It's been a bit stormy around here recently. We have had massive hail storms, thunderstorms, Shamals and a wee bit of rain!... read more

Well this week was a real treat. It is Prophet Mohammed's Birthday so there was meant to be a public holiday on monday march 9th. Of course this being the UAE and all the government can't actually get its act together very quickly and announce what day the holiday is going to be on for the private sector (the public sector gets annouced very promptly). The company that we both work for doesn't do the sensible thing and say "right, since the UAE can't get its act together and tell us in advance when the public holidays are going to be so people can plan things like holidays we are going to tell you at the start of the year what days you can have off for these holidays". Instead they wait until the government officially ... read more

We went to the UK for a long weekend to attend the wedding of a friend of David's in Kent. While we were there we took the opportunity to visit Cambridge as I had never been there. Boy was it cold! More details later when I can be bothered to recount the visit in proper detail :)... read more

We got up this morning and went in search of breakfast. It was almost a fruitless search as there was noone in the restaurant that we could easily find . However on a second attempt we managed to rouse somebody and they actually ended serving us up the most delightful breakfast (although mum absolutely hated it). Dad and I both had a truly lovely omelette, followed up by some cornflakes. Mum has steadfastly refused to use the milk in Syria as she cannot find out whether or not it is pasteurised, so instead she has been putting bottle water onto her cornflakes…… yummy. After breakfast we went for a little walk around the old town of Hama. It is actually quite beautiful and there is very little rubbish strewn around the streets as in other cities. ... read more

Last night was amazing. The thunderstorms of yesterday afternoon continued on into the evening and as we tried to sleep at night the entire hotel room was continually lit up with bright flashes of lightening immediately followed by a earth shaking crash of thunder. It was really quite spectacular, although it did make it frightfully difficult to get to sleep. When morning came the weather had receded somewhat and there was actually some blue patched in the sky. We made our way down to breakfast to find ourselves having the paddle into the restaurant again. Apparently the architects here in Syria don’t follow international best practise and have a drop between the inside and the outside of a building. Because the outside patio was flush with the entrance door the driving rain during the night had ... read more