Entries by Marmotte

What a wonderful City.....

Compared to Dubai (UAE) Muscat (Oman) is much smaller, much cosier and there a lot less tourist roaming the streets.

The locals are very friendly and very interested in the visitors to their country. There is always a smile, a wave or even they come up and ask some questions.

It's very pleasant to stroll through markets or walk down the beach and watch the locals play football on a Friday afternoon. (The great thing is, the beaches are public area, even in front of the big hotels and there is soo much animation at sunset, its unbelievable).

Should you every get a chance to visit it.....don't miss it! It's a great place.

Yesterday we had this big explosion in the Al Quoz Area here in Dubai, which left us without water.

But it wasn't a water shortage which was the cause, but that the water pipes got damaged and left 80% of the people living in the Springs with no water

Even today... we are still "dry".

Besides that we smell pretty good, the dirty dishes are accumulating in the kitchen we also can not flush the toilets. And you can not imagine what that means! It's just disgusting.

We just called Dewa again to get an update of the situation, and apparently the pipes are fixed and water should be back in about 30min.

Let's pray that those are "regular" 30 minutes and not "Dubai" 30 minutes.

The morning was as usual until I got under the shower and realized....there is no water!

What would it be this time? Well anyway, before calling Dewa, we decided to wait for a while and see if it would return by "itself".

Around 09:15 I heard the news: apparently there was an explosion in a firework-factory in Al Quoz and now a huge fire was blazing over there.

This explains why we had the water shortage....the firemen were using it to put the fire out.

But does this mean, that every time there is a bigger fire, we will be without water?

When renting in Dubai, every year around the rent renewal you ask yourself the same question "do we stay another year, or do we leave". (as you have to pay the rent for one year in advance)

As we had some major changes this year, we decided to stay another 2-3 years and therefor were also thinking about buying a place. It's just too much of a hassle every year not to know if your rent contract will be renewed and if it will be renewed, will the new rent be within the 5% rent cap. (well there is the rent committee and we used them last year, but even though we won, I'm not keen to have to go through this procedure another time!)

So we contacted "better homes" (a real estate agency) and started to look at properties.

And then yesterday, we thought we hit the jackpot! The villa was great size, had a nice floor plan, good location, reasonable price and we were the first one's to visit! Of course we knew we had to act fast and told the agent, that we would take it.
First we were told by the agent, that she would call in the office and reserve the villa for us, as there was another couple visiting the house right after us. So we would make sure, it would be "reserved" for us.

It is really almost unbelievable the price increases we had beginning of this year. A lot of things went up about 25 - 100%.
And if you think this is a lot, then hold on!

My friend was charged, in a small restaurant in the Springs Town Center (nothing fancy at all, but more of a family place...or WAS more of a family place),
Dhs 30.00 (around CHF 10.-) for a tall black coffee. (it used to be Dhs 13.00)
That's an increase of a whooping 130%!

Apparently the haven't raised their prices in two years and this was justification enough to charge this horrendous price. I don't think you will find a lot of places in Switzerland, who will charge you this kind of money for a simple black coffee. Well maybe a five star hotel!

R: "Smoking or non-smoking?"

G: "Smoking please"

R: "So you would like to sit on the terrace then?"

G: "Oh, the terrace will be open today?" (For add. information: Weather today: Very windy->Sandstorm, 18C)

R: "Non Madame, it's too windy. Therefor I can only give you a non-smoking table"

G: ???????????

The roads were all flooded, the schools therefore closed, on the radio they were advising where to buy umbrellas and the traffic jams.....let's not even go there....

It is nice to have some real rain again, but I wonder, if in the end, we were doing too many rain dances.

Seb just arrived from work today, telling me that he will be off tomorrow, as President George Bush is in the country. Apparently they also urge people to stay at home as most roads will be closed.

First I thought that was a (actually rather good) joke, but after checking

7DAYS Online, I am surprised, how fast they can declare a "public holiday" in Dubai.

But no! It really must have been only 10.5°C. Brrr......

Who would have thought we need sweaters here!

The Dubai International Film Festival started yesterday, and George Clooney was in town, as his movie, Michael Clayton, was shown on the opening evening.

Unfortunately I couldn't get any tickets for that movie, but I went to see "Aux frontières de la nuit" (Night Shadows), an Algerian and Swiss production, tonight.

Today the UAE celebrates its 36th National Day.


HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!

What a pleasure to meet up with the girls & co., who I have met in the Antenatal Class at the Dubai London Clinic.

Hope to see you soon again!