Tamryn Lee D’Aubrey, Toptots, Dubai

What do you love about liv­ing in Dubai? How long have you lived there?

I’ve lived in Dubai for five and a half years. We have a great lifestyle here with lots of good friends. It’s really easy to travel from Dubai as it’s only a short flight to some beau­ti­ful and inter­est­ing destinations.

What is Top Tots?

Top­tots is a devel­op­ment pro­gram for Mums and tots that has been designed by a team of edu­ca­tional and devel­op­men­tal spe­cial­ists. At Top­tots, we pro­vide stim­u­lat­ing, fun, age-appropriate activ­i­ties that develop the child holis­ti­cally. Mums get to meet other Mums with chil­dren of the same age.

What do you love about your job?

I really love work­ing with the kids. I love the inter­ac­tion I have with the Mums; see­ing Mums and kids hav­ing so much fun together in our stim­u­lat­ing, cre­ative envi­ron­ment is very reward­ing. The flex­i­bil­ity that my job gives me is great too.

What does a typ­i­cal day con­sist of?

My day starts at 5:30am — this for me is the best time of day. It’s usu­ally kick-started with a strong brew of cof­fee and break­fast after a nice long walk around my neigh­bour­hood. By 7am, I’m at my com­puter, respond­ing to clients and get­ting all the admin out of the way. Classes start at 9:30am and end at 5pm, after which I’m able to wind down with an hour-long pilates ses­sion before head­ing back home to pre­pare din­ner for my won­der­ful husband.

What’s hot in Dubai – any new bars, restau­rants etc…

Def­i­nitely the new “Old Town” with Souk Al Baha, The Address (with awe­some bars and restau­rants) and the most incred­i­ble danc­ing foun­tains, which will have you mesmerized.

What’s the best kept secret in Dubai?

Ooh… So many! Pun­jab samoosa shop in Mina Bazaar, Basta Art cafe in the old part of town and the fish shop across the road from the beach — it’s so good — fresh fish caught by the local fish­er­men and cooked right on the spot. Ambi­ence is a cou­ple of plas­tic chairs in the sand and a few scrawny desert cats hang­ing around for scraps — well worth it!

What do you do, leisure-wise?

In win­ter we spend a lot of time on the beach. It’s also a good time to go camp­ing — usu­ally in Oman or in the desert.

Sum­mer is too hot to do any­thing out­doors, after 7am, so instead, we search for dif­fer­ent places to meet with friends, check out the new spots or per­haps  head to a mall to browse the shops.

What’s your favourite thing?

My favourite thing in Dubai is going down to the old part of town to browse the mar­kets for beau­ti­ful fab­rics and other bar­gain buys.

What do you miss most about home?

Every­thing! I miss my fam­ily. I miss the farm with fresh air, green grass and moun­tains; I miss the smells and sounds of Africa.

What’s ahead for Tammy?

Good times! Sorry… GREAT times!