“What do you think of this ad from Air New Zealand?”

The question, and a YouTube link, came from my friend Bebhinn Kelly, Chief Fashionista at www.hellwafashion.com, and a regular supplier of juicy, thought-provoking and sometimes controversial material for AWR.

I clicked. I watched. I pondered. I considered blogging. I demurred.

That was earlier this week. This morning, I got my daily

As Dubai and Dubai-ens basked in the afterglow of the fantastic, and no-doubt-soon-to-be-infamous-for-their-sheer-over-the-top-splendour fireworks, this cool Canadian and her octagenarian mother dined on much more humble, but equally unforgettable fare: winter-barbecued fresh Atlantic salmon, steamed broccoli al dente, and small, lightly salted, yet at once succulently sweet, red potatos

"But Susan," Fatma chided, "I couldn't find anything about YOU on your website."

I couldn't help but laugh at Fatma's reproach. Because almost everything on AWR is about me in some way.  

I choose, write and/or edit all the content (more than 1,000 individual articles to date!). Most of it is, in one way or another, a reflection of me, my views, my quirky sense of humour, my feelings, my

My friends Elaine and Gray kindly agreed to host me at their place for two weeks while my villa mate Tricia welcomes family and friends at “ours” (it’s her villa really, I just have a room there, but that’s another story).

Elaine, Gray, and Elaine’s son Phil are in Oman for the Eid holiday, so I’m in charge of their two dogs Poppy and Gypsy. They’re good dogs. Most of the time.

Today, as

As you can see from the photo, I don't need an excuse to go pink, but in case you do, here are 10 reasons to wear pink every day (nine of the them are kinda' goofy, and the last is a very good one):

1) So you won’t be mistaken for a Ninja turtle

Everyone knows that Ninja turtles dress almost exclusively in green and brown except for their individually coloured eye masks, none of which is

Funny, Dubai LOOKS and FEELS pretty much the same as it did when I left just about three months ago for a summer romp around the world. Kinda' frozen in time as it were.

Traffic’s still here, irritatingly. Likewise, I couldn’t find a convenient place to park at Mall of the Emirates the other day, and people were shopping in reasonable numbers. Sakura, my favourite sushi bar, was doing a brisk

My Mom has Alzheimer's.

She doesn't know what time of the day it is, let alone the day of the week, or the month.

Sometimes she doesn't know even know the season of the year. Or what she just ate. Or the name of her cat.

One day soon she won't know who I am either.

But even in her demented state of mind, she knows it's wrong to torture people, she knows that sometimes you

Being a vagabond and a nomad, (a cowgirl on the road as it were), has its up and downs.

On the one hand, travel is all about adventure, experiencing new stuff, and often being outside of your comfort zone – love those bits. Living out of a suitcase, on the other, can quickly become quite tedious – hate that part.

After being "on the road," for almost two months now (in UK, Croatia and

Like Neda Agha Soltan, the young Iranian women who was shot and died in the streets of Tehran in post-election unrest, Marwa Al Sherbini seemed an unlikely candidate for martyrdom.

A pharmacist by profession, the 31-year-old mother of a three-year-old boy was several months pregnant with her second child when she walked into a German courtroom last Wednesday.

She was Egyptian. And a

One year ago today, I wrote my first-ever blog entry (Like A Virgin?), in which I joined "the millions online who share their joys, sorrows, thoughts, ideas, opinions and more, in a worldwide orgy of information."

At the time, I thought it marked the end of a journey, and so I wrote:

Most of the time I’ve traveled alone. I got lost, stumbled, tripped, fell, took wrong turns, and had to