Dubai

Cousin Mike & wife Karen, son Ben & wife Sharyn, Jean and I went to Dubai for the IRB Sevens, the first of the season.  This time, last having been for the World Cup in March '09, we stayed near Dubai Marina, at the stem of Palm Jumeirah, on the beach.  The hotel location was among the high rise is part of an outcrop extending down the beach, which is a mixture of office blocks and accommodation, part of the ever-expanding building work of Dubai.  Whether enough people come to occupy it all in time remains a mystery, but committed they are!  Jean had a paddle in the sea while we watched parachutists landing on an airstrip right in front of the hotel.

We took a bus tour and a trip down the Creek, enjoying a very pleasant temperatures and blue skies.  We didn't have a great amount of free time, but we did managed to catch up with Peter Moulson, who is in and out of Dubai on consultancy work for the government, to enjoy a few drinks and a Japanese meal in our hotel.  We viewed the ski slope of a large shopping mall nearby, and I was again convinced that I couldn't possibly shop in such a place with so much choice and no idea where I might find something I actually wanted because it's so vast.  But, some do!