Settling In

The bloom is off the rose, or should I say the date palm? You could say that our apartment's location on the Palm island makes us the dates.

Neal seems to just conk out in the evening after work (probably from lack of sleep and stress). I'm sleeping very well and feeling pretty energized but it is lonely with no friends nearby yet. The people who work here at our building are incredibly friendly and helpful--even helping me bring packages upstairs. I've been leaving Neal's business card around with notes and questions for our neighbors and while I have yet to meet them they have been quick to respond with suggestions. Everything is pick up and delivery here like laundry, water, even meals. I hope we can get a maid soon, which should be very inexpensive, but a lot of them want full time, live in jobs, which I can't really fathom--three days a week is what our neighbor has which seems like a lot to me.

My search for cheap nice furniture has taken me all over the world! I've seen lines ranging from Natuzzi and Ligne Roset (way too expensive) to Ethan Allen (if you can wait several months) and Lazy Boy (I didn't come all this way to buy that!) plus all kinds of stuff from India, Pakistan, Spain, Portugal, China, Malaysia, Italy, Germany, Australia with more than enough fancy UK and garish Arabic styles. It's been fairly entertaining for me but Neal is tiring of this process and ready to buy whatever we are looking at at the moment, so I am also trying to bring some logic and sanity to bear.

We decided to go as simple and cheap as possible on the big ticket items and spice it up with nice small things that could come home with us. The practically new used items we bought have worked out well: Janet and Hack were here to help me get our amazingly big and heavy master bed (exotic Indian) and yesterday I got a like-new Natuzzi recliner (modern Italian) for Neal (see photo). So now when I look at new things I'm already thinking about reselling them when we leave! We also have to get blinds which are expensive and ordinarily I wouldn't bother with but here they are considered a necessity for privacy and sleeping in. Ikea and Ace Hardware have come in handy for miscellaneous items. I've had to get out of the malls since they're so expensive and been forced to learn my way around by driving through all kinds of industrial sites to find the other stores and warehouses, many of which I just stumble upon. I still found myself in two malls today, returning our broken espresso machine (for the third time) and getting cash at an ATM (also got my car washed in the parking lot for $5!).

Needless to say, the overall style of the apartment will have to be eclectic, but we're drawing the line at royal Arabian--no way we can pull that off! We may not get any more bedroom furniture for awhile so give us a little notice if you want to visit. They are not fussy about the rules for balconies and the like in our building, but whatever's on the balcony gets covered in dust in no time. Our parking lot is a zoo--we have 2 reserved spots but it's dog eat dog and people steal spots with impunity. It's probably related to the crazy driver problem.

We hope to see some sights outside of Dubai for a change of pace this weekend when we aren't waiting for furniture to be delivered. I've been spending my spare time puzzling over the appliances, none of which resemble their American counterparts, and hoping for a maid to mysteriously appear.