January 16, 2006 - Calm After the Storm

OK - it's WORSE than leaving your windows open during a sudden rain. The sand blows in and covers EVERYTHING. And it's not sand, it's like sand powder. Lesson learned. The upside is that I got to inspect every crook and cranny of the house while getting the sand out of them and have a very complete inventory of "things to do."

Writing the date on today's entry I realize - it's my birthday!! Usually, I anticipate my b-day like a kid. But this year it caught me by surprise. As a present, I had a very normal, calm morning. Dropped the kids off at school, picked up the paper on the way home, turned on the sprinkler and sat down to email, work and a cup of coffee. BLISS!

So enough about me - what about where I live? Choice of headlines from the "Gulf News" Newspaper:

• Sa'ad Kuwait Emir as Jaber dies (Top story, happened yesterday)
• Pakistan - String of protests erupt over US airstrike - apparently (purported) CIA bombed Peshawar trying to get Al Qaida guy - killed civilians. That's the first paragraph. The second relates the Paki pres saying "that's what you get for harbouring terrorists" - sweet guy!! 10k people protested.
• Other topics regularly treated are Soccar (front page), Labor issues in Dubai, real estate
  

The brand new mosque down the street finally went into business. I boast that it's the prettiest in Dubai cause it has red lights on top of the minarets for the airplanes (we're very near the airport). Seriously, it IS a very pretty mosque.