Start again

I need to get writing again. My husband tells me that in his Creative Writing course, he is encouraged to write about anything for 10 minutes, each day. This apparently helps get the juices going!! Well, I will have to try it.

Today is a cloudy day in Chesham, although it is dry. I am looking out of my window onto green fields. The wonderful thing about my view is that I can see so many trees. I forget that Great Britain is very green, and not as built up as people would have us think. However, that doesn't mean that we can continue to build over our green spaces. There is a dog running across the fields, and behind it, at a much gentler pace, the it's walker enters the field. Thank goodness I don't have a dog. I would hate to have to walk it every day, in any weather. My husband would think this a strange comment: I go down the allotment every day, in any weather, so what's the difference? To me, the allotment is more satisfying. This week alone, I have made over 10lbs of blackberry jam from berries that I picked myself from the fruit trees. I have blanched and frozen pounds of runner and french beans, and there are more to pick. I must have dug up over 100lbs of potatoes and now I am having trouble finding places to store them. Surely, this is so much better than walking a dog?!! Dog Lovers, please do not be offended. What would the world be like if we all liked the same thing?

I have been looking around the blogs to find all those people who have expressed that they work in communications or media. There are over 97,000 of us. I started to search through the list of us all but gave up after having worked through about 100 names. What amazed me, but shouldn't have, was where everybody lived. I wondered at how small the world now seemed. We can now contact anyone around the world within seconds, read about their lives and strike up relationships if we want to. Gone are the days when the Internet was just a place to find out information. Now it is the biggest "news" medium ever and it can make or break reputations, whether they be people, product or company. What an area to monitor for those in the evaluation business of media services.

Audacious

Dubai is audacious. It assaults your senses. It changes your perception of "normal". It is confusing, exciting, preposterous, over the top, incredible, obscene...... but I loved my time there.

I read that Dubai is borrowing $10bn to continue it's massive construction plan. It doesn't have enough oil to finance where it wants to go. And I glean from the conversations that I had that Abu Dhabi (the next emirate) is just watching what is happening and learning from Dubai's mistakes. Abu Dhabi is building but at an extremely slower rate and, it won't have to borrow money because it has more than enough oil of it's own to finance whatever it decides to do.

I think that the Middle East is happy to let Dubai get on with it. Dubai is the Middle East's playground. In places, the emirate is a bit like Disneyland and Las Vegas. The tourist areas are false, but the finance areas that are being built are so different. They are built to impress, show off wealth, money and investment. After all, that's what Dubai is about.

I admire the modern architecture that you find there. The new hotels, office blocks, residential areas are pushing the boundaries with architecture. They are building the world's largest tower , which will over take the Taipei 101 building. It is already over 100 stories tall and it's final height is still a secret although locals reckon on it being around 190 stories high. You don't appreciate the height of the building because there aren't any other towers close by with which to compare.

Want to see how it currently compares to existing tall buildings? Click here.

Today, it is one of the hottest places to holiday...... and if you go between May and October it is literally one of the hottest places to go - 40 degrees with 90% humidity. It is better to stay indoors in summer. But is Dubai cheapening itself? The reason why I ask the question is because holidays to Dubai are now being given away as prizes to TV quiz shows etc. What a shame.

Training .... in Dubai

Things are looking up for me at work. I have the opportunity to train clients in Dubai in the next few weeks. My ticket is booked and I am flying Emirates. So, anyone tell me what I can expect?
What will I fly in? Airbus 330 or 340 or Boeing 777? It all looks incredible on the Emirates website. Does it match up to the expectations? I've heard only good about Emirates so if anyone wants to comment on how they have found things then that would be much appreciated.

It is only a 3 day, 2 night trip. I probably won't have time to view much if I am training all day. Still, I will have the evenings. Anyone got any ideas on what to do in the short time that I am there?

New.........

2007. The opportunity to start again. So what will be new for me in 2007. Only God really knows that but here is what I am aware of.

A new era - without my mother. Christmas and New Year was good but different. Christmas Day would have been the day when Mum would have been doing the dinner, organising the presents etc, but that fell to me instead. It was good to toast the day, and remember. My mum loved jigsaws, and she nearly always received one at Christmas from some family member. It was my turn this year - with a jigsaw birthday pressie from my brother!!! Traditions sometimes take a long time to die.

A new energy - I love my job. This year, it could expand, with more visits overseas. Great, 'cos as you already are aware, I love flying!!! I love the team that I work with. We are a bunch of ladies who enjoy each others company. We have a wonderful boss who is a great people person. He is the only male in the team, so I suppose you could consider us his little harem!!

A new objective - my allotment. Having taken on another half a plot, the objective for me to be more organised. Point to self: Must label all seedlings. Last year, my friend and I sowed courgettes, squashes, pumpkins and cucumbers. When they are small they all look the same. When we planted them out and they started growing, we suddenly realised that we had a space problem. Pumkins just take over and spread for miles!!!

A new challenge - I haven't got one yet. I haven't made any new year resolutions. I know better than that. It only sets me up for failure.

So, what is new for you?

45 years of marriage.......not quite

Yesterday, 2nd December, would have been my parents 45th wedding anniversary, a sapphire anniversary. Sadly, mum didn't make it. I was worried for my dad. He got through her birthday OK, just treating the day as another normal day, but this one was a little different. He came over for evening meal and spent a couple of hours with us. We didn't do much, but I didn't want him to be on his own all day.

I suspect that Christmas will be more difficult for us. Mum usually organised quite a bit of the celebrations but she won't be here. That will be something we will have to get used to. Dad can't think about Christmas. He doesn't know whether to get a tree or get himself organised to buy presents. I am not going to push him to do anything, but will have some standby pressies, just in case.

How do you start to live again after nearly 45 years of marriage?