The big fella has left the building

Naz has left and is now back working in Australia until the end of the month. There were lots of tears, stress and a heart broken little girl but we are slowly finding our feet and settling onto our new routines.

I guess our loss is your gain as I suspect it is only our Mum's and close friends who read this blog anyway, well at least they are the only ones who tell me off for not updating enough.

Over the past month we haved moved house, employed a full-time live in nanny, started pre-school and waved off Naz. It has been a big month.

We are now living in a fabulous part of Dubai, 'Old Town'. This is still part of the central Downtown area and in reality straight over the boulevard from our old home. But it is very different.
Old Town is built to reflect the traditional Arabic architecture and instead of high rises is made up of clusters of low rise villas and meandering lane ways, water features and lots of little childrens playgrounds and pools scattered throughout. In our community we have the choice of four swimming pool areas with another two in the community over the road which is still part of Old Town.

I will get around to taking some interior photographs but in the meantime here are a few from around our new little community.







View from our dining and living room out over the Old Town community. The towers in the background are our old home and the large building in the distance is the Burj Khalifa, world's tallest building.

View from my bedroom - I would of been mortified by this 12 months ago but now I have learnt to just roll with it and embrace Dubai and its quirks.



The trees and gardens in the lanes around Old Town deceive you of the fact you are in the middle of the desert.



One of our new pools (you can spy Piper playing on the steps)


If you see Naz about town please give him big hugs from us x





This time in 2 weeks......

We will be in Dubai!! Hopefully having slept beautifully on the plane we will be well rested and on our way to house hunting.... I think I am dreaming but that is the plan!

I finished up at work in Australia today and the goodbye's have started.
We had our final mothers group play date this morning.... and I shed my first tears. Piper and Paras were having so much fun playing catch and on the slide togther it broke my heart to be taking her away from her little buddies she has known since she was 6 weeks old.

Our storage boxes arrived this afternoon (they are very cool we just pack them and they pick-up, store and deliver back to us when we return)and now we have 3 days to finish packing the house, final farewells in Melbourne and we are off to the country for a week.

For those aware of my extreme paranoia of our shipping container falling off the ship and sinking on its way to Dubai (it happened to somebody we know - honest)I am happy to report that it's little tracker code indicates it is still happily bobbing across the ocean after a brief stop in Hong Kong!

Below are some photo's of Piper playing at her last play date. Note the outfit - aqua tulle 'party' dress with spotted tights and pink converses were all chosen by Piper, she has developed the need to choose her own outfits and this usally results in her looking like a modern day Punky Brewster!

New favourite game is to sit on top of the slide and make mumma think you are not going to come down then as poor mum get to the top of the awkward inflatable slide you push off really fast laughing!

Welcome to our first ever blog!

Thank you for taking the time in your day to read our blog! We are looking forward to sharing our adventures with our loved ones.
It is an extremely crazy and busy time for us right now but exciting at the same time and impossible to keep everyone up to speed on our plans and dates etc so let me get the formalities out of the way first!

Timeline and plans until departure:

• Our shipping container is leaving for Dubai on Friday 26th August (Yes, that is this Friday and I am freaking out). We are going to continue to live in our home until 22nd September, not sure if living is the right description I think it will be more like camping!
• I am continuing to work until the 20th September in Melbourne and will then be taking leave until I start in Dubai. Naz is working up until th 24th September (no, just realised we will need to look at that one because I think we have a special nephew's birthday party!)
• We will be staying with my Mum and Dad from the 22nd until we depart on Thursday 29th September!
• We have then allowed ourselves 1 week to find a house and move in before I start work on the 9th October (Yup a Sunday! The United Arab Emirates (UAE) week is Sunday to Thursday)
• Don't worry we haven't forgotten the dog - Lily will be flying over to join us from late October

Whist we would like to think we are going to have time for a nice big farewell party, the reality is we are probably just too busy so hopefully we can organise a dinner in Melbourne and a big family dinner in the country during our last week!

Piper is very excited although she thinks life will be one big holiday and is convinved her days are going to be spent on waterslides, shopping at Dubai Mall and watching the fishes and sharks at the aquarium!

Ok I best get back to the packing..... our home is looking a little like this at the moment

Hoepfully you enjoy our stories and photographs and this blog closes the distance a little over the next 2 years - but this blog is in no way a substitute for not taking a holiday to Dubai to come stay with us. We are moving into an area close to the beach, 5 minutes from the world's largest shopping Mall and close to all the main attractions. We will have spare rooms so our home is open to all!