Friday

Prayers start at the local mosque somewhere between 5 and 6 in the morning and are repeated at intervals throughout the day.  I said to Sue that it was a good thing that the man leading the prayers had a strong tuneful voice and was very disillusioned to be told that it’s probably a recording. 

Yesterday morning I turned my back on soukhs and heritage sites and beaches and went to Marks and Spencers.   I was longing for new Marks’ underwear, unobtainable in the Dordogne.  I shopped joyfully and nearly made an awful mistake.  I was just about to take my basket to the “Pay Here” counter, when I realised that it was a “Pay Here” for men and there was another checkout (for ladies) at the other side of the shop.  There are a lot of expats in Dubai but I’m sure it can’t be acceptable to scatter your undies across the men’s section.    

Sue took me to downtown Dubai in the afternoon and we rode an abas (a little wooden boat) across the creek and then took another one back again - probably one of the best bargains in Dubai at just under 20p each way.  

Later I walked to the Dubai Museum through one of the older soukhs, selling mainly pashminas, cushions and hangings.   

The Museum was fun with lots of life size tableaux picturing old Arab life emphasising the idea that modern Dubai life has arrived very suddenly.   There was also rather a dangerous looking door.

Door with sharp metal edges

After the Museum I got caught up in one of the sillier aspects of modern Dubai life.  I wanted to go back by metro and,  walking  from the Museum to the stop I needed, I found myself in a street full of hasslers.  “Madam, madam, what you want – I got copy watch, copy bag, copy perfume.” This was repeated continually along the street. I just wanted to get to the metro station and tried, “No, no thank you,” a few times but ended up just ignoring them.  They were fairly overwhelming.        

Last night was a party – Ursula and Sally, two of Peter’s work colleagues, had very close birthdays.  Ursula’s flat was beautiful and the mainly university crowd were a very nice bunch.  And there was alcohol.  

With Ursula