The Palace, Downtown

For some reason, despite my late night, I woke at 5:30 AM today. My mind went back to this day, thirteen years ago, when I had news from G that my Dad's life had been brought to an abrupt end in a terrible hit-and-run accident. I was in the UK at the time.

He has been missed by many people every day since then. We will celebrate him with a fine meal when G gets home. Thankfully, that day is not too far now.

So, I pottered around doing stuff in the flat. Ironing mainly, though I have to admit I soon got bored. I spent some more time trying to make the laptop I bought last year mine. It's taking longer than I anticipated. It was good to watch the movie "Queen of the Desert" in the morning. Gertrude Bell - there's a great place to study diplomacy. She got out of some tight scrapes as she wandered through the Arabian desert with a faithful entourage of local guides, learning about the different tribes and making quite a few friends along the way.

I donned my smart trousers and shirt to join friends Jessica and Farzan at an upmarket Thai restaurant overlooking the Dubai Fountains. Traffic was horrendous, so what should have been a 15-20 minute journey ended up taking nearly 45 minutes. The outskirts of Dubai Mall was heaving with labourers, who were out on the second day of Eid, enjoying their time off.

As for the dinner - what a pleasant evening! The weather was perfect, the food delicious, and the service impeccable. As they were so busy, we had to vacate the table at 9:30, so we moved up to the hotel lobby, where we met Edison again! Edison had looked after us in December when our Old Friends group met for an Afternoon Tea. (He took the picture that I used for my blip). Incredibly, he remembered us!

I got home much later than I anticipated, so went straight to bed.