Infections and Fevers

He has the beginning of a sore throat. It has been regular now after starting school. He catches an infection and then after a course of anti biotic he is fit and ready to go and a week later he is infected again. The problem is that these infections are so bad that it just wears him out. Watching him struggle kills me. We may go off home next week. The weather is colder and better there now so it might do him good.

Here it is unimaginably hot outside and then the moment you step it, it is cool and nice, but I think that takes a toll on people, these sudden shifts in temperatures. I don’t switch on the AC at all these days, but it is much cooler inside besides in the bus and at school he is exposed to these sudden shifts so there is very little I can do about it. There is only so much you can do to protect them from the elements.

The war goes on and the terrible and unnecessary deaths continue unabated. Every one wants it to end but each one has a list of conditions, so no one is able to reach any common point. After a certain point the deaths become a statistic and ego takes over. People end up arguing, “ You started it.” “ No, you did.” And no solution is reached. Talk to the Arabs and they have their arguments, historical and otherwise. Talk to others and they have theirs. I wonder what the victims, especially the dead ones think about the whole mess. Would they have thought it was worth dying for?

Animated Dreams

Watching the children’s cartoon channel with my son has ended up in me having these cartoon dreams. These cartoon characters mix up with the other sitcom characters and my dreams are becoming weirder and weirder every night. Though, the animated people are more fun than some of the sitcoms telecast.

Waiting for Emirates gas

In the middle of cooking lunch, the cylinder runs out of cooking gas and I call our usual gas guy and his mobile is switched off. I call another number and someone answers saying he will there in 30 minutes. After 30 minutes I call again and he sounds surprised, surprised like “Are you still waiting for me, why haven’t you called someone else till now?” He says, “ okay, will be there in fifteen minutes” and I wait some more and then I call another gas agency. They say they will be there in fifteen minutes and I wait angry and ready to scream. Then ten minutes later the first guy shows up and I end up having to cancel the second guy. It took nearly an hour for the cylinder to be replaced, never happened before in Dubai. Usually our regular guy takes no more than five minutes for the gas cylinder to be replaced. He is on vacation now; hope he will be back soon.

It is really no big deal, but when there is little three year old at home, cooking and feeding is constant. He goes out, plays and comes back ready for a hug and some thing to fill the tummy and with no cooking gas I had a hard time keeping him calm, especially today, when he refused to have anything other than fried chicken and rice. The rice was ready but the chicken was not. Luckily the gas arrived before he had his tantrums.

Weekday mornings

Every morning there is screaming and crying, prelude to the breakfast, bath and dressing to be in time for school. All because he hates to go to sleep at night. Often when I wake up in the night after a good sleep, he is still awake staring at the ceiling and counting the fluorescent stars stuck there. He is all of three and trying to be a man. Hubby is no help. He adds his own screams to the din and I end up contemplating bungee jumping out of the window to escape the noise.

The DSS (Dubai Summer Surprises) is on and we have not taken him to see any of it. He is too young to know what he is missing. Yesterday father and son had gone out at 9.00 in the night to get burgers and caught the end of an Egyptian dance at the nearby mall. He said the place was crowded and seemed fun. Maybe I will take him out today and see what is on today.