When my husband and I got married last September, I was married on one side of the world and ‘single’ on the other side.

Previously, Panda Bao Bao got me pledging allegiance to their boiled-fried-steamed chicken feet (topped with special fermented soy bean and garlic sauce and boiled peanuts).

You have met, fallen in love and made the life-changing decision to be bound to your special person as man and wife.

On the very last day of Summer this year, I married my husband. — Who, as I’d mentioned previously, is not the man of my dreams, but in many ways, is so much better than him.

Note: This is the second part of the “Soon Series,” a series of blogs which should have been published in the countdown before my wedding 2 weeks ago. I originally wrote this blog last year and kept it on the side until after we survived the battle for the pre-marriage documents. When I wrote this, I was on my post-engagement high, naively thinking only of my wedding dress, shoes, makeup… What a difference a year-and-a-half can make, indeed!

Note: This is the first part of the “Soon Series,” a series of blogs leading up to my wedding this Sunday!

One of the first things I did when I arrived in Dubai was to take the Hop-on Hop-off tour bus.

For those of you who did not have Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice as required reading in high school literature, it’s a story about two people who were initially not attracted to one another, but because of being repeatedly thrusted in each other’s way, eventually saw through their own pride (and prejudice) and well, fell in love.

Yesterday afternoon, a friend started a conversation with me on Dubai marriage requirements.

It started with a bag. I complimented a friend on her Anello-inspired backpack and asked her where she got it from.