Sun... and rain

So… I’m here. The flight was pretty good, and mostly empty – I had an entire row across the middle of the A380 to myself. Landed around 3.15am Dubai time and headed straight to the hotel… via the airport duty free. It’s one of the few places where you can actually buy alcohol in the emirate (and the others you need a licence to buy it anyway). Booze is pretty reasonably priced too, unlike when drinking out and about in the bars where it’s subject to some pretty extreme VAT. I was already pretty laden with bags and laptops so only bought a couple boxes of Tsing Tao Chinese lager – the cheapest in there but it’s pretty decent.

Saturday was spent sleeping and picking up some groceries from Spinneys. Having spent a fair bit of time here before everything feels quite familiar which is good – no major shocks yet! Also got out to sit in the sun for a while in the afternoon – the temperature is in the mid-20s, nice and sunny and not too humid – much like a decent English summer day really – only in January and during this country’s winter…

Work is all going well so far. My visa application was sent back from the Ministry apparently – not because they don’t want me in their country but more because the rules have changed again – seems to happen on a near weekly basis so I’m told. It’s being reapplied for and I should have it in a few weeks time, but until then I’m not going to be able to do a few things like open a bank account. I did go and enquire though and upon telling them my salary they immediately recommended me for their Premier account… that was until I realised they thought I earned what I told them per month, not per annum as was actually the case. No wonder they were so pleased to try and help me…

Up very early tomorrow morning for a flight to Muscat. Looking forward to it as I’ve not been before but have heard good things about the place. I’m staying overnight and then back to Dubai on Wednesday afternoon. Sorted the details out in the office this afternoon and then on leaving to come back to the hotel found that it was raining outside! Much like a typical English summer day then…