jokeyhee

My first visitors have been and gone and with them I think they took a piece of me. 

It was the most glorious week showing three of my bestest friends around this chaotic and shiny city that I call home. And although I was working for a lot of the time, we soaked up the hours we had together and made some amazing memories along the way. 

Drifting down the marina and out into the ocean with these ladies was a pretty lovely way to spend a Thursday evening and reliving our university days, tearing up the dancefloor, allbeit in a slightly different setting that back in England, was just what I needed. 

We explored the mall, wowed at the Dubai fountains, stood in awe of the views Dubai has to offer, visited the Ripe Market, soaked up the sun and wandered round the Al Qasr hotel. I think it is safe to say the ladies enjoyed pretty much every minute of their short trip.

As much as I loved having them here, the problem with visitors is just that, they visit. And when they leave they take a little piece of you with them and all those feelings of home and thats when the stark light of expat life falls over you. It's those few moments post departure that hurt the most but it is the sacrifice we make as expats I guess. 

At least we have the memories. And the photographs. 

This morning, my first visitors land in Dubai and I am filled with excitement, anticipation and nerves. The nerves mainly brought on by the ridiculous weather that battered Dubai yesterday. I mean the last thing you want is for visitors to arrive from chilly London and be greeted by torrential rain, extreme wind and thunder. But hey, mother nature is unpredictable right. Fingers crossed she gets her act together. 

I am excited to have three familiar faces crash land on me from London because christmas was a good two weeks ago and obviously I didn't get to spend proper time with them because of all the festive obligations. To spend evenings with friends I used to see everyday through our university days is going to be blissful and I am pretty sure I wont want them to leave. 

Im nervous to host my first guests in a new city, one which I am still discovering. I am a worrier and I worry that people wont have a nice time. But half of the reason they are coming is to see me and the other is to see Dubai, so at least if they're are disappointed with Dubai, which I am sure they wont be, they get to see my silly smiling face. Now I just need to juggle work and three beautiful blondes landing shortly and we will be fine. 

I will say one thing though, I am organised for their arrival; a freshly cut spare key and a fully charged phone with credit and apps ready for them to explore the city with. I figured if I cant explore with them at least give them google maps so they have at least half a chance of not getting lost!

I had such good intentions for 2015 and the blog, and so far I have fallen at pretty much every hurdle. I have spoken many times before about wanting to get back on the blogging horse and for one reason or another I never seem to quite make it. Which leaves me wondering my motivation has gone?

This blog used to be updated daily. It was my release after a day of work but I now spend my days writing and this must have had an impact on some level. Now it seems that I get my release after a day at work, from the gym of all places. Which is doing wonders for my fitness and it was about time I took my fitness a bit more seriously but that means the blog has become an afterthought again.

And I am usually so organised. I used to have a notebook that had ideas and notes about blog posts. I used to schedule posts days in advance after a mammoth writing session but that doesn't happen anymore either. I promised myself I wouldn't too hard on myself but it's difficult when my blog used to so abundant with content and I used to look forward to writing it.

Well the only person to blame is myself so let's see how the rest of 2015 pans out. Maybe my motivation is lurking behind February's door.

Eggspectation on the walk in JBR is quite possibly my new favourite place for breakfast. A sweeping statement I know since we all know how loyal and loving I am of the breakfast options at the Dubai Marina Yacht Club. However it's nice to have a change of scenery right and the gazillion of egg options doesn't hurt either.

Eggspectation has a great interior with chunky wooden tables and cosy little booths. Just the two of us, we had a relatively tiny table but I spied a huge table to seat about 8 which I would have like to called home with my eggs and coffee and a laptop in one of those romantic dreams in which I spend my days writing my book. Anyway back to reality.

The eggs were delicious. I had a smoked salmon benny and my eating partner in crime went for the lobster version. Perfectly cooked eggs with a delicious hollandaise and a whole heap of fresh fruit on the side which was a nice change from the usual grilled tomato or something equally generic.

Considering it was packed at 10am on a Saturday morning the service was pretty swift and no one asked us to give up our table even after over 2 hours and just 2 humble plates of eggs later.

Plus it has a nice little terrace that overlooks the beach if you want your breakfast alfresco. All in all I was very impressed with Eggspectation. And despite what the name may suggest they have a whole menu for lunch and dinner.

We have been back in dubai little over a week and I think it's safe to say I have the obligatory post London blues. It's not about the place it's all about the people. Although London at Christmas does have an amazing magical quality.

When we booked our flights it sounded like such a long time but of course it flew by all too quickly.

We landed on Christmas Eve and since our arrival was somewhat of a surprise, we kept a low profile until Christmas Day. My family knew we were coming but the boyfriends mother didn't and lets just say that her reaction to have her her son and his girlfriend on her doorstep on Christmas afternoon, all the way from the Middle East, was pretty priceless. 

Christmas was the usual amazing combination of warm, satisfying English food perfect for the -2 temperatures we were dealt and a plethora of sweet treats. We spent days catching up with friends and family and lazy evenings in cosy Christmas themed pubs and watching our fair share of Londons best Christmas TV.

And of course a trip to London for me, must always include a few things; a trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum, a trip to H&M, dinner in China Town and a visit to Selfridges. All of which I managed to tick off this time.

Until next year London. 

I feel a little confused with the situation I find myself in.

I have spent the last 10 days freezing in London, enjoying family time in abundance and catching up with friends I hadn't seen in almost 6 months. My heart is still telling me to put on a jumper and whip up hot chocolate and watch love actually. But being back in Dubai, my head is telling me it's too hot for a jumper and to go to the beach for a swim. Christmas decorations, crisp winter skies and central heating are a thing of the past.

The sun shines and I am back in my flip flops and those glorious christmas holiday days already feel like a distant memory. The trouble with going home for christmas is the post christmas withdrawal that London leaves me with.  Don't get me wrong I thoroughly love Dubai and not having to wear 15 layers plus a coat and scarf to leave the house is somewhat of a luxury. But a jam packed christmas holiday always leaves a little hole in my heart for a few days upon returning to whatever country we currently call home.

I am throwing myself feet first back into work, getting back on the treadmill and removing as much sugar from my diet as possible. Maybe the lack of quality streets, ferrero rocher and other miscellaneous christmas treats are the real reason for my downer.

One of the things I like the most about Dubai is the endless activities. Ok I know I come from London where we also have a huge amount of choice but I think because it is so cold and rainy and my salary at the time did not allow for great adventures, I never really took advantage of the options available.

Now every weekend we are guaranteed good weather and every month a tax free income we are making the most of the activities on offer. So a few weekends ago we turned fisherman from the morning and hopped on a little boat with a great group of people and headed out to the high seas.

We cruised into the endless blue ocean for about 20 minutes and by the time we stopped in our destination there was nothing around us except sea and items blissful. The peace and quiet, only broken by our laughter and shouting at fish (because as mostly girls on the boat, we thought this was the best way to catch them) which our crew found hilarious.

So it seems like you need to have patience for fishing, which most of us don't have. The ones that perservered, which surprisingly included me, were mostly successful in our hunt for fish. While I didn't catch a single fish, not even a baby one I actually had fun. We didn't go home empty handed though. A total of 6 fish were caught which we were pretty happy with.

Out of the 8 of us I was the only one who didn't get struck by seasickness. Which is a miracle in itself.

To get out of the city and escape the hustle and bustle of life in Dubai was just what I needed. Anyone in dubai who needs an escape, I would definitely recommend a boat trip!

Whoever thinks Dubai doesn't get cold.... You're wrong. It's 12 degrees this morning and I nearly froze walking the pooch down by the marina. The mornings bring with them an icy wind and the sky is almost clear and mostly crisp.

Granted, day time temperatures are still hitting the mid 20's and I still wear flip flops most days but golly gosh those mornings bring you back to winter with a bang.

It is actually quite nice to feel cold and to put on a jumper after months of sunshine and stupidly hot temperatures. And since it doesn't feel like Christmas, it is nice to feel at least that it is winter.

Although a Christmas sunbathing session could be on the cards which will throw any notion of winter out the window.

But it is all part and parcel of expat life!

I'm usually so organised and pride myself on my lists, well any excuse for buying new stationary right. But Dubai has done something to me and I no longer have my ducks in a row so to speak.

My diary and notebook have been relegated to the back of the shelf and the blog, birthdays and correspondence have all felt the effect of my lack of structure. A busy work/life situation have meant other commitments in life, which aren't necessarily commitments more like choices have well, fallen by the wayside. I am not happy about this situation since I used to pride myself on my together-ness but as the weeks pass by I have almost come to accept that not everything can be conquered and priorities have changed.

I feel like I am having a inner battle with myself at the moment, trying to accept my new position and slightly fighting it in the same breath. I feel a New Years resolution coming on.

It certainly is a wonderful time of year but for many different reasons. 

December has come along and swept me off my feet...seriously, when did it get to December!?!

I feel somewhat disorientated with the fact that it is the end of the year already and a little anxious about the fact that christmas is just a few weeks away. Maybe it is because December in the Middle East is like nothing I have ever experienced before. It has just started to get cooler and when I say cooler I mean mornings are jumper worthy but the days a still positively warm for an English expat, dipping below, but only just, 30 degrees. 

While there are more clouds to report, the sun pretty much shines consistently and despite a few spots of rain, no major storms have ventured their way into the city yet. Apparently thats when you know winter in Dubai has arrived when the first storm of the season rolls into town. 

There is very little sign of christmas here, given that it's not celebrated in this country; some shops have decorations and christmas presents, but even then, it is hard to feel christmasy when you can still spend your weekends at the beach! Shops however do have a full stock of winter clothing which I find a bit strange because seriously, who in Dubai needs a winter coat, knee high boots and scarfs. That being said if we do actually venture back to London for christmas, we will probably need to do a spot of shopping since our wardrobe consists of shorts and flip flops, so we may appreciate the wintery supplies on offer. 

It has taken me about four weeks to actually finish this post and some content is now a little outdated but I am rolling with it anyway. The most exciting news of the week is that winter is in the air. The temperature has dropped noticeably in the past few days and the mornings are "chilly" warranting a jumper to walk the dog....I know right....a jumper in December! Oh life is so hard. The infamous Dubai winter everyone has been banging on about is here and it's refreshing; the mornings and nights a cool and the day is a pleasant 28 degrees and more importantly there is no sweatiness to report!
Our four legged friend seems to be enjoying the cool climate too. 

It's our first year in Dubai and we're still finding our feet and navigating all the events and celebrations that crop up. Today is the 43rd National Day in the UAE and to be honest I knew very little about the occasion, but the history behind it is fascinating. 

Usually lunch is an afterthought. A hurried picking at food from a plastic Tupperware at my desk before getting back to more important tasks. But sometimes it's nice to escape the confines of the office and actually have a proper lunch.