Hubble bubbly, toil and trouble

Clover is full of the joys of spring (and bubbly) .... After a long champagne brunch, she retired to Double Decker, that popular drinking hole in the Murooj Rotana. She was approached by a number of young suitors, who she was happy to flirt with in return for free drinks. Awash with Dutch and French courage, she told one of them that he'd look far better without his goatee, and wearing something other than shorts (he was of Southern Hemisphere persuasion).

Lo and behold, he returned an hour later in trousers and sans beard. "I didn't have the heart to tell him I was wrong, and he looked much better with it," says a wry Clover, who neverthless was delighted with the effectiveness of her feminine guile / wiles. Following that, she took solace in the attentions of Will and Des, her two GBFs (gay best friends - shouldn't every woman have them?).

Stormy surprises

A double-edged drama after a flight to Bahrain this week. After the flight was delayed on the way out because passengers had "too much hand baggage" - rivalling British Rail for the most pointless excuses - the flight back was also delayed, along with four other Gulf Air flights. When we were finally summoned to the flight, and the tannoy woman got increasingly petulant - this is your LAST call (even though we kept you waiting for ages) - the flight was further grounded for hand luggage reasons.

Having delayed further, the heavens opened and thunder and lightning overhead stopped the pilot taking off. Unfortunately, it didn't stop us flying through the storm as it reached epic proportions, turning the passengers to lime jelly.

On exiting the flight, I was so traumatised that I failed to take true note of my surroundings and stumbled into a giant Modhesh, which nearly poked my eye out - a true summer surprise.