Halloween fun and my big surprise!

Hey everyone!

Hope you like my new look blog, I decided it was time for a change!

It has been a busy couple of weeks and I'm still trying to convince myself that it is 'winter' - the weather is just perfect out here now. No more running for the air conditioned buildings...we now sit outside to eat and relax by the pool rather than a 5 minute walk draining every last bit of saliva you had in your mouth!

As you know, Halloween was a few days ago and we certainly celebrated in style. All of the neighbours from the surrounding streets got together to have a big BBQ and watch Halloween films projected on to the side of a big building! As well as this we did a mass trick or treat session with all the kiddies - Camilla really enjoyed herself and she got lots of sweets that she was very proud of :)

Ill let you guess who she went as ....

We have also taken another trip to Abu Dhabi to go to the IGN Convention this time - this is mainly focused on gaming and films and we had such a good day. I even got to meet someone I have hated for such a long time... turns out he's actually really nice :)

I met Jack Gleeson who plays Joffrey in Game of Thrones!

Andy also got to meet someone who presents IGN News - he was a big fan... I'm not sure why! ;)

During the convention they had a big Cosplay competition with 10,000 dollars going to the winner. This is where people create their own costumes and dress up as film/game characters. There were some amazing ones and it was fun to watch them perform!

As well as all of this, I have been making some friends!! They're all really lovely. They have all moved out here on their own and we met through a Facebook group. I think they're super brave doing this on their own! It's really nice to hear other peoples stories of where they have come from and how they ended up in Dubai.

So... when you have a group of girl friends, what do you do on a Saturday afternoon?! Go to the beach bar of course! We spent a whole day and night at a place called Barasti - Its a beach club which has a bar on the beach but also several other bars including a roof terrace. Its lovely. After sunbathing all day we then watched the rugby outside with the city skyline as a backdrop. Such a fab day :)

Oh and how could I forget my big surprise?? 

I am having so much fun out here and I don't regret my decision one bit, however I can't say I don't miss home and my Mum and Mollie! So as it is my Mums birthday at the beginning of December I have planned a trip back to the UK!!! :D 

I called my mum on Skype and told her I'll be coming home for her birthday...she was super happy and I can't wait! 

The biggest part of the surprise is that Mollie doesn't know I'm coming home... she asks every time I Skype if I'll be coming home soon and it breaks my heart as I miss her so much! My plan is to land in the UK at lunch time and then go with my mum to pick Mollie up from school... I really can't wait to see her little face when I'm stood in the school playground waiting for her! :D

I also plan to do a lot of Christmas shopping and get my fill of cold weather before I return to the sun! I will only need a week of UK weather to remember why I love the sun so much...

Any way, that's my little update for this week - have an awesome bonfire night whatever you decide to do... I am rather upset its not something that is widely celebrated but my Mum has promised to save me some sparklers :) 

Love ya, Keep smiling and I'll maybe see you soon!!! 

Laura xx

Don't worry ... I'm still alive!

Where did September go?!  I've been meaning to update you all but I've been so busy my days have just disappeared! 

As you can probably tell, I am still loving every minute of my adventure and as much as I miss the people, I can't say I'm missing England just yet! Especially since I've started seeing photos on Facebook of people in their hats and jumpers.

So where do I start... I'll start with the bad news... Alan sadly died this month! It turns out he was a greedy little lizard and went for the cockroach bait. I found him stuck to a sticky trap in our room :( it was a sad day, but I did warn him about coming in my room!! At least I can sleep at night now without worrying he might fall in my mouth!!!

On to happier news - we got a car!! It's great being able to jump in the car and go where ever we want, however driving out here is crazyyyy! There are 6 or more lanes on the roads and no rules for any of them, you just drive to where you're going and hope for the best! 

As much as I keep saying I need to stop eating rubbish, it's so hard out here. There are more restaurants, cafes and takeaways than you can imagine! So we have obviously been back to the Cheesecake Factory (it is my favourite after all) 

We have also tried some other places too such as Texas Roadhouse where all the staff randomly stop and bust a few line dancing moves... I really wanted to get up and dance with them!

As well as this, we have been to a great place on the beach called Eggspectation... this place sells many things but as you expect, they specialise in all things eggs! They do epic breakfasts all day long, which is fab seen as the first time we went was 1pm! 

Apart from eating... a lot... I have actually done some cool things, such as going to Ferrari World! This is one place we always meant to go to when we visited Dubai previously but we never got there. 

We had such a fun day, they have the fastest roller coaster in the world, and my god is it fast! You have to wear goggles to protect your eyes from the wind. We went on it twice and my hair really didn't survive the trip... there is a mirror as you get off so you can see how much of a mess you look!! I couldn't even get a comb through my hair when I got home it was so knotty! 

As well as this there are loads of other little rides, one we particularly enjoyed was a ride in a Ferrari through Italy! :D

Thats our Ferrari! :)

And this is how much fun we were having!! haha

We also went to Games 15 Middle East which is an exhibition of the latest computer games and tech. It was a great day out but because of all the consoles and people it was super hot!  Needless to say we didn't stay too long! We are going to something different in Abu Dhabi this weekend so hopefully that will be better! 

Also it finally happened... I went back to my happy place at the Atlantis, The Palm! There is something I love about the fact that it stands pride of place on the very tip of a manmade island. I love it so much and the views looking back on the Dubai skyline are amazing!

I promise to update you all more regularly so I don't feel like I have to rush as much, but this was just a snippet of what i have been up to recently.

I hope the weather isn't too wet and windy, its just starting to cool down enough for BBQs here - so much so we had one last night!! :) 

Its very strange to think its October and remember what I was doing this time last year. I miss decorating my apartment with all things Halloween and Autumn but I think if I really try hard, i'll be able to manage without for a little while ;) 

I miss you all, keep smiling! 

Laura xxx

Dubai | 30 Days already!

Woohoo its a 4 day week! ... but for me all the days are literally blending in to one! Its so weird having no routine or responsibilities. I think its a mixture of the fact that each day can be whatever we want it to be and that the weekend over here is Friday and Saturday. So Sunday is actually just like a Monday but I then get confused thinking it IS actually Monday and I always seem to be a day ahead of myself!! 

If this is all I have to worry about though I think I'm doing pretty well! :)

As well as this, I have been here 30 days today! Where has the time gone... I can't say I'm not missing home because I am, each time I end my Skype call with my Mum or Mollie I feel a little sad that I can't just pop round for a cuppa or that I don't get to see Molls calling my name from across the street as I park up after a long day at work.

I am doing so much better than I thought I would though. I don't miss England nearly as much as I imagined! I thought I would be a huge crying mess, but I'm keeping it together! Also Molls is telling everyone that she's coming to visit me next year so I'm holding her to that :)

We have eaten far too much food over the last month. The brilliant thing about Dubai is that they have the best of everything from England and America, and this month we have been going all out with the American restaurants! 

Cheesecake is my favourite dessert so The Cheesecake Factory is a must whenever you are here. Definitely the best cheesecake in the world! 

We got raspberry and white chocolate cheesecake and caramel, macadamia nut and white chocolate cheesecake.

I also don't mind the odd pancake and would you believe it... they have an IHop here too! IHop is the International House of Pancakes, and they make a yummy pancake stack!! 

We got buttermilk pancakes and put our own choice of syrup on them.

As you will know, I love to shop and Dubai really has to be one of the best cities in the world to fulfil that urge! I have had to restrain myself quite a bit however, I did get my first loyalty card last week from Sephora! As far as I'm aware, we don't have a Sephora in the UK so I have made the most of going to every one we pass. They sell make up, skin care, bath and body etc. all of the things Andy hates! I could easily spend an entire morning in there! So this loyalty card is going to be well looked after! 

As we have been shopping, we have spent quite a bit of time in The Dubai Mall. This mall is huge and has some amazing things to see and do there.

This is an actual skeleton of a dinosaur... just casually in the mall! Brilliant!

During one of our shopping trips we went in to the Ferrari shop in The Dubai Mall where they had an F1 car on display. Not bad for a random day of clothes shopping!

Then as we were leaving the mall we caught one of the lovely fountain displays outside the Burj Khalifa, just as the sun was setting. 

We go out for coffee almost every day and I have to say I am becoming bored of Starbucks and Costa now as there are so many other places to choose from. A favourite of mine and Andys has to be Papa Roti, the coffee is beautiful and with each drink you get a 'bun' its hard to explain but its delicious...you get to choose your own topping as well.

Just to let you know, we have had very little cockroach activity these past few weeks. I have seen a lot of HUGE spiders on social media in the UK and I have never been happier to be away from home! Give me a stupid cockroach any day!!! Those spiders gave me nightmares last year!

Im not sure if you know about Alan, he's the little lizard that lives outside our room somewhere. I see him every now and then and have a little chat to him. He has been seen in our room once before...naughty!! 

I'm happy to have him around as he eats other bugs. He's only really tiny and I'm always worried ill step on him, he is super fast though!

I see you have had a miserable bank holiday Monday in the UK - nothing new there then! I am not missing the rubbish weather just yet! It will take a lot for that to happen I think! 

Enjoy your 4 day week and keep smiling :)

Miss you all,

Laura xxx

Dubai | Baby Arrival and Comicave!

Hey Everyone,

Its been longer than I wanted it to be since I last updated you...but I have a very good reason! At 1:35am on 13 August 2015 baby Marcella Sandra Hall arrived! :) She's adorable and really tiny. 

Sarah asked me to be there at the birth and it was an amazing experience. Its also crazy to think I saw this little one come in to the world. Sarah did so well and it was over fairly quickly... I expected to be sitting around forever like they do on One Born Every Minute!! 

Has it put me off having children?? Well I have to say its not something I would like to happen to me but maybe ill forget what I saw in time to have my own one day! 

Its all been a bit hectic since Marcella (Marcy for short) arrived as you can imagine, however we did get up to some fun things prior to the birth...


We went to a place called DragonMart, it is a big indoor market place which from the sky is shaped like a dragon! They sell the most random things in there but our main aim was to get some fake turf for the new garden. The garden will be lovely in winter when the temperature is more like 30degrees and not 50+ !!!

As you can imagine, with the weather as hot as it is, I haven't done much sunbathing, however I am swimming a fair bit! I have managed to eat so much junk food I need to fit in all the exercise I can! I am also trying to convince Andy that a trip to the Atlantis is needed fairly soon too, it kills me knowing we live a short drive away and I haven't been at least 10 times yet!! :)

One cool thing we did this week was go to a comic shop called Comicave! This shop was epic...it was huge and there was so much to look at. I tried to film as much of it as possible so for those of you who get to watch my videos it will be on there really soon! 

                                   Camilla absolutely loved the Iron Man set up (it was very cool)

There was a really scary model in Comicave which Camilla seemed to like looking at - she named him Scary Woo! (not very scary) but she kept going back to see him! 

A little update on the cockroaches - we got some sticky pads that go near the walls and catch the cockroaches as they run around. We caught ONE and I think he told his mates as we have had no more since then!! Fingers crossed they got the message that I'm not one to mess with! haha

On a side note, however, we have had a lizard in our room!! What the hell?! They're cute and small but I don't fancy sharing my bed with them! Luckily I didn't see it, it was Andy and I haven't seen it since he said it ran under the bed...I don't know if thats a good thing or not! 

I can't believe we have been here two weeks already! The time has just flown by.. I haven't got upset about home once yet! (Apart from when I saw a picture of Pepsi, my dog, on Facebook...Yes I cried like a loser, but just look at her face!! She needs a cuddle!) 

We went to the Rainforest Cafe today which was brilliant as always, and I did a spot of shopping in Dubai Mall... bought some things from good old New Look!! 

As you would expect, we are enjoying it a lot and I'm not ready to come home just yet! ;) 

Promise to update you sooner next time and I hope England isn't too wet!! 

Miss you all,

Laura xx