After a leisurely morning and another delicious breakfast we were back at the airport and on our way to Dubai, just an hour's flight away and an hour time change too. Amanda was looking forward to seeing Dubai after a gap of around 35 years. She knew that there had been many changes since then, but WOW! the reality was quite mind boggling. In the taxi on our way to the hotel we gazed in wonder at the plethora of space age buildings which confronted us on either side. Five lane highways, an elevated metro system, almost nothing to recognise from days gone by.

We reached our hotel, the Bonnington, and found our room. We were delighted to find that, not only did we have a wardrobe, but the entire room lived up to the standards of comfort we like to expect. Our first task on arrival was to call in the maintenance man with the bot cutters. Unfortunately we had left the bunch of keys for the case padlocks at our hotel in Doha! Oh dear, just ask Simon who was in charge of the area check!

After settling in we went to find our friends, Phil and Louise, who were staying in the same hotel. They were originally friends from Doha way back when, back in the day, but are currently living in Salalah in Oman. We went to meet them in Healey's terrace bar and there followed a very pleasant evening of good company and a great deal of reminiscing, washed down with a fair amount of alcohol. We took time out for dinner in The Cavendish restaurant where we enjoyed a good if rather expensive meal before returning to the bar. Simon and I were fascinated by the hubble bubble shisha pipes which were everywhere and very popular. We had seen them everywhere in the cafes and restaurants in the souk in Doha too. Amanda had one puff and that was quite enough!

Somehow it got to be very, very late without us even noticing, but we were in great company and nobody seemed to mind.