So the housing debacle continues - xxxxxxxxx does not care a fig ... or should I rather say a date since we should be using a Middle-Eastern fruity metaphor that they can identify with. Ah well... they suggest we contact the company psychologists but to hurry up because they book up quickly! That is quite hilarious ... but a sad statement of truth that reflects the situation for those employed by xxxxxxxx. And seeing those junior to us with fewer children being allocated luxury palatial villas sticks deep in one's craw - a bitter pill for the many families with 3 children who were overlooked for families with only two and even one . Just how far has the corrosion of morality gone in Dubai ? Perhaps as far as this key found in a lock on the prow of an abandoned boat on the beach at Jumeirah... 
And so we as a family continue to sit in squalor - but I can take comfort in the fact that ultimately you reap as you sow and the tide has to turn ... and I can only hope those that sit on thrones of power realise that the positions they are in are just as tenuous as the sand (xxxxx) on which they were built. It reminds me so much of Shelley's poem OZYMANDIAS - the great king ( yes, he too was all powerful in the Middle East) who built this gianormous statue of himself for all to worship from afar - yet that statue crumbled and lies shattered in pieces all over the desert floor and he who was once so mighty is now forgotten and purely remembered for his selfish pride and egomania.
Now every king has has his corona aka a crown or coronet and whereas many a king and queen has lost his or hers along with their heads, today I am pleased to say I was rewarded with my first ever rose bloom in Dubai. I have a single plant in a pot - a far cry from the 400 in my rosegarden in South Africa. But despite the odds this twig grew and 42 days later I have a rose in bloom and a further 4 buds to open. It defied all odds - and maybe a sign of hope.
Kathryn , I owe you a huge word of thanks for your support ... more than I can adequately express at the moment . In fact I would like to pick that rose and give it to you ... for being there when I needed you most.

CLICK!