Riva Beach and Dinner at Maine

Today Daisy and I spent the day at Riva Beach, our go-to beach club. It was Ladies Day so we paid £11 each for access and facilities plus lunch. A very good deal. It was very busy today, not only with women but with families and couples too. It looks as if tourism is really picking up now. Although it could be that locals were taking an extra day off because tomorrow is a public holiday and then of course it is the weekend. Anyway, it was busier than usual. We had a really nice day and a good lunch. We shared a plate of nachos and a portion of calamari rings which were our two free lunches.

Came back about 430 and Lucy got back about 530. We were meeting some friends tonight at a favourite restaurant of mine, Maine, which is in the Doubletree hotel. It was Ladies Night which gives ladies free drinks between 8 and 11pm provided 2 courses are taken. There were 6 of us and we had the nicest evening, such fun. The music was very loud in there and we had to shout to be heard but it was ok The food was great. Daisy and I were not drinking alcohol so we didn’t take the ladies night deal and just had one course each. It was plenty. They’d given us free bread boards with roasted heads of garlic and we’d enjoyed those. Then I had black cod on smashed potatoes and greens with a bearnais sauce. Daisy had seared tuna with black and golden sesame seeds on a mound of lentils. Lucy had roasted spring chicken on mashed pototoes. Service was a bit off tonight. It was hard to get refills of the drinks even the ones we were paying for like my sparkling water. The food was excellent though. It’s a beautiful room with a fantastic long bar and really extravagant chandelier lights.

Tomorrow Lucy is on holiday and the three of us are going to Ras al Khaimah, a neighbouring emirate to visit a pearl farm and go out on a boat with the divers and to explore the tallest mountain in the Emirates. Tune in to read about it.