I got the post unlocked, to check if you were alright from the rain and flooding that had hit Dubai and surrounding region?

Handle9:

 

45-50 degrees is pretty nasty. It's unbearable for 2-3 months.

 

For me, 3 hours at full ECS performance of the A380 on the apron at an alternate airfield in the middle of nowhere was enough. I would prefer Scottsdale AZ again for a variety of reasons, but that's not the point. 😎

Shindig:

 

I got the post unlocked, to check if you were alright from the rain and flooding that had hit Dubai and surrounding region?

 

I'm actually in Germany on a work trip this week so I dodged the rain but the family is still there. We got off pretty lightly, there is roof over an outdoor porch that leaked which meant a small soffit needs to be replaced and some water got under the SPC floor in my youngest daughters room but it's all pretty minor in the scale of things. Some of our neighbors were totally flooded. My wife spent some time running around helping other people unblock their drains, which very rarely get used.

The big issue with the middle east, and Dubai in particular, is there is almost no storm water infrastructure. My house doesn't have spouting and any water from drains runs out onto the ground to dissipate. Any storm results in flooding but it's normally pretty isolated and minor.

It's the same through the majority of the emirate so they are reliant on trucks to pump stormwater out of low lying areas. This isn't a big deal for normal storms, which normally get cleaned up in 24 hours or so and life goes on. At the moment there are a ton of areas and roads that are under a metre or more of water and it's going to take some time to clean up.

It looks like operations are back on at the airport so I should be able to get home tomorrow night but it's been a difficult time for many people. Access to and from the airport is still pretty impeded but I'm reasonably confident that I'll get back ok.

Mrs Handle is teaching online and the kids are pretending to attend class online for the rest of the week, hopefully they are back in class next week. It's been a shit show but it's also not the end of the world for us.

The plane which I will take home tonight is on it's way from Dubai to Munich. I'll be delayed but I'll get home over night which is a relief. Mrs Handle has been a trooper but she could do with some help.

The roads are being pumped out and reopening and much of the water has disapated. There's a few big areas still needing to be pumped out but it's significantly on the improve.

A mate of mine probably won't be able to leave his house until early next week, their house is slightly elevated so not flooded but there are patches of 1m deep water on their access roads.

Emirates have cancelled checkin for all transfer flights through Dubai. Current schedules are a disaster and apparently T3 is a mess with people sleeping on the floors as they've run out of hotel rooms near the airport. I'm guessing they were just flying people in and stranding them so decided to clear the back log to and from Dubai before they try and resume normal operations.

It'll be disruptive but at least they are trying to clear it. My flight from Munich is relatively full so it seems the right thing to do.

Handle9:

 

Emirates have cancelled checkin for all transfer flights through Dubai. 

 

My daughter works after hours travel and has been up all night dealing with this. She is wrecked so after 14 hours is off to bed so we are tiptoeing around the house. Seems like it is a real nightmare over there. 

Take care mate. 

My friend was due here from Germany on Friday afternoon.  She's still waiting for her flight to be cleared to depart Germany due to Dubai not accepting passengers with connections.  Supposed to be here Monday afternoon, but we'll see. And then there's the Iran of it all...

Sigh. It's going to be raining again on Thursday. School has already been cancelled for Thursday and Friday.

The forecast is no where near as bad as a couple of weeks ago but we need rain again like a hole in the head.

It's been over a year since I posted in here and it seemed a good time.

Our time here is coming to an end. On our last trip home in the middle of last year we had decided we'd had enough of Dubai. It's been great for our family but it's not always easy here. The financial rewards are great but there's a price to pay. My wife in particular has found her job very challenging and unfortunately it all came to a head a couple of weeks ago and she no longer has a job so that confirms the decision to go.

As I mentioned in an earlier post we bought a house in 2022. Dubai has grown hugely in the last 5 years and we have been fortunate recipients of that growth. We signed a contract to sell the house late last year and just about have all the money from that. It's enabling us to help our wider family while also benefiting us and has given us the luxury of being able to choose what we do next. 

My wife and the kids will be here until the end of the school year (July) but it looks like I will be leaving/commuting earlier. Our intention was to go home. I had a job lined up and had told work that I would go at Christmas time. My bonus and some long term incentives were due then so it seemed the logical time to go. Early this year I had a variety of colleagues reach out about a role in Singapore which was both exciting but is also daunting. I'm still going through the process but was told today that I'll be offered the role.

Our general life here is a lot like it was NZ. We are in a house with a back yard and spend weekend bbqing and just hanging out with friends. Singapore will be an apartment and no cars but I think it could be very cool for a few years. It's an opportunity to spend more time in Asia and it's much closer to home.

We need to work through the package but I'm confident that it will work, maybe with a bit of creativity on both sides. I probably won't be making quite as much money net as I do here due to the tax and school differences but it'll still be an attractive package, certainly significantly more than I would make in NZ.

I have no regrets about our time here. It's changed our lives in many ways and put us in a financial position we never really thought we would achieve. I'm incredibly grateful for the support of my family and their ability to deal with my moments of madness that have put us way outside our comfort zone. I hope that what happens next will be the right move but I have never regretted having a go at something new and it not working out. Worst case it costs us some money and we go home.

Thanks for bringing us up-to-date on the saga of handle9.

I think it's very valuable for young people to see the real-world results of giving-it-a-go - an opportunity grasped, with a bit of rational and careful thought.

There are risks - and rewards.
Glad you are coming out ahead.
 

Wishing you and your family well on your next adventure @Handle9. I doubt that you will regret giving it a go in Singapore.

Senecio:

 

Wishing you and your family well on your next adventure @Handle9. I doubt that you will regret giving it a go in Singapore.

 

Hope you are all safe and not near line of fire. Various reports of the Palm Jumeirah area being hit. With airspace closed some plans are going to be thwarted. Best wishes for a way out of this. 

We’re fine. We didn’t sleep all that well, especially when an emergency alert went off at 12.30 but all is well.