Tuesday 14th July 09

Hi from Dubai. Our flight from Heathrow was delayed in leaving by 30mins but we had a tail wind and arrived in Dubai at 3.05. It was  34degrees Celcius. By the time we got our bags, got our ride to our hotel and got to our room it was after 4.30.

Up again at 9am to meet a lady from a tourist agency who gave us some ideas and thoughts on what to do. We booked a half day tour starting at 2pm. We went to have breakfast and met down in the lobby.

Back out into that lovely heat. It was a long afternoon and was a reasonably good tour. Would have taken a lot less time if we hadn’t had wait at a few stops for some people.

It is an interesting place and we found out June July and August is their off peak season because of the humidity which was about 75% or more. No one stays dry.

Our last stop was the gold souk and we have never seen anything like it. Shops upon shops with 18ct, 21 and 22ct gold. Windows just of so much gold it almost looked fake. And watches, jewellery bags pashmina’s but in this souk mo9stly gold and diamonds. Problem was we only had about 40mins and we were bombarded from all sides with people wanting to sell us something. I did look at some earrings but we aren’t used to bartering and it was hard to quickly convert from Dirham to US$ or Aus dollars. Ended up walking away. Owen bought a watch (yes kids, ANOTHER ONE)
but even that was a tag team job. Not something we enjoyed.

Finally got back to our hotel at 8pm and we hadn’t had any lunch and not a lot to drink so went to and english pub in the hotel. Now time for night night as we have an early wakeup call

Almost home

Sunday 12th July 09

Well our last full day in London. My back still not as good as it could be. We had made arrangements to meet Nicole Daley, a friend of the family, who is working over here. She is working as a night nurse with a young baby so she met us for breakfast. She was here for about 2 hours and it was great to catch up, although she said it sort of made her homesick.

We then spent the next few hours watching Mark Webber win his first Grand Prix and then off for a walk.

We walked for nearly 1 1/2hrs, not really meaning to but you think you are walking around the block, but you never seem to get there. We managed to walk through the Chelsea shopping centre which was quite busy.

So now it is only waiting to leave tomorrow. We don’t have to check out until 12noon so we will probably have a late breakfast. Our flight is 5pm UK time and we get into Dubai at 2.50 in the morning. We are staying in a hotel until our next flight out and should arrive home on Thursday morning around 7.30-8am.

Can’t wait to catch up with the kids and Mackenzie. She is now crawling, pulling herself up on things and has cut 2 teeth. Lots of changes while we have been away. Hope she remembers who we are, and doesn’t cry.

Well this will probably be our last posting. See you all soon

Owen & Lyn

Saturday 11th July 09

Yesterday morning I bent over to wipe my leg and something gave way. I got up and I was very careful for the rest of the day.
This morning I was struggling with my back so today has been a rest day. Went to breakfast, lie down, went to lunch, lie, went down for a drink etc at dinner time. I read a book and slept and Owen watched TV and slept. Really eventful day.

Friday 10th July 09

Today we went to Madam Tussauds. Thought we had a 2 for 1 ticket but had to line up to get it. We queued for an hour before they let us in and then we had to pay 50pound. OUCH. and we were only in there for 1 hour. Good but not really worth the money and so many people inside around all the popular people it was hard to get a look in.
We then got a bus tour which was at least 2.30hrs but we got off at St Paul’s cathedral. We decided not to pay to go inside. The outside is interesting enough. We then walked from there to Tower Bridge. Just a wee bit further than we thought. Lots and lots of tourists, long queues for the Tower of London. We had some lunch and walked the bridge and then hopped a bus to go back to the hotel as we are going out for dinner with Nick and Karen Oliver and meeting them in Trafalgar Square.

Taken Wed 8th July 09

Trafalgar Square