As One Door Closes Another Opens

This time last year, the boxes were packed, furniture in the shipment, cats in crates waiting to be loaded onto the aircraft and we sat there looking out onto an early morning smog that covered the city. For 18 years it had been my home, I pondered on a thought as I waited anxiously to wave it goodbye. I had grown to know Dubai so well, but in it's rapid growth for economic success, did Dubai know me? Had it forgotton through it's furious fight to be the biggest, the best, the most exclusive, the most expensive, had it forgotton it's roots, the roots that lay at the base of the Dessert Rose that used to frindge the shorline dunes of Jebel Ali beach before the bulldozers ripped them up. Had it forgotton those who came to experience it as explores looking for an adventure, mindful, respectful of it's customs and replaced them with gold diggers, looking for nothing more than a quick buck, and a Bur Dubai Whore. Had Dubai really sold it's soul? Sadly as I boarded the Emirates flight and watched the final closing of the cabin door I decided the aswner was Yes.

We had been planning a lifestyle change for a while, and then due to the recession which hit Dubai like a tidal wave, the bettter half (Husband) lost his job and we like many others had the harsh realisation that loosing your job in Dubai not only means loosing your income, but it, means loosing your home (most accommodation comes with the job) loosing your medical cover, loosing your visa, your very right to be in the country. Thankfully we were prepared for this moment and within 3 weeks, we cut of the cable, sold the cars, paid off the car loan (which was un heard of and even the bank didn't know where to send us for payment) shut off electricity, finalised water bills, and kissed a fond fairwell to some very very special friends.

Touch down, taxi, and finally the cabin doors opened on to a clear bright day. At the cargo hall we cleared the cats through customs and headed west across the Island Of Love. This gorgeous, quaint, beautiful Island is now our home. The cockralls crow at dawn, the sunrises casting shadows on the hay bales across the golden fields, the shepard herds his sheep amongst the olive groves and life is much much slower than it has been for a long time. Though the last year has been tough and it has tested our desire, our quest for a simple life, I have no doubt that at this point on our journey we are exactly where we want to be.