Ma as-salaamah Dubai

I know this post will bugger up the order I’ve so diligently tried to keep, but it wont be very appropriate in a few weeks time, as I’ll not be able to update my blog for a while I’m posting it now……

After 2 years living here I say ciao to Dubai. I can’t honestly say I’m sad to leave as apart from the climate (well 8 months of the year anyway) there’s not much else I’ll miss. I’m sure that in a few months I’ll look back with fond memories but right now I can’t wait to leave the inequality and hypocrisy of the place. Thankfully our minds ability to suppress the not so good is quite remarkable. Three years after leaving India, and two years after leaving Malaysia I look back with such fond memories at the times I spent there. Even though I know there were things that drove me mad and I disliked, I have a very hard time remembering what they were. It seems my subconscious can only access the fun, happy and great times I spent, mostly I remember laughing, and the only bad bits I recall are attached to funny events or stories that I smile or laugh at now. Inshaallah, I’ll feel the same about Dubai in the future.

There is however one thing I will miss more than anything else and am very sad to be leaving behind, and that’s my friends here. I have met some truly wonderful people in the last two years, and though we’ve said we’ll keep in touch I said the same to the friends I made in India and Malaysia. At first you call or email regularly but after a while it becomes less and less frequent. This makes me sound a tad shallow and a bad friend, but I did make many friends, I’m a very sociable person and it’s not easy to keep up with all of them especially when they’re dotted around the globe. The few really close friends I made I have kept in touch with and do still see, though not as often as I’d like. The same has happened here in Dubai I’ve made lots of great friends and just two really close friends who I will miss terribly, and that’s Jo and Pam.

I have been so very lucky to meet these two fantastic girls, they supported me when I first arrived and through the bad times, especially with my operation. They delighted in my happiness with his nibs and our wedding, though a bit miffed they weren’t there! They’ve been surrogate sisters and best mates when mine where back in Blighty, whenever I needed them they were there for me. Until I met these women I thought you could only have one or two ‘bests mates’, now I know that’s not the case. There are some people in life you meet that you should do everything in your power to keep there; Jo and Pam are such people. Though I’ll not see them often or speak as much as we do now, they will always be a part of my life as I will never let these friendships slide. All it really takes is a bit of effort.

So to all the friends and acquaintances I’ve made in Dubai, thanks for the stories and making my stay here fun and memorable. To Jo and Pam, thanks for being the truly great women you are, for your friendship, your company, your support and mostly for the great times and laughs we’ve shared. I will miss you more than you know and love you both! XXX