The local supermarket

A Mork moment

Today I had a Mork moment, well I do almost daily, but this afternoons trip to the supermarket was funnier than usual. Since we moved last month I go to a weird little Arabic supermarket where they all look at me like I'm Mork from Mork and Mindy. I needed celery and bay leaves, no luck, I do think my chicken and dumplings is going to taste pretty ordinary with out it but basically if I can't see it, I can''t buy it as no one speaks English. They know I tip well, mostly because Im just grateful to have got out of there alive so I always have a guy leap forward to take my trolley out to the car and unload the groceries for me.

So as he is unpacking my groceries into the car he says Mám are you from Germany? No Australia, why? He said oh I saw your name on your credit card and its German but ah you are from Australia. Do you know Ricky Ponting? Cricket is the common language between Indian, Pakistani's and Sri Lankans, and a lot of Australians, unfortunately I am not one of them. I always feel like I let them down when I know nothing at all about cricket

Finally, found the camera and SD card at the same time!

I seriously hate moving. I hate the chaos of not being able to find phone chargers, cameras matches. Nothing life threatening if you do not have it, but such a nuisance when you cannot.

Here is a photo of the new house in Al Reef on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi. We have moved from a two bedroom apartment to a five bedroom house, or villa as they are called here and we still have not got things in order. The house is actually three stories high. Top level has a bedroom, study and bathroom, a balcony that overlooks the backyard and a large roof terrace that overlooks the street. None of the rooms have built in wardrobes, which is just insane, so a trip to Ikea and we have fitted out the two smallest bedrooms with wall to wall wardrobes. We have one spare bedroom for guests and we have the bedroom on the second floor. If I had to climb the stairs to get to the third floor to go to bed I would have to start before I was actually tired each night, otherwise I am not sure I would make it.

Al Reef

We have been in our house, or villa as its called here a week now. So far, its lovely. Providing you just ignore the mouse nest in the back garden, or more accurately sand pit.

It has been a very hard week for Bert with work. He has had staff problems since the day we arrived. I was left to deal with the move alone.

Houses here are rented as empty shells. No cooker, no curtains, no light fittings so I feel like I have spent the week with half the population of the subcontinent traipsing through the house.

We finally got the pool filled and I spent the day waiting for the pool guy to come and do whatever pool guys do. We had to wait 24 hours after he did his bit before we could swim. Well if ever there was an anticlimax this was one. Its hot here, a pool is a fabulous luxury. But I don't want to have to break the ice on the surface before I get wet. I don't know what he had set the temperature for but it was cold. So another 24 hours, several phone calls and visits from more workers we finally had a pool that we can use.

Oh poor neglected blog, friends and family

I finally found the link to my blog, eventually found the enthusiasm to log in and beg for everyones forgiveness. Yes we are alive and well, yes we are still here but life just got very hectic.

I am so far behind I will just fill you in on some news and I shall try and catch up with more photos once we move again

Yes you read that right, we are moving again. We have decided to move back to Abu Dhabi, to a devolopment called Al Reef. It is behind the airport, across the freeway from Al Reef Palace, I'm sure you will be able to tell our house from the Palace easily.

It will be 15 minutes drive from home to Berts work, which is great. But there is nothing much out there, which is bad. Where we live now I have everything on our doorstep, I am a little nervous about the move into the desert.

We have had visitors, our lovely friend Nessie Millar visited us for a weekend on her way to Scotland, and a few months back Marian Watson stayed with us on her way to and home from her trip to Europe. Paul and Jacqui also spent ten days here with us on their way home from an around the world backpacking trip

We have just returned from a short trip to Germany to see the Passion Play at Oberammagau. It was just amazing. I've always loved history but Oberammagau and the Passion play takes history to a whole new level. We both loved it and had an amazing time. (more on this later

I will be back soon, I need to keep packing

Sri Lanka

Bert recently travelled to Sri Lanka to recruit workers and was lucky to fulfil a life long ambition to ride elephants

photo from gulf newspaper

A UPS 747-400 crashed not far from where we live in Dubai on Friday evening. First reports said it had crashed onto Emirates road and that cars were on fire. Thankfully those reports were incorrect and the pilots had steered it away from housing and crashed into the desert on a military base. The consequenses of a 747 crashing onto houses in a city are too horrific to think about.

Those of us from Melbourne can probably remember the light plane crashing into a suburban home in Essendon and killing a woman and six children. A 747 is a whole lot bigger

Sadly two men lost their lives but almost certainly saved the lives of many others by their actions

http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/emergencies/ups-identifies-american-crew-killed-in-dubai-crash-1.677784