Do you ever feel overwhelmed by life?

18.09.2013

Not being good at anything is exhausting. I asked Conor how long did it take for him to become confident at work. Of course, there is no simple answer [...]. Nevertheless, I always rebuke myself not having asked (¿?) Father Christmas for some of it. A mistake I make every year.

Being out of the comfort zone is, in a masochist way, appealing; however, when over stimulated we (I) become stressed, numb and useless. Thank God for learned helplessness (I guess...).

19.09.2013

It’s a pity I cannot go outside and write from there. But it is too hot and humid for my laptop to cope. It has been behaving strangely lately (meaning freezing dead and scaring the hell out of me). Therefore, I’ll have to write these lines under the engaging influence of fluorescent tube lamps that master my kitchen (internet in my room is even worse than the one I get here).

I’m a bit worried about my job back in Lnd. I am still in probation (final assessment on the 22^nd Nov). My boss was supposed to give me some overtime (to get the chance to become quicker (and boost my savings)); however, I’ve just got the October rota and... not only I didn’t get any overtime, but the few extra days that the H-PDSA can afford (wrt time and money) have been allocated to another new vet :(. I've asked my boss about it.
I’ll start applying for other SA (T.T) jobs, just in case, but that'd mean London life's is getting to the end. Time will tell. I must worry just enough. No more.

Yesterday was an intensive day. I had a wing amputation to perform (1. Me? New surgery on my own? 2. Wing amputation in a bird?), I scoped a lived falcon (and removed a serrato worm from one of the airsacs! Tía, no veas qué asquete!) and finished the day at the Old Dubai neighbourhood with Amed and his wife Aisha. They are an Indian Muslim couple (sweet as the treats they cook to fatten my belly) that has been living in Dubai for about 20 years. Amed works at the DFH (Dubai Falcon Hospital) and offered to be my entertainer and guide for a day. We got into the Dubai Museum (It goes back from the 3000 BC to the present times*), the spices souk (so many smells, textures and colours my salivary glands acquired a temporarily hypertrophy!), the textile souk (where I bought a lovely abaya) and the gold shouk, or as I would call it, the gold-fetishist paradise (see pics). To finish the journey we went to a veggie Indian resto to eat dosa. Yammy!

Amed and Aisha

From the taxi-boat

The smell here was breathtaking

Another Record Guinness.  Not for sale? I wanted to get it for the living room! 

I kept telling them they didn't want me as a customer. They wouldn't listen.

Toma nota!

Dedicado a Carmen

Yammy Dosa. So good!

Talking to my uncle Alicia the other day, I realised how confusing this area of the word can be with regards to political frontiers. I must clarify that I am not in Saudi Arabia (which takes most of the area in the Arabian peninsula). I am in one of the seven Emirates in United Arab Emirates (UAE), each of which (Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain) are completely different to each other (being Dubai the most cosmopolitan and westernised of them). For example, Dubai found oil in the 1966, however, only small amounts of UAE’s oil comes this emirate (Wiki says: “[Dubai’s] revenue from petroleum and natural gas currently account for less than 6% of the emirate's gross domestic product”; be aware that “UAE oil reserves are ranked as the world's seventh-largest”, though). Dubai’s major source of money is tourism. This makes a whole difference.

*actually, the “present times” exhibition it is already obsolete as the “latest” news, videos and pics date from the early 2000’s and that’s when the real boost in massive constructions took place. Within 2004/8 Dubai’s landscape changed completely due to (in my opinion) the greed of getting as many World Record’s as possible. In 2008 the growth sped down because of the global economic crisis, however, although slower, growth remained patent till the present day.