Had a really good sleep – even the call to prayer did not disturb me.  Lucy went off to a desert offroad driving lesson in her new car and then to work.  I got up slowly and then went down to the pool area.  It’s all very plush and modern, nothing so ordinary as a rectangular shaped pool here!  These were all narrow runs and small squares, right on the edge of the marina, seemingly (but not really) overflowing into it.

The loungers were really well padded and I kept falling asleep.  Anyway, had copious swims and read.  When I first got down there at about 1030, all the shaded beds near the pools were occupied.  I started off lying in the sun but it was really unbearably hot.  Luckily, just as I thought that I would have to go and sit in a chair under an umbrella, someone vacated a shady lounger and I scuttled off as fast as I could and nabbed it.

Spent a very pleasant day there, in the sun, reading and watching the pleasure craft go up and down the waterway.  A good restful start to my stay.  Came back to the apartment at about 4 when the sun disappeared behind the buildings and away from the pools.

Tonight – after a lovely g&t on Lucy’s balcony, we Ubered out to dinner at a restaurant called Maine Oyster Bar and Grill, across the marina, towards the beach in the JBR area.  wow website

it was really buzzing – very busy, full of happy eaters.  It is of course Thursday night in Dubai which is like Friday night in the West.  Everyone was out.  We had lots of plates to share: mussels in white wine, charred brussel sprouts (utterly utterly divine), fish tacos, slow braised short ribs, and of course some oysters.   A nice bottle of white wine to wash it down.  It was very filling.  It was not cheap.  But it was good….. YUM!

We walked back to the apartment which took about 20 minutes.  Lovely area, nice shops, bars, restaurants all the way.  It could have been South Beach in Miami.  It had that feel.  Nothing remotely middle eastern about it.  And of course, the cars were out in force.  Never seen such a parade of Ferraris and Lamborghinis on one stretch of road and all in the gaudiest of colours, just screaming, “Look at me!”””  But that’s Dubai….  It’s about the conspicuous good life.