It’s freezing here and there’s snow in Sussex! Unheard of! However, I have been a very good dog and have been learning how to behave properly. Jill and Gerry are very strict and they are keeping me busy, training me everyday and teaching me how to behave, which apparently is very important where I’m going.
Elly has been in AD for nearly a month now and I miss her terribly. The whole process of getting me there is really painful (literally) I’ve been poked and prodded and the paperwork is giving poor Gerry a real headache. I’m sure it will be worth it because even though I do love being here by the seaside it’s supposed to be pretty nice over there and they’ve chosen a house especially for me as well!
Speaking of the house, the first one they wanted fell through after waiting for 3 weeks. They’ve got another one but it appears that everything takes quite a long time to process and Elly is stressing out about whether they will be in by the time I arrive on January 13th. Their furniture arrives on the 21st and they also only get 5 days free storage; after that they have to pay a daily charge, so it could prove to be a bit expensive! Elly says she keeps repeating the matra “Keep calm and carry on!” I’m sure it will all work out.
Elly has told me that she is really enjoying Abu Dhabi. She got to explore quite a bit when her friend Helen came to stay and they visited the huge Mosque (3rd largest in the world) and enjoyed the open top bus tour of the city. James and Elly had great fun in Dubai at the Rugby Sevens and spent time with Poppa and Granny. The shopping is apparently AMAZING in Dubai. Elly says she is going back for Christmas Shopping this week!
Elly has also got a teaching job! After pondering the idea of being a ‘Lady of Leisure’ for all of about 5 minutes she was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and a local International School was looking for two term’s Maternity cover. She prepared a lesson to teach a year 7 class and had an interview with the Principal, Secondary Head teacher and Head of English. She must’ve done pretty well because they didn’t offer her two term’s work, they offered her a Permanent job! All very exciting. It is a full-time English teaching post in a new school that already has an excellent reputation. So, only 2 more weeks of holiday and then it’s back to earning the pennies (a jolly good thing with all the money they’re spending over there.) Check out Al Yasmina International School on a Google search!
Elly says that living over in AD is a funny mixture of East and West. You have very interesting paradoxes like the shopping Malls are full of shops like Zara, Next, Mango and New Look selling Western style clothes but then the women who are shopping there walk around in their full-length black Abayas. She has been dressing more conservatively out of respect and also not covering shoulders and knees feels weird. As the bus tour said, “beach wear is for the beach”.
There is a wonderful mixture of ethnicities, particularly in the school she’s going to teach in, but there is also a huge divide between rich and poor. Anyone working in the service industry are from places like Pakistan, India, Nepal, Malaysia and Indonesia, they work hard for little money but they have their work permits here and many send money home to their families. It makes you wonder what their lives must be like at home to live so far away. Their quality of life here must be better than there, surely?
So, there is an interesting class system, the Emirates being top dogs! You see an incredible amount of wealth; the type of wealth you usually only see on TV. Elly and James said they have seen more ‘Super cars’ than in a whole series of Top Gear! James got particularly excited when they saw two Buggati Veron parked next to each other outside a hotel Elly said there was no accounting for taste when she saw an apple green Lambourghini parked outside the Mall.
So, Elly is filling her days with going to the Gym and spending far too much time on Facebook from what she’s told me. The weather is lovely she says; a balmy 27 degrees on average and nice and cool in the evenings and mornings. Neither James nor Elly feel very festive although they did sing some carols at the British Embassy on Saturday! All a bit strange. With green parrots shrieking in the background!
They celebrated their first wedding anniversary this week and had (yet another) meal out! No wonder they need to work out so much! Thank goodness they did get married otherwise they’d never have got me!
Hopefully the next time you hear from me, I will be telling you all about AD myself and the new house and friends I’m going to meet over there. They already have one friend lined up for me; he’s a young one though, a black spaniel called Marmite. I’m sure I’ll soon show him the ropes!
