Oldies On Tour

Wednesday; the call had been received from the shipping agent yesterday saying that Jane’s 3 trailers had cleared customs and were ready for collection, though all the tyres were flat as The loader in theUK had to lower the trailer heights to get them into a container. Now at this point you are asking, why did Jane want 3 horse trailers here in Abu Dhabi, well quite simply, firstly they are very hard to find, and if any are for sale, they are very expensive. Importing one seemed the way forward but this meant hiring a container. The cost of the container is the same if it has 1 trailer in or 3 so it seemed a good idea to bring 3 out and sell 2; hence 3 trailers, and re-coup the shipping costs.

So after Jane’s normal morning routine of delivering Dave to work, visiting Herbie and walking the dogs we set off, firstly we had to buy a tyre pump and as we had 12 tyres to pump up; we needed a 12 volt, electric and powerful one so we went to this Amazing shop called “Ace”, what you couldn’t buy there was probably not made, they sold everything.

So armed with pump and paperwork, we set off for Dubai, arriving an hour or so later to meet the agent outside a convenient hotel so that we could follow him to his warehouse. 20 minutes later we arrived at an industrial estate, it was a good job we followed him as I think we would still be looking for it now!!!

We took the new pump from the box, read the instructions, connected to car battery, though this was a “hunt the thimble” process in itself. You would think a car battery is large enough to see normally, but not on a Porsche Cayenne, it is nowhere to be seen so after consulting the hand book, we found 2 special connectors for the pump’s crocodile clips to connect. Right, we connected the pipe to the first tyre and off we went. In the shop we were told this pump should inflated a normal car tyre up in about 4 minutes. After about 20 minutes the first tyre was up to 20 psi, they needed to be pumped to 54 psi, so by our reckoning another eleven and a half tyres to go, this would take us a further 6 hrs! I went back and re read the instructions and we had carried them out to the letter, oh dear! I then looked into the original bag and found a round, silvery thing and thought what was this. I took it apart and it was a filter, nothing mentioned in the instructions! I took it back to the pump itself and found a hole with a rubber bung in it, I took the bung out, screwed the filter into the hole that now appeared, switched on and hey presto, 4 minutes later 1 tyre was pumped up to 54 psi.

Well Within the hour all 12 tyres were pumped hard and we were ready to go.

The arrangements were simple, we would take the first trailer around to Jane’s friends house in Dubai for storage until we could collect (or sell) it, this went without a hitch. We had arranged with a car hire company to collect the second trailer and take it to another friend’s house, this time in Abu Dhabi. Well the chap turned up with a large 4×4 but no tow bar, can you believe it, they agreed, at a price, to tow the trailer but he didn’t realise he needed a tow bar, can you believe it!!!!! To make things worse it didn’t seem to. Dawn on him something was wrong! We sent him packing though he said he would return in the morning, with a tow bar, and deliver as agreed. By now we were running late, hungry and we would not be back in time to collect Dave from work.

Ok, we connected the last trailer onto Jane’s car and set off. A quick “pit stop” en route for fuel both for the car and us, and back on our way. 2 hours later we had delivered Jane’s trailer to her stables then back home. The total time spent was about 10 hours, we were very glad to get home, though this still left the vexing question, would the man and car, collect the trailer left behind tomorrow!

24/11/2013. our search for beds is nearly over, Jane managed to get two 4′ singles, which is for the other spare room, so off Geoff and Jane went to collect them, it is now raining, and the driver has only got an open top truck, still they arrived safe and sound, we made the beds, another room complete, looks lovely. One more bed to go, this is for the maid, although at present Dave reckons I have got the job!

25/11/2013

Up at 6.30am, I thought we were on holiday, got that wrong! We took Dave to work, then went onto the vegetable market, they had a row of stalls selling dates, which we sampled, and bought two different types.  we purchased lots of fruit and vegetables, then onto the fish market, well that was just amazing, they had prawns over 9inches long, and really fat, so we bought two kilos, we then got salmon and seabream, which they filleted for us.

We left the market in search of a manual car wash, we had been turned away from one garage, as the car was too dirty, having found one, we waited for an hour to get done, seems like after the rain, everyone wants their car washed, when we left there “Pedro ” looked very smart again.

We did a quick blitz on house, Geoff doing handiwork, Jane hoovering and washing floors, and I caught up with the ironing, didn’t take long to get everything ship shape again.

Back home, we had a quick lunch of three delicious prawns and salad, they were very tasty, and filling, then a quick shower, before we go and collect (Jane’s horse) Herbie, we are off to a dressage show. Herbie smartened up, mane and tail plaited, then into the horse box, and we left for the show.

The roads out here are very good, but we drive for about twenty miles through dessert, and see no one, I would be scared to do it on my own, case I broke down, in one part there was a cattle grid half missing, which was very scary, instead of cattle it was for the camels!

Herbie and Jane did the warm up, then the tests, she said he didn’t go as well as normal, but she still took first in novice, and second in elementary, so very good. Jane has won everything since she has been out here, so it is good for her to have some competition for a change.

We waited over an hour for results, so by the time we re-loaded Herbie, back to the stables, and then home it was midnight, so straight to bed, wow what a day.

Polo in the afternoon

Up at the crack of dawn, well for us what with jet lag etc., with the responsibility of walking Doogle and Oreo, the Littlejohn’s children!!!!! Dave and Jane were on a mission, the paperwork to import their horse trailer had to be delivered to the shipping agents in Dubai ready for customs clearance next week.

Our walk was interesting, bearing in mind the severe rain that fell on a land with no drains. We paddled across sodden, ‘orrible muddy squelchy sand wearing totally the wrong sort of footwear, still the dogs enjoyed the walk around a building site! Back to the house and showers for the dogs before we could let them in, then foot baths and shoe cleaning for us: The things we have to do as Guests.

Dave and Jane returned about mid day after a successful round drive to Dubai then it was all action stations as we had showers and dressed into our finery ready for our posh afternoon at the Polo match. We drove the 30 minutes to the Emirates Palace Hotel and wow, what an impressive building, very Arabic in its construction, well one would expect that, but across the way (about 1 km) were modern skyscrapers being built, quite a contrast. Apparently rooms in this hotel start around £1,000 per night, sufficient to say that polo pitch is on their front lawn!!!!!

As we jumped out of the car, there was the parking valet waiting to take and park “Pedro” (that’s the car’s name) so we collected our entry tickets and arrived at the side of the pitch just as the two teams, Milan and London, were warming up. We weren’t to sure as to whether the match was a semi final or the final. Today was the second day of a Coutts sponsored tournament for a number of international teams. Anyway, whilst enjoying our “Pimms Coctails” we found out that this first game was the playoff’s for the shield and that the next game would be the final. This first game was exciting as London were leading after 2 chuckers, ok half time! It was then the spectators job to tread in the divots, so there we all were, dressed to the nines with ladies in high heels, all treading the grass down. In spite of all the the rain earlier, the ground was firm, thank goodness. The second half got under way and Milan got their act together and by full time the score was level at 8 goals apiece. We then had the sudden death golden goal, but what a disappointment that turned out to be; the ball was thrown in by the ref and the Milan players were straight on it and scored before London knew what hit them, all over in a flash. Oh dear, that called for more Pimms!

Then it was time for the final, Argentina V Coutts Abu Dhabi? Unfortunately this game was a bit one sided, Argentina walked away with the goals and Coutts could do nothing in response still it was a very entertaining afternoon, but it was not over then. We all were driven by the hotel parking valets in a fleet of golf carts for a party around one of their pool complexes by the beach. We arrived in the nic of time to commander a nice table with comfortable chairs and enjoyed canapés washed down with wine.

During the afternoon we met up with one of Jane’s friends, Nicky, who is also new to Abu Dhabi and she spent the afternoon and evening with us. I think she is also struggling to get into the Abu Dhabi cultural way of life, and she is thinking of staying here for 5 years, good luck Nicky

A steady drive home with Jane at the wheel as there is a no tolerance drinking and driving policy here and as Jane rarely drinks, that was good, thank you Jane.

Into bed at a reasonable time as Dave has to go to work tomorrow, Sunday is a normal working day!,

We did not surface out of our beds until 10 am, felt very naughty, as Jane had been up since 7, taking dave to work and riding Herbie!

Over the next six months, Jane and dave have a lot of visitors, so Jane has been busy looking for beds, and today, we went out looking for some!  We then collected dave from work! had a lovely dinner! followed by whiskey.

Up early, well better than yesterday, today is Friday, the week- end starts now, they have Friday and Saturday off, and work Sunday.

Dave went for a run with the dogs, whilst Jane rode Herbie, we all met up at 10am, and decided to look at another bed, then onto the Mall for lunch. We had lovely wraps, followed by cinnabon, they are lovely, these were especially nice as they were straight out if the oven.

After lunch we went for a drive along the beach, there were hundreds of kite surfers, also a guy on jet ski, with another one somehow attached to it, and being propelled vertically out of the water, looked great fun, we then went on to the F1 race track in Abu Dhabi, where Jane and Dave ran around the track 5k for charity, it was good sitting in the stands, but made Geoff very envious that he had missed the race.  Jane wished she had not had her Cinnabon.

back home for dinner and bed.