Returning to Abu Dhabi from a holiday back home in England is never easy.
This time, I left my family, friends and a busy household to be welcomed by intense humidity, an empty fridge and a dead battery in my car.
Being single, the loneliness struck me as the aeroplane landed and with most of my UAE friends away for the three-day weekend, that abandoned feeling was intensified.
It takes just one second to fit into my pre-UAE life in Kent and several million times longer to slot back into life as an expatriate.
But one gesture was all it took to cure me of the blues.
While walking home from the local grocery, my next door neighbour politely welcomed me back and asked me how I was.
After telling him about my automobile affliction, he tried to restart my car with his jump leads.
This failed and he called his mechanic to fit a new battery.
I told him I needed cash and I would walk to the nearest ATM but he refused, saying he would "take care of it".
He ordered me to go back to my apartment while the men went to work.
I watched from my window, thanking God for the kindness of this man, who was practically a stranger to me.
An hour later, I could hear my engine revving. When I looked outside again, the car had disappeared. Perhaps, I thought, as someone who knows little about cars, the battery needed charging.
Another hour passed and I called my neighbour.
"It's OK, I will be back soon," he reassured me.
The car returned, gleaming. After my 20 days away, the thick layer of dust coating the exterior had turned my Peugeot 206 into an eyesore.
My neighbour had not only repaired my car and lent me the money to pay for it but had also taken it to the car wash.
In doing so, he not only helped a damsel in distress but reminded me that the UAE is full of generous people. That generosity is not defined by money but by the time he took out of his day for me.
The altruistic nature of people living here is unmatched.
It started in Ramadan last year when I arrived. An Emirati family in Al Ain offered my mother and me food at iftar from their picnic after seeing we had nothing with which to break our fast.
I have lost count of the number of times people have seen how lost I am in the car and offered to lead me to the destination. One considerate man even drove from Sharjah to Ajman as my guide.
These acts go a long way towards making the UAE feel a bit more like home.
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
Uefa Champions League play-off
First leg: Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Ajax v Dynamo Kiev
Second leg: Tuesday, August 28, 11pm (UAE)
Dynamo Kiev v Ajax
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg