Thursday, April 22, 2010

Wednesday 21st April- Noel escapes to Dubai downtown

The sun was shining as we got up this morning, Oh No not again they cried, not another day in heaven..But no ,as Noel has decided to meet some business colleagues he has known for many years who are now stationed in Dubai.
Jennifer for a complete change, hit the beach and had an easy day whilst Noel headed in to town to meet an ex colleague in the Chinese Restaurant in the Airport Meridian Hotel and a jolly nice lunch and chat it was too. So at about 3 pm Noel headed off to the office in his colleagues brand new Porsche and met some old acquaintances and then got a lift to the Metro and took the train back to near Jebel Ali and then a Taxi ride back to the Hotel.
It was really great to see these old friends again and talk about old business times and that retirement if planned correctly is extremely good and as we enjoy travel that's what we do when we can.
Dubai is stepping its actions against bad driving and those that do not register their car or pay fines and so from this week for the next few weeks just about everybody in the police force is out booking people like crazy and impounding cars with overdue penalties or just not insured or registered. At the time this helps them find illegal immigrants who they then kick out of the country and I understand that over 10000 people have been asked to leave ( well forced on to a plane actually) and sent back to join their ancestors in the last 6 months. Perhaps something similar could be good
The evening was spent having a walk around the garden and a light dinner and of course a glass of wine to wash it down and then back to the Hotel Lobby to read today's UK newspapers. They are sent electronically to the Hotel who then print off several copies and they are on the lobby desk in time for breakfast usually. Not bad really.
Emirates Airlines currently has 5000 passengers in Hotels in Dubai at the moment who are receiving three meals a day paid for by the Airline. Having seen the paper of some people misfortunes sounds like a good carrier to be on. Etihad in Abu Dhabi has about 2500 people they are also looking after. I also understand that many Hotels in Dubai are quite full but when you consider the amount of stranded passengers its not suprising really.
We are both in too good books at the moment and so the last hour, prior to a sleeping , we read for a while