Dubai

Hi everyone.  I'm back in London.  I landed Thursday morning around seven am.  My flight left Dubai at three am.  It was surreal and not very fun to be wandering around the Dubai airport in the middle of the night shopping for presents for my family with hoards of tourists all plunking down cash for designer sunglasses and perfume.  Oh, and alcohol.  

Forget about the work, I know what you're interested in:  how was the Middle East, Laura? As a western woman who was uncovered? It was no problem at all, at least in the places I went...I saw women who are normally fully covered eating in the hotel restaurant at breakfast and they just pushed the face veils up onto their heads.  The woman I noticed first was drop dead gorgeous and I thought to myself that if I were the type of person who thought women ought to be considered property and I were her husband, I would want to hide her face from other dudes, too.  Of course, Dubai is very liberal and I really never felt uncomfortable even walking around in a sleeveless dress.  Which is good because it is like walking into an oven to walk outdoors there.  I spent  three minutes trying to get a taxi and almost died from heat stroke.

Having dinner in the tallest building in the world was the, you guessed it, high point.  It's called the Burg Khalifa and the restaurant is on the 123rd (or possibly 124th floor).  My very nice boss got the reservation and took me there I think because he wanted me to do something fun while in Dubai, and it was actually fun!  I wish my photos had turned out but they did not.  The building is interesting to look at, which is sort of a nice bonus.  While I was up there, I wouldn't lean on the windows but then we had dinner the following evening with some construction experts in the Middle East and one explained to me that because of the height, the wind was so strong that the old fastening system for the windows wasn't good enough. So, they invented a new one for the Burg and it's tip-top.  He would not be nervous to lean on the windows.

 My dessert:

 Hamish's dessert:

 I arrived home to Aunt Jan and Uncle Vyn who are taking a break from their own little Tour de France and are here for a long weekend.  Tommy is over the moon as (1) they have promised ice cream, (2) they have promised to buy him a new toy and (3) Uncle Vyn is willing to have back-to-back sword fights which Tommy is always permitted to win.  PRETTY NICE.  They also helped me sherpa my crap back to my office yesterday which was so nice.  They've seen the Cabinet War Rooms and the 'best of' tour of the British Museum.  They also went to St. Paul's yesterday.

I don't really have anything else for you - so have a GREAT weekend.  These are from last week: