Happy Birthday to me!

This will be my last post from Dubai.

I've had an interesting couple of months here in the middle east, I've seen some incredible sights and some ludicrous driving. This past weekend was kept very quiet, mainly concerned with packing all my stuff up again and preparing for tomorrow's journey to London. It's probably a good thing that I've had such a quiet time of late, as my first week in London is shaping up to be busier than the past two months here!

Tuesday June 5th, 8:40pm - Arrive London

Wednesday June 6th - First day at WB London, followed by birthday dinner with Sally

Thursday June 7th - Burlesque show at Cafe de Paris with Sally

Friday June 8th - QI. QI (Quite Interesting) is a TV show hosted by Stephen Fry and we're going to see it being filmed.

Saturday June 9th - Sleep. Possible start to sightseeing/shopping.

Sunday June 10th - Birthday drinks at the Charles Lamb with all my London friends, followed by Daniel Kitson in an open air theatre in Regent's Park (I think).

After that, I've just got tickets to the 02 Wireless Festival on the following Thursday. Amongst the acts performing are The White Stripes, Queens of the Stone Age, Air and Modest Mouse.

So with all that going on, I was glad to have a quiet weekend. However, for the sake of this blog, I did manage to take an interesting picture for you. To the untrained observer, it seems that Dubai has little or no heritage limitations. This is not the case, there are heritage and environmental requirements strictly observed by the Dubai Municipality. The discovery of protected lizard habitat on the Al Kaheel site meant that they had to be relocated by professional lizard relocators, significant Ghaff trees usually have to be retained on site, or relocated. This can sometimes lead to quite unique situations...

Obviously this tree has special significance (I'm not sure if it's a Ghaff tree or not) and is either awaiting relocation or for the rains to fill the lake again! It's actually in the middle of what will soon be a community area, but at least it's not lonely, there's another one just around the corner, but it has a view of the luxurious mall soon to be built...

To complete my last post from Dubai, I think I'll stick with the traditional (although irregular) update on Burj Dubai.

Burj Dubai is currently standing at 129 stories tall, according to the billboard, and has been for a week or so, so I'm expecting it to crack the 130 mark any day now... pity I won't be here to see it.

Anyway, that is all from the land of sand, hope everyone is well and happy. My next post will be from Ye Olde Londone Towne!