the good, the bad and the ugly

When someone tells you there is good news, and there is bad news, which do you choose to hear first? I like to start with the bad news and get it out the way, and hope that the good news will somehow make up for it. Sadly, in life, you don't always get both options, and have to deal with one or the other. This last week was a little bit like that...but I will start with the good (in line with the famous movie title anyway).

tactful? not so much

Saw this in the paper this morning. Is it just me or is the idea of advertising food with a happy Ramadan wish, during the day when people are FASTING, just a little tactless?

What do you think?

fast facts

In all likelihood Ramadan will start tomorrow, that is depending on the sighting of the new moon, which will probably happen tonight.

Ramadan follows the moon cycle with lasts 29 or 30 days. It is seen as an opportunity for families to renew their connections, it's also a month of forgiveness and mercy. According to a quote in the Xpress today Ramadan is "when you hit the reset button on your relationships - with God, with yourself, family and even neighbours".

For the non-Muslims living in the region, and for tourists too, it is important to have consideration for those fasting and remember that all eating, drinking and even smoking in public is frowned upon between dawn and dusk.

I was wrong..

So just when I was beginning to think that the national emblem of Dubai should be changed to two crossed traffic cones held together with red and white tape, because lets face it this is pretty much all you see apart from sand, they proved today that sometimes they do actually fill in the holes they have dug AND take the tape down! Happy hopeful day. :-)

it's not completely over

Despite the signs of recovery they keep going on about on CNN (in an effort to convince us through repetition), and in the papers here, the reality seems to be that we haven't yet turned the corner. Illustrative of this is the fact that there are two vehicles parked at the small shopping centre close to our house where we go to gym in the morning, and they have both clearly been abandoned. The one, a Porsche Cayenne, has 2 flat tyres now (tragic) and the other, a Pajero, is covered in a thick layer of dust.

[abandoned vehicle]

that's a relief..

The UAE Health Ministry has denied a report that said expatriates returning to the country would have to produce a medical certificate to prove they were free of the H1N1 virus.

“The news about this issue is completely untrue,” Dr Ali Ahmed bin Shuker, Health Ministry Director-General and Chairman of the Technical Health Committee for Combating Swine Flu, told official news agency Wam.

An English daily had reported on Tuesday that returning expatriates would need to produce the certificate before being allowed in.

Full story is here.

time to paper myself?

Traditionally the gift for reaching your first anniversary is paper. Well, that is for a wedding anniversary anyway. I wonder if the same thing applies for other kinds of anniversaries? I have been thinking about this all weekend, probably because I have now officially been in the UAE one year, as of the 30th July. I think I will have to buy myself a new notebook (the paper kind that is not a pc) to commemorate the day.

[Frankies @ JBR =  lovely]

hazy summer days

[hazy horizon]

Dubai has been dusty all weekend. Visibility is poor but it seems cooler somehow so not all bad.