Dubai Mummy

School holidays are well and truly here…..DD, DS1 and DS2 have been in their jammies since last Friday (that is, when they weren’t in their swimsuits!). Well, DD and DS1 actually wore their jammies to school last Thursday….a tradition for the last day of the 2nd term! I love this. It reminds me of summer holidays at home when we rolled out of bed and watched TV non-stop (I mean when we diligently attended to our list of chores as Mum and Dad worked)! They play in the garden in their PJs and eat dinner with PJs on…..but today I think my darling husband took it a bit too far.

I arrived home from work to find them still in their PJs. Not that that’s bad in itself…..but he had told me earlier that they had been to the supermarket to pick up a few essentials and as always, to guarantee compliance in the supermarket, there was the usual pit stop at Starbucks for ‘bizzy’ water (as all 3 used to call it) and oversized muffins (and DH wonders why they don’t eat lunch!). I started to ask the question as DD came running up to me to excitedly tell me she met her little school friend with her Mum in the shop and they were trying to arrange playdates! Taking them out in public in their bed attire is one thing but the shame of them being witnessed by someone they know is quite something else!

I wouldn’t mind but they weren’t even wearing their ‘best’ PJs……DS1 was wearing mis-matched ones, DD’s ones look like they have been washed on a ‘boil’ cycle one too many times and DS” was wearing a pair of DS1’s which are too big for him and cause him to trip on the legs (or as he says, ‘my trousers keep dragging me’!). Honestly, some days I want to pin a sign to their backs ‘I dressed myself today’. When I found out about their little jaunt outdoors today, I would have pinned a different sign on their backs ‘It’s mid-term and Daddy is looking after us in the mornings. We’ll be back in the afternoon when Mummy takes over and you can see how we usually dress’. Gosh, if they insist on wearing jammies as day wear I will have to start ironing them…..mental note, ‘get them out of this habit’!

I guess I can be thankful for small mercies…it is the beginning of a 2 week break….maybe K’s mum will have forgotten the incident when she sees them again at school in their immaculately clean and perfectly ironed uniforms!

I honestly don’t know why I have been so tardy in starting a blog about our life in Dubai.  I guess 3 kids and a job on top will do it!!!!  But seriously, we are now approaching our four year anniversary in Dubai and time is flying as fast as the lunatics who speed down Sheikh Zayed Road (the main 12-lane highway through Dubai).  So much is happening and milestones are coming and going.
I wanted to start a blog mainly because I wanted to document this part of our life for the kids and secondly, thought it would be nice to try to show you what day-to-day life in Dubai is like.  Despite its outward wealth, record-breaking buildings and humongous shopping malls, living Dubai is not always as sophisticated as it appears.
Tonight, as I sit down to write, it’s not been a great day.  Went to work.  Work frustrated me; nothing new there then. DD, DS1and DS are on end of term holidays and DH stayed home this morning to watch them.  In fact, DH will be home every morning for 2 weeks until I get home to relieve him at around 12:30pm.  We still argue over who has the tougher deal…..the morning fropm 7-12:30pm or the afternoon from 12:30-18:00…..!

When I got home the kids wanted to go to Fun City…..I, needless to say, did not.  Fun City is an amusement place which offends my aural senses, my hygiene standards and, of course, my wallet! Somehow I persuaded them that making fairy cakes would be much more fun!!!!

All was going well until, without much notice, DS2 vomited all over me and half the kitchen…..poor lamb had been complaining about feeling ill.  Pointing to his head, I assumed a headache.  It’s over 36 degrees celsius now and stuffy.  Headaches in this weather are normal.  But, I took him to the bathroom, just in case.  Of course, 30 seconds after he persuaded me to leave there he spewed…….just when I was cooking dinner and supposed to be watching the fairy cakes in the oven.  They were cooking alongside the meatballs…maybe that was what offended DS2’s tummy!!!
I suspect the upset tummy was caused by the consumption of too much pool water at the weekend.  We went to Hatta Fort Hotel for the weekend and spent a lot of time in the pool.  Not a surprise really that the water might be ‘dirty’……the amount of babies in the pool with no nappies on, let alone no swim nappies, was enough make me contemplate giving a hygiene 101 lesson….but unfortunately, as a ‘guest’ in Dubai, one must be careful what one says or moreso to whom one says it!  And, as for the people who chose to swim fully clothed despite the first of the ‘Pool’s rules’ stating ‘Appropriate swimwear must be worn at all times’…….One would guess it is the lifeguard’s duty to monitor and enforce the rules but given he hardly bothered about the man in the pool with a cigar in his hand or the kid somersaulting into the water in front of the ‘No Diving’ sign, it is not a surprise he didn’t move from the comfort of his high chair where he chatted animatedly with a co-worker!  Another case of sighing, raising ones eyes and commenting ‘only in Dubai’!
Anyway, looks like DS2 is on the mend and despite no dinner, chilled out on the couch with Daddy!