Russian plane, all washed up

We found this by the side of the road on the way to Ras Khaimah.

This is a Russian Ilyushin (IL-76T) plane, probably landed here and couldn't take off again. We found that it had last been registered in the Central African Republic and before that in Swaziland, Liberia and Russia.

The birds have made their nests in it and were very put out when we came wandering around.

We were searching for an airfield for Stuart to fly from and for Fiver to carry on her flying lessons, but all we found was this and a heavily fortified runway. So we will have to consider Dubai International after all, although we don't relish the idea of sharing airspace with the big Lufthansa Airbuses.

Porta-Mosque

No, really, it even has little minarets, although they are on the cramped side if the Iman wants to climb up in them for call to prayer.

Exercise regime for high-rise dwellers

When living in a high-rise, make sure you keep fit.

We are still recovering from hiking down 31 floors of stairs a few days ago when we were woken in the morning by the emergency alarm. A sonorous voice told us that an incident had been detected in the building and that we should leave by the stairs. Great!

We grabbed the laptop and our passports and headed for the exit. Of course we hoped it was a false alarm, but feared it wasn't so we sped down the endless corridors of the staircase. When we arrived - breathless and anxious, but relieved that we hadn't encountered any smoke - at the bottom, we found that the water tank for the sprinklers had drained and had set off the alarm. Phew!

The next day we both felt crippled with muscle pain in two very specific areas of our thighs and calves. For most of the last week getting up or going up or down stairs has been agony. The lesson? Do that Stairmaster!