After two weeks in RAK, I am now enjoying my first weekend at home without having to rush off to shop for needed things like a coffee cup and food. My first week saw me enjoying the luxurious surroundings of the Cove Rotana Hotel.

I managed to spend a bit of time on the beach reading, jogging and swimming.

After 6 days in the hotel, I moved into our new villa, despite the fact I have no furniture. I bought a camping chair and am using the ironing board as my table. It is rather like camping out inside.

We have a lovely view across the entrance to the creek, and with a west facing villa, we will have a great view of the sunset.

The cats arrived on Tuesday night. The plane landed at 11:20 PM, the documents arrived in customs at 12:30, whereupon I paid out some $$ to the import guy, went to the vet section where, for another fee, they inspected the cats’ documents for over 30 minutes. Once they were cleared, I went to the customs, got yet another certificate, paid more money and then went back to the loading docks where they finally released the cats to me at about 1:30 AM. They seemed in good spirits although once at the villa, they found the most inaccessible spot, under the kitchen cabinets, where they slept in the dust and dirt for a full day.