Liquor License has arrived!!

Finally today, precisely 2 months after we arrived in Dubai, we have final received our liquor license which means we can (and are right now) able to drink an alcoholic beverage in our own home.

It is a bit of a palaver obtaining the license.  In fact, I would go so far as to say that my visa was easier to acquire.

An expat has to find an off license/liquor shop (or offy as we call it in the UK).  Our local offy, is called African and Eastern in Marina Mall and we were only alerted to its whereabouts by other expats who explained that it is in the basement of the car park underneath Waitrose.

As with all things here that are illegal for Muslims, it is hidden.  The signs leading to it may state that there is an African and Eastern this way, but with pictures of an African landscape and no other details, you would be forgiven for not knowing what it is leading you towards, and heading down to the depths, you would question why you would want to go there...

The thing is that when you do find the heavy wooden door to the windowless room, next to the empty musty car park, you feel so naughty as you step through it, just like as you did as a child, when you were doing something that your parents would tell you off about.  It feels so naughty in fact, that both Ian and I slowly crept inside peering this way and that giggling like a couple of teenagers, until we properly acknowledged the shop hidden from view was the right place (and promptly felt really foolish when the two guys behind the counter nodded to each other and asked, "Are you new to Dubai?").

Once you have found the off license, the first thing that is asked, apart from being new, is "Are you a Muslim?"  and on answering no, they give you an application form that must be completed.  This must be returned to the shop, together with a copy of your employment contract, passport photograph (for the I.D. card), a copy of your tenancy agreement, as well as a 'No Objection Letter', which is a letter from your employer saying that you are allowed to drink. No.Joke.  Without this, the application form will not be processed.  With this, from start to finish, it took three weeks to process.

You are allowed one license per household, renewable on an annual basis.  The one thing I find most bazaar of the whole process however, is the fact that your salary determines your monthly allowance;  its as if the government say 'You earn more, therefore you MUST be a more responsible person who can drink more!'

So anyway, we have now received ours.  We had been led to believe that buying alcohol here is very expensive and when comparing like for like bottles with home, it really is.  Whilst my math is not the greatest, on a £6 bottle of a very average Sauvignon Blanc from Tescos (I will not name the wine but it is Australian), the cost here equated to just over £16.  There are many more expensive wines, just as you would expect, but there were cheaper wines too and it was not difficult to find either a Sauvignon Blanc or a Soave for 33aeds or £5.60.  On tasting them this evening, they have been far better than ones that we have purchased in restaurants for 200aeds.

 

So, right now, the Selley household is a happy household;  Not only have we finally been able to christen the wine glasses that we brought before we moved into our apartment, but I am now able to arrange my girlie night in skype date with my bestfriend.  

Believe it or not however, Ian did whinge that this meant that he had to watch the Arsenal v Man U game from home as opposed going to the Barasti Bar as he had wanted but hey-ho, he has to learn he can not have everything!