The waves were coming in like Arabian stallions (Patti Smith)

You always take the weather with you.
I haven't done a weather watch for...ew...ages. I only mention it cos the weather here is usually entirely predictable. The weather chart person at the newspaper has the cushiest number ever.

But this week has been different. We had rain...of a kind... a few days ago. The sky had been greyish all day but rain is the last thing you think of in a desert. We were watching TV when the thunder and lightning started and then the rain followed.

Buildings, roads etc are NOT set up for rain in the Middle East. Our apartment was fine inside (others experienced rain coming through the windows!), but outside our front door the rain came steadily through the manhole cover leading to the roof.

The last few days have had a similar, though far less dramatic, pattern - a grey sky that keeps the temperature in the low 30s and then, at night, a few spots of rain - not enough to use your wipers if you were driving kind of spots.

And it's getting hotter - climbing into the high 30s during the day.

Thank yous.
Thank you to the whanau (whanau means extended family and mine is listed below in the left hand column) who have voted in the poll, which finishes today. I actually found the results surprising. Nearly 60% of you (so far) are keen for an email alert every time I do a post so... I will. I was worried that you may get fed up of the emails but clearly you don't. So...yeah...

The poll was a good idea (thanks blogger) and it got me thinking, again, about the people who read blogs. I looked at the stats for the readership of my wozza blog for the last 4 weeks. I was staggered to learn that readership peaked on April 9 (the post about the road trip to Dubai) when 78 people visited my blog. 78 visitors on one day!! Amazing.

Jacky's big day.
Thanks to all of you who sent cheery greetings to Jacky for her birthday. Jade made it with 4 minutes to spare! Amanda wins the best email card award, though, with her virtual birthday cake.

Seems we all love to get presents throughout our lives on our special days. Many of you asked what I got Jacky for her birthday so here it is.

Life size wise it's about a foot high and blimin heavy (it's made of bronze with a solid marble base and I emphasise the solid!).





Yes...the end!

Love and peace - Wozza