Leaving the UAE is almost as difficult as arriving....
So we're heading back to Ireland, at least for a few months, leaving DH behind to sweat it out in the sandpit they call Abu Dhabi. Predictably, trying to leave the UAE invokes every conceivable complication and at times makes me want to throw my hands up and shriek 'OK, I'LL STAY! ' out of sheer defeat. Normal things like trying to move out of a house here, no matter at what point into your year's lease you are, requires that you forfeit the remainder of the year's rent (which has cleverly been demanded in advance). Imagine that! Being a landlord here guarantees unlimited, undeserved and unearned wealth -- I should have bought a property here the second I arrived; DH wouldn't have had to work a day after that (and don't get me started on the sub-species they call estate agents -- suffice to say I've yet to meet one that understood the concept of fairness or reason, and I've dealt with them as both a landlord and a tenant). Of course the ...