Some days are pretty crappy in Dubai. Some days are downright awful.
There are weekends, like this one just gone, that get wiped out by sandstorms and heavy hot-snaps.
There are weekdays where the stress and pressure of pushing an entire city forward get to be too much.

There are, some days, just too many things to be done, and not enough hours to do them in.

There is good health care, but too little focus on preventative strategies.
There is fantastic technology, but too little awareness of how to use it.
There is access to plentiful restaurants and eating out, but poor hygeine standards.
There are lovely, rescued street cats, but they can be noisy as all hell.

There are days when you just sit and count down how many months or years it will take to finish a contract, build up enough savings, and high tail it out of the sandpit. You ponder where you can go next, and how long you should leave it before you start to apply for jobs and make contacts. You want out, but need to plan your exit strategy wisely, so that you won’t need to return for a cash-up. Or get put in jail for something.

Then, you stand in your kitchen. Yes, YOUR kitchen, because you have enough money to not have to flat with others. You look at your fruitbowl, and sitting there are three delicious mangosteens and a pomegranate.

I didn’t even know what a mangosteen tasted like until I got here. The only thing pomegranate-related I could have access to in Australia was an expensive bottle of processed juice. I could barely afford even that.

You think about how many days it is unless your next holiday. Your international holiday.
It will be the third trip overseas this year…third of ten or eleven countries.
You look back at the pomegranate, and think of how plentiful the freshly pressed juice will be in Egypt, in less than 40 days. The mangosteens? Heck, I don’t even know where they came from. But I bet I could go there.

Best we just extend our stay then, at least until we find out where the mangosteens are.
By then, there’ll be something else exotic we’ll stay for.
There always is.

Or we’d already be gone by now.

Mondays – they’re not all bad.