Our Goodbye's

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to send a quick update before Mark and I leave England. We leave tomorrow (Monday) afternoon!  We are both very excited and can't wait to get there and get settled!!  We had a mishap with the luggage...discovered we could only bring 20 kilos each (which is NOTHING) on the plane, so we packed and sent 4 big bags early through cargo shipping, those bags are meant to arrive today in Dubai and stored for us at the airport.  I think we managed to fit everything in that we wanted to which is great!!  We arrive in Dubai at midnight on Tuesday morning and are meant to be met by people affiliated with Mark's work and they will walk us through customs and then help us with our bags and pick up our bags from the cargo shipping.  We will be driven straight to our apartment, which is meant to have some food in it for us for Tuesday and hopefully head to bed.  Mark works a full day on Tuesday, which is pretty rough, but is just paperwork and HR stuff.  That is all the stuff that is meant to happen when we arrive, but we'll see what actually happens. hehe I'll let you know if it is all smooth sailing.

Once we are in Dubai, we will get internet at our apartment, we just don't know how long it will take.  I will try to find an internet cafe, so I can at least send an email and some pictures of everything, but be patient and we will send an update as soon as we can.

Dubai is 11 hours different than America, but once the clocks change in America (next week I think), we will be 12 hours different.  So that is very easy to figure out and for you to know what time it is where we are!! :)

We had a few leaving parties this weekend, to say our good byes to friends and family over here.  On Friday night, Mark and I went out into Manchester to a nice Japanese meal and then met up with about 15 of our friends.  We went to Revolution bar and then onto Chicago Rock.  We were meant to go to Walkabout, Mark's favorite bar, but we were having so much fun we didn't even go in there.  We have lots of funny pictures from the night, which I will post once I have some free time in Dubai.

Yesterday I was able to speak to my grandparents and parents on skype conference call, so was good to catch up with them and tell them all about our plans and what we have been up to.  They are very excited about our adventures!

Last night some of the family came over, Mark's grandparents, Auntie Jen and family, Auntie Barbara and family and Uncle David and family.  We had a very full house and lots of good food.  Trish made a yummy lasagna, I made a yummy chili and David made a yummy curry!  We also had about 50 different desserts, along with granddads famous carmel shortbread, which is not one of my favorites!!  It was great to see everyone and spend them with them, yet very hard and sad to say our goodbyes.

Today we are just finishing packing and watching the NFL game that is at Wimbley in London (some of Mark's friends are at the game today).  And tonight we are having a roast dinner for our last meal in England.  I think Trish is making sausages as well, since there is No pork in Dubai. hehe

I hope this finds you all happy and healthy!  I'm sure you are all keeping busy as well, but don't forget to update us on your lives!

We miss you all very much and think about you often!

Until next time.....we love you xxxx