20-09-16 Feeding the Neighbourhood Camels

Tuesday 20th September 2016

Even by my standards, Dubai was boiling hot today, and by everyone else’s reckoning, not a day to be outdoors. But I had promised Kingsley a visit to our neighbourhood camels (and token donkey) so was bound to it (plus I adore these desert pets so much and had a hankering to hand feed them anyway). So off we set, walking at first excitedly then regrettably under beating sunshine, from the Dubai Mall, through Zabeel, and turning right at DIFC directly behind the endless royal palaces (one for this princeling, one for that princess, this one for an uncle, and that one for a brother; you get my drift), we finally came to these darling creatures ready for a feed and some nose scratches…

Kingsley and I were heavily perspiring by the time we got to the camels. He asked for water. The water bottle was warm but the water was not yet tepid so child gladly drank it. I then poured sime over his head, just to cool him off (faux protests; he quite liked it, obviously!) Now we could move on to feeding the camels and out of the stroller Kingsley was wanting to bound…but where are my shoes, Mumma? I had forgotten his bloody shoes. The child didn’t have shoes to wear on the impossibly hot pavement/bricks/sidewalk, but I did bring socks so they just had to do.

Wet, perspiring, red, hot, and in socks and jocks (and a button down shirt – his choice of attire for the day, let it be known), the boy threaded soft, leafy branches through the mesh fence and the camels gladly took hold of these tasty greens through their fleshy lips. Everyone involved was delighted! I caught Kingsley praise one particular camel, after his (or her) fourth branch with ‘Kalô agôri MOU’ in his perfect Greek, My good boy, indeed!

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