Breathe Easy

I promised that I would update you as soon as we were confident our future plans were finalised and so here we go: We are moving to Dubai!

We had been waiting to hear from Emirates, the process has been ongoing since the end of last year. Jeroen had applied when he heard they were hiring, he was still working for SAS at the time, and we began dreaming of a possible future in the desert oasis. I certainly began thinking about it, visualizing a life there, and no doubt the kids did too. 

It must have been a stressful time for Jeroen because its possible that the kids and I talking about Dubai as if it was a done deal was likely a lot of pressure for him to cope with on top of his own wishes to have a secure job and be flying to incredible destinations once more. And so it was, with much trepidation, that when the call arrived and we actually had confirmation that he would be part of the Emirates team, trained up to fly the A380, we were all overjoyed. 

Sasha shed tears! I mean, we kinda all shed tears...Jeroen from relief, me for Jeroen and Sasha for whatever reason that he'd been holding in all his hopes for his future and for his fathers success...it was truly a special moment for all of us to hug it out as a family and just laugh through our tears. What a relief!

So Dubai is where our future lies. We will be flying there on the 29th of September, be put up in a nice hotel for 12 days before then moving into a villa on one of the two large compounds that Emirates has for their employees. Its going to be wild to go from having almost no possessions apart from the basics...to living in a four bedroom, two storey villa with a two-car carport! I think my mind still can't quite wrap around the sheer good fortune that has been presented to us after our patient due diligence these past three years. 

I am glad we waited, I am glad we chose to wait until there was a job better suited to my husbands lifetime of dedication to aviation. I have no doubt he will be worked hard, that there will be challenges as there are in any endeavour worth undertaking and he will meet those challenges head on, with the full support and encouragement of myself and the kids. We will meet the future as a family united. 

Right now we are juggling several important tasks of trying to get the kids into a new school in Dubai, handing in reports and passport details, trying to figure out how and when they take various aptitude tests required, the CAT4 and the MAP, neither of which I have heard of before but are likely tests I myself took when I moved from India to Hong Kong when I was thirteen. 

In reality, the only thing we need to stress about will be getting the kids into a school. If they have difficulty I will simply continue to home educate them. We have our heart set on one specific school, so I just don't think I am ready to shove them into a school that we merely settle on. Of course, I would love to have a job, earn an income, but I am willing to go back to my small business of jewellery retailing if I am stuck working from home.

I have already been researching everything from the price of groceries to the price of gasoline, the two things besides school fees that we have to consider. The company provides us with housing and utilities, which is really a huge financial burden we do not have to worry about because running air conditioners and having water usage covered in a desert is really something else! Of course, when I communicate with friends we have who are already in Dubai, they tell me that I need not sit about worrying about these minor issues such as where to shop for local veggies when getting a kid into school is the only real issue I have to focus on!

It is a bit strange to know we still have another 3 months to go before we head to Dubai. We will likely sail into Greece from Turkey by mid July and then we still have time before we take the boat to Preveza where we will put it up for sale after clearing out all our meagre belongings. We expect to be in Preveza by mid September at the latest. 

Once we settle in Dubai and have our local identification documents secured we will have one of us head to Greece to pick up Natale, our cat, from my mother-in-law's place and bring her to join us at our new home. Things will all slot into place one way or another.  

Anyway, that is about all we have to update right now. Turkey continues to be a beautiful place to sit about on the water and on anchor. We have my father here visiting us at the moment so its wonderful to spend time with him. He has chosen to stay at the hotel on shore so he can have air conditioning and some semblance of creature comforts, understandable at his age (78). He departs tomorrow, headed for Bodrum in his rental car! I think its awesome he's so independent still! I will miss him but I know we will see him again soon enough, next time in Dubai.