RAMADAN KAREEM

Ramadan Starts today. All cafes and restaurants will be closed until after sunset and non Muslims are asked not to eat or drink, dance, sing or play music in public. Schools will be open in the mornings only, and many Muslims have a shorter working day.

The hardest thing for me, will be to remember not to have a cup of tea or coffee in front of a colleague. Or ask them if they want one.

Here is the Wiki explaination:
Ramadan (Arabic: رمضان‎) is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is the Islamic month of fasting, in which participating Muslims refrain from eating, drinking, sexual conduct, smoking, and indulging in anything that is in excess or ill-natured; from dawn until sunset [1] Fasting is meant to teach the Muslim patience, modesty and spirituality. Ramaḍān is a time to fast for the sake of Allah, and to offer more prayer than usual. During Ramaḍān, Muslims ask forgiveness for past sins, pray for guidance and help in refraining from everyday evils, and try to purify themselves through self-restraint and good deeds.

INTRODUCING LUCY

After a ridiculous amount of time deliberating the possible pros and cons of getting a second cat, we finally did. Tiger was becoming a real handful, requiring extended periods of 'play therapy' nightly, with nights of broken sleep caused by disruptive play if we failed to deliver. We figured a second cat would give him a companion and a playmate and relieve the boredom of being alone all day. However, we also considered that we might just create more havoc if they didn't get along. Enter Lucy...

Lucy's mum had been abandoned by her family here in Dubai, like so many other pets. Basically, people leave and simply just leave their pets. Some die quite cruelly because of the heat. Lucy's mum was fed by the neighbours and when she had kittens, they found homes for them. We took Lucy.

Lucy was just 9 weeks when we got her and just the opposite of Tiger. Sanguine, unfazed, and willing to eat anything. After a few rather tense days they took a shine to each other and have been happy little companions ever since.

The night-time disruptions are ongoing and twice as noisy. :-(

INTRODUCING TIGER

We moved appartments in May this year. We very much wanted to stay in the Marina, but rental prices were still high. We found an apartment in the 'Greens' that we decided we would take. The apartment was inhabited by an Australian family. The husband/dad had just been made unexpectedly redundant and they were heading back to OZ. Unfortunately they couldn't take their cat Tiger (yes, they named him) back with them as he would have been looking at a 150 day stay in quarantine as he hadn't had his rabies shot. We offered to keep him.

Shortly afterward (but before moving into the Greens) an apartment in the Marina came up and they accepted our offer. Poor Tiger was not going to be able to stay in his own home (with attached garden and run of the Greens).

Tiger took quite a while to settle in here. We have had to deal with crying all night, drinking from the toilet and toilet brush holders, fussy eating, obssesive emptying of his litter onto the floor, opening doors by himself etc. But, he is a very, very clever boy. We particularly love playing fetch with him. He is just like a little dog (actually better than Tessie ever was) bringing a small rubber ball to us in his mouth, then fetching and returning it to us.

UPDATE August 2009

It is almost the end of 7 weeks of school holidays. A huge break that would give me plenty of time to update the blog - but, it didn't happen.

Rather than tackle the overwhelming task of trying to fill in what we have been doing over the past year, I think I will just restart from this point.

Lilli starts year 1 in a week, very exciting. Will try and make an effort to post first day pics. So...yáll come back now y'hear!