off radar

Sorry I have been off radar. It's because we've been on our hols in Dubai (woo hoo). Dubai is the strangest place I have ever been (with the possible exception of a certain toilet in Pokhara). It's like something out of Star Wars - all glass and steel skyscrapers and blinding sunlight. I half expected the taxis to take off and whizz us through the air to our destination. Everything there is new, and works, and there's no rubbish and no street dogs and, apparently, no crime (according to our taxi driver this is because anyone who does anything remotely bad gets kicked out of the country - and they can do this because it's a kingdom where about eighty five per cent of the population are expatriates, so baddies just get sent home. A bit like Botany Bay in reverse?) Anyway, if you fancy going somewhere that's magnificently soulless, and you don't care about anything being traditional, historic, or even local, then Dubai is the place for you. Great for kids, who in my experience would rather go to a water park than a museum any day.

I have to go and get bedtime-strict with the kids now, so I'll write more later...