Stories from the Eagars

Andrew got his residency visa yesterday….FINALLY!!  It’s great as it means we can open bank account, buy a car and best of all …….get an alcohol licence!!  That will be the first thing that is applied for….god I sound like an alcoholic!!  Now he needs to apply for mine & the kids residency visa’s.  Because his company is his sponsor for his visa, Andrew then needs to sponsor me & the kids so you can imagine the fun he’s getting out of this!!  Put it this way….every time I disagree with something all I hear is…”do you want to stay in this country?? I could easily send you back home!!”

We’ve been out car hunting too and we’ve seen so many nice cars that we like.  We had more or less settled on an X5 (which was GORGEOUS) and with him getting his visa through we thought before we go back to sign on the dotted line we’d have another looky to see what else there is!  Well, we walked into the first garage & I was like “I want that one”!!  I’d spotted a gorgeous Porsche Cayenne, black & chrome, tinted windows, side skirts, alloys, beige leather interior blah blah blah (Larry, you’ll appreciate what I’m going on about!).  It’s used but only 6 months old so it’s in brand spanking new condition…..it’s not a car I would have went for back home but here in Dubai everyone drives about in big cars and to be honest, a Porsche Cayenne is not that big compared to some of the cars around here!!  I saw a Lincoln Navigator the other day….(same car thats in the film “Are we there yet”), now that is a HUGE car, it was all spec’d up and really blingy, it was cool!!  Anyway, I think we’re going for the porsche (god, I never thought I’d hear myself say THAT sentence) but who knows….. I will probably change my mind and end up with a red Nissan Micra with dodgy windscreen wipers  

I’ve only just got round to uploading some pics I took on thursday night… I’m up to my limit on my flickr page for this month, so I can’t add anymore on at the moment.  We went out on Thursday night for dinner at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel with Lorraine, Zander, Lorraine’s mum & dad (it was their last night) and Raellene & Martin.  We left Lorraine, Zander & her parents at 1am (they were heading home) and the four of us left to go to the Madinat.  We got a golf buggy from the hotel through the grounds to the Madinat and then we preceded to get lost in it…. you wouldn’t believe (unless you’ve been there of course) how big it is!!  We found BarZar, got the drinks in, found some beanbags & got comfy.  After a wee while I got up to go get more drinks & when I came back I found Martin dancing with a palm tree!!  I’d obviously missed the joke somewhere as everyone was peeing themselves laughing!  What had happened was while I was at the bar, some bloke had been “flexing” (for want of a better word) his leg against the palm tree, Martin then pipes up (not quietly) “Check oot the poof duncin’ wi the tree!” The bloke then protested a bit too much apparently that he infact had cramp & was trying to relieve it!  Martin then laughs “Aye, whatever, ye poof” This is a picture of Martin re-enacting the scene…..

You had to be there!!!

Went to see Shakira in concert last night….and she was FAB!!!  She was playing at the Dubai Autodrome (not far from my house) and it was a really good night.  The doors opened at 12 noon but we didn’t go until 7pm…we actually left in the taxi at 6.30 but the traffic was a nightmare, we would have been quicker walking!!  The concert was meant to start at 9pm but was delayed for 45 mins due to the sheer volume of people still trying to get in…it was HEAVING!!  I had a really blonde moment in the taxi as I thought there was a short cut through an industrial bit near my house to the Autodrome so I instructed the taxi driver to try this way…. I was right & there was a short cut that avoided all the traffic coming off of the ranches roundabout and taking you straight to the entrance to the autodrome.  However, it was all cordoned off with traffic cones & tape etc so the taxi couldn’t get through.  I thought to myself..oh well…. we’ll just have to go back and go round the roundabout like everyone else.  It wasnt until half an hour later when the taxi finally got through the traffic and got to the entrance that I realised that we could have just jumped out of the taxi at the traffic cones & jumped over the barrier…it would have saved half an hour and 30 dirhams!!!!  Duh!!!!

Anyway…. it was a fantastic night but not nearly long enough.  She sang all of her most popular songs, a few of her spanish (I think!!) songs and then her parting song was “Hips Don’t Lie”.  The place just erupted when that song came on….the atmosphere was just brilliant!  As for her dancing……god knows how she manages to do that hip shaking, belly dancing thing…it was amazing.  I gave it a go but you know it’s time to give up when your butt carries on shaking well after you have stopped!!!  

Went & got my hair done at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel today then went looking for a new car!

Going to Sharjah tomorrow to look at a furniture warehouse… Angie’s driving so at least we’ll get there & not get lost!!  I’ll see if I can manage to spend some more of my hubby’s hard earned cash!

What a hard life this is!!!! 

I had such a weird experience last night!!  We were in the Mall of the Emirates (to be known as M.O.T.E in future..can’t be bothered typing the full name!!) and there’s usually some sort of display/performer/group/promotional thing right in the centre and 9 times out of 10 we don’t stay to watch, last night however, there was a “juggling” group called Toss!! (I’ll leave you to make your own jokes!) and they were actually quite good.  They were doing hip hop dancing while doing their juggling act so the girls thought this was quite cool.  We were up on the 1st level watching over the barrier & I was just having a quick scan of the crowd and I spotted this bloke who was the spitting image of my brother!  It was quite freaky, not that my brother looks freaky….well maybe just a little…. just kidding Bruce

Seriously though, I actually was about to call his mobile to check to see if the bloke went for his phone…that was how much the guy looked like him!  Then I realised that if Bruce was gonna come to Dubai then surely he would have called me….if only to get a free place to stay!!!  It just goes to show that everyone has a double out there somewhere!!

Cam got his stitches out yesterday afternoon.  The school nurse said she’d do it, apparently she takes out everyones stitches…(saves a hundred quid!)  He’s kept the stitches and said that he wants to frame them!!  Boys eh?!!

I got woken up this morning with a beautiful bunch of flowers, a card & pressie.  My kids love me!!  (either that or they want something!!)

For those of you who think I am lying basking in the sun… well …. you’d be right most of the time but weather the past few days has been a bit mental!!

Thursday was ROASTING!!  It was about 34/35 degrees celcius and a really gorgeous day.  Friday morning however was a different story or so I thought!  When I woke up at 6.15am I looked out of my window and seriously thought it was cold, damp & foggy until I went outside.  It was actually really warm already but really really windy..what I thought was fog was actually a sand storm!!  It was unbelievable.  When you were driving along the road, it looked like something out of a horror movie as the sand was swirling around the ground in all directions.  The temperature got up to 38 degrees at one point and it just seemed so bizarre as it wasn’t even sunny!  Although it was amazing to see…the clean up afterwards wasn’t so amazing.  As you could imagine, there was sand EVERYWHERE!  Luckily, Surangi (our maid, who Andrew keeps calling Sangria) was in on Saturday morning so she got stuck in!!

Today was a different day completely.  Me, Kayl & Cam met Angie, Danielle, Arran & Bethany at The Irish Village for St Patricks Day.  This is a sort of pub/restaurant/entertainment venue…. can’t really describe it!!  They had an open air stage built across the lake and had Irish dancing, various Irish bands etc playing, face painting, kids play park and it was a really nice family day.   The kids went off and played, Kayl & Danielle wandered around checking out the talent….(there were loads….kayl told me… honest!!) and Me and Angie just sat and blethered (a right scottish word eh!) and drank our 7Up minus the vodka (it’s a school night!)  The weather was cooler and although I had on a skirt & vest top, I took my pashmina incase it got colder.  By late afternoon, it was getting quite cold, I had started to shiver…. so I put on my pashmina & it took the chill off.  By the time we got home (after a slight detour….I got lost again!) it was really cold.  Andrew thought it was so funny because the temperature was actually around 23/24 degrees.  I can’t believe I was cold….just goes to show how you acclimatise yourself to the weather… god help me when I come back to Scotland for the holidays!!  Anyhow, later on the rain started & it was big fat rain drops.  Cam went running around in it thinking it was ace & then the lightning started.  It was like nothing I’d ever seen before, forked lightning which absolutely lit up the sky.  I tried to take a picture of it but kept missing & ended up with about 10 photos of a pitch black sky!!

Wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow….. snow?? 

   Bethany, Cam & Arran

I take back what I said about getting the hang of this driving caper….I lied!!

I attempted to drive to Deira for Loz’s lesson and considering it’s a half hour drive, I gave myself an hour to get there just in case I got lost!!!!  Well…. we made it to Deira in the half hour but spent the next hour & a half driving round and round in circles looking for the flipping Ice Rink!!!  In the end, we gave up and went home but at least I know how to get to the big shopping centre there!!!

It’s been a few days since my last post & to be honest….not much has been happening!!  As my brother informed me the other day, there’s a danger of my blog becoming a blog on all the crappy things that happen to Cam so we need to change that now!!!

Cam’s finger is fine by the way…. he really played the sympathy card (typical male) and needs to get his stitches out on Saturday, which will probably cost us another couple hundred quid!!  Andrew has threatened to “wheek” them out himself but there’s NO danger of that happening!!! 

I’ve not really got any more progress on the garden….it’s kinda slowed right down so looks like I’ll not have my garden as promised within 2 weeks!  For the past 3 days, there’s been nothing getting done…..something to do with problem with supplies??!! I just hope they turn up again & haven’t done a runner with our cash!!!  (We’re not actually that silly, although we may look it… we haven’t paid them up the whole lot up-front!)

Loz has a skating lesson tomorrow afternoon (Cameron is getting no where NEAR the ice) and I’m going to have to drive there myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Actually, I’ve been getting better at the whole driving malarky lately.  I’m getting to grips with driving on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the car, going the wrong way around round-abouts and people undertaking and overtaking at the same time and then just when you think you’ve seen it all, you’ll come across a nutter cycling the wrong way up the street with their push bike piled high with whatever they are trying to transport. 

The traffic light system goes like this: green (go obviously!!), amber (stop immediately even if it means slamming on the brakes & giving yourself whiplash!) and then red (stop if you haven’t already caused a pile up at the amber light) then it goes straight back to green again so you have approximately 2.8 seconds to sink the foot and move before the people behind you start honking at you….. seriously, it’s nuts!!  The worst thing is that if there’s a bit of road rage going on, you cannot what-so-ever, make any hand gesture’s to a local as apparently you can get arrested for it!!

Don’t think I fancy a spell in the local nick so I think I’ll be keeping my hands on the steering wheel from now on! 

We had our first visit to hospital in Dubai today!!  We were ice skating this morning at the Hyatt Regency Hotel as Loz was getting assessed to see which level she should be put into.  Cam decided he wanted to go skating too so we hired boots for him & away he went.  Bearing in mind he has not been on the ice in over 6 months, he did really well until it was time to come off.  He somehow fell (I did not see this & just as well I didnt, the screams were loud enough!) and Loz was right behind him, she tried to swerve round him but didn’t quite make it & her blade caught his fingers!  He got taken into the 1st aid room but they said it needed hospital treatment & we had no idea where the nearest hospital was so this really lovely french woman (who’s daughter was skating) took us to the hospital while Andrew followed in our car.  It was quite scary as I thought cam was going to pass out several times in the car..he was pure white & was dripping with sweat!  Once we got to hospital, they confirmed that it was too deep for paper stitches & would have to stitch it “the old fashioned way” with a needle & thread (well, the medical equivalent anyway)!!  They had to inject a local anaesthetic actually INTO the cut & at this point Andrew had to leave the hospital or he would have keeled over too, not with the sight of it but just with the sound of cam’s screams!!  Luckily he stayed outside until after Cam got his stitches coz no doubt he would have keeled over again when he saw the hospital bill…… 1155.00 dhs (equivalent to approx 160.00 pounds) for 4 stitches, 4 plasters & half an hour of the doctors time!! 

Time to organise medical insurance I think!!!!