Moving Downtown

Well it’s been a few weeks since I posted on here – partly because I’ve been so busy, and partly because I’ve now moved and have no internet access at home. It’s been a manic few weeks both at work and generally, so here’s a bit of a summary of what’s been going on…

Having ordered the furniture for my new apartment, it was set for a 9am Friday morning delivery from Ikea. What I didn’t account for was an impromptu visit to Rockbottoms the night before the delivery, and the 4am finish that a night there generally involves. Too many Bullfrog cocktails (round of 5 drinks: 275 dirhams… ouch) meant the next morning was a bit of a struggle. Luckily the Ikea people were going to build the furniture as well as deliver it… I made an effort to help but to be honest even the small side table I bought, which is surely Ikea’s easiest piece of furniture to construct, was nearly too complicated for me so I left the bed and sofa and everything else to them.

That evening we went out to Jamie Oliver’s new restaurant at Festival City. The food was really great and the restaurant itself was fantastic. It hasn’t yet been granted it’s alcohol licence which was probably no bad thing considering the previous evening’s activities. The rest of that weekend was spent cleaning my new apartment. I had planned to actually move in that weekend but due to some work required on the bathroom (which I had been told had been completed, but something got lost in translation along the way and in fact they actually needed to rip the bath out to check on a leak), I ended up spending another week in the company apartment instead.

The following Thursday was St Patrick’s Day, which we made the most of by visiting the Irish Village over the other side of the creek. The place is neither a village nor particularly Irish, but is a great night out, especially on an evening when Dubai’s Irish contingent all descend on the place. They’d set up a large outdoor stage and so in between numerous pints of Guinness, we were entertained by a couple of bands (including a U2 tribute – not bad but their Edge was a little off in places…). A great night ensued and we later found ourselves in a very local-style Indian restaurant in Bur Dubai at about 4am, ordering the hottest chicken curries they could make us – amazing. And only about 40 dirhams each which was an absolute bargain.

That Friday night we’d bought tickets to see The Streets down at Barasti – a beach bar attached to one of the Le Meridien hotels near the Marina. Despite being a bit dubious about the music, the gig was actually really great. The stage was on the beach which was a bit of a novelty – plenty of people dancing around in the sand. From there we later headed to Chi which is a club at the other end of the city in Oud Metha. I’d not been before but it was pretty impressive – a huge outdoor room and a few others indoors. The heavy R&B was a bit much though so we didn’t stay long, stopping only at the shawarma man on the way out before heading home.

The rest of the weekend was spent sorting the apartment out and actually moving into it. By coincidence my shipment of stuff from the UK had arrived that Thursday too so I had my guitar and some more clothes and a few other bits and pieces from home to unpack. Also had a few more items of furniture to put together – far easier without a hangover. What was a large empty space actually started to look like a proper place to live with a few homely things in it.

And so I’ve now been here a week, and I’ve gotta say, I’m pretty pleased with it. The apartment is undoubtedly the smartest place I’ve ever lived, not to mention the most spacious – I’ve got so much more room here than I ever had in any of my apartments in London. The huge 42 inch TV I bought doesn’t actually look that huge in here (and the surround sound cinema speakers look and sound awesome!). The view is pretty impressive too – the living room looks over Jumeirah and out to sea – you can see The World development out off the coast – lots of reclaimed sand islands in the shape of, well, the world, although you only really get the sense of that from above I think. The balcony and bedroom look out towards the Sheikh Zayed Road and all it’s huge towers which is impressive, and from the balcony you can see the Burj Khalifa and all the twinkling lights in the trees that are around it. Pretty special. Photos to follow…

I've sussed out my local supermarket in Downtown, which is Waitrose of all places. The first outside the UK apparently. It's much nicer than some of the local supermarkets around Bur Dubai, and most importantly it has a pork shop!



















Activities this weekend have included more exploring places we’ve not tried in the evenings yet (latest find is Fibber McGees – an actual Irish pub that serves good food and drinks that don’t break the bank – I can think of a few people back at home that would fancy a pint in here when they come over…). Also got some beach time in both Friday and Saturday this weekend. There’s only three weeks now til I fly back to the UK for 10 days so I really need to work on the tan. The weather is getting pretty warm – hitting 35C this weekend. Great for tanning but not so good today when pretty much the whole city was enveloped in a huge sand cloud. Got a load of it in the eyes when heading out earlier to watch England beat the Welsh in the Euro qualifier. In fact it looked like a clearer day in Cardiff than it has been here!

Other things of note over the past few weeks include having my medical and finally getting my residence visa. The medical was straightforward enough although a bit daunting given the hospital I had it done in. It's basically just a chest x ray and blood test, which is the final step in being granted the visa. I'm now able to stay until March 2013 now should I want to. Now that’s complete there is a whole load of other things I need to sort out including an Emirates ID card, driving licence and, possibly the most important, the alcohol licence. Also need to sort out my TV and internet subscription and get back to posting more regularly on here!