Five Go Mad

Went for a bit of a wander while the girls snoozed. It took about 20 minutes before my trousers lost their chill from the aircon and reach an ambient temperature of about 68 degrees, so after an hour I had to duck in to a mall and recharge them. The only people I saw wearing shorts were fishermen and English people. The mall was a whopper and it took me three goes to leave by the same door I came in through.  Made it down to the ‘creek’ where I wanted to check out the boats. Not much action happening but it was the hottest part of the day.  No Bugattis.

It became my birthday at about 4pm.  Megan and I had a cup of tea in the Arabian themed atrium after trying out all of the loungers by the pool and we all piled into a taxi for the Dubai Mall. We did shops but no shopping; walking and resting being a feature of the experience, but the aquarium was impressive as was the night-time choreographed and sound-tracked fountain display in front of the Burj Khalifa, all 830 pointy metres of it.  Best bit: having a meal with my lovely family in the fragrant evening watching the twinkly lights while the muezzin called the faithful to prayer. Very Arabian (apart from the pizza for dinner- good pizza though). Full and tired we headed back, dodging a taxi scam on the way. Still no Bugattis.

Slept the sleep of the very sleepy, waking to the sound of the mosque at dawn. Today’s my birthday again, time to depart. No dramas, just queues and then cradled in the silky travel rug of Emirates for six hours until presto, we popped out in Rome! “Hello again winter, I know you were just at our place but we wanted to see what you’re like when you are staying with your other family”. Beautiful clear sunny day but there’s snow on the Apennines and you know the chill is resting out of the sun, in the shade of the stone buildings and bridges, hanging out until winter turns up properly. Still, a walk to the supermarket is a pleasure. Cheese, salami, bread, wine, pasta; Europe in a shopping bag. Love where we’re staying; just a thurible swing from the walls of Vatican city. Tomorrow has promise.