Rave is the new rant

Apologies for the delayed post.

It’s becoming increasingly apparent to me that it is much easier to rant and rave on the negatives, rather than wax lyrical on the positives. Things are greatly improved and I really feel as if I have turned a corner. My new challenge is to convey everything that’s happening with a positive spin. PD kindly pointed out to me the other night that my blogs have seemingly spiraled into a bit of a whine-y, moany, complaining tone – something I’m not particularly pleased about – the way I’m coming across that is, not the fact that my husband can say these things to me!

So, in light of this new leaf attitude, I’m now going to tell you all about the good stuff that’s been going on.

My residence visa finally came through last Wednesday, hurrah! This means that I have been able to get paid into my bank account, get broadband, home phone and cable TV. I can get a postal address that is not via work to our new apartment building and I can also buy a car instead of relying on rental.

On the subject of transport, the current vehicle in use is a white Toyota Rav 4. I’m not that impressed with it to be honest, but maybe that’s because I had my heart set on a sedan or saloon. I also managed to bump it against a bollard the second day we had it. I know – AGAIN! Despite the requisite large spare tyre on the back window, there is still a dent! PD has now decreed that our new car needs to be a 4WD with parking sensors as I have to mount the pavement on a daily basis in order to exit the sandpit.

Our new apartment is lovely – it has an amazing view over Dubai Old Town (which is not old at all – it’s very new – it’s just built to look aged), the Sheikh Zayed and Al Khail Roads (good for spotting which route to take in the morning as in where’s the least congested) and some very fetching building sites and cranes. Given that it is on the 34th floor – and I’ve managed to curtail any vertiginous notions of throwing myself off the balcony – at night time when the lights come on it really is very pretty, like strings of Christmas lights trailing into the distance. At this point in time, our furniture consists of four bean bags borrowed from the office (branded What’s On and Campaign magazines), a wicker sun lounger bought for the balcony and a very large bed. This means that we are able to jog freely around the apartment whooping and delighting at the echoes whilst avoiding stubbing our toes on the edges of the bed. Our furniture is arriving shortly – PD has been informed that the container ship has arrived at the port, but it is still waiting for a berth. Thus, the TV, sofa, the entire contents of the kitchen and about a million books are currently floating somewhere on the Persian Gulf. In some ways, living without much stuff has been pretty liberating – I’m sure that the apartment won’t feel so spacious once the container finally gets cleared!

The Dubai Mall opens tomorrow and I for one cannot wait. It’s only about five minutes walk from the apartment. Fingers crossed they sort out the traffic, which has been hell on earth…wait, no Flickster, no ranting allowed remember? Soz… Anyway, the best and most exciting thing about it is that nearly half an entire floor of the mall will be devoted to a Waitrose/John Lewis combo – yip yip yippdedee – it’s my favourite supermarket, hands down. I can almost taste it’s special own brand lemon curd now…

I promise to post some pictures soon – there seems to be something wrong with our new camera in that every time you take a picture it ends up with stripes across it! Any ideas anyone?

Keep it real, peeps.

Flickster. x