The Twelve Days of Moving: Day Two

Sunday, 16 August

You would be completely reasonable to think something along the lines of "Naturally, you slept late and spent a leisurely Sunday recovering from jetlag."  And you'd be right.

If it weren't me you were referring to.

No, THIS gal had to go to work on Sunday at EIGHT O'CLOCK BLOODY AY-EM.

Yes, you read that right, although it was mostly administrative stuff (contract signing, meeting the Powers That Are, and being processed for my residence visa).  The latter was the best part of all:  the PRO took half-a-dozen of us to get our medical check-ups and had us in and out of the Disease Prevention and Screening Centre, located at the Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, in thirty minutes flat.  This is truly evidence of modern-day miracles, as pretty much everyone else I've spoken with in Abu Dhabi has spent at least a half-day at the zoo establishment.

That done, my work day was over and it was time to inspect our new home.  This seems so long ago now, that I don't remember my exact response, but I believe it included repetition of the phrase "Oh.  My.  God." over and over again.  It was nothing like the wreck I had seen in those pictures from way back in June.  And it is immense.  Think Anna and the King waltzing proportions (ok, ok, maybe not -- Deborah Kerr's skirt needed a LOT more space).

Next stop was Marina Mall to check out appliances at Carrefour and cheap furniture at Ikea. I decided that latter was a bit too cheap, so was determined to scour the streets of Abu Dhabi looking for something better.

In the evening we made a trip to our friends at The Living Room Furnishing store to pick out a mattress.  We chose the queen-size (a mere 150 x 200 cm) tempurpedic/hard foam hybrid. Delivery was scheduled for Tuesday evening.

Again, a good day, and at the end of it we planned our to-do list for the next one.  At one-o'clock in the morning.