On the way home we asked for a loo stop, and Narms decided it was time to eat – she chose a chicken burger (similar to a KFC) and I chose a chicken and cheese roll from the Indian food bar. It was a very timely stop as our driver had been looking decidedly tired for the past ten or so kilometres. I haven’t done too well on the Emirati food as yet, and then at this stop I finished off with an Iced Mocha – very delicious. It was then back on the road and Narms asked the tour guide if we could make a small detour to stop off at her friend Mel’s to pick up our tickets for the Sevens for Saturday. Bit of a mix-up, as Mel had bought Friday/Saturday tickets for Dh350 each, but Narms is very good at negotiating and got the price down to Dh 200 and left Mel to sell the Friday tickets. We got back to the hotel and while Narms had her Nana Nap I typed up the blog. We had decided in the car to dress up tonight for dinner – me in my new abaya and Narms in her long black dress and my black shawl, and go down to the Turkish Restaurant just next door for a meal. But – disaster one – I spilt make-up down the front of brand new and very expensive abaya – I said a fit “sh.. bug… and dams” under my breath, and then I couldn’t get the shayla to sit proper and felt a bit of a fraud and uncomfortable and worried that I might cause offence, so did a quck change into my long black and silver dress and used the shayla as a scarf and headed off to the restaurant. When we got there Narms decided she didn’t want to eat there as she felt the need for some vegetables – they have certainly been lacking in our diet since we got here and said she would head over the foodcourt at the mall. I had already decided that Turkish was my choice for the night, so I stayed, and as it turned out, Narms ended up just next door at a Chinese restaurant called Four Seasons where she enjoyed a Beef Stir Fry. I had a kebab which was very tasty, followed by a cup of Turkish tea, which tasted better when I put a couple of sugar cubes in it. After dinner we packed our bags ready to check out in the morning and packed a backpack for the overnight trip to the desert tomorrow. So far so good, I can still fit all my gear plus purchases into my suitcase. Will maybe have to buy a new carry-on bag to put all the foodstuffs in for the trip home, which will make it easier for clearing through customs. And another good thing – I have been able to balance my spending money at the end of each day, and apart from the one purchase which I put onto my Visa card (the Abaya) I have stuck to my spending allowance pretty much every day. And that reminds me – got a text from the National Bank on the way to Abu Dhabi asking me to telephone the bank urgently. I immediately knew why – I had forgotten to let them know I was going to be out of the country. I remembered when I went to Vietnam, but for some reason I forgot this time. And so, a big red alert on my account today as the shop processed my purchase, and my credit card had been stopped until they established that I was in Dubai and they then authorised the transaction. Wow, what a great service. The bank officer did say that I may get texts again if they are worried about any use of my card, and hoped that it would not inconvenience me. I said no, I was pleased that they were so alert. And, so we settled in for our last night at Ibis Deira. Tomorrow we check out and put our luggage into storage until we get back from the desert.