now, then habibi ...

Wednesday

Oct072009

{ It’s the same country, but not }

Wednesday, October 7, 2009 at 11:34PM

There is something to be said for the sheer difference that is Dubai. It’s fascinating how two cities, in the same country, separated by 135km’s of ultra modern 4-lane highway, can be so very different from one another. I’ve known that Dubai is more relaxed and liberal than Abu Dhabi. To experience it, is so deliciously novel at the moment, I feel a bit like a child with a new toy.

In Dubai I can walk in the street and go to the shops in normal western clothes, without feeling like I’m tempting the whole of Afghanistan into undressing me with their eyes. (Except when doing a 23 km detour after taking the wrong turn-off, when I had a busload of workers hanging out the windows and staring at me)

In Dubai you can buy cigarettes at the petrol station and Oatso Easy at the shop in Arabian Ranches (no need to look for it, for over 3 months at Spinneys!) I can also buy the “You” magazine (a popular South African toilet-trash mag) and “FairLady" magazine at the shop in Arabian ranches, again, no need to drive to Spinney’s and hope it’s there!

There’s a home delivery service for take-out food. In South Africa, we have the same concept, called “Mr. Delivery”. A couple of restaurants place their menu’s with this delivery company and all you have to do is decide where you want your food from and they’ll deliver it.

We have a street address here, people can find me, without too much of a hassle. We still have to draw maps because the area is quite new, but in a few month’s time, that won’t be necessary anymore J. The recent power-cut in Abu Dhabi, scenario springs to mind, when I called to inform the power company, when the call centre person asked me where I live, I could only give her the name of the suburb as there are no street names, let alone a number on my house! She just had to laugh with me and say “no problem madam, they’ll come to fix it”. They did, a fact that still surprises me. Anyhoot, no more weird issues like that, just the hassle of getting through the constant road works now J

The Moving Company

I must just make special mention of the moving company. I’ve never moved quite like this! They arrived at 08:00 with two trucks and 12 people and our house was packed and ready to go by 13:00. After lunch we set off to Dubai and they unpacked and re-assembled furniture and by 19:00 they were done! I was so happy that we were here, sleeping in our own beds and be able to start the job of unpacking in the morning.

And how does one little boy handle a move? Remarkably well actually. Total excitement as the moving people arrived and started to pack. And extreme overload when the truck backed up to the front door and they started to pack the boxes and furniture into it. But man, when the SECOND truck came he was totally besides himself, he did not know what to do with himself. J We started to tell him about moving, about two weeks or so, before the time and when I started to pack our books and dvd’s and the study {precious back-up CD’s with our photo’s and other valuables} he started to ask if Lara and Jackie will be moving with us, and what about his toys and his “biemie” (which is his toy worm) and all the other toys that he’s particularly fond of at the moment. He was quite content when I told him that everything will be moving with us. He asked a couple more times and then started to point out that the house in Abu Dhabi is the “old” house and that our new house is in Dubai. He now points at the new house and tells me that the old one is in Abu Dhabi J

Oh, and what can happen to one boy in a week? Well, you can stick a mielie kernel up your nose, get it stuck quite far up, not get it out by blowing, however, throwing a tantrum when mom decides to try one more time before heading to the Emergency Room, that does it, it came out all right. Shame, he was in pain though, I’m still not really allowed to help him to blow his nose. Oh, and you can also get yourself locked into your new room! This happened on Friday afternoon, I just woke from a nap, Kaydin woke as well and as he tried to open the door, he turned the key {which I obviously didn’t notice, when I put him down for his nap} and then couldn’t manage to unlock it again. He was understandably quite upset. And Gideon, well, he was on his way home from Ikea and luckily only about 10 minutes away. He climbed onto Kaydin’s balcony, from the spare room’s and manage to get Kaydin, to unlock the sliding door! Kaydin hasn’t got up himself, since, no, he waits for me to open the door! J

Evidence, the morning after:

I’ve not really taken photo’s the past few moves, I reckon this was a bit significant, new city and all that.

Roadworks – or, when 15km’s becomes 23km’s ...

You’ve heard me mention a place called “Arabian Ranches”. It’s another housing development, just up the road, really, it takes me 5 minutes to get there. There’s a small shopping centre with a supermarket and a couple of coffee shops and restaurants. There’s also a Pizza Hut. The Schoemans came over on our first Thursday evening here, I famously said we’ll go get Pizza’s, it’s just up the road, it will be quick... Um, not so much. They’re building a new intersection and while that’s happening, they’re diverting traffic around this massive roundabout. On the way back, there are road works and when I say road works I mean the massive-you-loose-track-of-the-off-ramps kind, Gideon is sure to disagree, but we did this at night and there are trucks all over the place and this huge roundabout has 4 lanes going around it! Should you miss the turn-off or take the wrong one as we did, it takes you on a detour of about 25km’s with no place to make a u-turn. And that’s how 15km’s becomes 23km’s and how we came home an hour later with almost cold pizza’s! And yes, we did have a GPS with us, but it was a wee bit temperamental and just when we needed it to really work, it was still searching for the satellite J We also reckoned that with all the road works, it is maybe a little unfair to expect the GPS to keep track of roads that change on an almost weekly basis!

That is the sun, not the moon

The weather has been just weird lately. On a late night shopping trip, shortly after we moved in, we noticed that it’s really not that hot. Ok, I do make that observation in the loosest possibly way, as it was 22:30 and “only” 37˚C. The humidity was really low though, a fact I could tell, as my glasses didn’t fog up as soon as we left the shopping centre. And then it got hazy, for a couple of days this week we couldn’t see the sun. It’s the weirdest thing, it’s not overcast, yet there’s no sunshine and it’s still friggen hot! And this photo was taken at about 18:00; that is the sun, not the moon!

Snagging 101

In the building industry, there is a little thing called “snagging”, this is to be done (usually) before hand-over to the customer and involves little things, like drains that are blocked and lights that don’t work. Our snagging list for the house looks like this:

Fix the plug for the washing machine that trips every time I try to do a load of washing. I ran an extension lead subsequently to do a couple of loads, that is until I realised that the drain pipe, that’s supposed to drain the water away, is clogged, which results in water all over the floor, oh and through the ceiling boards in Kaydin’s bathroom, dripping through, right next to the light fixture .... I’m not doing any washing for now. Then on Wednesday the power on the first floor tripped, nothing extra was running, so I could not imagine why it would trip? The electrician came and they fixed some weird burned out melted thingy. He told me that because I ran the extension, the load was too much for the plug (the washing machine has this special plug-thingy) and that’s why it melted. I don’t understand how though, when the last time I did washing was two days ago?! Anyway, I don’t argue, I just say thank you and am still not doing any washing until that drain is fixed.

The overflow of the pipes underneath the sink is well, overflowing. When I drain a whole sink of water – as one does, after one washed the dishes, it pours out from under the cupboard doors. On Wednesday afternoon a dude came to look at it. Please note, he was sent to come “look” at the problem. I’m used to people arriving to come fix what needs to be fixed. So when he told me that he was here for the “leak under kitchen sink”, that is what I assumed and expected. Again, not so much. After looking at the overflow pipe and trying to duplicate the waterfall effect himself, he then realised that I don’t have a dishwasher – I’ll wait for you to catch your breath and take another deep one and yes, do take a sip of that wine, it is in fact true, I do not have a dishwasher. Right, he then asked me why I don’t have one {at which point I’m getting just a tad annoyed and asked him, why that was any of his business and to please lower that raised eyebrow as really, it’s totally uncalled for}. he then decided that, that is obviously the problem, something to do with the connection to the non-existent dishwasher. He asked me again, twice, if that is where the water drains from, I answered yes, and on the third time, quite exasperated, said, um no, it drains from the ceiling .... he lost his temper and walked out my front door, before he did though, I manage to ask if he treats all his customers this badly, at which point he explained that he was here to “look” at the problem, he’s not the plumber .... ahh, penny drop, now please explain to me, why you didn’t make that clear in the first place? So we wait for the plumber to come and fix the overflow problem. I look forward to more explanations as to why on earth I do not have a dishwasher. Come to think of it, that explains the look on the maid’s face when she realised it as well ...

Oh, and we’d really like to know where the switch for the garden lights are, it’s a bit of a mystery at the moment, much to Kaydin’s consternation, he asks about it every now and then.

How to tell if the contractor you hired to install the extractor fan above the oven is not really, shall we say, professional? This is how:

We discovered this little gem when Gideon was packing stuff into that cupboard; it’s his, as I’m way too short to reach there.

The blocked drain that was

Back to the blocked drain pipe, upstairs by the washing machine. Right, I need to explain this weird thing they have here, in all the bathrooms and kitchens and basically anywhere, where there are water used, they have these drain pipes in the floor. It’s odd, but we’re used to it by now. So what happened was the water draining from the washing machine didn’t drain properly through this pipe, causing the overflow and resulting wet floor. The friendly dude from the “Facilities Management Department” (FMD) were here to get my sign off on the issues that have been fixed and I mentioned that the drain by the washing machine is still blocked. They sent over a plumber-guy within a few minutes and he kept on pushing his arm into the drain and telling me it’s not blocked. I insisted he needs something longer than his arm and that I did not dream or hallucinate (though at this point I wish I were) when I saw the water all over the floor and dripping through Kaydin’s bathroom ceiling. I said, that’s fine, you leave, I’m going to do a load right now and as soon as it starts to overflow, I’m gonna take photos, of this drain that isn’t blocked. He left and I started a load of washing, standing ready with my camera, sure thing, it started to overflow and I took photos and then called FMD and asked them to please send someone right away as the drain that isn’t blocked is now overflowing, right now, I’m looking at it! They did and the poor dude, you could see his frustration at this drain that isn’t blocked that so stubbornly keeps on overflowing, drains that aren’t blocked, just do not behave in this manner!

Well, fast forward three hours and four extra plumber-guys and ladders and pipes and opened aircon ducts and open manholes in front of my door and the sound of falling debris as they were clearing the drain, I think we could then safely assume that the drain was in fact very blocked and that I was not hallucinating or dreaming (though at this point, I really wished I was as this was just annoying). Their team leader later informed me that they will be back later that afternoon, as they need to replace, yes, replace the water pipe running next to the aircon duct in my living room ceiling as they can’t get rid of the last bit of debris. This worked out well as I could still put Kaydin down for a nap, and trust me he really needed it by then, ‘cause all this excitement with people in the house and banging and ladders and stuff were well, just a bit too much J They came back later and banged on the pipes some more and cleared some more debris and then said they’ll be back the next morning to put the new pipe in.

Right, the next morning came and there were more banging and noise and climbing on ladders opening of aircon ducts and finally their boss arrived to come and assess the situation, ah yes, enter Mr. Rude of the other day!! Oh LOL! Luckily Gideon arrived home then as well (he wasn’t feeling well, that’s a whole other chapter) and he did say to Rude-dude, ever so politely, (something to the effect of) “So, the drain isn’t blocked hey?”

Anyhoot, it wasn’t in the end necessary to install a new pipe as a little bit more banging cleared the pipe and I’m now happily washing the one load after the other.

Home to office in 20 minutes!!

Yes, Gideon can now wake at 06:00 in the morning, leave for work half an hour later and arrive at 07:00, as opposed to 05:00 and driving an hour and a half to work. He’s also home much earlier, which is great for Kaydin-Gideon play time. Makes it all oh so worth it. :)

Kaydin @ play:

Every now and then, I come across these arrangements of toys. He parks the cars all over the place:

While cooking on my brand spanking new oven the other day, this little exchange took place:

The bike guy saying hallo to the sheepie:

I can just imagine the converstation:

Biker-dude: “so, he got hold of you sheepie old pal?!”

Sheepie: “mmeeeeehh, mmeeeehh, meeeh”

B-d: “I agree, he’s cute, but man, I never expected to have a conversation with a sheep?! (trying really hard to hold on to a shred of dignity) I’m Biker-dude, I ride on dunes and through rivers”

Sheepie: “mmeeeeehh, mmeeeehh, meeeeehh, meh”

B-d: “oh all right, I’ll indulge him, come get on the back, we’ll go for a ride, hold on tight!“

... and off they went exploring.

Conversations round the toy-box

The newest questions:

Wat maak so? (What made that noise?)

and

Wat daai? (What is that?)

and

Hoe maak (what sound does a {insert cow/sheep/lizard/worm/Dubai/Oupa Diedie} make)? Insert whichever is applicable :-) we’re quite creative, as I now know what sound a worm makes :-)

Shiny new things

Here’s that new kitchen appliance, beautiful and shiny and works like a dream! I’ll let you drool for a bit:

More new things over the windows:

Pretty isn’t it?

You’re a big boy now:

Yes, the day arrived and he now has his own proper bed, one that will grow with him. He picked the bed and the bedding himself and is oh so totally impressed with it! I suspect the biggest excitement is that Jackie and Lara can also get on it, and they do, they’re totally adorable, come upstairs with us in the evenings and reads a story with us. :)

This was posed :)

Right, much has happened since I wrote this, promise to update soon.

We send much love

Marianne |

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Reader Comments (6)

OMG....Marianne, I'm so sorry you went through all of that, but it really did make amusing reading!! I was cracking up!! Glad that you are all moved and settled and that the pipe that wasn't blocked is now unblocked!! Seriously you need to do a weekly segment on, "The Aventures of Biker-Dude and Sheepie".....too friggen funny!! xox

October 10, 2009 |

Bree

bree is right - you need a segment on the biker dude and sheepie! too funny! glad to read that you're settled now & i love your new stuff!!

October 10, 2009 |

danielle young

Oh Maz, love your way of telling how it is! What dramas to have to go through but all the waiting has been worth it hasn't it? And K looks so proud in his 'big boy' bed :)

October 10, 2009 |

Sharon Dale

now I know why I couldn't find where to comment LOL I thought this loooooong post were more than 5 posts and I searched under all lines for the comment-thingie LOOOOOOOOOOOL

so glad you are all settled now! I know it's a huge thing and it will take months to be finally done but than you will enjoy it every day!

wishing you a wonderful weekend,
gabs

October 11, 2009 |

gabs

wow that certainly makes for some interesting reading (esp. since it didn't happen to me! LOL) I loved the photos of the toys with the ATV rider and the sheep LOL

October 11, 2009 |

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November 17, 2010 |

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{ It’s the same country, but not }

The Moving Company

Roadworks – or, when 15km’s becomes 23km’s ...

That is the sun, not the moon

Snagging 101

The blocked drain that was

Home to office in 20 minutes!!

Kaydin @ play:

Conversations round the toy-box

Shiny new things

You’re a big boy now:

Reader Comments (6)

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