So there I am fast asleep, it’s past the middle of the night but not yet dawn. I hear a loud thud and almost simultaneously my eyes shoot open.  I knew my little one had fallen out of his bed.

He’d recently moved into his own room and first bed, so it was a new and perilous stage in his life.

Back to me, so, my eyes shoot open and in true ‘Bourne’ style I leap out of bed, running before my feet even hit the ground.

I hear another even louder thud, and realise – it’s me.

That’s right; I find myself splattered face down on the floor, arms and legs in all directions. In a flash I am up again, and like a jaguar I sprint for my child’s room across from my own. Adrenaline pumping through my battered body I sprint the three whole seconds it takes to reach my destination. As if in slow motion, saliva hurling from my mouth, determination in my wild eyes, I find him, scoop him up and plop him back inside his bed.

I sustained many injuries that fateful night, and my right arm was bruised, sore and scarred for many weeks. It is now famously known as my Bourne arm.

Moral of the story?

Buy a bloomin rug or mat for the side of your bed in case you feel the urge to fly out of bed like a demented psycho super hero in the middle of the night, and suffer a malfunction of ‘brain to limb’ co-ordination.

PS I fell again on Eid morning.

I know, I know, I have been MIA for a while; in fact I am ashamed to see how long it has been since the last time I posted. I had intended to post at least semi regularly, and somewhere along the road I stopped.
But now I think I need to get back into the game.
I am probably the ‘Kewell’ of blogging – so don’t expect me to be consistent ….

There’s so much to say which means so much to type and that means I will just do it in little bits.

I will start by apologising to all my friends and family for being so anti social. I haven’t had proper internet for a long time – we moved house and everything kind of took a back seat.
I tell you something, I hate moving house. The trauma of living between two places, eating junk morning noon and night, tramping around in dirty clothe in what seemed like forever, and lugging around boxes of furniture and ourselves in a country where we cant speak the local lingo is not a piece of pie. I guess I had this romanticised notion of living in the same house till I finally put out an old rocking chair on the front porch. Who am I kidding?
Its good for the soul though, not to get used to being in one place too long, not get accustomed to certain ways and form habits over long periods of time.

Anyway Alhumdulillah we got through it, and here I am. Still breathing, and not to mention, profusely sweating in the ever increasing heat. The temperature has hit the 40’s and even 50 at one point.

Ok a back blog.
Just before we moved, my two year got ill, and initially had no symptoms apart from intermittent fever. After a few days it became a little more persistent, and he began looking like a wilting flower. A couple of days on it was much worse despite the medicine we were giving, and one day at four in the morning after checking him, I woke the old man and said it was time we got help. The said old man kindly shoved work on the back burner and drove the three of us to Al Noor hospital which was only a few minutes drive away.

I was very curious to observe the process here in such cases, and how they are ‘handled’ out here. I felt a little anxious as I know the drill of what to do and what happens when your child gets ill back in the UK, but here I hadn’t the faintest idea.

We were told to go upstairs and wait in certain area. So we found ourselves waiting outside a doctors room for about a half hour, watching various people go in and out with their children.
Our turn came and we went to see the Doc. She was a middle aged Arab lady and spoke fairly good English. People milled in out of the room – nurses and such types
One woman stood annoyingly in front of the mirror doing her hair and make up. I found this very strange. I found the whole concept of people in and out of the room quite inappropriate.
Anyway, the Doc checked my son’s temperature, eyes, throat and chest.
It was bit difficult getting immediate information, but some prompting led us to understand he needed a nebuliser. After having him ‘nebulised’ we were told go downstairs for blood test and x-rays – then back up to the Doc with the results.
Wow I thought.

So we nebulised (is that even a word?) the poor mite through his blatant discomfort, then off we went for blood tests, and then we had to wait for the x-ray as there was a hefty queue, and before I knew it, the old man took the little man and they got it done in a jiffy.
Now we just had to pick up the x-ray results. I sat in a comfy chair in the long and filled corridor out side the x-ray department, by this time I was exhausted and at some point I dozed off on my sons shoulder while he dozed off on mine.
Hubby collected our results and once I awoke I was amazed to see my child’s x-ray and results sheet. It had all sorts of medical mumbo jumbo, some of it I understood, some I didn’t but all praises to Allah it was all good.

We took all our results back upstairs and to the Arab Doc who then told us it was a chest infection, and wrote all sorts of medicines on a prescription which we collected on the way out downstairs after paying our fees – 200aed
It was quite amazing – I was taken aback to experience this process – I mean back home you go to the docs and you get a quick basic check, sometimes not even that, many doctors grunt at you (although to be fair I have had some very good doctors in the past) and send you on your way within two minutes flat.
If you need an x-ray or bloods doing you get an appointment which usually takes a couple of weeks to do and obtain results.

Now I don’t know if this is the procedure every time, or whether this was a one off, but it was an eye opener to witness so many different things happening so quickly.

I’m not exactly sure how the health care system works here, and am interested to find out if anyone can explain?
We ‘foreigners’ have to obtain health insurance here, and depending on who your provider is, most things are free.
Some companies make you pay for your first check up and then its free, others don’t include dental etc. And there’s usually a selection of hospitals to chose from where you can go when you are sick.

Do Emirati’s have to pay for medical insurance or are they privy to free healthcare? I would hazard a guess at free as since the above episode, I had to go to hospital, and went to the very nice and plush Tawwam hospital, where we were told we would have to pay 400 AED for a basic check up, since we weren’t Emirati and couldn’t have it free, and neither did they accept our insurance. So I ended up at Oasis instead where I was charged less than half that.
What about the rest of the non Emirati Arabs? And the workers/maids etc? What do they have to pay?

I found the experience of going to hospital here just plain strange. It was very good to be able to get such a thorough check up for my child. And my husband has had to go to the hospital many times since we have been here and I know he has been generally very impressed with the speed and delivery of service he has received here.
I think the downside for me is that you lose the personal interaction and relationship with this method that you can otherwise gain with a family GP. For example my parents two GP’s have known them for years and know them well enough to understand what they need and how to help them.
I know when I have had good GP’s, I have been able to visit them with comfort and ease no matter what the reason for my visit, and been able to develop a trust sound patient to doctor relationship with them.
Here, you have to report at reception and explain what the ‘problem’ is for them to then direct you to the appropriate department. So the first hurdle is having to explain your intimate issues with a stranger, who then directs you to a doctor you don’t know – another stranger.

I think there are advantages and disadvantages to this system as with any other.

Has anyone seen the Michael Moore documentary ‘Sicko’? I saw it recently and found it both horrific and fascinating.
The American healthcare system seems to be (from that docu) in a pitiful state – the nation which prides itself in being the ‘superpower’.
It’s an eye opening view into the highly profitable health care system in America with approx 45million people without health care. 9 million of those are children. The documentary follows people who are un-eligible for healthcare, but are very ill, or have lost loved ones.
Michael Moore documentaries are really not to be missed, not just in the issues he tackles but the way in which he carries out his research.

Barack Obama has amongst other things, pledged to make health care available to all 45 million Americans and to ensure flexible plans are available to all if he gets elected.

We wait and see.

Ps It’s taken me ages to post this too…it’s been sitting in my ‘word’ file for ages….

Two bits of news for you today, the first being of utmost importance and excitement. Tonight I had cuisine fit only for errrr very rich people… who know what posh grub really is. I dined on the finest food; a culinary delight I will not forget for a long time to come. My menu read as thus;
1 portion McCains chips (oven baked)
1 portion Heinz baked beans
1 portion Youngs fish steaks (oven baked)

Oh my mouth is watering as I reminisce over my sumptuous feast. I cannot express my delight and excitement. Alhumdulillah it was such a treat.

Yesterday hubby came back from Choithrams (Twickenhams to those of you who can’t read i.e. hubby) arms laden full of strange and nostalgic items. Amongst them were the above items. Now we never go to Choithrams, because it is out of our way and also it’s quite expensive. It is supermarket which stocks a lot of products from ‘back home’ which we can’t find in Carrefour or Mega Mart. Problem is these products are quite often at least triple the British price, and also the products they sell which you can access here at other shops are also a lot more expensive.
I nearly popped my eyeballs when I found out how much the fish steaks cost. But it’s been good 4ish months since I ate any, and we had a great meal, and we hardly go there, so that’s my justification.

You see, adjusting to the food here took some time. I am ashamed to admit that when I first arrived I could not get used to most of the food here. Just about everything was available but tasted so different. I would scold and slap myself mentally, reminding myself to be grateful that I even have food on the table. People would kill for this food. And sure enough a few weeks later I found my palate adjusting, and now everything tastes ‘normal’, but when I taste food from ole blighty it is undeniably a wonderful experience.
I still can’t find decent soya milk. Actually tell a lie, hubby came home with a box from Choithrams, and it is actually quite nice. But it is too expensive for me to want to buy. I’ve been on soya for about three years now, and found it be far better for me than cows milk, so it’s been a little difficult doing without it recently. There’s also a number of other little bits n bobs from UK that I really miss, and can’t find here, I’m making a list so that God willing if whenever we get the chance for a visit I can shop in bulk. But praises to the Almighty for everything I do have, the things I miss are nothing I can’t live without.

The other news is that this week the Emirati’s have been celebrating National Day, which is apparently on the 1st of December. I’m still not a hundred percent on what it’s all about, but someone told me it signifies the seven emirates joining together to form the UAE. Hubby has coming home his schools full of strange accounts and footage of the celebrations. It mystifies and horrors me both at the sight of little boys dancing, singing songs twirling their wooden guns round, while little girls thrash their hair around from side to side, hair swirling around their faces to some beating rhythm, I think the Emirates call this traditional dance a na’ashat (someone correct me if I am wrong)…..I mean what???
A non Muslim woman said to me the other morning, ‘I don’t get it, they say one thing and do another…’ This is what happens when culture is blended into religion, and innovations are practiced and spread; everything dilutes and converges into one and the same.

These celebrations are large scale, and so much has been put into them. Also everything about these celebrations is based on the wonder of being Emirati. While it is great people value their heritage, and the Arabs can boast a wonderful and fascinating heritage which really is a treat to experience, but I wonder if this situation is one whereby it may have been taken a tad too far. Like a catchy chant the songs they sing repeat over and over, and over a few more times, the word Emirati. It is all you can hear and see in the form of flags, food, decorations, fireworks; a proud Emirati stance.
It made me wander how it made other non Emirati Arabs feel because this is not limited to just these celebrations, it transpires into everyday life too. There are so many Arabs here from Syria, Jordan, and Egypt etc and apparently if an Emirati marries a non Emirati their children cannot be called Emirati because they are not considered pure. Non Emirati’s apparently are not eligible for the same privileges as ‘real’ Emiratis. I find it disheartening and a little unfair seeing as it is mainly the non Emiratis who hold much of the work and jobs on their shoulders and often get shoved around at some ones whim. By all means look after your heritage but not at the cost of inflating ego’s whilst others are left perhaps feeling a little undervalued. I have nothing against Emiratis, just a desire for people to unite and share as the equals that we are meant to be.

It is dismaying because we as Muslims have been given two occasions by which we can celebrate, and those are the two Eids.
We don’t need specific days to celebrate our nationality; we don’t need a special day to tell our wives/husbands we love them and so on. Each new day you open your eyes to is that special day, another chance to thank your creator and count your trillion blessings.

Now, back to my dreams of fish steak ad chips…..

As salaamu’alaykum and Hello all, I hope you all had a prosperous Ramadan and peaceful Eid.
Ramadan as always, flew by and disappeared as quickly as it came. As wonderful as Eid is, my heart felt heavy at the thought of another Ramadan gone, a time for reflection and duaa that is unique to this month only.

I’m sure many of you back home want to know what Ramadan here was like. Well, it was great in the sense that you knew that just about everyone else was fasting, and here and there you would see massive tents set up by the government to feed the poor.

There were iftaars (meal to open fast) every now and then which are great – in moderation for me. You don’t want to be out eating in large groups of people too often in Ramadan, especially when you know sometimes it will distract from the focus of Ramadan. It seems to be very easy to lose focus arranging meals and gatherings at every given opportunity whilst the essence of the month easily dilutes. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing nicer than to share your evening meal with a few close friends or even someone new, but I think moderation is the key word. It’s very special when you can share your meal and keep conversation and thought in tune with Ramadan, but it is not always achievable.

Working hours totally change in this month. Everything opens after iftaar and then it’s all a rush if you need to shop etc. My son’s school finished at 1.15 pm – now it’s 2.00pm, and most schools /workplaces were pretty much the same. Restaurants would open at iftaar time and many had lovely Ramadan buffets on…so it was a nice atmosphere all in all.

What puzzled me was if we had to go out shopping and it was iftaar time, we would naturally open our fast and make way for the prayer room, turning back I would see everyone make a bee line for the food outlets…?? Hardly anyone would ever be in the prayer rooms. This baffled me, and I can only assume they would pray after eating their meals. Even after praying promptly and heading for a meal you would find a restaurant almost out of food by time you got there. Strange.

I also missed Ramadan back home, it’s not all bad there you know I think Ramadan is what you personally make of it, and despite where you are, it is an intimate time between you and God alone. Only you know why you are fasting, only you can gauge how far you have slipped between this year and the last, only you know how hard you are having to work to control your tongue, thoughts and actions. This does not change wherever your location is.

Eid was strange this year, Alhumdulillah I fell ill, so it passed peacefully by through snotty tissues and half a day in bed. Hubby and the cat sprawled out in the living room, and me and the kids in our rooms…It was still wonderful, we had our day, we had a new day and that is celebration in itself.

Eid salah is prayed at the Eid ga?? It’s a huuuge yard out in the open for salah…it was amazing. If I can I will post pics…or please access it on hubbies blog if he gets round to putting them up before me.

What I liked about Eid, is the atmosphere leading up to Eid; absolute mayhem in the shops, queues everywhere (btw isn’t queues a strange word to spell?), manic, panic madness. And no, I don’t like all that, but this is what I am used to seeing every year at x-mas back home, and it was quite fascinating to see it here at this time of year.
Then on Eid day when we went for our meal, it was like a ghost town outside, until the evening, when again it turned into a noisy bustling town in the midst of merriment. However it was pleasant. Anyone here ever been on the ‘curry mile’ in Manchester on Eid? I haven’t but have heard many sorry tales, and am glad I have never witnessed it, because it makes me cringe just hearing about it. Here, families were out enjoying life, and each other in a manner that was exited and hyper but not at the cost of making things difficult for others, or at the cost of proving themselves total idiots.
What I missed most was my family. My usual visit in the evening was this year in my heart, and I felt alone for them. I pray Allah makes it easy on them.

Tarra for now chucks…

In the first week of arriving here we decided to pay Al-Ain zoo a visit. We headed off in the late afternoon to avoid the heat. To my amazement the entrance fee for the four of us was a mere 25 dirhams-I couldn’t believe it. That’s about £3.50 to you folks back in ole blighty. I don’t think you can buy a sandwich for that amount in a zoo these days…

As soon as we entered, I noticed how ‘not’ smelly, and clean it was, and how beautifully constructed. There were sign posts everywhere, and we chose a route and began our mini on foot safari. There were two little trains choo-chooing their ways around with passengers on board – actually they weren’t exactly trains but looked like them.

I remember feeling very quiet for the first hour. I loved the zoo, but I was melting in the heat. I just felt so tired because of it. It had still been a few days in al-Ain, and I just felt so lethargic.
We passed many things, serval cats, wolves, and giraffes. A long time ago in almost another lifetime as a teenager I was blessed enough to be able to stare straight into the eyes of some giraffes from some kind of strange ‘Giraffe tower’, and I cannot put into words how breath-takingly beautiful they are. Huge, huge dark eyes, beautiful lashes, and a look of sheer gentility. They are graceful creatures indeed. However they slobber a great deal, in a way which isn’t so graceful, but the eyes compensate for it.

I remember an enclosure which housed a magnificent lion, and two lionesses. The male was quite amazing. He was walking around his enclosure with his head up high and roaring. The sound was heart stopping. It made me feel fear deep inside as I watched on. This was a creature who commanded respect. Even from outside the wall I couldn’t help but feel vulnerable. It made think of the story of the bandit who was caught and made to fight a lion in return for his freedom- I know what you’re thinking…huh???

What really struck me was how small I found the enclosure. It pained me to see these awesome creatures in it. I could imagine the lion taking a few bounds before coming to the end of the enclosure. It horrified me. It wasn’t much smaller than many of the lion enclosures I have seen back home either, so it wasn’t unique to Al-Ain. My mind travelled back to a safari journey in East Africa, travelling for miles and miles over the open plains of one of the most beautiful places on this earth. I recalled encountering these creatures in their natural habitat, and I know now that they belong only there. Man has a lot to answer for.

My husband said maybe they have been rescued, and are being kept from extinction.
In that case I know there are institutions which cater for wildlife conservation, where animals are bought in, looked after, and re-trained to live independently in the wild-which only works alongside strict anti-poaching sanctions. Trapping and suffocating them in zoos isn’t the answer in preventing extinction.

As entertaining as the zoo was, I left the animals with a heavy heart, wishing for them the freedom that is their natural right. As humans we have a serious responsibility for these creatures, yet we poach, kill and capture for our own selfish gains. The damage was done a long time ago, and now we’re trying to salvage the few shreds we can.

That’s my rant for the day, I could go on and on, because the more I think about it, the more I feel grief, and injustice for these animals whose voices are not heard. Also, not to be unjust other enlosures seemed really spacious, especially for the Giraffes…something at least.

Back to base. We had a lovely meal and a rest, then the call for Maghrib (evening) prayer went. Not being accustomed to Mosques being everywhere I was amazed to fine the most beautiful little mosque, splat bang in the middle of this zoo. By this time the sun had set, it had cooled down just a little, yet people were milling about everywhere, and the atmosphere to me was spine tingling, it was magical.

We prayed and wondered around for a little while longer before wearily going home.

To end, talking of animals, I would like to introduce my new baby, Mao.

Looking back I have no idea why we ended up at the mall at ten pm a few nights ago (its way past the kids bedtime and I hate the mall at that time on a Friday) and I had no idea there was a pet store there, but the second I set my eyes on this sad neglected little kitten in a glass box, something inside me told me we needed to rescue her. I have never had a pet before (apart form my own 2 sons) and ever since we bought this frightened little kitten home, she has been a delight. She is affectionate beyond words, and we have all fallen in love with her. She seems to have picked up so much since coming home Alhumdulillah.

Masha’Allah she is already a piece of my heart, and I only pray we do her justice by keeping her happy and content here.
This could lead me to another huge rant about the amount of poor thin stray cats here in the UAE – everywhere. What the bleepers is going on? Either I am mad or everyone else is. My heart breaks seeing them meowing, crying for food. Folk here need to learn many a thing about animal welfare.

Okay, here are a few of my thoughts on what I have seen and experienced in these first few weeks:

The heat-I knew it was going to be hot, but I think in the first few days I was very much taken aback at the intensity. If I went out between 1 and 4pm I couldn’t take it; a few minutes walking about just made me feel sick and dizzy. The temperature seems to have slightly lowered these past few days (could be my imagination, or maybe I have acclimatized) even though it is still sweltering.

Roundabouts-they are everywhere. Al-Ain seems to be the roundabout capital of the universe (hence the blog title). I didn’t particularly have a fondness for them back home (in fact I hated them)and to find this town littered with them just made me wince. But……..even I have to say that these are no ordinary roundabouts. They are spectacular. Each roundabout has a different theme, either they have beautiful fountains or amazing structures like castles, towers and believe it or not teapots and cups etc built on them which make them awesome. They are often huge, but each one an individual in its own right.
One of my favourites is the coliseum roundabout, I don’t actually know if that is its name, but that is what it looks like. Amongst my favourites are the roundabouts which look like parks, they have a huge patch of gorgeous green grass in the middle and beautiful trees dotted around. At night you occasionally see a few people sat chilling out (goodness knows how they get on there) or even asleep.
I can only link you to this amazing post on the roundabouts of Al-Ain because it’s probably the best you will find.

Taxis-my husband wrote a post on his blog (which is far better than this claptrap) about this so I am not going to go into it in great depth. Most of the taxi drivers seem to be Pakistani or Afghanistani men. They speak little or no English. They take daytime naps in these little shacks, and they may even live there – I don’t know. They are poor people who work long hours in the heat to get by. You can travel half way across town for 7-10 dirhams, which is between a pound and a pound fifty. We live in a area called kuwaitat (or so we thought), so whenever we tell a driver to take us there he usually brings us home, and then tells us in no uncertain terms that we live in neydat, so the next time we ask the driver to take us to neydat, he upon arrival never fails to tell us we live in kuwaitat. I have no idea where I actually live any more.
Also these drivers seem to be on some sort of permanent death wish. They drive like absolute maniacs. There is no such thing as a speed limit here, there is no such thing as courtesy on the road. It is always a hair-raising experience being out and about. Here people seem to drive very recklessly, zipping in out from behind others, changing lanes suddenly without any signal or warning. Even from my flat I can constantly hear the sound of tyres screeching. People have to constantly slam on their brakes, and I think it takes quite an alert driver to make the grade out here. The real entertainment is on the roundabouts, you need to see it to believe the mayhem.
I know that before I even begin to think about driving out here, I’m getting on the PS2 to practice on ‘Need for Speed’.
Then there’s the Al – Ghazal taxis which are slightly more expensive, but you can call these to your house to pick you up. They are a cool ride, slightly less mad and extremely courteous.

The people- walking around, and mingling with a few people here and there I find myself surrounded by people from every nationality I can think of. Here Filipino’s, Indians, Pakistani’s etc do most of the work. They run the shops, they clean the schools, malls and hospitals, they do generally just about everything. They seem to get very little recognition from what is reflected in the attitudes of many of the local residents because they seem to be generally looked down upon, as well as talked down to. Sadly there seems to be a lot of discrimination out here. However, these poor workers seem to have little riches but big hearts and are generally a sweet, friendly bunch of people trying to do the best they can with the little they have. I really feel disheartened sometimes when I see the manners with they are treated and I wonder what it will take for this to change. Unfortunately this is yet another ugly side of human nature, and I have a feeling that I would see this is in people wherever I were to go.
Also out here you will find a large ex-pat community who all seem to be a friendly (I would say that huh?!) bunch. British, Americans, Europeans and generally every Fred and Marge from all corners of the earth seem to inhabit Al-Ain, and together with the Arabs, and Asians etc, I think Al-Ain is an amazing pot of many flavours without being over-flavoured if you know what I mean. Although I have not yet been to Abu Dhabi or Dubai, I know they are very different from here, but there is a relaxed atmosphere here, and every one brings something different to the table. The diversity is a sweet and refreshing.

Ways-here it is a custom amongst many of the Arabs to have live in maids. You see them often in the shopping centers on days out. The husband and wife shop while the maid trails alongside taking care of the children. I remember seeing a couple sat eating with their two children in the mall, and next to their table sat their maid on her own table quietly eating her food. I remember smiling at her as she smiled back shyly. I found her demeanor really gentle and sweet, and would have loved to have chatted with her. A few minutes later the husband waved some money at her, and I could see they were asking her to get more food, because she quietly got up and joined the queue at one of the food outlets. I felt sorry for her, I wanted to go and tell the Arab man to get his own food and allow the poor girl to finish her food in peace, but it wasn’t my place.
I know this is the norm out here, and it is something that I knew about before I came, but I really do have a bit of a hard time getting my head around it. Most of these maids are trying to save enough money to get by, or to send back home, and whatever else only God Almighty knows. I can’t help but feel sorry for them. There are those few who seem content (on the surface) with it-and who knows -maybe they are. I know that there are people out there in the world who really are in dire situations, and work for much less in far worse conditions, may Allah make it easy on them, and may He open our hearts to compassion and mercy upon each other.

I will leave it there for now, otherwise this post will go on and on, and I will bore myself to tears well before I bore any of you. I do have more to share with you but it will wait insha’Allah for another time.

On the Saturday we thought we had better venture out and get some food and cleaning things for the house. We left at around 2 in the afternoon, and were on our way to Al-Ain mall. As soon as we left the building I couldn’t believe the heat we were exposed to. It was intense. You can feel your lungs filling up with hot air. I felt as though I were being slowly spit roasted over an Arabian fire…someone stick an apple in my mouth and I’ll be well done in about three minutes.

We had walked for about four minutes and looking at the kids I realized we needed to get a taxi. The pair of them had turned bright red and didn’t look too good, I felt like melting into the pavement, while my husband was happily toddling along as though he was a born and bred Emirati. We hailed a taxi down and he gave us a look that told us we were proper idiots when my husband asked him to take us to the mall. We realized why when we arrived there – in less than 20 seconds….

Al-Ain mall was nothing special on the outside, but inside its pretty spectacular; beautiful glass lifts, smoothly polished marble floors of different colours, and all the regular conveniences signposted. Best of all, a prayer room with both a brothers and a sisters side. How many times have you been caught out back home, knowing its time to pray and can’t find anywhere to carry out your obligation? Here the absolute beauty above everything else is that there are masjids (mosques)everywhere. You are always within a few minutes walk from a masjid, many of which are stunningly beautiful.

I’m not overly a mall person(once you have seen one…) but this was better than the big mud hut I had expected. Anyway the novelty of being able to choose form McDonalds, KFC, Burger King etc was immaturely appealing.

The shops are big, modern, and many of them cheap. You will find shops such as Mothercare, Next and Gap, as well as big homey (not simpson) shops which mirror the like of John Lewis etc All we need now is a Primark, a Greggs , a Boots (I think they have Boots in Dubai and Abu Dhabi)and a Rice n Three. Whatever brand names you can’t find here, you will almost always find the products you are looking for somewhere else. There’s also a huge supermaret there called Mega Mart – it looks small from the outside, but seems to go on forever.

The people are very interesting, and observing them I find myself making many mental notes. Insha’Allah they will make for another post. Here’s some pics.

On the way to Al-Ain mall 

Near the food court

 People milling

 Mothercare read it in arabic lol- however the ‘Babyshop’ is much better

 The ice -rink at the entrance is very popular with the kids.

As classy and inviting as these places seem, they are fitnah in a measure ten-fold in ways more than just financially. I guess the key is to bear that in mind.  Coming from the west it’s not all that different from what we have seen at home – the only real difference for us is the atmosphere; the malls are amazingly clean, quiet and relaxed. You will see nothing but famillies out together, and walking around you dont hear people shouting and using expletives…it really makes a difference. 

As with anything there are pros and cons – take the good and leave the bad. 

There’ll be further elaboration on many aspects of this post later insha’Allah.

The houses here are not similar to the houses back home in any way at all.  They are externally very different, and internally a whole new way of living. For a start the floors are all stone and marble, and I’m telling you, when your feet are burning from the heat, that floor is pure coolness.

In the kitchens and bathrooms, there are covered drains on the floor, I’m assuming you mop the floor and drag the gunk down the drain.

Every bathroom here has these excellent turbo boosted, fuel injected, automatic lota’s .  If you are not familiar with the term lota then I am sure you will figure it out anyway. All the public bathrooms have them which make travelling around so much easier.

Then there’s the air conditioning. I’m the only one who operates it, and I still have no idea what I’m doing. Alhumdulillah for it though, I have no idea how I would cope without it, and yet millions do have to.

Our apartment itself is a two bedroom third floor flat. It is big enough to accommodate the four of us…snugly. But Alhumdulillah it does and that’s the main thing. Goodness knows what we will do when our cargo arrives. I feel as though I never want to accumulate so much junk ever again. I know most of it isn’t necessary and I wonder how we ever collected so much in the first place. There is nothing like having to move and pack up your entire life that makes you kick yourself in the guts about how many unnecessary bits n bobs you have managed to stuff, squeeze, roll  and cram into every nook and cranny possible.

The good thing is we managed to dispose most of it really well and constructively….we only have 20 boxes of cargo coming…

Alhumdulillah we have a small balcony, big enough to dry clothes outside. Too hot to do anything else with at the moment, like sit out.

Here’s a pic of our building from the outside. The building itself is quite big, but it does contain many flats like ours, and and bigger towards the top. our building is actually known as ‘The pink building’ to the employees. The inside tour is reserved for when we make it on cribs;-))

The accumulation of six weeks of tears, sweat, toil, and sheer exhaustion have resulted in this; me finally sitting here in my apartment in Al-Ain sleepily penning my initial thoughts and impressions of recent events. It feels very surreal to be doing this. Now we don’t actually have internet just yet so I can only do this if and when. Also, even when I do get internet I won’t have the time to write and re-write long descriptive mails to everyone individually. This way whoever is interested can find out a little about Al-Ain through my eyes (I warn you though, I am short sighted), also if anyone is intending on moving to these parts then this may be of use.

I can’t start without telling you how hard I actually found it leaving old blighty. Much harder than I anticipated; the emotional strain manifested itself in my heart feeling heavy and dark in the last few days. Leaving family, friends and my home for an indefinite period was in itself a hardship and a trial. It made me realize that I should try not to make such sentimental attachments to every little thing I pass in life, but inevitably the human heart is weak and most of us do.

Landing at Abu Dhabi airport, I was so relieved to have a dear sister and her family with us. They had been on the same flight and it felt reassuring to have them with us-almost as though I had a part of what I had left behind with me still.

Looking out of the airport windows, I saw palm trees in long lines separating the fast dual carriageway-my first scene of the outside world in UAE, just that was in itself amazing. Stepping out of the airport I expected a cool evening breeze- I was amazed to find myself feeling suffocated….the air was hot, and initially un-breathable. I wondered how I would ever survive the daytime if it was this hot at 9pm.

The ‘home run’ was actually a drive on a small coach to Al-Ain. We were crammed into our seats with luggage in between aisles and piled up at the front near our driver, who drove with agile resilience and a slight hint of insanity to the end.

What I couldn’t believe was the landscape on the way home. I kind of expected sand dunes and desert, but I found beautiful mosques of various shapes and sizes, shops lit up with various colours, and houses huge and grande.  Islamically influenced architecture beautified the buildings, the colours vibrant; it was a world apart from Britain already.

We arrived in Al-Ain exhausted but relieved to finally reach our new home safely. Alhumdulillah.