Norma Kandari, 40, grew up in Marlborough but now lives in Kuwait City with her husband Fahad. She is keeping a diary of her experiences during the war in nearby Iraq for the Gazette

Wednesday, March 26

A NIGHT without sirens, did we really sleep through the night? Miserable weather again. I really don't think I have ever seen such awful sand storms in Kuwait. It is 7am and outside looks yellow already.

A very quiet day all round really, only one siren at around 8pm which lasted perhaps ten minutes.

I found myself thinking a great deal about our troops and their families today and tried to put myself in their position, wondering what I would think of this war.

I could not help but think that I would probably be totally against it in those circumstances. After all, the logical train of thought would be to think that Saddam had not attacked the UK so why should our Armed Forces put their lives at risk to attack Iraq?

Are the Americans doing the right thing? They have to be surely. We cannot take the risk of leaving Saddam and his regime building up a stock of weapons of mass destruction.

Thursday, March 27

WOKE up early and planned to start the studying today, my mistake was to sit and watch some news first. One gets glued to the TV and cannot think of doing anything else.

The sirens went off at noon, the first in around 30 hours. I sit in the bathroom waiting for 15 minutes in all before the all clear is heard.

My friend calls round for coffee and looks a bit shaken; she had been in the middle of the material market when the sirens had sounded and she had also heard two explosions.

We discover that there were two missiles sent over to Kuwait, one was shot down by a Patriot but one actually landed in Kuwait some reports say in the Suleibekhat area which is a little too close for comfort. It really does confirm the fact that one should not get too complacent

Friday, March 28

THE blue skies have returned. The weather is glorious and I sit by the sea waiting for Fahad to finish in the gym before we visit his family for lunch.

This is the time of year that the weather is at its best, before it gets uncomfortably hot. Sitting outside at the family house is so relaxing, one can almost forget that there is a war going on.

Stories are still coming out about the Iraqi Army shooting at their own civilians as they try to leave Basrah. They have taken children from homes to force the men to come out and fight and have threatened to kill the children if they don't. What else will they do?

Saturday, March 29

I WAS woken up by the shrill of the telephone, which Fahad answered. It is 2.45 am, who could be calling at this hour? It is my friend Karen. Sounding in a bit of a panic, she said: "The Iraqis have sent a missile and it has hit Sharq Souq.''

I switched on the TV in the bedroom still listening to Karen and flipped through the channels until I found one which showed the headline about the shopping centre Sharq Souq.

Fahad had heard the explosion, apparently our windows shook. It is understandable since the shopping mall is five minutes down the Gulf Road. We both watched the TV until we were sure that there were no casualties. The missile landed initially in the sea, a few more metres and the whole shopping mall would have been brought down. One thanks God that it was not earlier when the mall would have been full.

I thought 'what happened to the sirens?' There were none.

We can expect more of the same in the future. Saddam has not even started yet. What else does he have in his closet of weapons?

Sunday, March 30

A QUIET night, no sirens, no explosions, so managed to have a decent night's sleep.

Received another message from the British Embassy, highlighting once again the risk of further attacks from Iraq which might involve chemical and biological weapons.

Went out this morning to the bank and the supermarket. I am still wearing my cap and sunglasses while out and about. I have noticed an increased number of checkpoints on the roads these past few days. I actually find them reassuring and do not complain about queuing up for them anymore.

Monday, March 31

I CONFESS to having been a little concerned when all this started that perhaps I would get some strange behaviour from the locals.

But the attitude amongst the locals is that Saddam and his regime need to go in order to ensure the security of Kuwait.

One has to remember that the Kuwaitis have witnessed first hand just what the Iraqi regime is capable of. Almost every family has experienced some kind of tragedy at the hands of the Iraqis, be it torture, death, PoWs still missing, the list is endless.

One of my husband's brothers was taken and tortured during the invasion and a cousin was shot in the head in front of his family after having been tortured. They were not allowed to remove the body from the doorstep for days because the Iraqis threatened to return and shoot the rest of the family.

People cannot forget such atrocities.

Monday, April 1

THE roads are getting back to normal. The usual cars speeding and weaving in and out of lanes. The checkpoints are still in force but there seem to be less of a presence of police around.

The worry of internal problems with the various nationalities still lingers. There was an incident yesterday at one of the American airbases where it had been reported an Egyptian driving a truck drove into the soldiers, wounding several.

Such an occurrence reminds me that there could still be problems in Kuwait with regard to terrorist activities

A news broadcast from Iraq this evening, there were reports that Saddam was planning to give an address to the public, but he was nowhere to be seen.

What has happened to him? Perhaps he is dead or badly injured, or perhaps this is another of his schemes. What has he got up his sleeve this time? Where are those airplanes and what does he intend to do with them?