Dubai 12 - 33 Today (or 3 weeks ago)

Sorry for the lack of commentary: I've been a bit busy with work, brunches, snorkelling and golf. Read all about it... now:

It was my birthday three weeks ago. No matter how much Sarah tells me I'm old now at 34, the fact is I'm a very young 33. Or is that "immature"? Whatever, I don't feel too old, despite the creaks, the reduced tone and the fact I want to do nothing else on a Thursday night other than park my arse on the couch with a large whiskey and a DVD.

So the day started out very nicely indeed with golf at the local course. It was my first round since 1998, so even though we were only playing the par 3, I was a bit crap. My medium game is still ok (thanks for the lessons as a kid, Dad!) but my putting has gone to the dogs. (As, mind you, has the quality of television news which is on in the background as I type.)

After golf we had second breakfast at the club house (my favourite meal of the day!) then a break for a few hours at home to finish Splinter Cell Undercover on Playstation (much to Sarah's disgust, but I'd had a long week and needed to shot stuff) before getting picked up for a desert safari.

Everyone has to do a desert safari. It's a bit like getting a taxi on Sheik Zayed Road or in Sydney, except the car's a Land Cruiser rather than a Commodore (aka Lumina) or Corolla, the driver's Arab rather than Indian and getting thrown around in the back seat as the car careens on the edge of control is entirely intentional. The blaring Arabic music is the same, as is the realisation that you've been taken out to the middle of nowhere...

But not quite, you wind up, about sunset, at an "authentic" bedouin permanent camp with a buffet of unnamed meat, free henna painting and a Russian belly dancer.

So, what else has been going on? Well, last week we went to Snoopy Island off the east coast for some snorkelling (3 black tip reef sharks, 1 turtle, plenty of barras and parrot fish), and the weekend before was a fun excursion all over town looking for a car for Sarah (pictured right on the desert safari). I was a bit over it by hour 7, and in the end she picked up an ex-demo Audi A3 for not very much at all. No photos I'm afraid, I only have photos of my very slick CLK, the door of which has been hit TWICE by the Chinaman (polite version: Sum Dum Gi). Anyway, enough for now. Stay tuned for my food tour of the Middle East. Coming soon.