Monday

(16/8/23)

It is the 14th of August and Pakistan's 76th Independence Day! I wanted to get in touch with my sisters, but the day whizzed by. I heard from my elder sister at some point - it is, of course, a public holiday there, but she now lives so far from the city centre she didn't get a sense of much celebrating, not that the country is in a position to celebrate anything at the moment!

G & I headed to our table tennis centre and played each other for an hour. She's GOOD and gave me a run for my money. There is a summer camp going on. It was fun to play with a 10-year-old for the last few minutes that we had. He had a good serve but has got to learn to place the ball to score points. :))

We went straight to M&S in Dubai Mall from there. Any thoughts of having a little walk were postponed. I needed to eat and drink something. G suggested an Afternoon Tea for One which they were advertising. Not sure what's going on - all the staff seem to be new, but it was hard work trying to understand how they presented an afternoon tea for one. In the end, I had to find someone more senior (and who spoke English) to get the low down. We ended up ordering the standard Afternoon Tea. Because it was only 11:30, it was made to order. I have to say - both G & I agreed we'd never had better-tasting, fresher sandwiches. The balance between savoury and sweet was perfect, but in the end, it was all too much to eat in one go, so the scones and sweet things came home. So did several pairs of chino shorts and a couple of tops for G!

We stayed in for the rest of the day. G made a delicious tomato soup for dinner - hours after the afternoon tea, neither of us could face anything more than that!

PS. I had my camera with me, but all the pictures in this collage are taken on my phone.