Things that are different, Part 2

So I’ve got a few more bits that I can add to my list, but there should also be a section on Things that are the same, but a bit different (see the end of this post)

• It takes longer to get things done. By this I mean, day to day work – waiting for people to come back to me on various things is becoming a little frustrating. As I am already fairly impatient this is an enduring lesson and I am being tested. Of course, it could be because I’ve moved from a very small company to a large one, but I still think it’s annoyingly slow; it’s also slow to get official paperwork sorted (made worse by the fact that it’s Ramadan and some people use this as an excuse to become lazy). One month in, I am still waiting on my visa. Without my visa I cannot do the myriad of things I need to do to get on with my life. This segues nicely into the next point
• You need a visa to: buy a car, open a bank account, get a mobile phone contract, rent a property, blow your nose (ok I just made that one up)
• You need to supply copies of your passport for virtually everything, including purchasing a pay-as-you-go sim card and registering your cat with the municipality
• Internet connections here are S L O W (well, not as bad as the bad old days of dial-up, but still – 2Mb broadband is the best you can get)
• There are no off licenses/bottle shops – I think you probably already know that, but just picture the scene in my gaff: If you have six bottles of white wine (obnoxious juice) in your fridge that you bought duty free, then there’s no, “Oh shall we have some wine with dinner?” And you just pop down the offie for some OJ and choccie on your way home from work every night. It’s more like, “Oh shall we have a wine with dinner? Ah, actually perhaps not – best to ration it for the weekend. Let’s hope they bring a bottle!” Or, “Oh no, we drank all the wine at the weekend – what are we going to do now??”
• Apropos of the point above – in the next emirate along plus one, there is an infamous warehouse that sells a cornucopia of booze. Said place is named after a particularly vicious species of Australian fish beginning with “B”. People (expats) go on runs to this place in the early mornings of the weekend, stock up the back of their 4WDs, cover their stash with a generous blanket and drive back very carefully to Dubai – if you get caught by the police, you will go to jail
  
• Sorry, i just had to “strike through” that point above as we do not want the place to get shut down because of a “leak” in the “press”!

Things that are the same, but different:

• Power points are standard three-pin plug holes that take UK plugs – that’s great for all the electrical goods you’ve brought with you from home. But, if you buy an appliance here, they usually have a cr*ppy two-pin plug which will then need an adaptor – apparently, it’s because they import a lot of electricals from the far east. It’s a pain

Having read the above, I betcha can tell that the honeymoon is over, baby. But that’s ok – I do still like it here. And now, I feel as if I’m being challenged – the whole point of why I decided to come here in the first place anyway.

Here’s a quick list of the things i do like, to finish off, just to keep the dream happy:

• The weather (it’s getting cooler now, but the humidity’s playing havoc with my hair)
• The working hours
• The fact I can go to the beach, or the pool if I want to
• I don’t have to wear a coat or jacket or carry an umbrella
• People are, generally, more friendly (except on the roads!)
• It’s tax free
• You can drive to the mall
• People dress up a bit to go out
• YOU CAN SMOKE IN BARS AND RESTAURANTS (I should have put this at the top, because it’s clearly my favourite)

Flickster. xx

Things that are different, Part 1

I’ve been collecting random snippets of things in my head that are a bit different in Dubai to say, London or Melbourne. All of these things I have just noticed and filed away somewhere in my hippocampus (is that the correct part of the brain?) in order to help me integrate into Dubai society.

• People say “zero” instead of “oh” or even ‘nought”. Say either of these other two and they don’t get it (western expats excluded)
• At the supermarket, when you get some fruit and veg which is charged by weight, you have to get it weighed and labelled at the fruit and veg counter, before proceeding to the checkout
• They drive on the right – I know, not so unusual for most of the world, but I still get confused when crossing the road, or going the”wrong” way around a roundabout
• Everyone calls me “mam”
• TV is absolutely rubbish and there is no Sky+ 😦
• Our office has ‘teaboys’ who are between the ages of about 40 and 60
• There is a very marked and obvious difference between the have and the have-nots. Culturally, the colour of your skin and your nationality dictates how much you get paid and the hours and number of days that you work
• Every address is a P.O. Box. Street addresses are almost impossible to come by, and you need to ask for a map and directions if you want to get anywhere. I’m currently stressing about how I’m going to get to the hairdresser on Tuesday. I have got a map, I have even cross-referenced it with Googlemaps, but as my current capabilities on the driving front enable me to only get to and from work and the Mall of the Emirates, this is new and scary territory. But my roots really need doing and every time I look in the mirror I see more grey. (Hair grows quicker here too – assume that’s because of the extra sun)
• When out and about – mall, shopping etc, women should not really expose their shoulders (beach and poolside is fine). It’s culturally insensitive to do so – the equivalent of walking around Clapham with your baps out. Naturally, you get stared at. You can pick the tourists in the mall by their spaghetti straps and angry sunburn. You can pick the rich expats by their coiffed hair and leathery tan
• There are no “Ladies who Lunch”. Instead, they are called “Jumeirah Janes”

That’s my lot on that for today…more later on.

Flickster. x