The term is flying by in a rush of testing, reporting, more testing, more reporting and a flurry of activity. The girls (and teachers) are ready for the holidays and I have to say I am too!
Even though it only seems like yesterday that I returned from my last trip. I am aware that I haven't typed up any blog entries yet on the wonderful time we had but what with arriving home and returning to school the next day, then having my computer crash completely, losing many of my holiday and older photos, there just hasn't been time.
I've finally got the computer sorted and my wonderful friend has managed to restore some of my photos for me. However, a great number will never be seen, which may be a good thing when it comes to snaps of tulips. Lucky for some of you that my phone went dead half way through our day at the gardens. Or there'd be even more tulip snaps!
Back to the holiday blog. I've decided that I'm going to leave the typing up until the summer break. When I got out all my brochures etc at the weekend to make a start I realised what a major undertaking it would be. As I've not booked any trip yet I will hold off until the airfares drop a bit before travelling so will use that time to get the blog up to date.
I learned a harsh lesson last year when I didn't receive my son's annual airfare but I'd booked and paid for our trip. Then what with having so much money deducted from our wages I feel as if I've been on the back foot financially the whole year, something I don't want to happen again. I did eventually get the airfare several months later but the whole shambles was a stark reminder to me about how things work here.
Apparently airfares increase here by up to 40% over the summer break due to all the expats heading home. After July 16th they seem to drop plus there are usually some good holiday deals available. Another harsh fact we learned on our recent cruise was that most others on the boat had paid considerably less than us. So no longer am I booking and paying well in advance as it didn't even secure us our chosen seats on the flights.
I mentioned last post that I had managed to get an interview for a HOF (Head of Faculty) position. I had an email saying that my interview was successful however, there is no guarantee of a placement. Only in Abu Dhabi would you think you had a new job but you're not sure until the day you get sent to a new school. So watch this space.
What would it mean if I did? It would mean having an office rather than a classroom and being responsible for ensuring the curriculum is delivered by the English teachers while looking after them. From what I hear some of them act like spoiled little brats so it could be challenging!
This week we celebrated the 30th birthday of one of our friends with brunch at a local Irish pub. Not sure if you could call it a pub as it had a lavish spread and a superb swimming pool. It was more like a pool party with plenty of booze being consumed. The guy in charge told us we had three hours to eat and drink and he didn't want anyone leaving sober. I began to wonder if I'd been transported into another country, namely Ireland. So it was a great day out, especially catching up with friends that I don't see as often as I should. We were 'entertained' by a large group of military guys from a French island. Obviously they hadn't seen drink or women in a while either! The booze flowed freely, the sun got hotter, the bikinis got skimpier, and we all had a great time. As one of my friends put it, "It seems like the place to go if you're single, and you don't go home alone." Well said! Our table was strategically placed by the stairway so anyone entering or leaving had to pass by us. Needless to say even us older ones (and married ones) got our eye candy for the month. As we were leaving a band struck up inside and the dancing began in earnest. It was great value as we had Groupon vouchers so it only ended up costing us 75 AED ($25) each which included as much booze as you could drink.
You'd laugh at the absurdity of it when we tried to leave. By this time the bar was packed and we had two toddlers and a pushchair in our group. So the security guard wouldn't let us inside to go through the bar to leave. Eventually with some bolshy, in your face, talking most of the group managed to get inside. This left one of the group with the pushchair and he was made to fold it up. Trouble was it wasn't his pushchair and he had no idea how to dismantle it. So we were split in two for a period of time and when we finally got it through with it in one piece while the security guard was momentarily distracted we found our taxi waiting with the others in it, holding up a queue of about 6 taxis! Give some men a uniform and it goes to their head!!!
We were discussing how life here has become mundane, same, same, as home. Work, work, and a little play. The spark and excitement has gone and it is now the same as anywhere in the world. Bills to pay and kids to feed and clothe! On that note, two of our original group are having babies this year so that was exciting news, especially for the couple whose son is my son's age! A miracle they called it. On the plus side is the fact that we are having amazing holidays and we can afford to show our visitors around if they are lucky enough to come here.
Several of our original group are leaving after having completed 18 months here. Two are heading back to work in Korea as it is much easier than here. No lesson plans to do, kids are well behaved, little teaching, all from a textbook. It would be interesting to know the exact statistics of who remains from our original group of 60 but with us all dispersed around the Emirate it's difficult to keep track of them all. Like anywhere you make your own group of friends and they are the ones you see most.
I'm loving the bus service from our island. I took the bus downtown to get my hair cut and coloured then home again. Only 4 dirhams, around $1.30.
Last weekend another kiwi friend had a roast night so we all trooped over to her new apartment on this island for dinner. It was great to catch up with another group of kiwis and teenagers. We had an awesome feed with so many meats (lamb, pork & chicken) and oodles of different roast veges. We all got to take a doggy bag home so had meals for the next day as well. She had her apartment looking lovely and I enjoyed being able to stand out on her balcony and look back towards our apartment. The best thing was we all had a few drinks and I managed to find a couple of bottles of Monkey Bay rose to quaff! Those of you in Marlborough will know Monkey Bay, especially those of you with kids who have spent the day there with me and mine! Brought back lots of memories I can tell you. I'd made a pavlova to take over but during the taxi ride there it got squashed. However, it still tasted fine. Need a bit of practice using my oven here because everything turns out wonky. I think the ingredients are different for a start, even the butter is a different consistency than ours.
Before we went out for dinner I'd caught up with the lovely young couple downstairs. Funnily enough they'd invited me over for lunch and then we ended up going to the same dinner that evening. Anyway we went out to have a 'hit' of tennis in the scorching sun. Not my cup of tea as it was too hot, also dusty from the sudden dust storm that had blown up.
The after effect of that was that I ended up with another bronchial infection although I didn't need antibiotics this time. Still, I'm not enjoying that side of living here. The dust and sand seems to be a constant problem, especially out here where we live with so much construction and so few buildings to stop the sand blowing through.
I've been watching the rising tensions in Lebanon with interest as the teenager's best friend is Lebanese. It's been enlightening to get a local perspective on what is happening there and throughout the Middle East.
It seems the conflict in Syria is no-where near over and things may get much worse before they get better, especially as so many other countries seem to want to be involved in some way or another.
As in any situation, it's the people who are forgotten. Having met many young people who are refugees from their own country due to war, you can't help but view things differently living here. I don't pretend to understand what are obviously complex deep-seated issues but whoever said money is the root of all evil, may be wrong. Living here, you'd swear it was religion. But perhaps it's all fueled by money (excuse the pun!).
Even though it only seems like yesterday that I returned from my last trip. I am aware that I haven't typed up any blog entries yet on the wonderful time we had but what with arriving home and returning to school the next day, then having my computer crash completely, losing many of my holiday and older photos, there just hasn't been time.
I've finally got the computer sorted and my wonderful friend has managed to restore some of my photos for me. However, a great number will never be seen, which may be a good thing when it comes to snaps of tulips. Lucky for some of you that my phone went dead half way through our day at the gardens. Or there'd be even more tulip snaps!
Back to the holiday blog. I've decided that I'm going to leave the typing up until the summer break. When I got out all my brochures etc at the weekend to make a start I realised what a major undertaking it would be. As I've not booked any trip yet I will hold off until the airfares drop a bit before travelling so will use that time to get the blog up to date.
I learned a harsh lesson last year when I didn't receive my son's annual airfare but I'd booked and paid for our trip. Then what with having so much money deducted from our wages I feel as if I've been on the back foot financially the whole year, something I don't want to happen again. I did eventually get the airfare several months later but the whole shambles was a stark reminder to me about how things work here.
Apparently airfares increase here by up to 40% over the summer break due to all the expats heading home. After July 16th they seem to drop plus there are usually some good holiday deals available. Another harsh fact we learned on our recent cruise was that most others on the boat had paid considerably less than us. So no longer am I booking and paying well in advance as it didn't even secure us our chosen seats on the flights.
I mentioned last post that I had managed to get an interview for a HOF (Head of Faculty) position. I had an email saying that my interview was successful however, there is no guarantee of a placement. Only in Abu Dhabi would you think you had a new job but you're not sure until the day you get sent to a new school. So watch this space.
What would it mean if I did? It would mean having an office rather than a classroom and being responsible for ensuring the curriculum is delivered by the English teachers while looking after them. From what I hear some of them act like spoiled little brats so it could be challenging!
This week we celebrated the 30th birthday of one of our friends with brunch at a local Irish pub. Not sure if you could call it a pub as it had a lavish spread and a superb swimming pool. It was more like a pool party with plenty of booze being consumed. The guy in charge told us we had three hours to eat and drink and he didn't want anyone leaving sober. I began to wonder if I'd been transported into another country, namely Ireland. So it was a great day out, especially catching up with friends that I don't see as often as I should. We were 'entertained' by a large group of military guys from a French island. Obviously they hadn't seen drink or women in a while either! The booze flowed freely, the sun got hotter, the bikinis got skimpier, and we all had a great time. As one of my friends put it, "It seems like the place to go if you're single, and you don't go home alone." Well said! Our table was strategically placed by the stairway so anyone entering or leaving had to pass by us. Needless to say even us older ones (and married ones) got our eye candy for the month. As we were leaving a band struck up inside and the dancing began in earnest. It was great value as we had Groupon vouchers so it only ended up costing us 75 AED ($25) each which included as much booze as you could drink.
You'd laugh at the absurdity of it when we tried to leave. By this time the bar was packed and we had two toddlers and a pushchair in our group. So the security guard wouldn't let us inside to go through the bar to leave. Eventually with some bolshy, in your face, talking most of the group managed to get inside. This left one of the group with the pushchair and he was made to fold it up. Trouble was it wasn't his pushchair and he had no idea how to dismantle it. So we were split in two for a period of time and when we finally got it through with it in one piece while the security guard was momentarily distracted we found our taxi waiting with the others in it, holding up a queue of about 6 taxis! Give some men a uniform and it goes to their head!!!
We were discussing how life here has become mundane, same, same, as home. Work, work, and a little play. The spark and excitement has gone and it is now the same as anywhere in the world. Bills to pay and kids to feed and clothe! On that note, two of our original group are having babies this year so that was exciting news, especially for the couple whose son is my son's age! A miracle they called it. On the plus side is the fact that we are having amazing holidays and we can afford to show our visitors around if they are lucky enough to come here.
Several of our original group are leaving after having completed 18 months here. Two are heading back to work in Korea as it is much easier than here. No lesson plans to do, kids are well behaved, little teaching, all from a textbook. It would be interesting to know the exact statistics of who remains from our original group of 60 but with us all dispersed around the Emirate it's difficult to keep track of them all. Like anywhere you make your own group of friends and they are the ones you see most.
I'm loving the bus service from our island. I took the bus downtown to get my hair cut and coloured then home again. Only 4 dirhams, around $1.30.
Last weekend another kiwi friend had a roast night so we all trooped over to her new apartment on this island for dinner. It was great to catch up with another group of kiwis and teenagers. We had an awesome feed with so many meats (lamb, pork & chicken) and oodles of different roast veges. We all got to take a doggy bag home so had meals for the next day as well. She had her apartment looking lovely and I enjoyed being able to stand out on her balcony and look back towards our apartment. The best thing was we all had a few drinks and I managed to find a couple of bottles of Monkey Bay rose to quaff! Those of you in Marlborough will know Monkey Bay, especially those of you with kids who have spent the day there with me and mine! Brought back lots of memories I can tell you. I'd made a pavlova to take over but during the taxi ride there it got squashed. However, it still tasted fine. Need a bit of practice using my oven here because everything turns out wonky. I think the ingredients are different for a start, even the butter is a different consistency than ours.
Before we went out for dinner I'd caught up with the lovely young couple downstairs. Funnily enough they'd invited me over for lunch and then we ended up going to the same dinner that evening. Anyway we went out to have a 'hit' of tennis in the scorching sun. Not my cup of tea as it was too hot, also dusty from the sudden dust storm that had blown up.
The after effect of that was that I ended up with another bronchial infection although I didn't need antibiotics this time. Still, I'm not enjoying that side of living here. The dust and sand seems to be a constant problem, especially out here where we live with so much construction and so few buildings to stop the sand blowing through.
I've been watching the rising tensions in Lebanon with interest as the teenager's best friend is Lebanese. It's been enlightening to get a local perspective on what is happening there and throughout the Middle East.
It seems the conflict in Syria is no-where near over and things may get much worse before they get better, especially as so many other countries seem to want to be involved in some way or another.
As in any situation, it's the people who are forgotten. Having met many young people who are refugees from their own country due to war, you can't help but view things differently living here. I don't pretend to understand what are obviously complex deep-seated issues but whoever said money is the root of all evil, may be wrong. Living here, you'd swear it was religion. But perhaps it's all fueled by money (excuse the pun!).
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