Another day, another beach club.  This time just a short walk from Lucy’s apartment in the JBR region of Dubai at the Rixos Grand Premium Hotel.  Very swanky indeed.  I wish I’d come here yesterday as well to be honest.

The deal is that the first 100 ladies admitted get in free and also are offered a voucher for 100 AED (£20)  for 5 drinks of their choice.  It runs from 10am to 4pm. website I was there just before 10 and there were probably about 20 other women there too.  It’s a good deal because normal entry is about 200 AED (£40).  These discounted days are amazing.   There’s several every day.

It’s a very large pool terrace surrounded by bars and restaurants.  The pool itself is huge and heated (divine) and there are lots of shallow stepped entries around it.  The terrace is covered in very upmarket sunbeds – singles and doubles, very padded with nice pillows.  Large towels were available free.  The pool terrace gives way to some lawns, also with lounges and then the beach which is also available as part of the deal.  It was really nice.

I decided to stay at the pool today.  It was warmer than the sea!!!!  I pegged out on my lounger and thought about the voucher.  Frankly – and you may hardly credit this – I decided that 5 drinks was a bit much.  I know, I could have had juices or soft drinks but I don’t like them.  All too sweet.   So I just stuck with water at 20 AED served to me very nicely in a large champagne bucket filled with ice to keep my 1 litre bottle cold.

The food looked good but I knew we were going out to dinner tonight so I decided against that too.  I spent the day reading and swimming and people watching, always very satisfactory.  It was lovely.  The service was very good, very friendly.  Each small section had its own waiter so no need to go looking for anything.  There was music but it wasn’t intrusively loud or obnoxious and I could have escaped it by moving away from the pool.    I would definitely go back here again very happily on future visits to Dubai, on both ladies days (Monday and Tuesday).  There were plenty of men there and of course normal hotel guests.

Tonight we ate at one of the current foodie hotspots, a Japanese restaurant called Reif Kushiyaki, unusual Japanese street food elevated to a fine experience. website It’s not flashy to look at, quite small, plain tables close together.  But the kitchen is open and the chef and his team are super active, explaining the food to newcomers.  He used to work at a big famous Japanese restaurant but this is his first “own place”.  We had a variety of the dishes.  A stand out was a Wagyu beef steak toasted sandwich with a teriyaki glaze gravy and a mustard sauce.  Slaveringly delicious.  We had dumplings, skewers of chicken with crispy skin.  We had a fabulous skewer of beef with a truffle teriyaki sauce.  Finally we shared a dessert plate of a molten chocolate cake with a peanut butter sauce.  It was beyond divine.  All washed down with a rather strange pot of brown rice flavoured green tea.