We're here!!

We have made it here finally! It has been two of the most stressful months of my life (aside from wedding prep). Two months of moving, packing, sorting, cleaning, packing, packing, did I mention packing? If I have to see another cardboard box or roll of tape again I may have a fit. Hubby and I have never been so snippy and short and frustrated with each other in our whole marriage. It has been an interesting experience.

Thursday- We dropped off our cargo load (all 200 kgs of it) to Heathrow airport which was both a huge relief and also a huge panic. What had I forgotten? Did I pack something wrong? Will it get there? Will it all break? Will they open it in Customs and decide it's forbidden and destroy it? Oops, too late, it's on the loading dock...



**my mother-in-law helping us pack and load...thankful for her!

Friday- Our flight left London in the early morning and we arrived in Dubai around 18:30/6:30pm. Hubby got to experience a little bit of what life has in store for us from now on...Business class! Gotta love the company tickets! Me, I got to ride with the "regular Joes"....(he felt terrible leaving me in economy and saved me some Godiva chocolates for when we landed..) I did meet a really nice cabin crew member who sat next to me so we talked and exchanged numbers. Maybe a new friend??
We were then greeted at the gate by a member of staff who ushered us through immigration and customs first, got our bags, got us our welcome pack from the company, then got us a private car to our hotel. It was amazing! Then we checked in and went to Festival City for dinner and to walk around Ikea to get furnishing ideas.

Saturday-Went to see our new home. Incredible. So much bigger compared to our last place! This made us want to furnish it immediately. So we went to Mall of the Emirates and found all our electric appliances for a slamming deal (we think...) It was an exhausting but productive day.

Sunday (today)- The goal was to get the main household items for the house ordered by the end of today. So after 2 days, 3 different malls, countless different stores, 28,000 dirhams, and 2 exhausted expatriates later....Goal Achieved!! The company gave us a 30k dirham allowance to furnish the place. With this we got: a fridge, washer and dryer, stove/oven (all matching and good brands), dining table with 6 chairs, memory foam mattress, bed frame, entertainment center, couch, desk and chair, microwave, plus a few small items. We are proud of ourselves! Many people warned us it couldn't be done. It has helped that we have packed a lot of the smaller things we need. We have 2k dhs left, so we can buy some smaller stuff and we will probably need to dip into our pockets a bit to finish but not as badly as we planned for! But now we are exhausted!! And sick to death of Ikea...

Tomorrow-Hubby's first day of work! Very exciting. My plan is to finally enjoy this weather and lounge by the pool in the morning, then go meet the delivery crew for our electrics!!!

This is it for now..Much love and thankfulness.



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Location:Dubai

Dreams of Moving!

We are officially moved out of our flat and are in our temporary accomodation, or as I call it, Hotel In-Laws!
I think our move wasn't as organized as I had originally planned. The original plan was to have mostly everything organized and packed into boxes ready to ship to Dubai, even though we aren't leaving for a few more weeks. I spent a few days sorting and packing and cleaning. I ran out of boxes. I got emotional. I got exhausted. I got sick of bubble wrap, tape, and cardboard. By the time moving day actually arrived I had the kitchen almost fully packed up, but not everything. I had a lot of decorations/knick-knacks packed. I had the books and DVDs we plan to take packed, but that's about it. So Saturday morning came and it was manic! We ended up throwing a lot of stuff into black garbage bags to sort through later. But we did it and finally left our "home" around 8:00pm, only 13 hours after we started!

Now I have been haunted by crazy stressful moving-day dreams! Last night I dreamt that we were still moving furniture out on the day the new tenants were supposed to move in. And the only mode of transportation was our tiny car. So we start throwing boxes and bags into this car and I look over and see our bed, still fully assembled, obviously needing to be packed. I ask my husband "How are we supposed to get that in the car!" to which he responds "NO worries! It will fit!" Then the new tenants arrive, say rude and racist things to us, then I wake up...No wonder I feel exhausted today. But the overwhelming feeling in the dream was "OH MY GOD! Where is everything? I need to pack it right!" So I think my mind it telling me that this weekend will consist of me sorting through all of the black bags of wonder to find all of my stuff!!

21 Days!!!