A Place in the Sun

So due to a random encounter with a Swedish guy on the beach, who put us in touch with a Swedish estate agent - loving the Dubai-Svenksa mafia....we ending up renting an apartment on the Palm. 

We live here

Now there are lots of negative things about The Palm, it's not convenient logistically, there's no public transport, no supermarket (just a horrendously expensive deli), it's touristy with half finished hotels everywhere and so forth. 

Living room view 

However, the deciding factor was that we wanted to live on the beach and now we do, we have our own private beach and sea views from every room and even in the gym. 

Not a bad view from the treadmill

Now renting an apartment is much more complicated than usual due to some little Dubai quirks;

• Required payment method is by local check book  - As a Brit I was less shocked by this prospect as we only did away with them in the UK a few years back. However, to Johan, a Swede the concept of a cheque book - a hand written piece of paper that states an IOU for some money is simply Dickensian. Johan wondered if he needed to procure a quill and wax stamp to write and seal the thing, which I suspect he was secretly looking forward to!
• You can only get a local cheque book if you have local current account, which you can only get if you have a residence visa. 
• You have to pay deposit and 3 months rent in advance!! That plus having to buy furniture pretty much wiped out our savings, goodbye Christmas 2011. 
• You have to write x 3 post dated cheques for the rest of the annual rent - goodbye birthdays, holidays and all fun. 
• You have to write to the land lord and get them to give you a 'Letter of no objection' to get the Electricity, Water and Air conditioning turned on. "Dear Sir, Please am I aloud to  turn on the light/cook food/watch telly - in the flat that I am paying you a small fortune to live in please."

It was all a big faff and was our moving in date that changed 3 times. As was having to pack again...as was having to empty the contents of the fridge again...as was having to manoeuvre Johan's bloody bike bag into the lift on my own...again!!