Sunday 30 June 2013

Flossie's Sportsday

As well as Archie, Flossie had her sports day last week. Like him, she enjoyed herself immensely, and even managed an equal first and a second place in a couple of her events.

Not too much news on the Abu Dhabi front. We've got someone coming round tomorrow to look at the house with a view to renting it. It's their second visit, so hopefully something will come of it. And now that Jo and I are both unemployed (!) we can really get stuck into sorting out our stuff tomorrow.

Tuesday 25 June 2013

Archie's Sports Day

It was Archie's sports day today. The weather was good to us, so it was a very pleasant couple of hours. Archie was on the Green Team, and the programme consisted of rotating round six events getting points for the team, followed by some sprint races at the end. Archie spent the whole time with a smile on his face, and did his best at every event, although he did struggle with some of them, particularly the sack race! Anyway, there are some highlights in the linked video below should you be interested.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQoTr4IdhQg

Onto Abu Dhabi matters:

  • It looks like we may have found a tenant for Stonestack, someone who wants it for at least three years. Discussions are ongoing with a view to having a deal done in the next week or so.
  • I have finally had my degree certificate back from the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, where I had to send it to be legalised (following certification by a solicitor). It now needs to go to the UAE Embassy in London to be attested, before it can be sent over to Dubai to form part of my visa application. It is all very complicated!
  • We need to confirm our container booking very soon. It looks like it is going to be packed on 15 and 16 July. Not much time to get everything sorted out!

Thursday 20 June 2013

Longer version of video

Longer version (just one minute) of the video below, the extra minute being an introduction in English, with some shots of Abu Dhabi 50 years ago.


ABU DHABI 2011 - DEFINITIVE VERSION, English intro from Beno Saradzic on Vimeo.
Couple of developments today:
  1. Toby has been to have his ears waxed, and his toenails cut, in an effort to make him appealing to potential new owners!
  2. We have someone viewing the house tomorrow, with a view to renting, and at a later date, maybe buying.
Other than that, I came across the timelapse video of Abu Dhabi earlier, which you might enjoy watching.

Sunday 16 June 2013

Sorting out

Yesterday we started the mammoth job of sorting out all our possessions ready for our move. The plan is to sort things into five piles:

  1. Stuff to take with us to Abu Dhabi.
  2. Stuff to store in the UK.
  3. Stuff to sell.
  4. Stuff to give to charity.
  5. Stuff for the tip.

We are trying to be as strict with ourselves as we can, so we'll see how we get on.

Jo is already doing well with selling things, having got rid of two double buggies on eBay yesterday in the space of a couple of hours.

 

Friday 14 June 2013

Update on Toby

Toby has been on a visit to a potential new owner today. Doesn't look like its going to anywhere as the lady concerned thought he may be a little too big for her, and having just lost a dog to leukaemia, she was concerned about his health. We'll see if there is any further news next week, and the Guide Dog lady has other possibilities in mind anyway.

Exhausted after a busy day

 

Tuesday 11 June 2013

Location, Location, Location

A few photos from the villas we viewed yesterday.

Al Raha Gardens

Currently the largest compound for expats. The advantages of this compound include: close to school (if you are at the right end); good community facilities (although no community pool yet); safe for children to ride around on their bikes (although a bit of a maze and roads quite narrow); lots of other children to play with. Disadvantages include: higher utility bills (not entirely sure of reason for this); and less outside space than on some other compounds.

Al Raha Gardens
Main living room
Larger villas on this compound have small pools, but not much other outdoor space
Kitchen at Al Raha Gardens
The compound does have a nice little shopping mall though
And there are plans for a community pool here, although not sure when that will happen.
Golf Gardens
And there are plans for a community pool here, although not sure when that will happen.
Another popular compound with expats. Smaller than Raha Gardens but still a good size. Also has good community facilities, including a pool. Roads are wider, and safe for riding bikes, etc. Close to schools. Larger villas tend to have a little more space.
And there are plans for a community pool here, although not sure when that will happen.
Golf Gardens is another popular compound
Kitchen at Golf Gardens
The villas here are more expensive but have more outside space
This compound already has a community swimming pool
Off Compound
This compound already has a community swimming pool
If you go off compound and further from the city (and schools) you get much more for your money. However these villas tend to be standalone or in small groups (maybe four or six villas), with no community facilities. The advantage is space (inside and out), the disadvantages include no community facilities, further to travel, and less opportunity for the children to make friends.
This compound already has a community swimming pool
You get more for your money if you live further out of town, and further from the schools
A typical bedroom
This one includes a roof terrace

Think we need Kirstie and Phil to help us decide!!!!

 

Monday 10 June 2013

Al Yasmina School

Another busy day today. We managed to have a bit of a lie in, although that meant there was no time for breakfast before we had to get a taxi to Al Yasmina for our tour.

As a reminder, Al Yasmina is our preferred school for all three children. We have secured places for Henry and Archie, and Flossie is currently 4th on the waiting list, up from 5th last week.

We were very impressed with the school. It has 125 pupils in each year, split into classes of 25, and the classrooms and other facilities are grouped round a central atrium, making it very airy.

The central atrium

There is a shared area for every two year groups, so with ten classrooms opening onto it. As the years progress the shared area contains less toys and more IT and other equipment.

There is a large indoor gymnasium.

There are two swimming pools, this is the larger one, and there is a smaller one for novice swimmers.

There is a running track, with football pitches in the middle.

There is a covered outdoor area for the young children to play and eat their packed lunches.

Below is a typical classroom for Henry's year.

This is the food counter where children in the later years can buy lunch.

And this is a typical common room for Henry's year.

Finally this is one of the science labs for the upper school.

All in all we thought it was a great school, so fingers crossed Flossie gets in there too. The registrar seemed to think she has a reasonable chance, with people likely to drop out over the next few weeks as they are asked to confirm their places by paying a proportion of fees up front.

 

Sunday 9 June 2013

It's kind of more foreign than I thought it would be

We've had an interesting day visiting various villas, and also Pearl Primary School, with Tracy, a friend of a friend of Jo. She picked us up from our hotel at 8:30pm this morning (no lie in for us) and, after stopping for petrol (when Jo was very impressed with the attendant service) we headed for one of the main communities. We didn't think we were going to be able to see inside any villas on this trip but Tracy cheerily informed us that any properties for rent are normally left unlocked so people are free to go and have a look inside. We took this on trust, although we were a little worried that our trip may come to a premature end for breaking and entering!
Having looked at a couple of villas, Tracy showed us Yas Island, where the F1 circuit is located. We stopped off at Abu Dhabi Golf Club for brunch (a delicious breakfast tortilla), looked at Ferrari World from a distance, then started our villa search again.
We headed to Khalifa A, one of the main residential areas for expats and had a look in a large villa in a mini compound. It was very nice, but very expensive, and had far too much room, even for us! Off we went to another compound, still under construction, as shown below. The sandy area in the middle is going to be a shared swimming pool, although goodness knows when it will be finished.

The villas in this compound were nice, and well within our budget, but didn't have much outside space.

It was nearly time for us to head to Pearl Primary School for our tour, but there was just time to stop at one more villa we noticed was for rent. Having finally convinced the caretaker to let us have a look round, we quite liked the villa, but couldn't find the kitchen anywhere. We asked the caretaker who told us it was outside, and then proceeded to ask whether we wanted one villa or all eight in the compound. At that point Tracy realised we were in a compound for locals, hence the outside kitchen (as only the maid needs access), so we left as quickly as possible.
Next we headed into the centre of the city, a journey which was a little hair raising as Jo was navigating but kept forgetting this fact and almost missing critical turns! We eventually found the school, although had to do a full circuit of it, so tight was the security. At this point Tracy left us as she needed to go and pick her children up from school.
We got in eventually and were shown around. Pearl Primary is our second choice school for Archie and Flossie, and we have secured places for them both. It was very nice, a similar configuration to their school in Bolton, and the kids we saw all seemed happy and well behaved. I'm sure both of them would settle in we'll if this is where they ended up going. The only downside is that it is some distance from where we hope to be living.
Once our tour was over we walked in what I thought was the general direction of my new office. Having failed to find it we headed into Costa for a refreshing drink. We asked the server to show us where we were on a map, and discovered we were a long way from where we thought (yes, I had been taking us in the wrong direction!).
We therefore jumped in a cab to the Abu Dhabi Mall, so Jo could get a sense of what shops the city has, and so I could get some socks, having forgotten to pack any. Then it was another cab back to the hotel.
We spent a couple of hours by the pool, with a couple of refreshing beers. I went for a quick swim (very warm water), and Jo soaked up some sun. The pool attendant was very attentive: laying out two towels for each of us on our loungers, bringing us a melon ice lolly to refresh us, and delivering our bottles of beer buried in an ice bucket. We could get used to this!
Once the sun had gone behind the hotel we headed back to our room to get ready for dinner. We went to "The Meat Co" at a hotel just across the water from our hotel, where we both had a beautiful steak, even more tasty because Tracy had given us a money off coupon so one of them was free.
All in all a good day. We are starting to get a good idea of what we can get for our money, where we want to live, and what compromises we may have to make. We've also reassured ourselves that the British schools are very similar to back home. And, so far, we have not come to the conclusion that we don't want to move here!! Thank goodness!
Quote of the day from Jo, midway through the day: "It's kind of more foreign than I thought it would be". She still hasn't managed to explain what she meant, but apparently it is a good thing.
Until tomorrow..........

 

Tuesday 4 June 2013

School update

Great news today, that Henry and Archie have both got places at our first choice school. Flossie is still on the waiting list, so fingers crossed we'll get good news about her soon (although maybe they've heard what a handful she is!?).