Farewells

It's Saturday evening, my how time flies. Well actually it's the weekends that fly. We had Mike's farewell on Thursday night after Anne's on Wednesday night. There have been too many farewells as our good friends head off, in these cases, back home. Mike's was a music jam session as you would expect from a musician and his musical friends.

I made the strawberry Daiquiris, a new skill transferred from my old skill of making (and drinking) Margaritas. It was such a pleasure relaxing amongst good friends, enjoying the music and singing along. There were several countries represented. South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, we all seem to get along so well in this place. Maybe it's because we are the adventurous ones, the ones not afraid to take the risk of changing our lifestyles.

Anne's farewell was a treat. I didn't know that Al Ain had a town square, and I've lived here for 14 months. It's tucked down small side streets between two major thoroughfares and is the place where people gather after hours. There are restaurants around the perimeter, we ate at the Maroccan (no spelling mistakes here) while we watching the children playing and the fountain show.

The fountain show really is a treat. The water shoots up in time to the music, or at least it seems that way. There was plenty of music, my favourite was Louis Armstrong What a Wonderful World. Imagine sitting outside with good friends in the balmy spring heat of a UAE evening eating Moroccan food while watching a large fountain with coloured water, did I mention that the water was coloured by the lights, send water up high into the air to music. Another pinch yourself moment.

There will be more farewells as peoples contracts here end and they decide to move to other places. It's really hard saying goodbye to good friends who I have shared this experience with, really hard to think that I may not see some of them again. As Rose says, people come into our lives for a reason, a season or a lifetime. It's hard sometimes to know who comes in for what reason, time will tell I suppose.