Exodus

This blog entry comes to you from 30,000ft on an Emirates plane bound for Brisbane. Youngest son Max has finally gone to sleep and Lucy and Ben are playing hangman. Janet is reading a chick-flick. In short, for the time being, everyone is happy.

School has now finished for an eight week period and Dubai's expatriate population has started the mass exodus to escape the summer heat. The shops are noticeably quieter and all hotels are advertising very cheap deals. However, yesterday was the first day of Salik ("the new road toll system for Dubai"). Salik means cameras at both of the busy ends of Sheikh Zayed Road (near the Mall of the Emirates and Garhoud Bridge in case you're interested) which charge you the princely sum of 4Dhs per crossing. The idea, apparently, is to reduce congestion on Dubai's main artery and raise 600 million Dhs every year to invest in further infrastructure improvements. The first aim was achieved. SZR, as it is known locally, was empty. Every other road, however, was gridlocked. We only got to the shops courtesy of some improvised off-road driving in the back streets of Barsha. Of course, it's early days yet, and it's clear that many people haven't the necessary tags for their windscreens yet. I'm hoping things will have improved by the time we get back in three weeks time.

We're going to stay with old friends who live near the Gold Coast in Australia, and we're all very excited about it. I'll try and post some pictures in the coming weeks.

Postscript – we landed at Brisbane Airport at the same time as they were arresting someone suspected of being involved in the Glasgow Airport bomb attack attempting to fly out of the country. Apparently, six local doctors on the Gold Coast are implicated.