A new life in Dubai: Catch up

Well, February has been and gone and we march on towards summer. There always seems to be a change in the weather before the temperature increases and we have had bad sandstorms and then rain over the past few days. As usual, carnage was inevitable - people here cannot drive in fog or rain and the drainage system, even on the newly widened Emirates Road, is woefully inadequate.

It has been the running season for me and I completed the Dubai 10k in my best time in four starts and then followed it up being part of a team coming second, in spite of me, in the Creek Relay. I also managed the RAK Half Marathon although I found the last few km incredibly hard, slowed almost to a crawl, and only just got under 2 hours (1 hour 56 mins). Rather like a woman during childbirth, I vowed during the race never to do it again. Now, on reflection, I'd like to do another one where I get some proper long distance training in. One thing it has given me is a new respect for anyone who has completed a marathon.

As usual, the children have all been busy. Lucy's gymnastics have really developed over the last term and we enjoyed watching her in a display at a school fayre. I got asked to take the photos and found it quite nerve wracking as the light was terrible, there was a distracting background and I was surrounded by other people with cameras.

Ben was in a big rugby tournament the weekend after at The 7evens ground. There were 19 teams in the U-8 from as far afield as Azerbaijan, Cairo, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Oman. His team played really well and were unbeaten all day, with just one draw in the pool. Yet again I got asked to take the pictures after the pro who had been hired didn't turn up.