Haze, Pollution, whatever you call it, it's a pretty miserable situation

We were due to go to Malaysia for the half term break, but due to the haze we had to rearrange our plans. Cancel our luxury resort in Pangkor Laut and head to Thailand (which was also suffering from the haze) instead. We were lucky in Thailand, as the week before the airport had been closed due to poor viability as they were also suffering from the disgusting haze situation. 

We spent a few days in KL and it really was miserable. Schools were closed and where you could once see blue skies and skylines, everything was covered in a grey mist, which stinks. The hospitals are full of people with breathing problems, the kids are suffering, everyone is suffering. Why? In this age of life, how is this allowed. Indonesia is burning and nobody cares. Trees are being burnt, animals are dying and people are dying. Livelihoods are being destroyed, people are suffering, but why is nothing being done? Why is nobody talking about it? Why is it not being picked up by every news agency across the world? The reason is palm oil. And the companies who use the palm oil for their products are to blame. I need to read more about this devastation to fully understand who is responsible and what we can do, but I will be checking labels and boycotting any company who uses palm oil in their products. I will share the information I have on social media and do what I can, where I can. We are choking here is SE Asia, things need to change. 

It seems it's not all bad living in SE Asia

The other day I sat down and made a list of all the places I wanted to visit while we live in Jakarta -there's a lot of them. It made me realise we need to make the most of the opportunity we have living in this part of the world. Getting out of Jakarta did us all the world of good. A bit of sunshine, relaxation and play time. It was really lovely.

We were supposed to be going to an island in Malaysia, but due to the haze we ended up in Thailand. Not a bad change of plan really. It was my mum and dads first visit to Thailand so they were really taken with the beauty of the island. Four days felt like four weeks and we really managed to kick back and get a tan. The kids had a great time and loved swimming in the sea and building sand castles. It was all a holiday should be.

I have just booked Bali for Christmas and the rest of the world await us in 2016. Happy holidays! 

Release the frustration and burn some fat

I am a bit of a run-walker/walker-waddler. I actually hate running. I actually can't believe I am contemplating/actually running. But, I have managed a couple of my stylish run-walks and its starting to get a tiny tiny bit easier. So after my last post, I figured if I had all this time on my hands, what could I do to help myself. I need to lose weight, I know I do. I hate being wobbly. As I am not working and often stuck in the house, there is an option to run-walk. Its not been too bad, at least its not quite the same degree of temperature here as in Qatar and we live on a compound with a few hills and lots of green roads to run on. Getting out the house has made me feel better and a little bit more alive. The warmth of the sun and the sweat trickling down my face has made me realise I am lucky to live here, I just have to make the most of it.

So with the running underway, salads or soup for lunch and all chocolate banned - I just have to tackle the wine situation. Like I said before, one step at a time - life would be pretty miserable without wine! 

P.s I have no idea how long this will last! 

Expat life is not always rosey

I've been having a bit of a crap time recently. I've been on a downer and I can't snap out of it. I can't quite put my finger on exactly what is making me feel like this, but this place does not feel like home. Maybe I have too much time on my hands or maybe I'm not trying hard enough, but I think it's probably a combination of a lot of things. 

Last week our driver decided to quit. To be honest he's been a pain for a long time, but we have put up with him. It all came to a head last week and after us telling him a few home truths, he decided it was too much work to work for us and we never saw him again. While I am happy not to have to deal with him again, I am going a bit stir crazy stuck in the house and have had to cancel all of my plans, which mainly consist of playgroups and supermarket shopping. Driving here myself is just not an option and so I am having to take taxis everywhere. Problem is half of them hardly speak any english so its quite difficult to get places.

I am also not long back from our summer break in the UK, in hindsight this trip was probably not the best idea as it has completely unsettled me. The summer weather was lovely and seeing everything and everyone I consider normal was refreshing and so hard to leave behind again. It dawned on me that although I have been living abroad for almost 8 years, over 7 years of that time was spent as an expat in the same country and in reality it was just home from home. I haven't moved from place to place every two years, I haven't had to go out and make new friends and be the new kid on the block before, get to know new cities, different cultures and new ways of life. Yes I was an expat, but it was home. Life was easy, familiar and safe. Thinking I was a world traveller, I was really not. I was just someone with two home cities and now I feel homesick for both.

The other bizarre thing is I miss working! Yep, I just said that. Me, the person who moaned to my husband about not wanting to work, wanting to spend more time with the children, not having time to enjoy my life. Ha, yes thats me, and now I really want to work. I want to go to work every day and earn some of my own money. Maybe thats it. I want to earn my own money so I can spend my own money. I don't know, but I want to work and now I can't. However, that being said, I am almost positively sure that next week I will almost certainly be taking back that statement! 

Do you speak my language?

WHAT? You don't speak English? What kind of place am I living in?

When we moved here it never crossed my mind that people wouldn't speak english. Yep, so so ignorant.

Well, it was a rude awakening when I realised that I couldn't go to the supermarket and ask for toilet rolls aisle, as I would be taken to the washing machines. Or a simple question of 'do you sell baby monitors?' greeted with a big beaming smile of 'yes yes' (happy to have understood english) and led to the pyjamas, the list goes on. I quickly realised either I was going to have to at least improve my acting skills or bite the bullet and learn to speak Bahassa. Of course the best of intentions mean that I have now been here 6 month and I still can't offer much more than good morning and thank you.

However, yesterday I walked to the little supermarket at the end of my road, as I was paying and exchanging the usual blank looks and shrugs, while the shop keeper spoke to me in Bahassa waving the POS terminal around, I noticed the lady behind me smiling. I looked at her for help and she told me he was asking if I wanted to use some of my points to pay for my shopping. I didn't even know I had any points let alone could use them to pay for shopping, I felt so ashamed. I have been living in this country and I still cannot communicate with anyone. I watched the lady ask questions and pay for her shopping, all spoken in Bahassa and felt such a fraud. I decided I need to make the effort to learn. So here I am today, I am not going as far as to pay for a tutor, but I have logged online and I am planning to listen to my lessons in the car on the way to school or at home during my spare time, which to be fair at the moment I have a lot of.

Jakarta, Indonesia

I had never been to Jakarta before. But at the end of March 2015 I arrived with the two little people. It was lovely to be reunited with my husband, who had been there on his own since January and was getting pretty lonely. The kids were so excited to see him and I was ready to start the new adventure as a family in Jakarta. 

Jakarta is actually a really great place to live, but the settling in period was a lot longer and harder than I anticipated. I really started to miss Doha and my life there. The familiarity of a city that was home for almost 8 years, where we had got married and had both children. Settling into Jakarta, with a new house and no friends was all a bit daunting and resulted in a few tears. A twin tub washing machine and no oven or bath resulted in a few arguments, but all easily fixed with a glass of wine. Once school started, I got a kick up the bum by a couple of new friends and we got into a routine, things started to look up! 

We have a driver. Something which was completely alien to us. He sits and waits and takes us wherever we want to go. When I tell people they think it's amazing and it is, but sometimes I just feel the need to get in the car and drive myself. Don't get me wrong, I am loving having a driver. The Jakarta traffic isn't fun and driving is frustrating. But what I miss is just stopping when you see something on the roadside or popping out quickly. A car is a private space, I hadn't realised this until now, sharing that space is odd and I don't think I'll ever get over the need to hide my shopping bags.

Jakarta is full of megamalls, so shopping is generally what is ladies of leisure do (although I mostly window shop), that and drink coffee. Yep, totally stereotypical. But the malls are pretty impressive and often have great restaurants, coffee shops and bars, so you actually can easily spend a day there mooching around. 

One of the hardest things I have found is the supermarket shop. It can literally take me 3 days to find and buy all the things I need and that's if everything is in stock! I thought Qatar was bad, but I find expat products few and far between and those you can get mean you have to travel miles and check at least 2 supermarkets before you find them. When I first got here, I felt I spent all my days in supermarkets. Meat from Ranch, general household from food hall, vegetables from the market and fruit from Total. That 4 different supermarkets and in Jakarta traffic, that usually means 4 days shopping. 

I am still yet to have this city feeing like home, but we will get there in time I am sure. 

It's been a while

Finally we got the news we had been waiting for and it was time to focus on the next adventure (which is what I have been doing for so long). We were moving to Jakarta to start a new life in SE Asia. 

The excitement was unbearable, it's what we had been waiting for for the past 18 months, but the reality was quite different. I literally had no idea what this move would be like. Although we have been expats for 7 years, I had always been an expat in the same country. I had watched and listened and seen other people do it and always assumed that it was just part of the expat life and that's what you do. To a certain extent, it is what you do, but I hadn't taken into account that Qatar was actually my home. It was where I had lived and felt I belonged for such a long time. The actual logistics of leaving and moving was a lot different to what I thought too. This was the first time I had to move not only myself, but the little expats too.

The trip back to the UK was essentially a holiday and although we had left and cancelled visas in Qatar, it still felt like we were going back. Our container didn't come to England and we lived in a nice safe little bubble with my parents. Olly enjoyed English school, Lucy was in nursery and I was just home from home.

Then it was time, and off we went to Jakarta....

Christmas is over - the Easter eggs are on the shelves

I

It gets earlier every year! This is the earliest I have ever seen Easter eggs in the shop. I am not complaining as I do love a cream egg and mini eggs (when not in a diet). But seeing these in the shops and all the festive treats away for the rest of the year, reminds me that Christmas is well and truly over. It's different to previous years, as this time we are still in England, heading into cold and rainy January with a view to be here for a few more months of the great British winter! With January comes a new school for Olly and a new nursery for Lucy. Both have settled in easily and once again I couldn't be prouder of their ability to adapt and take on whatever we throw at them. The little travellers amaze me every day. For me it's back to the gym, I thought about giving up wine, but that's yet to happen, one step at a time! 

Olly in his school uniform 

Wentworth Golf Club

So today I am sat having breakfast in an exclusive dining room at Wentworth looking out onto the golf course. I think I would quite like to live here if only one of those houses had my name on it.

It's a far cry from Doha Golf Club. This place has style, exclusivity, elegance and something that Doha Club is so far from ever achieving. Sitting here right now shows the arrogance of the Middle East and the people that think they are at the top of the game. Doha Golf club falls short on so many different levels. I haven't visited many golf clubs, but sitting here proves to me that we made the right decision to leave, there is a world of opportunity waiting to be explored and so many more tables with a view to sit at having breakfast.

It's 2015 - Happy New Year

It's a bit late, but happy new year! Hoping that everyone has the year they deserve. Health, happiness and love to all.

Max is back!

So the little, white, tapping dog has arrived in Sheffield. He boarded his flight in Doha and was collected in Manchester and here he is, freezing his bits off in Sheffield. Initially I was worried about how he would cope in the freezing cold, but he is loving it and has taken to it like...well, like a desert dog to snow... He seems to be enjoying not burning his feet on the tarmac and getting long dirty walks through the woods. He gets on well with Lad and Oliver loves having his dog home.

One boy and his sledge

Imagine a little boy 5 years old, born in the desert and never seeing snow (that he can remember anyway). I wish I could have bottled up the excitement as the first snow started to fall. It wasn't just the excitement of Oliver, but also of all the adults in the house and his two little friends (also from Qatar) who were visiting at the time. When it startled to settle, the boys (and men) grabbed their boots, hats and gloves and sledge and played in the newly settled snow. The ladies, clearly the more intelligent species, watched from the window and continued to drink wine. As the night unfolded, it was clear our guests weren't going to be able to leave and so the excitement continued into the night.

The next day, we hit the Derbyshire slopes. Although it took a while for him to get used to the snow spraying in his face and the tumbling off the sledge, he enjoyed his first sledging experience. There is something about the snow, that makes people smile. A once quiet and lonely winters street, becomes a community where people ditch the cars and set off on foot.

As always happens with snow, the first day is so pretty, the days that follow are trechorous ice, slush and inconvenience. The next day, the desert child wanted to hit the slopes again, this time it wasn't white powder, but as expected sheer fast ice - he loved it. The day after he built his first snowman and snow dogs, but as the temperature went up, the snowman didn't stick around and we had a few tears to deal with. So now we are back to waiting for the next snow fall, watching the weather forecast and checking for snow each morning. Mind you, it makes a change from opening the curtains to sunshine every day of his life.

An (almost) white Christmas

I love Christmas at home! Home right now being Sheffield of course. As Oliver gets older, each Christmas becomes more and more exciting, but also adds more and more pressure to getting the presents right and making the day magical. I don't think he was disappointed this year and as we went down the stairs and opened the door to the living room, his little face told me he was pleasantly surprised and excited. 

The unwrapping frenzy started shortly after 6.30am and finished around 10am. The bubbles were opened around 10.30am and finished a lot later that evening with a fuzzy head. The iPhone took a skype call around 11.30am, finished around 11.45am and died when it was dropped down the toilet around noon - gutted. Christmas dinner was lovely, despite the burnt sprouts. The whole day was great, finished off with wine baubles with the neighbours. I love Christmas at home!