The Rain in Al Ain.

Hi boys and girls,

welcome to Al Ain. Our wee family have been here for around a month (Ande's been here a few weeks more) and we're settling in.

Where's Al Ain?

On the UAE border with Oman. It's about an hour and a half to Abu Dhabi and an

hour and a quarter to Dubai. It's inland while the better known places are coastal.

Why on earth would anyone want to live there?

Originally the Emirati families would move here over summer to escape the intense humidity on the coast. It gets hotter here, but the heat is dry so it is more bearable. Al Ain is alongside a mountain (Jebel Hafeet) and it is famous for its springs, making it an oases in the desert. Nowdays many Emirati still have summer places (palaces) here, there are camel farms surrounding it (we look out over a camel farm from our windows) and date farms throughout the city. The population is about 700 000, and it's incredibly spread out. The whole city is low-rise, it's quite green and beautiful (it's called the Garden City) and there is a much higher population of Arabs here compared to expats. That's mainly because there is very little gas and oil and not much tourism, the Westerners are mainly working in Education while Indians, Pakistanis, Phillipinos, Sri Lankans etc do the hard work.

Our Place (Te Papa)

We have a big four bedroom villa on the far edge of Al Ain. There's only really a camel farm between us and the airport and we're on the way to Abu Dhabi, which is great because Ande has quite a bit of work there. We share about an acre with another villa. They have a few plants struggling to survive in front of their house. The rest of the acre section is sand and rubble. I kid you not. There is a small supermarket 5mins drive away and a big one 10mins away. It takes about 30 mins to get to Ande's office in town, although she won't be working there that often. We have four bathrooms a seperate kitchen dining and lounge (and another lounge is now Matija's playroom) and about 8 split a/c's although there are usually only six or seven in working order at any time. Temps have been in low to mid 40's in the middle of the day, high 30's at night, but they are gradually cooling. No dishwasher, but the house is great and we're enjoying the space, although we have to yell to find where everyone is. Ande keeps telling me to mention that the house is great. It is very comfortable!

The Neighbours

The house next door has a Cognition couple and the next two houses have Cognition families, although none of them are in Ande's teams, which is good. Amelie and Declan are kiwi kids aged 7 and 4, they live a couple of houses over and they come and visit all the time or Matija goes and hangs out with them. Their parents are good value too. Louis is a 5yr old from South Africa, he has older brothers but he is Declan's mate and comes over sometimes too. It's great. We're loving the chance for Matija to hang out with other kids and it is great for her.

The Job

Ande is one of three School Improvement Leaders looking after 24 teams of 3-7 advisors who are working with the local Emirati Schools. Sexy senior managament! She'll be the guardian angel for 7 teams around Al Ain, keeping them up to speed and up to scratch. Lots of coaching and PD and kicking arse where that fails to make an impression. She was heavily involved in the induction but schools have just re-started so she'll be getting down to b'ness this week. She's also involved in Professional Development for Cognition in the Middle East.

Vince will be writing stuff when he packs Matija off to school (tomorrow)

Matija starts at Sunflower, a nursery/school that caters for 3-6 year olds, tomorrow and she starts once-a-week ballet tomorrow. The school only has 4 teaching hours per day, but there are another couple of optional hours of supervised play. Each class has a teacher and an assistant and there is a maximum of 14 in each class. There is heaps of space, a great covered play area plus an indoor playroom. It just started this year and is being run by an Aussie. Should be great.

Rugby Club?

We joined the Al Ain Amblers Rugby Club. They have a pool, gym, bar and restaurant that's about 10 mins drive away. I've started playing touch rugby on a Thursday night, they have family discount meals that night as well as bouncy castle, touch for the kids and movies for the little ones. It's great - the place was swarming with kids last Thursday and Matija had a ball. Despite the heat the touch was fun. There are Poms, Aussies, South Africans and even a few Americans turned up to have a crack. It was a lot of fun and really family oriented. We're also using the pool and gym during the week so we will be making the most of our membership.

Other stuff.

Been setting up the place, getting a few bits and bobs and making it feel like home. IKEA in Abu Dhabi have some great stuff (thanks Bron), but we've mostly picked up bits and pieces locally. Got a vinyl blow-up pool. They were on special for a coupla hundred bucks and I thought it could go between our villa and the neighbours. Well, I overestimated the gap and underestimate the size of the pool. It now takes up the whole space between villas and is still a bit squashed fitting in there. You can no longer walk between the houses. I thing Doug and Marion (next door) were a bit shocked when they got back from their holiday, but they've been great and once I've got a bit of shade cloth up behind it, it'll be a great place for a few quiets on a sunny afternoon (something to look forward to Deb). There's a filter and pump and we can treat it with chlorine. Just like a real one but a lot quicker to vacuum. The water is up to Matija's chest, she can go diving around I'm thinking of putting a coupla basketball hoops up the side of the buildings to enhance the fun.