A few weeks ago when my boss told me they could no longer afford to keep me on, my first thought was  ‘Are you serious? Have you seen the deadweight you are carrying?’.  My second thought was ‘Thank you for putting me out of my misery!’. My third thought was ‘Does this mean I have to change the name of my blog to ‘Redundant Mum in Dubai??’.

When I shared the news with my office roomie, he congratulated me heartily on not having to put in another 6 months to protect my end of service gratuity (the equivalent of my pension!), and expressed his envy that I would no longer have to enter an office where all hope is abandoned on walking through the doors!

Once I got over my adolescent tantrum of ‘Whatever I was going to resign in 6 months anyway‘, all of those things I wished I had had time for over the past 4+ years began to tickle my imagination, and slowly transformed into real possibilities.  Daydreams and faraway wishes were within touching distance.  At this point I just didn’t know where to begin!  In no particular order:

• Finish writing the books I have started writing!
• Start the other books I have in my head;
• Needless to say, be more consistent in blogging!
• Do the school drop off in my gym kit!  Hell, why stop there???  Do the school pick up in my gym kit (and I am not sure if I will bother showering in between!);
• Breeze into the school looking coiffed, manicured and waxed (in all visible places at least) be it for drop off or pick up – be the Mum everyone wishes they were (I don’t really mean that.  I respect all Mums, especially those who juggle work with parental duties!);
• Reverse the aging process;
• Regularly attend the salon for beauty overhaul/maintenance – hair (so much hair in so many places it shouldn’t be!), nails and massages that will knead out the 8 year old knots in my shoulders;
• Sit by the pool or on the beach and read a book/snooze/soak up the sun/smile at how fantastic doing this as opposed to banging my head against (i.e., working) a brick wall would be;
• Meet friends and other mums for coffee mornings.  Gosh, I will be able to attend my first ever school coffee morning!
• Go to the movies and watch a movie that is not produced by Disney, Pixar etc….anything that is not a PG rating!
• Grocery shop in peace (not near the top of my list….but still an experience of my distant past which I would like to repeat again!);
• Go to Dragon Mart and buy some light shades for my house in which I have been living for 4 years (I am sure the naked light bulbs are affecting my eyesight!);
• Enhance the interior design aspects of my house (anyone who has seen my home will understand this – see previous point!);
• Work out regularly.  I dream of getting up with the kids, throwing on my joggers and when I kiss them goodbye on the Daddy school run, I head to Barsha Pond Park and do a few laps of the running track under the smiling sun;
• Believe it or not, my next wish which follows on from Barsha Park exercise is to head to Union Co-Op to see what’s on offer (I only recently discovered Union Co-Up – I knew it was there….I have just never had enough time to go there!);
• Learn Arabic;
• Work on school projects that require a lot of glue, sticky tape, cutting and painting;
• Re-learn French;
• Focus on Mindfulness;
• Learn to play an instrument;
• Prepare dinner (again, anyone who knows me knows that I enjoy cooking as much as I enjoy trying to find the right curtains for my house (or should that be fear cooking as much as I fear choosing the wrong curtains for my house – which I have done twice now!) and serve up Master Chef recipes which my kids will wolf down, and which DH will be excited to come home to every evening!
• Join a running (read: plodding) club;
• Bake healthy, organic cookies and muffins for my kids to take to school, and be the envy of all mums, working or not!;
• Help out more with school fundraising activities (having spent 2 out of the last 3 years as class rep, I really don’t think this is all that high on my list!);
• Housework….will keep on top of it if I can!

I could go on with what looks like a new years’ resolutions list…..But somehow this is different.  I no longer have the excuse of ‘not having time’.  I will have time. However, yesterday the boss told me I add value.  Translation – I will have to work my 3 months’ notice…..Dreams be patient – we shall meet in May!