We are sort of settled into the apartment.
Have had extra cupboards fitted in the kitchen and wardrobes in the bedrooms. Our furniture from New Zealand has been delayed so is now due to arrive on 5th September. Looking forward having a proper bed and a lounge suite.
The view above is from the main road. We are in the far corner (hidden) and look out onto the new block being built where you can see the crane.
In this one we are in the top left apartment. The sand around the base seems fairly typical. Maybe when all the others building projects around us are complete they will finish the road.
Sue is trying to get back into her studies. The chair is borrowed from a neighbour and the drawers will eventually go into a bedroom.
I am typing this sitting on the wooden step you can see in the bottom right. The bed settee will hopefully fit in our bedroom and get dragged out whenever we have extra guests.
Place looks pretty bare at the moment but is going fill up dramatically when all of our stuff arrives. We thought that we were coming to a three bedroom apartment and so shipped furniture accordingly. We discovered, when we got here, that we only have two bedrooms.
We fitted the cupboards on the left so the kitchen is fairly cramped. But there was no way all of our crockery, pans, tupperware etc would have fitted into the original space.
Below are views from our lounge. The domed buildings with tall towers are mosques. We can see them in every direction and hear the call to prayer five times a day – starting before dawn at around 4.30.
I rushed to grab the sunset pictures on our first night here. I need not have bothered – it is the same every night.
Until the next new moon we are in the holy month of Ramadan. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramadan
Lots of things change during Ramadan. As people are fasting, work hours are changed. So, for example, the Ikea furniture store opens from 8am to 1pm and then for 7pm to midnight. The Abu Dhabi Education Council made a last minute decision to extend the school summer holidays until after Eid ul-Fitr which is the festival at the end of Ramadan so we will not see any students in school for a while. The teachers are due back in two weeks. In the mean time our Ramadan hours are 9am to 1pm. Not exactly stressful which is just as well as we still have lots of organisational things to do such as getting driving licenses and the all important liquor license.
Weather is lovely, wish you were here 