We went back to Jen's for an hour or so and packed some more things. We planned a trip to Pokeno for one last ice cream but were all still full from breakfast so left it for a bit. Bless her, Jen was busy editing the photos from our trip so we could take them home with us. (Thank you Jen.) After another half hour or so we set off for Pokeno, I'll bore you with the flavours we had one last time although you may be relieved to know there were no more photos! Mark had lemon and lime and strawberry yoghurt, I had goody goody gum drops and caramel fudge, Charlie had cookie dough and Courtney had lemon and lime. We noticed last time that they did a chocolate covering for 50c so we went for that this time! What a mistake, lol! We all got very messy!!
We filled the hire car up on the way home and then Grant met me at the hire place to return it. That was it then, all the packing had to be finished! At this point there was only a few bits to put away though. 'Super Jen' finished the photos in the nic of time and we have 3 disks full of wonderful, happy memories!
Jen drove us to the airport and we said our (very sad) goodbyes.
I am typing this in Melbourne airport, we had a good flight to here but are currently on a 6 1/2 hour layover until our next flight. We were thinking of hiring a car and having a drive around Melbourne but we landed at 21:00 so would have been driving through the night so not a lot to see! We'd have had the hassle of filling out immigration cards, re-entry cards etc so it just didn't seem worth it plus our bodies are thinking 2 hours ahead and we are tired so we made the choice to stay in the terminal. Charlie and Courtney are happily playing in the play area and Mark and I have internet access so it's actually ok. (We are currently around 2 hours into the layover.) Our next flight is a long one, 16 hours 25 minutes! We are hoping to sleep most of it though, children allowing!
The rest of the layover went quite quickly, the only comment I'd make is that we were a little cool as the air con was on in the airport. On the way out our fleeces just became something else to carry so we decided to pack them as Dubai was going to be warm also, that turned out to be a mistake! Charlie and Courtney were running around though so they were fine. The flight passed ok, neither Mark or I slept much though. We both watched films and I did some cross stitch. Thankfully both Charlie and Courtney got a good sleep! We arrived in Dubai around 1:00pm (the 10th) and once we passed through passport control (not quite as busy as the cattle market last time!!) and collected our cases we made our way over to the taxi rank. This was quite interesting! There are cream coloured taxis with different coloured roofs, I really must Google to find out why but we were ushered to a pink one! These cabs are all driven by woman. I was quite happy about this but boy that happiness was short lived!! I lost count of the amount of times I held my breath through fright, lol!! Let's say this much if I were a cat I'd have definitely lost my nine lives!! She was a speed demon and was winding her way through a 6 lane motorway! It seems in Dubai you just chop and change lanes at great speed and hope for the best, lol! Once off the motorway it turned out she'd never been to our hotel, she used our reservation to call them! The best of it was Mark and I had already seen it and just presumed she was going through some sort of one way system to get to it! Even when she was on the phone to them (whilst driving) she still couldn't see it. We ended up pointing it out to her! It was a huge relief to get out of the taxi! The hotel is lovely, it is cruise themed and quite luxurious. We think it must be quite new (must Google that too) as there's a building site next door and quite a bit of waste land. We checked in and made our way to our room, number 332. Wow! It's nice, big and roomy. Mark and I have a bed each and there's a put up bed for Charlie. We had been told that they would have to share this bed (even though I booked for 4 people) but there is a settee which will be fine for Courtney. There are a few quirks in the room, the TV also plays in the bathroom, could be useful I suppose! There is also a telephone in the bathroom, right next to the toilet, again could be useful, lol! The wardrobe lights up when the door is opened and there is a reading light each above our beds.
We decided to have a quick nap before having a swim in the rooftop pool and explore. Well it seems we all fell fast asleep, we didn't wake until 12:48am, some 7 hours after!! I was laughing because Charlie and Courtney were both dressed still, the curtains weren't closed and Courtney had no covers over her and the air con was still on! (perhaps we're training her up for the 3 week cold snap we've been warned about in the U.K. on our return, bless her!!) Thankfully once we settled again we did all go back to sleep. I woke a couple of times through the night but went back off both times. I guess we all needed that sleep!
Edited at home! So, I did the Googling and you will be excited by my results......not! It seems the difference with the coloured taxi roofs is literally down to the company!!
and the Grand Excelsior opened in September 2011.
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