Some luck was involved, but it was mostly about ability
I was and am Dislexic, at a time when it didnāt exist. Failed my 11+ with flying colours.
Strangely I could always write fluently which tended to cover my shortcomings. Generally Junior School was a nightmare but 1st year senior school I was top in every subject.
Would have loved to go to Uni but knew I couldnāt do the required amount of reading so left school with 5 o levels.
Fortunately I was good with visuals.
I am someone who left Dubai broke after 26 years.
Pretty much one cause for that, I had 3 kids.
I moved there about 2 years before the family.
Ex Mrs P_F was a Teacher and on a pre move trip visited a number of schools on our side of town.
She chose Emirates International School. While on the tour the Head Mistress asked what she did - Teacher - did she have a job? No. And she got a low salary but 50% discount on the 1st kid fees.
At the time I was earning $50k. Rent was $15k school fees $8k each
I was always skint.
Fees eventuslly reached 10k a kid - best investment ever as when they wentto Uni they were a year ahead of Brit School students educationally and EQ.
Eventually got the Company to pay a percentage but like many parents in the wrong catchment zones in UK, getting butt fucked by school fees is a choice about their SAFETY & future not ideology.
In Dubai there was no free anything
Where do you start with that The Head Astley, Mrs Dunn, Mr Baybut, Mr Pope and his Bubble Car? You could go on for years about the place. All I know is I am Hardley educated but it never stopped me getting on in life 
As we were staying in Ajman we used the Victoria English school in Sharjah for the two nippers. And I negotiated that the company pay the school fees. Which was good until I changed employers who knocked that on the head and I was then skint until we moved to the Philippines Where I still had to pay the fees but it was cheaper.
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Wife, not me gets offered all the time about jobs there, very high salaries on the face of it but weāve never been interested, it seems like a cult, canāt criticise anything or it appears that way, I have friends whoāve been out there years and now Iām not too sure what theyāve been saying is all that true about the place.
Built on sand and it will sink back into it eventually, for me the brittle nature in which it imploded so quickly in 2008 showed me its a bit of make believe.
You let Politics be important to you.
Dubai had none. You would never have fit in.
Behind every opinion of the place people forgot one key fact.
The UAE exists for the benefit of Emiratis. We were guests.
I remember Duncan Holley ranting about workers housed in containers at the start of the constitution boom. Where rlse would they live? They were building their own accomodation? Laws WERE passed things got better. Slowly. But by fuck they changed faster than nany UK exploitation laws.
But all thatās irrelevant- I missed a huge part of life. Phone calls to home were extortionate bans on IP Telecoms friends, culture.
But.
My kids grew up in a safe environment no drugs. An education not pieces of paper that gave them all incredible careers.
No Envy.
No snide remarks.
It wasnāt better than home it was different
Yes we all got " abused" by crooked employers - me? By a British Division of a US F500 Co.
You could give it large like so much of Western Society does today or you could care, give tips in cash, employ them, educate or train them, protect them from fraudulent grey marketing (90% from UK)
Thing is. My kids. I went there on a single status contract with accomodation on Ā£1000 a month as a chance.
Going in the late Noughties was too late. The moment Financial Advisors & Mortgage Brokers moved in.
Ministerial aides and PPS are resigning left right and centre tonight
Kier is fucked
Cabinet ministers telling him to go including Home secretary
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But
But
But
He made a speechā¦
Oh
So Streeting quit but hasnāt launched his bid. Ange has got off without a fine for her tax cock up because HMRC decided it wasnāt careless and she took reasonable care (one rule for themā¦) and some MP has stood down (probably on a promise to be elevated to the Lords) so that Burnham can run
I will laugh my cock off if he doesnāt win
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Mandelsonās creature innit.
The recent meetings he had with Starmer were very short. But I would be entirely unsurprised if he was told the campaign might be a gloves off affair.
Labourās proposed price caps on certain food items has to be some of the daftest bollocks to come out of this mob so far
putting aside for one second that Price and Income policies spectacularly failed in the 70ās, they have targeted product lines that are the more fiercely competitive in the industry eg M&S loses money on every pint of milk sold
Who would have thought that jacking up the minimum wage and Ers Ni plus having high energy costs would impact prices at the till
The current and former CEOs of the supermarkets have been scathing
Have I got news for you last Friday was hilariously brutal about Labour.
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And reduced vat on theme parks, cinemas and kids meals - yep, thatās going to save the economy
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A nice dissection of Blairā¦
Where is everyone at with this Palantir lot
A hospital in the US have halved their sepsis death rate using it
should we get on board or does the fact that they do shit with the US military mean we should shit can them
Give it a few days
Every alarm is ringing red for the AI Bubble to burst with SpaceX disrupting capital
Then see who is leftā¦
Defence Secretary, John Healy resigns. Starmer getting in the neck.
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