Dubai

Because we are just about to take off for the anicient part of the Middle East, it is a good time before I forget to write an appreciation of Dubai. This is my fourth visit and admittedly the weather has touch of perfection about it, it is like the best of English summer. However, this time I came with a question which was Am I on the right track and what's next? And for sure this is a pivotal time for us, a change from a working life to a more retired existence, it is a time of obvious change in the world too. What emerges f rom having a look is that moving into the new tends to be rather theatening, old is gold seems to ring true but it is no bad thing to be shaken out of an old way of looking and to step into an appreciation of what is clearly still full of goodness. Dubai, for all its brash extraordinariness, combining architectural aspects from every time and culture, provides a clean healthy environment, it provides jobs and as its host is the Arab World, it has a great appreciation and kindness towards families. No we won't be living here but I find myself moving from a faintly disapproving old granny way of looking at it to an appreciative enjoyment of what it has to offer. After all, if they open old people's homes over here, this might be the best place to be! Clearly for all the tradition in nursing and hospitality in the UK, old people's homes are not the place you want to end up in there. I am hoping if I can still read stories and do ironing that one of my children will take us in. So, off to the old world, to Damascus, perhaps for an enlightenment moment, to Baalbac for ancient ruins, to Beirut because it is still a beautiful place and perhaps to Byblos for lunch! We will update this when we come back here. Do you know that you can become a follower and send us messages, thank you Ray and Mary. Trying to retrain Richard not to get stressed in airports, so much nicer to be