Car bought, now it was time to get ourselves sorted and packed, ready to hit the road.

Initially we needed to repair the GPS which meant a visit to the Creek which is the oldest part of Dubai .

Post rush hour, this wasn’t a “sit in traffic forever” journey, the roads that are built to service the city are amazing 4,5,6,7,8 lane highways, daisy loop junctions, and now a lot of development has been done on raised roads and links around developed areas, the road planning is far sighted but the sheer volume of traffic makes rush hours, as in any city, a tedious time to travel around

After the GPS service we had a little time left on the parking meter so had a quick wander around the Abra station ( small boats for crossing the Creek) and the Dhow wharf. The Dhows are sailing mainly to Pakistan and the goods piled up for loading are a diverse mix of air conditioning units, refrigerators, food in bulk, car parts…the list goes on.

Then a swift return through the Souk, a tourist destination on the Creek, beautifully arranged displays of spices, perfumes, pashminas, clothing but each stall with its own tout welcoming you to buy…a smile, a joke and a fast walk deflects the hard sell…

It was time to retrieve the car and head off for yet another urgent trip errand on the other side of the city…

Because we could, we used Beach road instead of the highway, always interesting to take an amble down beach road to see what’s changed on the Dubai waterfront…

Then we remembered it was Valentine’s day so it had to be a meal out.As I wanted to see the Museum of the Future at night, we decided to revisit an old Dubai watering hole, Fibber Magees, Dubai’s oldest and most iconic Irish pub, just next to my old office on Sheik Zayed road…a little trip down memory lane…

The evenings plans fitted in well with visiting the Satwa area to have spare car keys cut, so I had a little wander around the fabric shops whilst the keys were being cut.

The Museum of the Future wasn’t lit up sadly, but it’s still an impressive building

and then to Fibbers for drinks and a meal…as it was Valentine’s day, ladies were on free drinks…my head hurt on the morning of the 15th!