Greetings from Dubai!
Well, I managed to do the dishes, clean the house and unpack most of my luggage. Twenty kilos sounds like a lot, but I ended up with about three t-shirts, two pairs of pants, two skirts and not much else. Apart from the Act I costume, all my makeup, black character shoes and a heap of other stuff I won't need after August 8th, of course... I'd love to know what customs thought of all that gear!
The flight wasn't the nightmare I'd expected. We were fed a massive dinner-type meal soon after I got on the plane, which seriously messed with my head and kept me awake until about 3:00 Aussie time. (As our next meal didn't show until 10:00 Aussie time, I was grateful for it later and wished that I hadn't left some of it over). I can say that Emirates do excellent meals and they have great inflight entertainment. Every seat has its own computer screen that you can use to watch movies, watch television, play music or play games. As it was 23:00 before we got off the ground, I was way too unco to manage any of the games, but managed to get in a couple of movies, the Brandenburg concertos and a few other musical odds and ends. I even slept for about two hours (not all in one hit), curled up around my pillow like a human pretzel.
Finally at about 11:00 (Aussie), I looked down and realised we were flying over a desert. Finally, it felt like I was going somewhere, and I got mildly excited (both about going somewhere and about getting off the wretched plane! The 14 hours we spent in the air was the absolute upper limit of what I can tolerate, good food and entertainment not withstanding).
We got into Dubai at about 6:00 in the morning (their time - 13:00 Aussie time). In a way, it was good timing, because I was bright and chirpy, and quite happy to drop by the cafe for my complimentary breakfast, which felt like lunch. I've booked myself in for a sightseeing tour this afternoon though, which will be interesting - it finishes at about 2:00 (Aussie - 19:00 here), and I'm not sure that I'll be all that coherent by that time. The tour guide assures us that we are welcome to stay back at the souks and shop after the tour finishes, but I very much doubt that I'll do that. Apart from anything else, I've already done some shopping while I waited for the plane to leave - I am now the proud owner of a (cheap) baroque-cum-50s green and silver watch that could double as a lethal weapon if required. What else does a girl need? Well, more than two changes of clothes for a start, but as I don't have any more baggage allowance, I guess I'll have to deal with that.
First impressions of Dubai is that the people are lovely - very courteous and helpful - there are cranes everywhere, ditto new buildings. Most of the shops seem to have housing upstairs, which is cute, you have a spiffy electrical goods store topped by Moorish balconies with drying laundry. I would have loved to get some photos, maybe this afternoon. There are a lot of Western brands about, I'm not sure how I feel about going halfway around the world to drive past a hamburger franchise. I tried to get a dekka at the price of petrol each time we went past a servo, but couldn't see any signs.
I'll put another post up and let you know how the tour went when I got to Manchester.
The flight wasn't the nightmare I'd expected. We were fed a massive dinner-type meal soon after I got on the plane, which seriously messed with my head and kept me awake until about 3:00 Aussie time. (As our next meal didn't show until 10:00 Aussie time, I was grateful for it later and wished that I hadn't left some of it over). I can say that Emirates do excellent meals and they have great inflight entertainment. Every seat has its own computer screen that you can use to watch movies, watch television, play music or play games. As it was 23:00 before we got off the ground, I was way too unco to manage any of the games, but managed to get in a couple of movies, the Brandenburg concertos and a few other musical odds and ends. I even slept for about two hours (not all in one hit), curled up around my pillow like a human pretzel.
Finally at about 11:00 (Aussie), I looked down and realised we were flying over a desert. Finally, it felt like I was going somewhere, and I got mildly excited (both about going somewhere and about getting off the wretched plane! The 14 hours we spent in the air was the absolute upper limit of what I can tolerate, good food and entertainment not withstanding).
We got into Dubai at about 6:00 in the morning (their time - 13:00 Aussie time). In a way, it was good timing, because I was bright and chirpy, and quite happy to drop by the cafe for my complimentary breakfast, which felt like lunch. I've booked myself in for a sightseeing tour this afternoon though, which will be interesting - it finishes at about 2:00 (Aussie - 19:00 here), and I'm not sure that I'll be all that coherent by that time. The tour guide assures us that we are welcome to stay back at the souks and shop after the tour finishes, but I very much doubt that I'll do that. Apart from anything else, I've already done some shopping while I waited for the plane to leave - I am now the proud owner of a (cheap) baroque-cum-50s green and silver watch that could double as a lethal weapon if required. What else does a girl need? Well, more than two changes of clothes for a start, but as I don't have any more baggage allowance, I guess I'll have to deal with that.
First impressions of Dubai is that the people are lovely - very courteous and helpful - there are cranes everywhere, ditto new buildings. Most of the shops seem to have housing upstairs, which is cute, you have a spiffy electrical goods store topped by Moorish balconies with drying laundry. I would have loved to get some photos, maybe this afternoon. There are a lot of Western brands about, I'm not sure how I feel about going halfway around the world to drive past a hamburger franchise. I tried to get a dekka at the price of petrol each time we went past a servo, but couldn't see any signs.
I'll put another post up and let you know how the tour went when I got to Manchester.
posted by Andrea at
1:19 AM
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