Getting to know you: friends and activites in Dubai

Before I begin this post I must apologise for the SHOCKING time delay between the last post and this one... however there has been a very clear hiatus between having Rosa take care of Margaux in Portugal and Margaux starting nursery here - i.e. I have just a wee bit of time to myself that I can spend in front of a computer!

So, back to the blog itself:

The friend I mentioned in the previous post I met through Louise, a fellow Mum and Mums and Tots in Cacais. Her sister, Hannah, lives here with her husband Duncan and their daughter, Emiline, who's a couple of months older than Margaux.

Hannah and I got along famously, as did the girls. And through Hannah I discovered another playgroup which meets at Cheeky Monkeys. Splendid!

Most days since we have arrived I take Margaux somewhere to play. It's simply too hot to do anything outside, but there are a huge number of indoor soft play areas - at least one in every mall (and there's one of those on most corners) plus some other 'free standing' ones.

She's pretty good at keeping herself entertained, to be honest. She started with great trepidation at the soft play areas but now she gets immediately involved, like the old hand that she is.

Here are a couple of videos of her mucking around: The self entertainer 1 and Cheeky Monkey.

We ventured to the beach one evening with Hannah, Duncan, and Emiline. Margaux loved it, even if the water was like a sticky, salty bath.

Margaux and I also began going to a couple of Mums and Tots sessions a week, which has been great for both of us. Unlike Portugal, however, they are hosted at an indoor play area that has, in addition to two soft play areas, loads of games and rides for older kids...

Anyway, here she is at a variety of indoor play areas over the last few (!) months - some with Mums and Tots, some with Thomas and me, and some with just me:

And in case that hasn't whetted your appetite enough, here are a couple of movies: The Self Entertainer 2  (includes some non-soft play stuff) and Mini Monster (filmed at a place called Mini Monsters...) 

It was through accidentally attending a coffee morning instead of Mums and Tots one day that I had the fortune of meeting Lindsay, a bubbly Canadian with a very classy sense of style. She and I hit it off and it only seems right to mention her in this post, even though I have no photos of her. Actually, that's a lie. In the above collage she is seated behind Margaux in the photos where M is playing with play-dough... I just have no photos of her face!

Regardless, she and I have spent some lovely days together, and two memorable dinners - one hosted by Thomas and me, and the other by Lindsay and her husband, Matt. If I get hold of a photo of us together I will be sure to include it somewhere!

Right now, though, it's time to introduce you to our apartment!

First impressions of Dubai

We landed in Dubai on May 8 and our first impression - which I think would be the same for everyone who arrives between May and September - is HOT! HOT and HUMID and STICKY!

We also observed that some people (mostly tourists, from what I can gather) have a very liberal interpretation of conservative dress! Most of the western population is respectful, and then there are the Muslim women. Most wear burkas with their face showing, but a large minority have just their eyes showing, and I've even seen some with a full veil. What I appreciate though is that the stipulation to cover your hair, and to your neck, wrists, and ankles is expected of both male and female Muslims.

For the first month we stayed in a hotel in Downtown Dubai, a stone's throw from Thomas' work but right in the thick of the pollution. We all got a shocking cough, which disappeared as soon as we moved out, and Margaux and I developed gastro (food poisoning?) from drinking the tap water.

Honestly, this city is the most opposite to the life we intend to create after we leave here than I think I can imagine. Maybe Houston. Perhaps Beijing. Still, it's a daily reminder of what we're aiming away from!

We spent a significant amount of time in the hotel's swimming pools, with Margaux growing more confident every day. The water is temperature controlled so that it is 'swimmable' all year round - in summer it's usually 29* or 30*...

It feels a bit like Dubai is a little kid trying to be taken seriously by the grown-ups, by impressing them with all sorts of facts and statistics.The running joke in Dubai is that it holds the world record for the city with the most world records... including the world's largest mall (The Dubai Mall), tallest building (Burj Khalifa),  longest graffiti scroll, largest billboard, longest fireworks display, tallest hotel (JW Marriott Marquis Hotel), longest 22-karat handmade gold chain (made to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Dubai Shopping Festival, of course), first indoor mountain resort, and the largest sticky note mosaic. To name a few.

Thomas dived into work, while Margaux and I began to explore what the city has to offer. We were living literally across the road the The Dubai Mall, so we set out to see what all the fuss was about. Loads of shops - all designer-labels, loads of shoppers, a massive aquarium, a huge food court, a cinema... the whole thing is ginormous.

Margaux and I also spent a fair bit of time hitting the real estate pavement, trying to find somewhere for us to live. We had the hotel apartment for a month but we were fairly keen to get out of there. Our criteria included that it had to be close to a metro station and close to a creche/ nursery - and not downtown! - so that limited our choices a bit. I can't even count the number of places we visited on our quest for the perfect place, before we ended up living in the same apartment complex as a lovely woman (girl? About the same age as me, anyway) who I'd met through one of the Mums in Portugal... more on this to come!