Sandy Times

There have been sand storms around this neck of the woods lately.  They aren't like how I expected a sand storm to be - well the ones we've had lately anyway.  It is just your visibility is low, you can't see the sky for the sand (looks kind of like fog) and the sun has a funny moonlight glow about... (Photo taken from our bedroom balcony)

This photo is looking up towards our pool - very strange colour indeed...

If only the sand was washed away by a proper rain storm I'd be happy.  Instead you get a layer of sand covering everything outside and god forbid you had your window open because your tiled floor would be covered in sand.  You should see the state of our car! 

Not everything around here has been doom and gloom however.  

I had my first ever pedicure on Saturday.  There is no stopping me now.  I will be back for more.  A couple of neighbour ladies from the villas opposite, (all our husbands work for the same company in half of this street and most of the husbands work together on the same job!),  organised a couple of ladies to come out to the compound and do pedicures.  I wasn't the only pedicure virgin in the group - out of the seven of us, four of us were first timers.

People think that because you are in the UAE (being a tax-free country) that life is easy.  It is nice, I will say that, and Lyndon and I are close to being debt free now (besides the mortgage of course).  Sure, we have bought ourselves some well deserved gifts and furniture, but there are times when we look at each other and admit that a part of us does miss our home in Trinity Beach.  

We are used to being away from family and our close buddies in Melbourne but at the end of the day, we know that life is precious, time goes quickly and life plan structures are a necessity for us.  We know what we are working for and why we are here.  It isn't a 'forever' move.  We've had a daughter who struggled initially moving from our home in FNQ (ask my parents!) and then moving here to the middle of the world.  We have had shocking moments coping with her.  Whilst Lyndon and I 'moved on' easily, as we always have, she struggled.  But our old Monet returned to us a few weeks back and she's the happy-go-lucky Monet we have always loved and adored.  

I hope the lives you are currently living are getting a little brighter too after the devastation over the past week.  Things have to look up at some point or another don't they? (Melody being ever the optimist...)