Meet Asma and Fatma

Asma sleeps until noon every day and is a housewife. Fatma is up early and works 8-5 at a local women's college. Asma has the driver and nanny take her son to daycare. Fatma drops her kids off herself. Asma has tea with girlfriends every night and stays up until 1 or 2am in the morning. Fatma does homework with her children every evening, while her husband cares for his sick father, who lives with them. She complains that she has no time to herself!

Asma's husband works for the Government and his hours are 9-2. After work he spends the afternoon with Asma. Fatma has to go and visit her father (who is a widower) at least once a day and so does every sibling...she has 9 brothers and sisters.

Asma is Pakistani / US and married to an Emirati - she wears regular clothes. Fatma is local Emirati and wears the Abaya.

Both are wonderful women but so different. I met Asma at the American Women's Association general meeting and Fatma at the Coaching Course, I just attended this past weekend. Getting the insight into the lives of local women is rare and wonderful. I'm so curious for knowledge and cultural info and now that I have more time on my hands, I'm taking every opportunity to get to know my surroundings.

Since my last blog, I have taken ownership of Lola, so I ride much more. Such a treat! Look for more updates soon -- I'm off to the US this evening to see Aidan in Arizona and friends in Chicago. I got a 10-year entry visa, so I'm hoping my detainment in immigration will be avoided!

Ciao dear readers...

Mirror mirror on the wall, who's the nerdiest of them all?

The iPad has invaded our lives. I gave Aric one for our anniversary (I got golf clubs) and it was never my intention to touch that Pad at all. Three months and several cool applications later I'm hooked on the damn thing!

My idol Tom Cruise and Katie just told in an interview that their secret to a happy marriage is Scrabble. I'm scrabbling and scrabbling everyday against the CPU and against Aric. In a 150 point game I win 8 out of 10 times....in a classic long game, I don't do as well. But it's amazing how many new words I'm learning (can you tell I'm unemployed at the moment??)

There is also a cross word puzzle app and yoga routines! Who knew that a little flat pad could offer so much in life? Since I fell of Lola last Monday (serious equestrian equipment malfunction and some pilot error) and have been nursing a horrendous bruised Sacroiliac, I've become Scrabble Queen.

Hunter may be our 'uber-nerd' though. He just spent two weeks in Johannesburg at the Maharishi Institute. (Our friend Taddy is the founder of the Free University there and they use Transcendental Meditation as a basis for 'learning in a traumatic environment'). We attended Taddy and Annie's African wedding ceremony and after we left Johannesburg, Hunter wrote me a mail from his iPod:

"Hey mom vicki invited me to do this introduction to the transcendental meditation, the technique they use in the institute, and just told me what it was all about and everything, and basically selling me on her and richards 4 day course... And im sold, you really had to be there to not think im doing some hari krishna thing. Either way it seems like a good opportunity for a cool experience if not life changing thing, so i wanna try it... And the catch of course is that its R1800... Thats about it, and ofcourse i love you no matter what your answer."


Classic Hunter....As it turns out, we forked out the 1800 Rand because how can you not invest in your kids' future - and he is now meditating twice a day while humming a secret mantra! He and the other two interns at the school cooked noodles & noodles together and discussed how much money there is to be made in Charity! It just moves around and gets written off in tax deductions ;-) I think my son is on to something there!

In the spirit of giving, Aric decided to 'donate' our camera (with 125 safari and wedding pics) to some poor South African who has a lowly airport baggage handling job...unfortunately it was not a voluntary donation, but that's life in a country where the have's and have not's are so far apart. At least I can now upgrade to a nerdier Canon camera! Luckily Aric had taken a few shots with his small handy, so we have a few memories!

Hunter got great feedback from the Institute though! Apparently he fixed all their IT issues and also showed them how to download movies (!!) as well as upgraded all their applications. It has resulted in Hunter now looking at a career in IT management (God help him - we've poisoned his system with Cisco juice) - and is looking at a Bachelor's Degree from Copenhagen Business School in IT administration. How nerdy can you get??

Meanwhile, I've grown tired of all the Cisco Circus acts and have instead filed a labor dispute with the Dubai Free Zone and local labor dept. They notified our general manager who now has three days to respond and resolve the issue, or it gets forwarded to Dubai courts. After months of stalemate, I've concluded that corporate people are crooks, that the more bad and unethical things you do and the more people you mistreat, the higher up in the organization you move...I've also learned that HR must be the most incompetent people.

Unfortunately my situation has bled over into Aric's work and he has missed an opportunity to be rewarded the highest achievement award at Cisco: The Chairman's Club, and a trip to Hawaii. He did get the Sales Champion Award and was ranked no. 1 in region; alas they decided to send number two, which was a bit curious. I can only speculate that they thought it would be bad for business and their execs to be confronted with a 'postal wife' on Maui! I haven't had the urge to visit the 50th state anyways!

Life goes on and this week it will go a little faster and smoother once I sever my ties with the company where I had a good 12-year run.

Slim has lost his manhood and is doing well after he has less testosterone in his system!

I think that just about sums up the Ault sandbox updates.