Here's the thing...

I have to take back everything that I've said about Dubai. For those of you who hadn't heard of my dislike for the place the feelings went a little something like this: "There are two things in this world that drain my will to live faster than anything else. Those are: 1) airports, 2) shopping malls." Dubai is, essentially, nothing more than a combination of those two and, therefore, one of my least favourite places on earth." Mind you it also has something to do with how it's a hot, dry, dustbowl and the airport usually looks like a morgue with bodies sprawled all over the floor sleeping through their 10 hour layovers. Well, I gave my friend James the challenge of changing that all for me and he did an excellent job. First, I received an e-mail that contained those 9 little words that thrill me like no other: "I'm having a car meet you at the airport". Seriously, if . Next, when I disembarked from the plane there was someone standing there w

After sitting in my little tukul almost all day on Saturday I had enough. I needed to get out and so I went for a walk. And once I started walking I was overcome by the strangest urge to just keep on walking. I mean, just keep going. Now, I’m the person who coined the phrase, ‘if God had intended us to walk he wouldn’t have given us cars’ so I’m not normally a fan of ‘footing’, as they call it here. I think of walking as a means to an end, just like driving - only the latter is more expedient. You walk, or run, or hike, or trek, or drive in order to 1) get where you’re going, or 2) exercise, or, 3) see some beautiful mountain/hike as the case may be. That’s it. I have never gotten some high or endorphine rush from either walking or running. That’s why I found it so unusual that on Saturday I just felt like walking. It might have something to do with being in the middle of nowhere and I was on a dirt track that goes somewhere. It wasn’t to get anywhere, it wasn’t particularly beautiful