Maz10
Dubai Unveiled Joined: January 22nd 2008
Logged in: April 1st 2010
Logged in: April 1st 2010
Travel Blog Posts
Off home: Emirates British Nursery in Mirdiff
What I’ve learnt about nurseries and schools here in Dubai It’s the end of an era - the Big Boy is into his last week of nursery school and starts Big School on April 11th. I’m off to buy the uniform this week, we’re trying to get him used to unfamiliar toilets and wearing socks again (nothing like a deadline to put the pressure on), and we’re debating whether signing him up for the school bus would be a good idea. All this activity got me thinking that I should blog about schools and nurseries in Dubai ... so here goes...from angst-ridden assessments to waiting lists and lack-lustre lunchboxes, here are 8 things I’ve learnt: • Getting a school place for your child requires nerves of steel, because your offspring - even three-year-olds - have to ... read more
Dreamland Aqua Park
It’s like someone’s turned the oven off and you can go outdoors again. Quite a euphoric feeling actually. You can visit the parks in daylight rather than twilight, start working on your tan, and you finally get over all those trips to the playareas at the malls (in fact, you realise that visiting these noisy, plastic super structures is quite fun when you only have to go occasionally, rather than every day). You have to get into a bikini to go to playdates. Well worth it once you get there as the kids love the beach, but involves preparation and angst. Beach playdates also mean packing as though you’re going on holiday, making getting-out-of-the-house even harder. Any hardiness you may have once had disappears. With the temperature dipping into the 80s rather than the 100-and-somethings, ... read more
Summer lovin'
So there we were, all settled in our permanent home after a year of temporary accommodation, when the email popped up: 'The lease hasn’t been renewed so please contact us about relocation.' Three weeks later, and would you believe it, we’re on the move again … I say ‘we’, but really I mean ‘hubby’ because the boys and I were totally AWOL. We were 3,000 miles away on our summer vacation, escaping the UAE’s furnace-like summer temperatures. Knowing that the littleboys would be no help at all with the move, it made sense for us to stay put! So my hubby - the trouper - found himself organising yet another move - his fifth since arriving in Dubai - in the middle of August, during Ramadan, and while flying nights to India (not quite what he’d ... read more
Aquaventure, the 42-acre waterpark at the Atlantis Hotel on the Palm Jumeirah
‘It’s a Dubai thing’ is a term we desert dwellers bandy around a lot in the United Arab Emirates. There are just certain things - some frustrating, some a little odd - that seem to be unique to this part of the world. It’s probably just that some aspects of life in the Middle East are simply different from what we’re used to. We are, after all, expats in a foreign country. Here, my top three ‘Dubai things’.... Roadhogs rule Motoring menaces mean you need nerves of steel on the roads in Dubai. Crazy manouevres such as reversing around a roundabout because a driver missed his turn, using the hardshoulder, or indicating right and then turning left are not uncommon. Drivers weave in and out of lanes, making the side-swipe the most common accident in the ... read more
Al Mamzar beach with Sharjah, the next emirate, in the background.
It’s a quarter after noon. Time for the Big Boy’s nursery pick up. Nothing unusual about that - except the temperature reading on the car says 47°C. That’s 116°F. Scorching hot. Warmer than normal for this time of year - and a taste of things to come in July and August. I started this blog talking about the sub-zero temperatures in Minnesota. Now we’re experiencing Dubai at its most furnace-like. Talk about going from the freezer into the frying pan. But, actually, it’s supposedly quite comfortable at the moment due to low humidity. By mid June, a lot more moisture will roll in from the Arabian Sea, pushing humidity levels into the ‘high stress’ zone. If your sunglasses steam up a split second after getting out of your air-conditioned car, then you know the humidity is ... read more
On board: I can't believe we're still smiling at this point.
OK, so this blog isn’t exactly coming from Baghdad, but it was somewhere in the sky over Iraq that it fully hit me that there really was no escape from my latest motherhood challenge: flying by myself with the Baby and the Big Boy to London. Whining, bored toddler, crying baby, in a very cramped space...with seven hours to go. We’d been living in The Sandpit for 6 months and I was just beginning to feel the need for a mini-break to cooler climes. A family get-together I didn’t want to miss was the deciding factor and so I found myself at the airport, kids (un-drugged) in tow, waiting for an Emirates flight to the Green and Pleasant Land. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. But I had a point to prove - my ... read more
7 months old already!
I’m rather behind with my blog. More like six months behind. It’s been a pretty crazy six months - new baby, new country, new challenges. Not enough sleep. We’ve done many of the fantastic tourist attractions here in Dubai, with a whining toddler and screaming baby in tow; moved house (again!); and just about got ourselves established in our new Arabian-style villa in Al Rashidiya. In fact, I don’t know where to start with this update - and am feeling a little rusty - so here goes.... Home Sweet Home Finally, we have a permanent home! After a whole year of living either with parents or in temporary accommodation, we now have a proper home. We’ve unpacked, painted and put up pictures. It feels good. We no longer have goats just round the corner, or airplanes ... read more
Just born
Thank you, everyone, for all your good wishes, cards and congrats! It’s been great getting all your messages and I will be in touch properly soon to thank you all personally ... in the meantime, the blogger in me can’t resist putting pen to paper ... (you’re probably wondering how I found time! So far - and I don’t want to tempt fate here - Mathias has been an amazingly good baby!) Well, it seems I should have packed my hospital bag earlier after all. At a routine appointment, the doctor ominously disappeared from the room. When the door re-opened, she delivered the words, ‘I’m going to throw you a curveball.’ She wanted the baby to be born in the morning while I was still free of preeclampsia - with or without my husband present. Now, ... read more
Finally, a photo of me nine months pregnant
Just over a week to go! The past nine months have been a long journey, taking in America, the U.K, Dubai and back to the U.K. again. Finally, it’s nearly time! I’ve been reading books entitled ‘I’m a Big Brother’ and ‘The New Baby’ to the Big Boy in earnest - and I think he actually may have a vague notion that something is afoot. He knows there’s a baby boy in my tummy (and thinks there’s a baby girl up top!) Having ‘a date’ (Oct 7th) has made me somewhat complacent about packing my hospital bag. That’ll get done on the 6th - in fact, I’m far more laid-back about the whole thing this time. I’m just hoping that this time it isn’t a junior doctor performing the c-section. A vivid memory from my first ... read more
Reunited at last
The Toddler and I have just returned from a month in our new home in the desert. Whether it was the effect of finally (and very happily) being reunited with his Daddy, or being immersed in a new culture with so many new sights and experiences, I’m not certain, but The Toddler underwent something of a transformation while away - he’s grown up so much and everyone is commenting on it! It’s not lost on him either - when people ask his name, he resolutely replies, ‘Big Boy’. So, without much ado, I should re-introduce him as: ‘Big Boy, formerly known as The Toddler’. I’m happy to report that Big Boy, the Pilot and International Escapee Mummy (my new name, as coined by fellow-blogger Nappy Valley Girl!) loved Dubai. In fact, I don’t know how to ... read more
