# The journey to Dubai



## Confiture (Jan 9, 2011)

Having received an offer from my employer, the Confiture family are about to embark on what is (for us at least) the biggest step in our family lives.

Over the past couple of Months this forum has been invaluable to us as a source of information, encouragement, humour and given a strange sort of "connection" to Dubai even though we've only ever visited Dubai itself a few times.

With this in mind I was trying to think of a way in which we could be of use to some of the others who are going through, gone through or considering something similar. Of course simply logging in and trying to answer questions as so many others do is an extremely good way to do this, however we feel we don't have too much to offer in terms of experiences and knowledge.....yet.

So, what to do.......?

Well maybe for the reasons above, some kind of journal of the physical, practical and emotional "journey" would be perhaps a different approach, and something we may also benefit from as we go along... I can't promise a daily update, but will keep it "regular" and include all the important events!

So here we go!


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## Confiture (Jan 9, 2011)

*Update 1*
_

Firstly, the setup here at the House of Confiture:

There's me, Mrs Confiture (MC), and the two boys aged 6 and 3 (JC1 and JC2) I decided to use the initials, to make it easier to read and lessen the burden of typing on my untrained sausage like fingers!_

Today is Wednesday (in the UK at least  ) and it's two days since we found out that the move is definitely on. Needless to say it's been a rollercoaster of emotions over the past few Months since the possibility of the move entered our lives. Its gone from a "what if?" to "maybe?", "surely not!", "why not?" and now it all seems VERY real.

Weeks of searching on Dubizzle, Bayut and other sites have given us a basic understanding of the style of accomodation available but it's difficult to get a true feel for the scale of the developments or how much of a sense of community there will be at each place.

Schools for JC1 & JC2 will of course be a key factor in where we live. My office in Media City is simple enough to get to, and with a curent commute time of 90 minutes in the Uk, I'm relaxed about us living nowhere near my place of work.

In these early days, the practicalities are tumbling into our heads in no particular order so MC is keeping a list (her organizational skills FAR outweigh mine  ) as we suddenly remember perhaps trivial things that we take for granted here like cancelling the Broadband supplier, window cleaner and magazine subscriptions.

The biggest challenges (at least as we see them right now) will be selling our cars and renting out the house. 

We called an agent on Monday just hours after the job offer was confirmed and agreed today on the rental so it's open house viewing next Saturday. We will of course de-clutter and make ourselves scarce so the JC's don't realise what's happening just yet.

Cars are being tinkered with and I see a weekend of hoovering out the interiors & polishing the paintwork ready for the hell of Ebay / pistonheads classified and all the messing around that's bound to be involved 

Telling our friends and families is a big thing. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement that we both feel and forget that for the nearest & dearest we will cause them pain and heartache by moving away. Today we started to break the news and the reactions have been varied but mostly supportive. Many have said that they will come for a holiday to see us. Hopefully the Mother in law saved us from any awkwardness on that front 

Meeting the bank tomorrow to discuss practicalities and tax :confused2: so that should be.....fun!

More tomorrow...

Confiture.


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## Jynxgirl (Nov 27, 2009)

I am a blog aholic now. There are some great bloggers who have kept up blogs for years and one can spend hours and hours of reading about their ups and downs here. 

Blogspot is a good site and easy to use. 

This write up Blogs in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and the UAE (hope it can be posted) has many write ups of great bloggers to follow and get alot of ideas, information, and just the insight of what others encounter.


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## Confiture (Jan 9, 2011)

*Update 2*

Things are moving along at a fairly fast pace now. JC1's school have been informed, as has JC2's kindergarten. Lots of forms to sign for the house rental and Murphy's law has kicked in already with a fault appearing on one of the cars which needs to be fixed.

The sheer scale of our un-necessary possessions is becoming a worry. As much as the thought of going to a car boot sale makes me shudder, it's probably needed just to clear some of the bric a brac we've collected over the years.

I've managed to plan a visit to Dubai in 10 days time to check out the possible places to live and schools, so once that happens we'll have a better understanding of what we could be heading to. MC is being very patient, as it can't be easy for her to be gathering all her things ready for a trip into the relative unknown.

Also need to sort out a car for us all when we arrive so the threads on rental have been useful. Dubizzle also good as a reference point on what's common. Jeeps certainly seem popular!

We're favoring Silicon Oasis and GEMS at the moment, having heard good things from friends of friends who are living there. Arabian Ranches also a consideration but JESS has a HUGE waiting list and stories of noise from the Autodrome are a concern too.

This weekend will be a case of sleeves rolled up and clearance!


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## Confiture (Jan 9, 2011)

*Update 3*

Some useful information:

The contact details for the FCO department that deals with the attestation / legalisation of documents such as birth and marriage certificates has been changed, meaning many web searches are now out of date.

The correct details are now:

Legalisation and apostille service: The FCO is the only official body authorised to issue apostilles in the UK

Call (from UK): 0370 000 2244
From outside UK: +44 207 008 5959

Operators are only available between 10:30 and 13:30 Monday to Friday.

Useful document: http://www.fco.gov.uk/resources/en/pdf/about-us/what-we-do/step-by-step


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