[ our new place...maybe? ]

IT'S BEEN a while since we arrived in Dubai and getting all the official permits and paperwork sorted has been a very long, drawn-out process. We are finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel and the hunt has officially begun to find our new place. You may remember that we toured around some neighbourhoods weighing out the pros and cons of a villa in the outskirts to a small apartment closer to the action. Well, we've decided on an apartment! And in the Dubai Marina area. We love the area, there are lots of shops and restaurants to walk to, the metro station is right there to take me to a long list of malls and the scenery is pretty.

We've narrowed down which cluster of buildings we want to be in and visited a few apartments to see what's available (not many since people apparently love them so the turn-over is slow). They are the original buildings built in the marina development and have an excellent reputation so it's understandable why people don't want to move out.

I wish I had taken photos while inside because you wouldn't believe the one that we have decided on - a decor nightmare! Every wall is covered in dark wallpaper - olive stripes in the living room, florals in the bedrooms and the bathroom and the spare bedroom is plastered in Barbie stickers! We've been assured that all the wallpaper will be removed and the walls patched/painted and everything scrubbed before we move in but it definitely took some effort to see past the ugliness of it.

But the floors are a lovely dark wood (instead of the typical beige ceramic tile so common here) so that's a nice feature. And we were immediately drawn to the view from the square balcony - one direction points to the marina, the other points to the lovely landscaped courtyard and pool area. Compared to the other places we saw, it was a no-brainer.

There are still details to work out before we know if it's ours (so much red tape). And of course lots of work to be done inside before it's ready for us to move in. But I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

lisa