5 Highlights From The Past Few Weeks!

Peonies, Coffee, Marble, Desk, Home Office

So, the last few weeks have been super busy with lots of different things happening. I would say there has been an equal balance of stressful and enjoyable moments. To make a change from the usual beauty related blog posts that I write, I thought it would be nice to write about some of my personal highlights from the past few weeks :).

1 – Having Visitors

When you are living away from home, having visitors is the best thing ever. It turns into a mini holiday for Dan and I too as we end up doing things that we wouldn’t necessarily do on the regular. Last month we had a few different groups of visitors which was really lovely. There were lots of catch up chats, even more laughs, lots of eating out and a few nights in Dubai 🙂

2- Flying Home For My Sister’s Skydive

Last month I also went back home to Ireland as my sister was undertaking her first ever skydive. She hadn’t done a skydive before and usually isn’t the adrenaline seeking kind, but she was doing it for a charity of her choice and she knew it was for a great cause. All of the fundraising support really helped her stay focused too so thank you to everyone who donated. It all helps!

There is definitely something very wrong about having to stand on the ground and watch your little sister take off in a rickety old plane, only to throw herself out of it when it reaches 10,000ft! As proud of her as I was, it was definitely a relief to see her appear through the clouds in an open parachute and land safely on solid ground again! Lol

Despite not being the most adventurous kind, she thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and appears to have been bitten by the bug. She is now threatening to come to back to do her second skydive over the Palm in Dubai……. I might have to make myself unavailable at that time lol!

3- Finding Peonies in Abu Dhabi

I know this won’t sound like much of a highlight to most people, but trust me, when you live in a country where it’s difficult to find ‘any kind’ of fresh flowers that don’t cost an arm and a leg, and then you come across a beautiful bunch of pink peonies, then it’s a very good day! Thank goodness for Waitrose! Lol.

Peonies are hands down one of my favourite flowers. I had white peonies in my wedding bouquet and I absolutely love the pink and peach ones too!

When I spotted them in Waitrose I snapped them up immediately, and they have been dotted around my apartment in various different vases and have been making an appearance in lots of my photos! Lol Peonies are such a blogger cliché (rolling eyes lol) which I didn’t realise until I started my Instagram account last year. I thought my love of peonies was unique lol… I was wrong!

4- Finding A New Apartment

The biggest highlight of the last few weeks has definitely been finding our new apartment to move into.

Dan and I have been living in Al Muneera since we arrived in Abu Dhabi (exactly 5 years ago last week), and as much as we have loved living here we have outgrown our little one bedroom apartment and are ready for a change and a bit more space :).

We have spent the last few weeks viewing new developments and apartments which is both stressful and exciting in equal measures. After lots of viewings and floor plan analysing we found one that we think is ideal for us :).

Luckily there are lots of new developments in the area that we live so we had plenty of choice without having to leave the community that we now live in and love.

We move next week and we are very, very excited. Good news for anyone that enjoys interior blog posts as there will be plenty coming your way :). Of course we will be keeping most of the same furniture that we already have, but there will be a few updates here and there – the whole layout of the apartment is different and I cannot wait to decorate!

The best part is that we will have a second bedroom, so any future visitors won’t be subjected to the sofabed in our living room! Hurray! Although it has definitely served us well in the five years we have had it! 🙂

5- Ramadan & Eid

My last and most recent highlight of this month has been Ramadan and Eid. When we first moved to the UAE Ramadan seemed like such a big deal. You cannot eat or drink in public places during the hours of daylight. However, there are always areas sectioned off in office buildings and malls etc. for non-fasting people to eat and drink as normal. For this reason you are forced to get up from your desk at work to take a break to eat and drink, which is no bad thing really. Working hours hours are also reduced during Ramadan and a lot of people take time off to go on holiday, so all in all it is a nice quiet period and over the years I have actually began to enjoy Ramadan more and more.

The evening time during Ramadan is a very celebratory time when the sun has set and it’s time for those fasting to eat. All of the restaurants and hotels host as ‘Iftar’, which is the first meal after a day of fasting. The Iftars are usually quite extravagant, celebratory meals that take place in the hotels. Most smaller restaurants will also have a special Iftar menu that you can choose from too. People who have not been fasting during the day are also welcome to join in, so it is a nice time for everybody.

At the end of Ramadan there was a public holiday and public sector workers got two extra days off after the weekend. During this time the malls put on some sales in the shops too. The sales don’t always measure up to the hype but this year we did manage to get a bargin on a new fridge for our apartment so we can’t really complain too much lol.

Overall, Ramdan and Eid was a very pleasant time and I dread it less and less every year.

So those are a some of my highlights from the last few weeks. It’s nice to sit down and write something a little different now and again and to appreciate the simple things in life.