A Life Far Removed from Durian Trees

A couple of days ago: UK envoy in Yemen escapes 'suicide bomb'

...forgot to add: durian counter reset to zero - had some while I was in Malaysia!!!

I came home yesterday to find that: - there's no H1N1 screening at the Sanaa airport any more, straight to immigration - the rainy season has started, hot mornings (well, relatively) followed by rainy afternoons - rain water leaked into the house in some places, enough to wet the carpets (note to self: roll up carpets the next time we travel) - the boilers hadn't leaked (note to self: was a good idea to turn off the boiler switch before travelling) - my cleaner has been reunited with her passport and is much chipper than before (to make a long story short: her handbag was stolen by a taxi driver. He kept her passport/phones/valuables in his home in Taiz. She made a police report and somehow they caught him. He promised he'd return the passport but never did. Then somehow she found out that he had died in a car accident - at one point the police actually considered that she might have killed him. She went to Taiz with the taxi driver's wife to get her passport back. ...

It's been a long time...Just got back after more than a month away - in the UK, Malaysia and India. I feel relief. That I'm home again instead of living out of a suitcase. That the weather is a perfect combo of cool 18^C breeze and sunny skies. That I can work in my ergonomic, tranquil office. That I can (re)start my diet (yeah right!). BUT, it was a good work/holiday trip. Great seeing the guys in the office again, really enjoyed seeing the family back home, did some travelling in Malaysia and India, and ate lots of good (but unhealthy) food!