And Away We Go...

Well, moving day finally arrived and almost everything got done—some things better than others and there are still a few things I will have to clean up via the internet when I find a connection (Caribou Coffee at Uptown Mirdif). I was up til 5am cleaning house; got a few hours sleep and then it was getting busy hauling off the last of trash, donated items, stuff to storage, and few deliveries to friends and family. In fact, my last trip around town went something like this: Walmart to get spare house keys made (sure hope they work), Barnes and Noble, Jason’s Deli, and Moe’s to get gift certificates for the kids—which I later mailed in Halloween cards (unfortunately, they had accidentally locked the keys in the manager’s office at Moe’s so I would have to make a return visit), Then to the realtor to drop off keys and get a letter notarized, Then stop by the kids house to drop off one more box and some last minute stuff, then to U-haul to sell back unused boxes (by now I’m realizing I am behind schedule to get to the bank in Griffin before it closes), home to load up some ladders, a king size bed, and my luggage. I called my Dad and told him I was running out of time, and he said he could meet me in Locust Grove around 5:15. I knew I couldn’t make it to the credit union in Griffin by 4, but I could make the bank in Newnan…so off I go; goodbye Cataula. Made it to the bank with 10 mins to spare, got a few checks to finance my new life in Dubai, then off to meet my folks. Can’t tell you how much I enjoyed being stuck in an ATL traffic jam one last time (I-75 South). Met my parents about 45 mins late; had dinner at Wendy’s and then off to the airport.

All week I meant to haul my bags up to the gym to use their scales and see how much over weight I was going to be…well, it was one of those things I never got around to. My suitcase clocked in at 62 lbs; my golf bag, 80lbs…50 is the limit, 70 the limit for overweight. I repacked a few things into my carry-on; and put some other stuff in a small duffle and gave it to my Dad—I will get them next time I’m home. Anyway, I got down to 50 on the Suitcase and 68 on the golf bag and paid $150 for the extra weight…maybe I can get it back from Serco. Ironically, I think my carry-on was probably more than 50 lbs by the time I finished.

Got thru security with no problem. Everything ran on time for a 925p departure; I had a nice aisle seat on the bulkhead (worth every penny of my $15 ‘upgrade’), empty seat beside me. I had about 2 hrs of sleep in the last 2 days, so I basically saw the first 15 mins of Baby Mama, Get Smart, Wall-E, The Visitor, and Tropic Thunder…I also read 26 pages of my book. For a 14 hour flight, it went very quickly—I’ve been on worse flights across the US.

When I got off the flight in Dubai it was about 730p the next night. I was met by a lovely young Filipino lady named Maya, who had my temporary visa, and walked me thru immigration. She kept telling me I needed an “Ice Gun,” And I kept saying ‘Ok’ (Ice gun? In case I get too hot I put a round in my head?) Turns out, she was saying ‘Eye Scan,’ which was an Iris scan for the residency visa. We quickly went thru immigration, and then picked up my bags and before I knew it we were thru customs—I guess they weren’t checking bags since it was the weekend. (weekends are Fri-Sat here).

Maya handed me off to Kiri, who is the wife of a Serco employee. She drove me to my villa, who I will be sharing with 2 other controllers. Rod is retired FAA (ORD, LAX) and just finished a year in Basra, Iraq. Daniel is from Scotland.

The villa is nothing to brag about; it’s clean and roomy, but sparce—no TV, no radio, no phone, no internet. Kitchen is well equipped, just not much of the equipment works—microwave is out and most of the stove. AC works fine (the thermostat is in Farenheit). My bed room has a built in closet with shelves for clothes and there is a full size bed). The bathroom looks nice and the shower was nice once I figured out I had to turn the hot water heater on.

Anyway, it won’t be home for very long—I should start looking within a few days. Daniel has been here 5 weeks and has the #s for some real estate agents that I will use. I will try and get some pics up soon—for now I am depending on Caribou coffee for my internet.