Saturday 10th October 2015.

12pm and 38 degrees. 

 Hello! 

 So I am writing this in the middle of October by the poolside in the hot sunshine with Lionel Ritchies 'all night long' blasting out from across the poolside from a guys speakers. Life isn't too shabby! 

However last weekend was a different story... 

 After a busy week, last Friday morning I decided I would go and chill out at the pool. In an excellent jolly mood I strolled past my car to then do a double take at something that caught my eye. Scratched into the bonnet of my shiny black Kia Picanto was the word 'LOL' and right next to it a swear word. Presumably done with car keys, the words covered the entire bonnet and, with the car being black, stood out an absolute mile. 

My mood quickly changed and I rang Michelle in blind panic. She could not believe it. Due to the serious punishments out here, crime rate in Dubai is literally zero. Some people never lock there doors, on the beach you never have to worry about leaving phones and money in your bags, graffiti doesn't even exist! So this was just absolutely typical to happen to me. People since have said to me it will have either been kids messing about or somebody who was drunk. Instead of a nice lazy day around the pool, I spent the day trying to sort it all out. With the words written on my bonnet being swear words it was even more of an issue as swear words are illegal in Dubai. So I couldn't drive it to the shops etc. 

I rang the police and had to drive to the local police station to retrieve a police report so that the car company would know it was criminal damage and I wouldn't be charged. I was insanely nervous driving up to the massive white building but the police here are on your side completely and apparently love the English. I sat down and was interviewed and had to hand over my passport and legal documents etc to which I received my police report. 

Unfortunately Kiera was at home in England and my other friend Becky had also flown home literally hours before this all kicked off, so I spent the Friday evening with a film, a stress headache and pizza express delivery in bed! 

Next day I had to sort out my car. I am absolutely, completely in love with Dubai and don't have a bad word to say about it. However, communication is something to be desired! I don't mean due to the language barriers as everyone seems to speak English.

 In fact the other day I had a new girl in my class who had been in Dubai a week, her Mum came up to me and explained she was German and spoke little English. I have had this a few times especially with younger children who have just arrived in the country but luckily dance is very easy to communicate with. However another little girl in the class piped up that she also spoke German and would help the new little girl out. She then proceeded to translate every single thing I said to the new little girl, and back again to me throughout the class, in fluent German and English (very embarrassing for me). Oh and both girls were six. 

So I have since promised myself that I will learn a new language fluently at some point in my life and learn some Arabic, even if it's just the very basics, whilst I am here. But unfortunately everyone is very laid back here and communication of times and places etc is very limited. 

So I was told the car company would ring me back in a hour to organise my replacement car. Two and a half hours later after sitting in all day waiting and hearing nothing, I rang back to be told 'oh it will probably be tomorrow'. Excellent. A common saying here is 'inshallah' meaning 'God willing' so basically someone will say 'yes of course that will be with you right away... inshallah' which ends up not being right away, rather if it's meant to be it will be! TWO DAYS later I finally received my replacement car and could drive around again without being scared of being arrested and questioned about the expletives on my car. 

 Also, during the same weekend, I had to do a delivery order from the local supermarket. The supermarket is seven minutes walk from our apartment (exactly seven, Kiera timed it), however due to my car incident, I couldn't park it in a public car park. So the delivery arrived and I had apparently managed to order 1-2 kg of every fruit and vegetable instead of 1-2 single fruit or vegetables. Safe to say we haven't gone hungry this week!! 

 On Tuesday I had to do a visa run. When you enter Dubai, your passport gets stamped with a visa for a month plus ten days leeway. A working visa can take a couple of months to get sorted so whilst Michelle is sorting it out I had to do a visa run to Oman. I'm just going to point out here that I can not believe I have been here for nearly six weeks!! So basically on a visa run you need to leave Dubai, to come back in again with your passport stamped for another month. The closest place is Oman. If you know me well enough you will know that I am renowned for my nervous driving and getting lost. So to be doing a two hour journey to another country, on the other side of the road in the middle of the desert did slightly panic me. Luckily Luke, a guy that Kiera works with, also needed to do a Visa run so I wasn't driving alone. The journey there and back was supposed to, on average, take four and half hours at most. However with my luck it took six. It actually wasn't that bad at all though. Once you leave main land Dubai, The view changes from lights and sky scrapers to sand. Just sand. For miles and miles and miles. Maybe the odd camel if your lucky. The sand in the desert isn't like the stones grainy white/grey sand in Scarborough or Bridlington. It also isn't like the beautiful white sands on jumeriah beach. Desert sand is rich orange/red. Amazing. One thing which amused me is there was no road signs for people crossing or lorries to slow down. Just triangle red signs with camels on to tell you to watch out for camels crossing! As we got closer to Omen, we passed tiny villages which we drove through in about two minutes, in the middle of nowhere. We got our exit stamp from Dubai and entered Oman. I don't know quite what I was expecting of Oman, but it is absolutely beautiful. Best way I can describe it is it is like the Lake District but not so much greenery. There are huge Rocky Mountains and the odd stream here and there. We had to check through various passport check points, some were a thorough car search and others barely looked at us and smiled and waved us by. The final point was getting our entry visa back into Dubai. We had to get out our car for this and pay 50dhs for it (£9). It was in a large clean white building, very official until we noticed the Pizza Hut! 

 On Thursday I had my first cinema experience in Dubai. It was a brand new cinema in the Mall of Emirates - another amazing mall with most shops being designer. I literally walked around staring at everything. This mall doesn't have an aquarium but does have a ski slope!! So the cinema was the biggest one I've ever been in - naturally in Dubai! It had 22 screens for a start. Then there were different kind of cinema experiences... The big cinema experience - this is the one we went for. Normal cinema but much bigger than a UK cinema and with much comfier, bigger seats. Even though Dubai charge ridiculous prices for a lot of things, the cinema didn't appear to be one of them. A trip to a UK cinema will easily cost me £20 including ticket and food and drink. My ticket here cost me £6, turned out my popcorn and drink cost more than the ticket! Instead of the usual salt or sweet popcorn choice, There was caramel (what I had), sweet or cheese (absolutely disgusting, i found a piece in my caramel) 

The immerse experience - basically 3D The real 4D movie experience - apparently this features 3D cinema plus effects like rain, fog, wind, water, lightening, scents and seat movement Ultimate gold experience - the seats fully recline, with foot rests and private tables. Before the screening you have snacks and cocktails and pick your meal in a private lounge. You then enjoy high luxury of eating your meal, designed by Gary Rhodes and cooked by top chefs at your chosen time during the film. This experience also includes blankets. Something I definitely need to experience at some point whilst I'm here! 

 After a crazy weekend last weekend I have spent this weekend topping up my tan by the pool and at the beach. The weather is changing and is a few degrees cooler with a breeze, much better and easily sunbathe-able without sweating a ridiculous amount! Kiera and I found thousands of starfish yesterday at the beach where the sea meets the sand, really tiny ones. 

 This evening I am off to get my nails done in prep for my birthday weekend next weekend in which I'm going for an outdoor brunch with pool, private beach and cocktails included on the Friday followed by drinks up the Burj Khalifa on my actual birthday on the Sunday. Very excited! 

 I'm afraid to say even with stressful events, I am not missing England and the rain just yet, but apparently ten Friday's until Christmas, which means nine Friday's until I'm home! Excited to see you all. 

 Lots of love xxx

Starfish at Jumeirah beach... 

The view to Oman...

My ridiculous mistake food shop...