Our long awaited visit to Sydney turned out to be a very quick trip. We were pleased Gail's employer honoured their promise to fund her return air fare but we sort of slipped up on our holiday planning and shorted ourselves a bit on the timing, two weeks was never going to be enough to do everything and everyone we wanted to.
We did however manage to cover quite a lot of ground so I'd best start to cover some of the best bits of the adventure here.
We stopped over in Dubai for a couple of days on the way to Australia. Dubai, for those of you who have not been there, is an amazing place which has grown from an ancient fishing port into a huge, modern city/state in just 30 years. It plays with the brain when comprehending how so much has been built in such a short period.
The photos will give an indication of the scale but the experience of shopping in the huge malls and old souks, the evening meal and dhow trip on the "Creek", the champagne supper at the Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht club and the big bus city tour will live in our memory much clearer than I can describe here.
Despite it's tacky tourist theme, the night time river cruise was enjoyable for its night time views of Dubai, 
the pleasant evening temperature, passable fare and availability of questionably passable wine (Jacobs Creek as it turns out, the ubiquitous aussi drop of plonk which gets shipped north in bulk). The Creek, or harbour, has been the heart of Dubai trade for centuries and there is continuing evidence of it's role in local shipping and commerce indicated by the docked cargo barges loading and off loading and by the many little open dhow taxi motor boats carrying workers to and from dockside ports.
the pleasant evening temperature, passable fare and availability of questionably passable wine (Jacobs Creek as it turns out, the ubiquitous aussi drop of plonk which gets shipped north in bulk). The Creek, or harbour, has been the heart of Dubai trade for centuries and there is continuing evidence of it's role in local shipping and commerce indicated by the docked cargo barges loading and off loading and by the many little open dhow taxi motor boats carrying workers to and from dockside ports.
Then there was the evening when we sneaked into the rather posh and exclusive Dubai Creek Golf and Yacht club through the back door, that was a fun night. (The photo here shows the club house , a triangular building on the waterfront made to look like a dhow sail, and the golf course on the right, taken from the bus tour, it can be seen better when enlarged by clicking.)
We had been strolling in the golf course grounds and were presumed by grounds staff as being guests of the ultra swank Dubai Hyatt Regency Hotel, not wanting to disagree with the nice uniformed man we accepted a ride in the hotel's golf limousine from the access road we were on, all the way up to the hotel grand entrance. We boldly disembarked the ride, confidently dawdled through the lobby and headed with purpose through the hotel's shops, bumbled into the common areas, wandered outside through the beautiful gardens, down through the ocean liner sized boats moored at the marina and tentatively pushed open the guests entrance into the Dubai Club. We received a lovely welcome, a table for two right on the waterfront and were given exquisite service even though we only ordered one entree and some bubbles. In all fairness, I think we could have been just as welcomed if we had walked in the front door as tourists but the anticipation, presumed scandal and excitement of thinking we were sneaking in was much more of a romantic adventure.
The day time bus tours of this huge city were long but constantly interesting. And we did learn stuff. Most interesting is the fact that Dubai grows and operates on income from property sales, rentals and international business profits in the main, the oil income is much less than 10% of the GDP and that oil income is spent on public infrastructure not commercial activity. 
The place is a tax delight for business with whole suburbs granted tax free operation per industries, one suburb dedicated for financial services, one suburb for Information Technologies, one suburb for motor vehicle companies etc etc..... The result is that every international company has a huge office in Dubai with brand names familiar and English as the common language.
It is however always going to be a hot dry dessert and that fact is evidenced by the lack of people out and about on foot, the extensive watering systems needed for any green thing, lots of sand and everything air conditioned, cars, buses, shops, hotels, even the undercover car parks . Dubai has the highest water consumption per capita in the world and the majority of the fresh water is provided by huge ocean fed desalination plants and cunning waste water recycling, part of the public infrastructure that the oil revenue pays for.Dubai also has the lowest crime rate of any developed economy so walking around and being adventurous is a very pleasant experience. Service is superb and the products and foods are everything you would expect of a wealthy city. The religious sensitivities are apparent with traditional headwear and flowing robes the norm, but the tourist is not constrained by fashion except if girls want to enter certain sacred places they are required to wear a head scarf and have covered shoulders etc. 
Dubai is experiencing the global downturn with the exodus of retrenched expatriate workers (you can't stay if you are unemployed for more than 30 days, if I recall correctly the voice in the tour bus earphones) the expats are reportedly leaving their cars abandoned at the airport as they depart on the last day of their efforts to find more work.
We did not experience much in the way of public economising, although the shopping malls are apparently quieter than normal the products for sale are mindblowingly opulent.... Gail did have me browsing the elite jewelery stores until I was totally blinged out by all the gold and diamonds. Gail was in her element as the Dubai retail experience is something amazing but best enjoyed with another girl, sans husband.
Building works all over Dubai still are underway 24 hrs a day so I guess the sense is that all this global economic doom and gloom will abate and office and living room will again be needed.
Dubai is in the UAE (United Arab Emirates), 7 tribal/kingdom families combined and committed to building the world's biggest and best commercial and trading hub.
I will admit to being very impressed with Dubai from the moment we set foot in the arrival lounge of Terminal 3 until we departed from the same huge building, (another terminal of equal or greater size is under construction).... I didn't know Emirates Air was the largest airline in the world but seeing the Dubai airport facilities, existing and under construction and the endless number of Emirates aircraft lined up, I am in no doubt. 
The terminal 3 is unfathomably huge. I'll happily put Dubai on my favourites and would recommend it as a real treat if you ever need a stopover in or out of Europe.
The terminal 3 is unfathomably huge. I'll happily put Dubai on my favourites and would recommend it as a real treat if you ever need a stopover in or out of Europe. The flikr photostream at the side of this blog will take you to heaps of our other photos, many of Dubai.
But probably enough about Dubai, it is only one city after all.... .And not a patch on my home town of Sydney.
It was amazing to visit Sydney as a tourist. We felt very different driving the streets and highways, angry at the no cash tollways but delighted that the recent rains had made the place so much greener than we remembered it. I will not bang on about the people we caught up with, the family sleep over, the wonderful hospitality and the joy of meeting up with friends but I do want to include here some of the Sydney adventures we had.
It is always a joy to walk the city and after a delightful outdoors lunch in the MLC at Martin Plaza with our good friend Edua, we had time to see the Archibald Sulman and Wynne prize exhibitions at the NSW Art Gallery. I am always amazed at the Sydney art scene, the world has none better and the city is so lucky to have such venues and artists. Once again Gail and I were mightily impressed by the selected works.
The walk to the gallery took us from the city streets, through Hyde Park, the Domain and then down to the Quay for an early evening meal with our old mate Grazie.
The pictures show we enjoyed the best of Sydney weather for our 10 days in town.
Any chance to go to a restaurant on the harbour is one we will seek out at every opportunity and we did two new places (to us) this visit. 
Ripples at Chowder bay http://www.ripplescafe.com.au/ and 
Plonk at the Spit in Mosman. http://www.plonkbeachcafe.com.au/ If there is ever a "Sydney thing to do", lunch or just a coffee at places like these is the pinnacle of things to do. 
We also spent half a day at Manly where we had a great lunch at Manly Grill, an ocean side restaurant, met up with our long time friend Cathy for afternoon cocktails on the first floor balcony of the Stein pub where we discussed builders architects and her trip last year to our home in Wetherby. Time flew and we were then off to a slap up Thai dinner at Thuptim Siam with friends Mando and Sal who had travelled down from Kendall and Loren who had come up from the deep southern suburbs.
Ripples at Chowder bay http://www.ripplescafe.com.au/ and 
Plonk at the Spit in Mosman. http://www.plonkbeachcafe.com.au/ If there is ever a "Sydney thing to do", lunch or just a coffee at places like these is the pinnacle of things to do. 
We also spent half a day at Manly where we had a great lunch at Manly Grill, an ocean side restaurant, met up with our long time friend Cathy for afternoon cocktails on the first floor balcony of the Stein pub where we discussed builders architects and her trip last year to our home in Wetherby. Time flew and we were then off to a slap up Thai dinner at Thuptim Siam with friends Mando and Sal who had travelled down from Kendall and Loren who had come up from the deep southern suburbs. It is a great tourist experience to taste the wonderful food, sample the fine wines and enjoy the great service Sydney is famed for. As a couple who had forgotten just how wonderful Sydney can be, it was a timely reminder for us and we savoured every second of the warm air, smiling faces and relaxed atmosphere.
Gail also enjoyed the chance to spend a night with all her friends at Sydney Town Chorus, they welcomed her back and she had a ball singing with the girls again. 
Got all enthused and wants to join the Harrogate choir here but reckons she needs to get a bit fitter as standing all night singing made her realise how long it had been since she has performed..
Got all enthused and wants to join the Harrogate choir here but reckons she needs to get a bit fitter as standing all night singing made her realise how long it had been since she has performed..We also had the chance to share a fantastic Yum Cha at the Marigold in Chinatown with Matt and Ret who were by chance in town from Perth. We also got up to our place in the Hunter Valley with our host Marlies for a couple of days.
The flight home to Wetherby was long and uneventful and the 11 hour sleep we both enjoyed the first night home was a great release from the lag of the jet.
Gail has returned to embark on a stint of 5 days away to work in Manchester so she is back into the thick of life in north England while I return to the challenges of more domestic pursuits and the continued seeking of desirable paid activity. I am advised that Gail does have some days off in a row this month and that she is posted for a few consecutive days in Scotland again so there may be adventures as yet unplanned for April...... stay tuned.
