Random Thoughts & Facts

·         Dana, who has recently lived in Germany, England, and on the African continent, thinks that this is the easiest place to be an American expat

·         There are signs on trucks and other professionally driven vehicles that say, in English, “How am I driving?” with a phone number to call, just like home.

·         Otherwise, nobody has bumper stickers on their cars.

·         There is no graffiti here that I have seen.

·         The boys hold hands. Tom says it doesn’t mean anything in particular.

·         We have a clothes dryer but no place to plug it in.

·         They gave us ten large casserole dishes but no plates, bowls, coffee cups, etc.

·         The paper towels in the public bathrooms are so flimsy they remind you of Kleenex, probably because there are no trees here to make paper towels from.

·         Eating left handed is not an issue; nobody seems to care.

·         On average, Emirate men tend to be hefty, the women ample, and they look comfortable in the national dress.

·         Apparently nobody really knows where they are going, so drivers veer across several lanes of traffic without warning to make a U or right turn.

·         The apartment is built of concrete, which makes it hard to hang pictures using hooks; I  use double stick tape instead.

·         Tom has exactly the same furniture that we do, which feels weird when we are there.

·         Dana and Debbie have an apartment just like ours but no furniture, so they have to stay in hotel. They keep having to move when the hotel is overbooked. Even though the hotels are 5-star, they are really tired of it.

·         I’m glad I didn’t re-up my Flickr account because Flickr is blocked here; it's only site I’ve tried to get into that’s blocked. So far.

·         Mark gets off work at 2:30 pm on Sundays, which is UAE equivalent of Monday.

·         The guys have a week off coming up soon; that means 9 days to do something interesting.

·         James the Marine officer is from Oklahoma and so is his wife. But she’s living in Japan with their 2 kids while he is assigned here. He is the definition of a dashing young officer.

·         Remember those jelly candies from China that were taken out of stores in the US because kids choke on them? They still sell them here.

·         Mark and I have done two bareboat sailing charters with Tom & Lucy and Dana & Debbie in the BVIs (although they aren’t sailors) so we hope to charter someplace like Croatia while we are here. This time, a catamaran.

·         I feel a little guilty about all of this which shows that I still do have some Catholic left in me, after all.

Lucy and Tom, Mark and me, Dana and Debbie
Tortola, BVI 2008