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

Moving to Dubai

Hello from sunny Dubai

After months of planning and stressing I am finally here!! and i have to say that i love this place just as much as the last few times i visited!

Since leaving work on 24 July 2015, i have had a crazy week and a half. So much so that it feels like a lifetime ago! I spent a week of non-stop packing, with endless trips to the charity shops and skips etc. Moving abroad is nothing like moving house, and i waited until last minute to find that out for myself. It would have been so much easier to box everything up and move it to another location, but in actual fact i had to fit mine and Andy's lives in to three suitcases and pretty much everything else had to be sold, given to charity or put in the bin!! 

I also had to fit in many last goodbyes which made the week emotional and draining. By the end i couldn't wait to just be sat on the plane with a glass of wine! …Saying bye to my mum and little sister was obviously the hardest but i am here now and there have been no more tears so far! As expected, i did my fair share of crying in England.

Me with Steph and Cat a few days before i left. 

We had a really good flight and my uncle met us at Costa Coffee in the airport at the other end :) 

 Our last view of England...

 The menu for our flight.

I got the chicken and it was lovely :)

Dubai airport is very fancy!

Our 'welcome home' ice cream cake when we arrived! 

It is HOT here as you can imagine but i haven't even begun to get a tan yet! I stand out like a mega tourist at the moment!!! When you're inside all the time you really don't notice the heat at all, so no major hair disasters yet either! 

Our room is lovely, its been done out really nicely and we are currently shopping for a TV and working out how to get the internet downstairs! I think once we have properly sorted our things it will start to feel like home! 

Not sure anyone would believe me, but i have never seen a cockroach before, not even during my last few trips to Dubai. However, that has all changed and we have had 4 in our room so far! The ‘bug man’ came today so hopefully we will see less of them. Only one of the 4 was actually alive though, they just come to our room to die! … I have to say i’m less scared of cockroaches than i was of the mega spiders we had in our apartment! I couldn't sleep for weeks knowing they could get in!!! 

Its really nice to spend some time with my Cousin/Goddaughter (Camilla) and the new baby is almost ready to make an appearance!!  So things will be eventful for a while …

We haven’t got loads of things planned as yet as we are just relaxing after a crazy few months. I may go to the pool today, however i am going for a manicure and pedicure with Sarah! :) Also i really do need to start working out as we have eaten so much rubbish, its so hard when even McDonalds deliver to your house!

We were out shopping at Dubai Mall the other day and we stopped to let Camilla watch the fountains as we were leaving. I also got a great picture of the Burj Khalifa which is the tallest building in the world! 

Camilla loved the fountains! 

I just love it here! 

As promised, I will continue to keep you all updated! Hope everyone is doing well.

Miss you,

Laura xxx