Lots of wonderful things

Where Fiver is much happier...

Today Stuart returns from his weeklong trip to Paris, where he sat in cafes drinking Kir Royale and met with old friends (well, he did some work, too). This makes Fiver very happy.

On a less soppy note, we now have a selection of keys to the flat, so it is finally ours to use anytime without having to ask the security guard to let us in. It feels good to have a home here now, even if it is devoid of all furniture until our container arrives from the UK. But the view makes up for it. And the curtains.

On the subject of keys, we have front door keys, bathroom keys, bedroom and kitchen keys, keys to the laundry room and the mail box as well as a swipe card for the car park. All of those in triplicate, they fill a cardboard box. Now we'll be able to lock ourselves in or out of every room separately.

We have also applied for telephone and internet connection and for water and electricity to be transferred to our name. This involves going to an office and waiting in line for quite a long time with loads of photocopied documents such a passport, residence permit and such (Stuart is already on his second dozen passport photos!), and complex application forms to fill in. Eventually a nice man or woman will see you and check every entry and every signature against your papers. The bureaucratic process is almost German in it's job-creation aspects if it were not for the fact that it is then possible to make payments online later, and the fact that the Dubai government uses sophisticated electronic systems e.g. immigration swipe cards and iris recognition.

So it looks like we are almost residents (except for the fact that Fiver is still on a visitor visa until Stuart sponsors her to remain in the country - a little archaic, that).