Christina flew to Bangkok yesterday and will have met Meredith and Tory this morning for a short holiday at Bangkok and Phuket before flying into Abu Dhabi where the latter will holiday with us for a few weeks.
Meredith and Tory spent a couple of days at Perth enroute to visit Tory's "other" grandmother.
Summer is approaching and the weather at present is absolutely great here. Our complex now has a pool and a fully functioning gymnasium which are free to use if you provide copies of your photos, passport, rental agreement etc etc. Nothing is straightforward here. Interestingly, for a place with an almost unheard of crime rate, everyone is suspicious and businesses don't trust anyone. I'm not sure whether the crime rate is low because of the stringent processes and procedures to prevent it, or whether it's just low.
To a large extent I think the crime rate is low because 90% of the population is expatriate, courts mete out tough justice and if you are an expat part of a sentence is deportation. Workers are on such a good wicket here they can't afford to get the flick.
As an example of punishments, a British guy 30 felt an Emirati women's bum with his hand at the airport recently and his penalty was 3 months detention and a 3,000 AED fine (A bit over $1,000 dollars AUD). Can you imagine what the penalty would be in Australia ... $75 and a 3 month good behaviour bond.
Our visitors will be able to suck in the nice weather and use the pool while I'm at work earning a Dirham or two. However, I expect the summer heat to arrive quickly now and by May, days with 50 degree heat will be normal.
Christina has been doing some voluntary work at the Al Ain Women's College helping the English staff and seems to be enjoying it. Apart from a craft group, committee membership on the Emirates Natural History Group, the rest of her time is spent sewing this or that and most recently, planning our mid-year trip to several of the European countries.
Other than that, we both appear to be in good health and are still enjoying our stay here.
Hope this finds you and yours well too.
Best wishes
Robin
for Robin and Christina
PS: My latest website is at http://www.web-names.ws
