Hello Dubai .... again..

I am finally back in Dubai after two months of dealing with ten tons of crap in London.

When I left Bur Dubai at the beginning of July I was anticipating a nice little two week holiday going to a wedding and catching up with friends and family. It then extended into two funerals and an unexpected nightmare of plumbing, damp and decoration problems including a serious complaint against damp proofing company Kenwood Plc UK. However, if I took a plumbing course I think I could now start my own property re-furb business!

Just when I thought it was safe to relax on the day before I flew back to Dubai, I discovered that myself and my flight booking had disappeared from Expedia's system and therefore, I did not actually exist. After numerous calls to try and re-establish my existence I had to give up and get my husband to book me another flight on the following day because I was skint! Am now in the process of filing a second incompetence complaint, this time to Expedia, although given that I don't exist I am not optimistic about getting my money back!

On the plus side I had pics in two exhibitions. One surprise weekender for Friends of the Earth plus the Summer Show I organised from here. The picture in that show is posted above and I found that reactions to the word 'Dubai' in general, elicited one of two reactions: wide eyed wonderment and/or superlatives or a look of abject horror and two steps backwards!

Other highlights include seeing a demonstration and talk by British geometrist Zarah Hussain which was fascinating and raised several issues, one of which was that calligraphy seems to have become the preferred motif of contemporary Islamic art, while hand crafted geometry is very much in decline. Interestingly enough it was also noted that there is a bit of a brain drain of educated British Muslims to ... Dubai! Unfortunately none of them are geometrists!

I am now going to spend the next few days catching up with the news and seeing what I've been missing on the UAE Community blog. As for London, I will miss the rain and the clouds but most of all I'll miss the silent nights without the constant hum of the AC....... also I like a drink but I will not miss the Saturday night pools of vomit and the daytime drunks who ALWAYS sit next to me on the bus!