Sunday 25th October 2015.

Good evening! 

12:54am and 27 degrees.

(Yes I'm up late - I'm watching X factor!) 

The temperature has dropped a couple of degrees, day and night, and I hate to rub it in but the weather is incredible right now. Finally cool enough to walk about in without dripping with sweat and so gorgeous to sit out in at night having a meal. 

So Sunday (the 11th) morning at 5am I woke as id forgotten to put the air con on and was absolutely boiling. I quickly checked my phone and noticed two missed calls on Skype and then had to reread a message from my friend Nicole... 

'Guess what! Me and Beth are coming to see you on monday!! and get to spend your birthday with you! .... Are we ok to stay? Xx'

They had gone on holiday together to Portugal and the weather was forecast rain all week. Being the spontaneous, crazy girls they are, they had decided to jump on a flight to Dubai the next day. So two of my best friends arrived Monday morning! 

We had a great week together catching up. 

On Monday night we went for dinner (outside Yey!) and watched the fountains, which I finally got to see working. Who knew water choreographed to music could be so amazing? If any of you visit Dubai, it definitely has to up there on the things you have to do. From 6pm-11pm they start every half hour, play to different pieces of music each time and really are impressive. 

Tuesday it was ladies night, so we went to a rooftop hotel bar (sat outside again!) and drank free prosecco accompanied by live music. 

Thursday we went for a lovely meal at the Marina.

It's been really surreal and lovely having people from home visit me, and show them where I live and what I do here etc. 

Me and the tallest building in the World...

My crazy friends came to Dubai...

Ladies night at the Rotana Hotels rooftop bar...

This past weekend was my birthday weekend. One which I will never forget. I am known to drag my birthdays out and this one was no different!

It started on Friday at a gorgeous brunch called Maya at Le Royal Meridian Hotel. There was me, Kiera, Nicole and Beth and then the friends I've made here, Rebecca, Emma, Becky and her friend from home. We arrived at 10:30am to make full use of the hotel facilities, on arrival we received fresh towels which were laid down on our sunbeds for us and a fresh damp flannel to cool our faces down with! 

We decided to go for the non alcoholic brunch and then spend the difference on alcoholic cocktails at the swim up pool bar! I absolutely love the fact that on a weekend we can do things like this and literally feel like I am on holiday. We chilled out all morning and then went into the restaurant to have brunch. The food yet again was amazing. We had nachos and dip followed by watermelon and prawns in line dressing, followed by the most delicious fajitas - chicken and steak, lobster, and lamb ribs. 

I couldn't fit in any more after that so had to skip sorbet and donuts to return back to the pool for cocktails and more sunbathing. 

We stayed until about six when the sun was going down, got changed in the pool side changing rooms (as you can imagine, not like the grotty outside changing rooms you get at home! - these included Molten Brown shampoo!)  and headed to a bar called 360. This is attached to the Jumeriah Hotel - where we went to the club Mahiki. We had to get a buggy to get there as it ended up being over a bridge in the middle of the sea! The whole bar was in a big round circle with two decks. All around was sea and views for miles.

Friday feeling at the Maya brunch...

Birthday cocktails... 

Becky and I 'can you believe it's October?'...

Kiera and I ready for fun in the sun...

The Saturday we went to the water park at Atlantis - Aqua adventure. Usually this is £60 but because Becky works within a team at the water park, we got tickets for £8 each - amazing. Baring in mind the main water park I have been to is Yorks 'Water World', aqua adventure was a little larger to say the least. The one thing that made me laugh, typical of Dubai, is usually on a ride you have to walk up the steps dragging along your massive rubber ring. Not here - you sit in your rubber ring all the way round, the ring then latches onto a conveyer belt which glides you up to the top and then down each ride. So you don't actually have to get out your rubber ring at all! There were also rides that Beth and Nicole went out that I didn't dare. 

Next to the water park was its own private beach - naturally. Because the Atlantis hotel is on the edge of the Palm (An island man made off the side of Dubai to look like a palm tree - see photo below), the sea is man made. Basically, they spent years digging up dessert and placing sea there, it does attach to the sea but it is the stillest water, except from the lakes in the Lake District, I have ever seen. It was really surreal, the water literally did not move. 

We spent the afternoon swimming, sliding and sunbathing before heading back to get changed and out again to the marina for tea at Asia Asia in Pier 7 - a seven tiered building with seven different restaurants. We sat outside and enjoyed the views of the marina and ate the most delicious food I've had since I got here.

Birthday eve dinner at Asia Asia on the Marina with a super beautiful view... 

Xxx...

The most delicious fresh duck pancakes at Asia Asia...

Gorgeous decor at Asia Asia...

Sunday 18th was my birthday! And also the day Kieras fiancé, Luke, (who is Hilarious) arrived for the week, and also the day Nicole and Beth left so it was all a bit hectic! My first birthday ever without a single risk of rain!! But also the first day I have felt a tiny bit homesick. With Beth and Nicole leaving it reminded me slightly of home and I taught all day and didn't see one person who knew it was my birthday, (cue the violins). 

However the evening turned it completely around. We went for tea up the tallest building in the World - The Burj Khalifa. Now I've written about this before when I've seen it from the outside which was breathtaking, but going inside was something else. 

Kiera, Luke, Becky, Michelle and Lesley all joined me for birthday tea and the whole experience started as soon as we arrived. We drove up and were instantly let out the car by doormen. The very first thing I noticed was how many ridiculously nice cars there were parked outside (see picture below!). We walked into the Armani entrance - there's an Armani hotel in the Burj - and were escorted and welcomed from person to person leading us where to go. The people welcoming us were spotless, dressed in all black and perfectly groomed. We were lead to the escalator and asked to take a mint so our ears didn't pop in the lift. I had a bit of a laugh about this and just thought it was another over the top touch. But no. We literally flew up the Burj Kahlifa, to floor 122 at a speed of 36km per hour or 600m per miniute, the worlds third fastest elevator. And yes, that mint is really needed! 

The lift opened and everyone in the lift literally gasped, (apart from the man who LIVED in the Burj Khalifa and had done it a thousand times!) the doors open onto massive panoramic Windows and I literally could not believe how high we were. All you can see is lights for miles. 

We arrived at At.mosphere, the worlds highest restaurant, and were lead to our table, right next to the window. I feel like I spent half the night staring out of the window and not actually engaging in conversation! Where we were sat was directly over the dancing fountains so we watched their performance, which looked brilliant from above, all lights an patterns. It didn't even look like water as we were so high! 

We spent the evening in pure luxury, drinking cocktails and fine dining. I had an amazing steak and hand cooked chips, followed by a personalised birthday lime cheesecake 

The evening felt so luxurious and classy and really will be a night I won't forget. I cannot wait to go again when Jan and Neil pay a visit! 

Yes they have booked their tickets to Dubai!! So excited to show them around here!

Me and K..

Birthday excitement...

Lesley and I...

The most lovely, hilarious couple...

The line of cars parked outside the Burj!...

Michelle and I...

My gorgeous cake...

Very happy birthday girl... 

This past week has been a week of catching up on sleep! Thursday evening I spent having dinner with Kiera, Luke, Kieras boss Matt, his wife Anna and their son Marcus at the movenpick hotel we went for drinks at the night I arrived in Dubai which was slightly surreal! 

Friday, Becky and I went back to Atlantis as I had free day pass back to Aqua Adventure with it being my birthday. Because Becky works with Atlantis in her job and she had to check up on something we got to sneak into dolphin bay, the dolphin enclosure at the Atlantis hotel where you can swim with dolphins. If you knew me as a child, you will know I was completely obsessed with dolphins so I was very excited to see them. Even though I don't agree with animals being in captivity, I can say these are looked after incredibly well and have a massive space to live in. They were amazing to watch interacting with humans and did a mini show of jumping and flipping etc at the end. We spent the rest of the day on the beach attached to the water park topping up our tans and sleeping followed by Cheesecake Factory tea with Rebecca and her friend. 

Today I had work this morning and then chilled by the pool. You know it's starting to cool down when you can fall asleep by the pool as it doesn't have a breeze there usually. 

This afternoon Becky, Kiera, Luke and I ventured down to old Dubai to visit the old souks. This was Worlds away from any of the rest of Dubai. The other guys said it reminded them of Birmingham if any of you have been there and can relate. I haven't so can't comment. There were little family run shops but hundreds and hundreds of them. All lit up but not in the flashy, glamorous way that the Dubai I am used to is. It's amazing to know this all still still exists really. 

For one Dirham (about 20p!) we travelled on a boat called a Dhow over the creek - a river which separates Deira (the centre) to But Dubai (old town). In the UK, we would have probably had to watch a safety video, paid £5, had to put on a life jacket and sit with seatbelts on these, but here we literally all piled on and just perched on a bench in the middle of the Dhow. We travelled across as the sun was setting and I didn't feel like I was in Dubai at all, Kiera said it reminded her of Thailand and it's definately what I imagine places like Thailand to be like. 

We left the Dhow and entered streets of fabric, spices, sellers and kittens - the tiniest things I've ever seen, being sold for 50dhs - about £9! 

The sellers made us laugh so much. 'Hey shakira shakira come buy, cashmere is lovely jubbly!' Shawls are practically thrown on you to try, Luke almost had one wrapped around his head at one point!! The 100 percent cashmere shawls felt amazing and were so beautiful! After some haggling (from Kiera, I was too scared!) we managed to get a one hundred percent silk and cashmere shawl for £12! Something that would be sold in England for at least £60 for not as good quality! 

We then travelled back over the water to the gold souk. Insane. Lines and lines of shops full to the brim of gold. 

To finish the night off we managed to find in between the old family run shops, a baskin and robins - an amazing ice cream chain shop! I had candy sherbet! My first ice cream in Dubai!! 

Apologies for the super long blog today - I know you will complain Eleanor - but it has been such a busy, exciting couple of weeks, I haven't had time to stop and write it all down! 

 

I've had such a fantastic couple of weeks, which have proven once again how much I love it here. I keep making one of my friends, Becky, laugh because all of a sudden I'll say 'I cannot believe I live here' or  'can you believe it's October?!' I also cannot believe I have been here eight weeks!! And have only the same amount of time until I'm home for Christmas. Time really does fly when you're having fun!

Night all 😘 xx

Dhow selfie!... 

A trip across the creek... 

Beautiful cashmere scarves... 

Gold!...

Tiny hand made Arabic shoes... 

Saturday 10th October 2015.

12pm and 38 degrees. 

 Hello! 

 So I am writing this in the middle of October by the poolside in the hot sunshine with Lionel Ritchies 'all night long' blasting out from across the poolside from a guys speakers. Life isn't too shabby! 

However last weekend was a different story... 

 After a busy week, last Friday morning I decided I would go and chill out at the pool. In an excellent jolly mood I strolled past my car to then do a double take at something that caught my eye. Scratched into the bonnet of my shiny black Kia Picanto was the word 'LOL' and right next to it a swear word. Presumably done with car keys, the words covered the entire bonnet and, with the car being black, stood out an absolute mile. 

My mood quickly changed and I rang Michelle in blind panic. She could not believe it. Due to the serious punishments out here, crime rate in Dubai is literally zero. Some people never lock there doors, on the beach you never have to worry about leaving phones and money in your bags, graffiti doesn't even exist! So this was just absolutely typical to happen to me. People since have said to me it will have either been kids messing about or somebody who was drunk. Instead of a nice lazy day around the pool, I spent the day trying to sort it all out. With the words written on my bonnet being swear words it was even more of an issue as swear words are illegal in Dubai. So I couldn't drive it to the shops etc. 

I rang the police and had to drive to the local police station to retrieve a police report so that the car company would know it was criminal damage and I wouldn't be charged. I was insanely nervous driving up to the massive white building but the police here are on your side completely and apparently love the English. I sat down and was interviewed and had to hand over my passport and legal documents etc to which I received my police report. 

Unfortunately Kiera was at home in England and my other friend Becky had also flown home literally hours before this all kicked off, so I spent the Friday evening with a film, a stress headache and pizza express delivery in bed! 

Next day I had to sort out my car. I am absolutely, completely in love with Dubai and don't have a bad word to say about it. However, communication is something to be desired! I don't mean due to the language barriers as everyone seems to speak English.

 In fact the other day I had a new girl in my class who had been in Dubai a week, her Mum came up to me and explained she was German and spoke little English. I have had this a few times especially with younger children who have just arrived in the country but luckily dance is very easy to communicate with. However another little girl in the class piped up that she also spoke German and would help the new little girl out. She then proceeded to translate every single thing I said to the new little girl, and back again to me throughout the class, in fluent German and English (very embarrassing for me). Oh and both girls were six. 

So I have since promised myself that I will learn a new language fluently at some point in my life and learn some Arabic, even if it's just the very basics, whilst I am here. But unfortunately everyone is very laid back here and communication of times and places etc is very limited. 

So I was told the car company would ring me back in a hour to organise my replacement car. Two and a half hours later after sitting in all day waiting and hearing nothing, I rang back to be told 'oh it will probably be tomorrow'. Excellent. A common saying here is 'inshallah' meaning 'God willing' so basically someone will say 'yes of course that will be with you right away... inshallah' which ends up not being right away, rather if it's meant to be it will be! TWO DAYS later I finally received my replacement car and could drive around again without being scared of being arrested and questioned about the expletives on my car. 

 Also, during the same weekend, I had to do a delivery order from the local supermarket. The supermarket is seven minutes walk from our apartment (exactly seven, Kiera timed it), however due to my car incident, I couldn't park it in a public car park. So the delivery arrived and I had apparently managed to order 1-2 kg of every fruit and vegetable instead of 1-2 single fruit or vegetables. Safe to say we haven't gone hungry this week!! 

 On Tuesday I had to do a visa run. When you enter Dubai, your passport gets stamped with a visa for a month plus ten days leeway. A working visa can take a couple of months to get sorted so whilst Michelle is sorting it out I had to do a visa run to Oman. I'm just going to point out here that I can not believe I have been here for nearly six weeks!! So basically on a visa run you need to leave Dubai, to come back in again with your passport stamped for another month. The closest place is Oman. If you know me well enough you will know that I am renowned for my nervous driving and getting lost. So to be doing a two hour journey to another country, on the other side of the road in the middle of the desert did slightly panic me. Luckily Luke, a guy that Kiera works with, also needed to do a Visa run so I wasn't driving alone. The journey there and back was supposed to, on average, take four and half hours at most. However with my luck it took six. It actually wasn't that bad at all though. Once you leave main land Dubai, The view changes from lights and sky scrapers to sand. Just sand. For miles and miles and miles. Maybe the odd camel if your lucky. The sand in the desert isn't like the stones grainy white/grey sand in Scarborough or Bridlington. It also isn't like the beautiful white sands on jumeriah beach. Desert sand is rich orange/red. Amazing. One thing which amused me is there was no road signs for people crossing or lorries to slow down. Just triangle red signs with camels on to tell you to watch out for camels crossing! As we got closer to Omen, we passed tiny villages which we drove through in about two minutes, in the middle of nowhere. We got our exit stamp from Dubai and entered Oman. I don't know quite what I was expecting of Oman, but it is absolutely beautiful. Best way I can describe it is it is like the Lake District but not so much greenery. There are huge Rocky Mountains and the odd stream here and there. We had to check through various passport check points, some were a thorough car search and others barely looked at us and smiled and waved us by. The final point was getting our entry visa back into Dubai. We had to get out our car for this and pay 50dhs for it (£9). It was in a large clean white building, very official until we noticed the Pizza Hut! 

 On Thursday I had my first cinema experience in Dubai. It was a brand new cinema in the Mall of Emirates - another amazing mall with most shops being designer. I literally walked around staring at everything. This mall doesn't have an aquarium but does have a ski slope!! So the cinema was the biggest one I've ever been in - naturally in Dubai! It had 22 screens for a start. Then there were different kind of cinema experiences... The big cinema experience - this is the one we went for. Normal cinema but much bigger than a UK cinema and with much comfier, bigger seats. Even though Dubai charge ridiculous prices for a lot of things, the cinema didn't appear to be one of them. A trip to a UK cinema will easily cost me £20 including ticket and food and drink. My ticket here cost me £6, turned out my popcorn and drink cost more than the ticket! Instead of the usual salt or sweet popcorn choice, There was caramel (what I had), sweet or cheese (absolutely disgusting, i found a piece in my caramel) 

The immerse experience - basically 3D The real 4D movie experience - apparently this features 3D cinema plus effects like rain, fog, wind, water, lightening, scents and seat movement Ultimate gold experience - the seats fully recline, with foot rests and private tables. Before the screening you have snacks and cocktails and pick your meal in a private lounge. You then enjoy high luxury of eating your meal, designed by Gary Rhodes and cooked by top chefs at your chosen time during the film. This experience also includes blankets. Something I definitely need to experience at some point whilst I'm here! 

 After a crazy weekend last weekend I have spent this weekend topping up my tan by the pool and at the beach. The weather is changing and is a few degrees cooler with a breeze, much better and easily sunbathe-able without sweating a ridiculous amount! Kiera and I found thousands of starfish yesterday at the beach where the sea meets the sand, really tiny ones. 

 This evening I am off to get my nails done in prep for my birthday weekend next weekend in which I'm going for an outdoor brunch with pool, private beach and cocktails included on the Friday followed by drinks up the Burj Khalifa on my actual birthday on the Sunday. Very excited! 

 I'm afraid to say even with stressful events, I am not missing England and the rain just yet, but apparently ten Friday's until Christmas, which means nine Friday's until I'm home! Excited to see you all. 

 Lots of love xxx

Starfish at Jumeirah beach... 

The view to Oman...

My ridiculous mistake food shop... 

Thursday 24th September 2015.

Good morning! 9:46am and 32 degrees. 

Eid Mubarak! 

This week I am enjoying five days off for the Muslim religious holiday of Eid - "the festival marking the culmination of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca and commemorating the sacrifice of Abraham" Wikipedia. 

The first night of Eid was Tuesday - a dry night where alcohol was not available anywhere, even hotels, to mark the beginning of the religious holiday. 

 One thing I absolutely love about being here is that everyone is from all over the World. It's rare that I have more than two students in a class from the same place and I absolutely love hearing about where they are from and about their culture. The children I teach all speak at least two languages, one girl speaks fluent French so I get her to translate all the French meanings for us in Ballet, which is great fun for the other kids to try and guess. When I came out here I think I was pretty ignorant of different cultures and from just being here three weeks I feel I have learnt so much, I even get in a taxi and ask them where they are from and all about the place they are from. Dubai has an amazing diverse culture.

 So I asked the children what they do for Eid, apparently it is all about giving, they go travelling to see their families, celebrate with big family meals and give presents and money to each other. I gather it is a lot like Christmas. 

 Whenever their is a Muslim holiday in Dubai, everyone gets the time off. In total there are 11 bank holidays a year in Dubai! 

Also this week, the Sheikh of Dubais son died. When someone of importance dies, the country has a period of mourning. So no music is allowed to be played anywhere apart from classical music. This applies to radio, malls, even gym classes are cancelled due to lack of music. When I first arrived here, Emarati soldiers had been killed in Yemen, so the country has been in mourning for almost the whole of September. 

 So today I spent my day off in the sunshine at the beach - white sands, clear water, blue skies and a iced green tea in hand - a far cry away from the typical rainy English bank holiday! I must say I am not missing English weather in the slightest apart from perhaps the odd Black Forest gateau hot chocolate from Costa when it's Autumnal outside. In Fact the other day I said to a group of children in class who were doing leaps across the room with heel lead, "you look like your coming down the room with your wellies on" which was received by completely blank faces. It then dawned on me that they had no idea what wellies were due to the lack of rain over here so I proceeded to explain what they were! The heat is still extremely hot, however I can feel the few degrees difference from when I got here. At night it's much cooler, I am actually able to sit out in it. Sunbathing at the beach was much cooler than the pool as you have the sea breeze. I was recommended a drink called pocari sweat, which apparently everyone here swears by. It tastes like lemon and sweat mixed together but is a absolute saviour for heat headaches! 

I haven't blogged for a while due to being pretty busy with work and getting into a routine over here. You may remember me mentioning getting lost for two hours the first week I was here, however a week last Saturday I managed to get lost for three hours. I knew exactly where I needed to be and I could even see the building but due to Dubai deciding they needed a canal running through a massive built up area, the roads were completely different and my sat nav didn't have a clue! Whilst we're on the subject of cars, I went to fill up with petrol again the other day and didn't have any cash on me. The man asked for my card and PIN number and did it all for me so I didn't have to get out the car. Dubai must be the only place you can trust someone with your PIN number and card! 

 Last Friday, a few of us went out to celebrate Kiera's birthday to brunch. It was at the Atlantis hotel - the one most of you have probably heard of in general conversation about Dubai. It is absolutely massive, has its own water park, it's own club and over 20 restaurants. Our brunch was at a restaurant there, called Saffron. It cost £100 per person, which originally I thought was a bit steep. However due to the price of alcohol over here and the sheer amount of food and drink you could get at Saffron, it was well worth the money. On arrival there was a short que to wait to check your table booking and be seated etc, however there was no need from be impatient, due to a choice of pink or white champagne whilst waiting! 

When we got in I swear my eyes nearly popped out of my head, the amount of food and drink was completely overwhelming. There was a station for every kind of alcohol you can imagine, jaeger bomb station, pimms station, slush puppie with vodka station, cocktails in pineapples and watermelons, the list goes on. 

Then there was literally every kind of food you could imagine from Chinese, to chocolate fountain, to roast dinner, to cheese board, to ice cream and toppings station. I came out feeling ten times bigger and extremely glad I wasn't wearing a super tight dress! 

 I spent Saturday out for lunch with Michelle and her friends and family at a lovely hotel and then on the evening I met Sophie, Anna and Natalie from home, who were here on holiday. We went to the Cheesecake Factory - this time I left enough room for cheesecake! We then went to see the dancing fountains but due to the Sheikhs son dieing and everywhere being in mourning, I failed to see them for the second time!

Most families seem to have nannies here, so many children are brought and picked up from class by their Nanny. By the pool last week was when I realised just how much they are part of the family! A lady was sunbathing by the pool and it wasn't for a while until I realised that the child playing in the water was her daughter playing with the Nanny so her mum could sunbathe in peace!! 

 On Tuesday evening just gone, I had dinner at Michelle's which was lovely, we had home made curry followed by wine in the garden - one thing I really love about being out here, being outside in the open air on a evening rather than inside with it raining out. We also also had a meeting about the Ballet show which will happen in March. So the next few days will be spent (apart from sunbathing) planning and starting choreography. As I write this I am currently enjoying an espresso and croissant - yes on my own Eleanor! - before teaching a twirling tots class - a class for 18 month to 2 year olds with their parents. So will eat and drink up and get to work, 

Happy Thursday everyone, 

 Xxx

The drink saving me from the heat...

My lovely flat mate and I before brunch at Saffron... 

Atlantis - the hotel where we are brunch - not a great photo due to being in a taxi whilst taking it!...

Five choices of prawn crackers...

The biggest chocolate fountain I've ever seen...

Ice cream station ... 

Watermelon cocktails, out of a real watermelon!... 

 Pineapple cocktails... 

Jäger bomb station...

Lobster anyone?...

Fairy lights, candles and wine at Michelle's... 

Note to my future husband...

When shopping in new look in Dubai, you receive free chocolate...

How bank holidays are done in Dubai... 

Breakfast this morning... 

Friday 11th September 2015.

11pm and 32 degrees.

After my two hour trek around Dubai on Monday, my bad luck with driving and my car continued. Tuesday morning I had off so I decided to chill out after my manic Monday night and sunbathe around the pool. However the chilled out mood wasn't to last as I arrived at my car to find a note on my front windscreen 'check your tyres!!', which I did and found my back tyre to be flat as a pancake. I am so thankful taxis are so cheap here so I could still get around easily enough. A ten minute taxi will cost about four pounds here, which if you take into consideration the hassle of driving and finding a parking space and splitting it between friends, you end up paying barely anything! The bad luck continued and on Wednesday Kiera and I set off to Hartland school forty minutes early for a twenty minute journey and ended up there an hour and a half later due to ridiculous traffic! 

Apart from these couple of incidents, the last few days have been a blast, the teaching has been great, the pupils at Prima are lovely, hard working and a pleasure to teach. The studios are big and mirrored with barres set into the walls. All the studios I teach at are inside buildings or malls so there's no locking up in the pitch black on your own, it's all very safe. Last night Michelle, Kiera, Lesley, two of Michelle's friends and I went out for brunch. This was a much classier version of brunch than last Friday's experience! It was at a place called channels inside a beautiful hotel.  Last night there was a Thai theme so there were endless amounts of curries, rice, duck pancakes, fried king prawns, fried squid, the list got on. Then there was dessert... I'll let the photos below speak for themselves but it was amazing. Darcey Stevenson you would be in heaven! 

As my family and close friends know I am a bit of a food snob, but this food was all gorgeous. I never had an empty glass, waiters walked around all night topping up our wine and cleared our plates straight away to enable us to get new plates for our next round of food! It's safe to safe I ate a LOT and it's a good job I had a baggy dress on! 

 After brunch we headed out to a club called societe that played music from the 80's, 90,s and 00,s. We had an absolute blast singing and dancing for hours to everything from cotton eyed joe to spice girls! The one thing that really hit me was the amount of smoke. In Dubai smoking isn't illegal indoors and the smoke burns your eyes. The good thing though was the lack of creepy men on the dance floor like in England! It's no pozition dance floor here! Everyone was just having a great time dancing and I felt so safe, you can even leave your bags and drinks down easily without the risk of them getting spiked or stolen! 

 We moved on from soceite about half midnight to Mahiki, a high class club at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. There are no entry fees at the clubs in Dubai but you pay for it in drink price - £70 for five vodka lemonades! But this is obviously due to all the alcohol being imported. We had a blast and ended up getting taxis home around 3:30am.

Today I have spent the day in the sunshine by our pool followed by an evening stroll with Kiera along 'the walk' on Jumeirah beach. I'm really grateful how well Kiera and I get on and how much we have in common, we didn't know each other at all apart from a few Facebook conversations and emails so I do feel really lucky. 

You will see from the photos how gorgeous the beach is from the photos. But do excuse the cranes bang slap in the middle of the sea. These are apparently there as Dubai have decided to build the biggest big wheel in the World, but to make it the bigger and better than everyone else's it's going to be in the middle of the sea! 

We ate at the Cheesecake Factory but didn't leave enough room after our massive burgers for the actual cheesecake... The menu for cheesecake was a double page of every flavour you could think of and looked amazing So will have to return for that! It's really strange to open the menu and not see an alcohol page. Alcohol can only be served in licensed hotels so in food places along the walk there is no way of getting it. You have to have a licence and be over 21 to be able to buy it in shops and if it's found in your house without one you can be arrested. I had a passion fruit mohito this evening but obviously without the alcohol.

I'm up early to teach Musical Theatre and baby ballet in the morning so off to watch Corrie and then to bed

 Night all xx

Brunch at Channels - the main courses...

Kiera loving the food...

Duck pancakes... 

Bread anyone?...

The desserts...

Who said you can't drink in Dubai... A gigiantic bottle of vodka... 

The vast cheesecake menu... 

Jumeriah beach, ten minutes taxi ride from my front door... 

You can just make out the base of the big wheel they are building... 

No donkey rides like Scarborough here Grandma and Grandma, here they do camel rides on the beach, they Stank!...

Sparkly Palm trees!... 

Beautiful lighting inside a hotel...