Dad drove me to Heathrow at around 11am for my flight, which was with Emirates via Dubai. At check in I asked for an exit row seat, as I usually do, and I got one for the second leg. First though, I had to get to Dubai. This involved a 6-hour flight, during which I kept myself entertained by watching movies and playing video games on the inflight entertainment system. There were even a couple of cameras on the plane which you could look at on the TV screen – one pointing out the front of the plane and one pointing down towards the ground.

Dubai airport is dazzlingly clean and spacious, with a space age stainless-steel look about it. Gold can be purchased by the gram from a shop in the centre of the concourse and paid for in virtualy any currency. I found a cashpoint and withdrew a small amount of Dirhams, whatever they are, and later worked out that the smallest standard amount that it dispensed was worth about £50.

I used the money (a small fraction of it anyway) to go online in the phone/internet area, where naturally all the PCs had very posh flat panel displays and the connection pseed was blazingly fast. I logged on to first my email, then the IRC chart network IRCtoo, where a friend of mine runs a chatroom.

At this point it was approaching 2am in Dubai and 10pm in London. I wasn’t going to get any sleep but it’s as good a time as any to call it day 2.