Tying up loose ends

As my father-in-law put it: "So Aidan is gone, get over it!!" Yes, time to focus on other things indeed. Boy it has been a hectic last few weeks. Sending Aidan off, after exams, prom, then wrapping up Hunter's exams and graduation from MYP (Middle Year Program - a prep for IB diploma 2-year program) and then packing for our move to Denmark, where Hunter and I will be for the next month. Time flies and it seems the summer is going full speed while we are out of the sandbox!

Now that Aidan has left his bedroom behind, it is my plan to move in there and set up my office. As a mother would do, I started fiddling, cleaning and sorting through his clothes and things before I left for Denmark. To my shock - near heart attack I should say - I found a [used] pregnancy "Clear Blue" test stick on his shelf. Either my son is confused about whom can get pregnant, men or women, or he and Courtney were trying to play a mean prank on me. Or were they honestly perhaps a bit nervous about something? Who's to know?

It's been a few years since I used one of those tools, so trying to decipher the result, it took me a few minutes to analyse that it in fact was negative. Phew! Next step was to diplomatically ask Aidan about this - always a sensitive subject of how far a mom can go to probe and pry...

So I sent a mail to him and asked straight up if he was joking or wanted to tell me something. Now we know he and Courtney have been doing more than kissing - they are both of legal age, so we are sort of OK about this (Aric's Grandma Hill would turn in her grave if she read this! I expect a lightning rod in my back any moment now) - and knowing Courtney and her parents well, there is full transparency in this relationship. As her parents also agree though, we aren't ready to be in-laws or grandparents anytime soon!

Aidan's response is classic: "Was it used?" - "It was just a precaution as I was trying to tie up lose ends" - DOAH! Yeah I'd say this is a lose end....sitting in Thailand sipping a beer and getting a mail that you're gonna be a daddy, is not quite the start on life I'd prefer! His next sentence killed me..."So negative is good? That means Courtney is not prego?" And I thought we had done the birds and bees story so well ;-) My job as a mom is finished here; I believe I can safely turn my focus on the little one, who is wasting no time trying to fill hi brother's shoes.

My sandbox garden is in hiatus. It's resting until I return and the cooler weather starts in November. We were eating green fried tomatoes right of the stalk as temps sored to 45c / 105F degrees prior to leaving. Slim and Aric are bachelors until July 24, when I meet Aric in Miami and we're off to Mexico for a little R&R. We are even fortunate enough to swing by Sanibel for 5 days to check on things and Mark and Amy will join us for some splashing in the pool.

Hunter will be enjoying summer camp in England in the meantime. He got to get one last time in on the board before we left the sauna!

A bird flies the nest!

Our wonderful, sweet, young man of a son has left us for his Gap Year. No, he is not going to work at The GAP - Aidan is off on the adventure of his life (not that his life until now has been boring and uneventful) as he backpacks his way through Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.

The few days leading up to the departure were very emotional. Courtney, Aidan's wonderful girlfriend, was pretty much weeping everytime you looked at her or mentioned Aidan leaving. They spent every moment together and as a result, we now have her clothes and toiletries occupying the house. It's as if Aidan left and she moved in :) Ah, but we love her.

I was just as heart broken because I had to go to Abuja, Nigeria, the day before Aidan left - was prepsenting in a management meeting and could not get out of it. Maybe it was better that way, because Aidan did need a wailing wall of women sending him off. So instead, I thought of him and didn't cry - until I got a mail that he had landed, found the hostel and couldn't sleep because he missed us. At that point I was considering finding a quick flight to Bangkok to get my baby.

Well, of course things get better with time and AIdan is now off to Koh Samui and Koh Phanang for the Full Moon Party, with some German back packers. Sure he is in good hands with Germans...what can possibly happen with a race known for drinking excessive amounts of beer?

If any of you want to follow his escapades, he has a blog:

http://aidans-trip.blogspot.com/

What happens in Dubai, stays in Dubai

Especially when it comes to news and hair. How many of you know that de-salienated water can make your hair fall out? Well it's a fact. With no minerals added to the water at all, over time, the scalp weakens and dries out and hair follicles get brittle. Aric's hair is thinning, whether that is age, stress or water, I'm not sure, but we'll just blame the water :) Thankfully, mine is still thick and healthy. Creates a market opportunity for expensive hairloss prevention products!

In the news media, we have been following the tragedy of Flotilla Aid and Israel's meaningless attacks on the ships headed for Gaza with food and health supplies. It has covered the front page of the daily Gulf News for weeks and has started a debate, which is wide and furious among the Arabs, as well as other nations. I often wonder how much you see in US and European newspapers and the spin the media puts on it. Of course, the Arabs are condemming the attacks and feel it's the "last straw" of Israel's continuing hate campaign against the people in Gaza. We've read President Obama's and the international community's comments and reaction to what happened. It is very interesting to see things from a different perspective - in this case Arab / Muslim - because we tend to blindly believe what we read and see in the media, which is very often skewed and biased.

In the United Arab Emirates we suffer from censorship when it comes to news about the royal families, the economy and politics. I like to pick up other news papers from US and Europe when I travel, because that is the only way I see what happens in Dubai, without rose colored glasses. I am curious what you think about Dubai, based on what you read overseas.

Everyone has a little Muslim faith inside

When you look at the Koran and read the scriptures, the sheer appearance fills you with awe; as if you are hardly worthy of even flipping thru the pages of this holy guide to life.


Margaret and I went to the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Mosque one sunny, very warm day in May, while Aric and his dad Tom played golf with several Cisco guys. Personally, I think we got more out of the day than they did, but apparently nobody complained about chasing a small round ball in 100 degrees.

Before you even get close to the Mosque, you know it has a presence - so big, so white and so holy - even from the outside you just know that millions of dollars / dirhams were pumped into the not yet 100% completed Wonder of the World.

Margaret and I made a few faux pas before even entering the court yard. Of course we saw the black Abayas at the info desk and correctly assumed we needed to wear that over our 'not so conservative tank tops and shorts'. The scarf was a bit tricky so we just slung it over the hair and proceeded to walk right into an area - with shoes - which was not to be stepped on. OOOPS...off with the flip flops and then I suddenly felt 'barefoot and pregnant' in this long cover. The friendly guide took one look at us and thought "sigh - yet another pair of infidels who can't tie the scarf right" - so of course we paid her 10 dirhams to get bound around the head properly, for no hair to show. Don't we look like a pair of nuns?

The prayer rooms inside were more like giant carpeted halls with intricate mosaic in abalone, gold and marble. It's completely impossible to describe! The chandeliers were made from thousands of glass pieces in the colors of the rainbow.

We would have felt as if we were in the last century, was it not for an Arab woman on her cell phone, yapping away to someone I seriously doubt was Allah! And they say the Arab women can't live without their cell phones....I have seen and I believe, Lord yes indeed!

I like the simple feel - no clunky furniture - just sit on the carpet and chat or pray. Lutheran churches could do with some of that.

After a few hours in the coolness of the mosque, we drove to Lulu Island on the coastal side of Abu Dhabi and had coffee and sweet pastries, yummy, what a lovely day.

Later we met up with the guys and all had dinner while overlooking the mosque at night. It's hard to not feel a little Muslim in this place.