Illustration by Gary Clement for The National “More one-way tickets out of the UAE come next summer.” This would be my prediction if I were the crystal ball gazing type. But I’m not. I like… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National I just couldn’t get my act together in time. But I will. And next time, I’ll have my share of the £9 billion (Dh51.77bn) global collaborative economy –… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National How do you get a month’s rubbish generated by a family of six, including a newborn, into five 40×50-centimetre bin bags? This is no joke. It was what… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National ‘Twas the night before Camp Bestival and all through the field, not a creature was stirring, not even a child (pronounced “chiyeld”) or any of the other thousands… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National The thrill of taking myself, my dependent and my work abroad for the summer was somewhat dampened when I realised that I had to make provisions for various… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National For my holiday this year I decided to have a mixed bag of experiences – including the dreaded all-inclusive resort, where my girth increased as my level of… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National “I’m being evicted. The police have given me 48 hours to leave my home … I have a three-month-old baby girl, I have been offered a job but… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National When it was time for a question-and-answer session after a talk given by the chief executive of a local bank here in the UAE, one bright spark asked… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National I picked up the card packaging to bin it – but then noticed that Bereket was very carefully putting every single bit of the case and its contents… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National Elizabeth Taylor once said: “Success is a great deodorant. It takes away all your past smells”. Olfactory sensibilities aside, success allows lives to be remodelled. People change and… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National “I’m so glad I got an MBA so I could do this.” “Do you pay the bills?” The next family pay cheque is not an issue for the… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National Once upon a time I was reading Goldilocks and the Three Bears to my son, who was very young then. When I turned to the last page I… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National I’ve been hurt, let down, and promises have been broken. But despite the resulting stress and with no sign of anything being fixed, or a change in behaviour,… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National Choosing to be an older parent can be an agonising process. You face the stress of trying for a child, and the depth of despair when it doesn’t… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National “If I knew that I could die, I would live.” “We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones.” The first sentence is Terry Pratchett’s… View Post
What do I do? Just tell me. Tell me what to do. Better still, can you do it for me? All I wanted was for trusted, more capable people than me to go over everything… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National When is a bank not a bank? When this happens: Victoria helped a friend out with some money. The friend gave her a cheque to repay it. It… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National I was staring straight down – into a vast black abyss. All was well. But after a few minutes, muscles and viscera started tightening, my breathing quickened and… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National “We went ‘old school’ and picked up the phone.” This is how one trader from BNP Paribas described what he, and many others, resorted to as a result… View Post
Illustration by Gary Clement for The National “I just filled out my income tax forms. Who says you can’t get killed by a blank?” These are the wise, wry words of the American comedian Milton… View Post
