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Tallybalt

Tallybalt
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EW GURU
Latest post on 03 December 2013 - 11:36
You can only work for the person or entity that sponsors you. Maids certainly cannot "buy" their visa from a sponsor. They will be on a maid's visa that only allows them to work for the sponsor. Some sponsors will make money on the side by sponsoring maids and allowing them to work illegally in exchange for part of the wages or the visa expenses. But it's decidedly not legal. The only people in Dubai on their own sponsorship are the people who own their own companies via one of the freezones. Your only legal option is one of the maid agencies.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 02 December 2013 - 15:37
Try the food hall at Galeries Lafayette at the Dubai Mall? It's an underutilized resource, methinks. Excellent quality if not cheap. Organics supermarket *may* have goose.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 02 December 2013 - 15:34
Dubai actually has very strict health and safety regulations regarding food preparations. The inspectors are pretty vigilant and keep a close eye over the restaurant scene. There are health and safety regulations here??
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EW GURU
Latest post on 30 November 2013 - 21:09
India is not a bad option. See the Taj Mahal, Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur. Good weather, lovely old forts and palaces. But what about Turkey? Fly to Istanbul for a few days and then take another quick flight to Cappadocia for a few days. Cappadocia has a lot of outdoor activities and staying in a place like Goreme means you can stay in one of the fabulous boutique hotels carved out of the rocky formations with cave-like rooms. The kids would love it. The domestic flights in Turkey are quite cheap. The Acropolis in Athens is worth seeing but Athens itself is not necessarily the most endearing city. The other wonderful sights in Greece are best seen when the weather is warmer and island hopping may be difficult during the off-season.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 29 November 2013 - 17:12
I think you're from Australia, right? If I wanted a traditional cozy Christmas experience I'd go to Vienna first for a few days and then maybe go someplace like Zell am See or Innsbruck for several days of skiing or just to be surrounded by mountains and snow. The popular resorts will be booked out but you should be able to find something in Innsbruck. Vienna at Christmas is absolutely magical although the christmas markets generally only run up to Christmas, not after Christmas. Pretty much anywhere in Europe is dead quiet on the 25th-26th with shops, museums and restaurants closed, so you need to factor that into your plans. Another good place would be Italy. We went to Italy over Christmas several times as a child (always departing on the 25th and arriving back 7-10 days later) so while we weren't in Italy on Christmas day itself and missed the masses it was still a lovely experience. The Italians are very fond of building large creches for Christmas and they can be quite elaborate and fun to view.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 28 November 2013 - 21:03
Speaking of international coverage, the WSJ did have this little blurb on its ME blog: http://blogs.wsj.com/middleeast/2013/11/28/what-does-hosting-world-expo-2020-mean-for-dubai/ To summarize: "The news might be lost on many people outside the United Arab Emirates, as expos aren’t quite as high profile as holding the Olympics or the soccer World Cup." "Dubai predicts 277,000 jobs will be created as a result of the Expo; a big number given it equates to 20% of the current workforce of 1.3 million, according to Capital Economics. The emirate also forecasts visitors of 25 million, an optimistic figure compared with the 10 million visitors last year, and the 16 million expected in London this year, the leading city worldwide for visitors."
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EW GURU
Latest post on 26 November 2013 - 13:06
In my house it's Christmas Eve that's more important. We have a big formal dinner, light the tree and the children each open one special present and then we go to the midnight services. The 25th is more casual and other family/friends come over and we spend the day playing games and have a light supper in the evening. It's almost as if it's two separate Christmases with different sets of traditions. Both are equally enjoyable. Perhaps you could do something like this? Have a Christmas dinner on the 24th with your stepdaughter, open one or two gifts and still celebrate the holiday with her as a family unit. Then on the 25th she could go to her mother's. It may not be a perfect solution but compromise is needed in your situation. If you can think of Christmas as several days of celebration rather than just one make it or break it day, that way everyone can share the celebrations together at some point over the holidays and no one is left out or excluded.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 26 November 2013 - 11:04
There doesn't seem to be a fixed rule for when the expos must happen. Recently it's been every 2-3 years. Yeosu was in 2012, Shanghai in 2010 and Zaragosa in 2008. Milan is scheduled for 2015 and Astana for 2017. If Dubai wins the expo, perhaps they will truly pull off a spectacular event and capture the world's attention but judging from what I can find out about past expos they tend to be a localized event visited primarily by residents of the host city and surrounding vicinity with minimal attention from overseas. In short it's pretty much a bigger version of Global City. Winning the expo isn't going to change any perceptions about Dubai. Hi ladies, the expo is every 5 years and not 2! The last one was Shangai and the next one will Be Milan.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 25 November 2013 - 12:37
Your link is from the official Dubai expo website. Forgive me for saying this but perhaps that's not the most objective source? Here's a list of the past hosts for the expos over the last 30 years: Yeosu, South Korea Shanghai, China Zaragoza, Spain Aichi, Japan Hanover, Germany Lisbon, Portugal Daejon, South Korea Genoa, Italy Seville, Spain Brisbane, Australia Vancouver, Canada Tsukuba, Japan New Orleans, USA Knoxville, USA Spokane, USA With the exception of Shanghai none of the above can truly be called global cities. Most are perfectly pleasant if relatively minor cities. Some are actually quite small cities. Some of them also lost a great deal of money for their host cities. There's no indication that hosting the expos was a transformational experience for any of the cities. My point is that if Dubai wants to host the expo, that's fine. I'm sure it's a fun experience for the host city and its residents (mostly) even if the rest of the world merely blinks. But the promotional propaganda flying around isn't really based on reality. There's no reason to assume that the expo is going to be a transformational experience or attract so many new businesses or jobs or justify the enormous increases in rents and property prices. For those saying the Expo is over-hyped and oh,not so important, have a look here http://expo2020dubai.ae/en/world_expos/world_expo_legacy If some don't pay attention to certain things, this doesn't mean they are less important for the rest of the world! I really wish Dubai gets Expo 2020! And, yeah, am a supporter who knows what the Expo is about! :) edited by simoralu44 on 25/11/2013
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EW GURU
Latest post on 24 November 2013 - 21:26
Perhaps something from the last, oh, say, 100 years might be a more relevant argument? I think the architects of the Crystal Palace and the Eiffel Tower might disagree !! lol
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EW GURU
Latest post on 17 November 2013 - 20:47
I was a debutante.... (hides behind curtains waiting for rotten tomatoes) In my home city there was an established men's club that my father belonged to and which traditionally sponsored an annual debutante's ball for the daughters who were coming of age. It was more of a big thing way (and I mean way, way, way) back in the day and the ball was once the highlight of the city's social season....circa 1905. By the time I came along it was just "DD, you're now old enough, want to take a few dancing lessons and wear a white dress to a party in a hotel ballroom as a half-hearted gesture towards old traditions everyone's forgotten except us?" I remember having a pleasant if generally unremarkable time as none of us took it seriously and there was also a sense of how silly the whole thing was, especially the dance of the debutantes in front of everyone. But if a group of people want to get together and organize a ball as a charity fundraiser and are having fun, by all means let them do it.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 16 November 2013 - 12:31
I'll go on record as saying that I don't like that word. I don't like it when I hear people say it and I do think too many people use it too often. It does reflect a lack of maturity and as my father once said, a lack of intelligence if you can't express yourself without having to resort to extreme vulgarity. But jail? Absolutely not. I'm happy to respect the laws of the UAE but sending someone to jail for saying a certain word in the heat of the moment is not justifiable. Slap him with a fine of a few thousand dirhams, sure, I can accept that. But jail? There's something wrong when insane speeders and drivers whose actions threaten people's lives are only given fines while using a certain word gets you a prison sentence. Even the driver who ran over that poor Lebanese cyclist at Safa Park received a few months in jail. For killing someone while drunk. The punishments in this country are absolutely not equitable.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 13 November 2013 - 12:31
I'm assuming you're talking about British Indian as there's seemingly thousands of fantastic Indian restaurants in Dubai. Outside of India, Dubai is probably the best place to sample the huge variety of Indian food on offer. Gazebo is my favorite. But it is not British Indian if that makes a difference.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 13 November 2013 - 12:30
Your friend got dumped by her husband and is hurt by it and you want to ask her for his address to send him a Christmas card? Hmm.... if I were your friend I wouldn't respond well to it no matter how amicable a face I may put to the world. The polite side of me would still pass along the address but I wouldn't think kindly of you. She's going through an emotionally raw period and it's all about being tactful. The best thing to do is to find his address separately. Can you not try to find his contact information through, say, LinkedIn or finding out where he works and send the Christmas card to his office address? Do you have any other friends in common who you could ask?
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EW GURU
Latest post on 11 November 2013 - 21:44
How important is your career to you? How important is it to advance in your career? Are you aiming for a directorship someday? I've been out of the workforce for over seven years now and we have no plans for me to work again in the next few years. It does have to do with us becoming a globe-trotting expat family and that the longer I'm out of the workforce the less it makes sense - financially - for me to work relative to what DH makes. As such I'm already resigned to the prospect of being a housewife for life. I do have mixed feelings about it but at the same time I'm not unhappy with my life. The reason I asked the initial question is that when I look at my friends and sisters in the US who all work, the ones who kept working and only took minimal time off are the ones who are becoming the leaders in their respective industries, senior editors, company VPs, law partners and corporate managers, while those who took a few years off are having to settle for less glamorous positions. Everyone seems pretty happy with the decision they made as it was clear at the time what the priorities were and it's obviously different for each family.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 03 November 2013 - 21:07
I am not unsympathetic to landlords who are underwater on their mortgages. I'm a landlord too, back home. But when we bought our rental properties we knew we were taking on all the risks associated with it, including the risk of market rents declining below what our mortgage payments would be. The issue at stake in Dubai is that many landlords are deliberately breaking the laws and real estate regulations. They are deliberately taking advantage of tenants' expat statuses and lack of knowledge of their rights. They are deliberately playing games and lying to their tenants to try to get them out of the property. And not all landlords are underwater on their mortgages, many bought properties before the boom started and have already made large profits. Glad you find it amusing abet. Landlords who only own one property, have a huge mortgage to pay at the going interest rate but are prevented from putting there rent up by more than 5% must be laughing away too - not! 22% is a huge difference for a landlord - how can it be fair to not allow any increase. It is because of this nonsense that landlords and agents are resorting to unethical means to get tenants out or increase rents.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 28 October 2013 - 12:47
There's Tioman Island. A pretty place. Direct 40 minute flights from Singapore on Berjaya Air.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 28 October 2013 - 12:44
My first reaction was heck, no. Then I realized brunches are an afternoon event, running from 12-4 or thereabouts. It's much harder to "sneak" alcohol in broad daylight in a public setting like a hotel dining room. If it's a group of generally responsible teenagers that you personally know (and their parents too) then I don't see the harm in letting your son go. But not only would I drop him off and pick him up from the hotel, I'd also go in at the beginning, ostensibly to say hi to all his friends and then have a quick private chat with the hotel / restaurant manager on the way out to remind them that it's a group of underage kids. If it's a hotel with multiple restaurants offering brunch, then perhaps you could even arrange a brunch with your friends in another restaurant so you're in close proximity to be on the safe side.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 10 October 2013 - 16:11
Copa is more famous but Ipenema is better. More intimate and safer and better restaurants. Copa is huge and when it's dark you can't see the shore from the promenade and you do not want to be out of public view. Apparently because of the tides Ipenema is also a cleaner beach. Be sure to go to a steakhouse. Amazing. I also loved my tour of H Sterns jewelry shop. You're taken on a behind the scene tour which is fascinating.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 10 October 2013 - 16:02
Copa is more famous but Ipenema is better. More intimate and safer and better restaurants. Copa is huge and when it's dark you can't see the shore from the promenade and you do not want to be out of public view. Apparently because of the tides Ipenema is also a cleaner beach. Be sure to go to a steakhouse. Amazing. I also loved my tour of H Sterns jewelry shop. You're taken on a behind the scene tour which is fascinating.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 06 October 2013 - 20:08
Just be aware of property taxes if you buy a house. Texas property taxes are quite high to make up for the lack of a state income tax. But the property taxes is what funds the local schools. Meagle is correct in that you don't need school fees in the US anymore than you do in the UK. Going to a private school is purely a personal choice and there's no tax incentives or rebates in doing so. And there's great public schools. But if you're coming in as an expat your company may offer school fees. DH's company offers expats relocating to the US school fees (at his level, that is). The idea was that the expats could send their children to the international school offering the home country curriculum as the relocations are only meant to be temporary, but at the end of the day they can spend the money at whatever school they want and apparently most people elect for an American private school to build up the English language skills. So if your company will offer school fees and you want the kids to go to the British school in Houston, go for it. But if school fees aren't offered, there will be lots of great public school options.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 05 October 2013 - 09:47
I'm not from Houston but can offer the following: Health care will be provided by your company (same as in Dubai). If you're working in oil and gas the health care policies tend to be excellent. America does have excellent health care as long as it's paid for. Schooling: there's a British School of Houston which may be ideal if you're only planning on staying there for a few years before moving elsewhere and want to keep your children in the UK curriculum. Alternatively there are good US state/public schools and private schools. Will the company offer school fees? Some do. If you elect to use US state schools the approximate rule of thumb is the more expensive the neighborhood the better the schools. Good private schools include Kincaid and St. John's. Houston is a big, sprawling city so where to live may be dependent on where your husband is working. The Woodlands is very popular with families, has excellent reputation for its schools and yes, can be quite expensive, and the same is true for Sugarlands. Both are very suburban communities. More central/in town location are the neighborhoods around the Galleria Mall/Uptown District and Bellaire near Rice University which have a more established character and feel (basically Jumeriah versus Arabian Ranches).
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EW GURU
Latest post on 05 October 2013 - 09:35
If I were in your feet, I'd try to find a villa in Umm Suqeim or Al Sufouh, which is handy for Dubai College and close to the beaches and malls. If the kids drive you crazy on the weekends you can easily kick them out of the house and tell them to go to the beach. If living near Dubai College, if you dropped the first set of kids off at DC first and then drove out to DESC, the traffic is much more in your favor than the other way around. Have you seen the various communities in person? Living out in Arabian Ranches/Silicon Oasis/Victory Heights is a very different feel than Jumeira/Umm Suqeim.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 27 September 2013 - 13:45
The Khaleej article was interesting to read especially for the subtle warnings within the overall bullish tone. It admitted that not all expos are successes and some resulted in large losses for the host country. The China expo was an overall success but the numbers themselves should be interpreted carefully. Apparently there were 73 million visitors, but only 4 million international visitors. Given the sheer size of China's population, not to mention Shanghai's population, the 73 million number isn't a surprise. We must also ask how many of the international visitors were people who were already going to be in China for other tourist or business purposes, and are expats included in the international numbers? Another factor to consider is that those numbers include repeat visitors as host city/country residents may visit the expo a number of times over the six months it's on. According to Wiki Shanghai's greater population is 23 million. If each resident visited the expo three times over the six months that pretty much accounts for the domestic visitor numbers. According to the article the Milan expo is expecting 20 million visitors. Not only is Milan a much bigger city than Dubai (greater metro is 5 million) it's also located in a much more populated area with easy and rapid transportation links to the rest of Italy, not to mention Germany, Austria and France. The UAE has a population of about 4 million people and Dubai somewhere between 1.5 and 2 million people. No doubt there will be many visitors from other Gulf countries and perhaps India/Pakistan/Central Asia. But based on the other expos the vast bulk of visitors will be domestic tourists living in the UAE or driving in from Oman, Saudi, Qatar and Bahrain. Will the actual uptick in genuine overseas tourist numbers be enough to justify the type of demand for new hotel spaces and tourist facilities that some people are implying?
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EW GURU
Latest post on 17 September 2013 - 13:10
I agree. People are greatly exaggerating the effect of an international expo. In the first place it's nothing comparable to the Olympics and rarely garners the type of international press coverage and attention that the Olympics do. Most expo attendance is domestic, not internationally. How many of you remember the Chinese Expo? How many remember the Beijing Olympics? Big difference. Japan's won the 2020 Olympics and the world media will be focused on that, not on what happens in Dubai. If Dubai wins the expo, they'll build a couple new buildings and the design firms will win more work, so a handful of construction project managers and architects and engineers will be recruited. Is that really enough people to have an impact on the housing demand? Most of the actual workers at the expo and expo related industries (hotels and restaurants) will be recruited seasonally and paid very little and will have accommodation provided by their employers. If Dubai wins the 2020 exhibition bid, this situation will get even more untenable as LLs will become even more bullish with their projections. November will be an interesting time! An expo 7 years from now will not have an actual effect on demand so there is only so much that you can try to increase prices by blowing hot air That's actually not true. A lot of jobs will be created by the Expo, more hotels will be built, more people will move here as a result. Prices will go up. You are right, but jobs will be created in 2017 and onwards You wont have droves of peopel coming in 2014 for an expo that happens in 2020 And when the jobs come, what will matter is how much they pay. If you have loads of people on salaries below 15,000, that wont lead to a property costing 100,000 to become 200,000. At the end of the day, the main component of demand is how much people can pay.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 09 September 2013 - 18:17
Everyone gets DEWA. Not everyone gets district cooling bills. The difference is how the air conditioning is supplied to your villa/apartment. Almost all apartments and villas in Dubai have their own internal air conditioning system separate from others. If you have a villa you pay for the AC usage via the electricity required to operate the system. This is reflected in your DEWA bill. However, for apartments, since there's one AC system for the entire building, it's not practical to break down the usage by individual apartments, so the landlords pay for the AC out of their maintenance fees (hence the adverts for "chiller included" in real estate listings). The tenant's DEWA bill will be the water/electricity usage only. A number of the new master planned communities are supplied with district cooling, which means there's a centralized cooling plant that pumps chilled air via chilled water into each building/villa. This method allows for the monitoring of individual apartment/villa's AC usage. If you live in a district cooling scheme you receive two bills, a DEWA bill and a district cooling bill. The latter is usually quarterly. In theory district cooling is more efficient but the reality is that the cost of the AC is passed directly to the tenants, which is why people in district cooling schemes pay a lot more for their AC usage than people in non-district cooling schemes. The savings for those who live in non-district cooling apartments is significant when compared to those who live in district cooling, but those who live in villas it's probably a moot point as the district cooling simply replaces what would be the AC share of their regular DEWA bill. The district cooling areas include JLT, JBR, the Palm, anything by Nakheel, Motor City. Most of the Marina outside JBR is not district cooling, almost anything by Emaar is not district cooling, and "regular" areas like Al Barsha, TECOM, Bur Dubai, the Jumeiras and everything north of the creek are not district cooling. In our last apartment we never paid the housing fee. So Dewa was 350 approx, and cooling was 1800 a month. Our friends in JLT have been given a 2 month bill of over 4000dhs for cooling. edited by salsB on 09/09/2013 What is the difference between DEWA and cooling? I thought it was just one bill.....
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EW GURU
Latest post on 04 September 2013 - 11:44
Just to offer a different perspective - when we first moved to Dubai back in 2007 people were saying Dubai was a great place to be professionally because it was much easier to move "up" the corporate hierarchy as the demand was so strong that people were able to get hired into higher positions with less experience than would be required back in their home countries. I'm sure the truth is dependent on the sector you work in and the nature of your work but we do know quite a few people who have progressed substantially in their careers. Likewise, back home many people feel stuck at their current level due to the stagnant job market and that the baby boomers are delaying retirement and still occupying senior level positions. But there is some truth in that the longer you stay in the ME and the more ME focused your career becomes the harder it becomes to transfer into a comparable role back in your home country. There are exceptions, of course. DH has definitely progressed in his career while living overseas but then again he has a senior role with a major multi-national, not an unknown local company whose name wouldn't register with prospective employers in the US. Emirates is probably the only UAE based company whose name may have some impact back home and the company has a great, very professional reputation worldwide. As for coming to Dubai on the package offered to you, it will come down to your expectations. If you want a typical US suburban lifestyle with a comfortable house and good quality schools, it's really not sufficient enough. But if you are willing to compromise and find a cheaper apartment, it can be doable, but it will be tight.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 02 September 2013 - 12:41
I am guessing it's an older compound villa in Jumeira 1 / Al Badia /Satwa? Yes, I'd rather live there than out in Al Furjan or the Springs. It seems to be becoming the forgotten part of town despite having so many amenities and close to the beaches. oh ye of little faith. Yes this place exists. It's central and I only moved in a few months ago. The compound is owned by one person who obviously feels no need to fleece his tenants. Did I mention 4 cheques? No matter how eager you non-believers are to know where this "fairy-tale land" is, I'm keeping this location to myself. lol But as I managed to find it, so presumably can you.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 08 August 2013 - 00:42
Scruffle's child is an expat and it's probably unlikely (statistically speaking) to live in Dubai in the future so employers in his home country or another country won't recognize any Dubai school names on his CV. Once he gets his university degree it won't be necessary to include high school information - certainly in the US most people don't list their high schools as part of resumes. Even if he stays in Dubai many hiring managers won't know what the difference is between most of the schools. Anyway, I do feel sorry for you, Scruffles. I'd be furious if school fees were taken away as it is a pay cut in another form and a quite large pay cut. I'm surprised that the company has a 5-year limit for school fees?! What do they expect the employees do at the end of the five years? Leave? Do whatever it takes to make sure your soon to fraduate son does not get changed to a cheap school. This school will be on his résumé for the next step of his life. If you go to JESS from fs1 til the year before you graduate then move to Mawakeb, guess where your senior certificate, that is written on your CV until you've gotten your first job post uni qualification is :/ Sell things you don't need. Find a 60K rental. Get a different job. This is essential for him, do not let him change. Even if it means putting your other child into a really cheap school for a year to get some cash (Winchester or another GEMS cheapie) then once he graduates, send him home as he will be 18 so cannot be sponsored, he will have a good education to stand on, then invest in your other child. My high school opened many doors for me, it does make a difference.
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Latest post on 29 July 2013 - 21:47
Springs: all attached villas in rows. Meadows: all detached villas. Lakes: a mixture of both. Springs is cheapest and the villas are the smallest. Most of the villas are quite pokey. Lakes attached villas are a bit bigger.
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Latest post on 29 July 2013 - 21:44
The closest comparison to Holland Village is probably Jumeira. Loads of smaller shopping centers and outdoor cafes (when the weather is nice) along the Beach Road in Jumeira 1-3 and out towards Umm Suqeim.
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Latest post on 25 July 2013 - 12:07
The DoC has always struck me as a quiet but strong woman. She has no desire to upset royal convention but she won't let it dominate her. That this baby will be the first royal baby not to have a nanny (so far) is quite telling about the kind of childhood Kate and William want to provide for their children and her refusal to let the whole royal circus get to her head. She and William are going to be brilliant at continuing the traditions and standards of the monarchy while still allowing themselves to have some semblance of a modern family life. Really? Surely if you believed in conspiracy theories you'd just think she had a fake post baby bump up her dress and the cut of the dress and the way she was holding herself was all part of the deceit? But seriously, does anyone normal really believe that? I think she's a girl's girl and is simply saying 'I've just had a baby, this is what women look like when they've just had a baby and I'm not ashamed of it'. For all the talk of her being totally malleable and doing anything she's told, she does seem to be doing things her own way. Going to stay with her parents for starters.
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Latest post on 22 July 2013 - 10:29
It does seem to be less western/British focused than a few years ago but that may be reflective of the general demographic changes in Dubai. My friends in the Ranches and Emirates Living have commented their neighborhoods are much more diverse now than they were back in 2008/2009. What has been the biggest change in the tone of the forum topics? I'd say that there are more incidents where someone evokes Islamic traditions/Sharia laws in a thread (usually by a convert) and many of us don't rebut or say anything in fear of being seen as criticising an obviously very important religion and culture for the region. Perhaps that's why the forum seems a bit dull these days as we don't seem to have any healthy discussions about anything anymore as we're afraid of offending someone or a culture.
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Latest post on 21 July 2013 - 10:32
The one and only time I saw a little girl wear an abaya was actually in a supermarket in the United States. She looked to be about five or six and I was tempted to go to her father and tell him that I lived in the Gulf and had never seen little girls in abayas. What about an Indian sari? Lots of pink ones around.
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Latest post on 16 July 2013 - 22:35
No, I did not grow up in an Islamic country. But I'm not new to Dubai either. Maybe it's because I only have boys but this is the first I've heard it's unacceptable for girls to wear basic knee length type shorts in public, which is odd given that I've seen girls of all nationalities and religions do so. If I had a young daughter I wouldn't let her strut around in the malls wearing tight and revealing shorts but at the same time I still find regular knee length shorts less revealing than a skirt of equivalent length.
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Latest post on 16 July 2013 - 21:49
I wore shorts all the time as a child and we were a well behaved churchgoing family. What kind of shorts are we talking about here? The kind that go down to the knees or the teeny-weeny little ones? Many skirts are more revealing than shorts.
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Latest post on 08 July 2013 - 08:13
It was a brilliant match played by a young man from Scotland and who now lives in England. I suppose that makes him both Scottish and British. Not that it matters. It was amazing to watch his performance both yesterday and in the semi-finals.
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EW GURU
Latest post on 05 July 2013 - 12:35
If landlords serve you with an eviction notice to move out in 12 months, they can only do two things with the property after you move out: sell it or move into it themselves (I suppose the third option would be to leave it empty). They're legally not allowed to rerent the property for two years after you've been evicted. Of course that's always going to be difficult to prove. If you get evicted with the claim that the owner wants to sell/move in, you have no choice but to move out at the end of the 12 months, but keep an eye on the property and if it's rented out immediately, file a claim against the landlord and take him to the rent committee. People have done this and have been successful in recovering some of their expenses for moving out. It's great that most tenants are winning, but I can't help thinking - isn't the most likely outcome that after losing the case, the LL will simply serve you with the year's notice to quit, so in 12 months' time you're forced back into paying whatever insane rent has become the norm for new tenants? There's nothing to stop any LL from doing that - is there? I know that technically, LLs can't evict tenants simply to put the rent up, but there doesn't seem to be any mechanism to prevent them from doing this as long as they give the 12 months' notice.
Tallybalt
654
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EW GURU
Latest post on 01 July 2013 - 20:20
In hindsight the Arab spring wasn't a blessing, was it? It's now obvious Egypt would be better off had the Mubaraks remained in power. Syria would be in a much better condition had the rebels not challenged Assad. I'm not implying that either Mubarak or Assad were good leaders but so far it looks as if they were the lesser of two evils, especially as the rebels in Syria now seem to be taken over by pro-Al Qaeda forces.
Tallybalt
654
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EW GURU
Latest post on 01 July 2013 - 14:16
I don't think you can rent a property without your residency visa. No visa, no local bank account, no signing rental contracts, no registering DEWA. That's another reason why people tend to stay in serviced apartments for a month or so, courtesy of the company. Will your husband's visa be ready by your move in August? If the company won't put you up in a serviced apartment you may have to pay for your own serviced place for a month or so.
Tallybalt
654
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EW GURU
Latest post on 30 June 2013 - 14:34
Yes, that's the place. Thanks for the feedback. Perhaps I'll have him start off with a few shirts as a trial run before ordering suits. Do you mean Logsdail of london, this is in Al Quoz (has 2 lions outside the doors)? If you do, I had a suit made for OH there, not cheap, 7500 dhs, however, the quality is very very high. That being said, it took 3 months and they also messed up and put the wrong lining in to that we had chosen. They did offer another suit for half price by way of apology, however, I didn't really want to have to spend another nearly 4k, so didn't take them up on their offer. They know their stuff, the quality as I said, is very high, but it does take a long time and make sure they write down the details of everything correctly.
Tallybalt
654
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EW GURU
Latest post on 27 June 2013 - 16:11
The Club at the World Trade Center has a large pool and offers swimming lessons. It's that older hotel apartment complex on Sheikh Zayed right behind the WTC and should be close enough to Bur Dubai. I can't tell you what the fees are but if you call them you should be able to find out.
Tallybalt
654
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EW GURU
Latest post on 27 June 2013 - 09:03
It's called book, ban, boot. In other words, book her flight back home, take her to the airport, ban her, and boot her out of the country. Harsh, but she can't resign just after you renewed her contract and paid all the visa expenses! I'd be furious. I hope you still have her passport. My maid just resigned after we renews her contract n she was gone in 5 hrs Leaving us in awe! My 2 year old daughter was really attached to her I havenot found one yet n desperately hoping tofind one wit good recommendations Pls let me know if you know of one
Tallybalt
654
Posts
EW GURU
Latest post on 27 June 2013 - 08:11
Since you are pregnant I'll forgive you for not paying attention to all the landlord/eviction threads posted on here in the last few months ;) The landlord can't kick you out with only two months notice. He has to give you 12 full months following the expiration of your current contract, in other words 12 months plus the two remaining months you have. It doesn't matter if he's selling the villa and whoever buys the villa has to respect the current tenancy contract.
Tallybalt
654
Posts
EW GURU
Latest post on 26 June 2013 - 14:03
DH and I have talked about this (actually we talk about this on a regular basis as it's part of our overall savings and retirement scheme). I don't know if I'll ever go back to work someday when the boys are older. A lot of it will depend on our circumstances and DH's career and where we happen to be living, so not having my own pension plan is always in the back of my mind. But it's not just a question of being an expat housewife but if your husband was an expat too, odds are minimal sums are being paid to your home country's pension schemes. If you elect to live overseas for the majority of your working life you do need to make private provisions for your retirement. As it is, a full 25% of our income is set aside for retirement. This is separate from "regular" savings that are meant for other purposes like future college bills, our eventual dream house in the US, cars and holidays. We have a diverse retirement portfolio that includes real estate (two rental houses where the rent covers the mortgage + taxes + maintenance expenses, in about 12 years we will own the houses clear and have nothing but income from them), stock and bonds and mutual funds. Our names are jointly on everything so if he died I would inherit everything free and clear.
Tallybalt
654
Posts
EW GURU
Latest post on 26 June 2013 - 08:28
Well, the OP has her answer. Find a nice iftar buffet at a hotel, then move onwards to the hotel bar for drinks afterwards. Best of both worlds. By the way, while not in a hotel the iftar at Momo at the Mall of Emirates is excellent. Lovely Moroccan food so it's not just the usual Arabic suspects. You can always go over to the Kempinski afterwards for your drinks.
Tallybalt
654
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EW GURU
Latest post on 25 June 2013 - 13:42
Take the kids up the mountains. The Alps are staggeringly beautiful. Last year we started in Munich and went to Salzburg and from there to Zell am See in Austria. Beautiful lake surrounding by seriously impressive mountain peaks. You can take the cable cars up to the top of the mountains and walk around. The kids can swim in the lake.
Tallybalt
654
Posts
EW GURU
Latest post on 24 June 2013 - 08:13
That's always been the case when I was growing up. The last week of school was pretty irrelevant. Class games and parties, little work gets done and the kids are wild with anticipation. It was only when we started taking exams in middle and high schools that the last week had a purpose. Are your children still working in school this week or does it feel like school has broken up already and we are just sending the kids in for a weeks baby sitting ? I'm sure the kids are having a ball but really a whole week of nothing
Tallybalt
654
Posts
EW GURU
Latest post on 20 June 2013 - 15:20
I don't know how often this happens but I've heard stories similar to yours. Buyer lives in the opposite side of town and demands delivery. Seller complies, arrives at the buyer's place and the buyer only offers half the initial offering price. The assumption is that the seller wouldn't be bothered to take the product back home after making a long trip, so they'll be persuaded to let it go cheaply.
Tallybalt
654
Posts
EW GURU
Latest post on 20 June 2013 - 10:58
Take him to Wild Wadi or buy him a new shirt/shoes. I would never give cash in exchange for clothes. While academic success should be celebrated it should not equated with cold hard cash as there's an intrinsic value in learning.
 
 
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