guest blog/Amanda, Dubai

I am handing over to Amanda for today, suffice it to say that we have had a really lovely day in Dubai, the weather just perfect:-

Hello dear followers of the R&L roadshow. How priviledged am I to be the first guest blogger on this exciting travel documentary? Needless to say I would be less keen to contribute if we were all still stuck on that Mid West bible site. What to tell you? Well, it is already evident that this is surely THE way to do a gap year. Admitedly they did fly economy but arrived fragrant, with matching luggage filled with 'essentials' such as cashmere sweaters for Richard and pretty necklaces for Liz; no dreadlocks and grunge on this trip.

However, in the spirit of eighteen-year-old adrenalin sporting activities so associated with gapping (think bungee jumping) Richard very gamely agreed to come along to the go karting track at 9am this morning for a bit of Dubai Autodrome action. Even more gamely Liz agreed to be the driver for the second session. There were 6 drivers in the first session, all men, and Nick and Richard both sported blue crash helmets, the others in different colours. Each driver was dispatched from the pits and disappeared off out of view at speed round the first bend. Some time later, out shot the first driver and then the next and the next, until 5 drivers were visible screeching around the circuit in close proximity. Liz was loyally looking out for Richard ("where's my boy?") and excitedly mistook the one visible blue crash helmet (her son) for her husband exclaiming with satisfaction that having left the pits last he must have caught the others up. On went the race for some while, 5 go karts all haring round chicanes in quick succession, when finally another go kart quietly put-put-putted into view a long way behind the other 5. A gentlemen in a blue crash helmet, seemingly sporting a pair of crocs as his go-faster footwear, and riding his go-kart as sedately as if on his very own lawn mower, somewhere in the depths of Huntingdonshire. There was much mirth in the stands. Furthermore we couldn't help but laugh at the irony of the fact he'd have driven them all off the road had he been in his old Benz on the A1(M). Anyway Richard did respectfully well and Liz then followed with an equally dignified few laps and no parking tickets at all. Since I had spun mine on the second bend, I'm hardly licenced to be commenting to facetiously.

So this afternoon, after an alfresco lunch in our half finished garden and a dip for the brave (ie a swim in our as yet unheated pool for Liz, Nick and Max), we were looking for a way to keep a chicken-poxed 3 year old and a teething 1 year old entertained. Of course we also had a duty to show Liz and Richard who are already seasoned visitors to Dubai, a bit more of the ridiculousness of this place we've chosen to call home. We headed off to the Palm to the glorious Atlantis hotel and resort. We took in the spectacular aquarium - the "Lost Chambers" and Richard treated us all to an ice-cream. The Atlantis is the height of bad taste yet shamefully enjoyable at the same time, if only to ogle at the sheer scale of it all. But each 'adventure' be it the water park or dophinarium is cleverly concealed out of view for non-paying visitors. Out of view that is for most day trippers. But not if one of your party is a determined man in crocs who is prepared to clamber up landscaped banks and squeeze between rows of closely planted trees to reach a fence and then stand on tiptoes to gain a little lookee over the fence. Suffice to say the appetite is whetted sufficiently that you may see a further post about trips to the Atlantis when they come back to Dubai later this week after their sojourn to Syria and Lebanon. At which point I must leave you and hand you back over for the continuation of this traveblog.