What I did on my holidays

The kids have had to write a diary of what they did on their holiday so I thought I'd have a go as well, although no doubt it won't be as well written or illustrated.

The last month or so has been incredibly busy at work as we seem to be winning more and more business. The amount of things to do has been a bit overwhelming and I had really been looking forward to some friends visiting and taking a week off at Easter.

It didn't start particularly well. The first day saw drizzle and cloud and the second a strong Shamal creating an unpleasant sandstorm. After that, however, the weather was sunny, cloud free and glorious in the low to mid thirties. The temperature is now heading inexorably to the insufferable heat of summer and so it was good to make the most of perfect holiday weather (to give you an idea, as I write now at 9 o'clock in the evening, the temperature outside is a sticky 32 degrees).

Much food and drink was consumed. Dubai has an institution known as Friday Brunch and the best one is at the Mina A'Salaam. From 12.30 to 4.00 our glasses never emptied of Jacob's Creek Rose Fizz. The quantity and range of food on offer was staggering and unlike anything I have ever experienced before.

We had another 'all you can eat buffet' at the Al Hadeerah restaurant at the impressive Bab Al Shams hotel in the desert. This is an Arabic restaurant with the dubious entertainment of an arabic chanteuse, a whirling dervish, belly dancer, camel rides, henna hand painting and the like. The thing that impressed me the most though was the 4,000 torches that lit the approach (apparently it takes 3 men, 3 hours every day to light them all).

There is a real shortage of public beaches in Dubai and our usual haunt at Jebel Ali has now been closed as it will form part of an ambitious project called Dubai Waterfront. The scale of this development, even by Dubai standards, is staggering (bigger than Manhattan or Beirut the website crows). Dubai's beach hotels, of course, don't want freeloaders ruining the experience for their guests so charge handsomely for the privilige of allowing you to use their facilities. We had 2 days at the very good Jebel Ali Hotel - at £4 a pint and a couple of quid for a bottle of water, I wouldn't fancy the bar bill when checking out after 2 weeks.

Our friends, who are well travelled, weren't really quite sure what to make of Dubai. It wasn't like anywhere they'd been before. They were surprised by the scale and at the amount of construction and the associated mess. However, they, like me, were impressed by the vision and ambition. Clearly, all that glitters here is not gold (especially with respect to the way construction workers are treated) but it is showing the rest of the world what can be achieved with imagination, creativity and self-belief.