Chronicles of a Trailing Spouse...

You'd have to be living under a rock in the desert to be unaware of how dangerous it is to drive here in the UAE.  On the drive from RAK to Dubai, the side of the road is literally strewn with burned- out tyres and car parts and you're guaranteed to spot at least one major accident on any journey lasting longer than half an hour.  It's a topic which occupies much headline space and even has its own facebook group 'if you can drive in the UAE you can drive anywhere' .  I joined this group, not because it was going to achieve anything (much like 'liking' a group called 'murder is wrong' isn't going to throw potential murderers into a moral dilemma and stop them in their murderous tracks) but because it creates a sense of belonging among a small, marginalised minority- i.e. those people in this country who can actually drive. As I see it, the problem lies with two distinct groups- i) those who seem to have no idea how to take a left hand turn,...

I knew something was up when I got my clothes back from the laundry and there was a newborn baby outfit among them.   A few weeks later I bought something in the chemist and the assistant threw a dozen baby’s bibs into the bag for free.   From that moment on I knew my days were numbered and that Demeter , the Greek goddess of fertility would claim me sooner or later. Yes dear reader, this mother of four is soon to become a mother of five. Coming from a long line of very fertile women (my sister has 8 children), fertility for me is not so much a blessing as an affliction.  I realise this isn't a popular statement to make, coming from a generation of women who were told that they had choices, one of which was to postpone childbirth until their thirties only to find that nature had played a cruel trick, that the thirty-something doesn't conceive as easily as the twenty-something.  My heart goes out to women who struggle to conceive; it is frustrating, dis...