muddle east?

this place can catch one unawares. we disembark thinking of tans, SPF, ice creams, Long Island Iced Teas and so on. for this is after all desert. where the sun shines 335 days of the year (we are on leave for 30 days and are out of the country so we dont know if the sun shines those days). these points are all borne out for 9 months of the year. july - sept / october is not fit for man nor camel. considerable investments in knee-lengths and sleeveless tunics.

but come november, and everything goes awry. KLs and SLs are hastily jettisoned. frantic searches are initiated for woolens! airconditioning is passé and monkey caps are de rigueur. the temperature swings from 42 deg to 12 deg. while people dont actually freeze, hypothermia is a distinct danger in the outlying parts of dobuy.

we are quite confused.

i ton yhw ti od dluoc icniv ad fi

we write this as a legit resident of the sands! over the last few weeks we have got a l'il piece of plastic that certifies us to 'legally live and work in the United Arab Emirates'. thrills us no end to be legit. what thrills us even more is the fact that we are 'free of infectious disease' and therefore 'medically fit to reside in the UAE'. we all know what 'infectious disease' means in today's enlightened age.
the new year has happened and we saw it in snoring away. though there was a spectacular fireworks display which we saw from our lawns (we have two). the relief at finally getting our papers sorted made xmas, new year's eve, etc a wee bit more fun!
finally managed to read 'da vinci code' hence the title. the book does not grip. nor does it hold. a waste. the author becoming a multi-millionaire on this garbage only proves there's one born every minute. and now we even have IVF...
anyway, happy new year and may the gods (or L. Ron Hubbard depending on your persuasion) smile on you this year.