Straight from the Camels Mouth (no spit)
An Expats diary of Dubai
by
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Boy do we have a corker of a story for you this time…. Are you comfortable!!! Let me start.
Martyn and I have purchased a new car and have been advised that although we have International Driving Licences, as an owner of a private vehicle we would need to obtain UAE Driving Licences.
“Oh very easy Sir” said the Sales representative in the car showroom.
So yesterday lunchtime Martyn and I went to the UAE Department of Transport (RTA)with Passport, International driving licenses, four passport photo’s each and a selection of five, ten, twenty and fifty dirham notes for various additional administration fees!!!!! We are learning!
When we arrived and finally found the entrance (not signposted from the outside) we entered a room saying Driving Licence Centre. After sitting in the room for around five minutes with no-one at the counter and feeling like we were perhaps in the wrong place we were advised that we should be next door, which was also signposted Driving Licence Centre. ‘Aha!’ we said to ourselves when we saw various others sat holding forms and passports and obviously doing the same thing. Nope, how wrong we were, they were actually four steps ahead of us which we found out later!
We knew that there was a ticketing system so Martyn went over to collect a deli counter ticket to which I saw him across the room laughing. When he returned he had a hand written ticket – clearly the ticketing machine wasn’t working and someone had the wonderful job that morning of writing out a series of tickets and stapling them all together to form a manual system.
After a short while Martyn was summoned by a lady behind the counter who had no idea if he was the next number in the queue or what number he was to be exact. She took Martyn’s passport and asked
“Where is your paperwork?” With a blank look on Martyn’s face, she proceeded to explained we needed the form and it had to be typed up in Arabic. OF COURSE how stupid of Martyn!
Off we go round the corner to the little office signposted TYPING OFFICE to where we met a local Emirati with a weird but funny sense of humor.
Let us call him Mr Hum (I will explain further in a moment) Mr Hum asked me to sit next to him as he liked to get the women done first and get them out as they were always difficult! (He did smile) As you can imagine Martyn thought he had a friend here…. Hahahahah! How wrong he was!
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About the Book
Q: So why did I write this book? A: After moving from Australia to Dubai in 2007, I realised that life as we knew it was going to be very different. Weekly I would sit in front of my laptop emailing family and friends in England and Australia and keeping them up to date with what was happening. The emails were a way for me to off-load some of the frustrating and stressful situations we found ourselves in, and also share some of the funny, shocking and unbelievable happenings too. The first year passed by, the emails kept flowing, the recipients kept saying; "Hey this is great, you should write a book" "I live for the next installment" "You make my journey home on the train a better one, I just have to stop myself laughing out loud at times" People judged us, pressuming that tax free salaries, all year sunshine, maids, nannies and cleaners together with shopping malls to die for and hotels to take your breath away, meant that we should have no reason to be unhappy, and infact think ourselves lucky. What some failed to realise, is that choosing to better ourselves and provide for our children and their futures, we have sacrificed having our family and close friends being part of our day to day life, which is very important to both us and our children. Some people believed I 'could only' be making the stories up, and laughed! I had to remind them that despite being funny; this was actually our life and very real.
About the Author
I'm a normal person that just happens to have moved from the UK to Australia and then on to Dubai. I love sharing my life with friends and family and making people laugh. If I survive this place, then I will return to Australia with my husband and children to the friends I have left behind and a fabulous wine collection.