Under attack

I have long remained absolutely neutral on the typical expat rants about religion and culture in the region. I have mixed views on a number of topics, sometimes coming down on the side of the locals, sometimes harking back to my western roots, but am essentially a rather confused individual in this regard. Until today. I was physically assaulted, oh yes, in the grounds of a mosque... by a 6yr old boy.

Ok, so it was hardly assault. It was painful though, he ran up behind me, whooped, and when I half turned he whacked me on the wrist with a three foot length of galvanised (that's the really hard dark grey one I hope) plastic piping. It was almost as big as him. Then he ran off laughing, got on his bike and cycled madly in to the crowd of 6 or 7 people waiting to go in to the mosque. Now, I know how it works, I didn't stride in to the mosque holding the child by the hand and demand to talk to his father. I did shout "who does this child belong to" at the assembled throng and got them to mutteringly admonish him and make him stop charging around. What then annoyed me is another passer by, who had seen the whole thing, pat the child on the shoulder smiling and laughing, and murmer something in his ear. As I flounced off, and that really is the word for it, as there was bugger all else I could do and that really annoyed me (obviously holding my wrist for added effect) another levant arab type got out of his car, and in a broad american accent advised - he's only a kid, he didn't know what he was doing. Right... so a 6 year old boy doesn't know that he shouldn't hit people with long hard pipes? Seriously? Perhaps someone should tell him, then he would know, rather than laughing and patting his shoulder.

I was very cross.

In other news.... I'm having a super productive day, we may have won a client I don't understand - and really mean that I have absolutely no idea how they do whatever it is that they do, and what bit of the financial world they fall in to, which makes it rather tricky to talk to them let alone pitch them to media.

I'm not sure if I mentioned my super win of a free Virgin Premium Economy ticket... if i did, apologies, if not, I won one, yay! I wanted to use it to be home next week enjoying this freaky UK sunshine, and training, of course, but this is looking unlikely at the moment. Still, have been mildly productive in other ways, sorting rent, attending boot camp (my arms are still like jelly) and generally plodding along with work, pitching and putting my foot down with errant clients, and placing it up the arse of lazy employees (it has been a rather busy foot. As feet go.)

Still, its sunny, Facebook continues to distract me from the serious bits of my day, and I continue to wonder if anyone reads this bar Mr kenny & Lakshmi! Quite happy if the answer to that is no. Just bizarre wondering....