A Life Far Removed from Durian Trees

Back in Sana'a after a couple of weeks away. Before coming home, there's the familiar routine... "Did you call the maid?" "Have you told the driver to pick us up at the airport?" "Does your Arabic teacher know you're coming back?" As soon as we arrive, one batch of the laundry goes into the washer, the rooms are checked for any problems (like exploding boilers)...and long-running resolutions to lose weight are renewed (exercising more often and "just" soup for dinner)... So as I wait for my carrot and tomato soup to cook, I'll tell you what happened to my Arabic teacher this morning. I called her just before class to check if it was on. Sent an SMS the previous night but no reply - nothing unusual about that. Anyway, she answered and said she was going to be 30 minutes late and "I have a story to tell you." OK, I said. Take your time. (Let's call my teacher Ahlam.) So I went to her parents' house (where we have l...

My first ever attempt at karipap (curry puffs) - my favourite afternoon snack. Using Mum's recipe for the filling and a "low fat" pastry puff that I found in Shumaila Hari supermarket. Oven-baked, as opposed to fried. Not bad!

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!