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March 19 drum roll pleasei'm
glad i was right because i was wearing my helmet when i found out. you see, we had
this amazing hail storm the other night. friday it was. i spent
countless hours sitting on the balcony of our house in nepal in
2000, captivated by the spectacular monsoon storms that blew through
most nights we were there. massive rainfall, thunder in garden and
lightening on the lawn became as normal as bugs in the flour or ants in
the toothbrush to us. it was unreal. i loved it. that feeling of being
scared of the dark. well, on friday past, it happen again. we (being
all of ras al khaimah) woke up just after 2am on saturday morning, to a
terrific noise. simultaneously, we all approached our windows and
peeling back teh curtains, we staggered by the view. i kid you not -
hail the size of something a little bigger than a marble was falling
out of the sky like god had dropped his tangy fruits or something. to
us it sounded like rain on the roof. not likely since we have one
and a half floors above us. the noise, the forks of electricity
shooting across the sky and that scared-for-no-reason feeling kept me
(and as i found out later) most of my class wide awake until around
3.30am. i said to jenny before i got up at six that i feet like she
must do every morning. sleepy. the heavens had delivered the kind of hail that chips paint off cars and maims kittens. the kind that breaks the plastic covering the speedo on a moped. so before i left, i called out, "i'll eat my hat if my scooter is not damaged." March 09 poor childrencharity
day was not postponed this year, like it was last february for there
being puddles on the playground. in fact, it was today. charity day is
when we all set up stalls and games and sell anything for money. all of
which goes to the red cresent and the fine work they do, especially
across asia and during emergencies. i had arranged a stall with my mate jonathan. we were to take photos of children and sell them back to them. it worked well. we set up next to face painting to ride their wave of success. as it turned out, when i returned from a frustratingly long session on the computer (i forgot how to print for about 20 minutes) i was roped into helping paint the faces of children i vaguelly reconised, but couldn't name, but they knew me, ie: infants. i've never painted a face before. i still can't shave properly. of course my first (darling) customer wanted the leopard (with white eyes, muzzles, orangey yellow skins, stripes, spots and a long neck). poor kid. he went away looking like i'd told him a hundred times not to play with paint, but would he listen? poor kid. much to my amusement, his mother loved it and i worked away through a long line of spiderman, butterfly, leopard and puppy dog wannabees. i must admit, the butterflies were fun because i got to put a dab of glitter on each cheek and one on the nose. the tacos were great but i was saddened to arrive posthumously at the stand perfectly named 'mrs. gunn's cakes'. they're not just chocolate cakes, but sweet, magical treats. the kind hansel and gretel would die for. mrs. gunn (carol) said she'd bring me 1/2 a dozen on saturday. bless her. the music blarred (such conservative people, such a loud rendition of californication). still, i got to ride my scooter a bit more and a few people met ben for the first or umpteenth time. i suspect they would have raised around $10 000, which is rather good. otherwise, ben remains cute. he learnt to roll over the other day. so much effort. little does he know that there is still more to go, like waking, homework, getting a job, finding a suitable partner... meanwhile, he's adorble and we are really lookinging forward to bringing him back to NZ this july. our flights are with cathay pacific, so we might do some hong kong too. i shouldn't ramble, but must finish by saying i got tickets to see and hear jamiroquai who are doing a show in dubai on 13 April. ker-ching! |
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