’m off to at the moment.

Cheers!