Let me take you to the beach, la la la la la la la (Frank Zappa)

SWMBO's sister Mabelle says we should be starting up a tour biznis for friends and family coming to the UAE. I'm starting to do the Big Bus Tour in my dreams so she may have something.

Jade only had the one weekend to see the sights of Dubai and Abu Dhabi. As luck would have it a holiday was declared on Thursday last week to commemorate Prophet Mohammed's (peace be upon him) ascension from Mecca to the heavens in the year 621 where he met Allah and some of the earlier prophets, before returning to Mecca.

This meant we had a three day weekend. Yahoo!

We started Wednesday afternoon with a journey to Jabeel Hafeet. Unfortunately the visibility was not great and it was very windy. This was a bit of a recurring theme for the weekend with a lot of dust around - hey - it's a desert out there!

Thursday - we tanked up the purdmobile (where the camel in a basket shots were taken) and pottled onwards to Dubai. We stopped at the Wafi Mall, took in a gentle glide down the Dubai Creek via a river cruise on a traditional dhow, went on a Big Bus tour of the Burj and Deira areas of Dubai, stopped off at the Dubai Mall for its classy water features and vast network of shops.

Friday - we went on the second tour route that the Big Bus Tour does to the beach, the Atlantis resort and Lost Chamber exhibition, the Mall of the Emirates and Ski Dubai. Sadly the footage of me falling off a luge and sliding along on my elbows has been mislaid - dammit!

Saturday saw us on the move to Abu Dhabi for the Grand Mosque and, of course, shopping in the Hamdan Centre (me) and the Abu Dhabi Mall (SWMBO and Jade). I arrived at the mosque in shorts so I needed to don a kandoura.

And that was the extended weekend. I'm picking Jade and SWMBO will spend a large portion of today sleeping!

Love and peace - Abu Keegan