A strange post about things I like about our apartment...

So I've had several people berate me (but in a nice way) about not blogging about my life in Abu Dhabi.  Apparently, inquiring minds want to know what everyday things are like here.  I figured no one would really care.  I know there are a few friends who are chomping at the bit to see photos of our apartment, although I kind of get that.  I like to take a peek into people's homes, too.  Photos of our home will have to wait, though, until it doesn't look like Hurricane Four Girls hit.

So... what to talk about today...

hmmmm...

as I'm drumming my fingers on the desk I can't think of anything interesting.  At least interesting to me.  I guess that's because I live here everyday and I know what it's like.

How about some of my favorite things about living in our apartment...  and just because no post is as good without photos, I have actually included some ridiculous photos in this post.

1.  The garbage chute.  Seriously.  I love that thing.  I don't have to rush out to the curb at 5 in the morning in my robe and slippers when it's freezing outside because I forgot to roll out my garbage bin the night before.  It's like "Disposal on Demand."  I can even send my kids with a bag to the garbage room and tell them to drop it down the chute on the right.  (The left is for recycling.  The rumor here is, though, that they don't really recycle anything because they don't have the facilities for it.  I don't know whether that's true or not... I'm just perpetuating rumors.  We still drop our recycling down the left chute.)  So no more stinky garbage bin sitting in my garage.  Also, no more garage.  Well, no more personal garage.  We now have an underground parking garage.  Which brings me to #2...

Why, yes, there is a broken handle on the one on the right.  Maintenance has been notified.

2.  The underground parking garage.  Even though it's over 100 degrees here with a "feels like" temp in the 115's (still... in September), it's awesome having an underground parking garage.  You don't singe the skin off your fingers trying to buckle your seatbelt or grip the steering wheel.  We have spots really close to the entry doors to the elevators, which is awesome.  Also, we park our bikes behind our cars.  And miracle of all miracles... after a year, they are still there.  I know there's some theft here, but people don't just walk around taking things that don't belong to them here.  Granted, we probably annoy the people who park around us with a boatload of bikes parked by our spots, but they are super nice and don't complain.  At least not to our faces.

3.  We have six (why, yes, yes I did just say "six") toilets in our 4-bedroom apartment.  That's also something I hate, though.  Cleaning 6 toilets.  Really?  The good news is that if we ever all have a stomach virus at the same time, there will hopefully not be any crises involving toilets.  Now that I've said that, I'm sure one of my little sweethearts will bring home some sort of gastrointestinal festival for us all to partake in.  The bad news is that 6 toilets don't clean themselves.

 Here are photos of two of our toilets.  Your day is now complete.

4.  La Brioche's Cafe Mocha.  La Brioche is a bakery chain around these parts.  I'm sure it's around other parts, too, but I've never encountered one in the US.  Anyhoo... I lamented not being able to get a peppermint mocha at Starbucks here for awhile.  Until La Brioche opened down by our beach.  And then I tried one of their Cafe Mochas.  And the clouds parted.  And the angels might have been singing.  Or that could have been me.  Either way, they are divine, and I no longer even really go to Starbucks anymore.  And for all you Pumpkin Spice Latte lovers who may be reading... don't even think about ordering one of those.  They don't have them in the UAE, and they'd probably laugh at you if you ordered one.

5.  We live on a beach.  There is a beach that is about a 5-minute walk from our front door.  That includes the wait for the elevator. 

6.  The clothes dryer that we purchased.  Best purchase ever.  In my life.  EVER.  In my pre-dryer days, I lived a life that paralleled Cinderella's.  And not her glory-moments at the ball.  I may be exaggerating a teeny bit, but let me explain.  Washers here hold about 1/3 of the capacity that my front-loader behemoth did in Tennessee.  I could do a load of clothes every day and be caught up on laundry.  NOT HERE.  I have to do three loads of clothes EVERY DAY just to keep up.  And the really glorious part of that is that before we got the dryer, I hung our laundry out to dry on the two drying racks we had on our balcony.  With clothespins and everything, ya'll!  It was super glamorous, I know.  And just to paint an even prettier picture... you sweat a lot when it's 115 outside and you're hanging clothes up.  The good news?  Clothes will air dry here in the summer in an hour.  Awesome.  But as it gets closer to December, it takes progressively longer for them to dry, so that three loads a day was becoming impossible.  So we bought a dryer.  It's a condenser dryer.  Which I had never even heard of.  It's not vented to the outside at all, but instead we have to empty a water tank after every load.  It also makes our teeny laundry room hot.  But it DRIES MY CLOTHES!!!  And I love it like a fat kid loves cake.  (That was totally not PC, but we aren't PC in the UAE.)  (That rhymed, just so ya know!)  Also, as a total bonus our clothes are no longer crunchy (and anyone who has ever hung their clothes to dry knows exactly what I'm talking about.)

Our laundry room is not much bigger than what you see here.

7.  There are more things that I love about my apartment, but I'm tired of typing.

I don't think there have ever been more exciting photos put on a blog in the history of blogs.  Do you?