Monday, 17 May 2010
A Drive in the Country
On Friday, we decided to go for a little drive to Umm Al Quain. We left by 10 in the morning so traffic was pretty light. Umm Al Quain is about 50 kilometers from our place and it didn't take long to get there. When we checked the outside temperature on the thermometer, it read 49 degrees in the sun! On the drive home we had to wait for camels who decided to take a stroll down the highway. Then, suddenly the winds started to pick up. Even though we have a fairly big vehicle, the winds were still tossing us around a fair bit. We decided to just go home and on Saturday, our outing was to the air conditioned comfort of the new shopping mall. This one has an amusement park and a separate water play area.
Saturday, 8 May 2010
It has been a long time since I last updated you. There are 2 reasons for this, it has been busy and we haven't had any new exciting adventures.
I have been quite busy at work and so we have spent the weekends just relaxing at home. And the summer heat is already here, so daytime activities need to be indoors.
Since we are spending so much time at home, let me tell you about home life in Dubai...
Each of our 3 bathrooms has it's own water heater. The water for the building is stored in huge tanks on the roof, so in the summer it is actually as hot as if it went through the water heater. We turn off the heaters and use the "cold" water. Since the water heaters are in the ceiling, the water in them is cooler than the "cold" water. No matter how many showers we have in a row, even if we are washing laundry and dishes, we never run out of hot water.
We have no means of heating the apartment. They do sell space heaters for the cool winter days, but we have never found a need for one. In fact this winter was so warm, we used the air conditioner every day. We use a fan at night all winter long - partially to cool the room and partially to mask the sound of the nearby mosque. The call to prayer occurs sometime between 4 and 6, depending on sunrise and wakes us up (as it is meant to do).
Laundry is another adjustment that we needed to make. I have recently consented to having the ironing done at the local laundry. It cost about $3.00 to have 2 weeks worth of shirts ironed - and they deliver them when the are ready! We still do our own wash. We splurged on the expensive washer. It is also a full dryer. Since the dryer function is really just a cold air spin and it takes about 4 hours to complete a load which then comes out quite wrinkled, we rarely use it. FYI, the other version takes 9 hours and the clothes are 80% dry, and wrinkled. Generally, we do our part for the environment and dry everything on a clothes rack. We used to keep it on the deck and the clothes would dry in less than an hour in the summer. There is no option for cold water washing, unless we turn off the water heater in the kitchen where the washer is. The clothes do come out amazingly clean.
We wear summer clothes all year round. Since the kids are growing taller and not wider, they haven't grown out of many things. And, they wear school uniforms each day so the clothes don't wear out either. It is probably also because of the school uniforms that we have been able to avoid the "everyone is wearing them" syndrome.
I have been quite busy at work and so we have spent the weekends just relaxing at home. And the summer heat is already here, so daytime activities need to be indoors.
Since we are spending so much time at home, let me tell you about home life in Dubai...
Each of our 3 bathrooms has it's own water heater. The water for the building is stored in huge tanks on the roof, so in the summer it is actually as hot as if it went through the water heater. We turn off the heaters and use the "cold" water. Since the water heaters are in the ceiling, the water in them is cooler than the "cold" water. No matter how many showers we have in a row, even if we are washing laundry and dishes, we never run out of hot water.
We have no means of heating the apartment. They do sell space heaters for the cool winter days, but we have never found a need for one. In fact this winter was so warm, we used the air conditioner every day. We use a fan at night all winter long - partially to cool the room and partially to mask the sound of the nearby mosque. The call to prayer occurs sometime between 4 and 6, depending on sunrise and wakes us up (as it is meant to do).
Laundry is another adjustment that we needed to make. I have recently consented to having the ironing done at the local laundry. It cost about $3.00 to have 2 weeks worth of shirts ironed - and they deliver them when the are ready! We still do our own wash. We splurged on the expensive washer. It is also a full dryer. Since the dryer function is really just a cold air spin and it takes about 4 hours to complete a load which then comes out quite wrinkled, we rarely use it. FYI, the other version takes 9 hours and the clothes are 80% dry, and wrinkled. Generally, we do our part for the environment and dry everything on a clothes rack. We used to keep it on the deck and the clothes would dry in less than an hour in the summer. There is no option for cold water washing, unless we turn off the water heater in the kitchen where the washer is. The clothes do come out amazingly clean.
We wear summer clothes all year round. Since the kids are growing taller and not wider, they haven't grown out of many things. And, they wear school uniforms each day so the clothes don't wear out either. It is probably also because of the school uniforms that we have been able to avoid the "everyone is wearing them" syndrome.
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