Colourful garments, flowing scarves and beautifully wrapped guntinos, the Somali women’s national dress.
Children with blindingly brilliant smiles,playing hopscotch in the red sand.
Seven-day wedding feasts, celebrating with music and dance, eating together from large platters.
Huge mortars of corn, the women singing along to the beat of the pestles as they lift and crush in synchronized precision.
Endless pristine beaches, the sand so fine and white, with the Indian Ocean’s waves crashing  on Mogadishu’s Lido.
Banana plantations stretching out as far as the eye can see – yes, there was Somalita way before there …

Unless you were firmly under a rock, everyone in the UAE and neighbouring countries knew of the Dubai Metro and its formal debut on the auspicious date/time of 09:09:09 on the 09.09.09.  There are those who argue that technically, it went live at 21:09:09, but I choose to ignore military time just for this one day, even though it is my preferred way of setting my various digital clocks.
Twitterers around the world who were awake around 2 pm on the day would also have seen the Beatles and the Apple conference …