A bit about mummies school

Mummy says that she just wanted to say a few things:

Working here is very odd in a good way, as the sun shines everyday which puts everyone in a happy mood - NO grumpy moaning teachers, all smiles which is odd and when I walk into the staff room the conversation is planning the next big night out or brunch (which is breakfast/lunch in a posh 5* hotel with all you can eat AND drink until 4pm whilst lounging around the pool) or random trip out somewhere. There is none of this moaning about 'shop', oh yeah I nearly forgot the kids, the students listen, don't argue, they’re not rude, they don't swear, or punch things, or walk out of lesson just because their having a bad day, they are not all over each other at break and lunch time, they do not steal stuff just for the sake of it (well actually they don't steal) they ask (with a please!!!) before borrowing anything and nearly always say thank you and have respect for teachers and each other. Yes there are some who understand very little English but with a bit of general hand signals (and Claire I am considering using your 'point it' book during my lessons that is how little English in some cases) and a demo they understand what to do, I did set them all a written homework which in some cases is totally unreadable, but at least they did it. So on the whole I would say teaching here is pretty good, oh yeah as for the laws I was concerned about I wear pretty much the same clothes here as I did at any of the schools I have worked at before so no big difference just lighter fabric for when I have duties outside.

She says that she had to post this as a number of people have been asking her about the work side of things over here, and she knows how much this will make those of you who are teachers (especially those of you who worked with my mummy last year) smile. So to summaries mummy is enjoying teaching over here, yes TEACHING not crowd control or babysitting.

Happy Birthday Uncle Neal

Visa run fun

So this weekend our 30 day visitor visas ran out and because mummies residence visa is taking forever we all had to go and do a visa run, which sounds really dodgy but without the stamp and scribble you turn into an alien - mummy says an illegal immigrant, but my friend Grace (she’s 6) says an alien - and because I don't want to turn into an alien, "aliens have more eyes than me, only three fingers, I don't wanta be green" we went and had our passports stamped, daddy says that "it is just a money making thing" and Grace's mummy says "it would never work in England".

So anyway on with (Eva's bedtime) story -

We booked our normal taxi (Wahdi) to come and collect us between 9:30 and 10:00 Friday (which I remind you is the first day of weekend here) but he arrived at 8:30 -sods law normally he is spot on or 5 minutes early but an hour, uhhh I had only just got up and mummy was running around looking for everything and telling me to get dressed - which normally I am really slow and mummy or daddy helps me but this morning I could tell that I should be a big boy so I got myself dressed all by myself and I even changed the top that mummy had got out for me because I wanted to wear my pink one.

Once we went to the Hilton hotel in Al Ain (marked with a blue square on the map) (which is an hour long drive from our place), and booked into the hotel dumped our bag and then swapped into Wahdi's mates taxi who then drove us to the Al Ain border (marked with a yellow and red square nearest to the blue square) where we had to walk through the drive through passport check points as the pedestrian one was shut, then through customs then turned left to a little porta-cabin in which was an armed policeman and two Arab women sat behind desks, we handed over our passports, paid 30 AED (which is about 5 pounds) each so they could stamp our passport to enable us to exit the country even thou we already were on Oman soil/sand. We then were given a very poor attempt of a map but basically we were told to get into another taxi to go to the Oman border (marked with the other yellow squares, we went to the one with the red square inside) which was shockingly a further 20 km away (which meant we were aliens). So anyway we got into another taxi making the fatal mistake of not haggling the price first, once the door shut mummy realised this and struggled to speak to the taxi driver who kept saying "me speak no English, I take you stamp and back 200 AED", which in mummies eyes was too much (as mummy had done her research and knew the basic price), but he knew exactly what my mummy was saying as after 5 minutes of my mummy not giving up he gave his phone to her to speak to another Arab who spoke as much English as the driver did the two of them were playing a good game of 'no understand' but unfortunately for them they hadn't played it with my mummy before and she ALWAYS wins, so after some choice Arabic words from mummy the driver dropped his price to 150 AED. Once we were at the Oman border we entered a massive marble building followed the taxi driver to the desk handed over our passports and asked for 'entry and exit', daddy then had to fill in a form for each of us, paid some more money 60 Omani rial (which is 600 AED, which is about 100 pounds)  and our passports were stamped another two times (1 for entering Oman and 1 for exiting Oman) we then got back into the taxi and rode back to the Al Ain border and more importantly the little porta-cabin (with the same two women and policeman)where our passports were stamped for the last time to enable us to enter the UAE again (a whole 40 minutes later), that must be one of the shortest trips to another country any of us have ever done, but having said that in 30 days me and daddy (hopefully not mummy - as her visa MIGHT be through by then) will have to do it again, daddy says that next time will be quicker because he is going to drive, maybe over the next couple of months/visa runs we could go for a record or something.

So that was the boring bit out of the way we could return to the Hilton for lunch and chilling by the pool. For lunch we went to one of their restaurants on site called 'Flavours' which basically is a yummy buffet with food form every part of the world (classic roast potatoes to tagine) it was yummy and with the added bonus of it being 'eat as much' we had pretty much a bit of everything in some cases (many gobble guts mummy) had not just seconds or thirds but fifths of some things and the total with drinks came to an outrageous price of 30 pounds (TOTAL!!! for everything food and drink).

After our yummy lunch we went and checked out the pool and park, I know it’s hard to believe when you look at these photos but I was really enjoying myself and so was my mummy (yes she was actually there, I know there are a lack of photos of her but she is behind the camera) and daddy.

Right I am going to go and play

 xxx love to you all xxxx

Oh my god it was cold this morning .... about 30/31'

So once again it has been a busy but not week mummy loves the fact that she is not Head of ANY departments but one in particular. But she was asked that if she is not the Head of Department (HoD) who is as she is training primary teachers what to do, but there isn't really one she has a line manager who feed back any info from the HoD meeting, she has been asked if she would like to attend but she said no (she doesn't get paid to attend them). She is not supposed to leave school before 4pm, so that she is on sight everyday after school should a parent wish to meet with her, not that any have, 4 days a week she has bus duty which she says was sheer madness to begin with (14 different buses with over 300 students between the ages of 3 and 15) trying to get everyone on the right bus and to get all the buses off all the school site in 15 minutes (I think even Ollie Jones would be impressed with that), The music teacher says it because she is so loud and noisy, that the students listen to her.

Anyway after bus duty she tends to go back to her room to sort stuff out ready for a couple of days later, and because she isn’t a HoD it means that at 4pm she leaves work with nothing to do in the evening and as school is only 3 minutes walk I either go and meet her on my bike or in the park everyday, so instead of working until all hours it means she gets to play with me. Which mummy says that why we came here so she could spend more quality time with ME, and I love it !!!

'Jones the Grocery'

Tonight mummy went out AGAIN with Shain to catch up - they went to a fancy bistro like place called 'JONES the grocery' - mummy said that if Steve Jones (the best man at their wedding - who loves posh yummy food, both cooking and eating it) was to own a bistro place that was it, it was mix of Waitrose, Marks and Spencer’s and some Michelin star place, mummy says it was proper yummy and that she will be going back for seconds, oh yeah with the added bonus that it wasn't that expensive.

Love to you all xxxx

Dreams

Tonight I couldn't sleep all I kept dreaming about was Eva and Finn, I kept getting up (mummy said it was every 30 minutes) and asking where they were, as in my dream I was playing with them 1 time I was playing hide and seek and I couldn't find them another time Eva was naughty as she put brainy (my old goldfish from Maidstone) in my bed so mummy had to prove to me that he wasn't there and another time, I dreamt that Finn was stuck up a tree because he chased a pussy cat up there.

SOAPstone

This morning I woke up REALLY early especially to bounce on mummies bed and sing her happy birthday, but all she kept saying was go back to bed its not morning and then she was saying come back later and do it so I waited and waited and tried again and again and finally at 9am mummy let me bounce all over the bed and sing happy birthday with loads of hugs and kisses. In the morning we didn't do much I went to the park, watch a film (how to train a dragon) and then just after lunch we went out to a mall (there are hundreds of malls here, and all of them are big with shops and play areas and food courts/restaurants etc..) we went one with a big soft play area and bouncy castle for me to play and whilst I was bouncing, climbing and sliding mummy went off to the art shop and had a crash course in soapstone carving, after her course she spent some of her birthday money on some tools and a big lump of soapstone (that not real soap you know mummy told me off for using it to wash my hands with but I don't understand as it’s called SOAPstone?) after our jolly we went home and daddy cooked mummy a big Sunday (on Saturday) roast.

Hiltonia

We spent the day at Hiltonia (basically the beach and pool club for the Hilton hotel on the Corniche) - it was great the beach has imported posh sand looks good but not the best to build a sand castle out of, but then none is here as it dries out so quickly. There was a fantastic swimming pool and flumes, when I saw the flumes (2 seconds after arriving) I got so excited mummy had JUST taken off my t-shirt, I ran away up the path to the top and climbed in and went whoosh straight in mummy and daddy was still fully clothed (chatting to Shain) some other random woman had to grab me to drag me out, I was trying to swim but I couldn't with her holding on to me, doesn't she know who I am?? I'm Neo the swimming toddler. Mummy was watching me from the side of the pool she wasn't about to jump in because she knew I can handle myself. Anyway I had a great 5 hours jumping in and old running between the pool and the sea, after we went home mummy got all dolled up and went out with

 some of her work mates, she found a bar which specialise in cocktails and for those of you who know my mummy you will know that she loves them, between her and her mates they worked their way through most of them and then they started getting creative.

 

Pubs

Tonight daddy went out on the town, if you can say that there is no high street like we know it in England, all of the bars/pubs and clubs are inside all the 5* hotels, which both mummy and daddy say is an odd feeling - Daddy went to Coopers Pub which he says looks and smells like a normal pub (yes there is still smoking inside over here and for the smokers of you it is 70p a pack, however due to everywhere having air con no-where is really smoky) but the toilets are outside in the hotel corridor so you go from dark tacky (as in slightly sticky) tables to a 5* Marble lined toilets with a cleaner/soap/towel person and these are not like the ones you get in England - you can see your face in the floor that’s how clean it is. Anyway daddy went out with mummies work mates and when I woke up at 3:30 to go to the toilet he was STILL not in! He arrived home apparently at 4am (ish - no-one can really remember).

Shain

Mummies friend Shain arrived on Today which meant I finally got to meet her, her and mummy meet each other at one of those job recruitment weekends, Shain a job at the posh private girls academy which mummy WANTED to work at ( I put wanted in bold as she is so glad she didn't get the job as she is really enjoying working where she is, staff/students and curriculum are all great, even the technology part!), so we went out for a meal in the evening to help Shain familiarise herself with her new home in Abu Dhabi Dooooo - yes this is what I STILL call Abu Dhabi all the time mummy and daddy say thanks pretty granddad for teaching me this one.

Actually

I forgot to say for those of you who haven't realised my new favourite word of the moment is ACTUALLY. Mummy keeps trying to get my to say seriously but I like actually, and I use it in every other sentence, mainly because it bugs my mummy, hehe.

Monster time and splash park

Wow hasn’t the time since my last post flew by, So that what have we done well mummy had last week off hence why no posting as she hasn’t been at school to post - we have now got the internet at home, sometimes depending on the funny little dongle thingy, it can ‘actually’ go from having 4 bars to 1 in minutes even without moving it which makes no sense (that’s what mummy often shouts at it, normally with a grunt of some kind as well) but it does also mean that one website page can ‘actually’ take up to 10 minutes to load up, that’s if it doesn’t just log you of the internet all together.

Well this week mummy says I have turned from a little cheeky monkey to a little MONSTER as in her words I am ‘constantly pushing the boundaries’ whatever that means, she thinks that I can read the time as I wait until 4pm everyday to be REALLY naughty, I say “actually I’m not being naughty just SUPER cheeky” but sometimes I am really naughty because I hit, kick and spit - I don’t do it often but when I do I get told off and put on my NEW naughty mat.

I also my naughty if we go in a taxi and it is not our normal regular taxi driver, I like him I don’t like to other ones, our taxi man is nice – the other day my and mummy went to Toys’R’Us (yes shocking there are two of those here (as well as so many other British shops)) and a shop called ACE (for wood – which is a story) which is far from us as it is at the port the taxi there cost 50dirhams (which is only £9 in England a taxi that far/long would have cost about £30, it took a good 25 minutes) and when we arrived the taxi man asked mummy how long we were going to be she said 30mins and so he said “ok I come in too and when you are ready to leave just call me” (as if this would ever happen in the UK) and whilst mummy was waiting and waiting in a long cue to pay I went with the taxi man looking at the planes and helicopters and when say was finished paying we got back in the taxi and came home, all of which I was very good for as it was our normal taxi man “I like my taxi man”.

As for the wood story, I’ll keep this short and sweet NO WHERE sales it!!! (apart from the hardware store ACE) Who would have thought it would have been so hard to buy wood in a desert but not only that a desert where no-one does any DIY as labour is so cheap, in our apartment we can call on the maintenance team to come and put picture hooks up (it’s not that we can’t have them it’s just no one does anything for themselves) IKEA delivery includes assembling, not even the DT teacher at school knew where to buy it from but we do know!

Anyway Last week was Eid which means everyone can eat and drink again – it never ‘actually’ bothered me as I could anyway but it did mummy and daddy especially in the heat over here and not being able to drink. Eid was good everyone was having celebrations; we went to the beach again during Eid everyone was in a party mood (minus the alcohol) but there were a lot more people down at the beach, but it was still pretty empty on the whole.

Also for Eid a new splash park opened up in one of the big parks – when I say big it has 5 different play areas, a museum, a REAL train that goes around it, you can hire 4 seated pedal car things to cycle around it on, but it now has a splash park – YEAH that is lots of fun “I like it, actually I do” there is a lazy river which you sit in a ring and float around on (but I wanted to swim around it but the man said no due to the current I said “I am a big boy, I can swim”. All the photos of me are from the splash park.

Jody if you are reading this aloud to Eva you might want to end here, as you probably will not want to teach/tell Eva about Neo’s monster time….

I will leave you all with a snippet of my monster time yesterday (that is what mummy calls 4-6pm) – mummy said ‘Neo please can you go and get your pyjamas of your bed’, and I said ‘NO’ this was repeated and repeated and repeated (over a period of 10 minutes) finally mummy said ‘Neo you need to go and get you pyjamas as its almost your bedtime’ and I said ‘No mummy you get them I’m not tired’ so mummy said ‘Neo its almost your bedtime’ I said ‘no its not I’m a big boy I’m not tired’ so mummy said ‘Neo it is almost 7 o’clock’ I said ‘Oh….. L’ mummy said ‘NEO go and get your pyjamas’ I said ‘no I’m a baby you go and get them, I pick my book’ mummy was stuck then as by me being a baby I couldn’t get them, and by me being a big boy I get to stay up, anyway daddy got the pyjamas, which mummy put me in and then it was book, milk and bed.