lullabelle

I'm forever describing various "aspects" of this place in terms of historical periods. For me, the driving is ancient rome, somewhat reminiscent of Ben Hur's chariot race.

And when I read the wonderful "Wolf Hall" I thought "wow, that's HERE. Yes this is like the tudor court system."

I've taken to responding to Du's queries of "how is the service ma'am?" by saying its like varying different ages depending on what mood I'm in. This is in the hope that someday, someone will see my record of "its like the dark ages/before the industrial revolution/like Russia during the last Tsar/scotland in the 50's etc etc and wonder...

Small pleasures...

mentalist

Keep taking the medication and you will soon get better.

Ethos83

I have described Dubai to various people as a good taste of Victorian Britain. Strong class system, the ability for life to be very expensive for a middle class family yet the larger pool of low skilled workers seem to manage to survive on 10% the middle class income, the availability of servants/staff/maids/service workers, middle class housewives complaining about finding good help, deferential treatment based on income/nationality, the bling (Arabic bling is surprisingly similar to the Victorian love for gilt and showy items), middle and upper class materialism, many women heavily covered up, and the air of self-confident superiority affected by the richer Arabs and Asians who expect to get what they want whenever they want it.

Even the Arabic villas in Al Barsha or Jumeirah are similar to mid-Victorian villas - large, bulky, ugly.

co durham boy

The Victorians had chimmney sweeps and the Arabs had Camel Jockeys as well

littlejimmy

That's an interesting analogy.

Hello.Kitty

yup... and yet it's also very feudal, I think... the lords meting out their own slightly weird form of justice, the merchant classes seen as a necessary inconvenience and a mass of serfs who have very few rights or say in anything.