2018 Christmas in the Desert

My mother-in-law visited Abu Dhabi to spend a warm Christmas and New Years with us. Unlike other countries, Christmas is not a public holiday in the UAE and unfortunately it landed on a weekday so Tim had to take a day off from work. For Christmas, we decided to book a desert safari trip to Al Ain/Abu Dhabi Desert.

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C’mon whats a better way to celebrate Christmas like the Middle Eastern way hehe! The desert safari package included dune bashing, camel ride, henna, shisha, dinner, sand boarding, wearing the traditional outfits and night shows. The shows included Egyptian performance and a belly dancer and since it was Christmas, the belly dancer wore a red outfit and a Santa hat. (LOL) MERRY CHRISTMAS YA’LL

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We had a great time especially that it was our first time dune bashing in Abu Dhabi/Al Ain Desert. It’s not that much different than Dubai but it was indeed an Arabian Christmas Night Adventure 🙂 lelelelelee

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A Weekend in Cairo

Egypt as they call it in Arabic ‘Em El Donya’ which translates to ‘The Mother of the World’. is the third African country we travelled together.

During the UAE National Day holiday, we both decided to travel to Egypt. The main reason we travelled to Egypt was because the visa was easy to obtain (LO). Tim managed to get a visa on arrival while it took me 4 working days to obtain a visa from the Egyptian Embassy in Abu Dhabi. Since we could only travel for 3 days, we narrowed our trip down to Cairo.

We heard from a lot of people how Cairo can be chaotic so we booked our tour with Fly Travel. 3 Days and 2 Nights in Egypt and we managed to have a blast. Our tour guide Karam, is very well educated and also has a sense of humour. He cracks jokes when explaining the history of the Pharaohs and Egyptian Civilisation which makes it fun and I guess it’s the best method to make people listen.

So below is our Cairo Weekend Itinerary  🙂

Day 1:

We visited the Pyramids, Sphinx and Papyrus Institute and a Cotton Store.

Try to avoid the Cotton Store, it was a major waste of time but we bought cushion covers which you can find in any market. Anyway the highlight of that day was seeing the Pyramids. OMG! GIZA indeed has some supernatural vibes. We highly recommend you enter the Pyramids, it is worth it. Although it’s narrow and could be annoying, it is worth the visit. Unless you are claustrophobic, so yeaaaahhh don’t go in. We also visited the Khufu Ship which is walking distance from the Pyramids.

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Picture with the Local Boys 🙂
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30 min ride to get better view of the Pyramids

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After lunch, we did a quick stop at the Papyrus Institute and attended a workshop on how they make the paper. Tim and I bought a small art work to hang in our place. We have a habit of collecting artworks from all around the world and whats cool about the papyrus paper is that it’s waterproof.

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At night, Tim and I scheduled an uber to take us to the Nile River. We decided to go on a boat ride along the Nile and they played Egyptian music. The locals were having a great time singing and dancing. The funny part, Tim and I were the only non-Egyptians on that boat and being half Middle Eastern I had to join and dance.

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Day 2 of the Tour:

The historical tour that made us go OH WOOOW!!!

The tour began at the Egyptian Museum where we learned a lot about the Egyptian History and if ever you visit, I recommend you take a guide with you because you will learn a lot more.

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The Museum preserves the mummies in a very cold room and we were not allowed to take pictures. I actually didn’t feel comfortable and I believe that the mummies should be put back in their tomb.

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We later visited Citadel, Muhammad Ali Mosque and Sultan Hassan Mosque. We sat with our tour guide in the mosque to listen to the ‘Call for Prayer’ and had a deep discussion about Abrahamic Religions.

Before heading to the famous Khal El Khalili market, we went to the Perfume and Jewellery stores and bought a box of perfumes. After that we requested our driver to drop us to Khan El Khalili where we spent the night exploring the market and smoked shisha at a Sha’abi (Local) Coffee Shop just like what we see in Egyptian movies hehehehe.

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Day 3:

WE FLEW BACK TO ABU DHABI

Our trip to Egypt was indeed very short and we would love to visit again and explore other areas of the country. If you are visiting Cairo, I highly recommend you either have an Arab friend or an Arab guide. It’s difficult for a non-Arabic speakers to navigate around the city.

 

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Story behind my resignation

As most of you know, I resigned from my full-time job to become a housewife. Well actually NO, we moved to a new city so it was time for a new start. The thing is, Tim and I thought about it a lot before I handed in my resignation and the story behind my resignation is…..

So my story starts like this, I landed my first job when I was 14 years old. I began tutoring children from Year 4 till Year 7 and at the age of 15 years, I enrolled in University and took up part-time jobs to be able to pay off my expenses. My dad, who is a single parent had to work a lot to be able to provide for his family. My university costed a fortune so instead of getting a degree in 3 years, I earned my degree in 5. My university charged per subject so instead of taking up 4-5 subjects every semester,  I would take up 2. So in those 5 years, I worked my a** off and to top that all, I had to get back home and check on my younger brothers school assignments and if they’ve finished their homework.

At 18 years old, I started a full-time job and at the same time, I was still studying. University was very stressful, obviously peer pressure, being  a teenager wasn’t easy and having responsibilities drove me insane. Work, Studies and Personal stuff was just CHAOS in my mind. It’s like having a monkey banging cymbals in my head.  So basically I never had a break.

During my 3rd year, I was an intern for a Real Estate Developer and that is when I realised I wanted to work in the real estate industry. So I started out as a receptionist/ customer service working for a Brokerage/ Property Management Company and then got promoted to a Property Consultant. Afterwards, I joined the same Real Estate Developer who hired me as an intern but this time I joined as a full-time Commercial Executive. I loved my job and I loved what I did but things changed. After working for almost 5 years with that company, I never felt appreciated. In those 5 years, I was searching for other opportunities but my gut would always tell me NO, DON’T TAKE THAT JOB. So, I ended up staying.

When my husband found a job in Abu Dhabi, we had to move there. I thought commuting would be a reasonable reason to quit my job but deep down the reasons were, I felt tired, exhausted, unappreciated and demotivated. I did the commute for 7 months and I knew, the job was not worth the drive. I worked a lot, to learn, to develop and never once did I feel appreciated. I thought maybe it is time for me to take a break to recover mentally and physically. But, how can I quit my job with a mortgage and a car loan waiting to be paid off. So my husband and I did a lot of financial planning before I took this crazy step and I was fortunate to earn enough to cover majority of my expenses.

I was getting depressed and felt sad most of the time. I would find people telling me, you don’t need the money, you have a husband who can pay for everything and other people would say you have a white husband who can afford everything. Others would say, don’t quit continue commuting till you find another job and they would also say, I think different from everyone else and that I should not quit and give up. All of those comments made me even more frustrated and angry.

I felt upset after hearing negative remarks from people but I worked a lot in my life to try to achieve my goals. I really worked a lot and I love to have a reason to live and just because I do not follow the norm of what society expects, doesn’t mean I’m going towards the wrong path, I’m just different. I always loved to work and I was very career oriented but not anymore. My job killed me, mentally, physically and emotionally which made my husband worry. I never ever had a break in my life. NEVER.  After lots and lots of thinking, I decided to take the risk and quit my job. I needed HELP. Also, I did take the advice of the medicine man in Bali who read my palm AND the first thing he told me was to quit my job.

We are now living only on Tim’s salary and I’m currently working on myself and deciding what I want to do with my life but after 10 years of Real Estate in UAE with years of being demotivated and having low self-esteem; I figured, it is time for me to have a break and work on myself.

So now, I will use my time to travel, read, watch series that I’ve missed, work on becoming a better wife, daughter, sister and friend and do things that I did not have time for. I will relax and have time for ME. I can’t remember the last time I experienced a ME time. So I am now a happy unemployed individual searching for an adventure.

 

 

ADIOS 2018 & HOLA 2019

2018

Although many things didn’t go according to plan, I’m still grateful how our year turned out to be. Tim and I had lots of highlights which I will share and will also add the recap links below.

Tim and I moved to Abu Dhabi and many things happened following that move. As soon as we moved the boxes and furniture to Abu Dhabi, we had to travel to Spain to celebrate Tim’s dad’s birthday and Spain is where I experienced by first heatstroke. My friends and I attended a Backstreet Boys Concert in Dubai and after settling in our new place, we travelled to Thailand, Nepal, Egypt and the UK. I resigned from my job and officially became a housewife. Lastly, Tim and I decided to adopt a rescue cat so 2018 has been interesting for us.

2019

I always had the idea of new years, new me. I kinda got sick of it, tbh. However; Tim and I have plans for 2019 but funnily enough, we haven’t planned or booked any flights for 2019 which is soooo not us. We decided to just go with the flow. Anyway I just want to wish you a happy 2019 and hopefully it will be a year of blessings to everyone.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

December 2018 Recap

December was CRAZZZYYYYY and it’s my favourite month of the year. Besides that my birthday is in December, there are many events. Tim and I travelled and it’s the month we both go broke since there are special occasions like Birthdays, Birthdays and Birthdays lol. We celebrated my brothers and dad’s birthday this month. Tim’s mum also visited us in Abu Dhabi where we all spent Christmas together and also New Years. So here is what has happened in December.

Destinations we’ve visited

UAE: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and Ajman.

Egypt: Cairo. It was a weekend trip.

UK: England, Scotland and Wales.

Highlights of the month

  • Learning the history of Egypt.
  • Celebrated my 30th Birthday in the UK.
  • Tim got me a book called ’30 years of Nissreen’ which includes messages from family and friends.
  • Travelled to the UK with Tim and my brothers.
  • Met a childhood friend after 20 years.
  • Celebrated Christmas with our family.
  • Celebrated actual Christmas in the desert with Tim and his mum.
  • Visited Wathba Desert in Abu Dhabi.

What I watched?

Series: NETFLIX

  • Chef’s Table
  • The Crown
  • Dark
  • F.R.I.E.N.D.S (when we need to laugh and not watch anything serious)
  • Fauda

Movies:

  • The Christmas Chronicles (Netflix)
  • Black Mirror (Netflix)
  • BirdBox (Netflix)
  • Dirty Dancing 2

Netflix Specials:

  • The Fix

What I read this month?

I took a break from reading because I did not spend time at home. I was out everyday lol. I’m thinking of taking up the 2019 GoodReads Challenge to motivate me to read more. I bought a lot of books which I need to read.

What music did I listen to this month?

CHRISTMAS SONGS WERE PLAYED EVERYWHERE

What have I blogged about in December?

Gosh! we have approached the end of 2018 and time really does fly. I also can’t believe I turned 30!!! I’m really looking forward to 2019 and hope it brings lots of joy and blessings to everyone.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE