Category: Getting organised

Home delivery

Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something

Robert Heinlein

We returned from our long summer break last week to find the car covered in a thick layer of dust. To my great surprise the engine started at the first attempt but there was almost no fuel in the tank. I might’ve just made it to the nearest petrol station, but nowhere is just a mile down the road in this city. Instead, we headed off on foot to our local cafe for a bite of lunch, went for a swim, chilled out at home and got an early night. The next morning, the car was sparkly clean and the tank full. A bit of Dubai magic!

Dubai takes home delivery services to a new level. Ordering is simple, usually via an app, so I can surreptitiously sort out the bottled water delivery while sitting in a meeting or order a pizza delivery from the school play ground. There is a most extraordinary array of products that I might want to order, things that I never thought I needed to have brought to my door. Dog grooming, children’s haircuts, car cleaning, petrol, and even ice blocks to cool the swimming pool.

Despite the excitement of all the slightly unnecessary items I might be able to order in, I still haven’t mastered the perfect grocery home delivery service. Nothing compares to the one-stop online shop of back home. Most of the time, I luxuriate in this new laziness, but sometimes I have to actually get off the sofa and go to the shops.

Packing up

There is always a sadness about packing. I guess you wonder if where you’re going is as good as where you’ve been

Richard Proenneke

I have mixed emotions about packing. Packing suitcases to go away on a summer holiday fills me with excitement and anticipation. Packing my old trunk to go back to boarding school at the end of the holidays was less welcome. Packing up an entire house to emigrate to a relatively unknown country was a completely new experience altogether.

I started with good intentions. I felt positive about using this opportunity to clear out all the things we had accumulated over the last decade, a double garage and a loft filled with bags of baby clothes, toys, and old furniture that had never found a place in our home.

Every item in the house was to sell, ship or store. Cash payments for small items or for anything belonging to the children were put into a “Dubai kitty”, a good incentive to sort through the toy mountain and look forward to some new beach toys for Dubai.

Inevitably, my good intentions disappeared in a whirlwind of work, children, paperwork and goodbyes. Selling takes time, especially answering the endless obscure questions on Ebay. Instead I made use of the many local charity shops and used Freecycle to mop up any leftover items. It then took 3 days of professional packing and “ship…store” to empty the house.

Finally, all that remained was a completely empty house, 3 big suitcases, 3 small cases, 2 children and 1 slightly emotional and exhausted Mummy.