Le Meridien Hotel Abu Dhabi

... that my baggage wasn't automatically transferred onto my connecting flight because i swear that's what mum said! The guy at immigration thought i was out of my mind but realised that i wasn't going to leave him alone until he let me through to baggage claim so he just let me discover for myself that i haven't got a clue what's going on. <br><br>Anyhow, as a result of this seemingly minor mistake, i had to go around in a circle, albeit a ...

OK, so I was only here for about 6 hours and the sign said no pictures, but everyone else was taking them so that makes it OK right ;-) If they don't want people to take pictures then they shouldn't make their airport look so impressive anyway. Best airport I've been to so far although it started getting too busy at around 2 in the morning so I was glad it was time to catch my plane. The airline (Eithad) was really good too. What can I say, I'm impressed!

... excitement I think. At least we will be free from ******* and music will drown out the sound of excavator digging. My new favourite radio station is UAE Radio 2. I had forgotten all about Cool and the Gang, and I was reminded that Paul MacCartney was not such a musical genius when he recorded "That Girl is Mine" with Michael Jackson. The station has however caused an argument over whether the Angel lives in the Centre Fold, or whether the Angel is in the Centre Fold.

... drive it in fact I don't get to drive it much at all secretly I think Eddy is thinking that E Stachow means Eddy Stachow. Life in Abu Dhabi is a lot quieter than we are used to. Eddy has made a couple of golfing friends and now that the weather is cooling down, last week it went below 30 for the first time at it appears that it will stay below 30 he is able to get out and about to golf. However golf is pretty ...

... br>And then more excitement. A certain Shef Kumar had been misplaced. Or something. The airline staff perambulated, calling his name, but no one responded. I didn't see the end result, but I wouldn't be remotely surprised to find he'd been sat there the whole time.<br><br>Finally, the boarding call. Never mind that the first class went first and then by seating code. No, the call is always the cue for a frantic rush. Because the plane is leaving in .5 of a second and if you ...

... him, I should have a problem in the 12 hours before my next flight. It was nice of him though. The drive to the hotel - now with the name the Golden Tulip - was really nice. Date palms and signs in Arabic scrawl, square pastel houses with wooden struts sticking out the side, and sand! Sounds stupid, but the place is so flat and sandy. Love it. We passed a huge mosque - the Sheikh Zayed Mosque, second biggest in the world after Mecca - truly beautiful lit up at night! The ...

... like a typical man and so we headed to the other side only to be told by the bus driver of the bus we thought was it that we were in fact on the wrong side and had spent 20 minutes watching the right buses pass right in front of us on the other side. So with my tail between my legs I headed back over to the other side. Once there Andrea quickly reminded me, just in case I had forgotten, that we had been on the right side and that we had missed the bus twice...OOPS!!! So we waited ...

... the big sail looking building that Dubai's famous for). We stopped for a delish bite at a café owned by two Aussie chicks before we trekked across the hot scoulding sand to the public beach for a dip. The beach was pretty empty other than some scantily clad women, a bunch of local guys salivating next to them and rubbing their ******es, a group (or swarm) of 15 local boys with no understanding of personal space when swimming at the beach and a guy we ...