Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
We've been living here in Dubai now for one and a half years and are starting to enjoy the place despite a slightly disappointing start. The way Dubai is marketed makes everyone think that this is an outstanding place to live. However, every place has its problems and this place is no exception. The city is growing at such a tremendous speed that traffic is really out of hand and that affects our life daily.
I have finally managed to get the business and factory set up and running. Business in the construction sector is great, but there's a critical shortage of professional staff. It's been a real challenge and the challenge continues as the business needs to grow faster than expected. I expected this to be a more western style business environment than South East Asia, but I was wrong. The local mentality does not consider time or schedules as important in any way, and for a European that has not been easy to get used to.
On the other hand, the family has settled in well and on the social side this place really grows on you. There are plenty of things to do, great places to spend weekends, and the endless sunshine is great! It only rains approx 10 times a year! The school offers excellent extracurricular activities (which ensures that Riitta is also busy driving the boys back and forth to school all afternoon - sound familiar, moms?) The school teams travel the region, give us a call.
With Blessings,
Matti, Riitta, Markus, Janne and Pattrik Mikkola
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