This is our villa where we live

Looking from the top floor down.





View from our roof.




View from our roof into the workers compound next door. They talk late into the night. This compound is outside Timothy's window.




Looking through the railings into the compound.




Looking towards our door at the roof top.






Another view across the compound.

The space we could fit a spa on our roof. Looking towards the palace next door.

Looking from our roof into the trees of the palace.

Looking across our roof top. See the ladder there. Timothy has been right up the top, but I was too scared.

Looking across our roof to our neighbours at #1.

Little walk area at the top and the door leading to the roof.

Going up!!! to the roof.

2ndfloor. Office door on the right and a small kitchen.

Looking from the main bedroom into my bathroom.

The main bedroom.

Looking from the 2nd level stairs toward the main bedroom. Built-ins for a big TV.

Looking at the 2nd level. 3 doors on the left, office, kitchen, then mainbedroom.

In the office looking outside towards the palace and into Matthew's bathroom.

The computer desk.

In the 2nd level looking into the office and small kitchen.

Stairs going to the roof and the office door.

Looking towards Timothy's bedroom and bathroom.

Looking down from the stairs into the family area.

From the entrance.

Maids room looking outside towards the main kitchen door.

Laundry in the maids room and ensuite.

looking into the maids room from under the stairs.

looking fromt he kitchen doorway towards the stairs.

The view from the downstairs kitchen out through the all tiled courtyare to the maids ensuite.

From the kitchen into the pantry to the familyroom.

The kitchen.

The family/TV room.

From the entrance to the family room.

The front door looking towards the palace.

Downstairs vanity area and WC.

From the lounge room door down the hallway to the kitchen with the vanity arean and WC on the left.

Our Grand Ballroom/lounge room.

From the entrance into the lounge room.

The entrance foyer.

Our Villa, #2.

Our 4 units.

From the road.

A better look at the gates that are never closed.

Down the road looking towards our neighbours palace. They only come once or twice a year. Haven't met the yet.
The tempory fencing on the right, then the palace then our villa.

One morning this popped up down the end of our street, and stayed for 3 days. Men were there every night.

A HUGE palace around the corner where I walk has these car awings. If you enlarge you can see the dust that washes onto the cars after rain.

The tent previously had power to run lighting and air-conditioners. This where they conected the electrical power from.

Looking back to the HUGE palace around the corner.

Another view of the tent, but can you notice the power cord across the street?


Thanks for coming on the tour of my home away from home.

That's life

Life sometimes seems crazy busy. I am having alsorts of problems trying to upload photos so I will have another shot later. For now here is a brief of the last 2 weeks.

Quote of the week, I heard this from a young man who works 7days a week here trying to save money to go home and marry his sweetheart. "Our prayers are always answered sometimes." Well I know He does answer prayers and sometimes I get what I want, when I want it and sometimes I don't. Yesterday (Thursday), I had 3 exams to complete phase 1 of my Arabic Sign Language course. We walked into the classroom where we had been sitting at round tables, and the room had been transformed into an exam setting with single desks. We still got to sit in the comfy chairs. :) [photo to come]

The first exam was a written test, true/false questions, questions about Deaf History that had been covered in class and 3 questions about Deaf Culture. Test papers were handed out, it was all written in Arabic. Matthew had given me a lovley blessing on the Wednesday night so I ht

thought to myself, "don't panic". I had 2 different people come and explain the questions to me and I went about answering them the best I thought. At the completion I felt I wanted to cry, but I know I had prepared myself and prayed for extra help so I did the best I could.

The second test, we watched a video presentation and had to interpret and write it down. Tricky with some signs I still don't know. ;) This part of the exam was done in a room like a lecture theatre. Not worth crying as I had recently written to my children about being prepared, I had tried to do that with this exam. So I know I did the best I could with what I felt as a calming influence.

The third and final test was a story to be interpreted in ArSL. THis also had been written in Arabic so a lady was called in and wrote another story for me in English. Once again, even though I thought I had prepared enough, it always comes down to my memory.

We have a couple of weeks off now, so I hope to concentrate on my TAFE course to get that out of the way. The driving to and from Abu Dhabi everyday is tiresome. I don't know how Timothy does it to and from Dubai everyday. He is the driver at least I am a passenger.

To celebrate the end of phase 1, I invited some of the ladies where I volunteer to my place. Timothy was out of the country and Matthew had to leave for a couple of hours. The ladies are fun and I love to hear them laugh and talk. 99.9% of the time I have no idea what they are talking about but I enjoy their company. I cooked kangaroo tail soup, (they wondered where I found kangaroo tail here- I substitued lamb), pavlova, and french onion dip (I bought over a packet from Australia-it's Timothy's favourite). These ladies are very kind to me especially after I had been missing my family etc and had a bit of a meltdown. One reply was, 'Now you are our family'. Because there were no men in the house the Abyahs came off and everyone was very relaxed. As they were preparing to leave they brought out a HUGE gift bag and presented me with tokens of their friendship. [photo to come of the gifts not of the ladies]

I was at work in the lunch room oneday when a lady came in and shook my hand which is a greeting here and done in a particular style. I then realised she was deaf. She sat on the lounge opposite me and we signed to each other. I pulled out some family photos and we chatted about our families. I understood about 90% of what she said and I think by her responses she had understood me as well. This was a tender mercy as I had been wondering if anything was sinking into the grey matter that sometimes seems full.

With natural disasters happening around the world, I have felt a need to get some supplies together for just in case. I hope to get into that in the next week. I sent a message to my children quoting: "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." Goes for me as well in lots of areas of our lives.

Note to self: When walking to hail a taxi at midday, carry an umbrella, it is already getting up to 37 of a day time. Nights and early mornings are still pleasant with cool desert breezes. I have had to buy moisturiser because the dry air just sucks any moisture from my already dehydrated body.

I figured out how to text my children internationally. I was so excited and then when Eliza and Samuel messaged back - it made my day. I bought some phone credit and got to talk to my mum. It was good to hear her reassuring voice. I guess it proves - it doesn't matter how old one is, we need our mums, at least I do.

Little of this and that

Big trucks have their own road system. If you take a wrong turn and end up on the truck road you get stuck behind slow moving trucks and it is deadly to try to overtake, because there is always a truck coming the other way.

This is the overpass for the truck road.

If you enlarge the photo you might see the camel carer. He stands, sits or lays in the sand to be with the camels. Camels are very expensive. As you can see there is NO shade or other comforts for him.

This is my absolute favourite spot along the road from Abu Dhabi back to Al Ain. This photo just doesn't do the scenery justice. The red sand dunes as so high. After the rain heaps of 4x4 were out driving over the dunes.

I took this photo of camels grazing over the road from my Head of Departments house. She lives on the outskirts of Al Ain on the Abu Dhabi side - right on the edge of the desert. How wonderful to wake up every morning and look out to the sand dunes. (except when we have dust storms ;)

Baby camels are the cutest.

This fellow is the presenter for the 3rd week, he had little English. I would get so tired, on a couple of occassions I felt my eyelids closing. Concentrating when the whole session is presented in Arabic is mentally exhausting. The lady, is the brains behind pulling this training together. I extended my hand to him as a thank you handshake - forgetting the men don't shake hands with women. Some in professional settings will if the woman extends her hand first. I should have known better as all 4 presenters came from a Saudi university.

The first week presenters. The fellow standing next to me, had very good English and received his masters and PhD in the US.

This lady was our 2nd week presenter. She had a little less English then our first week presenters but more then our 3rd week.

I love the way my name is pronounced here - Row - won - dah.

Yesterday was the end of travelling to and from Abu Dhabi every day for phase I of my course. We have training next week every day but at least it will be here in Al Ain, then I think we have a week off then it starts all over again for phase II. I have passed all my tests so far, and give credit to God for the success I am enjoying.

We are thankful for prayers offered by loved ones for our safety. A near miss yesterday (Thursday) as we were driving home from Abu Dhabi, a huge 4x4 changed lanes beside us doing about 170 klm/h.