Sunday, July 01, 2012

On this Day…in 2008…



The beauty of a blog (well, there’s many things to commend one, but I like THIS reason a lot) is that you can look back at what you were up to, or thinking about, years and years ago. 

So now and again I do like to dip back into some of my old posts. I’m often struck by how utterly hilarious I am (no, really!) and also by the fact that I often have no memory of ever writing the damn things. Age. Humph.

So, at the end of June/start of July 2008, what was life like for Britney of Arabia?

Well, on this day (or thereabouts) four years ago, I had just arrived in Dubai (two weeks in!) and was up to all sorts of high-junks. 

I visited the Atlantis, which was still under construction at the time:

I had my first experience of wine and cheese at the wonderful Qamardeen hotel in Downtown (love my carefree mention of the Dubai stone – as if it would never happen to me!):

And, perhaps unsurprisingly, if you know me well, I was having trouble sleeping:


When I read back to all the frantic things rushing through my mind, purely related to moving to Dubai, I feel some sympathy for those new arrivals. SO much to organize….so much red tape, so little understanding of how ‘inshallah’ will impact on everything you try to do. 

You can hear the shock and indignation singing from the laptop screen.

More flashbacks to follow….