The Twelve Days of Moving: Day One

As you've probably guessed from my conspicuous absence from the ether, this has been one hell of a first two weeks.

Here's a short recap of the events of the past twelve days.  Hang in there, it's gonna be a long one:

Saturday, 15 August

We leave our lovely home (and neighbours) in the UK with two suitcases and one carry-on each. Picked up by Etihad Airlines chauffeur service, Heathrow was a madhouse (August, you know).  Even the flight was packed, so my world-traveller husband didn't get his usual upgrade to first class.  Which means we had seats that looked like this:

Instead of this:

Right, so business class is blue and first class is gold.  Other than that, not much difference. And in the end it really didn't matter because the stewardess (yes, I still use that word) spilled champagne on me before the flight even took off, so I got my very own size small sleeping costume, complete with storage bag.

Arrival in the UAE, some seven hours later was pretty uneventful.  The only difference was that THIS time I had an employment visa waiting for me at the Visa Delivery Desk and had to go in for an eye scan.  Then on to one of the largest villas I've ever seen to spend the first of what we assumed would be several nights while our Apocalypse-Now-Wreck-of-a-Villa was getting made ready.

I don't remember anything else.