Sunday I spent most of my morning in one of the first grade pods drinking coffee and chatting with Cathy and Gemma (another teacher at our school). I also took some things out of my cupboards to pack up. Monday I did a bit of the same and became very bored early in the day.
Tuesday, when my teammate Lushana got to work she checked her email. As I was standing outside of her room she motioned for me to come and see her email. As I was walking over she asked if I had seen my school email that morning. I hadn't, but quickly became curious as I saw her face light up. She had just been informed she was hired for a Head of Faculty position, the job we had both interviewed for earlier in the month of May.
I made a mad dash toward my pod in order to get onto my email. Low and behold I received the same email. I am so thrilled. I can only imagine I will be at a boys' school next year, but I don't care as long as I am in some level of management.
Tuesday afternoon some of us went to Al Jimi Mall to have lunch. We spent a little over an hour in the mall before heading back to school for coffee and conversation. It's tough, our work.
After school we hit the pool for a few hours. The rest of the evening was relaxed and very uneventful. It seems these super hot days just make you drag a bit.
School on Wednesday was more of the same. That day we headed to Bawadi Mall, a little further out. At this mall I did some shopping. I bought some things from Bath and Body Works for my secret friend and exchanged a swim suit that had a hole in it. Embarrassingly enough I was made aware of the hole when I got into the pool last week. Fortunately there was a double layer of material and the hole had only gone through the outside layer. We had lunch and then headed back to school just in time to go home.
Cathy and Claire came over for dinner on Wednesday evening. We watched some television and just relaxed.
Thursday I attended a Head of Faculty meeting at the Zone. I was one of two new people there and felt pretty at home. They were discussing what overall goal they wanted the schools to have for the next school year.
Jack's end of the year program was Thursday at 3 pm. I didn't go back to school after the HoF meeting but instead headed home to Stuart and the kids, who had been home since 1:00 pm. This work thing really has us stressed, as you might guess.
Jack's program was really cute. Each class had a dance or song, and then the entire school sang a few songs. Jack was placed at the front of the stage even though he was one of the tallest kids. When I asked him about why he was at the front, he told me it was because he knew all the words and the actions to each song/dance. He was right. He did. It was very adorable.
After the program we headed to the Rugby Club for dinner. The kids played, as usual, as we socialized and ate some food. It was an early evening and neither kid had a complete meltdown. We must have left just in time.
Friday morning we were up and at the pool jut after 8 am. We have discovered that the earlier, the better, or at least for us that is the case. We got back to the house just after 11 and Gina showed up from Abu Dhabi shortly after that. She came down just for the day. We went to the mall, bought some birthday presents, had some lunch, and shopped a bit. 
Millie wanted Gina to play in her room with her. Gina was a good sport.
Millie seldom likes anyone, especially women, but Gina was the favorite on Friday. Maybe she is growing out of that particular phase. We can only hope.
We went back to the pool in the late afternoon and Gina went with us. All of the people we socialize with were there so Gina was able to put faces with names, finally. We ate (I know, don't say 'again?') at the Rigby Club and the kids played outside for a bit before heading back to the house.
Once home Gina headed back to Abu Dhabi and we all retired for the evening. The kids had a great day, but were exhausted.
Saturday we were up early, as is usual for our weekends, and headed to the pool, also which is usual for our weekends. After our dip we had lunch at the mall and did or weekly grocery shopping. We put it off a bit too long. Anytime you go to the mall after noon on Saturdays you are risking your life. The place is packed like Christmas Eve shoppers, yet just a normal weekend for here.
The picture you see above is a thin aluminum pan. Why does it have a hole eaten through it? The story began on Wednesday morning. Stuart noticed in our front bathroom there were drips of water on the ceiling tiles as well as the floor. The front bathroom is where we store the kids' bikes and scooters. Given our experience with maintenance at this complex we decided to move everything out of that bathroom so that if a flood did occur, at least those items would be saved. Stuart called maintenance when he got home from school on Wednesday and Zimal, the guy who washes our ars twice a week, came with a ladder to check things out. Communicating with the workers is quite challenging because no one speaks the same language. However, I can understand what is being communicated most of the time.
Zimal tipped two tiles and 'rain' came down. From where, you ask? Good question. From what I could gather our neighbor was having issues upstairs and they would fix her problems in her bathroom on Sunday. We later found out she was out of town and knew nothing of the issues in her apartment.
In the meantime, Zimal made the statement 'it is fixed', placed the tiles back in the ceiling and left. Huh? Needless to say 20 minutes later the tiles crumbled from being soaked with water, and fell. Fixed. Sure.
Zimal returned when we called him and brought two new tiles. As he was placing them in the ceiling I told him there was no need to do that unless the leak was fixed. That, apparently, wasn't communicated very well because he proceeded. As he was putting the tile up he asked for a bowl to place on one of the tiles, assumingly to catch water that would continue to leak. Or, I have an idea, why don't we wait to put the tiles up until the leak is fixed! At any rate, this should partially explain the picture of the aluminum tray.
When the ceiling was still leaking on Saturday evening, Zimal returned and took the tiles down. Finding the tray with a hole in it was disturbing and unsettling, but Zimal said it was fine. Whatever! Later we would find out that our neighbor, Martha, was called and asked to return early from Dubai because of a leak in her apartment. Expecting to see gushing water when she returned, she was miffed when there was nothing to discover. She came down to our place to ask us what was going on. When we told her she proceeded to tell us she had leaking several weeks ago, but they had 'fixed' it.
When the 'fix it' guys got to our door we went with them upstairs to see what they were talking about as far as leaks in Martha's place. Every bathroom has a sprayer (don't ask) in it. It is used to insure cleanliness after a visit. We turn ours off because Mllie thinks it's an extension of playtime in the bathtub. In Martha's bathroom the connector to the wall had become clogged. When they touched it, it fell off and water started spewing out. The water here is very hard and there are no methods in place to prevent limestone build up, thus pipes ad nozzles that wear out very quickly. Our building seems to be falling apart yet it is only 5 years old. Yikes!
So the plot thickens. When they had finished with Matha's 'fix' she brought then down to us to sign their work paper. They have to fill one out every time they 'fix' something. She felt since we were the ones with the initial problem, we should sign off on it when it was fixed, and we agreed. Since we wouldn't know if the leak was fixed for a few days, the evidence being no water on our floor, we were not going to sign off on it. I explained this to Zimal who went off and got reinforcement. This is when Stuart lost his cool.
The doorbell rang and there stood Zimal and two other workers. One of the guys is the guy who has stood outside our window, by the mosque, to do the call to prayer. That guy is the one who simply said, 'Sing this!' Stuart came from behind me, after I had repeated what I had said to Zimal about when it was dry for three days I would sign the paper, and shouted, 'We will not sign that paper and don't ever come to my door and speak to us in that manner again!' Stuart slammed the door so hard that some plaster came off of our wall. Hello! He is a total gentle giant, but make him angry and see the scary side of him. It was awesome!
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